[Double Helix]

Compare "raw" processed food, like a cheesecake loaded with coconut oil and cashews, or a cake made with lots of nuts to a very healthy vegan but cooked diet, such as a lot of steamed veggies, fruits and rice and other grains and little to no processed foods.

A diet of "raw" cheesecakes, cookies, flax crackers with pate or tons of guacamole, in my mind, is in absolutely NO WAY healthier than a low fat cooked vegan diet, in the long run (meaning that if a person is going to eat "raw" junk foods long term instead of a low fat vegan cooked diet).

The only possible good thing about eating those kinds of "raw" foods are that they may keep a person from eating real SAD cooked junk like fast and processed food.

If someone was coming from a high-fat animal-based cooked, processed, and fast food diet then all the "raw" junk foods eaten in the initial and transitional stages would probably be a better choice, as long as they aren't the mainstay of a diet.

From experience, I know that it's very easy to get caught up in those "raw" junk food diets, and how easy it is to "forget" about eating fresh food, while grazing on a "raw" macaroon, "raw" flax crackers and other "raw" concoctions full of fat and questionably optimum ingredients.

The whole time you tell yourself that you are "raw" but you don't feel good at all eating that way day in and day out!

The most important thing is to understand what is health-promoting and what isn't, and making an effort to center the diet around health-promoting FRESH foods, while saving the "raw" junk food for those times when strong cravings can't be satiated with fresh food.