I came across this article and thought it might be of interest to you all and provoke some good debate.( the whole of the rest of this post is the article and not my own opinion by the way)

May 23, 2008
To be or not to be…100% raw
That is the question...and we are asked it often. It takes effort to transition to an all-raw diet. It can be challenging, isolating and constraining, especially when socializing with people who do not eat in this way. But, as we all know, raw is as healthy as it gets, so is it worth going the extra distance, weaning yourself off every last vestige of fired food and going ‘100%’?

That question is answered quite simply, really. No matter what ‘label’ applies to your diet, whether “standard”, “vegetarian”, “vegan”, “raw” or any other, it is only as healthy as the specific foods you are eating! So it comes down to this: would you eat a healthier diet if you ate all raw, or would you eat a healthier diet if you ate high raw but included some cooked foods?

Do not assume it is the former! In many cases it is not. Why? Because it is hard to eat 100% raw and not overeat on sugar and/or fat – especially in the few years after transitioning from a standard diet (and for some people, this remains the case no matter how long they’ve been raw). Whereas many find that if they eat some cooked food, they can keep their sugar and fat consumption at much more moderate levels and also pack in a higher volume of vegetables as well as a much wider variety (raw aubergine or celeriac anyone?), which can only ever be a good thing.

100% raw is often talked about as the ultimate state of bodily purity and some kind of dietary holy grail that is like day to cooked food’s night and beauty to cooked food’s beast – and, some would have us believe, that is true even if you are only holding on to 20% or less of cooked food in your otherwise raw diet.

Let's examine that for a moment...

100% raw will only be that ideal pure diet if you are eating exclusively vital, alive, water-rich foods that are light on the body and easy to digest. Dehydrated foods - a staple in many a raw diet - are NONE of those things, even though they may be called “raw”. (Bear in mind that the term “raw” is used loosely here; they may not be heated to high enough temperatures to be classed as cooked, but they are not truly raw either because that, folks, means - well - RAW!) Dehydrated "raw" foods represent a deviation from that pure diet that is greater than the deviation involved in consuming the healthiest cooked foods, namely lightly-cooked vegetables.

Dehydrated foods are among the most dehydrating foods, and dehydrating foods are not easy for the body to process UNLESS they are eaten in at least a 1 to 4 ratio with water-rich green leafy vegetables. But how many of us always make the point of having a bowl of spinach salad on the side every time we indulge in a raw choccie bar or a plate of buckwheat-raisin-almond cookies?

In order to stay 100% raw, many have to resort to dehydrated breads, crackers and cookies and also huge helpings of raw cake, ice cream and chocolate. Yes, OF COURSE these foods are infinitely better than the cooked version in each case! But eat them in excess and you are not eating a pure, detoxing diet that will propel you to your highest clarity, energy levels and potential.

Then there are those who eat raw nut butter by the jar because it is one of the few raw foods that really fills them up, and raw lore has it that even SIX jars of nut butter a day are not unheard of in those trying to cling desperately to white knuckle rawdom.

So if you are regularly eating any or all of the above foods in large quantities in order to stay raw but religiously keep cooked vegetables out of your diet, it might be worth taking stock and figuring out whether your objective is in fact sticking rigidly to a dogma or achieving the very highest level of health possible for you at this time.

Because we’re sorry to be the bearers of bad news but we’ll say it once and for all:

Dehydrated raw cookies are NOT healthier than steamed broccoli!

They are healthier than regular cookies. They are healthier than junk or processed food of any form. But they are not healthier than VEGETABLES.

Remember also that certain foods that regularly feature on "raw" menus are either impossible to get raw (maple syrup and arguably agave nectar) or are hard to find truly raw (definitely cashews, but also certain other nuts, depending on who you believe). Unless your cashews or cashew-containing product were bought from a specialist raw retailer and/or have the word 'RAW' emblazoned prominently on the packaging, they are guaranteed to be heated well into "cooked" territory. There are "100% raw" people who wouldn’t dream of letting lightly cooked, home-made organic vegetable soup pass their lips yet will consume ice cream made with cashews that are in fact not raw. Yet the very worst food group you can eat cooked is fats and very best is vegetables of all kinds.

