Raw Food Diet

A friend of mine has been on the raw organic food diet and I was wondering what you all thought about it. He has significantly decreased in size and everyone I know is worried about how thin he is. This diet consists of only raw organic fruits, vegetables and nuts. He considers food that has been (take a deep breath) blanched, irradiated, steamed, boiled, fried, cooked, baked, microwaved, enriched, fortified, altered with preservatives, additives, food colorings, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, genetic manipulation, tilled in chemical laden, mono-cropped, effete soil and transported across the country, continent, or planet dead or dieing food and thus does not eat any of it.Also, this individual has been known to suffer from depression and his main motivation in life is to not be depressed. He doesn't have health insurance and doesn't like the idea of being dependent on drugs so will not take any antidepressants.Here is his rationale:
1. Humans have been evolutionarily selected for to eat these types of food. More precisely human ancestors were selected for to eat these types of foods. This time period is much longer than the time we have been eating cooked and other "dead" foods.2. Raw organic foods contain more nutrients and caloric density and therefore will give you more energy. This of course is offset by the extreme expense of organic food combined with the fact that he doesn't make a lot of money.3. He explains that food enzymes which help you digest are killed when you heat food and therefore it costs you more energy to digest cooked food. (I haven't been able to get much scientific information about this other than that it occurs, according to raw food websites)4. He cites experiments about mice with significant caloric depletion in their diet that live longer.5. He distrusts the FDA (worried that the food and drug responsibilities are controlled by the same people) and big businesses in the food market. He likens the big food companies to big tobacco and anti-global warming with massive misinformation campaigns.6. He also believes pretty firmly in the conscious living life style. He hates the big factory farms and all of the extra energy used in transporting goods etc.Ultimately, what do you think about the raw organic food diet? Can it be done successfully, do you think it will help with depression (or hurt for that matter)? This individual responds to scientific data but unfortunately I haven't been able to find too much, apparently this diet is still in its infancy.Edited by Max Power, : No reason given.

I agree and I think I've convinced him that the evolution argument is weak at best so I'll keep that out of the discussion for now. But it could have first produced the enzyme, then we evolved a way to utilize that enzyme to break it down. I know its flimsy but thats what he'll say. Trust me, obesity isn't a problem for him. We are talking about maximizing as much energy as possible per food unit. This is because he doesn't get the energy from grains and meats and he is on a strict budget. But vitamin deficiency isn't what he's going for. He's actually going for getting a ton of vitamins (which he believes to be a major asset of organic foods) and minimizing calories. Do we have any examples or studies of groups getting all of the vitamins and nutrients etc but low caloric intake? His distrust for the government is more important because he believes that the levels of pesticides and other chemicals put in our foods are set too high because there are incentives be it to keep people sick or just because lobbyists have pushed them too high.

First, I want to thank everyone for your input. I will get back to some of the specifics in the organic issue shortly (as I would like to do more research first). Also, LindaLou, I appreciate you giving your perspective despite the consensus seems to be in disagreement. If nothing else, it keeps the debate going and there is more information for me to sift through, thank you. Molbiogirl, I appreciate the hint with scholar.google that is most helpful.I have a second question and since this is in the Coffee House I assume it wont be an issue.What do you believe to be the ideal diet? Is there an ideal diet? Is it the scientific consensus that the pyramid is still king? What about people who are vegetarian for reasons other than health? Would you say follow the pyramid but eat more nuts and other forms of protein and fat?

Thank you for all of your responses, I have been reading them and enjoyed all of the information. I finally got a response and wanted to see what you all thought of some of this.1. Here is a compilation study between nutrition quality of organic vs conventional. Basically the results say that organic foods have significantly more minerals than non-organic foods. I understand that meta-analysis screams bunk but this paper claims that "this analysis used all available studies that compared crops produced with organic fertilizer or by organic farming systems to crops produced with conventional fertilizers or farming systems." Also, I understand that The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine is a less than reputable source, but just because a crazy person is yelling F=ma doesn't mean its not so. I guess my question is, what do you think about this study?2. Here are a few quotes he gave me without sources so I know they aren't credible but I'd like to hear what you think.