Raw Foods (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Raw Foods

[Dan.Linehan]

I got a Costco membership for Christmas.

Thanks Mom!

[Dan.Linehan]

One of the strangest reports I’ve seen is that long-term raw foodists can experience a significant drop in body temperature — to something like 94 degrees (vs. the standard of 98.6 F). Supposedly their bodies run cooler and don’t put out as much heat. I have no idea if that’s really true or just a myth. I’ve seen no personal evidence of those claims, and I never thought to check my temps during my previous raw trials.

Maybe when the body doesn't have to do so much work digesting food it doesn't put off as much heat? I'd really doubt temperature would drop by four degrees though.

Do you know of a way to measure antioxidant levels in the body? It would be very interesting to track antioxidant level changes on a fruit-based raw diet.

[TylerK]

You should really consider consulting with a medical professional about this. The fact that you believe that dairy and animal products can somehow "clog up" your insides with "gunk" tells me that you don't have and are not interested in obtaining the facts about your health and diet. I don't necessarily believe that this experiment will have any negative effects, but I'm humble enough to know that I'm not qualified to say for sure.

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by TylerK

You should really consider consulting with a medical professional about this. The fact that you believe that dairy and animal products can somehow "clog up" your insides with "gunk" tells me that you don't have and are not interested in obtaining the facts about your health and diet. I don't necessarily believe that this experiment will have any negative effects, but I'm humble enough to know that I'm not qualified to say for sure.

Dairy and animal products do literally just that, clog up your insides with junk.

Animal product consumption is proven to be the main cause of heart attacks, the leading cause of death in the United States.

[RandomJohn]

I tend to think that this issue is more individual than global. For example, my daughter could not really consume dairy products before age 1, and probably has no business doing so now. However, I'm not as sensitive as her.

And that's the beauty of the 30 day trial. You find out what's best for you. I plan to do something similar in the summer, when local fruits and vegetables are available in abundance. If nothing else, I'll detox a bit and find out for myself some very interesting things about my own diet.

[John P]

Originally Posted by RandomJohn

And that's the beauty of the 30 day trial. You find out what's best for you. I plan to do something similar in the summer, when local fruits and vegetables are available in abundance. If nothing else, I'll detox a bit and find out for myself some very interesting things about my own diet.

I think that's a great attitude. The idea of an all (or nearly so) fruit diet sounds pretty yummy to me.

Steve, I'm looking forward to reading about your experiment. Should be interesting. Also, I caught a typo in the next to last paragraph - "encouarge" should be "encourage."

[TomBrownsword]

Hello,

First post, question that Steve will hopefully answer on the blog...

I noticed and understand the reasoning behind wanting fresh fruits and vegetables. If fresh were not readily available / too pricey / or one just wanted some variety, would frozen be an acceptable substitute? An acceptable partial substitute?

I know that there is probably some processing done to frozen stuff, especially vegetables. I'm careful to choose frozen vegetables that haven't had anything added to them, i.e. sauces, sodium (in whatever form)...

I'm far from being where you are, Steve (!) -- but am making some positive changes and would be interested in hearing your opinion on frozen vs. fresh.

Thanks,
Tom

P.S. -- I heard about your blog from James Brausch.

[GrannyGamer]

Originally Posted by TylerK

You should really consider consulting with a medical professional about this.

TylerK -- In my opinion, a "medical" professional would be the last person I'd consult with concerning diet or nutrition. Most medical schools have little or no instruction in those topics and MDs are notorious for not being aware of the impact of diet on health. If one really needs outside advice on such matters, speaking with a nutritionist or even naturopath would be more helpful, I think.

Actually, there has been so much written about raw food diets that, as long as a person is careful and reads up on the topic beforehand, there should be no problems for a short-term experiment.

As an aside, I'd like to put in a plug for a cookbook called "Simple Food for the Good Life," by Helen Nearing. It's long out of print but there are used copies available on Amazon and ABEbooks.

Nearing has a chapter on Raw Foods vs Cooked Foods and reiterates many reasons that raw, or live food, is superior to cooked. One great quote she includes is by Seneca: "If the human race would but listen to the voice of reason it would recognize that chefs are as superfluous as soldiers.

Personally, I love to cook so this way of eating is definitely NOT for me. Plus the fact that I'm on a "local food" phase, so buying imported blueberries or Mangos at Cosco (ugh) wouldn't work for me.

Still, it'll be interesting to follow Steve's experiment and see how he manages.

[Mr.Mustache]

If you have a home garden in which you grow veggies you can get your B12 by lightly rinsing and eating them. The bacteria hasn't been stripped away yet like produce sold in stores. Just make sure there clean but not too clean .

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by GrannyGamer

Personally, I love to cook so this way of eating is definitely NOT for me. Plus the fact that I'm on a "local food" phase, so buying imported blueberries or Mangos at Cosco (ugh) wouldn't work for me.

I didn't realize that the organic label allowed imports. That's a little troubling.

When the Department of Agriculture established the guidelines for organic food in 1990, it blew a huge opportunity. The USDA—under heavy agribusiness lobbying—adopted an abstract set of restrictions for organic agriculture and left "local" out of the formula.


Sigh.

[Paul Park]

First off, I want to thank you Steve for the idea of the thirty day trial. I think it's a great concept!

