If you’re like millions of Americans curious about a raw foods diet, Spring’s arrival can make cleansing the body with raw foods sound like an intriguing and timely way to have more energy and release the Winter’s food buildup.

Raw diets offer a valuable solution to the modern American diet and its accompanying health problems.

Ninety percent of all ailments can be treated or prevented through the right food and lifestyle choices, but there is no right diet for all people at all times. As a general guideline, though, a diet abundant in fresh fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and properly prepared plant products, such as those the raw foods diet provides, are key to promoting health and vitality.

A raw foods diet is beneficial namely because it “ups” the quantity of vegetables a person consumes, which cleanses the body and provides vital nutrients the standard American diet is lacking. It also spares the digestive strain of a heavily cooked, rich meal.

However, eventually a raw foods diet can deplete the body, weaken the immune system, cause stress on digestion, and create irregularities or cessation of menstruation. For these reasons, and because the stomach and uterus need to have the warm, receptive quality of cooked foods in order to welcome conception, I often do not recommend a raw foods diet for my fertility patients.

The raw foods diet can be a great transitional diet–perhaps for 6 months to 2 years to cleanse the body, and to act as a great “re-set,” especially while healing from sickness or embracing a new diet. Fresh raw foods, vegetable juices, and sprouted nuts and seeds–the staples of a raw foods diet–can be fabulous, health-promoting additions to a balanced, healthy diet, especially in warmer climates and seasons. But, for the long haul, a raw foods diet is simply not sustainable.