R.L. Dane 
🍵 
The thing with a vegan (especially raw) diet is...
Not only do your poops happen like they were engineered by a Japanese car company, they smell... vaguely plant-like.
Amin, minor deity of the legume realmThat sounds like a raw thing; the process of cooking improves your body's ability extract nutrients from food, so it follows naturally that when your body is extracting less value, it produces more waste.
I, at least, when eating vegan (non-raw) have not had this issue.
Guy who's trying his best :(Most vitamins and minerals don't seem to be significantly affected, but I guess if you have a deficiency of folic acid? https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/80400525/Data/retn/retn06.pdf
Just judging that from a brief look over the data; I'd have to do more in-depth analysis to be sure.
Sure, very likely. RL's currently eating only raw food, though.
This feels relevant, by the way: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reality-check-5-risks-of/
"But cooking breaks apart fibers and cellular walls to release nutrients that otherwise would be unavailable from the same raw food. Cooking tomatoes, for example, increases by five-fold the bioavailability of the antioxidant lycopene. Similarly, cooking carrots makes the beta-carotene they contain more available for the body to absorb."
The conclusion of the article in terms of the nutritious value of vegetables appears to be that you should be mixing cooked/uncooked to get everything you need.
Heh, indeed.
As for the idea of raw food as "detoxing"—that seems to be very unfounded, at least in the way of actual toxins.
Now, what I have seen evidence for in my exploration of the research is related to the gut-brain axis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gut%E2%80%93brain_axis
Put very simply, the bacteria in your gut is able to tell your brain what you're hungry for (Pavlov won a Nobel prize, discovering this). But which bacteria are present in your gut is dependent on your diet; if you eat a lot of junk food, bacteria that feeds on junk food flourishes in your gut and gets a bigger say in your cravings. So I could see a vegan diet (not necessarily raw) helping to foster a different set of bacteria, which in turn retrains your cravings to make you hungry for healthy food instead of unhealthy food, creating an overall positive effect on your body.
I don't think that raw veganism, specifically, would have any greater effect on that, though. Eating healthy should be enough, whatever the form that takes.
That's really fascinating, and explains a lot.
I will say that when I sample foods outside of the diet (I haven't tried cooked vegan foods specifically, but stuff like one little french fry, I had a can of diet coke, and some assorted salted nuts), they're all very moreish, while the vegan (raw) food I'm eating is usually very satisfying.
What I don't know is if the moreishness of the junkier foods is inherent, or an adaptation of my previous lifestyle.
It could definitely be some of both. There are definitely foods that are easier to just… keep eating past what your body actually needs. That's part of why when my family asks if I want seconds I always say I'm gonna let the food I've eaten sit for a bit, first; I wanna give my body a chance to feel out if I actually want more food than what I've eaten so far.
Yeah, the funny thing is that I honestly enjoy the food I'm eating now, it's just that I don't usually care about seconds.
I think one thing is that your taste buds can get accustomed to a certain level of flavor and whatnot, and you can become content (to the point of enjoyment) while eating relatively bland foods that won't be tempting to overeat.
My mom was trying to explain this to me several times over the past few years, but I wasn't listening. I wanted my sriracha. XD
A big part of the program (at least for me), was to sit before your food in contemplation an thankfulness, and to eat very slowly, purposefully, and meditatively. It slowed down the food-shoveling reflex, and I think it actually increased the enjoyment of otherwise pretty bland foods.
Maybe I'm ready to live in England now, HEY-OOOOOOO!!!!
Not caring about seconds is healthy, I think. I'm usually the same way when I cook for myself; I have a pretty solid grasp of what a "serving size" is.
Another good point though, is that ground spices are a phenomenal way to add some delicious flavor to your cooked meals. I use my Indian spices in most things I cook, at this point. Oh, and cumin in everything, of course. ;)
I think what I meant to say is that when I'm eating THIS (raw) food, I don't care about seconds.
Normally, I'm all about seconds and/or huge portions. :P