Raw foodism

Raw foodism (or following a raw food diet) is the dietary practice of eating only uncooked, unprocessed foods.

Depending on the exact philosophy or type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include a selection of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, meat and dairy products. It may also include simply processed foods such as various types of sprouted seeds, cheese, and fermented foods such as yogurts, kefir, kombucha or sauerkraut, but generally not foods that have been pasteurized, homogenized, or produced with the use of synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers, industrial solvents or chemical food additives.

Varieties

Raw food diets are diets composed entirely of food that is uncooked or which is cooked at low temperatures.

Raw veganism

A raw vegan diet consists of unprocessed, raw plant foods that have not been heated above 40–49 °C (104–120 °F). Raw vegans such as Brian Clement, Gabriel Cousens, Thierry Browers a.k.a. "Superlight", and Douglas Graham believe that foods cooked above this temperature have lost much of their nutritional value and are less healthful or even harmful to the body. Advocates argue that raw or living foods have natural enzymes, which are critical in building proteins and rebuilding the body, and that heating these foods destroys the natural enzymes and can leave toxic materials behind. However, critics point out that enzymes, as with other proteins consumed in the diet, are denatured and eventually lysed by the digestive process, rendering them non-functional. Typical foods included in raw food diets are fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sprouted grains and legumes.

List of nutrition guides

This is a list of nutrition guides. A nutrition guide is a reference that provides nutrition advice for general health, typically by dividing foods into food groups and recommending servings of each group. Nutrition guides can be presented in written or visual form, and are commonly published by government agencies, health associations and university health departments.

Most countries also have nutrition facts labels which are not listed here; many of those reference specific target amounts for various nutrients.

Historical guides

Ancient Greece

The Hippocratic Corpus of Ancient Greece contains one of the earliest known nutrition guides. It recommends a seasonal diet. For winter, it advises eating a heavy diet of bread and roasted meat and fish, while avoiding vegetables and restricting liquids to, if anything, strong wine. It then recommends a lighter summer diet of soft barley cake, vegetables, boiled meat, and large quantities of diluted wine. Gradual transitions between these two diets are advised in the intervening months.