Is Raw Fat Really Healthier Than Cooked Fat?

Take a look at any popular raw recipe book or website and you’ll see that almost every recipe contains either avocados, nuts, seeds, oils, coconut, or some combination thereof.

Since these foods are all high in fat, with 75%+ of total calories coming from fat, these dishes make for a very high-fat diet.

How can this possibly be healthy, you ask?

Well, proponents of such mainstream raw vegan fare argue that because the ingredients are raw, the amount of fat doesn’t matter. It is only cooked fat that is unhealthy and must be limited.

But is this true? Is raw fat really healthier than its cooked counterpart? Let’s have a look at the facts.

Fat, Cooking, & Cancer

When fat is heated, its chemical structure is changed. This makes it difficult (or even impossible) for your body to digest the food and use it as energy.

Not only that, but these cooked fats quickly go rancid and become carcinogenic.

The higher the fat content and the more the food is cooked, the more carcinogens (cancer-causing substances) are produced. And the longer the cooked fat is exposed to oxygen, the more rancid the food becomes.

Let’s not forget that any heated food is subject to nutritional loss as well. And the higher the cooking temperature, the less nutritional value the food holds.

One final thing. The consumption of heated fats also lead to the production of free radicals in the body. Free radicals are unstable molecules that have been linked to inflammation, aging, and even cancer.

So yes, it’s true that raw fat is much healthier than cooked fat. As a result, many raw foodists see fit to consume as much as they want. They eat fatty whole foods like avocados, nuts and seeds (and even some refined ones like oils) in abundance.

But this is a really bad idea.

Fat, Insulin, & Oxygen

Although typically blamed on sugar, it is actually too much dietary fat that causes elevated blood glucose levels. Yes, it is fat that spikes your blood sugar, not sugar itself.

It is fat that blocks insulin from reaching the sugar in your blood and transporting it out to your cells. Without excess fat getting in the way, sugar from healthy sources such as fresh fruit is easily and efficiently transported out of the bloodstream.

Don’t believe me? Check out my own blood glucose readings while eating lots of sugary fruit and little fat.

But fat doesn’t just interfere with the transportation of sugar. Because it coats everything in the bloodstream, including your red blood cells, eating too much fat also hinders oxygen transportation to your cells.

And guess what? Neither of these problems with insulin sensitivity or oxygen distribution are limited only to cooked fats. They apply to raw fats as well!

So while raw fat is definitely better for you than cooked fat and raw fatty foods like avocados can certainly form part of a healthy diet, these foods must be limited for optimal health.

If you want to see the best results possible with a raw vegan diet, you must keep your fat intake within a healthy range (i.e. no more than 10% of total calories on average).

You can do this easily enough by logging your food intake using Nutridiary, which will tell you exactly how much fat, protein, and carbohydrates you are consuming each day.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. Struggling to make a low fat raw vegan diet work for you because of crazy cravings for cooked foods? Then definitely check out my digital program:

“How to Conquer Your Cooked Food Cravings Once and for All”

A Guide for Destroying Cravings on a Raw Food Diet

www.CookedFoodCravings.com