How to get calories on a raw food diet?

[Wanderer]

How do those on a raw food diet get 2500 calories aday?

Or do they generally eat less than that?

I'd love to go raw at university but am uncertain how I'd get 2500 calories when 1.5kg of celery and 500g of melon are 200 calories?

Any thoughts/help please

[Erki]

Doesn't dried fruit contain much more calories than fresh?

[ReallyGoodIdeas]

I do lots of bananas and avocadoes. Don't know how many calories are in them, but they are filling. Daughter's favourite snack is a banana heavily smeared with peanut butter. Quite filling.

Nuts are high in oils, so they'd have a few calories. Almonds and sultanas or raisins is a great snack.

Also a salad of shredded coconut (not dessicated), grated carrot and currants works well.

Can I suggest though that the good thing is to eat LOTS! Vegies are cheap. I don't do grains although some do, and I read you should replace grains with green leafy vegies. That's lots of green leafy vegies, we (my 14 yo daughter and me) go through about 4-5 lettuces a week, plus probably a bunch of spinach, a few bunches of asian greens of some sort and a heap of parsley. We do at least one green smoothy a day, and I love a blended salad, made of greens, cucmber, tomato, avocado, apple, orange juice and garlic. Blending the salad makes it easier to eat quickly, like soup!

And I eat out a fair bit. Silverbeet (chard) is my next adventure.

[Jaben]

I don't count calories much either, but I enjoy avocados as well. I eat a lot of young coconuts, almonds, almond butter, sesame seeds and tahini too. Nuts, seeds and fatty fruits provide many calories. I've read somewhere, I think from Robert O Young that fat burns more efficiently than protein and carbs. But I enjoy my share of in season sweet fruits as well, such as oranges and apples and bananas.

When eating raw I found that I didn't need to eat as much to feel the same amount of energy. To me, this validates the claim that enzymes aid in digestion and assimilation of nutrients in your body. Also the nutrients in raw food are all in tact rather than mostly destroyed from cooking and they are absorbed better by your body after detoxification. So when eating exclusively raw you may find you do not need as many calories as you used to.

[Andrew Michaels]

I would look into Doctor Doug Graham's 80-10-10 diet. There is a book.

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But basically, it depends on what you want to eat in your raw diet. Most raw dieters mistakenly eat tons of nuts/avocados, which are extremely high in calories and fat, and which can actually bring on clogging of the arteries, etc, causing some raw fooders to actually become diabetic/ heart disease ridden, and come down with a number of other diseases generally associated with sad.

Another mistake it to try to get the majority of your calories from vegetables. You would probably starve first. If you ate an entire pound of green vegetables (spinach, lettuce, celery, etc.), you, on average would have only taken in 100 calories.

Vegetables are very important. You should get a couple of big salads in you every day, but you'll be hard pressed to get all your caloric needs from them.

The solution is fruit. Lots of it.

It can get expensive, but when home I buy bananas (relatively cheap fruit all year round) in bulk. You can usually talk to a produce manager and get him to sell you a box at wholesale price, or some discount.

Also, in season fruit like watermelons during the summer tend to be fairy cheap.

I go to school and they serve fruit in the dining hall. I generally get a huge salad or two and a ton of fruit, and then take more with me when I leave.

Also, your 2500 calories sounds a bit low, depending on your daily activity level and exercise routine and weight.

I'm 180 pounds, so to maintain that weight if I was to lie in bed all day I would need to consume 1800 calories a day, or roughly 18 medium sized bananas at 100 calories a pop.

In addition, walking around to classes and meeting and such all day racks up around 900 more calories. I run for about a half hour a day at about 7 minutes to the mile which is about 400ish calories, plus another 50-100 or so for general push ups, squats, and pull ups.

3100 calories a day is a ballpark figure, but it differs every day depending on activity. If you're trying to lose weight, set your calories down to the your target weight. If you're an athlete that does more exercise than me, then you'll obviously need to compensate and eat more fruit.

It's a bit of a challenge before you get into the swing of things, but the rewards are well worth it. I never get sick, I'm in the best shape of my life, I leave everyone else in the dust, and I look pretty damn good.


But again, other raw dieters will tell you of different routines, probably high in fat. Best of luck sorting out the mire. I know it was a challenge for me.

Best,
Andrew