new guy here

[Witty Name]

Hi all,

 a little about me, im 20, into fitness, and exercise very regularly, with the goal of increasing my athletic performance (mainly strength and speed) where nutrition obviously plays a key part.

My current diet consists of what I have always considered to be healthy, my rule being if it runs, flys, swims or grows I'll eat it. So rice and potatoes are good, pasta and bread is bad, all meats/fish and all fruits and veg are good all meals must contain a decent portion of protein and veg. Carbs are not essential but useful for energy and insulin spikes and are used as workout fuel and for recovery

However I've now heard a bit about the idea of eating raw, first heard about it over on superhuman radio with guests randy roach and joshua trentine, and I have also looked up some stuff on the primal diet by Aajonus Vonderplanitz, and it makes some very bold claims. As do both randy and josh on SHR.

The reasons I'm skeptical are:
1 i have always been told it's bad and may kill me 
2 The people who promote it, do so with such bold claims that they seem to good to be true.
 This reminds me of supplement companies promoting their protein or test booster that is the magical fix for people and I think that anyone from the fitness industry will agree that these are always at the very least over exaggerated.

If anyone could offer their view to this I would be very thankful, also I haven't been able to find anything other than peoples rationalization to say why raw is good (are there any studies etc)

thanks in advance

[CitrusHigh]

The question is why do you cook your food? The reason this way of eating is consistent is because it really is 'natural' in the truest sense of the word. Cooking is something extra you are doing to the food, and we are the only creatures on the planet that do that, leaving it raw is inaction, all you are doing is consuming it, the way it was designed for your body.

Welcome, explore around a bit, most questions that newbies ask have already been covered, either check out the newbie section or run a search on your own specific queries.

Good luck!

[Witty Name]

cheers for the response, am reading through bits atm, people seem to say that when switching they instantly feel better, however vegans often say the same thing when they turn vegan but this doesn't necessarily mean its healthier,
I am pretty sure I'm going to try it, will start with beef steak as I have this as rare as possible anyway, raw eggs (as everyone has tried after watching rocky lol), raw butter and will see how I go

one question though is  Aajonus Vonderplanitz has made claims about his previous health conditions multiple cancers, heart attacks and more, however when I've tried to find evidence for this life story I can't find any. I dont mean this to sound insensitive but anyone can claim things happened to them, is there anything to go on other than his words?

[TylerDurden]

Here is some info on the harm done by cooking foods:-

http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/important-info-for-newbies/info-on-toxins-in-cooked-foods/msg4791/#msg4791
Read the other threads in this section as well:-

http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/important-info-for-newbies/

Ignore the extreme claims that Aajonus makes. He makes huge numbers of unverifiable claims.

As regards raw vegan claims, yes they do improve their health at first, just by eating raw foods and not eating cooked foods. The only trouble is that plant foods are not "complete foods", only animal foods can provide absolutely all the right nutrients that a human being needs.