Many of you health savvy people reading this have probably heard about the raw food diet movement in the past few years. Its all the rage these days in the alternative health and nutrition circles, being touted often times as nothing less than a panacea for all that ails you. Proponents of a raw food diet encourage us to eat up to 80%, some say even up to 100% of our foods uncooked, and use terms like ‘living foods’ and ‘life force’ to help support their nutritional claims. What we consume on a daily basis can be a great ally in our quest for better health, or a great obstacle. A proper diet is our daily medicine, so it seems reasonable and necessary to take a critical look at these recommendations, to discern whether there is real value in this type of dietary practice, or whether this is just another passing fad which will ultimately prove at best not very sustainable, and at worst, deleterious to health for the majority of people. Chinese medical dietary therapy, with a successful track record that spans thousands of years, offers some very timely and important insights into the question of whether it is in one’s best interest to adopt a raw food lifestyle.

            One of the most important contributions of Chinese medical dietary therapy is a highly detailed theoretical and clinical understanding of the energetic nature of foods. Ancient Chinese physicians devised a very sophisticated dietary science, relying on the power of keen and subtle observation of the nature and actions of foods in the human body. Foods were classified and prescribed to patients based on their thermal nature, their taste, their color, and the organs and/or acupuncture meridians which they affected. In ancient China, dietary therapy was considered a primary medical therapy, and was often utilized before employing therapies such as acupuncture and herbal medicine. The prevailing wisdom was that more invasive therapies would only be utilized when dietary therapy was not sufficient to re-establish a state of harmony in the patient’s health. Unfortunately, in our modern times, with the degradation of our food supply and general poor state of health, acupuncture and other therapies have become much more important tools to be used along with diet.

            The thermal nature of foods, whether they tend to warm or cool the body, has many factors, but one important factor is whether the food has been cooked. Raw, uncooked foods, even if the particular food in question has a warm thermal nature, tend to be more cooling than the same foods when cooked. When Chinese medicine describes the thermal nature of a food, it is not only the actual temperature of the food, but the metabolic effect that the food has when introduced to the body. For example, watermelon has a very cooling thermal nature regardless of whether it is consumed cold or at room temperature. Chinese medicine always seeks balance in the body as a way of maintaining or re-establishing health. If we eat too much raw foods, especially raw vegetables which are generally cooling, for most people this tends to introduce too much cold into the body which can throw off the delicate balance of health. If you think about it from a very basic perspective, when you eat cold raw food, your body has to expend a good deal of energy just bringing the food to body temperature before it can start the process of digestion. This energy could have been utilized for the digestion itself if the food had not been cold and raw. What happens in this scenario if repeated over time, is that the stomach has to constantly produce large amounts of hydrochloric acid, what we refer to as stomach fire in Chinese medicine, to counteract the cold energetic. If the stomach is always generating large amounts of fire, over time this starts to tax the body’s resources and eventually the stomach fire can burn out. For these reasons, eating cold and raw foods on a regular basis can actually pose quite a challenge to the body and lead to health problems. 

            Many proponents of a raw food diet talk about how raw foods have a higher nutritional value and more enzymes than the same foods that are cooked. If you take the raw food and the cooked food into the lab and have them analyzed, this is undoubtedly true. However, this argument fails to take into account the full picture of the digestive process. The body also has to assimilate the food that it takes in. It is much more difficult for the body to fully break down raw foods in the digestive tract than cooked foods, and this is especially true if there is any degree of digestive weakness in the individual. When foods are cooked, the food is already in a partially broken down state, which makes it much easier for the body to digest and assimilate. While it is true that some raw foods have enzymes that help with their digestion which are destroyed when cooked, the cumulative impact of all the factors involved often outweigh the benefits of eating these foods raw.

