Raw Vegan Diet - views please

[heartchakra]

I was wondering if anyone has experience doing a raw vegan diet and how they fared on that.

In India someone who advocates a raw food diet and 6 hours fasting ( no water too) from the time one gets up from bed is having outstanding success in treating many diseases. He also makes it compulsory to take enema twice a day for the first month of this diet and then once a fortnight or so.

I am tempted to try this but want to hear of experiences

[Chile]

Past discussions

[eshqua]

Check out the Youtube videos:

Life Regnerator
Tim Van Orden - running raw
Rawfully Kristina - she has an interesting story of overcoming hypoglycemia I believe
Dara Dubinet
Megan Elizabeth - easytoberaw - very interesting story of overcoming chronic fatigue I think
chrisbeatcancer - I believe raw vegan

I find some of the videos interesting but I'm not willing to restrict my diet that much. But if I had a major health issue, I might change my mind.

[eshqua]

Woops - correction:

Life Regenerator - Dan McDonald - I had once saved as a favorite a good video of his where he interviews a fellow who was into body building and high protein/low carb diet and how he avoided back surgery when he switched to raw vegan. It was a really good story. I'll try to find the video since it's no longer in my "favorites".

[eshqua]

Here's the video I found interesting on Dan McDonald's Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JubW71cJ ... ata_player

I found the fellow's story so good - about 2 or 3 minutes into the video.

[vgpedlr]

Also Doug Graham's 80-10-10 program. I've known some people who have succeeded with this, and there are others who did not, and stick to McDougall.

[Demosthenes]

The guy flexing with the bananas was enough to sell my on the 80/10/10 plan.

[sharonbikes]

I am curious -what about this appeals to you? For me, the requirement of daily enemas would be a huge red flag. My body is well designed to be self- cleaning. I would rather eat the foods that support that process.

There are plenty of athletes doing very well on this WOE. As for the 6 hour fasting requirement - don't most people do that anyway? For example, if you eat lunch around noon and then eat dinner around 7 or so - isn't that about the same thing?

My advice - just stick with this WOE and eat real food and let your body do its healing with good nutrition.

Sharon

[PurplePotato]

A problem with the raw vegan diet is how you are going to get your calories. You can't just eat lots of vegetables, as they are only around 100 cal/lb. Nuts, seeds, avocados, ect. would give you enough calories, but then you would be eating a high fat diet, which is no good. Fruit, at around 300 cal/lb could work, but you might be eating too much simple sugar. And neither high-fat foods or fruit will be very satiating.

That said, anyone who switches from SAD to raw vegan will likely experience dramatic health results, and if I was to award a runner-up for best WOE to starchatarianism, I would give it to an a fruit based diet.

[PurplePotato]

Also, in case you thought "detoxing" or colon cleansing to be helpful, it's not: http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=36475&p=370204&hilit=detox#p370204

[Demosthenes]

Cooking does destroy some nutrients but it also increases the bioavailability of other nutrients. I think this is one of those debates where moderation is the best- eat a good mixture of cooked and raw veggies.

[PineappleTraci]

Yeah, I agree with Demosthenes -- would you settle for a mixture of cooked and raw veggies?

I ask this because I think aiming for Dr. Fuhrman's detox plan of "a pound of raw, a pound of cooked" is not a bad plan at all for someone looking to get their health together, or to jump start themselves back on track.

It's funny, because I am doing exactly this myself -- today I ate raw food all afternoon: iceberg lettuce, with slices of granny apple thrown in (along with some delicious horseradish mustard), and then chowing some raw mushrooms (also with that awesome mustard), and then ate two orange bell peppers raw. Raw vegetables can be very enjoyable and filling!

I *do* believe you'll do best if you also eat cooked foods, as some things just are not tolerable raw -- broccoli comes to mind, for one. Oh, and starches like rice and potatoes! Also, I believe that that people who try to do raw diets wind up relying too heavily on fruits and nuts for their calories, which winds up creating a diet that is comprised a bit too much of (natural) sugars and (natural) fats.

