Suggestions For Steve

[Andrew Michaels]

Hey Steve. I've been following your raw food trial with some interest. I'm a raw foodist myself, following Dr. Doug Graham's 80/10/10 diet. I've been raw since early last summer, and feel a lot better than I used to on a cooked vegan diet. The real gains kicked in about 3 months into the diet for me, but experiences seem to vary.

Before 80/10/10 I made some attempts at high fat raw diets, but I found they made me mentally and physically sluggish.

If you're at all interested, I'd like to make some suggestions that you might find useful.

1) Cut the fat.

You seem to be getting a fairly high amount of your calories from fat. You're eating a lot of fatty avacados, which taste great and are nutritionally sound, but should probably be restricted to being eaten once a month or less along with raw nuts and seeds and stuff like tahini.

Consider that Type two diabetes disappears when fat leaves the blood stream and allows sugars to be into the cells. Candida outbreaks and chronic fatigue, two other problems frequently blamed on high blood sugar, both quickly disappear when extra fat is eliminated.

I find that keeping my fat consumption under 10 percent does the trick. Around 7-9 percent is where fat will fall naturally if you're only eating nonfatty fruits and vegetables. Even today when I indulge in more than a bit of fatty nuts and seeds or fatty fruits like avocados I just want to lie down on the couch and do nothing.

I would highly suggest that you cut out all overt fats for a week or so, probably longer. You'll probably find yourself feeling considerably better.

2) Don't eat when you're not hungry.

Let your body clean itself out. It will signal you with hunger, usually felt at the base of the throat rather than by rumbles in the stomach. A rumbling stomach merely indicates that that stomach is empty. You'll probably find that your desire for food will return quickly as long as you're doing a fair amount of cardiovascularly intensive exercise and cutting out the fat.


3) Keep is simple.

A diet or raw fruits and vegetables is already simple, but what got me over the bumps from high fat raw to high fruit/vegetable raw was keeping it really simple.

I'm 6ft, 160 pounds, and I run every day. I need about 3,200 calories a day if I run for 45 minutes at a moderate pace. That's roughly 32 large bananas.

For the first week I ate raw, I only ate those 32 bananas a day. No fat. No vegetables. No other fruit. I made myself two large smoothies for breakfast and dinner, and ate my bananas whole at lunch.

By week two you can spice it up a bit. Throw in a huge salad of greens and tomatoes or even greens and bananas (It's a great combination, I swear). Start switching out one meal of banans for another fruit ( I started in summer, and feasted on watermelon).



Best of luck Steve, and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Also, I know Dr. Graham does consultations, and if you're just not enjoying raw, you might find it worthwhile to give him a call. Being on a fruit high is fantastic, and I hate to think that you're not enjoying it.