Anyone ever tried the Raw Food Diet?

[Chrisczech]

It certainly was meant tongue-in-cheek, no offence intended at all. I open my mouth and put my foot in it so often, I must have got confused.

Apologies.

[jedopi]

I wasn't upset - I hope you didn't think so.

[catchpenny]

Actually I said Nutritional Yeast NOT Brewer's Yeast. Apparently they are not the same thing at all.

You're kidding. I've been laboring under a delusion!

I wasn't upset - I hope you didn't think so. Embarassed
Chrisczech
PostPosted: Wed Jun 23, 2010 7:32 pm Post subject:
It certainly was meant tongue-in-cheek, no offence intended at all. I open my mouth and put my foot in it so often, I must have got confused. Very Happy

Apologies.

That's the trouble with writing as opposed to face to face. You don't get the inflection of voice, the huge grin to let on your kidding. Although some writers like Kipling (In my opinion)use the language very expressively.

[annise]

Hey all - lets not make a controversial subject out of a raw food diet .

If people want to try one, they can.
According to Wikipedia brewers yeast, bakers yeast, and nutritional yeast are all the same species Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
And if you do ask for people's opinions on things , people may well disagree with you.

Back off my soapbox

Anne

[Darryl]

I've thought about it, but dismissed it for the same reason I ended up stopping my vegetarian diet. I, personally, don't have the dedication to food to stick to a strict diet. Even with an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet, I managed to not get enough protein or fat, to the point where my body started cannibalizing my muscle tissue, and I felt crappy all the time.

But yes, a raw-food diet (or Atkins/South Beach, or vegan) can be healthy, but iff (if and only if) you have the dedication to stick to it and find the right foods to get your protein and fat. And a lot of these turn into one-way streets with no outlets. If you start on a 0-carb diet, your body chemistry changes to the point where you can't handle carbs unless you very gently ease yourself back on. Same for raw-food or veg. Obviously, a one-week trial of a diet won't do it, but it also may not give you the whole picture.

Personally, I take a few things from each. For example, I love home-pressed juices (especially carrot juice, it's so rich and sweet). I just stick with a normal food-pyramid diet and trying to exercise.

[Rat King]

I was on something similar some two years ago when I was working heavy labour - Paleolithic diet; essentially eating as man did some 10,000 years ago - natural foods, nothing processed, and low on the starch and carbs.

I lost about 60 pounds over the summer, eating in that fashion combined with the hours of digging I was putting in. Worked great, felt great, but eventually fell off the wagon only because I was laid off thanks to the recession; pizza and junkfood was just too plentiful around the home, and I just couldn't afford the amount of meat that was needed to keep up the level I was at before.

There are a lot of ways one can eat to get thin and healthy - in Africa, there is a tribe that only drinks blood and milk, and are ridiculously healthy for it. In Japan meat is rare, so they live off of rice and a bit of fish, and a lot of veggies. The Eskimo's diet was once 100% meat and fat, but because they ate everything they caught (brains, offal, bones etc), even their 75% fat, 25% meat diet left them extremely strong and disease free.

It is all a balance of what you take in and how much you move in the end - natural foods are a thousand times better for you than processed, but it doesn't make a difference unless you move around in your off-time as well.

Important thing though - it takes more than a week for your body to get into the throw of things. It took me two and a half weeks to get used to the new intake of food on the Paleo diet, and during that time I wanted to quit so badly because I was going into sugar withdrawl... but after I got through that, it was clean and easy sailing.

[Don Stirno]

I'm vegan and, although I'm not a raw foodist, I know a couple people who are. Personally, I subscribe to the view that one of the most important developments in humans as a species was the discovery of cooking. There's plenty of literature on this and the basic fact is that, as previously mentioned, a lot of poisons (not to mention bacteria) are often cooked out. Not that I think we should never eat anything raw, I love nuts (very high in protein and good fats), fruit/veg (I always get my 5 a day) and so on, but I don't think I'd be as healthy without cooked foods. For a start, Vitamin B12 does not occur naturally in plant foods, and the vegan's main source is in processed yeast products - bread is the staple, and beer and marmite/vegemite fill in the rest. With a raw food diet, bread would be a lot more difficult to produce, and most full on raw foodists tend to be straight edge, leaving yeast extracts to be the main source. Moreover, most vegans avoid products from companies that are involved with animal testing - ruling out both Vegemite and Marmite. So, as you see, a typical straight edge, raw food, vegan (a very common combination) has some serious issues with acquiring a very important nutrient!

If your goal is weight loss, I'd recommend trying veganism instead. The problem with vegetarianism is that eggs and dairy are quite poor sources of protein when considering the fat ratio and types of fats involved. On the other hand, soya, other beans and nuts are very good. Also, as most people know, the 'heaviness' of dairy on the gut can make it difficult to process properly, meaning a higher proportion is usually stored as fat.

Sadly though, a one week trial really isn't enough. It took me about 3 weeks to stop craving cheese, and most of my friends took a lot longer. The important thing is filling the gap with lots of other protein. There are some wonderful soya based products out there and even some alright vegan cheese replacements. Of course, its never quite the same as the real thing, but I haven't eaten meat in 10 years, so I can't really remember that

As for using yeast as a cheese replacement, I've only tried this once. Nutrition stores often sell jars of yeast flakes, which are probably processed in a different way to brewer's yeast. They have that similar tangy, satisfying taste that cheese has, but they're really not an adequate substitute. Its nice, and I understand why people always compare the flavours, but its really not the same thing at all.

[Great-Grandmother]

I think that most people often overlook the main reason it is good to eat a raw diet. When food is heated to over ~108/9 degrees it kills all of the enzymes in the food. These enzymes (beneficial bacteria maybe) are extremely important. The more enzymes your food has the less you lose when you digest your food.

I have recently been on a Kefir kick though. I have been having some serious health problems and having a real hard time eating anything. Well withing three days of drinking the Kefir (I use raw goats milk for my Kefir) I have gained my appetite back completely and my energy levels have gone through the roof.

Everyone is so scared of germs. Yes there were problems when people were dirty or extremely unsanitary because they were too lazy to do things properly. But when food is pasteurized or processed it kills all of the beneficial bacteria in the food. There is good bacteria that our bodies need to survive.

[JoeD]

I would never go on a raw fook diet. I love spam too much. But as much as I love Spam, Librivox seems to be getting hammered with it lately. Is there any way Admin can simply TERMINATE the accounts of obvious spammers like the last three entries in this here thread?

[RuthieG]

We have been constantly terminating the accounts of spammers - actually hundreds of them over the past week. We are currently under severe attack, but it is well under control, as you can see from this prompt response to your message. We are deleting many even before they post, as we have many ways of determining if people are of evil intent.

ALL SPAMMERS POSTING LINKS WILL BE TERMINATED. VERY QUICKLY.

Off-topic is slightly more difficult, as spammers may make seemingly relevant posts. If posters are misguided enough to post spam links, they will be gone, I assure you (one of the three users above has already been deleted as you can see from the Guest tag).

If you EVER see a post with a spam link in the body of the message or the signature that we have missed, please message any admin. Thanks!

EDIT: Having said that, as no regular member of this forum has posted in this thread for nearly 2 months, I am minded to lock this thread.

Ruth

edit by kayray: thanks Ruth I deleted another account and also deleted the posts of the two most blatant spammers.