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tofu
As you know, i’ve recently had a full recovery from CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome). I have noticed, that as soon as I start to include protein foods in my diet i.e. nuts, dairy, eggs, or grains (more than one serving a day) my symptoms return.
After 2 days on a diet of only fruit and vegetables i am back to normal health again. I would also like to add that i have eaten a very low protein diet for 6 months now and myself and others have noticed an increase in the muscle mass of my legs.
A raw vegan diet seems plausable nutritionally as long as care is taken, as with all diets, but socially its not so easy, this to me is the only downfall if you are indeed looking for a ‘dietary model’ to follow.
I personally, would be very careful to pin the failure of this diet on lack of protein, but rather lack of balanced vegetation, lack of calories, lack of fat, too many nuts, and/or too much fruit acid.
I know one raw vegan who eats only pears and hazelnuts all day long, and with the obsessive nature of some raw vegans, I can see why there are failures.
Karen Wood and Karen Knowler to take 2 examples, are long term raw foodists, who have continued faith in a raw vegan diet and in appearance and mind, seem very healthy people.
Too add, for all you spiritualists out there, Rudolf Steiner predicts by the 6th epoch, there will be no more meat-eating (grin grin)!
tofu
Forgot to add… for those who cannot face salads, juicing is an easy way to get those much important veggies in your diet – add tamari, cayenne, seasalt, and/or coconut milk if you’re not keen on the flavour.
tofu
I would say, and this has been shown on Gillian Mckeith’s programme, once you start cleaning up your diet, cravings for fruit and vegetables become normal and appetite increases.
Jeff
So yeah, humans emerged from the jungle and started eating dead corpses, hunting, and eventually farming and drinking mamary secretions from cows. They did so out of survival!! Not thrival!
If you have problems eating 500 grams of greens in a day, you should try working on that for optimum health. I eat that much easily in 2 smoothies sweetened with fruit – not in a salad saturated in a fatty dressing.
There are many rationalizations that can go along with transitioning to a low fat raw vegan diet. We are addicted to fats, and the excito-toxins we use to add flavour to our grains and lentils.
Ha ha love it! 250g of leaves in one smoothie — now that I’d like to see. Please send pics :-)
The truth is that you have to go back 6 or 7 million years to get to the point in human ancestry that ate like modern day chimps and bonobos.
The ‘Homo’ genus has always included animal foods.
I’m not saying we couldn’t or shouldn’t replicate the diet of old — it has many many benefits but for me just now the numerous problems, theoretical and practical mean that I’d rather take the line of ‘near enough is good enough’ and hedge my bets.
I agree about the cow secretions — or in fact, the secretions of any other mammal.
We need more data dammit!! Come on you scientists! The best science I’ve seen to date on natural human diets was when the BBC put a load of folks in a zoo and fed them an ape diet for a few days! This is 2007 people! We need to do better. People are DYING to know the truth!
ruth
Excellent article mike thanks, just saw it on hollys blog, how are you doing! x ruth.
Nice post! And best wishes to you on your raw food journey.
I’ve been a “high raw” vegan since August 2005 and 100% raw since November 2008, so i’m always doing research online to get more information.
I’m going for 100 days at 100% raw right now and I’m on day 68. And so far I’m feeling pretty spectacular!
As far as protein goes, I admit there needs to be more cutting edge research that documents raw vegans and their protein needs.
The big research thing I’d like to see is in Enzymes, because raw vegans continually promote the fact that enzymes ARE amino acids and there’s more of an abundance of enzymes in raw foods compared to cooked, supposedly.
I think that in the end, each person’s dietary journey is a personal one. You have to go by what you feel daily, what works and what doesn’t work. It’s a process of continual research and re-discovery to be able to experience the best health possible in a world full of additives, chemicals, pesticides, processed and genetically modified foods.
The more I do research, the more it seems to be that we need to definitely eat mostly plant foods, raw, organic and wholesome…
Congrats on your raw food achievements and a very cool looking website! Well done.
I don’t believe it’s enough to go by how you feel daily. As I’m sure you know, the human body has many reserves and you won’t necessarily feel anything until way too late.
The acid test for any diet is how it performs over several generations.
Your research WILL lead you down that path because they all reference each other — led by the China Study sitting at the moment on top of the heap.
There are credible nay-sayers if you care to look. A good place to start is the amazing debate between Colin Campbell in the blue corner and Loren Cordain in the red corner. A fascinating debate that if nothing else, shows how far we are from a resolution to the dietary dilemmas that impact us.
Feeling good now means very little actually. You will feel just the same if you were on a drip for 3 weeks. But there are folks who were just as excited as you that ended up very sick or worse.
I take my hat off to the raw food pioneers — I’m one of them I guess since I did it for 6 months, but the mainstream world isn’t ready for raw just yet. There are many problems to be ironed out before that can happen.
