What Is a Raw Food Diet?

We are continuing our interview with Susan Schenck, author of The Live Food Factor. Don’t forget to read Part 1 of our interview and enter our giveaway for Susan’s book.

What’s the number one thing people are surprised about when they learn more about a raw food diet?
People find it incomprehensible that cooked food is toxic. Not just processed food. (Most people know that is bad.) But even your standard baked potato has been found to have 400 toxic byproducts that result from cooking.

Research by Dr. Paul Kouchakoff (and later Dr. Howard Loomis) has proven that when you eat cooked food, your white blood cells increase. This means your body is trying to fight off an invasion. But if you eat the food raw, this phenomenon doesn’t occur.

In 1916, Louis Maillard proved that cooking creates an endless chain of toxic molecules now called “Maillard molecules.”

In the spring of 2002, Swedish officials were so alarmed by their research findings that they decided to inform the public immediately rather than wait for them to be published in a scientific journal. Shortly afterwards, the World Health Organization held a three-week emergency meeting to evaluate the Swedish scientists’ recent discovery. They learned that starchy foods, such as potato chips, French fries, baked potatoes, biscuits and bread, contain very high levels of acrylamides, chemicals that have been shown to result in genetic mutations leading to a range of cancers in rate.

When proteins are cooked, up to 50% will not be assimilated. When cooked at high temperatures, cancer-forming mutagens begin to form at 154 F. Cooking meat forms heterocyclic amines. Cooking most kinds of fats forms toxic lipid peroxides. (If you must cook, use coconut oil.)

All of these age you faster, tie up a large chunk of your immune system, and put you on the path to un-wellness. This explains why people who eat a large percentage of their diet as raw foods are more youthful, energetic, and healthy than cooked fooders. They are also more cheerful!

Indulge me with a second surprise: People are really amazed at how GREAT the raw gourmet food tastes and how they soon do not feel the least bit deprived!

Please check back tomorrow for the final part of our interview.

Image: Live Food Factor.