Raw Food Diet - Day 10 (Blog)

[Savage]

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

Raw Food Diet - Day 10

[DRK]

You didn't post a bananas picture today, but based on the pictures from earlier days it looks like you're eatings ones that aren't yet fully ripe. It's not a big deal if you're only eating a couple, but eating 15 unripe bananas will definitely cause some stomach problems. If you let them get to where they've got a fair amount of "freckles", there won't be any starch in them & they'll digest more quickly & easily.

[Savage]

Today's bananas were definitely ripe. In fact, some of them may have been overripe. All of them had spots on them.

[dcw]

Hi Steve,

I've noticed that you haven't included fresh herbs in your raw food diet. Perhaps it is difficult for you to source fresh parsley, coriander, basil, chives, tarragon, etc in your northern winter. Nonetheless, if you were able to source easily digestible herbs according to the season, they would give you a power pack of nutrients and medicinal properties, let alone zest up the flavour of your salads and green smoothies considerably. Our prehistoric ancestors foraged for wild fresh herbs to augment their predominantly raw food diets, for all the reasons above. I would definitely consider herbs to be a crucial component of a raw food diet. Some research into the benefits, particularly medicinal, of eating fresh herbs might be of value.

Have fun with the rest of your trial!!

DCW

[Pacifists]

You've mentioned it correctly... I live in Lithuania and it's winter time out here... so the chance to get good fruits is like in the lottery. I was inspired by your trial and just tried investigating is it possible to go raw, but it's really hard. Only fruits at this point of time are apples, oranges and bananas that I can get and they don't cost a fortune... I don't even dream about blackberries (they cost like 4$ per 100g) or blueberries. Also not all fruits look really natural.. you just take an apple it look awesome, but when you touch it there's a feeling that it's all covered in wax or something, that doesn't make me want to eat it at all despite it's good looks. I'm just not sure how much chemicals are there in those fruits on the shelves of our stores.

The upside of your trial is - it inspired me to add much more fruits and veggies to my daily food.. the only non fruit meal I have is lunch, breakfast + dinner is mostly fruit and vegetables.

I'm a little bit envious that you live in Las Vegas and you have all those fruits available cause all I can get is not riped nor delicious.

[klokkasju]

Maybe that's against your "no processed food"-rule, but why don't you mix veggies and fruits? I don't like many only-fruit-meals per day, so I chop some fruits (most times apples, bananas or mangos) and some veggies (carrots, radish, kohlrabi) and mix it. The taste of radish or kohlrabi really takes the sweet out of the fruits.

[beel]

Steve, I noticed you did not eat a salad today, yesterday, or really the day before either (just the stuffed romaine leaves). Having a huge salad with a variety of greens would probably help tremendously. As someone else mentioned, try adding some herbs to the salad as well. You might try mixing half baby spinach and half mixed greens for your salad. I know you are having spinach in your smoothies, but I think chewing it on it's own without being blended into a fruit smoothie may help you. I noticed you were using lime juice for your salad dressing, are you averse to lemons? You can make a very simple dressing in the salad bowl by whisking together a lemon and a small amount of avocado (just enough to get some fat to mix with the juice), then adding some finely sliced/shredded basil. let it marinate for a minute or two and then dump in the greens and mix until well coated. Then add whatever additional fruits or vegetables you are in the mood for. I almost always use grape tomatoes and chunks of avocado.

[beel]

PS - I LOVE your Apple anecdote about Steve Jobs!

[Dan.Linehan]

I agree about the salad, thats a good offset for all of the sweeter fruits you're eating.

[impaul99]

You're eating way too much sugar (from all the fruit), and not enough good fats, but that's just my opinion.

[theknightwhosaysni-NI]

I just checked my temperature again right now, and it’s holding at 98.0, my lowest reading of the whole trial

I remember reading in a book that foods have a temperature, that does have some effect on the body temperature. There are are :
-warm foods (beans, meat, cooked food),
-and fresh, or cold foods (veggies and fruit, cold soup, etc).

The author was saying that it explained why the vegetarian diet is so well suited to people living in tropical and warm countries, while it is not suited at all for people living close to the North Pole. (The tribes in polar regions eat a lot of meat and fish).

If that's accurate, it means it would be easier to live through the hot temperatures of the Vegas summer on this diet

[Michelle]

During the first few days of the trial I stuffed myself with everything raw I could get my hands on including very sweet tasting foods like dates. I thought in this way I was protecting myself from failing due to hunger. Now, I've started realizing just how little food the body needs to function each day and that my body will tell me it wants and there is no need to overdo it. My taste for sweets has reduced considerably over the last 11 days. All in all I would estimate that I eat 50% sweet tasting fruits (bananas, apples, mango, berries, passion fruit) and 50% greens or non-sweet tasting fruits like cucumber. The thought of eating dates now makes me want to hurl and I would feel absolutely awful eating 7 bananas in a row. It simply feels like too much sugar.

