How Healthy is Your Diet, Really?

Photo by: R29

Raw

What It Is
Nothing can be cooked over 118 degrees and you can't have any foods that are pasteurized or roasted. So basically, your diet consists of a ton of raw vegetables, as well as fruits, seeds, and nuts.

Pros
"The lack of heating food helps preserve naturally occurring probiotics," says St. Pierre. For example, unpasteurized milk contains some probiotics, but pasteurizing it (which uses high heat) kills them, along with ... more 

Photo by: R29

Raw

What It Is
Nothing can be cooked over 118 degrees and you can't have any foods that are pasteurized or roasted. So basically, your diet consists of a ton of raw vegetables, as well as fruits, seeds, and nuts.

Pros
"The lack of heating food helps preserve naturally occurring probiotics," says St. Pierre. For example, unpasteurized milk contains some probiotics, but pasteurizing it (which uses high heat) kills them, along with other bacteria. Because you are eating a super-high quantity of plant-based foods, which are loaded with nutrients and minerals etc., and there are naturally a lot of healthy enzymes in natural plant foods, you could be consuming a stellar amount of nutrients (again, key word is could, as it depends on whether or not you are rounding out your diet to do so).

Cons
"There are some downsides to following raw foodism year round," says Williams. "For many of my clients, they say it's easier for them to do it in the summer, probably because in a warm climate it's natural to want to eat fresh fruits and vegetables than in the colder months when your body normally craves warmer foods." You can easily swing the way of major lack of nutrition if you don't do raw right - as in, eat a wide array of fruits and veggies as well as nuts. Meaning, four avocados a day is NOT going to cut it.
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