IMO: BORING. And a lot of work.

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Life isn't measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take your breath away.

And a lot of work

- but nothing is cooked, how hard can that be

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- Nick
Now that I know some of you guys look through the special needs bags for kicks, I'm gonna put some really weird stuff in mine. I can see it now. "What the heck was he going to do with a family pack of KFC chicken, a football helmet full of peanut butter, a 12 inch rubber dildo, and naked pictures of Bea Arthur?"

Strictly a stupid fad. Sure processing and cooking lessens the nutritional value of some foods, but cooking helps the digestability of others. When I first got into sports 25 years ago I read a diet book for athletes. At one point they advocated eating a wide variety of lightly processed foods. Advice which still holds true through numerous fads over the years.



Styrrell

Casey,

In the November 2005 Yoga Journal there is an article about the raw food diet. Being a vegetarian myself, I am always interested in alternative diet ideas, especially when I may be able to utilize some of them for myself. I am not certain that I would say that it is any more "work" to eat a raw food diet, but it certainly takes more planning. A lot of the grains that you need to eat for protein need to be soaked for extended periods of time. It actually seems like days. If you were going to eat them, and did not limit yourself to eating "raw" then you could boil them or cook them in a rice cooker in a much shorter period of time. Also, some of the grains need to be sprouted for easier digestion. If you are going to be strict, you need to soak your nuts for a day (yes, I know that sounds bad) and then dehydrate them for 2 to 3 days. Is it a lot of "work?" Not really. But I'm not sure what I want to eat for lunch yet today, much less what I am going to eat for dinner on Wednesday! It is not for me, but if it interests you than I say go for it.

Bernie

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"Slowbern has always made astute observations."-Casey 03/10/2009
2013-2014 Detroit Lions---13-3 until proved otherwise.

Wouldn't some people argue that soaking something either in water or something else to change it's original properties to make it more edible could be considered cooking the food. There are a lot of non-heat related cooking methods.

I have also heard that because of the way out bodies process raw foods most of the healthy properties pass right through you.

check out rawfood.com i've read a lot of the material over there, including david wolfe's book. it's very interesting at the least. it wasn't something i was able to pull off due mainly to time constraints. it takes a lot of work getting into a healthy routine if you are switching over from being a carnivore. one of the big challenges of going raw is living in a non-raw world.

I really don't know what some people consider "cooking" and how they differentiate that from "preparing". In the article I referred to, the author only used a food dehydrator so that was the only "cooking" he did. I think there is a temperature cut off at 120 degrees F or something like that for it to be considered raw. I think you are correct about how our bodies absorb nutrition. There is so much roughage from raw food that it probably does go through us faster than what we can absorb. I think htat is why you have to soak and sprout so many of the grains. Certainly I am no expert, so I really don't know for sure. I am merely speculating on what I have read.

Bernie

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"Slowbern has always made astute observations."-Casey 03/10/2009
2013-2014 Detroit Lions---13-3 until proved otherwise.

"My grandparents ate a raw food "diet" most of their lives,"

What did they eat? Where did they live?

~Matt

Is an In-N-Out Double Double considered raw food? If so, I'm in!

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My business-eBodyboarding.com

Yup to each his own on the food choices. I'm a confirmed omnivore! Raw, cooked it doesn't really matter to me one way or the next. Processed is where I draw the line though. Try to avoid that crap as much as possible.

I was curious as it woudl seem difficult to do a "raw" diet in teh 20's unless you where in an area that could support year around food growth. Surely you could store grains and possibly dehydrate some fruits and vegies but man what a suck ass diet that must have been. Mmmmm Tonight we'll have almonds and dried tomatoes Yummmmyyyy.

My wife has gone to a few raw food "shows". There seems to be a bit of variety if you want to spend the time to "prepare" stuff. Alot of mixing, puree'ing etc etc. Seems like even more work than cooking stuff.

I'm also wondering what the proposed advantage of raw over cooked is supposed to be.

Is sushi allowed in a raw diet?

~Matt

Matt,

Don't forget rutabagas and winter squash!!

Bernie

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"Slowbern has always made astute observations."-Casey 03/10/2009
2013-2014 Detroit Lions---13-3 until proved otherwise.

Yeh I'm sure there are several things that might last the winter but OMG! Nuts, potatoe's, apples and bowl of wheeties....wait just wheat grain....and I thought I was "doin' my body good" by trying to cut out sugar.

~Matt

"you need to soak your nuts for a day"

Ummm....I uhhhhh.....never mind.

~Matt

"Processed is where I draw the line though"

Ok define "Processed"?

I've been *attempting* to cut out sugar and "processed" foods. Somethings are really easy, like not eating things where the main ingredient doesn't exist outside of a Kraft food labratory. Others like, boxed cerial, even Quaker Oats goes thru some processing. Where do yu draw the line?

~Matt

""you can eat whatever you want""

Was there an emphasis on *You*? Kinda sounds like the Simpson episode where Lisa is put in jail for protesting some cause. One of the Head protestors was a 7th level vegan, "I don't eat anything that cast a shadow"...but *you* can eat whatever you want.

From what my wife explained to me seems put is a "no meat" type of thing. Raw fish, beef Tatar, Oysters. If I were "going raw" I'd be looking for any variety I could find.

~Matt

You can take this to the very extreme if you wanted to. Yes Quaker oats (AKA Quick Oats) are processed meaning they were precooked and then dehydrated. Same thing w/ minute rice. Minute rice I don't have much use for because it doesn't really bring much to the nutrician party except as filler. I eat Oatmeal almost every day so I suppose that is where I draw the line. I have 20 minutes to eat so making 'real' oatmeal in 5 instead of 30 is a compromise I'll make.

One of my other breakfast staples is natural granola mixed in to organic yogurt. Look at the labels between an organic or natural yogurt and the other stuff. The other stuff has some preservatives and other stabilizer crap that doesn't do anything for me. Organic or Natural has milk and bacteria and natural vanilla flavor.

I'm with you on the Kraft chem lab ingredients. If I can't pronounce it or don't know what it is I'll try not to eat it.

If by sushi you mean sashimi (raw fish) it would be allowed, but most raw food advocates are also vegans. If by sushi you mean sushi then that has cooked rice so no go.



Styrrell

Quaker oats is what actually got me thinking about "processing". We got the 5 minute stuff thinking teh 1 minute stuff must be "more processed". Turns out not really. Same ingrediants, just that teh 1 minute stuff must get smashed smaller or something and cooks quicker.

I also started looking at different cereals such as something like http://www.kashi.com/ourfoods.aspx?SID=1&Category_ID=33&
vs say Cinnomon Life cerial. Although processed, the Kashi stuff is fairly "whole" and the Life cerial is fairly full of crap. After experimenting with it I've even found that I feel differently after the Kashi versus Life. Life brings on a bit, not much, of the Rise and fall that a Starbucks Cafe Mocha does. The Kashi products have no effect that I notice.

It's rather confusing really.

~Matt

The one minute quick oats kind is the same thing, but in the smashing of the product it loses some of its properties. If you went w/ steal cut oats, a little harder to find and takes twice as long to cook you'd get the same effect as the starbucks cafe mocha.

I have also found about a pound of dried fruit in one sitting acheives the same results. Don't stray very far from the house or get stuck in traffic.

Kashi is good stuff, I will have a bowl of that for snack or for breakfast and I really like it