The media has been rife with some of the dangers of extreme people suggesting extreme diets lately.
Raw foodism is very popular at the moment, but what is it?
It is the ingestion of only raw and unprocessed foods. It’s a great idea in theory, for short term perhaps, but it’s not for everyone, and professionally, I don’t believe it’s a healthy practice long term at all.
Recently a health professional suggested that the breast-feeding mother of an eight-month-old baby, be both put on a raw food diet.
And that the already unwell infant only be allowed to suck the juice of raw veggies placed in a net.
He was admitted to hospital for severe malnourishment.
Veganism is another very popular trend, and I myself was a strict vegan for 7 years. Veganism is a diet free of any form of meat, fish, egg, dairy, honey and any animal product. But it requires great organization and diligence to combine your proteins properly so the immune system doesn’t fail and it is certainly not a healthy option for infants and children. I say this as I see may vegan blogs boasting about how they raise their child a strict vegan, but it’s truly not healthy for a growing child.
And then we come to the alkaline diet. Can we actually change the pH of the blood? It seems some people are sure you can while others, in the science world, are fairly convinced you cannot.
I find this diet frustrating because it causes a lot of anxiety for the person trying to follow it. For instance, I am seeing many cancer patients who have been suggested to be on the alkaline diet. But they are so stressed out about testing their urine three times a day, eating exactly correctly to balance it out, it becomes a harmful burden on top of everything else they are already having to deal with. Stress lowers the immune system, not what’s needed for a cancer patient.
What’s my point? These diet’s, as many other extreme ones, can be helpful in some situations, for short durations for some adults but I would not recommend them for infant’s, children or for long periods.
Simply eat healthy wholefoods with a wide range of organic, unprocessed, locally sourced or home grown foods, high in nutrients, a little meat, fish and dairy occasionally, and one or two vegan meals a week and lots of raw veggies.
Find Honor on Instagram for all her food as medicine recipes: @honortremainnutrition
Next weeks article: What causes Obesity more, Sugar or Fat?
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