Hello all...

Since I am new to raw (4 weeks) and at times struggling. I am wondering how a person gets all their vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy functioning body. I am attempting to cut down on my fat consumption, by eliminating nuts and seeds, but it sets me up for feeling really hungry (I know fat is good at producing satiation) but that is another topic in itself. Back to the vits and min's question

When I enter all the food I've eaten for the day into fitday.com I come out way short on such vitamins as: A, D, Thiamin, niacin, and B12 (but I've read people supplement for this one as it's mostly found in meats) and short on these minerals: calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, phosphorus and magnesium.

Do raw peeps usually take a vitamin supplement? If you cut down or cut out nuts and seeds which would take care of calcium, iron, Thiamin and niacin. How does a person get the above afore-mentioned vits and mins without supplementation?

Thanks for you responses

Custom

"May all your rides be filled with opportunities to learn and cherish the majestic beauty of the beloved creature, we call the horse!!"

i am new also....about 6 weeks in and i take a whole food multi. i do it for my peace of mind i guess. i was tracking my intakes on fitday like you do and i was deficient in alot of areas. i also have osteopenia which is a pre cursor to osteporosis and i`m only 42...was diagnosed with it at 30 something so i take an extra calcium supp as well. i know the rda is setup for the sad eaters but for now i feel better taking the supplement. just my 2 cents
patty

dewey: be sure that you are taking a calcium with magnesium. It's important to take these two together.

Custom: why are you limiting fats this early in your transition? If you don't like them or if they are making you feel bad, then I understand. But if you are not eating fats because you think you shouldn't then perhaps you need to do some more research. In my opinion and in my experience, vegetable fats are very important starting out raw. The so-called "good fats" that are found in nuts, seeds and avocados actually help to dissolve old fatty deposits in your body; they are satiating and delicious and provide good lubrication that your body needs. They will also keep you from losing too much weight too fast (and paradoxically, assist you in weight loss if that's what you need) and will keep detox more manageable (which you'll want if you have a life and must work and etc.) The choice is, of course, yours, but personally, I can't imagine transitioning to 100% raw without them.

As for getting enough nutrients: again, in my opinion, eating a wide variety of plant foods which includes sweet and unsweet fruits, dark green leafy vegetables, and nuts, seeds, and avocados should provide you with all you need on a daily basis. I don't use fitday or nutridiary or any of those because they are, in my opinion, artificial. In other words, if you grew all of your own food do you think that you would get all of the recommended vitamins and minerals IN ONE DAY, or even one season? Probably not. But if you are coming from a SAD diet and are not totally well, supplementing may be helpful. Otherwise, your food should be sufficient. Personally, I would rather juice than take a vitamin, but that's just me. Occasionally, when I think about it, I'll add a few trace mineral drops to my smoothie. Every now and then I'll take a sublingual B-complex. And sometimes, I'll use a green food powder, which will generally have all of the minerals and vitamins plus some recommended by standard nutritional tables and etc.

Do you think you were getting all the vitamins and minerals you needed BEFORE you were raw? Where did you get them then?


khale

I am also new (9 weeks raw) and I also take a vit/min supplement + extra Calcium/mag for the same peace of mind that Dewey mentioned. I actually calculated all the nutritional info into fitday and with it, I meet all of my nutritional needs for the day. Having a healthy lifestyle includes doing what is best for your body's needs and for me, that is what is best. I know some say they can get everything they need in their food, but I am rather picky on the foods I like , eat or even have access to...so I just supplement. Do what works for you!

i did supplements my whole life and for the first 4.5 years of going./transitioning to raw

i just gave up my b12 shots a couple of months ago



if you feel ya need em take em till you feel you dont

right now FOR ME i feel the money is better spent on premium produce

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2007 02:51AM by Jgunn.

khale Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dewey: be sure that you are taking a calcium with
> magnesium. It's important to take these two
> together.

i do friend thanks for watching out for me.
patty

I eat organic unhulled sesame seeds everyday. I eat as much as a half a cup, but usually a little less. Sounds kind of boring, but I really like it. I just pour it into a little bowl or a cup, and scoop it up with a spoon. Then I chew a lot, and it brings out that wonderful sesame flavor! That, plus trace amounts of minerals from other raw sources, supplies me with all the calcium, iron, and zinc that I need.

