What Is Raw Vegan Food?

Vegan raw food is a form of nutrition in which animal and heated products are avoided. But what does that mean in concrete terms?

Vegan raw food is a modification of the vegan diet in which not only animal products, but also heated products are dispensed with. In this post today we will explain to you exactly when a product is “animal” and when it is considered “heated”.

Raw Vegan Food – Just a Fad?

Anyone who thinks that vegan raw food is just a fad is pretty wrong. Raw vegan food has been around for a long time, but few people practice it, so you may not have heard of it.

Vegan raw food is extremely climate-friendly because there is no climate-damaging animal husbandry or any fuel for heating food. But what does it mean exactly? What exactly is “raw food”, what is really “vegan” and how are both combined in a diet as vegan raw food ?

We’ll first explain the terms.

What exactly is raw food?

We encounter raw food every day in the form of fruit or salad. However, eating only raw vegetables is a form of nutrition that has little in common with a side salad or smoothie. A definition of raw food has been in effect since 1996, which was established as part of a scientific study:

” Raw food (…) is a form of food that largely or exclusively contains unheated vegetable (sometimes also animal) foods. Foods that are exposed to elevated temperatures due to the process (e.g. cold-centrifuged honey and cold-pressed oils) are also included, as well as foods that require (…) heat to be produced (e.g. dried fruits, dried meat, dried fish and (…) types of nuts). In addition, cold-smoked products (e.g. meat and fish) as well as vinegar and lactic acid vegetables can be part of the raw food. (…). “

In addition, there are other interpretations of what is meant by “raw food” and correspondingly different recommendations. However, food is considered “heated” if it has exceeded a temperature of over 42 ° C, even if only briefly.

What is vegan diet?

Vegan nutrition means consistently avoiding all animal products. This also includes honey, gelatine, dairy products and eggs, for example.

Many people who follow a vegan diet also live vegan and do without animal products or things in which animal products are used in their everyday life.

This includes leather products, natural hair bristles, silk and also, for example, plastic products that have been poured or pressed into molds that have previously been sprinkled with animal sebum.

The philosophy behind this is usually that vegans don’t want animals to suffer for them. Another aspect is the health effect : Vegans suffer far less often from lifestyle diseases such as obesity, high blood lipid levels, high blood pressure and the like. In addition, animal husbandry is very harmful to the climate, which is why vegan people actively contribute to climate protection.

What is raw vegan food?

You can now answer this question yourself: vegan raw food is a combination of both forms of nutrition. On the one hand, people eat vegan and are happy to be vegan, on the other hand, they do without any heated food. Depending on the design and interpretation, however, the raw food leaves a certain amount of leeway as to what is “allowed” and what is not.

Is Vegan Diet Healthy?

Vegan nutrition sounds radical and highly complicated at first, but it’s not a science. You should only know what you are doing and be well informed before banning animal products from the menu altogether. If you follow a few simple rules, it is possible to give your body everything it needs without any animal foods.

The vegan diet is therefore by no means malnutrition or unhealthy, only in some cases food supplements (vitamin B12) are necessary. On the contrary: statistically speaking, vegans (as well as vegetarians) have a significantly lower risk of contracting diseases of civilization and thus a higher life expectancy!

Can pure raw food be healthy?

A core idea of ​​raw food is that vitamins disintegrate when the food is heated, making the food “poorer in nutrients”.

However, there are some vitamins and minerals that are only made optimally bioavailable when heated, i.e. made capable of being absorbed by our body. These include vitamin A and vitamin E.

Some foods even lead to the fact that vitamins are withdrawn from the body when consumed raw ! This is the case with egg whites, for example. It contains a substance called avidin, which binds vitamin H / biotin in the human body, so that consumption of raw eggs leads to a biotin deficiency.

It is therefore not possible to meet all of the minerals and vitamins required from raw vegetables.

In addition, not all foods may be consumed raw, for example legumes and potatoes. Legumes protect themselves from predators by producing toxins, such as lectins, which are found in beans and which cause red blood cells to clump together. Raw potatoes contain solanine, a neurotoxin found in many other nightshades.

How healthy is raw vegan food then?

Raw food as the only food is not suitable for providing the human body with everything it needs. If animal products are then left out because the raw food should also be vegan, this results in critical malnutrition.

However, it is still healthy to eat a high proportion of raw food, because raw food is a sensible and health-promoting type of preparation that should fill up to half of our menu every day. For example, as a smoothie, side salad or fruit salad, but not as a sole meal.