How healthy is it to become raw vegan?

**TheHRchannel** · Oct 12th, 2011 01:50 AM

I eat most of my food cooked but lately I been thinking of eating just raw but I am not so educated about that lifestyle. I know that being vegan is good enough but I'd like to push it for my health.

I'm just unsure right now but I'm seriously thinking of thinking all raw.

How do most raw vegans handle this diet?

**Risker** · Oct 12th, 2011 01:55 AM

Why go raw? What for?

Eating raw fruit & veg is good for you but I don't see the benefit in restricting yourself to raw food.

**TheHRchannel** · Oct 12th, 2011 02:10 AM

Risker

Why go raw? What for?

Eating raw fruit & veg is good for you but I don't see the benefit in restricting yourself to raw food.

I read somewhere that cooking burns the nutrients and I thought it might be better if I just go on a raw vegan diet since I'll get more nutrients off raw fruits and vegetables.

**Risker** · Oct 12th, 2011 02:18 AM

There's no reliable evidence to support that you'd be any healthier on a raw food diet. Cooking can make nutrients more bio-available, especially tomatoes.

All a fad IMHO, supported by quacks.

If you feel you eat too much cooked food then eat some more raw but don't limit yourself and restrict your diet due to unproven health benefits and anecdotal evidence.

adam.rurka · Oct 12th, 2011 03:04 AM

Cooking with too much heat produces carcinogens via some sort of glycation process AFAIK.

**Andy_T** · Oct 12th, 2011 08:11 AM

Yes, it seems a good idea to eat lots of raw fruits and vegetables, but not necessarily limit yourself to these.

http://www.drfuhrman.com/faq/questio...id=16&qindex=4

Best regards,
Andy

**harpy** · Oct 12th, 2011 09:48 AM

As adam mentioned, there is some research suggesting that cooking things at a high temperature, e.g. by deep frying, forms acrylamide which is thought to be a carcinogen. (I think the concerns have been expressed about meat in particular but they may apply to other foods too.) I believe there are also concerns about burned (e.g. barbecued) food.

So it's probably a good idea to limit those foods but as far as I know there's no evidence that steamed or stir-fried food is bad for you, and in fact (as mentioned by Risker) light cooking breaks down plant cell walls releasing some nutrients that wouldn't otherwise be available, e.g. from brassicas such as broccoli. So a mixture of cooked and raw food is a good plan IMO.

(This is from memory - I can dig out refs later if anyone wants them.)