Feeling Cold on the Raw Food Diet

Quite possibly the only serious drawback I've noticed to a 100% raw food diet is the tendency to feel cold, especially during the first transitional year. If we look around in nature, we see humans are the only creatures using houses with insulation and further protect ourselves from variations in temperature with heaters, air conditioning and clothing.

Why do We Need to Wear Clothing?

Humans are the only ones wearing clothing because we don’t adapt well to widely differing temperatures—we simply haven’t the thermoregulation many other species do. Artificially regulating our temperature, even though it makes us more comfortable, actually disables our natural capacity to thermoregulate. It seems our civilized (read: ‘unnatural’) lifestyles have contributed to our losing our ability to adapt. Other creatures coexist better with nature. They can moderate their body temperatures according to their environments. It could be that we have the same ability, somewhere deep under the overlay of modern culture. The body temperatures of animals going into hibernation drop automatically, slowing down life processes, conserving energy and consequently aging them more slowly. A lower metabolic rate is less energetically expensive. It seems we are not using our full capacity to establish the proper kind of harmony with our environment.

Feeling Cold is Temporary

Ask around, and you will no doubt find raw foodists who say they felt cold after going raw. Why? I believe this is a temporary manifestation while the body adjusts its thermostat. Over time, as many long term raw food eaters have reported, this will level out, and extremes of temperature won’t bother you anymore. Most raw food eaters, and I’m included, admit to feeling cold when switching to raw foods, but end up feeling warmer and adjusting much more easily to changes in temperature after some time. The time frame is different for everyone. But eventually the automatic thermostat seems to kick in, and hot or cold doesn’t bother them, even if their body temperature shows a little bit low on the thermometer.