Until just a few years ago, the raw food diet was still so abstract that most people probably hadn’t heard about it.

Nowadays, the term “raw” is popping up everywhere. Have you ever wondered what it meant, and/or why people would want to eat that way?

The raw food diet consists of unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, sprouted grains and legumes, dried fruit and seaweed.

The diet includes foods in their unprocessed and uncooked state and omits most other foods. Most people include a limited amount of foods that have undergone some processing, as long as the processing does not involve heating the food over 115-118 degrees Fahrenheit. The most popular raw food diet is a raw vegan diet, but other forms include raw animal products and/or meat. Some people, like myself, aren’t fully raw vegan but try to incorporate raw recipes and dishes into their daily eating plan.

There are specific food preparation techniques used to make foods more digestible and add variety to the diet, these include, sprouting seeds, grains, and beans, juicing fruits and vegetables, soaking nuts and dried fruit, and dehydrating food. Incorporating plant-based raw proteins from nuts, hemp, greens and other sources is also important to the raw food lifestyle. (One safety note: raw kidney beans are toxic, so beans need to be cooked. Sprouted lentils and mung beans are a better choice for raw dishes.)

A cornerstone of the raw food diet is that heating food above 115-118 degrees Fahrenheit can destroy enzymes in food that assist in the digestion and absorption of food. Raw foodists believe that foods cooked above this temperature lose a lot of their nutritional value, while uncooked foods provide living enzymes and proper nutrition. Fans of the raw food diet say it gives them more energy and helps them feel their best.

So, is it true?

Partly. Cooking does break down some nutrients, like vitamin C, but it actually makes others easier for your body to absorb, like the lycopene in tomatoes and the beta-carotene in carrots. Your body also makes its own digestive enzymes, so you don’t need to get them from food. What health experts do agree on is that eating more fruits and vegetables, raw or cooked, is a great thing. I like a mix of both.

On a personal note, the people I’ve met who eat mostly raw are some of the most energetic people I know, and I love the creativity of raw recipes.

Raw Vegan Recipes

Check out the raw recipes section of my recipe archive for more raw food recipe inspirations.