James
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Raw Food may lack nutrients - 2007/08/27 04:51
This comes from the Chicago Tribune and is quite a wide ranging attack on the raw foods movement, particularly because of its vegan roots.
A raw vegan food plan may lack adequate protein and calcium and is likely to be deficient in vitamin B-12. A compound found naturally only in animal foods, vitamin B-12 protects nerve fibers and genetic material. In a recent study of 201 raw-foodists in the Netherlands, published in the Journal of Nutrition, 38 percent were vitamin B-12 deficient, and more than half had elevated blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that requires vitamin B-12 for processing and that, when elevated, increases heart disease risk.
It should be noted that the plant enzymes that raw-foodists try to preserve are no match for the highly acidic environment of the stomach. There, they're rendered inactive before digestion is complete. And some phytonutrients, such as the brightly colored carotenoids found in tomatoes, spinach and carrots, are not as readily absorbed from raw foods as they are from cooked foods.
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