03 Apr Some Like it Raw: Raw Food Diets Are The New Edible Fountain of Youth

Designed as the ‘edible fountain of youth’, raw foods diets are intended to resolve physical ailments and extend lifespan. According to researchers, raw or living foods contain important natural enzymes, which aid in digestion, but cooking with temperatures above 118 ̊ destroys their nutrients and vitamins and results in the formation of carcinogens and mutagens such as acrylamides and AGEs. Theoretically, this process alters the structure of DNA, interferes with molecular and cellular structure throughout the body, creates free radicals and inflammation, and contributes to many age-related diseases as well as cancer.

This uncooked food trend has been part of the buzz for over 30 years, emerging in the mid-1970s with the publication of Survival into the 21st Century, by Viktoras Kulvinskas, a former computer consultant for MIT. Three decades later, the diet still thrives. As you may have heard, it’s been the choice of some A-list devotees such as Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Natalie Portman, Sting, Chicago Chef Charlie Trotter, Madonna, among others, and it’s supposedly a huge part of their beauty and fitness success. Refreshing, energizing, and undeniably fresh, the raw diet poses some fundamental advantages for wellness enthusiasts and fitness buffs, and in most cases, makes the meal preparation rituals astoundingly simple and quick (a major plus for our busy readers on the go).