That said, the one major point where our trial differs is your athletic morning routine which I am sure affects your appetite, rate of detox and caloric requirements. I just wonder if you need less food than you believe.

[munish]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

But if this was already day 30, I wouldn’t continue eating this way on day 31.

Now this is a bad news from steve.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I also wonder if this is an area where people may have some biological or seasonal differences. My ancestry is Czech, German, and Lithuanian, all northern climates where fresh fruit might not have been a practical choice during the winter.

That may be the reason.

[munish]

Originally Posted by Michelle

That said, the one major point where our trial differs is your athletic morning routine which I am sure affects your appetite, rate of detox and caloric requirements. I just wonder if you need less food than you believe.

I think steve spends just one hour at gym. that's quite normal . Our calories requirement is around 1800-2000 cal/ day.

[MaxRoeleveld]

Just a little tip that might help with the thumb-smudging: don't open bananas at the stem. Give 'em a good pinch at the other and, and they'll usually pop open without too much problems, and without getting under your nails.

I believe that's actually the way monkeys open their bananas, but since I'm not one myself and no monkeys are nearby, I can't ask. =]

[Calculusaurus]

Originally Posted by munish

Now this is a bad news from steve.

Honest news is good news.

Given the unattractiveness of the "normal" (SAD) diet these days, it's in everyones' best curiosity to see how "alternative" (e.g. raw) diets fare. As pointed out in The China Study (great book), so much dietary information today is derived from studies on SAD subjects, rendering much of that information useless for people on non-SAD diets.

I think it's best to approach Steve's experiment with a scientific curiosity. If it doesn't work for him, then that itself is an interesting result (though non-scientific -- sample size = 1).

[PrimaryErn]

Could the fact that modern fruits have been bred to be extra sweet maybe have something to do with it? If Banana's tasted more starchy it might be easier to eat them. Same for other fruit.

[Billy Freezer]

Funky experiment, but why is Steve so against taking in more fats? He'll have a much easier time making up calories, feeling more satieted, and it'll be healthier in general. You need fats to live! It'll be hard to find bad fats in a raw food diet. If he took in more seeds and nuts he'll feel much better.

[Jaben]

Dcw, beel and Dan.Linehan are giving the right advice. Increasing your greens will offset the abundance of sweet fruit and bring the balance your body is craving. You can find a listing of all of the benefits of greens including, cleansing properties and nutrients with a little bit of research.

Your lack of green intake also explains why you're protein intake is staying around 6% and why you're having bad breath.

You had the right idea when you tried the blended salad, but you need to try some recipes that have been well tested. You cannot get all of the greens you need with out blending.

You seem to be focusing only on obtaining enough calories. Your body needs more than calories to be healthy and your lack of appetite for fruit is your body telling you to restore balance. Blended greens is the answer. You can find recipes on my posts to Day 8 and Day 9.

[Jesse E]

I also wonder if this is an area where people may have some biological or seasonal differences. My ancestry is Czech, German, and Lithuanian, all northern climates where fresh fruit might not have been a practical choice during the winter.

Is it just me, or does this sound exactly like a metabolic typing theory .

I think you're totally right though.

Most people in northern climates ate much larger amounts of animal products than people who lived closer to the equator.

On a vegan diet you could try to simulate that by simply eating more protein and fat from vegan sources.

[Savage]

On previous days my main focus was on getting enough calories while keeping the fat below 15%. Today I'm doing it a little differently, not worrying so much about total calories and focusing on eating more veggies. For breakfast all I had was a green smoothie (with kale) and some celery.

As for the question about why I'm not adding more fats, read the final two posts from Dec 2007 for the explanation on that:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/12/30-days-raw/
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/12/raw-foods/

[ricky]

This morning I was watching discovery channel. There was a show about kitchen appliances etc. Don't ask me why I was watching that show. :-) That was the best show at that time so I decided to just go ahead and watch it.
Anyways, they started out by saying "One of the biggest differences between humans and other mammals is that humans eat cooked food..."
hehehe right away I thought of Steve and other people who're on a raw diet. Hmm.....

[Andreas]

Steve, in your "30 Days Raw" article, you explain that there are 2 ways to get calories: fruit or fat. Now, you opted to side with fruit, keeping fat calories 15% or under, right?

Well what about a compromise between the two? As you said, high fat is only a problem in cooked foods. Why not find a happy medium between the fat-based idea of 50-70% and the fruit-based idea of 5-15%?