So to get back to the question of the day, if you need to eat large quantities of nuts, dried fruit, dehydrated foods, packaged raw snacks or any other dense, heavy, dehydrating “raw” food in order to stay “100% raw” you may be better off “compromising” a little. These recreational foods are all great as treats but if you need to consume them every day in order to feel satisfied on a raw diet, you would be healthier eating less of them and instead including some lightly cooked vegetables, home-made vegetable soups, baked sweet potatoes and/or steamed quinoa. Especially if you precede any cooked dish with a large, nutrient-rich raw salad.

Now! A very important proviso to the above. Even if you are one of those people who needs to eat heavy, ‘recreational’ raw foods in order to stay raw, and could theoretically be healthier swapping those for some healthy cooked whole foods, if you are of a certain psychology around food, you will be better off sticking to an unwavering 100% raw. Let us explain…

Many find that eating 100% raw represents freedom from a lifelong addiction to processed junk foods when all other attempts at achieving that failed. This is not confined to people who suffered what we call "eating disorders". In reality, the majority of the population eats in a disordered way, choosing addictive non-food "food" products over natural whole foods and eating for stimulation and/or sedation rather than for nourishment and health. What society calls "normal" around food is actually very abnormal and since almost all of us were raised on this diet, many who go raw find they do better being uncompromising about it, to allow no room for any processed non-foods to creep back into their diet. Because once they open the door to cooked food even a crack, before they know it that can all too quickly become a wide-open floodgate.

I (Sarah) used to do this amazing ‘slippery slope’ thing where I’d be raw for a while then decide I was overdoing the nuts/coconut-almond cookies and would be better off if I ate some cooked vegetables. Often that worked just fine but other times it would go like this: it would start with just the vegetables, and I'd vow to myself that was as far as I would go since I was feeling great on raw and didn't want to lose that wonderful high. But once that compromise had been made, after a day or two I’d tell myself it wouldn’t hurt to have some grains. This was never a great idea as I do not tolerate cooked grains at all well, even healthy ones like quinoa, and if I was a little run down either physically or mentally at the time, this would often set off sugar cravings. Next thing I knew I’d be scanning the cupboards containing the things I don't usually eat, eyeing up my son’s cereal or cookies and telling myself that since grains were now allowed, a little of these couldn’t hurt. Yes, it says refined sugar on the label too but, well, it’s all ORGANIC.

Before I knew it I’d be on a cooked food feeding frenzy and even if it was all organic the difference in how I felt on this and how I feel on all raw was like the difference between, well, feeling really high and energetic and joyful and feeling low, miserable and exhausted. The morning after the first day of doing this I would wake up with what felt exactly like a hangover (and it was – a cooked food hangover!) but usually by then the sleeping giant of refined sugar addiction would be wide awake holding up its knife and fork waiting to be fed again. These episodes would often last a few days or even a week before I could take back the reins and start eating normally again. I was SLOWWWW when it came to going raw. I don't like rules and I love variety so I had to be really convinced, by experiencing the results again and again, that certain foods really were worth giving up.

So this is where eating that non-raw cashew ice cream that you can pretend is raw while vetoing the vegetable soup CAN make sense. Because when you eat cashew ice cream it is very easy to kid yourself you are eating raw food therefore you are in fact 100% raw which keeps the door labelled cooked junk foods firmly shut, whereas you know that if you tell yourself cooked foods are an ok thing to eat, it's not long before you'll be back on the refined-sugar-filled dairy ice cream.

During my first few years of experimenting with raw I discovered I was better off sticking to all raw wherever possible. But I have balanced out a lot now so I can usually "compromise" and enjoy the flexibility and variety of a small amount of cooked food when I feel like it without worrying about attempting to consume my own weight in refined carbs. I personally feel A LOT better on foods like steamed broccoli, asparagus (YUM!), and other lightly-cooked vegetables than eating dried-out "raw" combo-abombo's containing grains, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and/or sweeteners. You may too.

