Has anyone ever been a rawfooder?

[annunakigohome]

I am just curious if anyone is currently, or has ever, practiced this particular dietary disclipline and how easy or difficult it was for you. Thanks in advance! :)

[LisaM]

1. A friend of ours did this. He was already fit and active.

He did this in college and lost something like 42 pounds. He got way too thin, so he had to stop it. Of course, he did this when he already had a very high metabolism and was exercising all the time, so the effects might not be as drastic if your situation is different from his.

[annunakigohome]

6. I am not looking to lose that much, but it sounds pretty good right now to lose some...what state

did he live in? I live in the Midwest and the winters are damn cold! The writers of some of these raw food books live in sunny, warm places where eating light is easier. In the winter you crave heavier foods...

[LisaM]

18. In Michigan

though it was in the summer, IIRC. In winter, he was probably just eating nuts and raw vegetables, maybe with a few grapefruit and oranges thrown in.

Maybe you should try for one raw foods meal every day to start.

[annunakigohome]

19. Okay, thanks, I am in IL...I buy produce at my local farmer's market from Eau Claire

By the way, I love your profile pic. Sylvia's my fave poet, I think :)

[LisaM]

20. Thanks!

I binged last year on as many biographies of her as I could find - read them all together. Then I just bought and read a biography of Assiya Wevill called "Lover of Unreason". It's a good read if you are interested in the overall picture of the Plath/Hughes tragedy.

[annunakigohome]

21. Is it new? I read one about the whole Assia thing a few years ago

I have also read several Sylvia bios. The unabridged journals are spectacular, as are her letters home. Her prose is breath-taking, even in her letters. She wrote so darkly most of the time, but if you have her collected poems, there are a few (a memorable one is called "The Net Menders") that made me cry from their beauty.

[LisaM]

26. This biography (of Assiya) is pretty new

one or two years old.

[htuttle]

2. I used to work with a fruitarian

He farted all the time. ALL the time...

[annunakigohome]

8. Lovely...Though I wonder if he had just started the lifestyle

and was purifying himself...

[Clovis Sangrail]

3. had a housemate who was

he fell into the category of 'batshit insane' ... though I don't think that had anything to do with his diet ;)

[On the Road]

4. See What You Have to Look Forward To?

You'll lose 42 pounds, go batshit insane, and fart ALL THE TIME.

[annunakigohome]

9. Sounds like a plan...

(I already do two out of three anyhow:))

[rucky]

5. My uncle's done it for years.

We eat raw as much as we can, but not strictly. I suggest you find a local raw foodist community. They usually hold potlucks and that's a good way to try out some new recipes and learn about it.

http://www.rawfoodnetwork.com/potlucks.html

I think creative use of your dehydrator (and herbs/spices) is the key to sticking it out. There's alot of tasty raw dishes out there.

[annunakigohome]

10. Thanks for that...it's on my wish list...I want to get the one with all the sheets

I also want a Vitamix and if anyone can tell me if a Green Power juicer is really better than a Champion, I would be very happy to learn about it.

[JPace]

29. I have been juicing for 16 years, in the beginning I tried several

juicers, took them back for one reason or another and finally decided on Champion. My first one lasted 12 years and I am now on my second one. You can get too much juice out of fruits and vegetables, machines that extract everything from skin, seeds, pulp makes for a more bitter juice. The Champion does not extract to the extreme and the juice is sweeter, (I do mostly fruits). It is also a long lived machine. I have a Vita-Mixer but I don't use it often. I don't think that making juice of the entire fruit or vegetable is good for you. Some seeds are actually poisoness. I peel most things like apples, oranges, pineapple, especially if I don't buy organic. I don't mind the extra trouble if I can cut down on insecticides on the vegetation. When I started juicing I did it several times a week, my doctor was trying to help me with nerve problems and told me to juice anything but be sure and put carrots in it. After a few weeks my skin started turning orange. I had to cut back and over the years I have settled on doing one large juice once a week. A surprising benefit which I did not expect was that I quit catching so many colds. I used to catch several a year but can go a year or two without catching one. If you juice it will call for commitment as it is work but I feel it has helped my health and is worth the effort. Good luck with your decision!

[Warpy]

7. Maybe if you're morbidly obese

and have the approval of your doctor.

I worked in a health food store for a number of years and everybody who tried the raw foods diet lost a lot of weight and became, er, ethereal.

