It seems that some members of this forum (Tyler Durden/ Goodsamaritan/ Iguana and others) believe the raw-paleo diet to be the holy-grail of health. Their experience on this diet, along with that of a number of others, substantiates the idea that to obtain truly optimum health the diet must be raw.
They have many justifications as to why this is the case; avoidance of heat-created toxins, increased consumption of enzymes and reduced digestive effort, increased consumption of vitamins and minerals, optimum population of gut bacteria, reduction of putrefication in the gut, increased biophoton consumption, instinctive judgement of amounts of food……………etc.
Scientific studies confirm the previous justifications. The diet makes sense.
There are others though that believe quite the opposite. Dr Lawrence Wilson, a nutritionist who has worked with many thousands of clients over a 30-year period says that he actually finds that raw food does not help to heal the majority of people. (
http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/Raw%20Food192.htm. He says, “Raw meat, fish and eggs have a subtle quality that appears to be less healthful. I do not understand it, but that is what I observe in our clients. So please cook meats, fish and eggs lightly.”
In the same way that I believe what Tyler/Goodsamaritan/Iguana etc are saying, I also believe that he has found this to be the case. He refers to this in terms of yin and yang, with the majority of people being more yin, and therefore need balancing with cooked yang food.
How can people come to such drastically different conclusions? Doesn’t really make sense at all!
I was reading an article by Dr Mercola talking about eating raw food and its benefits in terms of supplying enzymes.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/21/enzymes-special-report.aspx.So here is more evidence in favour of a raw diet. However I then read some of the comments made by people who have read the article.
The following is a comment made;
“Aiming for 75% of your diet being raw is just a bad recommendation. Most people will not do well on a raw diet. Chinese Medicine does not recommend a diet high in raw foods, but the Chinese do eat a lot of fermented foods. I myself totally crashed my adrenals on a raw diet--so beware this advice. Still dealing with health problems from eating a raw food diet for only four months--and it's two years' later”
She then goes on to say;
“ I ate a very good paleo diet for many years before I went raw. I went on the diet gradually over a period of months/years before I increased to 80-100% raw. My patients universally have not done well with a diet high in raw foods”
I have also recently noticed the update from Miles, who talks about not being able to digest raw meat anymore after a while on a raw-paleo diet, preferring now to eat his meat cooked. This again seems to corroborate the anti-raw conclusions mentioned above.
Why has he come up against this issue?
It seems like there are another group of individuals on the forum who feel that a raw-paleo diet is favourable over a cooked paleo diet. Some have been eating raw-paleo for a while, but have not achieved the ideal level of health they had hoped for. So these guys are kind of in the middle of the two. They believe in raw and find it useful, but they don’t believe it to be the holy-grail of health.
My first attempt at a raw-paleo diet failed, ultimately making my health worse. However my attempt was utterly flawed in many ways and there were many other reasons that may have contributed to my decline in health other than the fact I switched to a raw-paleo diet. I introduced considerable amounts of raw meat and fat, but because of my situation I was regularly bound to consume cooked meats and cooked vegetables as well. Some days I could do all raw-paleo. Most days were raw- paleo mixed with cooked paleo. I also think during my switch to partial raw-paleo I may have reduced my carbs quite a bit as well (mainly as a consequence of me struggling to combine any carbs with my raw meat/fat), which may have not been a good move in terms of my health recovery and metabolism. I also believe I may have been over-eating on raw animal fat. If I was to re-attempt raw-paleo, I would definitely attempt to eat more carbs, and less fat than during my previous efforts. Maybe I was not ready for a switch to a high fat diet?
When I attempted raw-paleo for the first time I was under the impression that it could possibly make me healthier, or at the very worst not do anything at all. Now I have been led to believe that it could possibly make me worse, as occurred during my first, ‘probably very flawed’ attempt at the diet. It is much more difficult to attempt raw-paleo for a second time following my negative first experience, and now after reading what I have. When I first attempted a switch to more raw, I thought at the very worst I would stay the same, but now I have it in my mind that it may mess me up further!
So here is my dilemma. I understand why raw is favourable over cooked. I believe all the individuals who have found an outstanding level of health through eating raw-paleo. I see the science that backs it up. I love the idea of instinctive eating. What better way to know what your body needs than to listen to its requests.
However, I also see the warnings against raw. Some of these warnings seem somewhat specific to adrenal function. This is an area that I struggle with currently. It is also the reason that brought a raw-paleo diet to my attention in the first place, and a condition I am trying to correct through diet.
If a raw-paleo diet heals in all cases, how could the people who have found raw-paleo to not work have come to such conclusions? Perhaps they needed to give it a longer adaptation time? Seems unlikely?
