Give it to me Raw

Jon Bischke

Fruit or Fat? + The problem with quinoa, black beans, brown rice?

In my search for an optimum diet I'm gravitating more and more to raw. I've been raw for extended stretches but am still having a few stumbling blocks between where I'm at and 100% raw. The biggest one is this. I'm a pretty active, on-the-go guy and seem to need (and do best with) a reasonably high caloric intake. When I've experimented with all-raw it seems like I can only really do it on either a high-fat or high-fruit diet. There just aren't enough calories in raw vegetables.

However, based on all my studies of nutrition (I've read 100s of books by now) I don't think either a high-fat or high-fruit diet is optimal. So that I'm trying to figure out where that leaves me.

It brings me to some other foods that I've generally regarded as being nutritious, namely quinoa, black beans, brown rice, soba noodles, etc. However, while I'm sure sprouting them is a possibility(?) given that I don't have all day to spend on diet I'm not sure that's practical.

So what I'm wondering is...

#1 - Given that it's tough to get to my desired caloric intake on purely raw food, does it make sense to have 20-30% of my diet be foods like quinoa, brown rice, etc. I'd keep 70-80% raw but this would allow me to also keep my fruit and fat intake lower.

#2 - Am I missing something here? Many of you have been raw for a long time. How have you solved it? Most of the recipes in raw cookbooks are super high in fat as are a lot of the dishes at the popular raw restaurants. High fruit seems like an alternative (80-10-10 anyone?) but I'm concerned about high sugar content (even if it's natural), candida, etc.

This seems like the final frontier for me. In other words, if I can crack this nut (no pun intended) then I think I can do the raw vegan thing. But at the same time I get a little discouraged when it seems like neither of the two options are all that healthy.

Thoughts?

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Good stuff. I'd definitely credit diet as a big part of why I'm one of the few people in my family who isn't taking antidepressants.

And yeah, I'd have a hard time sticking to a diet that considered olives unhealthy. While they might not be kale they sure as hell ain't a fast food burger. :)

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Life without olives, just shoot me now!!! Maybe in a few years I may change my mind, but for now olives and avocados need to stay in my diet and they will :)

I am not a doctor but I do believe that diet has a lot to do with depression, at least it did with mine. I didn't become depressed because of my diet (it was personal issues), but the raw diet helped me to stop taking the medications, if that makes any sense at all.

I hope you find what you are looking for Jon. As Buddhababy said, you aren't going to find it in books, you will find it in yourself. The books only point you in the right direction. You need to take the first steps in that direction. If the course changes along the way, so be it.

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I have a history of depression as well, Jon. I am weaning off of antidepressants, and have been for 2 months, so we'll see if incorporating some quinoa etc into my diet affects my mood. It's really important to me to include sufficient omega 3's in my diet--without them, symptoms of anxiety and depression show up--so for now, i am eating flax seeds and hemp oil which would bring my fat proportion up too high if i weren't eating foods that are dense calorically like quinoa, peas, beans.

So far, so good (it's only been 2 days though.)

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A lot more studying and still no answer to this riddle. It seems like every raw book I read is either promoting a relatively high-fat diet (the vast majority of raw nutrition and raw cookbooks) or high-fruit (e.g., 80/10/10). There seems like a possible third option where you eat mostly greens and sprouts with a few pieces of fruit mixed in and the occasional small amount of nuts/seeds. However, I still haven't seen anyone outline how you can get to a satisfactory caloric intake with sort of diet (most raw nutrition/cookbooks are shockingly devoid of any nutrition information for their recipes/recommended intake). The only challenge with that (from what I've heard) is that you'll likely need to transition in through more high-fat/gourmet raw food (what David Wolfe did) until your body is prepared to live on less calories.

80/10/10 does a great job of outlining macronutrient and caloric intake. It's just that I don't buy into the high fruit diet for a host of reasons.

It'd be great to see someone approach non-high-fruit raw with that intensity. Just haven't seen it yet. Let me know if I'm missing something! :)

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You sprout nuts or seeds and make them into "cheeses" by using rejuvelac, which is also made from sprouts (wheat) and water. These cheeses have plenty of fatty acids and plenty of amino acids. You won't need more calories, or will you? I didn't need more when I did it. I worked on my internship almost endlessly and grew muscles right away on it, etc etc

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I don't think you should beat yourself up about eating some cooked food now and then. When I started, I allowed myself to eat cooked/steamed food as long as I only ate one cooked item per meal, and that I ate it a long with raw food. For instance, some chickpeas thrown in to a salad or some tofu in my zuccini pasta.

You see a lot of people eating whatever, as long as it's raw, and I think that can be a great way to get in to raw, but at some point you have to find a balance. You'll get there, I'm sure.

I've been reading a lot about 811, and as a result started eating more fruit & less fat and less root vegetables. No grains exept some rice on occasion - but then I've never done well with grains, not even quinoa, sadly. So far I've had only good experiences, especially the days I do more heavy work out (running and off road biking). It's even been hard to keep my pulse up on the level where I want it (to get a good workout).

What I'm doing right now is eating fruit in the morning (usually a fruit smoothie), fruit as a mid meal snack, fruit or a salad for lunch, then a fruit again, then fruit juice or green smoothie. I don't eat fat untill dinner-time, that is.

I have no overview of caloric intake, I pretty much go by instinct. I just feel great :)

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i am similar to you, except i have a big salad for lunch. If i eat grains or pseudograins, i wait til dinner, as they tend to make me a little sleepy. for me, it's great on days when i run and want to get more calories but not more fat.

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Yes, this is what I did. I was eating a high fat primal diet, then went to gourmet raw and then ended up where I am now which is high greens, some fruit and little in the way of nuts/seeds (I react to proteins). What I focus on is biophotons- and it's what I call the third option between high fat raw and high fruit raw.

I'm one who has approached the high greens with no superfood supplements with intensity. It works very well for me and the body does adjust to it although it takes time to make the shift occur.

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hi buddhababy,
i hear you referring to a primal diet and i don't really think i know what this means. is that a raw diet where you eat raw meat?

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http://hilarion.com/rawvid.html

Yes, it's not raw paleo but was developed by Aajounus Vonderplanitz (a long time living foodist since 1971- was fruitarian) and his ever evolving theory of disease.

Rawzi knows more, it;s been years since I've done it. I got into before he started to suggest high meat, I did let my berries mold though (AV says that's a specific detox remedy to detox antibiotics from the system).

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Thanks for posting this link. I had questions about this myself.

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