11 Essential Facts & Fallacies of a Raw Food Diet
1. Fact: A healthy raw diet is simple, exciting,
deliciously satisfying, and fun!
Fallacy: You need cooking, spices, salt, and herbs for
food to taste good, and you will miss and crave the old
diet.
Raw fruits and vegetables are beautiful, colorful, and naturally flavorful. They are fun to eat, easy to digest, and satiating. Cooked food needs spices to give it flavor, and our taste buds have been altered to expect unnaturally strong stimulation. Once you adjust to an all raw diet you will appreciate more subtle, natural flavors, and you will love the clean, light way you feel!
2. Fact: A low fat raw, plant-based diet is the optimal
diet for human beings.
Fallacy: As long as it's raw, my diet will be healthy.
Science has shown that humans are biologically designed to be frugivores. We are not by nature carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores. This is determined by observing anatomy, physiology, empirical evidence, logic, and common sense.
It is also important to note that not all raw food diets are the same! A healthy raw diet is based upon whole, fresh, ripe, raw, organic plant foods. Some nuts and seeds may be included, but a healthy raw diet is fruit-based, and low in fat.
3. Fact: A properly balanced raw vegan diet supplies all
essential nutrients needed for our health.
Fallacy: For insurance, we need supplements and
"superfoods".
When you live a healthful lifestyle with an adequate fruit-based raw plant diet and regular vigorous activity, there is no need for supplements. By eating a variety of raw fruits, vegetables and leafy greens in sufficient quantity you will be provided with the vitamins, minerals and nutrients you need. More is not necessarily better, and supplements and so-called superfoods supply nutrients in a concentrated form. Consuming these processed, unnatural substances will invariably cause imbalances in your body. In special circumstances supplementation may be warranted, but it is always best to work toward correcting diet and lifestyle practices.
4. Fact: A healthy diet gets no more than 10% of its
total calories from fat.
Fallacy: It's okay to eat lots of plant fats as long as
they're raw.
While it's true that raw plant fats are healthy for us to eat, fat is fat no matter what the source, and in excess, dietary fat of all kinds is a major causative factor in disease. Too much dietary fat reduces our body's ability to uptake, transport, and deliver oxygen to all of our cells, and reduces the number of healthy red blood cells. Americans' average fat intake may be as high as 40% of total calories, four times what we actually need! Many raw-fooders consume even higher amounts in an attempt to get sufficient calories and a sense of satiation, when what they need to do is increase their fruit consumption.
5. Fact: Our basic protein needs (no more than 10% of
total calories) are more than amply met on a raw vegan diet
of sufficient quantities of fruits and vegetables.
Fallacy: It's important to eat lots of nuts and seeds to
get enough protein on a raw diet.
It's a myth, perpetuated by segments of our financially driven commercial food industry, that humans need lots of protein to be strong and healthy. Protein is used by our bodies for growth and repair. As with fats, protein intake beyond our basic needs creates emergency conditions in the body which lead to toxicity and disease. While athletes will need extra calories, even they do not generally require extra protein. It is actually difficult to consume insufficient protein, as long as you are eating enough food! All plant foods contain some protein. Most protein-related disease is concerned with an excess of protein.
6. Fact: At least 80% of our calories best come from the
simple carbohydrates supplied by whole fresh fruit.
Fallacy: Fruit sugar should be limited in the diet.
As long as you are eating a low-fat diet, the natural sugars in fruit (even "high-glycemic" fruit) are able to move easily in and out of the bloodstream and fuel our cells, and there are no problems with high blood sugar. In fact, it is difficult to consume too much sugar from eating fresh raw fruit - your appetite will shut off before this happens. Too much dietary fat, not fruit sugar, is the culprit in blood-sugar problems.
7. Fact: Sodium is good for you when it comes naturally
packaged in whole plant foods.
Fallacy: Celtic sea salt (and any inorganic table salt),
strong herbs and spices, and other stimulants are good for
you.
Strong substances overstimulate and deliver toxins to the nervous system, irritate the sensitive tissues of the digestive tract, and distrupt delicate nutrient balances in your body. They can be described as "excitotoxins". In fact, these substances often cause your body to produce extra mucous for protection. Extracted sodium chloride (salt), in any form, is especially caustic. You can get the organic salts and other minerals your body needs (in just the right amounts and combinations!) from eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. Celery and tomatoes are especially rich in the natural sodium which our body can use.
8. Fact: Enough quality sleep is critical for all people
on any diet.
Fallacy: Raw-fooders need less sleep.
It is true that a healthy raw food diet requires much less energy to digest than most other diets, freeing up energy for other activities. However, most people on a high fruit, low fat, healthy raw diet naturally want to engage in vigorous physical activity. Proper recovery from this energy output requires sufficient rest and sleep. Food provides the body with fuel, and sleep recharges our batteries and gives us energy. In addition, for most people, beginning a raw food diet puts in motion a cleansing and healing process, which warrants extra rest and sleep. The amount of sleep required depends upon many factors, including diet, activity levels, stress levels, and overall health.
9. Fact: If I eat a raw vegan diet, my friends and family
may think I'm weird.
Fallacy: I won't find how to fit into normal society
eating this way.
Your raw diet will definitely get you noticed! People are often uncomfortable when someone does things differently, and may feel as if their own way is being challenged or confronted. With time, practice, and a little ingenuity and planning, raw food eaters can not only fit into normal society (when desired), but can also become a positive inspiration for others, helping them to challenge and question parts of our society that do not serve us in creating health and well-being.
10. Fact: Over time, the body will naturally, safely
cleanse itself on a clean-burning healthy raw diet.
Fallacy: Colonics, enemas, and special "cleanses" are good.
Your body is an intelligent, self-healing organism. Given supportive conditions, it will always vector toward its natural state of perfect health. Colonics, enemas, and cleanses can be harsh, unnaturally forceful, and even dangerous. Allowed to detoxify naturally on a high fruit, low fat, raw diet, your body will release and eliminate toxins in the safest way, over time.
11. Fact: Eating raw is easy, quick, and clean, though it
may take time, study, and practice to learn a healthy raw
lifestyle.
Fallacy: A healthy raw food diet is difficult, and time
consuming to prepare.
Many people mistakenly believe that a raw diet requires lots of juicing, sprouting, dehydrating, and otherwise manipulating foods in complex ways. These practices can be a small part of a healthy raw lifestyle, but need not be a focus. In fact, the healthiest diet comes straight from nature, in its whole, unadulterated form, as in whole fruits picked and eaten right from the tree! Because our society has strayed so far from its natural diet, it may take time and practice to learn (or re-learn!) a more natural way.
To find out more about these facts & fallacies, join our exciting new course:
Learning and Living the 80-10-10 Raw Vegan Diet and Lifestyle
In Ann Arbor, 8 Monday nights from 7-9pm, March 31st - May 19th. See details at www.LivingYogaNow.com . Also read The 80-10-10 Diet by Dr. Douglas N. Graham, and The Raw Secrets by Frederic Patenaude. Both are available by calling 734-995-0875.
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