It's one of those pure diets that appeals to the very young but isn't that good for you.

[annunakigohome]

12. I think it also appeals to perfectionists and people with eating disorders (anorexia)

I was at a lecture by a famous raw foodist and he had a female assistant in front with him and she did not look well. Way too thin. I would like to be around 70% raw. I would also like to do raw days. But I just was curious if anyone has had experience with it and if they recommend it as a lifestyle.

[Warpy]

16. I don't recommend it as a lifestyle

but if you enjoy raw foods recipes, they can be part of a balanced diet.

[cosmik debris]

11. I eat raw toast sometimes. n/t

:)

[deadmessengers]

13. Don't do it except under medical supervision

I watched a previously-healthy co-worker end up in the hospital after spending a few months on a raw diet. By the time his doctor put him in the hospital, he was down to about 120 pounds (at just under six feet tall)

[annunakigohome]

14. I think it depends on your current health and I am a vegetarian who eats organic a lot

and so I don't feel like I have a very toxic system. For someone coming off a heavy meat/animal product diet, yeah, it'd probably be too sudden. Also, so many people taking various meds and using tobacco, pot, alcohol...I refrain from those, as well.

[eleny]

15. maybe starting off incororating raw dishes into the diet would be healthy fun

we all eat stuff like raw veggies in salads. so adding more new raw dishes to your weekly diet would be a way of easing into it or at least adding variety to your meal choices.

i like cold beet soup during the summer. so there are ways to try it out a little at a time.

[annunakigohome]

17. That is what I am trying to do. Cooked food is so addictive sometimes

I do believe in the Chinese medicine thing about the heat and dampness in our bodies and imbalances therein. Lately, I have been eating too many cooked foods and I think part of that is the transition of the seasons. Raw foods just seem to make me feel colder right now, but when I don't have them, I can feel the toxins taking over so I need to eat a lot more again. It's hard because even though the farmer's market is still happening (they have extended it for a few more weeks this year), when it's gone it won't be as easy to get that very fresh produce. A good produce market is key. I am going to make it my priority to start consuming more raw stuff. I have the books and everything.

[trotsky]

22. Humans cannot get all the nutrients they need from a raw diet.

You will need to supplement. Plus one of the basic reasons behind the raw trend is bogus. Supposedly raw is desirable because cooking destroys the valuable plant enzymes. But those enzymes are destroyed by our stomachs anyway, if eaten raw. And ultimately, those enzymes are needed and used by the plant, not by us.

[annunakigohome]

23. Cooking deranges the protein structure, as well as destroys vitamins and makes organic minerals

(minerals from living foods) rendered inorganic due to heat. So it's not just about enzymes.

Also, for those people who tolerate and enjoy dairy products, raw milk (also, non-homogenized) has been found to be better assimilated or something.

[trotsky]

24. Not true.

http://health.learninginfo.org/cooking.htm

Many people believe that fresh fruits and vegetables always contain more nutrients than cooked ones, but cooked carrots have higher levels of antioxidants than fresh carrots. Cooking carrots in the presence of a small amount of oil or butter increases the amount of two antioxidants called beta carotene and phenolic acid. Cooking also increases the amount of lycopene you get from tomatoes. Cooking breaks the plant cells open to increase the absorption of these antioxidants and other beneficial plant chemicals. Adding a little oil or butter increases absorption of fat soluble chemicals.

Some vitamins are affected by cooking, but you'll still get plenty. The enzymes in food that are destroyed by heat are of no use to you; your body makes the enzymes you need to digest your food. Most of the nutrients in food (minerals, proteins, fats, carbohydrates) are not destroyed by heat, and many common foods are unpalatable or unsafe if they are not cooked. I recommend eating the widest possible variety of fruits and vegetables, raw or cooked, and fresh, frozen, canned or dried.

This is also a very thorough look at all aspects of the raw food issue.
http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked/raw-cooked-1a.shtml

[annunakigohome]

25. I believe that there is a synergistic action happening

It's like herbal medicine: when they standardize something, they isolate it and make it drug-like. And there is an ignorance about the benefits of all the other components in the plant. The same applies to raw foods and the dance between enzymes (which act like catalysts), vitamins (and some are water-soluble, which get destroyed in cooking), minerals (their molecular structure changes when heated to such a high temp)...Why do you think they now have bioflavonoids like rutin with Vitamin C supplements? Because they realized that there was some relationship between C and these other nutrients. They help strengthen the capillaries, for example.

