Raw Food Diet Update (Blog)

[Savage]

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

Raw Food Diet Update

[Tina Rowley]

Steve,

I have to tell you that you are one rockin' Pied Piper for raw food. Every time I read your raw food updates, I feel a vicarious lift. I'm halfway through a pregnancy at the moment, so now doesn't feel like the time for me to go raw. But that time well may come, thanks to your descriptive powers - maybe in the summer, when the little man is born, and it's crazy fantastic fruit season. I'd have to find some info on a raw diet and breastfeeding.

In any case, I love these descriptions.

My kingdom for a mango or 10,
Tina R.
The Gallivanting Monkey

[The Animus]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Bananas are a hybrid fruit, however, and some raw foodists say it’s good to reduce or eliminate them in the long run. So I’m testing a low-banana diet for a while to see how it goes. Today I didn’t eat any bananas.

Bananas are not a hybrid fruit, they are a wild fruit, from which different varieties have been cultivated. Modern bananas which are sold in stores are of the Cavendish variety, which is a cultivar, NOT a hybrid. There are other, lesser cultivated varieties that have been hybridized, but these are not common.

Further, there are many fruits that actually are hybrids,
including apples, tomatoes, kiwi, pineapple, and almost all modern citrus fruit.

Whether a fruit is a hybrid is in itself not a valid measure of whether it is an ideal food.

[Bruce Achterberg]

No bananas?! *Gasp!*

<insert line about how your diet is too extreme>



(There was some parody in there, people... although no bananas is a seriously shocking possibility to me. )

[RRR]

Raw Success

Matt started a blog in January, if you flip through you can see his daily diet. He eats a very consistent diet with low calories (around 1200 by my calculations). You may find that eating a more consistent diet is a step towards being optimal.

What effect does having fruit after fat have for you? Do you still use fat to lock-in?

Have you considered going back on a juice feast or a modified juice feast?

Have you met many raw-foodists in Vegas?

Ps. WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR PROTEIN?!?!?!?!

[Halffull]

Have you considered adding sushi or other raw meats?

[Savage]

Originally Posted by Halffull

Have you considered adding sushi or other raw meats?

I'm no vampire. I don't kill to feast on blood and flesh.

[Andrew Brunelle]

I've always been a big fan of David Wolfe. I've seen some of his specials on Youtube. One about the Ultimate Smoothie and another about the benefits of raw cacao. He's very enthusiastic and enshrined in the raw food kingdom.

He's one of the few vegans that doesn't look sick. I know most vegans eat a junk food diet, but when you switch to raw foods, your diet becomes probably a thousand times healthier. Where are you getting your B12 now? Seaweed? You have reserves, but you'll eventually have to get some somehow. And if you're not taking supplements, then where will you get it?

I'm not saying you can't get B12 on a raw whole foods vegan diet. I'm just wondering where you'll get it from. I'm sure you've figured it out. Just for my own personal reference...

[Savage]

Originally Posted by Andrew Brunelle

I've always been a big fan of David Wolfe. I've seen some of his specials on Youtube. One about the Ultimate Smoothie and another about the benefits of raw cacao. He's very enthusiastic and enshrined in the raw food kingdom.

He's one of the few vegans that doesn't look sick. I know most vegans eat a junk food diet, but when you switch to raw foods, your diet becomes probably a thousand times healthier. Where are you getting your B12 now? Seaweed? You have reserves, but you'll eventually have to get some somehow. And if you're not taking supplements, then where will you get it?

I'm not saying you can't get B12 on a raw whole foods vegan diet. I'm just wondering where you'll get it from. I'm sure you've figured it out. Just for my own personal reference...

I wrote about B12 supplementation in a previous post. To date I didn't notice any difference with or without a B12 supplement. I'm not presently supplementing at this time.

[Laura Bruno]

@ Tina One of the best resources I've seen for breastfeeding on a raw diet is Shazzie's new book, Evie's Kitchen. She gives all the information you'd need regarding nutrients, as well as some thoughts on how raw to go when breastfeeding if you haven't been raw before. I wrote an extensive review of this book here: Evie’s Kitchen, A Book Review « Laura Bruno’s Blog

[Laura Bruno]

Yes, I am a B12 "mom," always nagging people to get tested or proactively supplement, but only because B12 deficiency is one of those things I see repeatedly in Medical Intuitive sessions. The list of symptoms is bizarre, but when I have people get checked or they just start supplementing, the results confirm the suspicion.

