Concerns about raw food: complications

[CroMagna]

1) What happens if someone actually sticks to the raw food diet for months or years on end?

With their teeth fall out?

Will they have anorgasmia like anorexic girls? (Inability to experience orgasms)

Will they look older than they actually are?

Will their hair become thin and brittle?

Will they have dark circles around their eyes?

2) What happens if you don't each that much raw food throughout a given day? Say you're not really hungry and the idea of eating 9 bananas sounds totally unappealing. Or say you can't afford to buy enough food to gorge and could afford three fruit/veggie salads.

Will you gain weight? (Starvation mode)

[CroMagna]

There are a lot of reasons why I want to do this. I have a psychiatric problem and I'm hoping I will get rid of it and not rely on meds. I'm also hoping to gain a sense of control.

[John Lemire]

I was raw for a year and a half. My body fat percentage dropped but my weight increased. I started living more active and put on a lot of muscle. No your teeth wont fall out. You will start thriving. If you decide to stay raw for more than two years I suggest b-12 supps if you are not eating tons of local organic food.

You will feel amazing. Ripe bananas rock. Oranges, dates, figs, berries ect are all things you can eat en masse to fulfill calorie requirements.

If you are adverse to bananas it can be hard to eat raw on a budget. Dates where I am at are typically 6-8 dollars a pound and you would need a couple pounds a day.

The raw diet is totally doable though, have you read 80/10/10 by Dr. Doug Graham? Its very concise. I have a book on my website that outlines the basic principals if you are interested. Good luck either way.

[CroMagna]

Originally Posted by John Lemire

I was raw for a year and a half. My body fat percentage dropped but my weight increased. I started living more active and put on a lot of muscle. No your teeth wont fall out. You will start thriving. If you decide to stay raw for more than two years I suggest b-12 supps if you are not eating tons of local organic food.

Your body fat dropped and your weight: increased did you look slimmer?

I'll check out your website, thanks.

[ginkgo]

Gabriel Cousens M.D. is a psychiatrist and promotes an all raw diet. He said that when he changed to an all raw diet, he found himself eating a lot less food. Actually here is a rule about eating raw and how much to eat. Look him up and get on his mailing list.

If you mix raw foods, you can overeat. If you do not then you cannot overeat. Animals in the wild eat eat raw foods alone. If you start to eat bananas alone then you will only want to eat what is best for your health.

So if you only want one then do not eat any more than that. If you start eating them and cannot stop until you have eaten 12 then that is fine. Also the math shows that the average American eats 7 times as much food daily as the average Chinese person. After you eat the bananas and are still hungry then eat something else.

How many different meats (dead animals) do people eat? Maybe 10. There are over 10,000 different fruits on this planet like acai, goji berries, yumberries, dragon fruit, rambutin, jackfruit, passion fruit, lychee, star fruit, mangosteen, gac fruit, buckthorne berries, kumquat, durian (king of fruit)(smells like sewage or skunk), cherimoyas, African cucmbers and lots more.

There can be challenges with an all raw food diet. On this webpage about healing mental problems you will see about how one person cured her depression with an all raw diet. But there is a group of people that give free guidance (like B-12 supplements), on this webpage, and they eat an 85% raw diet with a 15% cooked healthy food at the end of the day as a reward.

They found this has all the benefits and is much easier than an all raw diet. They have the best testimonials anywhere like curing severe depression, bipolar and anxiety disorder.

[John Lemire]

Originally Posted by CroMagna

Your body fat dropped and your weight: increased did you look slimmer?

I'll check out your website, thanks.

I did look slimmer. During the summer months it was noticeable, in the winter months it was so much because I wasn't doing as much physical exercise outside. Now though it is making quite a difference.

When I first went vegan the difference in my body was hugely noticeable. Vegan to raw was noticeable in that I was replacing fat with muscle.

[votoshka]

If you eat a healthy raw diet, there is no reason why your teeth would fall out or anything else. Check out someone like Tonya Zavasta who is over 50 now and looks great following an all raw diet. She definitely looks younger than most women her age! The important thing though is to get enough nutrients, and to keep track of how you look and feel. If you start looking or feeling less than your best, it's time to reassess the way you're eating, or look at the combination of foods you're eating to see if you are getting enough essential nutrients.