[trotsky]

27. Your ability to completely ignore the facts presented to you is impressive.

1) Plant enzymes are of no use to you, and they're destoyed by either cooking OR your stomach.
2) Vitamins (whether they are water- or fat-soluble) are not completely destroyed by cooking. (If they were, everyone who eats only cooked foods would be dead.)
3) Minerals are unaffected by cooking. Only in the case of something being cooked in water is it possible for some minerals to leach out and dissolve into the water. The majority remain in the food.

If you can dispute any of the above with actual facts instead of your personal belief in "synergistic action," I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, good luck with your diet, hope you stay in close contact with your doctor.

[annunakigohome]

28. I can dispute your fun "factoids" but I would rather not

And I never said that minerals disappeared. I merely said that their structure changes so they are not easy or possible to assimilate. Why do you think that iron supplements, which doctors used to prescribe so readily, are frowned upon? They were collecting in their patients' systems and it was dangerous! Same with calcium carbonate, which comes from limestone. It is not capable of being absorbed properly by humans (or any creature, for that matter) and so it gathers and creates health problems. That's why responsible, with-it docs ask their patients who have kidney stones if they are taking calcium supplements and tell them to go off them! Likewise, cooked foods with calcium probably are not as good as raw ones. I love Swiss chard, but it has oxalic acid (it's in the same family as spinach and rhubarb). Supposedly, oxalic acid is bad for us, but I was reading a book by Norman Walker that says that raw oxalic acid is the bomb and that it is COOKED oxalic acid that wreaks havoc on the system.

[Warpy]

30. Denaturing proteins is a good thing

because it makes many of them more digestible. They all get broken into component amino acids by the gut, so it really doesn't matter whether or not heat has been applied to them.

The "science" behind this stuff ASSumes that we don't digest our food!

Enzymes are also denatured by heat, but there is no proof we need any of them and chances are that they'd be broken into their component parts by our guts, too. I'd love to see a proof that we need chlorophyll, for instance. Enzymes that help plants to metabolize minerals from the soil are not going to help you, in other words.

Vitamin loss in cooking is minimal, unless you're a 19th century cook who thinks vegetables need to be boiled for at least an hour to break down all that nasty fiber.

If you want to risk your health on a screwball diet, it's your funeral. Just don't try to pretend to the rest of us that the screwballs who came up with it know what they're talking about. They don't.

[annunakigohome]

31. I didn't say I was planning on going 100% raw, but when you look at all the water you lose

by eating dead, cooked things, I say that it is causing constipation, thirst which is then quenched with less healthy stuff, and other maladies. In any case, your comment was extreme but whatever's clever.

[Warpy]

32. Uh, haven't you heard of WATER?

It's a great way to get fluid. Honest. And you can drink it RAW!

[trotsky]

34. ...

:spray:

[annunakigohome]

35. You mean that chlorinated, lead-laden, fluoridated glop that comes out of my faucet?

There is a living water coming from an organic source. There is that other garbage which I am only tolerating until my carbon filter gets replaced. And what about cleaning one's teeth eating a raw, juicy apple instead of a cooked, mushy baked apple...?

[trotsky]

37. Ooh, living water like the stuff in Mexico?

That's so full of life, it'll have you doubled over in excitement!

BTW, a mushy baked apple has had its cell walls ruptured, making all the nutrients and goodies inside the cells available to your digestive tract.

[annunakigohome]

39. First of all, I am talking about water from raw fruits and veggies...Are you talking about picking

up a bug from contaminated water itself, or pieces of fruit? In either case, it's a matter of us not being familiar with Mexico's microbes. The people who live there can tolerate their own bugs (same with places like India). As for that mushy apple that is so easy to digest? It's nice to scrub your innards real good and take a nice healthy crap.

[trotsky]

41. It sure is healthy!

Of course you still will with a baked apple, because the fiber isn't destroyed - it's still there! You don't really know as much as you think you do, do you?

[annunakigohome]

43. Bake an apple! Go ahead--I'll wait

Then take a bite and compare it to a bite of a raw apple, which scrubs your teeth and stimulates your gums. I just had a nice juicy apple from Eau Claire, MI this morning :)

[trotsky]

44. Backed off on the fiber claim, huh?

Just glad to educate you! (For as long as you stick around this time.) :hi:

[annunakigohome]

45. I am not backing off fiber...I am saying that it becomes slimy instead of retaining its structure

We can agree on that, I am sure.

