How to Use Supplements With a Raw Food Diet

A raw food diet is made up entirely of uncooked vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts and sprouted grains. They are eaten whole or combined into meals. A raw food diet has caused people to lose weight, feel healthier and get more energy. There isn't much scientific evidence to back it up, but proponents say the results are unmistakable. On a raw food diet, a burger is made of nuts and vegetables.

Instructions

• 1

  Buy vitamin B12. This is primarily found in meat and since you're not eating meat, you need to substitute it. One study showed that eating raw foods caused high levels of homocysteine.

• 2

  Replace the copper you're not getting with your raw food diet. Copper deficiencies are rare, but symptoms include sores, fatigue, paleness and hair loss. Your red blood cell function will deplete and you could experience respiratory problems.

• 3

  Add zinc into your diet. Vegetables are very low in zinc and if you don't get enough, you may lose hair, suffer from skin lesions or sexual impotence. Vegetarians may need as much as 50 percent more zinc than meat-eaters.

• 4

  Take vitamin D to make up for the calcium deficiency caused by a raw food diet. Vitamin D carries calcium to your cells.

• 5

  Take a small dose of iron once in a while. Vegetarians need to add iron in their systems because the iron in plant foods isn't absorbed as well as the iron in animal foods. Buy it in its unnatural, mineral form.