Raw food "lifestyle"... unsustainable?

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Replies

  • FreedomReigns
    FreedomReigns Posts: 195 Member
    I :heart: meat!
  • emtjmac
    emtjmac Posts: 1,320 Member
    A balanced diet is the only sustainable diet. Ignore all fads and fake academics and stick with real nutrition science.
  • 75in2013
    75in2013 Posts: 361 Member
    A balanced diet is the only sustainable diet. Ignore all fads and fake academics and stick with real nutrition science.

    You can have a balanced diet while only eating raw. So?
  • I ate raw food for about 8 months, it was pretty cool :) it's not only bananas :) if you know how to plan your diet not to miss out on vitamins you'll be ok! i was full of energy, lost tons of weight, and just felt good. but i usually listen to my body need and after 8 months my body told me "enough! i want hot soup" :) so i started eating cooked foods as well. it's all individual, like with every diet - some people feel great eating raw, some people get very sick.
  • penrbrown
    penrbrown Posts: 2,685 Member
    A balanced diet is the only sustainable diet. Ignore all fads and fake academics and stick with real nutrition science.

    Define balanced diet. According to the food pyramid it's one thing but according to hard core health enthusiasts it's something else. So define.
  • Panda_1999
    Panda_1999 Posts: 191 Member
    My family does do meatless meals from time to time but we still cook most of it. But we eat meat, dairy, eggs, grains, as well as fruits & vegetables. We even do sweets, just less than we used to.

    I would have concerns eating mostly/just raw fruits and vegetables - what about pesticides, high nitrates (not to mention what fertilizer runoff does to the water table in some places where foods are grown, I think people forget there is processing in getting these foods to market, too)

    http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/a/pesticides.htm
    http://www.livestrong.com/article/367209-a-list-of-vegetables-high-in-nitrates/
  • I think that the people( most, at least) who live the raw lifestyle believe that it is a guaranteed and quick way to lose weight. I don't know, I am probably wrong but that is my theory
  • pdworkman
    pdworkman Posts: 1,342 Member
    You don't avoid the pesticides, etc. by eating more animal products and less vegetable products. The animal eats the vegetable products and you get a higher concentration of them by eating higher up on the food chain, than lower down on the food chain.
    My family does do meatless meals from time to time but we still cook most of it. But we eat meat, dairy, eggs, grains, as well as fruits & vegetables. We even do sweets, just less than we used to.

    I would have concerns eating mostly/just raw fruits and vegetables - what about pesticides, high nitrates (not to mention what fertilizer runoff does to the water table in some places where foods are grown, I think people forget there is processing in getting these foods to market, too)

    http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/a/pesticides.htm
    http://www.livestrong.com/article/367209-a-list-of-vegetables-high-in-nitrates/
  • CarmenSRT
    CarmenSRT Posts: 843 Member
    I'm not even remotely interested in a raw food diet, but I suspect it COULD be done in a healthy fashion. It would likely take a massive amount of research to be healthy, making it unlikely the average practitioner would do it well, but it does seem plausible.
  • JenKillough
    JenKillough Posts: 474 Member
    Over a period of about two years, I attempted a raw food diet... probably sustained a 75% raw diet. For about 3-4 months I was around 90% raw. It certainly wasn't satisfying. I don't think I'd ever attempt it again. It was fun/interesting though. I learned a lot of new food preparation skills, recipes, bought new kitchen equipment, raw food books and even maintained a raw food blog.

    I was mostly attracted to the more artsy complicated raw recipes... was cool to see how they transformed a cooked dish into a raw one. And very laborious.

    ETA: I bought Raw by Juliano way back in 2000 before "raw food" was even popular. Bought my juicer back then too.
  • chulie
    chulie Posts: 282
    I went to a RAW vegan restaurant once with a bunch of friends. One of the girls is vegetarian and was just curious about it so we all supported her and went....let's just say.......I don't know how strongly I can say....NOT FOR ME!!!! The food looked pretty.....but taste....uuggghhhhh....let's just say...when you order a pizza, dehydrated crust made from crushed grains is NOT an option at pizzza pizza for a reason!!!!!
  • stukawife
    stukawife Posts: 45 Member
    What happened to moderation. Food cannot be all or nothing. I don't eat peppers (any kind) becasue I hate them...I don't eat veal beacause i object ot the way thye are raised and there are plenty of other sources of meat to eat. But to say out of hand that I will not eat any meat, or eat only raw fods is nuts. Humans were not designed that way. We are omnivores, we eat everything and in nature we ate everything in season (until we learned to store and preseve food items).