[ChrisGinsburg]

I'm guessing the teeth falling out comment is in regards to the high acidity of many fruits. It can be hard on your tooth enamel. They sell several types of toothpastes that strengthen enamel and reduce sensitivity.

[learnllovelaugh]

Originally Posted by CroMagna

1) What happens if someone actually sticks to the raw food diet for months or years on end?

With their teeth fall out?

Will they have anorgasmia like anorexic girls? (Inability to experience orgasms)

Will they look older than they actually are?

Will their hair become thin and brittle?

Will they have dark circles around their eyes?

2) What happens if you don't each that much raw food throughout a given day? Say you're not really hungry and the idea of eating 9 bananas sounds totally unappealing. Or say you can't afford to buy enough food to gorge and could afford three fruit/veggie salads.

Will you gain weight? (Starvation mode)

I'd say that basically everything about my health has been improving since I started eating more raw food.

Originally Posted by CroMagna

There are a lot of reasons why I want to do this. I have a psychiatric problem and I'm hoping I will get rid of it and not rely on meds. I'm also hoping to gain a sense of control.

I think you will be very happy with the results of eating more raw food. It has made me feel much healthier and much happier. If I could only recommend one book to read it would be Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko. The more you educate yourself the eaier it will be.

Originally Posted by ginkgo

...they eat an 85% raw diet with a 15% cooked healthy food at the end of the day as a reward.

They found this has all the benefits and is much easier than an all raw diet.

I agree. I assume that I am pretty addicted to cooked food so I found it very difficult to remove it from my diet completely. I'm trying to gradually eat it less and less of it and that's been working pretty well. I feel better every day.

[scorpio1980]

100% raw was a great detox diet, but when I have tried it for long periods of time I looked, and felt horrible. I now eat about 75% raw with the only cooked stuff being meat, and the occasional starch. I guess you could say I eat paleo, and I feel pretty damn good on this diet. I don't buy into the whole perfect diet for everyone hype. If I do something properly for an extended time, and feel horrible on it, that means to me that this isn't good for me. I just didn't feel like I was getting enough fat or protein. Avocodos, coconut, and hemp seeds didn't satisfy this. I have tried raw vegan a number of times, and I always feel better once I include some meat or fish in my diet.

Try 100% raw for atleast a month, and see how you look, and feel. You will know if it is good for you. If it feels right than stay with it. If it doesn't feel right then start tweeking by lowering the raw percentage, and if that doesn't help, try including animal products again.

Everyone is different, and we all have different needs. I know very healthy vegans, and I also know very healthy omnivores, and they are all over the charts when it comes to raw percentage. Ofcourse raw food is good for us, and most of the diet should be raw, but the percentage varies by person.

So asking the question is that diet good for you won't get you a proper answer. You are the only one who can answer this by trying it yourself.

[DavidPro]

I agree.... raw food is very important to eat. I've done a lot of research it seems to me that 100% raw is too much for the body to handle. I recently heard an interview with an anthropologist who said that human's shift to cooked food thousands of years ago allowed less energy to go into digesting the food and more to go into brain development. That time period was directly related to our gradually bigger brain.

Whether that was good for us or not, remains to be seen!

But the body does have to work harder to digest raw food, so it is understandable that one can more easily lose weight on a raw-only diet. Cooking also kills elements of the food that can make certain nutrients more accessible. But cooking also allows us to access other nutrients that aren't when the food is raw.

So I believe it's a balance... as well as getting to know what your body needs and what makes it feel good.

[Cado]

Personally I'd suggest the slow-carb diet. I've been on it for a short time but already I've seen an immense improvement in terms of my energy levels and mental clarity. My mind is much calmer and my emotions are easier to control, so there's that too.

If you've never tried eliminating gluten from your diet, that in itself may work wonders. That pretty much necessitates slow-carbing, but it gives you a variable to isolate. There are two main things I changed when I started this: I added meat into my daily diet and I stopped consuming gluten. I would say both have been very good for me but I can't say which is the bigger variable because they happened at the same time.

