Fit Fare

Well folks, I spent the last week attempting to follow the Raw Food Diet. I cannot say that I stuck to the diet 100%….IT WAS HARD. However, I did stick to it about 70%. I guess that means I get a D? That being said, I am so glad that I tried this, and I’ve had some new insights into the way I used to eat.

As mentioned in previous posts, following the Raw Food Diet entails eating nothing which is heated over 116 degrees, with the premise being that essential enzymes are lost though heating. When you sit down to think about it, many conventionally healthy foods are excluded from this diet, including whole grain breads, lean meats and fish. This fact has always made me hesitate to try this way of eating. I always thought, “I’ll be too hungry”, or “I won’t get enough protein”. In retrospect, I believe that those assumptions were false. I now think that if you follow a 75% raw food diet, you can stay healthy. I also believe that if you go 100% raw, you can stay healthy with some supplements. I even believe that you can be satisfied; but there were some pitfalls that I didn’t expect.

First, the raw food diet was expensive to follow. Produce is expensive, and so are seeds and nuts. These prices go up even more if you try to buy organic or local produce, or raw nuts and seeds. Prepared raw foods can be very costly, because the nutritional quality of the ingredients is quite high. If you want to prepare your own foods and have a wide variety, it’s also best to purchase a dehydrator and a juicer, which adds more expense.

Eating raw is time consuming as well. This is not necessarily because of the food preparation time, but because of planning. You really cannot leave your house without insuring that you have everything you might need to eat for the rest of the day, because the chances of finding a convenient “raw” food are slim. I don’t normally plan out everything I am going to eat during the day, but trying to follow the raw food diet forced me to do so.

Now to the good points; eating raw made me feel lighter, healthier, and boy, did my skin look GREAT. I didn’t feel a great surge of energy, but I didn’t feel like I was starving either. There are many techniques which I followed during this last week which I am going to continue after this experiment is over.

While eating raw, my breakfast consisted of a fruit smoothie. One concoction I made was with half a cup of orange juice, half a cup of fresh pineapple and half a banana with ice. Another concoction I had was half a banana, a quarter cup of light coconut milk, a half a cup of pineapple juice, and a handful of strawberries with ice. This ended up being one of my pitfalls; I found out after some more reading that coconut milk does not qualify as a raw food.

I ate two snacks each day, and the snacks were always fresh fruits and vegetables. I did pair broccoli, peppers, baby carrots, and cherry tomatoes with hummus. Again, I hit another pitfall here, because unless hummus is prepared in a particular way with sprouted beans then it is also not a raw food. Lunches were almost always a salad or flax crackers and peanut butter (or both). Dinners had some raw vegetables, but I found it very difficult to stay on the program after work. I mentioned in my introduction piece that staying on such a strict program like eating raw would be especially difficult in social settings, and dinner with my husband was no exception. When left to my own devices during the day, I was ok; but when someone else was involved I caved. Out of the seven days I ate raw, I only made it through the whole day once.

Most of the information I got about eating raw came from browsing the web. There are some highly recommended books out there about eating raw, and I plan on picking a few of those up to learn more. Some good websites for learning about eating raw include:

Living and Raw Foods
Raw Food Diet
Shirley’s Wellness Cafe

I thought this experiment would be something I would try and then go back to eating normal as soon as it was over; I was wrong. This way of eating has made me look at my current diet in a new way, and I have decided to make some changes.

First, I am going to only eat fruit before noon. The fruit and fruit smoothies were incredibly satisfying, and I believe they resulted in improved digestion and contributed to my skin glow. Second, my in-between “snacks” will be raw; either fruits or vegetables. I plan on trying to make the other two meals I eat during the day about 50% raw. I was happy enough with my results that I am going to continue to read about eating raw and attempt some raw recipes. I would encourage anyone to try eating this way for a time if they can; it is not easy, but you may rethink how healthy you currently eat. Good luck!