![]() ![]() But functionally, the term “raw” also refers to foods that are unprocessed, unrefined, unpasteurized, and have not been heated to the point of losing any of their nutrients. Technically, raw foods are those that haven’t been cooked. A pint of raw blueberries will be a lot healthier, and leave you a lot happier than a couple of blueberry Pop-Tarts - and take even less time to prepare. According to the researchers, the raw foods most highly related to better mental health were “…carrots, bananas, apples, dark leafy greens like spinach, grapefruit, lettuce, citrus fruits, fresh berries, cucumber, and kiwifruit.”Īnd aside from the health benefits of eating more raw fruits and veggies, sometimes you might not feel like cooking, but still want to whip up a healthy and edible meal. ![]() The same correlation wasn’t found for canned, cooked, and otherwise processed fruits and veggies. A 2018 study found that the higher the fresh fruit and vegetable intake (charmingly abbreviated FVI), the better the person’s mental health - and the more positive their mood. Raw Foods May be Good for Your Mood TooĪnd raw veggies may be as good for your mood as they are for your waistline. You won’t lose weight because of all the mouth calories you’re burning, but rather because all that chewing can slow down consumption and reduce your total food intake. Since one of the main mechanisms of satiety is the stomach’s stretch receptors, you’ll feel full from fewer calories if they contain both fiber and water.Īdditionally, raw foods typically require more chewing. Both fiber and water “bulk up” the foods they contain, meaning they increase the volume and weight without adding calories. ![]() High-fiber diets have been shown to aid in weight loss, especially in obese or overweight individuals. Raw foods tend to be high in two nutrients that are significantly associated with healthy weight loss: fiber and water. Raw Foods May Support Healthy Weight Loss Adding more raw foods to your diet can add more balance and variety, and help you to get more of those nutrients that are best delivered in their raw state.Īdding more raw foods to your diet can add more balance and variety, and help you to get more of those nutrients that are best delivered in their raw state. A lot of people in the modern world, however, eat most of their foods cooked. And the optimal ratio varies from person to person. There are great advantages to both raw and cooked. Cooked spinach has 245 mg/cup of bioavailable calcium, while raw spinach only has 30 mg/cup! Heating releases bound calcium, making more of the mineral available for your body to absorb. The vitamin C content of broccoli plummeted to one-fifth of its original level after cooking.īut not to be outdone, cooked veggies give your body more of the antioxidants lutein (which is good for your eyes) and lycopene (which helps protect your heart and your bones). One study showed that the amount of vitamin C declined by an average of 55% in cooked vs. Water-soluble vitamins like C and B-vitamins, in particular, can leach out during the cooking process. Some foods deliver more nutrients when raw, others after being cooked.Ĭooking can destroy or reduce the concentrations of some of the beneficial phytochemicals. Cooked Food /SherSorīut as with many other polarizing debates, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle. And it’s hard to argue with raw food advocates like Mimi Kirk, who has been eating and promoting raw foods recipes for 11 years and looks decades younger than her 82 years. You may have seen articles and videos by those who eat only raw food asserting that their great health and abundant energy are due to their pure and natural diet. They claim that cooking strips food of nutrients and enzymes, weakens our jaw muscles through disuse, and is altogether unnatural. “Raw foodists,” on the other hand, insist that we haven’t evolved that much. And we could devote more energy to brain function rather than turning food into cells and energy. Since it was essentially “pre-digested” by fire, our intestines could shrink. They even assert that our physiology evolved to take advantage of cooked food. They argue that cooking made nutrients more bioavailable, allowing us to spend less time gathering and chewing on fibrous roots and bark. Or at least, that’s how I imagine it might have gone.Īccording to some anthropologists, cooking with fire allowed humans to go from subsistence animals to, for better or worse, the dominant species on the planet. One Wednesday afternoon, about two million years ago, Ug accidentally dropped a wild carrot into the campfire, retrieved a softer, sweeter root, and proclaimed the virtues of cooking to all who would listen. ![]()
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