Note: I see B12 deficiency in vegans and raw foodists because many of my clients follow these diets; however, I have noticed the issue in meat eaters as well. As people age, they lose intrinsic factor in the gut, which means they are getting less and less B12 from swallowed supplements or pills. Someone may not notice any signs of B12 deficiency until s/he has a severe depletion, and once that happens, the person is unlikely to consider B12 as the issue.

These are some of the health or other issues people for which people have contacted me, and which resolved immediately or shortly after taking B12 shots or sublingual tablets:

1) inability to breath deeply
2) angina symptoms
3) poor memory and concentration
4) wanting to leave their marriage (very common with B12 deficiency!)
5) feeling too restricted by a seemingly terrific life (I'm not talking about when people really know they need to make a shift; I'm talking about when they've made their shifts and everything's good but they feel a massive need to sabotage)
6) pernicious anemia
7) hallucinations
8) extreme (bedridden) fatigue
9) pain in the lungs
10) anxiety, depression, bi-polar tendencies and insomnia
11) poor skin
12) vertical nail ridges
13) "B12 madness" -- this is a little discussed term among raw foodists, but essentially, it refers to what happens to people when they have maxed out their B12 stores; they literally can go mad, but they will believe it's everyone else but them.
14) high blood pressure
15) ADD
16) fugue moments
17) feeling completely out of body
18) eye twitching
19) tingling toes, fingers or limbs
20) kundalini experiences with electrical currents running up and down the body
21) schizophrenia
22) many, many others, but these are the highlights ...

Obviously, these symptoms can stem from other causes than B12 deficiency; however, I have had clients with each of these symptoms whose doctors could not find any cause for the problem. The symptoms resolved once adequate B12 stores were returned. Caught early enough, B12 deficiency's reversible, but it can cause PERMANENT NEUROLOGICAL DAMAGE if left untreated. Even if the neurological damage is reversed, some changes in peoples' lives may not be so easily reversed. Take, for example, the marriages and families that folded not because of actual irreconcilable differences but because one or both people just needed a simple supplement. Take, for example, the people who thought they were "following their bliss" only to have the bottom fall out in a major, preventable way; they may fear having faith again, when in fact, faith was not the problem--B12 deficiency was. I'm not saying everybody has it, although Gabriel Cousens says 70% of long term vegans do. I'm just saying that if people heard the stories I hear on a weekly basis, they would definitely supplement--even meat-eaters over age 35 would.

I have written about B12 before as a key to human evolution: Flushing out the Bush Administration: Human Evolution, Raw Food, and B-12 « Laura Bruno’s Blog.

[enyi]

Hi Steve,

So you mention you like spicy food

I wanted to know your opinion on this. Isn't chilli unhealthy? Do you choose to eat it despite this or have you found it to be beneficial for you?

I transitioned to 100% raw last year, and it's been amazing! Thanks all the inspiration ;-)

- Ivan

[esgreat]

Hi Steve,

If you come over to Malaysia I'll treat you to Petai (Parkia speciosa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), and the notorious Durian (Durian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

Both have very strong smell but I think you'll like the Petai (warning: its smell lingers in your urine). It's not cultivated and has to be manually collected from the rain forests by natives.

For Durian, known here as 'King of the Fruits', opinion in the Western world is highly polarized: they either love it for life or hate it like hell and never want to smell it again (that's why its banned on airplanes and many hotels). If you like it, it might do wonders to your smoothies...

Thought you'd like to try something adventurous :-)

[openeyes]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I notice that when I eat no bananas, I tend to enjoy greater variety of other fruits. I love bananas so much that sometimes it’s the only fruit I eat all day. When I favor other fruits, I get more variety.

I think that's part of why people often also benefit from reducing intake of muscle meat, grains, and dairy. It's so easy to center a diet around them and not eat much else.

Your menu for the day looks rather good. I particularly favor the peppers, olives, avocados, berries, ginger, and greens. If I could eat that way for less than $10 per day and with under 20 minutes total prep time for the day, I'd be sold. With so many fruits/veggies coming into season, maybe I can.

I'll check out the lazy raw food guide. Even if I were to go fully raw, I'd likely still include some raw eggs, though I may try going without them sometime to see if it'd be worthwhile. Right now raw eggs added to fruit/veggie shakes are an easy, cheap calorie/nutrient source.

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by RRR

Raw Success

Matt started a blog in January, if you flip through you can see his daily diet. He eats a very consistent diet with low calories (around 1200 by my calculations). You may find that eating a more consistent diet is a step towards being optimal.

Nettles in the hair??

