Raw Meat And Sushi On The Raw Food Diet

by Dwight Norris
(Boston, MA USA)

Dwight's Question: I know your term of "Raw Food' means fruit, but is there a possibility to add "Sushi" into the mix of your diet. Also does smoking fish fit into the mix as well. I am not sure how healthy it is, but I believe it is healthier than many other ways of cooking fish and crustaceans.

Andrew's Answer: Raw foods can be interpreted pretty broadly to mean anything at all, really, but usually is taken to mean a food that has not been heated past 104 degrees F.

Could you decide that raw fish or any other type of raw meat counts as raw food? Sure.

I think judging the suitability of a food for consumption with the litmus test of whether or not heat has been applied to be a pretty poor idea, however.

There are so many reasons to avoid raw fish, from mercury contamination to the fact that raw fish is still meat, and causes the same problems meat does, cooked or raw.

If you're aiming for health, I don't see why you'd want to consume it. People often argue that fish is less harmful than other types of meat, but at that point we're getting into an discussion over lesser evils which leads nowhere you want to go. You can rationalize all kinds of unhealthy things as lesser evils.

As for smoked fish, it's been heated, and therefore has been compromised nutritionally. It's proteins have been denatured, making it hard for the body to deal with. You can read about the effects of cooking food here.

There are plenty of raw, vegetable-based sushi recipes out there that are quite tasty. Even regular sushi bars know how to make up vegetarian sushi. If you're going to eat sushi, forget the meat.

Learn how to eat a healthy raw food diet here.