It sounds like lovely program - eat tons of unprocessed fruits, veggies, sprouts, nuts, and seeds. The young woman’s story is quite amazing. But is it practical? And are the heath benefits really as high as they are touted?
I think the obvious part of the diet - replacing a lot of fatty and junk foods with fruits and veggies - accounts for the majority of her amazing weight loss. Simply put, fruits and veggies have less calories and more fiber than say, potato chips or a hamburger. In fact, just reading her story gave me a little reminder to fill my shopping cart with more fruits veggies this weekend. Most people could use a few more servings of fruits and veggies.
But is the raw part necessary? Couldn’t one have cooked veggies and still reap the benefits of a healthy diet? And to the extreme of replacing all foods with raw veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds? Although I eat an extremely healthy diet, I don’t know what I’d do without my delicious 100% whole grain bread. Mmmmmmm…bread…fresh baked at home…getting hungry!
One result of cooking your food, aside from the ability to more easily integrate flavors, is to break it down to make it more digestible. Eating raw simply gives you more indigestible roughage (and a lot of flatus). Food that is not digested, does not contribute calories to your diet. And highly digestible butter or cream- are also raw foods, and VERY high calorie.
I remember a nurse who talked one of our oral surgeons to wire her mouth shut so she could ‘lose weight’. She asked the OS what she should eat, and he replied that she could have anything that fit between the wires. Perhaps her should not have been so general, she subsisted on a diet of milkshakes and gained 50 lbs by the time the wires were removed. This weight was gained at a much faster rate, than her previous gain. She ended up with a tracheotomy and subsequently died from weight related issues several years later.
The point is, you can gain weight on ANY diet, if you want to look for loopholes. The key would be lifestyle change and moderation. After all, she probably wouldn’t want to eat a diet consisting entirely of raw foods forever(I wonder if steak tartare counts?)!
Cooking food is probably one of the single greatest evolutionary advantages humanity has created. It breaks down food allowing more calories and nutrients to be absorbed. It protects us from food born illnesses by sterilizing our food. Not to mention it tastes better and is more enjoyable.
If you look around there are studies showing that a raw food diet can be extremely harmful! Women suffer from Amenohorrea. Men and Women suffer from vitamin deficiencies, and have problems maintaining a healthy body mass. There’s a 20/20 expose`on raw food diets check it out. 20/20 Raw Food
[ Edited: 28 September 2008 11:25 PM by Some Guy ]
I would recommend going to the American Dietetic Association (ADA) website ADA. They are represented by certified scientists who understand nutrition, or simply meat with a dietitian if you would like to improve you diet. Make sure the information you get or the person you consult with is a dietitian not a “nutritionist” which requires no training or certification. The title Dietitian is a legally protected title like Doctor.
Also I think you can find computer programs that help you to plan and optimize a healthy diet, i.e. getting your RDA of vitamins,minerals,fats, carbohydrates, and protein.
I would say any diet which provides only anecdotal evidence with out a real scientific study should be disregarded until such time as a scientific study has been done supporting the health claims. In the case of raw foods the scientific evidence show it is ineffective and unhealthy.
[ Edited: 28 September 2008 11:28 PM by Some Guy ]
I suspected it was unpractical. At first glance it does seem like a lovely idea, eating lots of fruits and veggies. As I said, we can all use more fruits and veggies in our diets. But the extreme to which these people take it seems unwise. Even vegetarians or vegans have tofu, cooked legumes, soy, etc. in order to add protein to their diet.
It would seem that the use of fire by caveman was a good direction to go in, given that even some vegetables can be poisonous/toxic if eaten raw.
I remember a nurse who talked one of our oral surgeons to wire her mouth shut so she could ‘lose weight’. She asked the OS what she should eat, and he replied that she could have anything that fit between the wires. Perhaps her should not have been so general, she subsisted on a diet of milkshakes and gained 50 lbs by the time the wires were removed. This weight was gained at a much faster rate, than her previous gain. She ended up with a tracheotomy and subsequently died from weight related issues several years later.
Asanta,this is absolutely boffo!!Are you serious?I love these kind of stories.Couldn’t that surgeon get in trouble for that?It’s really too bad about the nurse,I really love that kind of determination.
Wiring the jaws shut used to be a somewhat trendy diet fad years ago. I think it was supposed to help people drink only those OptiFast or MediFast liquid diets that Oprah made so popular years ago with her first big weight loss. Unfortunately, as Asanta’s story points out, some people replaced “diet shakes” with “milk shakes” apparently thinking any type of “shake” was OK!
I believe they did it by putting braces (like teens get) on a few teeth, and wiring the top and bottom braces together? So it didn’t harm the jaw, and was easily reversible.
This story reminds me of people who get stomach bypass surgery to lose weight, and then eat only junk food and ice cream. Many gain the weight back over the course of a year or two. As Asanta points out, there is a loophole in most every diet!
It’s too bad that psychology hasn’t reached the status of a real science capable of supporting related engineering yet. When it does, psychologists will be able to introduce enough of the components that cause anorexia into obese people so they stop eating until they get down to a normal weight.
I’m thinking about creating and marketing a new diet that only allows for eating raw meat. The goal is to keep things as natural and as much like they would have been thousands of years ago.
Perhaps my diet will require people to chase and wrestle down animals themselves, without the aid of any weapons or hunting technology. Dairy would only be allowed if consumed directly from live and free roaming animals.