The ultimate diet I believe will be some some of raw diet but we need science and that aint happening. And I mean proper science — i.e. not funded by those with vested interests.
I also believe that before you can make a rational decision about something as important as this, you have to listen to both sides of the argument. Researching only one side is bound to convince your brain that a raw vegan diet is all there is to natural human nutrition because you’re not hearing anything else :-)
I’m glad your feeling great, that’s a wonderful feeling and I’ve been there on raw. For me, for now, all I can say is it’s an amazing tool for healing and that the ultimate diet will be close to that but long term there are too many folks getting sick and even dying.
We need more answers in my view before raw can make the leap from the pioneers to the mainstream.
God bless ya and good luck!
Elie
Amazing….everything you’re writing…i agree and thought about it before..specially the protein part…the essenes…….i came across ur website by “chance”
waiting impatiently for the ebook….
best regards
Elie
Eric
Meeting protein needs is not difficult to attain at all, I would say the issues people should watch out for (this is not just on a raw diet) are food combining, excess overt fats (clogging, acidic), lack of variety, produce quality, eating when hungry, enough sleep, enough exercise (hence greater food intake, more nutrients, macro and micro). .8g/kg is RDA/WHO requirement..with built in doubled safeguards based on denatured heated animal proteins. Melons have a ton, greens you can build your way up, even healing from colitis I’ve eaten a lb of spinach raw straight from the bag at farmers markets walking around. Juicing greens/certain veggies can be an adjunct while you work your way up (or heal certain conditions) or just to add to it (way less time than cooking a meal that’s for sure). Really, your evolutionary evidence is just theory, and there are several theories that say otherwise, about evidence. There is so much science, logic, physiology, anatomy, and experience to the raw vegan high fruit low fat diet. Of course some say oh just do lots of fresh fruit and veg don’t worry as much about the rest, well your instincts will shift naturally but any amount of excitotoxins (salt, many spices) and refined foods throw off a diet. There is a huge shift that happens when this is followed 100%, emotional eating can fall away, psychologically disordered aspects of eating can vanish, your absorption increases, the body is able to eliminate toxins and work on old issues.
Eric
Oh and check out the book “Left in the Dark” for newer theories on brain expansion and our diets. Might suprise you =)
As you know, i’ve recently had a full recovery from CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome). I have noticed, that as soon as I start to include protein foods in my diet i.e. nuts, dairy, eggs, or grains (more than one serving a day) my symptoms return.
After 2 days on a diet of only fruit and vegetables i am back to normal health again. I would also like to add that i have eaten a very low protein diet for 6 months now and myself and others have noticed an increase in the muscle mass of my legs.
A raw vegan diet seems plausable nutritionally as long as care is taken, as with all diets, but socially its not so easy, this to me is the only downfall if you are indeed looking for a ‘dietary model’ to follow.
I personally, would be very careful to pin the failure of this diet on lack of protein, but rather lack of balanced vegetation, lack of calories, lack of fat, too many nuts, and/or too much fruit acid.
I know one raw vegan who eats only pears and hazelnuts all day long, and with the obsessive nature of some raw vegans, I can see why there are failures.
Karen Wood and Karen Knowler to take 2 examples, are long term raw foodists, who have continued faith in a raw vegan diet and in appearance and mind, seem very healthy people.
Too add, for all you spiritualists out there, Rudolf Steiner predicts by the 6th epoch, there will be no more meat-eating (grin grin)!
Forgot to add… for those who cannot face salads, juicing is an easy way to get those much important veggies in your diet – add tamari, cayenne, seasalt, and/or coconut milk if you’re not keen on the flavour.
I would say, and this has been shown on Gillian Mckeith’s programme, once you start cleaning up your diet, cravings for fruit and vegetables become normal and appetite increases.
So yeah, humans emerged from the jungle and started eating dead corpses, hunting, and eventually farming and drinking mamary secretions from cows. They did so out of survival!! Not thrival!
If you have problems eating 500 grams of greens in a day, you should try working on that for optimum health. I eat that much easily in 2 smoothies sweetened with fruit – not in a salad saturated in a fatty dressing.
There are many rationalizations that can go along with transitioning to a low fat raw vegan diet. We are addicted to fats, and the excito-toxins we use to add flavour to our grains and lentils.
All the best on your raw journey.
“Survival not thrival”
Ha ha love it! 250g of leaves in one smoothie — now that I’d like to see. Please send pics :-)
The truth is that you have to go back 6 or 7 million years to get to the point in human ancestry that ate like modern day chimps and bonobos.
The ‘Homo’ genus has always included animal foods.
