Raw Food Diet - Essay Example

Raw Food Diet Nowadays, there is a great number of various diets and nutrition schemes, each of them having its own advantages and flaws. The wide choice people face today includes both scientifically reasoned approaches and those that have no reasonable basis. Raw food diet as a way of life and an eating habit has always been an issue of controversy in the society. Many people consider it to be another popular trend, but this movement has its own philosophy, history, several varieties of diet and the growing number of proponents. Since the dawn of human civilization, it has been universally accepted in most cultures that food should be cooked in some way before consumption to enhance taste, kill bacteria etc. Raw foodism, in its turn, is a nutrition system completely excluding any food products that were cooked or processed. Any ways of thermal conditioning including boiling, baking, frying and stewing are forbidden in this movement. For instance, cereals can be consumed sprouted. This diet incorporates a set of acceptable products: almost all vegetables and fruits, certain sorts of meat and fish. However, all the products are to be consumed raw. At first, this seems to be crazy, but there is a clear motivation behind such unconventional set of eating habits. To understand the essence of the movement, it is needed to have a look at its history, philosophy and objectives. Origins of raw food eating The 20th century brought huge industrial and economic development to the world, and since its second half, a system of industrial nutrition has been cultivated widely in economically developed countries. As growing urban population needs large food supplies, the crops are often canned, refined and frozen. Such processing methods lead to elimination of useful vitamins and trace nutrients, let alone the fact that many companies add “undesirable” and not quite useful ingredients for better preservation of the product. Furthermore, lack of balance in diet led to development of obesity and numerous diseases caused by it. Thus, in 1960’s – 1970’s numerous healthy eating movements emerged, including raw foodism. Yet, it should be mentioned that the key principles of raw food eating were developed in the 19th century by the Presbyterian Sylvester Graham who described advantages of eating fresh food and drinking fresh water in prevention of cholera (Graham, 1849). First raw food restaurant in America opened in 1917 in California was named Euthropheon (“healthy eating” from Greek) and didn’t only serve clients, but also carried out informative activity. A very remarkable contribution to raw foodism development was made by Ann Wigmore who studied effects of eating raw food on ill people (PurelyRaw). Wigmore and Viktor Kulvinskas began treating “incurable” diseases and thus proved usefulness of raw products for health. Still, raw food like sprouts, salads and wheatgrass juice is very health-friendly, but it isn’t the most delicious option. That is why the key point was to add attractiveness to such nutrition system so that it could get people’s attention and gain proponents. Thus, Enter Juliano gave an attractive form to raw eating, vesting raw products in recipes that would be competitive in the world of junk food. This pioneer in raw food cuisine opened a restaurant “Raw” in LA. Principles and philosophy What is the essence of raw foodism? Naturally, if one decides at once to switch to the raw food diet, i.e. to begin consuming usual products without cooking them, the consequences may be rather lousy. The human organism should be gradually adapted to unprocessed products and the digestive tract should be strengthened and prepared for more intensive work. Gradual adaptation of a stomach to unprocessed and uncooked food is a basis of raw foodism teaching, as only stage-by-stage forbearance from fried and boiled dishes can help one to achieve the goal. According to the proponents of raw food, this way of nutrition is the best possible for a human, because it enables preservation of initial nutrition value of consumed products without loss of any vitamins. Many products are more nutritious when eaten raw, as thermal processing can destroy “water-soluble vitamins, many antioxidants, and unsaturated fats, including omega-3s” (Katz, 2012). The origins of the modern raw foodism philosophy lie in nature: nature is seen as a source of inspiration and knowledge. Raw eaters are inspired by the natural cycles of growth and flourishing, and believe that gifts provided by nature are able to nourish them completely and make their bodies “flourish”. This means that – according to the philosophy, eating fresh raw food is a perfect way of detoxifying the body, avoiding numerous diseases, healing and rejuvenation. In other words, purely natural products are believed to support natural healing processes in the human organism. In fact, this philosophy is a very light and natural one, implying trust in the power of nature: raw eaters believe that, eating natural raw food, people move towards purification, radiance and inner harmony. On the other hand, the arguments of this teaching include the opinion that processed food couldn’t be present in the initial food chain (as it was absent in the wild). In the ancient times, people used to get food from nature and consume it raw as they didn’t know how to cook it then. However, they were rather strong and resistant to diseases and cold. This is taken as a perfect image in raw food diet. Objectives Of course, all people are different and the aims they have when switching to raw products may differ as well, but there are general objectives that people have when they make such important decision to change their lifestyle. Firstly, many people switch to raw food diet when they need to detoxify and cleanse their bodies and lose excess weight in order to make their bodies look in the way they want (Copley-Smith, 2014). Another goals include harmony with their own bodies and feeling freer within them; acquire inner harmony and balance; improving health and enhance natural self-healing processes and many others. Inspired by the ideas of raw foodism, the proponents of the movement do their best to deliver their message across the world and teach people the principles of healthy nutrition. There are plenty of organizations and websites conveying information on the advantages of raw food, people who switched to raw food telling their stories and praising this way of life. The researchers and celebrities release books about raw food diet, and festivals of raw food are held across the globe – e.g. in New York, it is a week-long Woodstock Fruit Festival. It should be also mentioned that food bloggers, chefs and restaurant owners deserve great credit in promotion of this nutrition style. This people keep adding attractiveness to raw diet by creating appealing and delicious recipes. Lauren Golin, a raw food blogger, provides outstanding recipes of raw food dishes, trying different products and techniques in order to create something healthy and delicious, for example, to turn raw cauliflower into a basic ingredient of a tasty and good-looking salad (Golin, 2013). Concluding the topic of raw food, one should say that transition from regular to raw food nutrition is a very serious step, as this diet has its own pluses and minuses and requires much motivation and desire, but as long as it is justified by the evidences of its proponents, it has a right to exist and – probably – will gain all the more fans in the future, especially taking into account increase in health problems triggered by junk food consumption and poor eating habits. References: Copley-Smith, Laara. “Philosophy”, The Raw Food Garden. Retrieved October 23 from: http://therawfoodgarden.com/the-raw-food-philosophy/ Golin, Lauren. (2012) “Raw Cauliflower Couscous Salad”, Huffington Post. Retrieved October 23 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-golin/cauliflower-couscous-salad_b_4019360.html Graham, Sylvester. (1849) Lectures on the science of human life. Retrieved October 23 from: http://books.google.com.ua/books?id=gU8EAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=ru#v=onepage&q&f=false Katz, David. (2012) “The Raw Food Diet, Overcooked”, Huffington Post. Retrieved October 23 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-katz-md/raw-food-diet_b_2015598.html Purely Raw. “The History of Raw Food”. Retrieved October 23 from: http://purelyraw.com/history.htm Read More