Counting calories, and avoiding certain foods and smaller portions are part of almost every diet. The raw food diet promises unlimited feasting without the hassle of counting calories. The food only has to be raw. Can You Lose Weight by Eating Raw Food? And is this diet even healthy?
What is the raw food diet – and do you need a plan?
The raw food diet includes everything that has not been processed in any way. These include:
- Raw fruits and vegetables
- Unprocessed Nuts
- Meat (e.g. ground pork, tartare, and carpaccio) and fish, as long as both are raw
On the other hand, the following foods are taboo:
- bread
- Milk (will be pasteurized)
- pasta
- rice
- Muesli
- Sweets
You don’t need a raw food diet plan. Since you don’t cook, fry, or otherwise process anything, the nutritional principle of the raw food diet is very simple: wash the vegetables or fruit, peel them if necessary and eat them.
Can you lose weight on a raw food diet?
The raw food diet is very effective: If you stick to it consistently, the pounds will drop quickly. The advantages are apparent. Losing weight with raw food is quick – and there are no restrictions on the number of meals and size of the portions. Raw food also encourages good chewing and a leisurely pace of eating. As a result, digestion begins in the mouth and the stomach needs less energy to process it.
What are the disadvantages of the raw food diet?
The raw food diet also has disadvantages: On the one hand, it requires a strong will. Because even if you have a wide range of foods at your disposal, the desire for fried and boiled food can soon grow.
There is a reason for this desire: In the course of evolution, the human body has become accustomed to cooked food. Many researchers even assume that our brains only got to their present size and effectiveness because we started heating food. Because the carbohydrate content increases with fried or boiled food, which primarily means energy for the body. Energy with which the brain can be supplied – and which is missing in this form when losing weight with the raw food diet.
Does the raw food diet threaten malnutrition?
In addition, the raw food diet can lead to a nutrient deficiency. From 1996 to 1998, researchers 1996 to 1998 accompanied more than 700 “raw foodists” in the so-called Gießen raw food study, i.e. people who had changed their eating style completely to raw food. The study found that 57 percent of the participants were underweight.
On average, these people had lost almost ten kilograms of body weight, regardless of their initial weight.
In addition, many people were severely deficient in calcium, zinc, and iodine.
Around a third of the female participants under the age of 45 had stopped menstruating.
Losing weight with raw food is therefore only recommended for a short time since a permanent switch to the raw food diet is associated with many health disadvantages.