Low fat raw vegan: What’s all the fuss about?

Starting off with a big thank you to all the open-minded people reading this and commenting about this, I’m glad you are interested.

And I’m also very happy about one (worried) commenter, who replied to the last post. Yes, I said I’m happy about it. Jenna, it’s awesome of you to post a comment listing your worries about this “diet”. I encourage all people who feel that this is a bit dodgy to post a comment telling me what it is that worries them. It’s not strange to think this is weird, it’s very natural!

As I said in the beginning of the last post, this is something you do not hear much about and most people haven’t seen a fruit eater in their life, so you have no experience to base your knowledge on (thank god for the internet, right?).

So Jenna, here me out, doll. I will not ignore you, bash you or hate on you in any other way – I think it’s very cool of you to list your problems with the diet. This way it encourages me to think about problems I might encounter, as well as worries others may have and questions some may want answered.

First of all, you spoke of a woman your mother knew who was a fruitarian. Though I think that many things get over exaggerated in the process of communication, I will assume that everything you say is correct about that woman.

1. You say she needed to eat constantly to feel energized. The reason for this is that she probably didn’t eat enough fruit. I here this all the time from LFRV people – ‘YOU HAVE TO EAT MORE!’

If you need to eat every 1-2 hours, you should eat bigger meals! Trust me on this one. When I started out I ate a banana smoothie for breakfast, an apple for lunch, some veggies for a snack and a salad for dinner. I didn’t feel that great, actually I felt 100x better when I ate a big sandwich. Big surprise… I never got more than 600cals a day.

If one is looking to go 100% LFRV, they should be eating an equivalent of 20 bananas a day (so it could be other fruit, but just so you get an idea). So let’s say 2000 calories and this is for a WOMAN who is NOT ACTIVE.

• You used the word fruitarian and maybe you’ve noticed my “subtitle” but it says frugivore. When I first saw these words, I never stopped to think that there could be a difference, but there is. A fruitarian eats exclusively fruit and a frugivore eats fruit and supplements it with greens and nuts.  
• I cannot strain the importance of greens enough! Like I showed in the last post, kale is king! As are other leafy greens, they supply you with your micronutrients (calcium, zinc, iron, iodine and all the rest). If you ignore them, you’ve got a problem. Many LFRV’s recommend a lbs a day (which is about 500gr).

• (1) The high sugar fear is unfounded when speaking of fruit. Try putting a tablespoon of white sugar in your mouth… Yeah, not tasty and not very good for you. But eat an apple (or two!) and no problem. High sugar is a problem, I agree, but this concerns processed sugar. Fruit is nothing to be feared. A reliable to prove this is using the Glycemic Index/ Glycemic load. While the Glycemic Index (GI) might sound familiar to you, Glycemic Load may be new, but I’ll explain.
  • The Glycemic load is a system that uses the Glycemic index to calculate to what extent a food elevates blood glucose. So for example foods like watermelon which would be considered too sugary in a GI-diet, are proven to have less impact on our blood sugar than for example sweet potatoes.
  • Actually, when you use this method, you see that seemingly non-sweet cooked foods (such as white rice, baguettes and spaghetti) elevate our blood sugar more than fruits.
  • And of course, I’m speaking of fresh fruits – dried fruits are a whole other story. If you don’t watch out with those raisins/dates/dried pineapples – be prepared for a sugar rush.

• (2) Eat 10 bananas and tell me your not satiated No really, the point is you need more volume/quantity than you do on a regular diet. The thing is that you have to keep in mind that all these fresh foods have all there wonderful water content intact! So half of what you are eating is water. This means you’ll leave the table hydrated and satisfied. (Not to mention you won’t need dessert, cause you just had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!)

