let me hear your Raw Food diet/lifestyle stories please

westonhive

I am currently on day 10 of a 21 day Daniel Fast. (Not for fitness reasons, not up for debate) while doing research on new recipes etc Ive been running across alot of Raw food blogs and recipes. I'm very interested in this way of eating. Can you share your experience with this? Also is this the same thing as clean eating? Thx in advance guys! ..and girls!

demelza123

I am not a RAW foodie, but I mix it into my diet on a whole. As I am sure you are aware the purpose of a RAW diet is to maximise the living nutrients within the food you are about to eat. Going RAW would require lots time and depending on how 'involved' you want to be, you would need to invest in a good dehydrator and a good blender. I love eating RAW (made a chia, coconut pudding - for my weekend breakfast) - and I am quite lucky in that there are some RAW chefs in my town that sell there cookies and crackers etc. BUT you will need to be very focused on soaking & sprouting all your grains, making your own nut milks (which is NOT hard, but time consuming). Find alternatives to foods that you love (cooked) - so that it's not to tough on your will power. Your shopping list will be very heavily based on nuts and I did find that it can become quite expense (I live in a small mountain town - where there's only a few suppliers), so you may need to expect an increase in your shopping bill. I do want to stress though - it is a really great way to cook and there is a lot of satisifaction from making food this way. You really do feel proud of making your way through some of the recipes out there. In closing I would say - try it! Can you or could you maintain the diet for the long-haul - that's a tough one to answer, for me that is a NO - but I am always trying my hand at it. Good luck.

PS. Always soak your RAW nuts (Overnight) in filtered water, takes all the crap off them and way easier to digest (its the only way I eat mine). Cheers.

AuntieMC

bump

Hunterlehmann56

go to 30 bananas a day dot com, read the 80-10-10 diet. dont get scamed by the high fat raw food gurus! if you want to get lean go high carb low fat raw vegan. the fat you eat is the fat you wear!
hugs!

naomi8888

I used to look at this blog

http://kristensraw.com/blog/

Check it out

AuntieMC

bump again

bathsheba_c

Here is a medical study on the effects of a raw food diet: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10436305

Excerpt from the abstract: The consumption of a raw food diet is associated with a high loss of body weight. Since many raw food dieters exhibited underweight and amenorrhea, a very strict raw food diet cannot be recommended on a long-term basis.


HuffPo also reprinted an article from science magazine that says that cooking was a necessary step in human evolution because it allowed us to get the nutrients to support our bigger brains: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/cooked-food-diet-primates-brains_n_2033975.html

Excerpt from the article: Eating a raw food diet is a recipe for disaster if you're trying to boost your species' brainpower. That's because humans would have to spend more than 9 hours a day eating to get enough energy from unprocessed raw food alone to support our large brains, according to a new study that calculates the energetic costs of growing a bigger brain or body in primates.

Second (more raw-food friendly) excerpt: An ape's diet in the wild differs from a modern "raw food diet," in which humans get sufficient calories from processing raw food in blenders and adding protein and other nutrients.

westonhive

Bump

SteveJWatson

The day I had a salad was very pleasant, thanks.

AuntieMC

Bump! Anyone else have any comments?

Sproutlady135

I am eating a raw diet and I feel great. I juice veggies everyday. I limit my fructose (fruit) intake. Fructose is linked to fatty liver, gout, diabetes, and decrease in longevity. I eat a lot of sprouts and supplement with chlorella, B/G algae, spirulina, and nuts and seeds. I am not concerned about being "underweight."

xstarxdustx

bump.