In the raw

Be lazy and feel virtuous: the benefits of not cooking your food.

There are many among those reading this paper who find daily cooking a dreadful chore. To plan and cook three meals a day is no child's play. But eat we must, to keep body and soul together. A current diet trend that has drawn many followers may have a solution to the conundrum of needing to eat but not wanting to cook: the raw food diet, also known as raw foodism.

The name is a bit deceptive. Although those on this diet primarily eat raw foods, they may also eat foods which have not been heated above a certain temperature. The maximum temperature permitted varies among the different forms of the diet, from 92ºF- 118°F (33°C-48°C).

Humans, it is believed, consumed raw food during the prehistoric era. People in more recent times have popularised raw food as a diet trend that, as is to be expected, has some Hollywood adherents. In this case Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson are both supposed to have followed this diet.

Now for a moment of truth: Hollywood stars don't start following diets because they are sick of cooking (they can afford Cordon Bleu chefs round the clock), but rather to obtain benefits like slower ageing, more energy and so on. The raw food diet is no slacker on this count. Everything from clear skin (who wouldn't want that?) to a stable body mass index (BMI), better health and better nutritive value of the food consumed comes promised with this diet.

Raw foodists believe that cooked food is toxic and less digestible than raw food. Those who follow this diet may be herbivores, carnivores or omnivores. A word of caution to all those who may feel compelled to start immediately on a raw food diet upon reading this article: do not inflict this on children as there isn't enough research on the possible long-term effects of a raw food diet on them.

Another word of caution is required here: though this diet promises to slow down the ageing process, in India, given the high levels of toxins in all our foodstuff, there is a need to be extremely careful while on such a diet. Go organic and look into the origins of your food carefully. Don't make a good choice of diet a bad choice for your health.