Raw Diet Anyone?

I think you should try something that is long term, this is a diet for you that you will stop eventually becasue it is hard to maintain. you can still be healthy and eat cooked food, have raw diet meals if you love it but I am all about a reachable life style change that you can do forever. If you love it do it but what is your plan afterwards?

consume the recommend amount of calories on this site, and basically just do everything they tell you to. should be there in no time!

i feed my dogs a raw diet and it is amazing what it has done for their health and behavior. it almost makes me want to try a raw diet for myself.

sorry if this reply isn't helpful!

I have some friends that eat raw, and I think the entire concept is really interesting with tons and tons of benefits. I don't think it's right for me because, although I love fruits and vegetables, I don't think I could (happily) restrict my diet to eating them without any kind of cooking. I was still really interested in the concept, though, so for about the last month, I've been eating one meal and all snacks raw each day. 99% of the time, the meal is breakfast, and it's usually a green smoothie (a couple kinds of fruit, spinach, and some water). Then any snack I have throughout the day has to be raw... A banana, an apple, whatever. It's really helped me stay within my nutrition goals because a) everything is so healthy and b) it's so much easier to make good choices when I restrict my snacks to raw fruits instead of... oh... say, a mini Snickers or some Ritz crackers.

I have felt a LOT better this month, too. I have had digestive issues since I was 18 (so, about 6 years), month-long bouts of cluster headaches (migraines), and also what looks to be the beginning symptoms of multiple sclerosis which my doctor is constantly monitoring. All of my symptoms are already getting much better just switching one meal a day and snacks to raw. I'm sure if I went completely raw, it would be even better, but again -- you have to do what's right for your lifestyle, and I just don't think it's a good fit for me. I will say that it does inspire me to eat healthier all day, though.

I guess my point is that if you're having trouble sticking to a long term raw diet, you can try what I did and just set partial raw goals. No, you won't get all the benefits of a totally raw diet, but it's definitely not going to hurt.

PS -- My favorite resource is Uncooking101.com.

Where do you plan to get your proteins from?

Raw eggs and meat of course. Everything raw is healthy.

I have been 100% raw, but I feel really happy and healthy at around 75% raw. Unfortunately it just doesn't fit into my lifestyle right now. I eat raw when I can (like this morning, since I'm home), but I'm just too busy most of the time and away from home too much to keep it interesting right now. It can be done, but it's not an easy lifestyle change. As much as I love raw foods, I wouldn't recommend trying to jump straight to 100%. Shoot for just adding more raw to what you are currently eating. Natalia Rose's Raw Food Detox Diet has a lot of really great ideas for transitioning to whatever level of raw foods you choose.

I agree. I used to run a raw food group and monthly pot luck and have seen lots of experiences of people. Best to have balance that you can maintain long term instead of going back and forth with 100% raw, which could be a shock to the system.

Focus on adding more healthy meals and snacks into your current diet. Watch the nuts, though. A small amount daily is good, but many transitional raw recipes are heavy on the nuts - just make sure you plug everything into MFP for calorie calculations. I like having green smoothies regularly as a way to get more dark leafy greens in.

Natalia Rose's book is very good and I would also recommend it. I'm currently reading the classic Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman and am incorporating more greens and beans into my diet, so that might be a good book to pick up as well for ideas on incorporating more healthy things into your diet.

Where do you plan to get your proteins from?

Nuts & seeds can provide some amount, plants can provide a lesser but still meaningful amount, there are plenty of raw fish & raw beef dishes which can provide a large amount, raw dairy is an excellent source if one has access to a safe source... and there are raw protein powders if all else fails. I'm not a raw foodist, but protein does not have to be an issue with a raw lifestyle.

Actually, a raw food diet in the classic sense is a vegan diet (so no fish, meat, dairy, etc.), with the possible exception of honey - which is a personal preference.

I assumed that if the OP were vegan, they would have mentioned it as there are several 'types' of raw foodists.

When I was eating unhealthy and first started dating my wife (a good 7 yrs ago), I took her to a "raw" restaurant when I was still trying to impress her (she's super healthy and a vegetarian). I ordered the "raw enchilada". After I dropped the other half off at her place, I went to taco bell to get the nastiness out of my mouth.... Ha! My how times have changed.

Raw enchilada... I had one of those at a place called Go Raw in Vegas, then I see you're from Vegas! Is that where you had yours? It was HORRIBLE!