I’m not saying we couldn’t or shouldn’t replicate the diet of old — it has many many benefits but for me just now the numerous problems, theoretical and practical mean that I’d rather take the line of ‘near enough is good enough’ and hedge my bets.
I agree about the cow secretions — or in fact, the secretions of any other mammal.
We need more data dammit!! Come on you scientists! The best science I’ve seen to date on natural human diets was when the BBC put a load of folks in a zoo and fed them an ape diet for a few days! This is 2007 people! We need to do better. People are DYING to know the truth!
Excellent article mike thanks, just saw it on hollys blog, how are you doing! x ruth.
Hi Ruth!
Thanks for the thumbs up on the article. I’m doing great thanks :-) Hope all is well with you too.
M x
Nice post! And best wishes to you on your raw food journey.
I’ve been a “high raw” vegan since August 2005 and 100% raw since November 2008, so i’m always doing research online to get more information.
I’m going for 100 days at 100% raw right now and I’m on day 68. And so far I’m feeling pretty spectacular!
As far as protein goes, I admit there needs to be more cutting edge research that documents raw vegans and their protein needs.
The big research thing I’d like to see is in Enzymes, because raw vegans continually promote the fact that enzymes ARE amino acids and there’s more of an abundance of enzymes in raw foods compared to cooked, supposedly.
I think that in the end, each person’s dietary journey is a personal one. You have to go by what you feel daily, what works and what doesn’t work. It’s a process of continual research and re-discovery to be able to experience the best health possible in a world full of additives, chemicals, pesticides, processed and genetically modified foods.
The more I do research, the more it seems to be that we need to definitely eat mostly plant foods, raw, organic and wholesome…
Hi Randomguru!
Congrats on your raw food achievements and a very cool looking website! Well done.
I don’t believe it’s enough to go by how you feel daily. As I’m sure you know, the human body has many reserves and you won’t necessarily feel anything until way too late.
The acid test for any diet is how it performs over several generations.
Your research WILL lead you down that path because they all reference each other — led by the China Study sitting at the moment on top of the heap.
There are credible nay-sayers if you care to look. A good place to start is the amazing debate between Colin Campbell in the blue corner and Loren Cordain in the red corner. A fascinating debate that if nothing else, shows how far we are from a resolution to the dietary dilemmas that impact us.
Feeling good now means very little actually. You will feel just the same if you were on a drip for 3 weeks. But there are folks who were just as excited as you that ended up very sick or worse.
I take my hat off to the raw food pioneers — I’m one of them I guess since I did it for 6 months, but the mainstream world isn’t ready for raw just yet. There are many problems to be ironed out before that can happen.
The ultimate diet I believe will be some some of raw diet but we need science and that aint happening. And I mean proper science — i.e. not funded by those with vested interests.
I also believe that before you can make a rational decision about something as important as this, you have to listen to both sides of the argument. Researching only one side is bound to convince your brain that a raw vegan diet is all there is to natural human nutrition because you’re not hearing anything else :-)
I’m glad your feeling great, that’s a wonderful feeling and I’ve been there on raw. For me, for now, all I can say is it’s an amazing tool for healing and that the ultimate diet will be close to that but long term there are too many folks getting sick and even dying.
We need more answers in my view before raw can make the leap from the pioneers to the mainstream.
God bless ya and good luck!
Amazing….everything you’re writing…i agree and thought about it before..specially the protein part…the essenes…….i came across ur website by “chance”
waiting impatiently for the ebook….
best regards
Elie
Meeting protein needs is not difficult to attain at all, I would say the issues people should watch out for (this is not just on a raw diet) are food combining, excess overt fats (clogging, acidic), lack of variety, produce quality, eating when hungry, enough sleep, enough exercise (hence greater food intake, more nutrients, macro and micro). .8g/kg is RDA/WHO requirement..with built in doubled safeguards based on denatured heated animal proteins. Melons have a ton, greens you can build your way up, even healing from colitis I’ve eaten a lb of spinach raw straight from the bag at farmers markets walking around. Juicing greens/certain veggies can be an adjunct while you work your way up (or heal certain conditions) or just to add to it (way less time than cooking a meal that’s for sure). Really, your evolutionary evidence is just theory, and there are several theories that say otherwise, about evidence. There is so much science, logic, physiology, anatomy, and experience to the raw vegan high fruit low fat diet. Of course some say oh just do lots of fresh fruit and veg don’t worry as much about the rest, well your instincts will shift naturally but any amount of excitotoxins (salt, many spices) and refined foods throw off a diet. There is a huge shift that happens when this is followed 100%, emotional eating can fall away, psychologically disordered aspects of eating can vanish, your absorption increases, the body is able to eliminate toxins and work on old issues.
Oh and check out the book “Left in the Dark” for newer theories on brain expansion and our diets. Might suprise you =)