Raw Food

Question
RawPalaeoGuy,

I am greatly interested in continuing a complete, wholesome diet, comprising of all the vital nutrients that I need as an eighteen year old. Certainly, I have studied a lot on nutrition, and firmly believe that civilized countries need to go back to the basics in terms of food. Unfortunately, while living in the United States, I find it very difficult to purchase raw foods that haven't been laden with either chemicals or hormones. It's clearly astonishing to witness that uncivilized communities in various parts of the world contain exceptional health compared to individuals residing in the United States and other civilized countries. To further my knowledge in consuming raw foods, I would like you to answer the following: Should I purchase only organic, grass-fed beef, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs, etc? How do I actually prepare these particular foods; do I just consume them in their raw state? Why should heating proteins be completely avoided; is it due to the denaturating of the structure of the enzymes? Will soaking nuts inhibit the tendency to obtain osteoporosis? Also, what is your basic meal plan like? Thank You!

Answer
Re foods:- You should aim for 100% grassfed/organic meats, at first. Grassfed, nonorganic meats are fine as long as you're sure that the farmer has the same standards re hormones etc. as organic farmers(you see, some small-time farmers can't afford the huge cost of officially converting to organic status, but still have high quality meat on sale), Go for raw wildcaught seafood, avoid ALL farmed fish like the plague, however organic they claim it to be(farmed fish like salmon often have artificial dyes added, such as the cancer-causing canthaxanthin in order to give them the same colour as real wild fish - farmed shellfish should usually be OK, by comparison, but is always inferior to wildcaught versions. Oh, and if you can get hold of raw wild game, then that's even better than 100% grassfed/organic meats.

Avoid pork, domestic poultry and raw dairy. So many people on raw animal food diets incur health-problems from raw dairy that it's 99% of the time wisest to avoid it like the plague - raw dairy, like grains is a non-palaeo food that the vast majority of us haven't adapted to yet, biologically. Domesticated fowl and pigs are usually fed on 100% grain-filled diets, which is very unhealthy for the animal(wild jungle fowl, for example are omnivorous eating insects, worms etc., wild pigs eat carrion, worms, leaves, roots, small mammals). Also, a number of rawists who are hyper-sensitive to grains, such as coeliacs, have complained of getting allergenic reactions after eating grainfed meat of any kind, so that's another aspect to consider. There are of course, cases where domesticated fowl and pigs are fed on more natural diets, but it's very rare - look for pastured pork etc.

Here's a standard list of links for those new to RVAF diets:-

http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/important-info-for-newbies/

The above links cover most of the issues re getting started on a raw animal and vegetable diet, where to find raw foods, how to get cheaper etc.. There are some basic rules:- get used to raw muscle-meats first, but after that you should try getting used to raw organ-meats as well - some claim roughly 10% of the diet should consist of raw organ-meats(common examples include, raw tongue/marrow/suet/heart/liver/kidney). Raw organ-meats are more nutrient-dense than raw muscle-meats so help people heal quicker than raw muscle-meats - they also have the advantage of being softer and easier to digest for those whose digestion has been nearly wrecked by cooked/processed foods. The only catch is that they take longer to get used to re taste than raw muscle-meats. Oh, and it's generally agreed, among RPDers, that one shouldn't eat too much raw liver on a regular basis as it's so concentrated in nutrients.

Re preparation:- Most newbies find it necessary to use food-mixers/blenders or they add raw spices to their raw meats. Long-termers have gotten used to the taste so they usually just use a meat-knife to cut up their meats into bite-sized chunks and that's it(some hardcore RVAFers, like myself, don't even bother using a knife, sometimes!)

When I was a RVAF diet newbie, I would add things like raw garlic or black pepper to my raw meats. I didn't use blenders/food-mixers, though.  By the time I'd turned to raw meat diets, I'd steadily found that my taste-buds no longer found cooked foods remotely appetising so it was easier for me to adjust to the taste of raw meats than others(most take c.8-12 months to get fully used to and enjoy raw meats). The only food I had real difficulty with was raw liver - to get round that, I would cut the raw liver into tiny slivers and after each 1 sliver was swallowed whole, I would chase it with a big gulp of alkaline mineral-water, which did the trick until i got used to it all.

Re heated proteins:- There are various toxic substances created by the process of cooking. These are:- Advanced Glycation End Products(AGEs); NSAs(Nitrosamines;(HCAs) HeteroCyclic Amines; (PAHs) Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.AGEs are heavily implicated in numerous age-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes/arthritis/atheriosclerosis etc.- it's no coincidence that middle-aged RVAFers have often noted they are prone to fewer wrinkles than SAD-eaters and generally look 10 years younger than the latter.HCAs are a byproduct not only of cooking but, unsurprisingly, smoking as well, they are implicated in cancer among other things. NSAs are formed especially when smoked/processed meats are cooked and PAHs are not just a byproduct of cooking but are designated as an industrial pollutant re coal- and tar-pits. The protein issue is a red-herring; the foods worst affected by cooking and producing the highest amounts of these toxins are foods high in cooked animal fat such as pasteurised butter, for example.At any rate, there are now 1000s of studies on these heat-created toxins, particularly on AGEs.

It's also true that enzymes get destroyed by cooking but that's another separate issue - quite important too, as many older people on cooked diets frequently report the need to take enzyme supplements as their enzyme-producing organs in the body have gotten progressively weaker as a result of having to deal with enzyme-deficient cooked foods.

Re soaked nuts:- Soaking nuts for 24 hours before eating them reduces the amounts of antinutrients in them. Not enough, IMO, I don't recommend eating raw nuts as a mainstay of the diet, just eat them occasionally.I've never heard of nuts being linked to osteoporosis, only heard of the link between dairy-consumption and osteoporosis.

Other than the above, I strongly urge you to read through the message-archives of rawpaleoforum and the rawpaleodiet yahoo group. You see, you'll find most newbie questions already answered in those archives, so it will save you a lot of time searching.

HTH,
RPG

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