[Jack Christopher]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

It all boils down to eating foods directly from nature instead of consuming factory products and/or killing our food with fire.

Bad choice of metaphor?

Jalepeno. Are you familiar with the material about nightshades foods?

And when thinking of diet, do you think about the inflammatory effect of foods?

[jetpack]

Maybe I'm missing something, but aren't things like crackers, tea and nuts cooked in the process before you eat them?

Granted, I don't get the whole point in 'raw', as cooking things just makes things safer to eat and easier to digest.

[Andrew Brunelle]

Originally Posted by Laura Bruno

These are some of the health or other issues people for which people have contacted me, and which resolved immediately or shortly after taking B12 shots or sublingual tablets:

1) inability to breath deeply
2) angina symptoms
3) poor memory and concentration
4) wanting to leave their marriage (very common with B12 deficiency!)
5) feeling too restricted by a seemingly terrific life (I'm not talking about when people really know they need to make a shift; I'm talking about when they've made their shifts and everything's good but they feel a massive need to sabotage)
6) pernicious anemia
7) hallucinations
8) extreme (bedridden) fatigue
9) pain in the lungs
10) anxiety, depression, bi-polar tendencies and insomnia
11) poor skin
12) vertical nail ridges
13) "B12 madness" -- this is a little discussed term among raw foodists, but essentially, it refers to what happens to people when they have maxed out their B12 stores; they literally can go mad, but they will believe it's everyone else but them.
14) high blood pressure
15) ADD
16) fugue moments
17) feeling completely out of body
18) eye twitching
19) tingling toes, fingers or limbs
20) kundalini experiences with electrical currents running up and down the body
21) schizophrenia
22) many, many others, but these are the highlights ...

Obviously, these symptoms can stem from other causes than B12 deficiency; however, I have had clients with each of these symptoms whose doctors could not find any cause for the problem. The symptoms resolved once adequate B12 stores were returned. Caught early enough, B12 deficiency's reversible, but it can cause PERMANENT NEUROLOGICAL DAMAGE if left untreated. Even if the neurological damage is reversed, some changes in peoples' lives may not be so easily reversed. Take, for example, the marriages and families that folded not because of actual irreconcilable differences but because one or both people just needed a simple supplement. Take, for example, the people who thought they were "following their bliss" only to have the bottom fall out in a major, preventable way; they may fear having faith again, when in fact, faith was not the problem--B12 deficiency was. I'm not saying everybody has it, although Gabriel Cousens says 70% of long term vegans do. I'm just saying that if people heard the stories I hear on a weekly basis, they would definitely supplement--even meat-eaters over age 35 would.

I have written about B12 before as a key to human evolution: Flushing out the Bush Administration: Human Evolution, Raw Food, and B-12 « Laura Bruno’s Blog.

I've heard of such symptoms coming about. Is there a way to get B12 without taking a supplement, being a raw foodist and all? I mean, I don't think one supplement would put a major damper on the diet, but if I'm ever going to transition to a diet that leaves one essential vitamin out, I think it would be wise to supplement with it. So I would be 99.9% raw.

[nickynoodles]

It seems to me that, whilst cutting out junk is a given, there is no best diet for everyone...

I tried a (healthy) ovo-Vegetarian diet for a while. I lost weight and felt constantly hungry. The weight loss might be great for most, but not for a very tall and very skinny guy. This was actually lean mass loss as my body fat was already 9%. People started asking me if I was ill; not good. I reintroduced white meat and fish and felt much better. I buy the best quality meat I can find and don't eat any red meat.

On the other hand cutting out all lactose from my diet was a big win. I felt much better and I'm pleased I tried that. I haven't touched milk in 5 years.

This year I've been trying to remove as many processed sources of food as possible and eating much more fresh fruit and veg. Another win, I feel better. Yay for the Vita-Mix bought on Erin's recommendation!

Given the results of my Vegetarian trail it's easy to extrapolate what would happen on a raw food trial. I would lose a lot of weight due to my through-the-roof metabolism.

You do need B12 Steve. Studies have shown 'herbivore' primates get their B12 from occasionally eating insects [1], so, unless you're snacking on termites it's a fallacy to think you're eating a totally natural diet in that regard. You're eating a sanitized version of a natural diet, which removes one essential vitamin plus several amino acids. I can't see the point in waiting until you're ill to acknowledge the problem. It's like the smoker waiting until he's ill to give up.

