Raw Diet: The Natural Food of Humankind
From a theoretical standpoint it is easy to reason to the conclusion that a raw diet—grains, vegetables, fruits and nuts—should be the natural food of man. One can easily imagine how the first man to discover fire found comfort in basking in its warmth, and how natural it would be under these circumstances for him to also first warm any food that he might wish to eat.
Thus it is not at all difficult to find the origin of cooking, for, from warming to cooking a food is but a step. Although from a theoretical standpoint raw food seems to have been intended by nature as the best for all animal kind, human and otherwise, the fact that we have for many generations subsisted almost entirely on cooked food must be considered. Although many experiments are recorded where a raw-food diet has been followed with advantage, there is not a large amount of satisfactory information to be obtained on the subject. It appears that those who have adopted a diet of this character were usually in bad health, and naturally not a great amount of confidence is created unless one can point to a vigorous example of the results of following a particular diet. Recently, however, there has been more interest in the subject, and I am personally carrying on some experiments that will no doubt enable me to say something of value along this line in the next edition of this book. This much has been conclusively proven, namely that diseased conditions of all kinds will disappear more rapidly under the influence of a properly arranged raw diet than with a cooked diet.
A raw diet contains of course, all the waste that is so advantageous in keeping the bowels regular, while most cooked foods are sadly lacking in this regard. One enthusiast on a raw diet, who claims to have cured himself of serious physical weakness by adopting this diet, states that cooking destroys the life germs of all grains, and that in eating such food we lose just that much. In other words he maintains that if the food is eaten raw one will absorb this life germ, that it will add just that much to life, and strength, and the theory undoubtedly sounds quite plausible. I have done some experimenting with a raw diet and the results have been of a character to encourage me to desire to do more. But enthusiastic readers are warned to use great care in any experiments they may attempt. Do not go to extremes. In any radical change that you may contemplate making in your diet you should feel your way step by step. All the raw-food enthusiasts claim that there is not the slightest danger of overeating when following this natural diet, that it does away entirely with the desire for a stimulant of any kind.
