Raw food diet is dangerous! frustrated!

How did you eat 1200 calories on the raw food diet? I could never eat 1200 calories of just fruit and veg. I guess there are nuts too tho..?

the raw food diet is nutritionally unbalanced, as cooking makes some nutrients more bioavailable.

some foods are healthier eaten raw, as some nutrients are denatured by the heat involved in cooking. These foods tend to be ones that are generally undereaten in standard western diets, such as fruits and vegetables. Many of them (though not all) are more nutritious when eaten raw. The inclusion of more raw fruits and veggies would benefit a lot of people's health. Also, a lot of oils are better eaten raw or only lightly cooked as some of the nutrients in oil are easily lost with heat. Vegetable oils used for salads etc should be cold-pressed. Oily fish (and fish in general) should be cooked very carefully (for taste too, not just nutrition). Sushi's probably good for the same reason (i.e. not cooked, so some nutrients in the oils are preserved). Use cheap oil for frying (no point buying cold pressed extra virgin expensive oils then using them for frying and basically destroying all the nutrients) - of course you need to be careful about portion control for fried foods, I use minimal oil for frying so as not to waste calories on it.

However, you don't need to go 100% raw to get these benefits.... cooking is not the devil and it improves the bioavailability of some foods, for example tomatoes (there's a compound in cooked tomato that has a strong protective effect against cancer, but you don't get it easily from raw tomato)... some foods for health reasons should be cooked, e.g. meat, potatoes, beans, lentils.

You can get all the benefits of raw foods without any of the risks by being selective about which foods you cook and which foods you eat raw, and making an effort to include more raw fruit, veg and the right kinds of oils in your diet... being careful not to overcook fish and some fruits/veg... overcooked veg tastes gross and you do lose vitamins... lightly steam or boil for a short time if you don't want to eat it raw..... then eat other foods like meat, potatoes, beans and lentils cooked.... and tomatoes personally I eat the actual tomatoes raw but cook a lot of food with tomato puree (for that compound, as I like the taste of both cooked and raw tomato... I just eat loads of tomato lol..)

Also, 1200 calories plus all that exercise is not healthy, even if you switch from a raw food diet to a more balanced one, you still need to eat enough calories to support your body and your workouts. Most young women who are active and workout regularly find they can eat much more calories, more like 1800-2000 a day (depending on their size) and still lose weight... some women because of their really high activity can lose weight on quite a bit more than this. Too big a deficit is counterproductive and can be unhealthy in the long term.

Also, when you start eating cooked food again, take it slowly... especially if you've not been getting much fat in your diet... increase these foods slowly as suddenly eating a lot of these foods after hardly eating them at all for a while, can cause some digestive issues. So introduce them slowly, and also slowly increase the total number of calories you're eating.

On the raw diet you can eat as many calories as you want! I don't know who told you that you only needed 1200

Sure, if you want to gain weight. Eating raw food doesn't exclude you from weight gain. Calories in, calories out.

On the raw diet you can eat as many calories as you want! I don't know who told you that you only needed 1200

Not true. There is no diet where you can eat as many calories as you want. Fat loss only happens when you're in calorie deficit. If you're in calorie surplus you'll gain fat, no matter whether the food is cooked or raw, or whether it's from plant foods or animal foods, or whether it's foods commonly considered as "clean" or not.

Do not eat raw food except for raw fruits and vegetables.

The same happened to me on a 1200 calories a day diet but as soon as I reintroduced fat into my diet my cycle recovered!

What a nightmare this last diet has been. There is a reason I never do these things. I have lost 10 lbs but now I am no longer getting my time of the month. I think it is because I did the raw food diet AND stuck to only 1200 calories a day AND did cardio and/or strength training everyday without factoring in the calories lost from that. My body will not lose anymore weight this way and it thinks I am starving. This week I started eating more and will continue to do so...

Just wanted to rant and warn people about the dangers of the raw food diet. I was very stupid thinking I could go on 1200 calories. DO NOT make my mistake. I am only mid twenties I am afraid my reproductive future may be compromised.

Did you log everything you ate? Just curious because some of the days in your diary only have 800 for the whole day. If that's all you ate, plus worked out, of course you didn't feel well.

^ raw nuts are ok

have known some people to eat raw eggs - wouldn't do it myself admittedly.

Raw eggs sound crunchy!