[learnllovelaugh]

Originally Posted by DavidPro

But the body does have to work harder to digest raw food,

Really? I've been reading that the opposite is true. That cooking food kills the enzymes in it that help our body digest it. So something like raw fruit should be really easy to digest. That's not true?

[votoshka]

Originally Posted by learnllovelaugh

Really? I've been reading that the opposite is true. That cooking food kills the enzymes in it that help our body digest it. So something like raw fruit should be really easy to digest. That's not true?

The enzymes in food don't actually help it be more digestible... but apart from that, there is no reason why it shouldn't be just as easy to digest raw food. The first stage of digestion is in the mouth, and provided food is chewed properly by the time it reaches the stomach it's pretty much mush anyway... this should be true for raw as well as cooked food.

[russianrocket]

First time I've read that cooking food makes it easier to digest. I think what you meant to say, was that certain foods that were inedible before, that man chose to eat, was easier to digest when cooked, while it was previously indigestible.

That's not saying much for those foods tho. There are/were plenty of raw foods that are as easy, if not easier to digest. So to say that our brains expanded because people started to cook food, is blatantly wrong. What I suspect happened, was that cooking food allowed us to expand out into the world. It spurred innovation and exploration. Etc etc etc. And all that led to a bigger brain. And NOT the cooking of the food, as it was just part of over all story.

Now, you can say that humans ever growing need to explore, is what grew our brains.

Meat is still easier to digest raw.
Humans created the issue of poorly digestible foods, and had to come up with the solution, which was cooking. It's not like you hear about people eating raw corn, or wheat, or grains raw. Hell, you can even eat wood if you prepare it right. We just chose to find food that was meant for other animals, and make it our own. So I'd say the got it backwards. Our growing brains allowed for us to do this, instead of the other way around.

[russianrocket]

Originally Posted by votoshka

The enzymes in food don't actually help it be more digestible... but apart from that, there is no reason why it shouldn't be just as easy to digest raw food. The first stage of digestion is in the mouth, and provided food is chewed properly by the time it reaches the stomach it's pretty much mush anyway... this should be true for raw as well as cooked food.

I don't know if that's true. Milk for example, is easily digestible because of the enzymes in the milk. While lactose intolerance comes specifically from those enzymes being killed off in pasteurized milk. The same enzymes that allow the body to break that the lactose. There are many many other examples of that as well.

Cooked food is harder to digest, and it's been shown that you even need less calories from raw food, as your body is able to absorb more of the nutrients. Our guts our FILLED with enzymes that break down food. It only makes sense that providing them with some extra help, would, well help.

[votoshka]

Originally Posted by russianrocket

I don't know if that's true. Milk for example, is easily digestible because of the enzymes in the milk. While lactose intolerance comes specifically from those enzymes being killed off in pasteurized milk. The same enzymes that allow the body to break that the lactose. There are many many other examples of that as well.

Cooked food is harder to digest, and it's been shown that you even need less calories from raw food, as your body is able to absorb more of the nutrients. Our guts our FILLED with enzymes that break down food. It only makes sense that providing them with some extra help, would, well help.

Well TBH I have read both sides of the enzymes debate when it comes to raw foods... some say they help, some say they don't do anything! Nevertheless, I agree that raw food shouldn't be MORE difficult to digest, as that's just illogical.

I guess it depends on what enzymes are actually in the food... while they may have enzymes, are they actually enzymes that help with digestion, or enzymes that help with other things?? I know there are some fruits (like papaya and pineapple) that contain protease type enzymes and may assist in the digestion of protein, perhaps. However, most enzymes have nothing at all to do with digestion so I'm not sure why they'd help.

[lookcloser]

Originally Posted by votoshka

. Check out someone like Tonya Zavasta who is over 50 now and looks great following an all raw diet.

Wow, I just looked her up and she looks great! I've been thinking pretty seriously about changing to an all raw diet, I doubt it'll be as hard for me since I'm almost vegan(I don't care for diary products much). But giving up cooked food WILL be pretty hard, to think about it.

