Thinking of Going Vegan, possibly just Raw Vegan. Any Advice?

I did the raw thing one summer and felt great at first, then felt worse and worse. By the time winter hit, I was ready for some hot food and gave it up. I found it is a lot easier to do in warm weather. And it can definitely get expensive if you go for more of the gourmet recipes that use a lot of nuts.

It's not possible to get EVERYTHING you need from straight fruit and veg. I've been vegan for a long time. Never done the raw thing myself, but known many who have.

You'll find yourself extremely lacking in protein on a raw vegan diet. Now, that is not necessarily the case for a vegan diet as there are plenty of protein sources out there, but it'll be hard to get enough raw through veg, or grains, or nuts or what have you.

This website will let you tell it what you want to eat and will tell you how much you'll need to eat to get an adequate amount of protein.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/protein-calculator/

For example, edamame which is a very good protein source, would require you to eat 1996 calories to get 60 grams of protein. That's not very actionable over time.

There is a YouTube "guru" who does nothing but tout a raw food diet. Some people claim to have had success, while others have had serious medical issues caused by the diet. Google it. Anything that is so restrictive and extreme can't be good for you, imho.

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idoltrainee wrote: »

Thanks for all of your replies! The thing is, I tried to mention this in my original post, but it was too long so it got cut out. What I said was that these "problems" didn't seem to be an issue with the people I know that went fully raw vegan. They just said that they got everything they needed from fruit and vegetables. Thanks anyway! ❤️

I once had someone tell me (with a straight face) that they got all their nutrients from the maple syrup diet....seriously.

BecomingBane wrote: »

It's not possible to get EVERYTHING you need from straight fruit and veg. I've been vegan for a long time. Never done the raw thing myself, but known many who have.

You'll find yourself extremely lacking in protein on a raw vegan diet. Now, that is not necessarily the case for a vegan diet as there are plenty of protein sources out there, but it'll be hard to get enough raw through veg, or grains, or nuts or what have you.

This website will let you tell it what you want to eat and will tell you how much you'll need to eat to get an adequate amount of protein.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/protein-calculator/

For example, edamame which is a very good protein source, would require you to eat 1996 calories to get 60 grams of protein. That's not very actionable over time.

OP, Bane is right. If you go vegan you’ll need to supplement your diet. Vitamin B is one of the obvious deficiencies from eating plants alone. And while it’s possible to get enough protein on a vegan diet, it takes more work and planning. You should start doing some serious research. And if you come across somebody claiming that you can live on a vegan diet alone, run away.

Going vegan is a big step in itself. As part of your diet you can eat a lot of raw veggies and fruit. But committing to a fully raw diet, on top of the already restrictive vegan diet, seems a little nuts to me. Before taking that last step I’d want some solid science that fully explains and supports the specific benefits you might expect.

just remember to listen to YOUR body,something that works for your friends may not work for you. I have friends who went vegan and are doing amaaazing. I also have friends who went vegan and their health really stalled and plummeted after a while. If it isn't working, don't feel ashamed - there are lots of ways to improve your relationship with animals, reduce your impact on the environment, and still eat some animal protein.

ClubSilencio wrote: »

I don't recommend eating a fully raw diet like that Kristina gal. First of all, she runs an organic produce co-op so she always has convenient access to all the produce she needs. Second, she has money. Even before Youtube she had parents who supported her diet financially.

The volume of food you need to eat on this diet is enormous and you will constantly need to shop for produce. I eat a ton of fruit, I'm not raw vegan, and it's a pain in the bleep making sure I have ripe fruit on hand.

Skin, hair, and energy are not exclusive to a raw vegan diet. Focus on sleep, hydration, and de-stressing first. Then start eating nutrient rich foods. Don't feel like you have to go to an extreme to attain these things. Some people have great skin and smoke cigarettes. Life is funny that way.

Yes, the vegans I knew in real life who went raw lived in a vegetarian yoga community, and had unlimited free access to a fully stocked pantry and walk-in refrigerator. They still found sprouting legumes, etc. to be a lot of work, and being raw unpalatable and unsustainable when the weather turned cold. They also did not find the promised value of being raw.

Best advice, don't do it.

Not only will you be missing out on a number of basic vitamin and mineral requirements, the diet us just unstastainable

rbiss wrote: »

I fully support vegetarian/vegan lifestyles, but raw vegan is very difficult. If it's something you are seriously considering, try eating raw for a meal and transition over to see how it works for you. It can be expensive and is time consuming.

I agree with this. Rather than making a dramatic change, why not go vegetarian (if you are not already) and try to incorporate one raw vegan meal a day for a while, while reading up on how to meet nutritional needs while vegan or raw vegan. Then start working on cutting out dairy and eggs while making sure you replace them with other plant-based protein sources. Once you have put together a satisfying and adequate vegan diet -- and there are many people on this site who can help you with that -- start working on adding in raw meals that are nutritional alternatives to what you were eating (NOT just fruits and veg). There are lots of good raw "cookbooks" and you'd definitely want to be reading up on how to do it properly. Given how much work it can be I'd think a transition process as you learn some of the techniques would be important.

I personally would not do a raw lifestyle, but I understand veganism for ethical reasons and I think incorporating more raw foods might be an interesting experiment and if you like it you could continue and see how you feel.

If you do this, you need a really good plan for how to get various vitamins and proteins, specifically how to get:
1. Adequate total protein intake - hard on a raw vegan diet. Without cooking, you can't eat certain foods like soy that would be very nutritious and high-protein when cooked (soy is toxic when raw).
2. Complete protein - nine of the 20 amino acids can't be synthesized by your body. You must get adequate quantities of each in your diet. Most plants do not contain complete protein, so you have to plan to eat foods that complement each other and together form a complete protein diet.
3. Adequate vitamins, particularly B12 - hard on any vegan diet, most likely you'll be taking supplements.

We did a 70% raw diet in our household for a few weeks. It worked pretty well, and the Raw Spinach Lasagne recipe in Baird Rodwell's "The Complete Book of Raw Food" (the only recipe book I found useful for a household of varied eaters) ranks in my opinion as one of the top 10 lasagne recipes, raw or cooked. (And I grew up with Sicilian neighbors, so that's saying something!) But no matter how good it looks or smells, if the leftovers have been in the fridge for 36 or more hours? Feed it to the pigs or chickens. I had a really nasty couple of days of food poisoning from that one bad food choice.

Raw doesn't actually mean cold or unheated, in the plan we used. Foods heated up to 115*F are still "raw" from what I remember. But you have to be REALLY careful - do not save the leftovers! Heat only as much as you'll eat in that one meal, and make absolutely sure what you've got carries little to no bacterial load, because you've got a real bacterial culture farm growing at that temp.

If I was going to do it again (and mind you, I live in ranching country and can get fully clean, fully safe raw beef from my own or other cattle) I wouldn't do more than a 70% raw. I stay away from raw dairy too, not because of bacteria (we have a couple of dairy goats) but because the heat from cheese-making seems to break down the hormonal traces that unwind my happily menopausal state. Note to others: "Raw milk cheddar" still means it had to be heated past the "raw" state to go through the cheddaring process.

I made an awesome raw, dehydrated, sprouted buckwheat breakfast bar that everyone including the kids loved - but if you're going to sprout buckwheat, do NOT let it go long enough to turn green. That makes it go toxic - not fluffy OMG TOXIN toxic, but actual bad chemical toxic. You'd have to look it up for details, it's been almost a decade since I made those.

I look forward to reading your notes on your food journey!