So if you haven’t already done so, why not experiment a little and see what level of raw is TRULY right for you? Don’t take anyone else’s word for how much raw you should be eating. You are the only person who can discover that. It may well be a constant journey of transition and tweaking. Remember above all that it’s not about what label your diet has. It’s about the specific foods you are eating, and there are many cooked choices that will do a lot more for your health, figure and energy levels than will certain raw ones.

I think in the long run you naturally gravitate to eating a simpler raw food diet, which has been the case for me. I don't eat dehydrated foods nor have I experienced a problem eating too many fat or sugars when I transitioned for example. In fact, raw foods helped me kick the sweets habit. If anything if I were to eat cooked vegan again, I have no doubt I would reverse into old chocoholic habits and snorting baked vegan goods. If I eat cooked food now, as I have slipped a couple of times in the past year, I get violently ill. I find the information in this article interesting, but not applicable to my life or experience with raw foods at all. I'm listening to my body and it's super happy & healthy at 100%. Life speaks louder than words.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2008 04:27PM by rawangel.

I think David Z Mason's blood results (see [www.rawfoodsupport.com] ) disprove the idea that eating too much sugar from fruit is bad for us.

> Dehydrated raw cookies are NOT healthier than steamed broccoli!

This is debatable. Depending on what is in the cookies, and assuming they are just part of a balanced raw diet, then they could be.

I personally found that once I got myself to a point where I was happy and stable at 100%, it is so much easier to maintain. Before I was 100%, just a small amount of cooked food could make me crave more cooked food.

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

Well. I feel slightly better about my binges, as I have never eaten close to six jars of nut butter.

I do much better on 100% raw than raw + baked potato. It really opens that awful floodgate for me, and my mind just spins and obsesses about cooked food if I start to go there.

I have to think, when I do have dehydrated XYZ or whatever: 1) I am eating LESS raw junk at 5 months than I did at 1 month, and even gave most of it up (nama shoyu, sea salt) 2) an amazing amount of healing has occurred even with the raw junk and 3) I have SLOWLY (oh, so, so, slowly) been requiring less and less heavy raw foods, so I have to assume, over time, on those nights when I just chow down on nuts, that I will eventually gravitate away from them completely, or as my body deems necessary.

Because, after all, that pound of macadamias used to last a day. Now I can buy 1/4 pound of macadamias and make it last a week, even though some nights I can tell I'm still eating for purposes other than nourishment.

So keep your goals in mind! Part of my challenge is learning to stretch myself to meet new goals, without overextending, backsliding, and hurting myself... kind of like exercise. Dietary-mental-physical exercise. And I really am improving! =D

It's so hard when you've learned to be full from fats your whole life. But if I am craving these calories now, god knows how much fat I was really getting from cheese and fried food beforehand. Honestly. If I struggle with the calorie percentages now... I'm happy to be struggling, rather than to be passively waiting to see where rampant, unchecked, emotional gluttony would have led me in another twenty years. =(

Great article, anyway!

Great article and great thread.

Transition is a unique challenge for anyone.

Balancing cooked and raw is working for me. When I try 100% I get willie nillie and make myself crazy. My cooked is getting healthier and and healthier which is my goal for now. My long term goal might be 100% but I have to take things one day at a time.

pakd4fun Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Balancing cooked and raw is working for me. When
> I try 100% I get willie nillie and make myself
> crazy. My cooked is getting healthier and and
> healthier which is my goal for now. My long term
> goal might be 100% but I have to take things one
> day at a time.

that's me too. with kids and life and running around and relatives and restaurants, if i try to do 100% the stress of it is too much and that's unhealthy. it's not my goal to be 100% raw again now, maybe later on but not now. it's too unworkable for me and i don't feel that some healthy cooked food is bad for us.
i think that 100% is great for healing, it's good for raising awareness about every bite that goes into your mouth and body, it's an interesting statement but it's not easy to be sociable, to send a lunch to school with your kid, or to travel or do errands on the fly. i used to carry a large amount of food around every day and it was a drag. now if i need to stop for a snack i'm totally fine with a healthy choice at a restaurant. and my kids like the fun things i cook to go along with the plentiful raw we eat. it's a good balance for us and i'm happy with it.
oh yes, and we enjoy incredible health too of course .

Great article, very interesting.

