Nutrient Study Challenges Raw Foodism
The raw food movement began with a fringe group of eaters in the mid 1970s and has since gained mainstream status along with other alternative diets such as veganism and macrobiotic eating. Most major cities and many smaller ones now boast raw food restaurants. Raw cookbooks abound and celebrities like Carol Alt, Woodie Harrelson and Natalie Portman have gone public with their raw food habits.
A cornerstone of raw foodism dictates that uncooked food is more nutritionally intact and bioavailable to humans. Raw foodists point out that all natural foods have the enzymes necessary to break down their matter, but that these enzymes are destroyed by cooking temperatures. Such followers believe that by eating only foods that contain their own decompositional enzymes, the body does not have to produce its own digestive enzymes (from the pancreas) and can redirect the energy elsewhere. Raw foodists also believe that an uncooked meal is more nutritious than cooked counterparts because of some evidence that cooking leaches nutrients.
But new evidence published in the upcoming issue of the British Journal of Nutrition suggests that vegetables do not always provide optimal nutrition when consumed raw. Instead, several vegetables are more nutritious after cooking or when served with other ingredients, such as fats.
Now that the weather is warming up and produce is coming into season up here in zone 5, I am trying to be more conscientious about eating a raw diet. While I don’t think I have the patience and stamina (or the gadgets) to go completely raw, I am trying to incorporate more raw elements into my meals. So when I saw these gorgeous, organic early spring golden beets and carrots at the farmer’s market this morning, I filled up the entire bag.