• (3) As for the tooth issue: few (dare I say no) dentists come across people who’s dental problems stem from eating too much fruit. Usually there’s a bit more to it than that.
  • As I mentioned before: not enough greens = not enough calcium, which is vital for your teeth.
  • Dried fruits, nuts and refined sugars are the culprit. Ever noticed all the leftovers stuck in your mouth after eating a hand of trail mix. I don’t know about you, but when I eat dried fruits and nuts all my teeth are covered in that stuff and I have to brush them to get it out. I don’t know if you are familiar with the concept of alkaline and acid foods (ask me if you need more info) but nuts are acid (very counterintuitive – they don’t taste acid, but they have an acid effect on your body). So when the bacteria in your mouth try and break down these leftovers, they produce an acidic metabolic waste product which damages your enamel.
  • Of course, sucking on lemons all day won’t do your enamel good. But then again, who wants to do that?

If you have more doubts please mail/comment again (this goes for everyone!)

Going on the the weight loss and amenorrhea problem.

I do know what amenorrhea is and actually I lost my period for a whole year while still eating cooked food! That is why I’m 100% sure that eating raw will not be the reason for people getting amenorrhea. It has to do with become underweight – if you lose too much weight, you will lose your period.  I got my period back when I gained weight and ate more fruit.

So I have to ask you, in a non-judgmental way (trust me), can you honestly say that you were eating enough?  How many calories a day were you eating?

If you asked me, when I first started eating this way, if I was eating enough, I would have told you “yes” without a second thought. But I was eating no more than 600 calories a day. It felt like enough, because with respect to volume it was the same amount that I ate when I was eating cooked food, but it was no where near enough food.

And why do you say that it would only be fit for hunters & gatherers? First of all, we haven’t changed biologically/physiologically from then. For some reason people think we’ve evolved a whole lot in the last 10,000 years, but we’re still the same homo sapiens we were then. And secondly, wouldn’t it be more logical to argue that they needed more? After all, they were more active; needed more energy.

I don’t think it’s fair to use their short life span as an argument (which was probably closer to 30 than 19) because this is intertwined with so much more than food. For example in Mozambique and Swaziland the life expectancy is around 40 years. And this is in our time. The reason is poverty, overexertion and starvation. This could easily have applied for hunters & gatherers seeing as they weren’t always certain they would be fed and they had to work very hard. Add to that the fact that there was no such thing as medicine or help in case of accidents and it’s pretty understandable that they didn’t live that long. Also remember that these are all averages, just because the average is 30 or 40, doesn’t mean that some more lucky, more healthy individuals didn’t live longer.

We have food and lots of it! We don’t need to worry about scarcity and we have health care and a warm place to sleep, I think this plays a big role.

If we evolve further, say, change into this guy:

Apparently this is our evolutionary future – let’s hope not…

Then maybe we should reconsider the diet (or food as a whole… and mirrors, cause damn…)

I really thought it was wise of you to mention that I should listen to my body – because that is exactly what I didn’t do before. I was looking for a quick (energy) fix with coffee, faster metabolism with some pills, easier digestion with some crazy teas – all things to avoid this method. But since I’ve tried out this way of eating, I feel better, I look better and I perform better. For me, listening to my body means eating more fruit.

I really, honestly want to thank you for your comment. It means a lot to me that you care and that you want me to be careful and I will be.

To reassure you a little bit more, I’m going to post my blood tests results that I took in December and I’ll post the new ones that I get done in February (so after two months of 100% LFRV) so that I can compare.

And it is my solemn oath that I will not follow this way of eating with dogmatic fanaticism. Being a fanatic is something I hate. I want to know the truth. I want to observe this like a scientist. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. So I’ll keep you posted.

Now onto the “essence” of low fat raw veganism: the low fat part.

Why low fat?

Do you know the feeling in your stomach when you eat a handful of nuts? …

Need I say more?

Well, I’m sure that most of us know that some foods leave you more full than others. Usually these are high-fat meals. More full really means more difficult to digest. Too much fat can be taxing on the liver. Many “sugar” problems actually stem from eating too much fat as oppose to too much sugar, which is commonly thought. One thing you’ll see often in diabetics is that they are tired all the time. Doesn’t this seem weird as they are supposed to have too much sugar in their bloodstream? Well, the problem is that the sugar doesn’t get into the cells, so it’s never metabolized.

Many health experts say we minimize our fat intake.

But with the 80/10/10 ratio it doesn’t mean no fat at all. It means that 10% of your calories is from fat. So say you are eating 2000 calories a day, 200 calories come from fat.