[1] Diet of Gorillas

[Laura Bruno]

Originally Posted by Andrew Brunelle

I've heard of such symptoms coming about. Is there a way to get B12 without taking a supplement, being a raw foodist and all? I mean, I don't think one supplement would put a major damper on the diet, but if I'm ever going to transition to a diet that leaves one essential vitamin out, I think it would be wise to supplement with it. So I would be 99.9% raw.

Some people believe they can get enough from the bacteria in their guts if they do not eat very sterile foods. Gabriel Cousens and others who do a lot of blood testing on tons of folks have found this is risky--hence his statistic that 80% (I had said 70% but I looked it up and it's 80%) of long term vegans or raw foodists have a subclinical or full-on B12 deficiency.

Other people purposely do not wash their 100% organic produce and "hope" they're eating bug's eggs and little larvae, which is how some largely "vegan" apes get their B12. Um, personally, I'll take a supplement before purposely eating bugs, larvae and eggs that I will then want to do a cleanse to remove from my system, but some people prefer the bug method. It's not exactly vegan, but if you are REALLY anti-supplement, then it's an option. ;-)

Some people do seem to have B12 stores that last longer than others, but in general I notice that people who have had a tendency to be nervous or anxious from childhood onward seem either not to metabolize B12 very well, or to burn through it faster. In those cases, they may need to supplement YEARS before a long term vegan, even if they have been "getting" B12 from a dietary source. Good luck to you!

[Savage]

Originally Posted by jetpack

Maybe I'm missing something, but aren't things like crackers, tea and nuts cooked in the process before you eat them?

Granted, I don't get the whole point in 'raw', as cooking things just makes things safer to eat and easier to digest.

The flax crackers are dehydrated at low temperatures, not baked. I sometimes make them myself with a dehydrator. Usually I just buy them from the raw foods section at Whole Foods.

Raw nuts are raw if you get the kind that aren't pasteurized or heat-processed. Some raw foodists are more pure about this than others. Many new raw foodists will eat pasteurized nuts as a transitional food and reduce or eliminate them after a few years. Many raw foodists also soak nuts in water before eating them, which activates the enzymes to make them more efficiently digestible.

My favorite nuts are Brazil nuts, which are about 2,500 times higher in selenium than any other nut. Selenium is an anti-oxidant that has been shown to boost mental performance, retard aging, and boost the immune system. It's also a powerful mood booster. I had about 15 brazil nuts this morning (which is a small amount for me since I would often eat 30-40 of them), and I feel incredibly happy.

Herbal tea (dried tea + hot water) and other zero-calorie, caffeine-free beverages don't matter much because you aren't getting a significant amount of nutrients from them. I like having herbal tea with fresh lemon juice as my first drink of the day. The lemon juice helps to cleanse the kidneys.

[aelle]

Originally Posted by Laura Bruno

Some people believe they can get enough from the bacteria in their guts if they do not eat very sterile foods. Gabriel Cousens and others who do a lot of blood testing on tons of folks have found this is risky--hence his statistic that 80% (I had said 70% but I looked it up and it's 80%) of long term vegans or raw foodists have a subclinical or full-on B12 deficiency.

Other people purposely do not wash their 100% organic produce and "hope" they're eating bug's eggs and little larvae, which is how some largely "vegan" apes get their B12. Um, personally, I'll take a supplement before purposely eating bugs, larvae and eggs that I will then want to do a cleanse to remove from my system, but some people prefer the bug method. It's not exactly vegan, but if you are REALLY anti-supplement, then it's an option. ;-)

Yeah, I've heard these arguments before. Same argument as the (true) fact that vegans in India or other less advanced countries get all the B12 they need from their diet that isn't as sanitised as ours. But they also lose 10 times more children than we do, mostly from diarrhea. E-coli is no joke, if you give up animal products get your B12 from supplements, not poo.

[RichardC]

David Wolfe may be a knowledgeable source about raw foods, but he seems to have a poor understanding of science. His book has a lengthy chapter uncritically regurgitating the evolution-denial nonsense purveyed by Philip Johnson and other Intelligent Design advocates. Roger Haeske, another prominent raw food advocate, has also been taken in by this pseudoscientific crap. I think a raw food diet has much to recommend it, but I'd be more inclined to take seriously what certain of its advocates say if they showed some knowledge and understanding of science.

[Annet]

I'm still working my way through the archives so I'm sorry if you've answered this before.

Do you crunch your nutrition on something like Cron-O-Meter (CRON-O-Meter) or have you been eating raw long enough that you are able to intuite if your nutrition is on target? I've read a lot about Calorie Restriction w/ Optimal Nutrition (CRON) but know virtually zilch about a raw diet. Interesting stuff.

