Raw Food Diet

Photos of a svelte over 40 Demi Moore have generated a buzz around the country about a hot diet trend she adheres to – a raw food diet. Reportedly, Woody Harrelson, Sting, and Donna Karan are also devoted raw fans.

· If you want to go raw, you’ll need to say goodbye to meat, dairy, baked goods, breads, and almost everything else in the grocery store. A raw food diet is a completely vegetarian diet, including no dairy, and no food is cooked above 118 degrees.

· Raw proponents believe that cooking food destroys its nutritional value and kills the enzymes that allow us to digest food. Raw promoters say the inability to digest cooked food leads to poor energy and weight gain. However, nutrition and food scientists disagree. Medical and nutrition scientists say that the human body produces its own enzymes that allow us to digest food and that the enzymes in food are not required for this purpose. In addition, if foods could not be digested properly, weight would be lost, not gained, because weight gain occurs after food is digested and absorbed into the blood, not inside the GI tract. Finally, experts agree that cooking some foods actually increases the nutritional value by releasing nutrients so they can be absorbed from the digestive tract into the body, including
lycopene from tomatoes and beta-carotene from carrots.

· Following this diet can lead to nutrient deficiencies with serious side effects if it is not done properly, and often leads to a great deal of bloating and gastrointestinal upset. If you want to eat raw in Tampa, you can purchase a cookbook & make your own foods or purchase ready-made raw foods at Nature’s Harvest Market on N. MacDill Ave. And I highly recommend doing this with the supervision of a registered dietitian (R.D.) who specializes in vegetarianism. An R.D. can help you determine how to modify the diet or what foods to choose to meet your needs for key vitamins and minerals including calcium, iron, zinc, B12, and protein. For example, you may decide to be a semi-raw eater and include some cooked soy products and some cooked whole grains to up your protein and carbohydrate intake. While you may lose weight and feel more nergetic by eliminating processed foods, meeting your nutritional needs to avoid getting sick is crucial, and finding a way to eat that you can live with long-term is the ultimate gauge of success.

Cynthia Sass, M.P.H., M.A., R.D., L.D./N.
National Media Spokesperson, American Dietetic Association Co-author, Your Diet is Driving Me Crazy: When Food Conflicts Get in the Way
of Your Love Life (Marlowe & Company, coming May 2004)
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