What is this subtle quality that Dr Lawrence Wilson talks of? I have noticed that I get a boost from eating cooked food, which I don’t receive from raw. It is quite noticeable to me that almost immediately after eating some cooked meat I get a boost of some kind. I have eaten raw meat and fat and not felt any boost until I followed this with some cooked sweet potato. Another example of this would be as follows. I used to eat cooked salmon regularly. When I attempted a raw-paleo diet I substituted the cooked salmon for raw tuna, and again after eating the raw tuna I didn’t get the boost I got from the cooked salmon. You would have expected with the extra nutrition, iodine, enzymes, bacteria, and with the less digestive strain that I would have felt a greater boost.
Could the heat energy administered by cooking somehow get transferred to the individual who eats the cooked food?
However, could this boost be a short-term pleasant warming of the body but with ultimately long-term negative results? I read that eating cooked food triggers the release of Dopamine in the brain. Could it be these chemicals that give the impression that something beneficial is going on? Is this the subtle quality that Dr Wilson has picked up on from his clients?
The timescale for healing on Dr Lawrence Wilson’s protocol using cooked food and supplements is long. It is basically a bit of a pain in the arse as well, with lots of cooking required and regular detox methods.
Is it long because it is not optimal for healing? A raw-paleo diet would certainly be easier to stick to, and a lot simpler.
Tyler and Goodsamaritan talk of an approximate healing timescale of 3-6 months, which is much more appealing. Even 12 months would be appealing to me. I really want to believe that it is that easy to achieve optimum health, but the negative reports I read concern me. Goodsamaritan often implies that health recovery is simple and straightforward, and he backs it up with numerous cases where he has healed people with relative ease using a raw-paleo diet. The current situation with his son is another case where he has turned round a difficult health challenge in a very short space of time. I follow him via his websites, and he seems like a very knowledgeable and genuine guy.
Could it be that a raw-paleo diet is more suited to his tropical hot climate, and is therefore more effective in these regions?
I also consider the fact that Tyler could not have got well following a cooked food diet as he was unable to digest any cooked food what so ever. Perhaps I would be in a similar situation now as well if I dropped out the digestive enzymes I currently take with every meal?
Other things I have read include a theory that it is the enzymes produced by our body that are the most important for digestion, and that the food enzymes are not so necessary. During my first attempt at raw-paleo I tried to drop out my digestive enzyme supplement thinking that they were not needed if I was eating my food raw. However I found that my digestion started to struggle once I dropped these out, so I brought them back. Is this evidence in support of the theory mentioned previously?
So now I am sitting on the fence, somewhere between raw and cooked paleo. All raw fat, lightly cooked or seared meats, and vegetables well cooked. My current diet is as follows with reasoning below;
MODERATE AMOUNTS OF RAW FAT– raw bone marrow, raw lamb/beef fat, small amounts of olive oil
It seems that nearly everyone agrees that raw fat is best, and the most damaged by cooking.
I eat only moderate amounts of fat though (100g/day ish) because I 99.99% suspect that I don’t process fat very well, large amounts giving me a sour taste in my mouth. I also 99.99% suspect, contrary to what many would say, that excessive amounts dry my skin out and aggravate my eczema somewhat.
COOKED VEGETABLES – carrot, turnip, onion, cruciferous vegetables
I try to eat relatively high carb (120g/day ish) to keep my metabolism high, and to provide me with energy as a consequence of me not being able to go high fat. I am currently opting for cooked vegetables over fruit so as to be more stabilising on my blood sugar. There seems to be a fair bit of caution over fruit from many people.
This is one of my dilemmas. If I can’t go high fat, it would seem likely that I would need to eat a fair amount of carbohydrate. Or is this the case?
LIGHTLY COOKED MEATS AND EGGS– medium rare 100% grass-fed lamb, medium rare ox heart, medium rare wild venison, medium rare wild hare
Plus cooked sardines and chicken
I eat meats and eggs lightly cooked basically to trigger the boost I talked about before.
The genius of searing meats is that they now can be combined with cooked vegetables with no obvious digestive issues, yet still getting some raw nutrition as well.
So the big question. I changed my diet to include more raw meats and it made me worse. This attempt though was flawed, as other changes at the same time may have impacted on the results of my experiment. I would not have expected the changes I made to have made me worse though.
Do I gamble on this diet again in the hope of obtaining optimum health, and risk perhaps aggravating my adrenal condition?
Currently my adrenal function and metabolism is not great. I often lack mental clarity and suffer with a racing mind. Could this be as a result of the constant cooked meat and vegetables I am eating currently? However, I never used to suffer with ’foggy thinking’ when eating cooked food in the past. I only experienced this issue for the first time after making myself worse following my partial raw-paleo diet change.
One last point. Rather than worrying about switching to raw, should I in fact be more concerned about eating so much cooked protein!!
Apologies for the length of this post.
I guess I am just interested to hear any thoughts on this situation, and whether anyone thinks they may be able to knock me off this fence for a second attempt at raw-paleo!
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