Raw Food Diet
Raw food diet is a movement promoting the consumption of uncooked, unprocessed, and often organic foods, as a large percentage of the diet. A raw food diet consists fully of foods which have not been heated above a certain temperature. The maximum temperature varies among the different forms of the diet. Raw food diets may include a varied selection of unpasturized dairy and raw fruits, veggies, nuts, eggs, fish, or meat.
Changing to a raw food diet is a little like reverting from human to animal; a dog eats food raw. So do many other pets. But a raw foodist is a person who consumes primarily raw food. Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits. They generally believe raw food prevents and/or heals many forms of sickness and many chronic diseases.
Some raw food advocates believe cooked food is toxic because cooking the food converts some particles into harmful chemicals. They also often believe cooked food is less digestible than raw food because cooking destroys the enzymes contained in food.
Recent scientific work has supported these claims. In 1987 an author said that the pancreas is forced to work harder with cooked foods and food enzymes are vital to digestion.
However, there have been studies to the contrary. Colon cancer is thought to be attributable or greatly increased by the eating of unpasturzied or uncooked dairy products.