That is a great article. I have the goal of being 100% raw because every time I have eaten 100% raw I have felt amazing! But I also feel like though this is the direction that is right for me to go, I also feel like if I go slowly in that direction, eating a less percentage cooked, healthier cooked when I do, and enjoying the journey, I will be more successful in the long run. I have a raw food buddy who is usually at 100% (barring the occasional slip-ups), and she eats a lot of dehydrated and otherwise processed raw foods. She's also having trouble losing weight. The point of the absence of water and the calorie and fat content occurred to me as well, and let's face it, I haven't really tried any dehydrated food that amazed me. I do like a little once in a while. I make crackers about once a month, but I end up throwing half the batch out because it sits so long I wonder about its freshness. So I prefer smoothies, salads, raw soups and "pasta" dishes and allow myself the occasional cooked foray, knowing that this is a journey and when I am ready, I will evolve into the 100% raw diet because I want to continue to feel better and better without beating myself up about it. That's my personal take on it.
Sundancer

thanks for posting that - very interesting. I realized how addictive and obsessive I can be (even w/ good habits) - things were never good enough, not organic enough, etc. If I am juice fasting, then I obsess about a cucumber, and if I am eating all raw I day dream about a baked sweet potato, etc....so I think really understanding ones personality, habits, soft addictions, etc., can tell which way to go when it comes to raw living. I had to ease up, let be ok to have non-organic produce if that's what my bank account allowed. If anything, this journey over the last few years has revealed (whether I liked it or not!) more of who I am to myself.

gee, who know lettuce gives way to philosophy

My experience with being all fresh raw and significantly incorporating the other aspects of the raw lifestyle is that it accelerates the movement on the journey to health and wellness to a state that I can only call a "metamorphosis" for want of a better word. Its amazing to pull the stops and let yourself go "pure" on the raw lifestyle. You really ought to give it a try and see for yourself.

I think it's very hard to do without going overboard on the sweet fruit or the fat. Also, too much restriction can lead to a host of bad things including guilt, cheating, etc.

I agree with flipperjan that lightly steamed vegetables are better than raw treats like dehydrated cookies and raw ice cream and I think that 80% raw, 20% lightly steamed vegs and cooked legumes or whole grains is an excellent choice.

Fats are the most dangerous to the body when cooked, much worse than cooked proteins. Proteins are intermediate, much worse than cooked starches, and cooked starches, the least bad. Glycotoxin formation is proportional to the temperature and the fat content. With light steaming, it doesn't much exceed 1OO degrees C. That is not so bad as baking (worse), or frying (much much worse).

If complementing a mostly raw diet with some lightly steamed vegetables is the only way you can stay raw, then go for it. If it's between this and high fat you are probably going to have a lower glycotoxin load if you reach for a bowl of lightly steamed veggies (180-2300 AGE units/g) than a raw` avocado (16,000 AGE units/g).

ref is:
Goldberg, Teresia, et al, Advanced glycoxidation end products in commonly consumed foods, Journal of the ADA, 2004 Auguest 104:8 1287-1291

85% raw and 15% cookd works for me too. I can handle the little portion of cooked food for dinner only. If I eat that at lunch then I feel sluggish and sleepy... This is as far as managing life,kids, schedules etc .. But I do want to switch to 100% raw soon.

Here are my concerns - some are valid and some are like weird...
1. I realize already (after being 80 - 85% raw for year and half) that I am not able to tolerate anymore, even a small cooked meal. If I eat more than a small cereal bowl full of cooked food, I feel sick.

2. I am scared that if I go all raw then I will have NO tolerance to cooked food, and I will noit be able to eat anything when friends/ family come over or we go over to their house... Just to socialize I feel it is nice to eat some cooked food with friends, relatives...
Yes, I know that food is not love or friendships, but I just want to go out sometime..

3. When I go to a place and there is nothing but cooked food I wnat to be able to eat atleast something there..(like we went to a Hindu temple last month and there was rice and beans and not a single fruit or salad.. We at there and I was ok because it wsa a small portion. When we drove back, I found grocery store and had lots of fruits...)

This may sound childish but I have these concerns. I am working towards becimng 100% raw.

Take care
A Iyer