Regarding your current trial, I have taken a different dietary path. I tried a vegetarian, almost vegan diet, but I didn't stick with it. I wish I had tried the diet with more awareness, perhaps as a trial, with daily (or more frequent) journal entries logging my experiences. Instead, I tried it for a couple of years and I felt good, but I didn't enjoy the tofu and fake meat and gave the diet up when I discovered the research of Weston Price, Dr. Mercolla, Dr. Briffa, etc. I've been eating, more or less, the diet put forth by Sally Fallon in "Nourishing Traditons" for a couple of years now, and I am strong and healthy. Again, I wish I had done a trial of this diet as well, so that I could more surely say how the changes made me feel.

I like to learn and try new things and sometimes jump into things without a lot of thought or awareness, just following my current interests. I'll have to think of a thirty day trial of my own, so that I can trial the trial

I'm looking forward to reading about your current adventure!

[Savage]

There basically isn't any local produce in Las Vegas, unless local includes getting lots of items from California.

We have a small garden in our backyard, but the veggies had a tough time. With a half-dozen types of veggies planted, only a few green onions managed to survive the weather and the birds.

[Olli Posti]

Great to see you doing this and bringing attention to the importance of eating the best foods ever. I'd also include:
-Kelp for iodine and (80+) other minerals
-Sprouts and OceanGrown grasses (wheatgrass grown with 10 to 1 (rain)water/seawater solution)
-Superfoods like raw organic cacao beans, bee products (pollen, propolis, royal jelly) and young organic coconuts
-Chlorella, Spirulina, Nori, and your favorite seaweed for essential glyconutrients and many many goodies
-Soaked (and activated) hemp, flax and pumpkin seeds
-MSM, which we're supposed to get from rainwater and wild foods and nobody does. How do you get your sulphur if garlic, onions & spices are out?

The alkaloids in sprouts (and wild greens) are actually quite medicinal in small quantities, but the more pristine you go, the more you need to rotate. Variation is the key. When animals in the wild don't get the required variety, they go for clay to clean things up, which we can do as well. And they do go for salt too, whenever they can find it.

Put some diluted oceanwater into your garden and whitness miracles. If that doesn't do the trick, rock dust will.

Just wanted to bring up these ideas since to my surprise I see nothing but the Natural Hygiene approach represented in this discussion (aside from non-raw foodists). Even organic produce lacks the mineralization and nutrient density of its ancient or wild ancestry, and is bred to be way high in sugar. Thus I'd go for a broader-based approach as an insurance policy to get all the minerals (as many as 92), vitamins and other phytonutrients in abundant quantities.

For three years I've been looking into (and experimenting with) all branches of nutritional advice due to MS-diagnosis (I'm ok now), and the expert that I favor most nowadays is David Wolfe - I wholeheartedly suggest you check out his work! Patenaude and Graham are doing great work too, and they would definitely agree with David on most issues.

Disagreements about nutritional advice somehow get all the attention, while in my opinion everyone in the field probably agrees about 95% of the time. I mean, everybody knows processed diary is bad, as well as white sugar, white wheat flour, along with pretty much anything coming out of a factory with pretty packaging and a long list of unpronouncable chemical ingredients. Except for the advertisers.. =)

I'm looking forward to see how your Natural Hygiene trial works out. This is the best science you can get in the field of nutrition, since fruit growers will never have the money to pay for a broad, placebo-controlled study on the effects of eating mangoes for a long period of time. Which, of course, isn't even possible until someone comes up with a fake mango that tastes like the original but is devoid of any nutrients.. let's turn this one to GMO-companies; probably they're already working on it..

[fjlee]

Sorry, Steve, I disagree with this trial.

Does anyone remember the Bevery Hills Diet back in the late 80s, early 90's? It was made famous by the "pineapple diet" with Judy Mazel as the poster child?

This diet reminds me of your challenge.

Number 1 side effect?

Chronic Diarreah!

No wonder people lost weight with this diet!

I'm not saying you are trying to lose weight, but I would really think this over, or at least go gradual. Maybe a "cheat" day here and there?

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[The David]

Originally Posted by fjlee

Number 1 side effect?

Chronic Diarreah!

No wonder people lost weight with this diet!

5 days isn't 'chronic', it's tantamount to food poisoning.

[dbooster]

Steve-

Will you be including herbal tea on this raw foods trial?

I attempted to go on a all fruit diet this past summer for a few weeks. It worked for awhile, and I felt good, but I found I just didn't have time to buy all the fruit I needed. No car and and a regular job, in one of the few cities in Japan with practically zero mass-transit... it's rough. Perhaps this coming summer I'll try again.

I look forward to continuing to read about your trial!

-david

[enegue]

I am really excited to learn how you will do on this trial. good luck!

[Neutral]

This sounds like the evolutionary diet (minus meats?). Do you think it's a fallacy to say an "evo diet" is optimal? It seems atleast near optimal.

Steve, could you blog about the protein levels effects on your muscle building? 25g seems radical, contradicting the FDA and bodybuilding marketers. That's so "weird" it could be right! The FDA seems to make conservative recommendations necessarily while marketers are just the opposite. This is a nice opportunity to examine this.

By the way, where did you find the Max Planck study?

[mikeschu]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

Animal product consumption is proven to be the main cause of heart attacks, the leading cause of death in the United States.

Dan, are there any independent studies that are available to read that would verify this claim? I would think it to be a combination of diet and exercise instead of just animal product consumption.