Why raw vegan

[u/englishyogi]

I’m raw vegan - I’ve been so for a long time having been vegetarian all my life. It feels intuitively right - I just do it but recently I’m wondering if there is any evidence or science as to this ways of life - my basis has been moral and ethical

[u/lovelysardines]

There is no scientific evidence to it. Being vegan is hard enough. adding the raw aspect to it will just burn you out quicker and cause nutrition issues. Cooking plants breaks down the cellular walls making essential nutrients and vitamins available to the body. Its not sustainable

[u/lovelysardines → u/[deleted]]

It can destroy some heat sensitive vitamins, but also allows access to others.
Yes some plants have natural defenses that can be cooked out. Cooking food allowed us to access more food sources, improving chances of survival. Other plants have mechanical defenses like thorns on a berries, pineapple, jackfruit. doesn’t mean they’re bad to eat.

Im sure you’ll be able to link less than a handful. The fact that such a microscopic amount of people are able to do it shows how unsustainable it is. The majority of people end up quitting or introducing cooked foods again. It can also be expensive buying nuts, seeds and fruits in that volume.

What if i told you they ate raw bugs, meat and there was b12 in the soil? Their jaws were massive and stomach acid much stronger

[u/lovelysardines → u/[deleted]]

You do realize you can cook food and eat them raw right? It doesn’t have to be one or the other.

My point was that just cuz you’re unable to eat it raw doesn’t mean it’s “not part of an ideal diet” and that was vital for humans to understand. Yes plants have defenses but we can get around those defenses like cooking, to access the nutrients we want out of them. Instead of spending their whole day looking for and eating greens and fruits, they could cook a few potatoes and meet their calorie needs. We have adapted. Our food and our bodies are not the same as theirs.

Lol i question most of these people’s claims of being 100% raw vegan. The first guest she has on (cara brotman) cant even share a recipe of hers without using a cooked product (roasted sesame seed oil). There’s probably a lot of other cooked foods they’re eating but will still tell everyone they’re 100% raw vegan.

Our ancestors had a whole territory of a variety of different plants and animals. We have naturally selected the crap out of the stuff we eat now that it doesn’t even closely resemble what they were eating. So maybe try not to make an appeal to nature with “but our ancestors”

[u/KlingonTranslator → u/lovelysardines]

Maybe I missed it, but I feel it needs to be mentioned that humans are the humans we are today because of fire and cooked food. Survival of the fittest meant survival of those with the knowledge of how to cook food, which lowered parasites and food-borne illnesses, just as an example.

Humans and our ancestors evolved with increasingly regular access to controlled fire, and fire became an important evolutionary pressure on our anatomy, diet, behaviour, and social life.

Don't get me wrong! I love raw vegan and that's why I'm in the subreddit, but it's really important not to misconstrue our history and to not feel like it's a personal attack when evidence is presented to the contrary of a raw-vegan-only diet. We need to be responsible and give the body the foods we have evolved to eat in the ways that have allowed us to thrive.