Stick with it though. We're all pulling for you, Steve!

p.s. congrats on your 1234th post.

[DRK]

Unfortunately, there is no middle ground - it has to be either high fruit or high fat. Combining lots of fruit & lots of fat just doesn't work, digestively speaking. That's why you'll only find those two camps of raw fooders, the "high fat, nuts, seeds, occasional fruit" group & the "high fruit, occasional nuts & seeds" group. (Both groups can eat lots of veggies, which combine fine with either fruit or fat.)

[LeahWhitehorse]

Hi all
Steve this is a fascinating journey and I have been finding myself buying more fruit to eat! Whilst I don't think I could go totally raw I am very interested in hearing your experiences and investigating.

For those of you in the UK who are also interested there's a program on Channel Four tonight at 7.30 - "First Cut" which is following people who eat a raw food diet.

Great timing :-)

[Jaben]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

For breakfast all I had was a green smoothie (with kale) and some celery.

That sounds pretty hard core ( I hope you at least added water ), but I bet it'd be pretty good if you threw in a red bell pepper, a couple of tomatoes, juice of one lime and maybe some parsley. Even just adding the lime juice might help.

Originally Posted by DRK

Unfortunately, there is no middle ground - it has to be either high fruit or high fat. Combining lots of fruit & lots of fat just doesn't work, digestively speaking. That's why you'll only find those two camps of raw fooders, the "high fat, nuts, seeds, occasional fruit" group & the "high fruit, occasional nuts & seeds" group. (Both groups can eat lots of veggies, which combine fine with either fruit or fat.)

I agree. I started out in September '06 doing mostly the high fat with some fruit. As I progressed I was doing too many desserts combining dates and nuts and other fruit. I started having digestion problems. Now I'm doing the fruit/greens with fats eaten separately and the digestion has never been better, I have virtually no cravings and my energy level is better.

[Billy Freezer]

Originally Posted by LeahWhitehorse

Hi all

For those of you in the UK who are also interested there's a program on Channel Four tonight at 7.30 - "First Cut" which is following people who eat a raw food diet.
Great timing :-)

Ahh great timing, saw this post just as it started
The kid seems really intelligent for her age. Thought she looked about 8. The mother seemed to be really on the ball. I did like what she was doing.
Was it her who, when questioned about whether or not people would feel better if they stopped taking in pasteurised milk, her reply was yes with cows milk. I'm a goats cheese eater myself, and would be a goats milk consumer if only it weren't so darn expensive in this country, because I know how bad cows milk is for you. Other people come across this?

But the other ones seemed a bit off. Especially that guy who mentioned his vortex pendulum necklace which 'works by quantum physics, but I won't get into that'. Surefire way to lose credibility in yourself.


Oh and Steve, I apologise for not reading the first introductory post of your experiment before asking about the fats. Must get that question a lot! Are you taking any B12 supplements? Or any other things with this diet?
Good luck

[ChaosKiwi]

Its kind of random, but has anyone else noticed mc donalds ads in the google adsense area of these raw food diet blog pages. I was noticing a few earlier on (like on day one) but haven't seen any recently. Thought I'd point it out. I mean even if they are promoting "healthy zoo happy meals" (which look like plastic) it seems sort of ridiculous placed in these blog posts.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by ChaosKiwi

Its kind of random, but has anyone else noticed mc donalds ads in the google adsense area of these raw food diet blog pages. I was noticing a few earlier on (like on day one) but haven't seen any recently. Thought I'd point it out. I mean even if they are promoting "healthy zoo happy meals" (which look like plastic) it seems sort of ridiculous placed in these blog posts.

If you can tell me the URL those ads link to, I will add them to the blocked list. Different people often see different ads. I haven't seen any of those ads myself.

[Elizabeth]

A couple of things that helped me when I did this diet:

1. Eating plenty of celery and tomatoes and other fruits and veggies high in natural sodium. Because you're not adding salt, it can be helpful to make sure that you're getting plenty in your veggies. I used to juice 1/2 head of celery a day when on this eating plan. It helped make blended salads taste yummier.

2. Sometimes it helps to make a "sauce" to put over bananas or other cut fruit. I love lots of fresh squeezed orange juice over sliced bananas (even those against juicing usually allow orange juice because it still contains a lot of pulp). You can also blend blueberries or blackberries and put that on bananas or pineapple or apple. It gives both fruits a different flavor, and adds to the variety of dishes you can create.

I did followed a diet very close to this twice in 2007 for 10 and 11 days each, so I don't have long-term experience with it. I've been transitioning to a vegan raw diet for 1.5 years now, and I find that a more flexible, mostly raw diet that contains plenty of avocado seems to work best for me and is something that I can maintain without feeling deprived.