Raw food enthusiasts embark on the dietary lifestyle in a quest for vitality and health. However, some end up underweight and with nutritional deficiencies. Although it seems healthy to eat uncooked vegan foods, if you don't plan your diet carefully, you might not get enough calories, protein, iron and vitamins B-12 and D. Be sure to eat high-energy raw foods daily, and consider including cooked foods as part of your diet -- cooking reduces the volume of foods and concentrates nutrients. Consult a registered dietitian before starting a raw food diet.
Healthy Fats
If you follow a vegan diet and eat only plant foods as most raw foodists do, you're not getting much unhealthy saturated fat or cholesterol, which is good. On the other hand, you might not be getting enough healthy fats. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are high-energy essential nutrients that you should include in your diet daily. Get plenty of healthy fats from foods such as avocados, sun-dried olives, raw nuts and cold-pressed extra-virgin oils made from olives, flaxseed, hempseed, walnuts and raw safflower and sunflower.
Protein
The Vegetarian Resource group advises people following a vegan diet to get about 0.5 grams of protein for each pound of body weight. You need to get nine essential amino acids -- or building blocks of protein -- from your diet each day; your body combines them with the eleven amino acids it manufactures to form the protein it needs for growth, maintenance and repair. Eat a variety of foods containing protein to get all the amino acids you need. High-energy choices include legumes such as chickpeas, adzuki beans, lentils and mung beans; nuts and nut butters; and pumpkin and sunflower seeds. You'll need to prepare these and other foods for eating with methods such as sprouting, soaking, dehydrating and grinding.
Carbohydrates
Include high-energy carbohydrates in your diet each day. Eat dried fruit and dehydrated energy-dense vegetables such as sliced sweet potatoes -- drying and dehydrating concentrates nutrients and calories. Use raw honey as a sweetener. Include grains such as buckwheat, oats, wild rice, kamut and spelt prepared by soaking, sprouting or grinding. Add ground grains to energy-dense recipes. For example, make high-energy chocolate chip cookies by combining ground oats and ground cashews to make the dough and mixing vanilla, cacao powder, maple syrup and coconut oil to make the chips; mix them together, shape into cookies and freeze for about 30 minutes.
Other Considerations
If you're one of the minority of raw foodists that includes raw milk, cheese, eggs and certain meats in your diet, you're at risk of becoming ill from foodborne bacteria. Critics of the raw diet counter the claim that raw foods are healthier; some foods, such as tomatoes, are more nutritious when cooked, and proteins are easier to digest. A raw food diet isn't appropriate for infants, children, teens or women who are pregnant or breastfeeding due to potential nutritional deficiencies. Consult your doctor or registered dietitian about vitamin supplements, since deficiencies are common.
References
- U.S. News & World Report Health: Raw Food Diet
- RD411.com: Raw Food Diet
- Health Services at Columbia University; Ooh, Baby, I Like It Raw (Or, is a Raw Diet Healthy?); July 2000
- Vegetarian Resource Group; Protein in the Vegan Diet; Reed Mangels, Ph.D., R.D.
- "Going Raw: Everything You Need to Start Your Own Raw Food Diet and Lifestyle"; Judita Wignall; 2011
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