One thing I figured was that it would definitely be more expensive than the normal diet. And it would be slightly awkward at social gatherings or family get togethers where a lavish meal is served and rejecting is almost blasphemous

And the weird thing is, just yesterday I convinced my Mom to let me go raw. And I needed a great reason. I mean, she needs something MORE than 'its healthy'. So I told her that it cures metal illnesses(I have clinical depression and I get panic attacks) and I LIED at that time. But today i come here and see that someone posted about how raw diet really DOES treat mental illnesses. That's brilliant ****ing news!!!! I'm really sick of taking all of this medication!

With all these signs and stuff, I really think I should go forward with this!

[Lifeisamazing]

Originally Posted by votoshka

Well TBH I have read both sides of the enzymes debate when it comes to raw foods... some say they help, some say they don't do anything! Nevertheless, I agree that raw food shouldn't be MORE difficult to digest, as that's just illogical.

I guess it depends on what enzymes are actually in the food... while they may have enzymes, are they actually enzymes that help with digestion, or enzymes that help with other things?? I know there are some fruits (like papaya and pineapple) that contain protease type enzymes and may assist in the digestion of protein, perhaps. However, most enzymes have nothing at all to do with digestion so I'm not sure why they'd help.

Votoshka, it sounds that you've done quite a bit of research on enzymes and digestion. What indicates to your body that the food hasn't been well digested? Can you determine whether something digests well or not for you?

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by CroMagna

With their teeth fall out?

On the contrary, I recall Dr Mercola talking about a study on the dental health of a tribe in Africa that only ate 100% raw and natural foods from their surroundings.

It said that despite the tribe never having access to dental care, or to brushing their teeth, or to toothpaste, almost everyone in the tribe had near-perfect dental hygiene. Dr Mercola said the most probably reason for this was their natural/raw diet and lack of artificial sugars and manufactured foods that tend to decay teeth.

[russianrocket]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

On the contrary, I recall Dr Mercola talking about a study on the dental health of a tribe in Africa that only ate 100% raw and natural foods from their surroundings.

It said that despite the tribe never having access to dental care, or to brushing their teeth, or to toothpaste, almost everyone in the tribe had near-perfect dental hygiene. Dr Mercola said the most probably reason for this was their natural/raw diet and lack of artificial sugars and manufactured foods that tend to decay teeth.

100% raw, but what did their diet consist of?

[Dimond]

Digestion Times Of Various Foods
Juices - Fruit/vegetable, vegetable broth: 15-20 minutes.
Semi-liquid - (blended salad, vegetables or fruits): 20-30 min.

Fruits

Watermelon: 20 min.
Other melons - Canteloupe, Cranshaw, Honeydew etc.: 30 min.
Oranges, grapefruit, grapes: 30 min.
Apples, pears, peaches, cherries etc.: 40 min.

Vegetables

Raw tossed salad vegetables - tomato, lettuces, cuber, celery, red or green pepper, other succulent vegetables: 30-40 min.

Steamed or cooked vegetables
Leafy vegetables - escarole, spinach, kale, collards etc. - 40 min.
Zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, string beans, yellow squash, corn on cob: 45 min
Root vegetables - carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips etc.: 50 min.

Semi-Concentrated Carbohydrates - Starches
Jerusalem artichokes & leafy, acorn & butternut squashes, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yam, chestnuts: 60 min.

Concentrated Carbohydrates - Grains

Brown rice, millet, buckwheat, cornmeal, oats: 90 min.
Legumes & Beans - (Concentrated Carbohydrate & Protein)
Lentils, limas, chick peas, peas, pigeon peas, kidney beans, etc.: 90 min.
soy beans: approx. 2 hours.

Seeds & Nuts

Seeds - Sunflower, pumpkin, pepita, sesame: approx. 2 hours.
Nuts - Almonds, filberts, peanuts (raw), cashews, brazil, walnuts, pecans etc.: 2 1/2-3 hours

Dairy

Skim milk, cottage or low fat pot cheese or ricotta: approx. 90 min.
whole milk cottage cheese: 120 min.
whole milk hard cheese: 4-5 hours

Animal proteins

Egg yolk: 30 min.
Whole egg: 45 min.
Fish-cod, scrod, flounder, sole seafood - 30 min.
Fish-salmon, salmon trout, herring: 45-60 min.
Chicken: 1 1/2-2 hours (without skin)
Turkey: 2-2 1/4 hours (without skin)
Beef, lamb: 3-4 hours
Pork: 4 1/2-5 hours

To completely be digested, meat & milk take 12 hr. versus fruit which takes 2-3 hrs., Green Vegetables (non-starch) 5 hr.