[trotsky]

47. No, we won't agree on that.

Because the facts agree with me.

http://www.wehealny.org/healthinfo/dietaryfiber/fibercontentchart.html

Food  	Portion  	Calories  	Fiber (grams)
Apple
raw  	1 large  	80-100*  	4.5
baked 	1 large 	100 	        5.0

[annunakigohome]

49. It GAINS fiber when cooked? Wow, that's really cewl!!!!

How now brown cow?

Also, I never said that fiber went bye-bye when heated to death. I said that its fiber is way softened. You know, like steamed broccoli versus raw? It seems more palatable cooked because the fiber isn't so damn hard.

[trotsky]

50. But it's still fiber.

It does its job. Which is what you implied it didn't.

Glad you learned something this time around!

[annunakigohome]

51. It does its job but probably doesn't scrub our innards as well as ROUGHage does

That why it's called ROUGHage instead of SOGGYage.

[trotsky]

52. Riiiight.

And your expertise to make this determination is....?

Oh marcia/daisy/mullet/groov/whateverelse, you're just a ball of fun.

[cosmik debris]

53. Apparently she doesn't chew her food.

And her digestive system doesn't make her food mushy.

She is really funny this time around,

Just when you think it can't get any more stupid...

[annunakigohome]

54. Why--are your teeth in your intestines? I DID mention how crunchy, raw produce

clean your teeth...

I suggest you contact Ringling Brothers and see if they can bring you on tour. That's quite a spectacle you have inside your body.

[cosmik debris]

55. Now that's the Miss Daisy I'm used to.

All insults, no coherent thoughts!

You're back in your true form!

[salvorhardin]

57. "I said that its fiber is way softened"

Umm, you do know you, and everyone else in the world, has hydrochloric acid in their stomachs. Why would you think that cooking food somehow renders the fiber less beneficial ("softened") when all that fiber in your apple is gonna wind up in that vat of hydrochloric acid in your stomach anyway?

Honestly, your beliefs are premised on some very shaky knowledge of physiology and chemistry. There's nothing wrong with having a substantial proportion of your diet coming from raw foods, but you seem to think your diet is somehow morally superior to the average modern omnivore. Don't you think the moralizing should be left to the religious right? You could certainly use the extra time you'd gain by learning some basic science.

[cosmik debris]

46. It looks like Miss Daisy has learned some manners.

I guess being TS so many time will teach even the most obstinate.

[trotsky]

48. She's trying very hard.

But once you get that TS, let alone 6 of them, you can be as polite as Miss Manners and it won't matter.

[AllieB]

56. It's HER again!

Oh boy. :popcorn:

This is when I wished that DU had a meat-on-a-stick or rotisserie icon.

[trotsky]

33. Oh my.

Good luck.

[annunakigohome]

36. Thank you, kind sir

But it's not a matter of luck, actually. It's the choices we make that affect our health adversely or positively. Believing in luck would be the worst thing I could ever do.

[trotsky]

38. Yes, and you are about to make some very bad choices.

They will lead to malnutrition. Which is why luck is all you'll have left.

[annunakigohome]

40. You are incorrect, sir. I have been making these choices for years and years

and am not planning to become a 100% raw fooder. I just am curious about stuff in this old life and hearing from raw fooders is one of example of that.

[trotsky]

42. Have you ever taken Aleve? n/t

[FM Arouet666]

58. Sounds gimmicky to me

Without any interest to research this, I suspect that what you will hear is that raw food is healthier for you, heating destroys natures chemicals which protect and fight disease, and perhaps heated food is harmful to your health. Seems to be the standard playbook for new diet claims. There may be some truth to certain foods being eaten raw and I suspect that a number of health benefits can be shown but proponents of this diet will generalize to all foods being raw.

I did attempt to look at the topic on the web but immediately came accross.....
"Live food, live body, dead food, dead body, the concept is basic"

Too dogmatic for my colon, and besides, sounds too much like the Know Jesus, Know Peace crowd.

If you can do it, your a better man or woman than me. Sushi would be a no go as the rice is cooked, sashimi would be ok. No coffee pretty much ends it for me. ;) What ever floats your boat. ;)