In addition, satiety is worth thinking about in advance. Foods like potatoes and brown rice create more lasting satiety than iceberg lettuce, raw mushrooms and orange bell peppers. So, maybe you want to cube some cooked potatoes into your otherwise-raw salad (which is *still* pretty hard core, which seems like what you're going for), that'll help.

I'd encourage you to do a heck of a lot of raw food (but not all), and see where you are in a few weeks!

[shell-belle]

yes - eat a mix of raw and cooked. i love celery, carrots, jicama, raw turnips, radishes, cauliflower & even raw broccoli, i sprouted some buckwheat groats the other day and ate them. i like other sprouts too. cucumbers, raw zucchini, raw beets, butter lettuce, tomatoes - all yummy to me.

[JillinMI]

A previous poster mention Doug Graham's raw 80/10/10 protocal. I highly recommend reading Graham's book, The 80/10/10 Diet. The 80/10/10 macro-nutrient profile (carbs/protein/fat) is pretty much the same profile as McDougall/Esselstyn/Barnard. Graham's 80/10/10 diet is a low-fat version of raw vegan, as some raw vegan protocals are very high fat. For me, low-fat works best whether it is cooked/mixed as with McDougall/Esselstyn/Barnard, or Graham's high-fruit 80/10/10.

I hate to cook, and spend time preparing food. Plus, my taste buds haven't adapted to liking most recipes for grains, vegies, and beans without salt, sweetener, or olive oil, even though I've been McDougalling since 2008. I find Graham's 80/10/10 diet very appealing because you have 95% of your calories coming from fruit (for example: 6-10 oranges, or 4-5 bananas for 1 meal), and good ripe fruit is very appealing to me.

You are also to consume approximately 1 and 2 pounds of tender leafy greens, daily. Fat intake is kept to approximately 1 ounce of nuts, or half an avocado about 3 times a week.

The difficulty is managing to always have enough ripe fruit on hand. Another reply to your post mentioned Rawfully Kristina (Kristina Carillo-Bucaram). She is wonderful and has tons of videos. She actually has a few web sites, and YouTube, and Facebook accounts. The best one is Fully Raw Kristina for both Facebook and YouTube. Her Rawfully Organic sites are primarily for her raw food co-op she runs in Houston, TX. Doug Graham's diet brought her health around, and it appears he was her mentor.

As with all the low-fat vegan protocals, whether cooked/mixed, like McDougall, or raw like Graham's, I'm usually need to eat about every 2-3 hours. Personally, I combine McDougalling with Graham's 80/10/10. If I don't feel like potatoes, beans, or grains I'll have something like 5-6 mangos or oranges, or 2 cantalopes with some celery. I would like to be organized enough, in always having enough ripe fruit, to follow Graham's 80/10/10 100% because of preferring fruit to grains/legumes, and my aversion to cooking. McDougalling healed me from a great many health issues, and the Starch Solution is a fantastic way to health.

Regarding cleansing/enemas: I don't believe they are necessary for most people but if you still feel you need to “clean yourself out” just try eating a half a medium or large sized watermelon (not the “personal” size, nor baby/icebox ones) in the morning and you will get all the cleansing you need.

[waingapu]

In India someone who advocates a raw food diet and 6 hours fasting ( no water too) from the time one gets up from bed is having outstanding success in treating many diseases. He also makes it compulsory to take enema twice a day for the first month of this diet and then once a fortnight or so.

I am tempted to try this but want to hear of experiences

I find it simply amazing that someone would read about some guy in India who says do A, B, C, and D
Who claims to have "outstanding success" treating diseases.
Who says to flush out your colon twice a day

That a thinking individual would simply read such stuff, from some unknown, un-proven, guy in India and seriously be tempted to follow his advice.

How about if it included standing on your head and clapping your hands 3 time a day while drinking green tea? Would you still do it? No? Is the twice daily enema any more sensible than that?

Has this India health guru shown any actual evidence that is proof?
Or has he just got a bunch of fellow believers who have bought into all this giving out anecdotal tales.

Simply unbelievable. That is unless you have something more you are going on?