[myword]

Compared with all my friends and family, I have been a "healthy" eater for sometime but recently decided to try upping my raw intake to be almost (but not quite) 100%. Yesterday I was violently ill. When I described my symptoms to a detox expert they felt that that is what I experienced. I am very shaky about continuing this raw diet. I want to but I am terrified of another experience like that one. Is this a normal part of getting healthy and if so is there a way to ease this while still staying raw? Today I barely ate anything as I am unsure of how to proceed.

[Dimond]

It's usually better to slowly ease into raw, unless you're an all or nothing type of person. Detox can depend on what it is you ate, in addition to your state of health. Certain foods are more cleansing than others. Usually more fats will slow detox. Then as you get use to raw, you gradually cut back on them. Many will start out with a brief juice fast/feast as a way of transitioning.

You can mention what you ate, if you want further clarification.

[myword]

Hi Dimond,
Thanks for taking the time to answer me.
I have been eating about 95% raw which consists of plenty of greens,(cilantro, parsley, dark lettuces, cabbages, spinach, water cress) sweet peppers, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, celery, jicama, korabi, onions, broccoli, cauliflower,very few starches, fats from coconut oil and olive oil and raw nuts and seeds, very little fruit. (I am trying to knock out wheat, sugar, white stuff, dairy and most meats). I drink mostly lemon in water or cinnamon water. My 5% was organic meat, sprouted bread and a bit of rice on occasion. Most days I stuck to 100% raw though. I had been eating for over a month like this and was feeling great. Christmas - I actually behaved and stuck to it with two meals being the exception. I went straight back to it for the last few weeks, went to bed feeling great, woke up dry retching, shakes so bad I couldn't lift my head up, knifing abdominal cramps, severe sweating, clammy cold skin, extreme pins and needles in my arms from the elbows down and eventually after a few hours (and seemingly endlessly )- horrific diarrhea. All of this persisted for the whole day. I ate nothing, couldn't even stomach water. Finally I took a homeopathic remedy to relieve the nausea but still allow the rest of the detox symptoms. These are still lingering(day 3 now).
Prior to all of this I was a raw veggie lover who also ate meats and cooked foods at one meal a day only for about 6 years now.
Any help you can offer on what exactly happened and what I can do to prevent it again would sure be appreciated.

[Dimond]

Hi Myword.
I can see a few issues. First of all you're eating mostly all veggies, which isn't the greatest way to eat raw. Two reasons why are because they'e very low in calories and because they're very cleansing. It's very important to consume a large amount of fruits because that's where the majority of calories should come from. I made this mistake myself because I love savory foods. Then I started losing weight I didn't need to lose and realized I wasn't getting enough calories. You're also eating a lot of veggies that tend to cause either over cleansing or toxic reactions: onions, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and others in the cruciferous family. Eventually like fats, they should be minimal in your diet because they tend to be hard to digest. If you do have them, it's better to eat them in liquid form or chopped and marinated, while making sure to chew well. It may not need to be something you have to worry about once you're consuming more fruit. Just be aware of it. When eating fruit, be sure to balance the sugars with minerals from leafy greens or celery. This will help you avoid sugar issues. You're doing great though, despite these things. 95% raw is a great accomplishment. Most people tend to make similar mistakes and sometimes it takes them awhile to figure out what they did wrong. So it's a good thing your body is letting you know immediately so you can correct it and it won't lead to more serious issues. Many believe a raw diet isn't good for them or in general because they're not exploring why it wasn't working and then giving it enough time to correct itself. Hope this info helps!

[myword]

Dimond,
Your feedback is supremely helpful. If I had to discover all this on my own I would have failed miserably. I thought that the greater part of the raw food diet was to be veggies. I have been deliberately avoiding fruits to try and calm a possible candida overgrowth. I notice when I eat sugars, my vision blurs quite badly but will try your advice on mixing fruit with greens which I love anyway. I am checking out your website and finding lots of helpful info there so thank you again.