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

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  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    edited December 2015
    I can't think of any reason that this is a good idea, and I'm not saying that to be insulting, just to be clear. Sometimes it's hard to express ideas through written communication so hopefully this isn't perceived as attacking on my part.

    You have basic nutrient needs because you're a human being. The more restrictive your diet is, the more challenging it will be to meet those nutrient needs. Additionally, the more restrictive your diet is the more challenging it will be for MOST people to adhere to the diet.

    There certainly may be logical benefits to eating a high volume of fruits and vegetables. You'll likely promote satiety, you'll get a decent amount of fiber in, you might be able to consume lower calories than a diet predominated by junk food.

    But one can eat a high volume of fruit and vegetables without taking things to an extreme as you are suggesting.

    In my opinion, these extreme endpoints are pretty common with topics in health and fitness and it's a reason why many people fail.

    EDIT: If you want to avoid animal products for ethical reasons, have at it. But it doesn't sound like this is your basis for doing so.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,889 Member
    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.
  • rbiss
    rbiss Posts: 422 Member
    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.
  • robs_ready
    robs_ready Posts: 1,488 Member
    edited December 2015
    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
  • withoutasaddle
    withoutasaddle Posts: 191 Member
    I've done raw vegan before, and was playing around again with Raw Till 4 the last few weeks. During the summer fully raw was fine- lower fruit prices, it's hot outside so a nice cold watermelon tastes great.... But in the middle of December where mangoes cost $2, 200 cals of berries are $4, and all you want to do is make yourself a mug of hot chocolate? I would wait for fully Raw Vegan. Raw till 4 has been great, but I'm having more problems than I remember with my veggies. They're just so hard to eat uncooked now! I can't stomach them. Or, I don't want to. But who cares- come dinner I can stir fry them and make a nice cooked casserole and whatever else I want. I would suggust trying raw till 4, and fully transition if it's working well for you
    The only -only- nutritional things you can't get on raw vegan is B12, but that's a cheap and easy CVS gummy to take. Plus it would take years for your body's stores to run out of it anyways.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    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.
  • jimbob386
    jimbob386 Posts: 2 Member
    A cooked, Whole food plant based vegan diet, is much more sustainable, satisfying and nutritionally complete.
    Many raw vegans switch to cooked in the long term due to the unsustainable nature of eating raw. Yes eat a good amount of raw vegetables and fruit, but don't deny yourself tasty satisfying and nutritious cooked foods.
    The reason many raw food vegans have success early on is due to the fact that they cut out processed vegan junk food, refined oils and calorie dense processed white starches, NOT because they don't cook vegetables! If you eat a wholefood plant based diet, rich in vegetables, legumes, and whole grains you will feel great, satisfied and you will sustain it.
    Also some nutrients are absorbed better from some cooked vegetables.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    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.
  • redraidergirl2009
    redraidergirl2009 Posts: 2,560 Member
    Just a tip - don't expect a miracle from going vegan. I was and then vegetarian and my hair got really dry and brittle, my Ibs got worse, I had less energy, my bp didn't improve. It's not for everyone
  • chupacabramamma
    chupacabramamma Posts: 5 Member
    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!

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