One brazil nut every day will supply more than enough selenium. I eat 2 (I just can't eat one of anything).

Plus I eat lots of fruit. Vegetables and sprouted grains too, but not nearly as much as fruit. The only thing listed on the charts (besides sodium) that veggies have that I can't get so much from fruit, nuts, and seeds, is vitamin K. One tablespoon (average/day) of fresh parsley takes care of that, and I eat seaweed occasionally for the iodine.

For vitamin A, goji berries and/or red leaf lettuce. For D, sunshine!

I take a methylcobalamin B12 supplement.

You don't have to get everything everyday. Try to average out over the week. And remember too that the RDA is doubled. If you can get over 50% of what you need for everything, and more than that - even over 100% - for the important stuff like calcium and iron, you're probably doing OK.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2007 03:38AM by suncloud.

I never count anything. I can tell when I need more minerals, though, because I'll start craving meats or salty foods. When this happens I drink some E3Live blue-green algae, and the cravings go away, because E3Live is very high in minerals.

Thanks everyone for the great input.... I think for now I will maintain a vitamin intake of calcium and B complex until I feel I don't need them.. I also take MSM for joint pain relief.

Khale... I was trying to follow closer to an 80-10-10 diet. But perhaps, I am jumping the gun on that after reading what you said about good fats helping to eliminate the bad stored fat from my cells. I had calculated my one day of eating raw with an avocado and some almonds and I was shocked to find out my diet was well over 50% fat. So, thought I should try and cut down my fat consumption. But as mentioned earlier cutting down on my fats has set me up to crave crave and crave cooked foods.

I want to lose an additional 20 more lbs. I've lost 15 lbs since transitioning, first to a elimination diet for joint pain. Which, I was on for one week, now I've switched to the raw diet instead.

I work out regularly and speed walk 2 to 4 miles/day along with strength training, Pilates and stretching.

Ok one more last question... What does SAD stand for, and also what is CSA? I know SAD is a conventional American Diet.. but just wondering what the acronym stands for.. On another post someone mentioned CSA and for the life of me I can't figure out these two acronyms.. Thanks

Thanks again. you all are so supportive

Elayne aka custom

personally i've never really felt comfortable with supplements not knowing where they have been derived from and not feeling that they are all that natural. however i do take spirulina (blue-green algea) because it is not really a vitamin or mineral that has been extracted from something but rather a plant of its own.:

Spirulina contains unusually high amounts of protein, between 55 and 77% by dry weight, depending upon the source. It is a complete protein, containing all essential amino acids, though with reduced amounts of methionine, cysteine, and lysine, as compared to standard proteins such as that from meat, eggs, or milk. It is, however, superior to all standard plant protein, such as that from legumes. Spirulina is rich in gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), and also provides alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), linoleic acid (LA), stearidonic acid (SDA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and arachidonic acid (AA). Spirulina contains vitamin B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (nicotinamide), B6 (pyridoxine), B9 (folic acid), B12 (cyanocobalamin), vitamin C, vitamin D, and vitamin E. Spirulina is a rich source of potassium, and also contains calcium, chromium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, sodium, and zinc.

^from wikipedia.


i am new to raw foods as well and i eat nuts everyday. eventually over time i will eat less nuts and more fruit instead but they really help me body to feel satisfied and like i don't need cooked food. they have kind of replaced carbs in my life! but yeah. still transitioning.

