I was reading through a review of Carol Alt’s book Eating in the Raw. Of course there was one negative review. And on top of it, this person is clearly “outraged.” This is the kind of misinformation I see all the time. People who haven’t done their research but of course, know it all. I’ve seen the results of the standard American diet. Just look around when you’re at Walmart. The walking dead. If they are strong enough to walk on their own and not use a scooter. (95 year-olds should be able to easily walk on their own unassisted.) Now let me list this review and follow with my reply.

Posted 07/13/07: Ms. Alt is dead wrong about how healthy raw foods are. ‘Raw’ does not mean safe or bacteria-free. Ask the mothers whose babies died after they ate soft cheeses made with unpasteurized milk. They had spontaneous abortions when they contracted Listeria monocytogenes. Ask the fathers of toddlers whose children died or went into kidney failure after they ate raw or undercooked ground meat contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. Ask the families of diabetics who ate raw oysters and died from a Vibrio vulnificus infection. Ask the families of senior citizens who drank high protein shakes made from raw eggs and nearly died from Salmonella enteriditis. People have cooked food for thousands of years not because it tastes better, but because raw animal foods are often not safe to eat raw. The heat of cooking or pasteurization kills dangerous bacteria. Raw animal foods are NOT safer or healthier, they are DEADLY. I know. I’ve spent 20 years as a food safety professional. But don’t just take my word for it. Every respected public health authority in the U.S. – CDC, FDA, USDA – will tell you this. Try doing a search on their websites using the terms ‘raw milk’, ‘raw oysters’, or ‘raw eggs’. Following Ms. Alt’s advice could kill you!

It’s true. Raw food is not bacteria free. No food is bacteria free. Just because it comes in a bottle or a package, does not make it free of bacteria either. The difference is that on the raw food lifestyle, your body is a fine tuned machine that can snuff out any disease with ease. On a processed cooked food diet, most of the enzymes and nutrients are destroyed by cooking. Therefore, the body is weak and unable to destroy disease. The only time I EVER get sick, is when I’ve gone off the road and eaten a processed, cooked vegan meal. It usually takes me 3 days of fasting, along with a few more days of raw vegan eating, to clear this out of my system and start to feel normal again. One meal of cooked food can do a lot of damage.

Mothers should NOT be feeding their babies soft cheese made with cow’s milk. DUH. Cow’s milk is designed for cows, not human consumption. No human should be eating cow’s milk, unless they have four stomachs. Of course human babies will get sick. Raw meat? Raw foodists don’t eat meat. I’ve heard of a few raw foodists who consume raw cow’s milk, but it’s rare. And I don’t recommend it. Carol does not recommend consuming meat or dairy, raw or cooked. Raw oysters? Same deal. Raw vegans don’t eat these. This person is so uninformed I can’t believe the confidence in her writing style. Raw eggs in protein shakes? Again, raw foodists don’t eat eggs. She doesn’t talk about produce, which raw vegans exclusively eat!

People have cooked food for thousands of years because food isn’t safe to eat? What about the MILLIONS of years before they started cooking? What about every other animal on the planet, none of them cook anything. Bacteria are only unsafe if you have a wrecked immune system because of cooked, processed “damaged” food sources. I’ve never had a single instance of eating raw produce, and gotten sick.

Don’t believe the CDC, FDA and USDA on this topic. Lobbyists, the meat industry, the dairy industry, politicians, these are the people that direct the rules because they have millions of dollars to manipulate the system. Of course, most of the food this person is talking about is food the raw foodist wouldn’t touch anyhow.

Bacteria is a REQUIREMENT for optimum health. Without it, your digestive system will collapse.

Every time someone starts to make progress against the standard American diet, someone like this comes along and scares people. If I could personally have a conversation with every single one of these people, I could change the world. But I’m only one person.

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