Wantin' To Go Raw.

[xParkXCorex]

Hey guys. I'm a young vegan that is thinkin' about becomin' a raw foodist. I read an interview on a raw foodist teen, and a different teen who wrote on how he became a raw foodist, and I loved what they wrote. I also did some research and saw how healthy and, amazin' the food is, and would love to try bein' a raw foodist, and see if I will contine. What made you want to become a raw foodist? And what tips can you guve me?

[RawVeganMom]

What made me want to eat living food? As soon as I first head about it, it just made sence to me! The more I checked it out & read & talked to people who were doing it, the more I felt like it was the only way for me. Then after seeing the results myself- i'm totally sold on it!

What tips can I give you? READ READ READ as much as you can get your hands on so that you can formulate your own opinion because there are as many ways to do this as there are people doing it! You need to listen to your body & do what's right for YOU. If you want to be REALLY inspired- you can pick up a copy of Alissa Cohens DVD set & her book also while you're at it! It's filled with tons of great recipes! Here's the link:

http://www.alissacohen.com/

[rawgirl]

Raw Vegan Mom is right. Read all you can on the raw food diet. That's what I did before I started and that's what I've kept doing. Nature's First Law: The Raw Food Diet is the book that made me decide for sure to do it. Check out rawfood.com. They have great books and resources for the raw food diet. It's really the best way you can go for your health. I've been raw for a year and feel better than I ever have in my entire life. The food is excellent. Get some recipe books and learn how to make scrumptious live food.

[goatee]

I just so intrigued by the concept of eating only raw food the first time I heard about it. I kept asking my raw friend what she had eaten that day. Now I realize how many misconceptions I had of raw food and now the more I learn the more I realize there is so much more to learn. It's not really just certain kinds of food to eat but rather it is a whole lifestyle.

My main interest right now is the low-fat/no-salt/proper food combining raw diet as recommended by the Natural Hygienists. I was just reading some of www.foodnsport.com and it was fascinating. I'm going back to read more. I agree that you should learn and read and check out websites and only go raw when you feel really ready; and if you go back to cooked food realize that you can go back to raw whenever you want.

Even conventional nutritionists recommend eating more raw food as part of a cooked food diet so eating more and more raw is always a good way to go.

I'm on day 10 of my third try at 100% raw :)

[Rene]

I'm starting to go raw too, so any advice would be welcome!

One perhaps silly and embarrasing question...where do raw foodists get their protien? Nuts/ seeds etc I know..but can you eat raw tofu? raw soymilk? (oh I feel like one of those omni's in the stupid things omnis say thread!)

[RawVeganMom]

Rene, This was just posted on Alissa's board:

"Where do raw and living foodist get their protein?
The WHO (World Health Organization) says humans need about 5% of their daily calories to come from protein to be healthy. The USDA puts this figure at 6.5%. On average, fruits have about 5% of their calories from protein. Vegetables have from 20-50% of their calories from protein. Sprouted seeds, beans, and grains contain from 10-25% of their calories from protein. So if you are eating any variety of living plant foods, you are getting more than adequate protein. Numerous scientific studies have shown the daily need for protein to be about 25-35 grams per day. So if you ate 2,000 calories per day, and ate raw plant foods that had an average of 10% of their calories from protein, you would get 200 calories worth of protein, or 50 grams. This is more than adequate to support optimal well-being. Other studies have shown that heat treating a protein (such as with cooking) makes about half of it unusable to the human body. So raw plant food protein is even a better source than cooked plant foods or animal foods. There is still a huge, foolish, misguided idea that plant protein is not "complete". This is based on studies done on rats in the 1940's. This false conclusion was drawn before we discovered the bodies protein recycling mechanism and its ability to "complete" any amino acid mix from our bodies amino acid pool, no matter what the amino acid composition of a meal consumed. This false idea is still perpetuated by the meat and dairy industries, in an attempt to influence people to continue consuming their truly health destroying products."

From http://www.living-foods.com/faq.html

Here's a post by Alissa herself:

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3708

[Rene]

Excellent! Thanks RawVeganMom. I'll bookmark that link :)

[RawVeganMom]

A friend of mine just posted a bunch of links on protein, i'll post them here for you:

Protein: Fact & Fiction
Larry Spencer
http://healthfree.com/Proteinfactorfict.htm

Alissa Cohen
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3708

Protein and Propaganda - by Michael Dye
http://www.all-creatures.org/cb/a-protein.html

Where do you get your protein?
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/protein.htm

National Research Council panel believes carcinogens from cooked meat occur “naturally”!
David Klein
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/carcinogens.html

What About Meat – Tasha Ann
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Villa/4895/lih-nh-meat.html

Howard Lyman
http://www.madcowboy.com/

An Excerpt from Meat is Suicide! by Dr Gina Shaw, MA
The Links Between Meat and Cancer
http://vibrancy.homestead.com/dangersmeat.html

Protein is Parts
http://www.dsiegel.com/wiwd/diet/protein.html

Proteins – How much and from where
http://chrysalisyog.homestead.com/nutsprout.html

Dr. Atkins – meat eater – heart attack
http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/diet.fitness/04/25/atkins.diet/index.html

High Protein Diet Alert
http://www.atkinsdietalert.org/

[jenna]

Those are some really good links, RVM!

[xParkXCorex]

Thanks you guys. This is awesome! I have been raw foodist for 2 weeks and almost 1 day now. I love it a lot. Feel free to email, I would love to hear from you guys. bandsmoshtilbreak@yahoo.com

[BillD]

I was a raw vegan for close to a year... about 3 times during different periods in my life. I always had a problem obtaining enough calories. I would eat and eat a ton of raw veggies per day and I could never get enough.

Logically, I find raw foodism a very sound diet, but I have a hell of a time getting enough energy from my food.

I read several raw books and none really helped me very much. Maybe I was reading the wrong books, but, as you probably well know, raw foodist books are hard to come by.

[rawgirl]

My advice is that nutrition is not about calories. Calories is just the measurement of the amount of heat needed to raise a certain amount of water 1 degree Farenheit. It really doesn't have much to do with nutrition. If your body needs more food, it will tell you. You'll be hungry. We really don't need as much food as we think. The people who live the longest are the ones who eat the least. I don't count calories, but I'm sure most days I don't eat nearly the recommended amount, but I don't care because I feel good and I'm not hungry. The cleaner your body gets, the less you need to eat. Especially if you add green juice, sprouts, and wheatgrass to your diet, you don't have to eat much at all because it's so cellularly satisfying.

[Virtue23]

I would suggest adding more nuts/seeds to your diet if you never got enough calories. They're also a good protein source, as you know. :-D

[soulshine]

Wanted to bring this post back up. I've been eating a lot raw food concoctions (thanks to living in nyc) and I'm intrigued... However, I'm not really interested in going raw (for certain reasons if you'd like to know.. just ask : ). I find the benefits and ideals of the lifestyle fascinating. What I am in interested in is having raw days where I obviously would eat raw for the day, does anyone else intentionally do this? Is it safe to do this for just a day at a time, any benefits?

[xParkXCorex]

That sounds pretty cool soulshine

[rawgirl]

I used to do one day a week of all raw food before I went totally raw. I got the idea from one of Harvey Diamond's books. It's a great idea and I definitely think it will benefit you. You may also consider at the beginning of each month going for four days all raw. I did that too. It's a great way to cleanse your body.

[SeaSiren]

Funny this should pop up today as I am having a raw day today for the first time. So far so good.

I couldn't find a thread on while searching so, what is a typical raw day for most of you?

[soulshine]

woohoo! thanks for the responses.

I like that idea, rawgirl.