    So unless a person discovers that a certain food items causes harm, there i no reason not to eat whatever you want, in moderation!
  • SugarFemme24
    SugarFemme24 Posts: 47 Member
    I think that if you look at the standard american diet Raw is a HUGE step up. That many vitamins and nutrients flooding the system after the malnutrition of the sugar filled standard diet. Plus, I think one of the reasons that science struggles to find "the perfect balance" when it comes to diet is because some stuff works for some people, and other stuff works for other people.
  • suv_hater
    suv_hater Posts: 374 Member
    How is eating animal products sustainable? If we didn't forcefully rape animals so they can reproduce and then feed them drugs and food they're not meant to eat, it wouldn't be sustainable at all. You'd be lucky to get a chicken wing per month if we raised animals ethically for human consumption. Just one banana tree on the otherhand can feed a family for months.
  • punkrockgoth
    punkrockgoth Posts: 534 Member
    I see a lot of raw food dishes come up on my Tumblr dashboard. I've tried a few of them and they are delicious. There are a lot of raw foods I love, there are a lot of vegan foods I love.

    I like keeping an open mind better. I love food, and I love trying new things. I can't imagine living a completely raw food lifestyle.

    I did go vegan for awhile. I thought that it would be a quick fix to my weight problem back in my younger, less informed days. I got really sick.

    I'm happy with my lifestyle now.
  • ...
  • A balanced diet is the only sustainable diet. Ignore all fads and fake academics and stick with real nutrition science.

    You can have a balanced diet while only eating raw. So?



    Yep, you sure can and based on the results I see people reaping from mainstream "nutrition science" I want no part of it. After going high raw vegan for a few months and seeing all of the benefits inside and out as well as all of my health complaints disappearing I am completely sold. I'm working my way back to that lifestyle now, I'm about half-way there.
  • My family does do meatless meals from time to time but we still cook most of it. But we eat meat, dairy, eggs, grains, as well as fruits & vegetables. We even do sweets, just less than we used to.

    I would have concerns eating mostly/just raw fruits and vegetables - what about pesticides, high nitrates (not to mention what fertilizer runoff does to the water table in some places where foods are grown, I think people forget there is processing in getting these foods to market, too)

    http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/a/pesticides.htm
    http://www.livestrong.com/article/367209-a-list-of-vegetables-high-in-nitrates/

    Um, do you know what's in and "on" your meat?
  • BlackEyedPanda
    BlackEyedPanda Posts: 86 Member
    Raw can be healthy, I just don't think it is healthy for the reasons they claim it to be healthy. Someone here posted a story about a raw baby being really unhealthy, but I don't see how a raw diet would affect child development so that the baby could not lift its head at an appropriate age - it is more likely a sign of a developmental delay unrelated to diet.

    I know one person who has been raw all her life, being born to a raw family. She is very healthy, runs five miles every day and has a body to die for. I don't think that is because she eats raw but because she eats healthy. If she ate all the same foods but cooked, she would most likely be just as fit as she is now.
    Soy milk almond milk are such are not milk. They are powder with water added....and frankly humans were not designed tojsut eat raw. We discovered fire, we eat meat etc.

    Moderation si the key.

    And yes less junk and hormone/pesticide laden foods would also be good,.

    Extremes are bad.
    They are not powder with water added, they are relatively easy to make yourself an no powder is needed. You make it from nuts/beans directly, you just soak them over night, then blend them and put them through a a sieve and you have your own low calorie milk. Or some people prefer to call it mylk.
  • FeebRyan
    FeebRyan Posts: 738 Member
    A raw foodist that denied a child breast milk. What pap

    A child can grow on a vegan diet but needs milk from mother for the first 3 years at least. Any reasonable vegan would tell you this.
  • squatsandlipgloss
    squatsandlipgloss Posts: 595 Member
    ive never heard of that its kinda weird but hey i believe if its not broken dont fix it if it works for you thats great but im not into it lol plus i like my steak <3

    This ^^ Oh yes!!
  • Spindigo1
    Spindigo1 Posts: 123 Member
    I did a raw food cleanse for 2 weeks a year ago. I dropped 10 lbs and gained them back immediately. I found myself doing strange things like standing in the kitchen deeply inhaling the smoke from my roommates burnt omelette. Creepy. I won't be doing it again!
  • CoachReddy
    CoachReddy Posts: 3,949 Member
    I really don't understand what draws people to something like this. 30 bananas a day? 50 bananas a day? What? Why? I just don't get it... I can't find any serious, respected people who think that this is the answer to all of man's problems but it seems like a lot of the people who subscribe to this way of thinking believe that to be the case. No disrespect to people who think this is the way to live, maybe there is something to it that I haven't been able to discover through my cursory googling and youtube meandering.

    meh, if it makes you happy and you don't feel deprived, sure it's sustainable.

    and while it's not something that the majority of Americans think they could or would do, that doesn't mean it doesn't have benefits.

    it's got a lame title, but this book is a really great one dealing with the benefits of a raw diet. http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Beauty-David-Wolfe/dp/1556437323

    but yes, it is a granola-y, california/new york/denver kind of lifestyle. :)
  • AmythistRae
    AmythistRae Posts: 107
    I'm confused. I don't do the raw food diet (and have no interest in it), but I never heard of 30 to 50 bananas a day having anything to do with it.

    And I love bananas. Just wanted to say that.

    30bananasaday.com
    Raw food website.

    no actually it is a fruitarian eating plan...not a raw food diet...and typically it is for extreme sports driven people who require a great deal of calories...Not saying it is the way,...just clearing up what it is...