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Raw Food Diet

Raw Food Diet

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Raw Food Diet - Poisoning Concerns

As the consumption of raw foods gains popularity, some unsafe foods have occasionally entered human diets. The following should be consumed with caution:

Buckwheat greens, particularly if juiced or eaten in large quantities by fair skinned individuals. The chemical component fagopyrin is known to cause photosensitivity of the skin in animals and some serious human side effects have been reported anecdotally.
The following is only a concern for those on a raw animal foods diet:

Raw meat/fish/poultry/eggs: The heating to an adequately high temperature of animal products will normally destroy bacteria and parasites. It is therefore possible that eating a diet which includes raw meat/fish/poultry/eggs would run the risk of being infected. Raw eggs can contain many microorganisms, including salmonella. Wild animals have found methods of ridding themselves of or avoiding parasites; such as by swallowing certain leaves or just shifting their habitat over time. However, these do not lead to an immunity or resistance to parasites, as the conditions which cause them remain the same. Controversially, many raw animal foodists, whether Primal Diet adherents or other, believe there to be an intrinsic benefit attributed to the intake of various microorganisms, believing that the parasites serve a useful purpose in detoxifying dead, decaying or diseased tissues, and that they should be allowed to run their course.

From Wikipedia.