A "Raw Food Diet" should be synonymous with a "Natural Diet". The idea behind a raw food diet is that all food was created perfectly for our bodies and that to alter it in any way would be invariably harmful to our health and our environment.

The term "Raw" is not an ideal description, however. Just being raw does not make something an ideal food for our consumption. We must realize that we are only one of countless species of herbivores/frugivores, and many raw plant foods, although, high in certain nutrients and seemingly convenient in unnatural circumstances, are far from the best choice for our physiology.

The term "Natural" implies that the food is in its original, unaltered (RAW) state and further defines that they are foods that are most compatible with our digestion and performance.

The raw food movement really began at the dawn of creation. Human beings as well as every single other species were designed to consume all of their food in a raw natural state for ideal performance and growth. Somewhere along the way humans turned their back on this natural truth. No one can say for certain why it happened, but as humans began to migrate away from their original sub-tropical habitats, fire became a necessity for survival. Being removed from the fertile soils of their natural foods, humans were forced to hunt animals, and store their food for survival. Cooking their food then became crucial as a means of preservation and sterilization. From this point on the nature of food had been lost and the idea of cooking and eating animals became widely accepted as man set out to dominate all areas of the globe.

The idea of "raw food" resurfaced in the eye of society in the late 19th and early 20th century through naturalist European settlers in California and such health food pioneers as Arnold Ehret. Although the focus of Ehret's practice was a mucus free diet, the essence of his teachings was an un-cooked, un-processed, plant based diet. His goal was to achieve rapid evolution and full human potential through a natural diet and lifestyle. His teachings lived on in his writings, however, his work was overshadowed by mainstream society who was not in a place to hear his teachings and see his results.

In the early 1970's the idea of raw food was again brought into view by a counterculture of people who believed that a plant based uncooked diet was the ideal human diet. Once again, however, this diet was not billed as a "raw food" diet, and instead was considered a fruitarian diet. The movement of this time revolved around a diet more conducive to nature and the availability and appeal of fruit to humans. Although it was called fruitarian, the majority of those in this movement would include foods like greens and tender vegetables in their mainly frugivorous diet. This movement was still too "fringe" in the 1970s and once again ignored by most of the mainstream.

The raw food movement as we know it today stems from the work of those like Anne Wigmore, and T.C. Frey, who were able to bring the movement of the 60's and 70's into the 1990's and 21st century. Today it is put forth as a "raw-food" diet and it is much more widely accepted than it has ever been in the past hundred years.

Raw food has been proven as a cure for an incredibly wide array of dis-functions and diseases as well as dramatic weight loss and overall personal performance. The phenomena surrounding the "raw-food" diet has opened the door for the large scale movement we are seeing today.

As the raw food movement grows, so does the market of "raw food" products and services. This has led to a new industry of businesses dedicated to the manufacturing of a wide variety of supplements, super-foods, condiments, and packaged food products intended for the "raw-food" demographic. Although this has led to a shift in the Health food community, it may prove to be quite counterproductive in many ways.

As companies compete for sales or support in any demographic, they must prove that their products and/or methods are superior to the competition. This is no different in the case of raw foods. Different groups are seeking optimal health through different methods and foods, to sell them to those seeking raw food healthcare alternatives. The essential problem lies in the very basis of the raw food diet. All movements supporting uncooked plant based diets throughout history have done so under the notion of a natural diet. A diet based on the laws of nature. This notion indicates that there is a natural human diet as prescribed by nature that is ideal for all of humanity. If this is still a truth in the raw food movement then there is little room for variation in the methods and philosophies of those in the core of such a movement.

As more new opposing groups form in the movement, more products are manufactured and more methods are published. In searching for new ways to set their products apart from the rest, the industry is continuing to package, bottle, process, fragment, and pervert the once whole raw foods that are the source of our health.

How can anyone justify these processes as a natural means?

If your own methods are based on the dynamics of nature, yet you rely on blatantly unnatural means to sustain your health, you must either accept the inaccuracy of your work or claim that the problem lies with nature. By using such claims as malnourished soil, unnatural pollution, human de-evolution, and hybridization many groups have justified their abandonment of nature in their quest for ideal health.

If nature is no longer a cornerstone, then we are left basing our diet around the concept of "raw food". The problem here is that, just as any term used by such a wide range of groups and people, the term raw food has become incredibly subjective. As the definition of raw food remains the same, its interpretation is dependent upon the rationale of the interpreter and the willingness of the consumer to accept it.

Due to the subjectivity of such a term, there are countless products that while they are "raw", can be far from ideal and in some cases even harmful. Products are manufactured to exploit the same conditioned responses that we have developed from the health deficient diets we are trying to escape from.

Even truly raw whole foods may not be the best choice for optimal health if they are not the foods that are best designed for our species. We must remember that although fruits vegetables, nuts, and seeds are naturally nutritious, without the proper ratio, quantities, composition, and combinations you can run into the same health complications as you would on a conventional diet.

As you can see, basing a diet around the concept of "raw food" can be counterproductive and quite confusing. All we need to do is look to our own basic physiology and our natural environment. By trusting that everything that was given to us as food is ideal strait from the earth we can use raw, organic, unaltered, un processed, whole plant foods as our cornerstone for ideal nutrition.

From there, our intuition will guide us further to finding the ideal diet. By listening to your body and considering the impact and effect of your diet in all aspects of your life and the world around you, you will inevitably find the best diet and optimal health.