[RichardC]

...if you want to eat the healthiest diet. I'd be happy to be shown scientific evidence that I'm wrong, but to the best of my knowledge, you can get some extremely valuable nutrients from cooked vegetables that you can't get from raw foods, at least in the same quantity.

For example, your body can absorb much more of such anti-cancer compounds as carotenoids, lutein, and lycopene from cooked vegetables (e.g., tomatoes and carrots) than from raw. This may be because cooking breaks down the cellular connective bands to which these compounds are bound. While steaming vegetables destroys some nutrients (somewhere around 10%), cooking also breaks down cellulose so that fewer of your own body's enzymes are needed to digest the food.

The antioxidants in apples (phenolics and flavonoids) are made more available by cooking. Cooking corn also promotes its antioxidant activity. When corn is cooked, an anticancer compound called ferulic acid is made far more available to the body.

In addition, it's much easier for many people to consume a high volume of vegetables, which is highly desirable, if some significant portion of them are cooked. I'd suggest a 50-50 split between cooked and raw veggies, making both kinds the mainstay of one's diet.

Steve, you write about "killing our food with fire," and raw-food enthusiasts often say that cooked food is dead food. Well, I have to tell you that your tossed salad is just as dead as steamed spinach: if you leave the salad on the table, it won't grow or reproduce. There is no mysterious elan vital or life force that is destroyed by steaming vegetables.

I agree that raw foods should constitute the majority of our food intake. However, I'd be wary of getting my nutritional advice from someone like David Wolfe, who, as I pointed out in a previous post, may be a good guy who has some good advice to offer, but he's also a scientific ignoramus. Let's get our nutritional advice from the best scientific research available.

[ctutt]

Steve,

How long must raw food be severed from its life source before you pronounce it dead? How pre-mature must it be harvested in order to travel the long distance to reach you before you pronounce it unfit? Why is raw better and/or safer than properly cooked food?

Personally, I like harvesting directly from my garden to my table at the peak of ripe perfection, but that doesn't actually work for everything in my diet.

Charles

[Rachelle]

It always bothers me when I hear people say vegans look sick/unhealthy. There are a LOT of unhealthy looking people on non-vegan diets, too!

I've been vegan for a tad over 7 years now. I LOVE BEING VEGAN!!!

I tried a raw trial just this past January, and now that I've been off of it for a week and a half, I really want to go back to eating raw. I don't know if I want to do it 100% hardcore, but I'd like to be mostly raw, anyway.

Here is a pic of myself that I took just this weekend:
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...s/DSCF0735.jpg


And now tell me I look unhealthy or sickly. :P


Anyway...
Steve, I remember a while back you mentioned an online article that made reference to blood sugar levels when on raw diets, and such. Can you or anyone point me in the direction of some good online articles that talk about how/why one's blood sugar doesn't skyrocket even if you eat tons of raw fruit?

[Savage]

Originally Posted by Rachelle

Steve, I remember a while back you mentioned an online article that made reference to blood sugar levels when on raw diets, and such. Can you or anyone point me in the direction of some good online articles that talk about how/why one's blood sugar doesn't skyrocket even if you eat tons of raw fruit?

Not sure about online articles, but Doug Graham's book The 80/10/10 Diet has some info on blood sugar.

I tested my blood sugar on my own to see what effect it would have. I could eat all the fruit I wanted, and it make no difference. I've never been diabetic though.

I agree the whole sickly vegan notion is nonsense. It's not like we're the ones getting all the quadruple bypasses to save us from clogged arteries.

[Rachelle]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I tested my blood sugar on my own to see what effect it would have. I could eat all the fruit I wanted, and it make no difference. I've never been diabetic though.

Apparently a documentary took some people who were diabetic (Type II, I believe) and put them on an all-raw diet, and the result seemed to make their diabetes and need for insulin shots disappear!

YouTube - Promo Video for Film "Simply Raw - Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days."

[Kaspian]

Originally Posted by RichardC

Well, I have to tell you that your tossed salad is just as dead as steamed spinach.

Not true. If you leave the salad in a bowl on the table and the leaves dry out, sure, they won't grow. However, many (if not most) plants will sprout roots if you stick a piece of stem & leaf in water or soil. (Sticking a cutting in a glass of water is one of the easiest ways to share your houseplants with your friends.) Succulents reproduce easily with a single leaf set on top of the dirt. Some plant leaves don't produce enough rooting hormone to grow roots from a single leaf, but they're very much alive until they're cooked, dried to a crisp, or broken down by digestive juices.