This is one of the most frequently asked questions about eating raw. People commonly believe that without a bowl of cooked food on a chilly winter day they would not be able to stay warm. I know many persons who quit the raw food lifestyle because they were afraid that they would become too cold during the winter.

Let us take a closer look at this situation. Would a quarter pound of rice physically keep a 160 lbs body warm? In order to get warmed by it, one would have to fill a bathtub with warm rice and sit in it for 20 minutes.

So why do we feel warmer after consuming cooked food?

A hot meal, a cup of coffee or an ice-cold shot of vodka warm our body in the same manner. When any impure substances get into our blood through the walls of the intestines, they irritate our adrenals, the endocrine glands located above the kidneys. The adrenals immediately begin to produce epinephrine, norepinephrine and a variety of steroid hormones. These hormones stimulate our sympathetic nervous system, which is why we feel awake at first. They also force our heart to beat faster and to pump larger amounts of blood through our body, which makes us feel warm. This feeling doesn’t last long and we pay a high price for it. After 10-15 minutes our body gets exhausted from performing extra work, the heart requires rest, the nervous system becomes inhibited, and we feel tired, sleepy and even colder than before. However we remember only the feeling of getting warmer after eating cooked food and repeat such stimulation again and again. This harmful practice wears the body out and by the end of the winter many people feel exhausted and depleted.

Winter after winter of eating quantities of cooked food doesn’t help the human body to withstand cold weather better. On the contrary, weakened adrenals eventually won’t be able to work properly even at warm temperatures. For example, most older people feel cold even in the middle of the summer. Wool socks and sweaters become necessity to them.

Another reason why it is hard for many of us to tolerate cold temperatures is because eating a cooked food diet severely impairs our capillary circulation. According to Dr. Alexander Zalmanoff, author of “Sacred Wisdom of Human Body” (Paris, 1961) 80% of all blood in any human body is located in the capillaries and only 20% in arteries and veins. Tiny capillaries get clogged easily by unnaturally large particles of cooked food, and the blood no longer circulates adequately.

If you truly want to feel warm during the cold season, a raw food lifestyle is inevitable choice for you. During your first “raw” winter you may experience some cold due to the weakened adrenals, so put on an extra sweater, take a hot bath, or do some pushups. If you will continue staying raw, your adrenals will rest and recover, your capillary circulation will improve, your nervous system and your heart will naturally strengthen without any artificial stimulation.

In a year you will tolerate cold better than ever before. My children not feel any discomfort from cold. We all jump in icy-cold mountain rivers year round for enjoyment. We always sleep outside under the rain or snow. Sergei, my son, goes snowboarding sometimes wearing only shorts. My daughter Valya never wears socks.  We strongly believe that staying on a raw food diet has helped us to feel comfortable in any weather and not to feel the cold.