What is this Raw Food Trend Thing?!
So today as I was eating the avocado cake, I started looking online for raw food, being sure that there's nothing there...but to my surprise there are TONS of recipes.
I do enjoy raw food a lot but I'm not vegetarian/vegan, nor do I want to be, there's just too much hastle. Also I prefer my mushrooms cooked instead of raw and oher stuff too, like cooked fish (baked in the oven), but I also LOVE sashimi.
Is anyone out there familiar with this kind of cooking? Can anyone point me to the right direction, on how to start, what are some good recipes for starters :)
I just bought a new blender yesterday bthw, so I'm sure it'll help a lot :D
Oh and one more thing. It's my birthday today, what raw food can I cook that'll make me happy???
Answers:
I wouldn't call it a trend. Some form of raw food diet has been around since the dawn of time. More recently, Chicago chef Charlie Trotter wrote a whole cookbook on eating "raw"
Raw foodism (or rawism) is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of uncooked (or barely cooked), unprocessed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet.
Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits. Raw foodism or a raw diet is usually equated with raw veganism in which only raw plant foods are eaten. Depending on the type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include a selection of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds (including sprouted whole grains such as gaba rice), eggs, fish (such as sashimi), meat (such as carpaccio), and non-pasteurized/non-homogenized dairy products (such as raw milk, raw milk cheese, and raw milk yogurt).
Beliefs held by raw foodists include:
Raw foodists believe that digestive enzymes in raw foods (such as amylases, proteases, and lipases) aid digestion. Heating food above 104-120 degrees Fahrenheit degrades or destroys these enzymes in food.
Raw foods include bacteria and other micro-organisms that affect the immune system and digestion by populating the digestive tract with beneficial gut flora. These are generally killed by cooking. In addition, many raw-foodists, particularly primal-dieters, are believers in the hygiene hypothesis, a concept which focuses on the health benefits of exposure to parasites and harmful bacteria.
Raw foods have higher nutrient values than foods which have been cooked.
In addition, raw foodists believe processed food and convenience food often contain excitotoxins (such as flavor enhancers) which can cause excitotoxicity. Foods with added chemicals, preservatives, additives, colouring agents/dyes of any kind are frowned upon by raw-foodists.
Raw foodists believe that raw foods are the ideal food for human consumption, and the basis of a raw food lifestyle.Irritants or stimulants like coffee, alcohol, and tobacco are recommended against.
Also heated fats and proteins like fried oils and roasted nuts are to be avoided on a raw-food diet, as they are deemed by raw foodists to be carcinogenic.
Wild foods followed by organic whole foods are more nutritious than conventionally domesticated foods or industrially produced foods.
Cooked foods contain harmful toxins, which can cause chronic disease and other problems
Heating oils and fats can produce trace amounts of trans fats. Cooking foods produces advanced glycation end products ("glycotoxins").
Raw foods such as fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants and raw-foodists believe they can help to stifle signs of aging.
technically.... raw food is NOT cooked
this diet is primarily the belif the many foods nutrients are destroyed by cooking, so this is avoided as much as possible
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_foodism