Raw Food Diet

The raw food diet is an eating pattern in which most or all food is eaten uncooked and minimally processed. It centers on fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains and legumes, and cold-pressed oils, and many followers keep foods below roughly 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius), using blending, juicing, soaking, sprouting, fermenting, and dehydrating in place of cooking. Most versions are vegan, though some include raw dairy, fish, or meat. Followers describe it as a way to eat close to nature, to enjoy fresh flavors, and to feel lighter and more energetic.

People adopt raw eating for many reasons. Some use it to eat more vegetables and fewer ultra-processed foods, and eating more plants may help with weight, digestion, and everyday well-being, though research on the raw pattern itself is thin. The common explanation that cooking destroys enzymes the body needs is not supported by nutrition science, since the body makes its own digestive enzymes. Cooking also makes some nutrients, such as lycopene in tomatoes, easier to absorb.

Studies of people on long-term, strict raw diets report lower body weight, lower bone mass in one study, and low vitamin B12 unless supplemented. Strict raw eating can be hard to keep nutritionally complete, and it is not suited to everyone. A flexible approach, such as adding more raw plant foods to a varied diet, is lower risk. Anyone considering a strict version should plan it with a registered dietitian, and it does not replace medical care.

Modern raw eating has roots in nineteenth century natural health and the German and Swiss "life reform" movements. The Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner, who opened a sanatorium in Zurich in the 1890s, promoted raw fruits and vegetables as therapeutic and is credited with popularizing muesli. In the United States, the Lithuanian-born Ann Wigmore popularized a "living foods" approach centered on raw plant foods, sprouts, and wheatgrass from the mid twentieth century, founding the Hippocrates Health Institute in Boston, which later moved to Florida under Brian Clement. Her claims about disease reversal were not backed by controlled research.

The diet spread through natural health circles in the 1970s and 1980s and into raw vegan restaurants, books, and online communities from the 1990s onward. Groups such as the Hallelujah diet movement promoted a mostly raw vegan pattern for religious and health reasons. Research followed slowly and mostly looked at risks and nutrition status. A 2005 study of 18 long-term raw vegetarians found lower bone mass than matched controls, a 2000 study of 49 people on a mostly raw vegan diet found low vitamin B12 in many, and a 2022 German study of 16 strict raw food eaters found lower energy, calcium, iodine, zinc, and vitamin D levels. There is no governing body for the raw food diet, and dietary advice is regulated through professions such as registered dietitians.