6 Surprising Foods You Should Never Eat Raw

2. Sprouts

Sprouts may taste delicious when used for salad toppings etc. but while using them, you should be very careful.

Lisa Cohn is a registered dietitian consultant for miVIP Surgery Centres and she warns people who eat sprouts, when uncooked are a major target of very harmful bacteria such as Salmonella, E.coli and Listeria.

Sprouts should be purchase and use fresh, farm to market is the best option. She still advises young children, pregnant women, elderly people and people with a weak immune system to avoid eating sprouts, completely. She suggests to wash them thoroughly and ask your RDN for advice if you are in doubt.

Onion Sprouts Health Benefits

3. Red Kidney Beans

We all know how healthy red kidney beans are and their low cost makes them an ideal healthy food for all of us. However, you must make sure that you cook them first.

Jennifer Chsirtman, RDN, LDN, Corporate dietitian at Medifast warns that eating raw kidney beans can be very harmful for your body. It can result in extreme nausea, diarrhea and severe vomiting due to the presence of phytohaemagglutinin, a naturally occurring lectin. It is found in many other plants too, but its concentration in raw kidney beans is very high according to the U.S Food and Drug Administration.

Red Kidney Beans Calories

According to Christman, the perfect method of eating the beans and destroying the toxin is to soak the beans for 5 hours, drain the water and then boil the beans in clean water for at least 30 minutes.

Canned kidney beans are healthy and safe to eat as they are cooked.

4. Honey

People who seek natural sweeteners go for raw honey and it is very easy to find it in supermarkets these days. A lot of people are a fan of it. But Cohn warns people not to let young children eat it.

Unpasteurized raw honey can contain a naturally occurring neurotoxin, grayanotoxin that is found in rhododendron nectar.

Cohn says that although it is not very harmful to humans, but grayanotoxin poisoning can cause dizziness, hypotension and vagal block.

Honey and Heart Health

5. Yucca

Yucca roots are full of many nutrients and are very beneficial for our body. Yucca can be eaten mashed, fired or boiled just like potatoes and tastes delicious too. However, raw yucca contains cyanide in it, specially in the leaves.

Scott Michael Schreiber who is a chiropractic physician in Newark, DE says that the presence of cyanide is the reason why other animals do not eat it and some of the cyanide is also present in the edible part, the roots, apart from the leaves.

Yucca Plant Pruning

The perfect method of consuming yucca roots is that they should dried, soaked in water, rinsed and cooked. Also, they should be eaten as soon as they are harvested.

6. Milk

Christman says that a lot of people think that drinking raw milk is healthy because it prevents certain diseases and illnesses and drinking raw milk has become a trend. He says that the issue with this is that raw milk has not gone through the process of pasteurization.

Pasteurization is the process in which raw milk is heated to at least 161 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 15 seconds before it is cooled rapidly. This process is necessary as it kills a number of harmful bacteria present in the milk, that include Salmonella, E.coli and Listeria.

According to CDC, drinking raw milk or eating foods made with raw milk is getting very common and children are most likely of getting sick due to it.

Raw Organic Milk Benefits

Christman also says that pasteurization does not reduce the nutrients present in the milk neither does it indicate that you can leave it out of the refrigerator or a longer period.

Eating raw food can cause many diseases as it is the favorite spot for many types of bacteria. Cooking it not only kills the bacteria but also enhances the taste. All these above mentioned foods are very beneficial and contain a lot of nutrients but if eaten uncooked, they can be very harmful for your body.

You must always try to eat fresh and make sure you are eating your food the right way, to avoid any chances of diseases or illnesses associated with it.

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