Okay, as if vegetarianism isn't radical enough (and I know for some of you it seems WAAAAY too radical already), there are subsets of vegetarianism that are even more rigorous. Did you think that veganism (no meat, no eggs, no dairy) was impossible? Well, there are folks who take it up a notch with vegan/raw food.
I've been reading a bit about it, though not enough to be any kind of authority on it or its alleged benefits, but it makes sense to me intuitively (and as a person with a couple of university organic chemistry courses under her belt) that cooking denatures (read: destroys) many of the vitamins and proteins that are in the raw forms of fruits and vegetables*. So I've been trying to eat substantial quantities of raw vegetables lately, though I'm not certain that I would ever be willing to lead a raw food lifestyle. However, some people with serious health problems (e.g., diabetes) have been motivated to try it, and here's a highly intriguing video about a little experiment (trust me, you want to watch this video until the very end - it's amazing!):
* Yes, I am also aware that cooking actually renders some foods edible. Like I said, I'm not rabid about this or anything. But the video is certainly food for thought. (Sorry about the corny pun.)
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Raw food challenge
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The scientist in me *has* to make this comment. The raw food diet experiment unfortunately lacks a control, so you can't say for sure that it was that type of diet that "cured" diabetes. It's probably just the fact that they're eating a healthy diet and losing weight that did it, rather than specifically raw food itself. If they had another group of people also eating a healthy diet of cooked food (controlling for calories and exercise), I bet we would see the same benefits.
I am a vegetarian. I could never be vegan nor could I ever do the whole raw thing. That's just a little too hardcore for me.
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