Raw Food Diet- Thoughts,Tips,Recipes

[commonerg]

At the beginning of this year I started on a raw food diet. I know from Eric Fattah's latest article he's on type of diet also. Anyone else out there doing this?

Any tips on overcoming bread cravings?

Good recipes?
I have a book with some stuff to try and I'll share what I've found, but so far none of the meals have been spectacular.

Is all this work really worth it?

[superhornet59]

I know this is a REALY obvious thing to say, but if you want alot of raw food, you might want to look into sushi (man its deeeelicious, and raw as can be)

so this book you have has 100% raw meals? If theres anything good (especialy meat or appetizers) drop me a PM, I could use the protein, but I'm dying to try any new food, especialy if its good and healthy. Thanks -Matt

[commonerg]

As raw as sushi seems, generally the rice is steamed, and sometimes the nori (seaweed) is roasted). I have to agree with you on it being tasty. Real sushi might be one of the reasons I don’t stay 100% raw for long.

There are a number of nice sushi recipes that use things like grated carrot instead of rice. Some also used rice that has been soaked for a few days. I can't imagine that soaked rice is a tasty and fluffy as steamed rice, but I'm sure it's not terrible.

Generally the raw food diet contains no meat. I've heard of a few people eating raw fish with it, but mostly it consists of uncooked fruits and veggies, lots of nuts and grains- oh and sprouts- raw food heads seem to eat a lot of sprouts. I haven't really figured out the sprouting process yet.

The key to the raw food diet is that any time food is heated above 116 f, the natural enzymes in the food are destroyed forcing the body to produce enzymes to break down the food. Some claim cooking also lessens the nutritional value of the food. That’s a discussion for another day though.

I'll post up the sushi recipes I've found and some little finger food type snacks.

[Walrus]

FYI Greg, Eric's 'latest' article is actually 5 years old.

[commonerg]

Good point, is he still on the raw food diet?

He says "My raw food diet provides no salt"-- sounds like he still does it. I commend anyone who can do this for 5 years.

[DeepThought]

Originally Posted by commonerg

The key to the raw food diet is that any time food is heated above 116 f, the natural enzymes in the food are destroyed forcing the body to produce enzymes to break down the food.

Sounds kinda quackish to me. The pH in the stomach is 1-2 which usualy denatures most proteins that aren't supposed to work in such an acidic environment and there are different proteases in the stomach, gut and cells that absorb materials from the gut and basically screens what goes from the gut to the inside of your body (blood). If there are whole functional proteins that survive all that I assume they are a rare exception rather than a common case. I know it is not the only 'pro' for raw foods, just saying this particular reseaon behind it sounds bogus to me.

By the way, I think Eric posted somewhere that he noticed that a change in diet leads to improvments that lasted averagely about 8 months and after that the benefits from such diets seem to dissipate. Mayve he can show up and opine.

(I am not trying to discourage you by the way, incase it seems like that)

[commonerg]

No no, i'm not discouraged. I have some reservations myself to the "science" behind the diet. I needed a change, and I thought this might be something to try-- challenging if nothing else. And if nothing else, this diet will make me enjoy good food even more. My plan is to try this for a few weeks and then use what i've learned to incorporate more healthy living foods into my diet. I'll certainly enjoy good food more afterwards. One of the reasons I chose raw is because of my respect for Eric F. I hope he will comment.

[efattah]

The article about the 67m dive was written 5 years ago. I hadn't seen it in years... it appeared on Deeperblue without me even knowing it.

I am not on the raw food diet anymore (I went off it in late 2000). If anyone plans on trying the diet, I would recommend hybridizing the diet adding spirulina, chlorella, undenatured whey, flax/hemp oil, organic yogurt, liver powder and vitamin supplements. I also recommend minimizing fruit (less than 30% of total calories). The diet would be high in nuts, seeds, greens, non-sweet fruits and vegetables (olives, avocados, red peppers, tomatos, cucumbers, celery etc.) Coconuts are essential.

Here's a great guy who has been doing diet experiments for 30 years:
http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/...t-bio-1a.shtml

[commonerg]

Thanks for the tips, looks like I'm going to have to figure out this whole sprout thing if I want this to continue.

That link is great. I can't believe he ate only raw fruit for 9 years.

[island_sands]

Sashimi is just raw fish and no rice... mmmm gimme that to eat every day!!

I did the raw thing and also took some of Eric's advice in previous dieting posts, got good results but being a carnivore i didn't last long and had to revert to the blue steaks again

i did find (perhaps too much info again) that i had a system overhaul on the raw food thing and my skin, hair and eye brightness improved and needless to say all the water and piping works

[naiad]

Originally Posted by efattah

The article about the 67m dive was written 5 years ago. I hadn't seen it in years... it appeared on Deeperblue without me even knowing it.

I only noticed that it was an old article when I had read it and one of the links below it was to the original article. Usually it says something like 'From the Archives' so everyone knows it's an article from a few years ago, but this time it didn't.

Interesting link about diet.

Lucia

[BennyB]

On the other end of the scale, I did Atkins for 4 months a couple of years ago, mostly staying in the introduction phase where you limit your carb intake to about 20 grams a day (20 grams would be about 2 handfuls of salad and 1 handful of veges except for potato, rice and a couple of others).

I don't want to start the carb vs no-carb debate but I did observe a couple of things.

Because you stay away things with sugars and processed ingredients such as flour, you don't really put any sauces, gravies or other flavour enhancers on your food. As a result, you learn to appreciate the flavour, texture and freshness of food again. And not just meat either, it made me look at vegetables differently too. Generally we rely on making foods taste different by adding things like salt, cheese, stock etc. when in fact, they already taste great but our taste buds have been accustomed to the same old rubbish from a bottle.

Cheers,
Ben

[island_sands]

i am observing the guy "on diet" in your avatar

Originally Posted by BennyB

On the other end of the scale, I did Atkins for 4 months a couple of years ago, mostly staying in the introduction phase where you limit your carb intake to about 20 grams a day (20 grams would be about 2 handfuls of salad and 1 handful of veges except for potato, rice and a couple of others).

I don't want to start the carb vs no-carb debate but I did observe a couple of things.

Because you stay away things with sugars and processed ingredients such as flour, you don't really put any sauces, gravies or other flavour enhancers on your food. As a result, you learn to appreciate the flavour, texture and freshness of food again. And not just meat either, it made me look at vegetables differently too. Generally we rely on making foods taste different by adding things like salt, cheese, stock etc. when in fact, they already taste great but our taste buds have been accustomed to the same old rubbish from a bottle.

Cheers,
Ben

[BennyB]

Originally Posted by island_sands

i am observing the guy "on diet" in your avatar

There's very little carb in glue

[naiad]

Originally Posted by BennyB

There's very little carb in glue

Not if it's wallpaper paste.

Mmmmm... wallpaper paste...