Experts Debate - Raw Food Diets Versus Cooked Foods

We've had our staple diet of three meats, the pyramid food groups, and processed foods for many generations. Is this the best lifestyle for your health? Today's panel discusses how healthy cooked foods compare to a raw, whole food, diet.

Panel Participants: Brian Clement, Ph.D., L.N., Anna Maria Clement, Ph.D., L.N., Pamela A. Popper, Ph.D., N.D., Julieanna Hever, M.S., R.D., C.P.T., Garth Davis, M.D.

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Passionate believers in whole food plant based diets, no chemicals, minimal pharmaceutical drugs, no GMO's. Fighting to stop climate change and extinction.

[nicholasruff]

Saying "We don't publish things" is a good way to kill your credibility.

[veganfortheanimals]

I go with Popper and Davis (Greger has the same stance as them)....I definitely believe in eating a lot of raw food daily, but even though I don't weigh much, I need a lot of calories and dense food, and raw food alone doesn't cut it for me to fulfill that....so I eat both raw and cooked...the best of both worlds! And the fact that Popper, Davis, Greger, Klaper, Barnard, Esselstyn, Campbell, etc, all are on board with cooked food (as well as raw) means a lot to me too...

[loveofinquiry]

Maybe certain foods are more nutritious raw but their are also certain foods that are more nutritious cooked, as the Dr. stated. I like to eat them both😉✌️💜

[Advcrazy]

Davis is absolutely right. Research is useless if unpublished. It can’t be replicated by others or scrutinized for bias and misinterpretation of results and assumptions... which is the whole point of the scientific method. I don’t mean to counter what clement was saying about raw food. Hard to form a useful opinion on what he’s saying if his data isn’t peer reviewed and published.

[theartificialsociety]

Cooked food like grains are definitely a convenience but bottomline is you should have to eat a lot of fresh raw vegetables regardless. Adding some cooked starchy staples to supplement the vegetables is convenient and less expensive, and you dont have to spend as much time eating. The apes in wild spend all day eating whereas humans try not to and stomach size shrank because of cooking for so many eons. Its definitely not clear how much fresh vegetables and fruit is advantageous vs percent contribution from cooked starchy staples. I dont think anyone knows that answer but for sure you must eat fresh vegetables regardless.

[Wikidpalm]

cooked vs raw, I dont care just eat Whole food plant-based, that's it.

[TheVitalBlend]

A raw food diet is a high nutrient, low calorie diet. Be prepared to eat a LOT of fruits and vegetables for energy and satiation. This is why foods like potatoes, rice, corn, beans and whole grains need to be the staple - because they contain more calories along with fiber, which helps with satiety. Nothing wrong with cooking vegetables. Will they lose some nutrition? Some will. However, most fruits and vegetables have already lost nutrition before they appear in your grocery store, doesn't mean we shouldn't eat them. Dr. Garth Davis says it all, "we're arguing minutiae".

[LindseyDara]

Food is one aspect of health, but stress, happiness, relationships, job, etc all play a role in our health and longevity. I love raw foods, but some days I don’t feel like eating all raw. Also when I hear stories about the longest living people people, I haven’t yet heard one of them mention they were on a raw foods only diet. Most seem to have a positive attitude and clear mind and are just enjoying life. My great grandparents lived into their mid-90s but they ate home cooked meals with veggies meats and biscuits. Most from their garden, I think home cooked meals are even more important than raw or cooked or vegan. Also, my great grandparents didn’t have a car, they just walked everywhere.

[fmorant]

You cook food and you kill the enzymes. I know of a guy who is a 1OO percent raw foodie - he looks about 25 yes old...he is in his 5Os.

[quynhnguyen]

when you cook tomatoes, it increases the lycopene intake. Do half raw vs half cooked. I don't think it's good when we do anything extreme

[eagle]

I'm raw vegan for 20 years now and I feel wonderful every day.

[azoramanelli]

Brian is the Best. The
only reason people do not want to go raw vegan is because of their cooked addictions. All foods are raw originally. All animals eat raw. And the whole earth is raw.

[lizziefattore]

Clement: "Look at the work of Linus Pauling..."

aka the man who said that high doses of vitamin C would cure everything from the common cold to cancer

This man being on the panel practically discredits the work of the other physicians who believe in real science.

[plusbonus]

What I find exciting about this debate is how both sides are oozing with enthusiasm!
You can tell they love their chosen field.
Just saying ✌.

[akuma]

I really just don't trust Clement... he emits this aura that rubs me the wrong way.

[publichealth]

fruits are the best foods we can eat. we are frugivourus apes. if you can get all calories in raw is optimal ensureing you eat a wide variety

[promiseclub]

The woman in the middle will make eye contact with the ones who agree with her and ignores the ones who don’t, this is why we get nowhere, we don’t care about finding the truth we care about being right, and yet again ego has gotten in the way of a mature conversation that could have yielded something beneficial, thanks anyway tho 🙏🏻

[biggusdikkus]

In Nutrition.org by Dr Greger, he clearly states and proven by science that cooked foods are as nutritious as raw foods. Infact cooked vegetables are easier to digest than raw vegetables.
I find Brian Clement arrogant, pompous, condecending and elitist. He actually said " maybe you don't understand" to a real Dr. He should be encouraging people to eat as much vegetables and fruits as possible, raw or cooked or non organic is irrelevant.
Maybe he should be working as a car salesman or realtor instead?

[littlecakebox]

Well I am quite new (a few months now) to a vegan/ whole foods plant based diet (still have small amounts of oil) and I have looked long and hard at what different people are saying and I don’t think fully raw is the right way to go, in Britain it is hard to get a good variety of fresh fruit and vegetables that are affordable all year round. So because there is not the variety of produce at an affordable price people will get fed up and drift back to their old way of eating. It is much better to have a wide variety of cooked and raw foods to give people the best chance of optimising their health and stay with a whole foods plant based diet! There is enough of a burden put on people trying to do the right thing and people like the guy on the left of the panel are extreme it has to be raw it has to be organic you should only eat amaranth or ancient grain, modern fruits contain too much sugar should only have ancient fruits, I mean the list goes on and on and on, I think he likes the sound of his own voice way too much and is rather condescending. I do think that having as much as possible raw is good but it is really good to have some cooked foods! I mean what about people who suffer from hypothyroidism, cauliflower/broccoli, kale and other raw veggies are goitrogens and are not good raw so will affect their thyroid function so better to have these very healthy veggies steamed than not to have them at all!

[CitrusSimon]

All the wild animals eat a raw food diet, so from that, it makes sense to eat only a raw food diet. It is human culture and conditioning that makes us think we need cooked food.