But to leave the science behind us and go back to the feeling part of this: it FEELS so much better. You no longer feel like you need a nap after dinner, your no longer too full and you can eat so much more.

And let me emphasize that last thing a little more: YOU CAN EAT SOOOOO MUCH MORE THAN YOU THINK!

I know for a fact (some of) you have thought this before:

Wouldn’t it be awesome if I could just eat as much as I want and not have to worry about it?

My idea of heaven used to be a place where you could eat tonnes and never be sick, gain weight or have health problems (don’t worry this was only 1 of the perks in my idea of heaven – I’m very creative in the imaginary department, will write more about it another time).

The great news is I don’t depend on the the potential existence of a heaven after death now – cause I can  eat all that I want now and not worry.

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Another aspect of LFRV is that it’s not gourmet…

Daily pizzas, not part of a healthy diet, raw or otherwise

Why you shouldn’t base your diet on gourmet raw

If you think you can go raw and change your diet by simply eating raw cakes and raw pizza, you’ve got another thing coming. First of all the health aspect of it; most people get into raw foods for the sake of their health, but living on raw gourmet is far from healthy. Many raw foodies eat to much fat, sometimes up to 60% of their diet consists of fat! This is even more fat than in the SAD (Standard American Diet) and definitely more fat than is healthy. The reason I am against this is not because of some irrational fat phobia, but because of the simple fact that too much fat puts strain on your body: it’s difficult to digest. Many gourmet raw dishes are based on nuts, seeds and oils and these are very heavy. Raw foodies and non-raw foodies alike often find raw cakes and cheeses quite heavy. There’s no need to do intensive research to understand it, just think about it: how many nuts can you eat before you get a belly ache? Exactly; not that many.

The second reason I don’t advise basing your diet on raw gourmet dishes is that it takes time and money. Google any random raw cookie recipe and it will tell you that you need about 3 different types of nuts, some carrot pulp, spices, dates, raisins and some more stuff. I don’t know about you, but recipes with too many ingredients and instructions make me dizzy. On top of that, you often have to dehydrate raw cookies and crackers and not many people are prepared to lay down 500 bucks for a machine that’s going to take more than 8 hours to make you cookies and crackers. Eating out everyday might cut the time issue, but it’s not very nice for your wallet. On top of that, not everyone is lucky enough to live in New York or L.A., so you might perceive a lack of raw restaurants in your area. For example, the nearest raw restaurant for me is 100 kilometres away and that is not a distance I’m willing to travel to get me some dinner.

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No need to spend all your hard-earned money on “superfoods”

For some reason this is what many raw foodists say you need. But honestly, do you think that buying some dried berry  from the Himalayas or seaweed from Ireland will help you? Funny thing too, they seem to be pretty darn expensive (source of income to those who claim we need them perhaps?) A reason to trust people who advise fruit & veg, is that they cannot make money off of you. After all, fruit isn’t exactly a lucrative business.

But to put it very simply should think of superfoods as accessories. They shouldn’t make up the bulk of your wardrobe and they shouldn’t be your priority. Imagine you have no clothes; the first thing you’ll think about won’t be “I should get a nice necklace” or “I think I need a pair of gloves.” No, the first thing you’ll are some pants and a shirt, then you might add a nice scarf or some earrings. Well, fruits and vegetables are your pants and shirt! Nuts, seeds and avocadoes are your shoes and anything else is just for decoration. Some people say accessories are the finishing touch to their outfit; others are absolutely fine without accessories. But NO ONE can do without the base! So in plain un-metaphorical English: make sure you get enough fruits and vegetables and then if you feel you need it or want it and have enough money you can go for superfoods.

To summarize the ups of Low Fat Raw Vegan food:

• Easy (minimal to no prep)
• No superfoods necessary, so cheap (forget the raw cacao..)
• Juicy and sweet – dessert all the time!
• All you can eat – no strings attached
• Great energy
• No belly aches
• Clear skin
• Happy
• And I’m probably missing a few, but these are IMO the most important

Next post will be about my journey and the other people who are living this lifestyle…

Love,

Tina