SAD: Standard American Diet

There are a lot of factors that go into this.
Some of us believe that these numbers that we're supposed to abide by from the FDA has been created for people who eat SAD.
If I where to eat cooked food again and try to reach those FDA standard's I'd be a stuffed pig (no pun intended). Seriously I was just messing around with Fitday and plug a bunch of regular food I'd ate and the calorie intake was always above 2700.

What is your calorie intake?


Why Vegan?
Because I have the most love and admiration for all animals of the earth!!!
a rawvegan hopeful, rawdev4life!!!

rawdev.... my calorie intakes varies from under a 1000 (which I think is too low) to probably 1500 calories a day.. when I first started calculating on fitday.com I was way too low.. it would be right around 500 calories a day if I didn't add in any fats in the form of nuts seeds or avocadoes. Right now after eating lunch I am sitting at only 400 calories.. and 100 calories of that is a natural supplement i take with omega 3 and 6 and some other vitamins.

I just have no idea how many calories I should be consuming. In the conventional sense something under 1200 cals would be considered not healthy. But we're not talking conventional here, so I am a bit lost. I worked in the weight loss industry for years so I am very indoctrinated to count calories and I am one to believe a calorie is a calorie no matter the source and if you consume more calories then you need for the day it is stored as fat.. First in the muscles and then in the subcutaneous tissue.

Are you saying that eating raw it doesn't matter how many calories you consume?

Elayne aka "Custom"

"May on your rides be filled with opportunities to learn and cherish the beloved creature we call, the horse"

No - no, you can over do it even on rawfoods. That's
why you hear a lot people giving up this lifestyle
because they've made themselves sick or worse
on rawfoods because of the poor choice of foods.
5 avocados, tons of nuts and some fruit will (I don't
care who you are) eventually play havoc on you.

There's even variances among the different raw approaches,
Douglas G. consumes an average of 3,000 calories a day.
Other's like Tonya Zavasta,
Paul Nison, Victoria Boutenko eat far less.
Tonya, for example says she'll eat some fruit
(2-3) and a small salad and won't eat anything
after 2 pm.
I follow Graham's approach although I don't eat
strictly fruit, I'm more of a 60/30/10 person (I
use to eat way too many fats).

Yeah, I am not recommending pigging out on fats either. I rarely eat more than half of a large avocado in one day, or one small one, and then not that everyday. (I actually get a little tired of avocados) But then I often eat 12 to 20 almonds a day (yes, I count them) and usually some oil with dinner, so even on a for me low fat day I'm eating way more fats than the 80/10/10 crowd. But, I do watch my fats. And if I have an especially high fat day I'll lower the fat intake the next day and so on...or if I have avocado I try to plan the next meal without a lot of fat. You just have to figure out what works best for you.

But you do get my point Custom. Transitioning to 100% is very challenging and without fats the cravings are gonna be intense. A satisfying raw meal with moderate fats can really help with all that. And then once you stabilize more you can start looking at Grahams recommendations, if you choose.

I'm also a beginner. I've been transitioning to 100% seriously in just the last 6 months or so. Recently I initiated a 7 Weeks All Raw thread here that was very helpful to me and I hope to everyone who participated or followed our progress as well. I intend to announce this weekend Another 7 Weeks beginning Monday the 13th. Everyone is invited, whether just starting out or at it for several weeks, months or years. I hope you will join up. We all post what we eat everyday, which is very helpful for beginners and basically support one another through. I'm looking forward to it.

see ya,

khale

hmmm, i hope that too much vit. K isnt bad for you as im reaching 2000% RDA per day

khale Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I intend to announce this weekend Another 7 Weeks
> beginning Monday the 13th. Everyone is invited,
> whether just starting out or at it for several
> weeks, months or years. I hope you will join up.
> We all post what we eat everyday, which is very
> helpful for beginners and basically support one
> another through. I'm looking forward to it.
>
> see ya,
>
> khale


ohhhh that's exciting!! i must join this one.