Hi all

I read that a lot of you are fruitarians. Some of you eat an enourmous amount of greens every day (which seems to be one of the most popular choices) while others eat only until a certain hour of the day, say 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, whatever. In any case the general advice seems to be to limit quite a bit the amount of fats that you take in in any one day.

So now, my question is, how do you make sure you get enough protein/calcium in your diets? I know there is a small amount of protein and calcium in vegetables and fruit, but only very small. I try and introduce in my diet as many iron/calcium/protein rich foods as I can (sesame, dried fruits, hemp/flax/sunflower seeds, almonds, buckwheat etc) but most of this are fats and I have to eat a certain amount of them (not huge but not tiny) to get even to half of the recommended amount of calcium/protein for an adult person. So how do you guys deal with this, not eating too much fats and eating just a reasonable amount of food in a day but eating enough of them to fulfill your nutrient needs? Hope I explained myself well

Hi.
I too used to be concerned about how to get enough protein on a raw diet,but I can tell you this...that I used to consume protein shakes,tuna,eggs,meat,milk,cheese and amino acid capsules every day years ago,and I didnt feel any better,or have any bigger muscles than I do now by just eating romaine leaves and watermelon all day.Thats my experience.
But I am sure others will chime in and give their perspective on the most common question a raw foodist is asked....."where do you get your protein."

ps. Lettuce is about 29% protein And I hear sesame seeds are higher in calcium than milk.

Brian



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2008 10:25PM by Raw1228.

fitday.com

I know about fitday. That's how I know that the amount of sesame to be consumed to get enough calcium out of it is actually QUITE big. Same with the lettuce and fruits... unless you eat several pounds of lettuce every day!

when you enter in your daily food consumption what sort of balance are you getting? i wouldn't worry about the bits and pieces if the whole was adequately balanced.

karmele,

The calcium requirements in fitday and all the nutritional calculators are based on people eating a certain amount of animal products and grain product each day. These foods deplete your calcium, so this is why the requirement are so high. However, with a raw diet of fresh fruits and salads, you aren't eating the foods that deplete your calcium, so your requirement is much less.

If you pay attention to you body's desire for leafy greens, it will tell you when you have enough minerals, in fact, you probably won't be able to look at a salad when you are feeling this way. And when the desire for a salad arises, eat them and you will be getting enough minerals. But at the beginning of the raw diet, when the body is still overcoming the malnutrition of the previous years, it helps to eat a pound of leafy greens a day.

Greetings Karmele,

Re: protein/calcium intake and sufficiency...

a) all collective research suggests that ~30-40gm of protein per day is sufficient for adult humans, the human body recycles about ~175gms of protein otherwise, per day, to complete needed proteins, etc etc.

b) eat plenty of greens, juicing 1-3x per day to get more density in a simple and easily absorbed form (kale/carrot/celery/parsley or something similar is very dense), or consume a green superfood powder 1-3x per day... greens to eat: kale, romaine lettuce, spinach, broccoli, etc

c) calcium is also in greens, and the Asian populations with the least osteoporosis and least hip fractures consume about ~300-400mg of calcium per day.. it's more a matter of how much calcium one loses per day, if any, vs. how much calcium one can consume...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2008 03:13AM by wooway.

Listen to Bryan. Although requirements may be (and should be) bigger while transitioning and still clearning out crap.....MY experience is that I have easily enjoyed tremendous health and energy while eating an all raw, mostly fruit diet (all fruit for many years now).

-These types of questions / worries usually come from folks who are just starting. Those who have been eating well for some time and are clean internally....and happy....well it often becomes self-evident that there are no problems with protein, calcium, etc.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Right.
I consider myself a human laboratory on this protein issue.
I am into bodybuilding,and have felt better and looked better than ANY time years ago When I was on all the commercial protein shakes,pills,fish,eggs,milk...you name it.
Brian

I think Bryan gave a Good Post when he said to
eat Greens when your Body desired them.
I eat by schedule, and never change my ingredients.
It's something to think about.....WY

Yes, Bryan and everyone.. raw vegans do well with calcium/protein even though often consuming smaller amounts....

[news.bbc.co.uk]

wooway Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> b) eat plenty of greens, juicing 1-3x per day to
> get more density in a simple and easily absorbed
> form (kale/carrot/celery/parsley or something
> similar is very dense), or consume a green
> superfood powder 1-3x per day... greens to eat:
> kale, romaine lettuce, spinach, broccoli, etc

Hi Wooway

I actually eat a lot of fruit so I get plenty of fiber in my diet, and I do juice once a day although some people are against it, considering it a waste of nutrients... but I could not chew a pound of green leafies a day! So about half a pound I just put in a juice with some fruit for sweetness. However I find that kale and broccoli juice very badly and most of my (very expensive) produce goes to waste... I pay 3 euros for a non-organic half a pound of spinach or kale! Maybe your juicer is better than mine? Mine is a very basic one.

Also, a lot of people are against superfoods, mainly Dr Douglas Graham and his crowd, some people think you should not eat anything that you can't make a complete meal out of? What do people in here think about that? I haven't formed my own opinion about that at all yet.

Thanks everyone for your responses

Opinion:

-I think long term health is achieved in all the moments when you are NOT doing something that can only be done periodically. Heh..heh. As such, mastering eating simple (simple, inexpensive, available local produce) should be mastered in a way that is comfortable and gradual FIRST. Anything else is a distraction that is probably not necessary for many folks....as the food will act as all the medicine necessary.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

loeve Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ... raw vegans do well with
> calcium/protein even though often consuming
> smaller amounts....
>
> [news.bbc.co.uk]


Re: calcium and bone density, Luigi Fontana of Washington Univ. did a study that was widely reported in 2005, the above BBC report giving a positive review, but Fontana himself "not sure" of bone health among raw vegetarians (vegans).. finding both positive and negative indicators. [mednewsarchive.wustl.edu]

The study was small and had a confounding (IMO) factor as far as choosing its subjects with little if any regard for weight (affects bone density).

I don't recall the source, but it has been said that if you consume the amount of calories you need via raw foods, then you'll also be getting sufficient amount of protein.

Wishing you vibrant health