            There are certain situations in which a predominantly raw food diet is sometimes recommended in Chinese medical dietary therapy. One such situation is cancer. The nature of cold and raw foods in the body, much like cold in nature, is to contract and slow things down. With an aggressive form of cancer, raw vegetable juices can be utilized as a way of intentionally introducing a cold energetic into the body with the purpose of slowing down or inducing a state of latency of the disease. If a cancer patient does not have enough energy and resources to fully resolve the condition, putting the disease into a temporary state of latency buys the patient time, and the clinician and patient can use that time to help strengthen the patient’s immune system. Only once the patient’s immune system has the capacity to successfully address the disease will the treatment strategy shift to pulling the disease out of latency to be resolved entirely. The body has many built in mechanisms by which diseases can be slowed down or transformed into less life-threatening problems in order to save time and resources, a process which can be supported by dietary therapy and acupuncture. If there is loss of latency without adequate immune function in a disease as potentially serious as cancer, death by auto-intoxication may ensue, as the body simply does not have the capacity to resolve the amount of pathology that is being released.

            Another issue worth mentioning in regards to a raw food diet is that there are quite a few people who will actually feel an increase in vitality for some time following this diet. However, there are very few people who can maintain a predominantly raw food lifestyle for very extended periods of time. There is a clear explanation for this if we have an understanding of Chinese medical theory and dietary therapy. The organs and meridians most central to the digestive process in Chinese medicine are the stomach and spleen, which are referred to as the earth element. The earth element is responsible for producing what is called post-natal qi. Post-natal qi is in contrast to pre-natal qi, and is necessary for our daily functioning in life. Pre-natal qi, by contrast, is our deepest energetic reserves which we inherit from our parents and the cosmos at the time of conception. There is a longstanding debate in the history of Chinese medicine whether or not pre-natal qi can be increased or whether you are born with a set amount. Regardless of which is true, it is agreed upon that pre-natal qi is very precious and must be preserved as much as possible. 

            When a person has a healthy digestive system and eats nutritious foods, post-natal qi is abundant and is sufficient for carrying out the day to day functions that are inherent to life. However, when a person’s digestive system becomes compromised, the pre-natal qi of the kidneys is called upon to support the post-natal qi. One of the ways in which our post-natal qi can be compromised is by taxing the digestive system with too much raw and cold foods. Since the pre-natal qi of the kidneys is the deepest level of energetics in our body, an energy which carries us through our evolution of life from birth to death, it is indeed very potent and precious. Being so potent, as it kicks into gear to support the post-natal qi of the spleen and stomach, many people feel a marked boost of vitality due to the mobilization and combustion of this energetic reservoir. However, our pre-natal qi is not meant to be used for the simple functions of our daily life. The initial boost experienced with a raw food diet, which may last for some time depending on one’s pre-natal qi reservoir, will usually start to wear off as the pre-natal qi starts to become taxed. At this point, it will become very hard to maintain a raw food diet. This is a situation that you want to avoid at all costs, because burning out your pre-natal qi can have very serious implications for your health and wellbeing and especially your longevity. In light of this understanding, Chinese medical dietary therapy usually only recommends a predominantly raw food diet in very specific situations, and certainly not as a diet for general health and wellness. This is by no means saying that a healthy diet cannot contain some raw food, especially during the warmer months of the year, but it is a matter of finding the right balance.

            I hope this article sheds some light and possibly clears up some confusion about the issue of a predominantly raw food diet. I understand that this information may be difficult to swallow for some who have adopted or read about this dietary lifestyle. Before learning Chinese Medicine, I was quite convinced of the efficacy of the raw food lifestyle, and I experimented with it a bit. However, I am thoroughly convinced now that this is not a suitable diet for most people, and I have found in myself and in my clinical practice that most people do better with more cooked foods. In closing, I will remind you that Chinese Medicine always tailors treatment to the individual. Although this article explores some general foundations of Chinese medical dietary therapy, it is always best to seek out the advice of a trained clinician to develop a diet that will be most suitable for your particular needs.

To your good health and happiness,