I have really enjoyed reading the information on this site so far.

I recently met with a nutritionist because I want to get healthy. She recommended eating raw as much as possible and cutting out meat. In order to get healthy, I have quite a bit of weight to lose. The nutritionist told me to concentrate on eating raw foods and the rest would take care of itself. She recommended starting out with smoothies made from fresh fruits and veggies.

I'm a little concerned about eating so much fruit, but I see others on this board eat quite a bit of fruit. It seems to me that the sugar and carbs in fruit would deter weight loss, or at least that's what I've always heard.

While my main goal is more energy and a clear mind, losing weight would help with my energy level among other things.

So, is there a limit on the fruit I should eat when eating raw? Should I watch calories? (I see others have mentioned they don't think about calories) Other advice?

For the last week I've been making smoothies from combinations of apple, banana, grapes, strawberries, blackberries, carrots, spinach and a few almonds. For the upcoming week I plan to add in some fresh pineapple, cantaloupe, cherries and spring mix.

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It seems to me that the sugar and carbs in fruit would deter weight loss, or at least that's what I've always heard.

One way to find out is to put it to the test for yourself. Give it a test drive. When I went raw I was surprised at how fast the fat melted away and I started tightening up my belt. The flab loss didn't take long to manifest itself. In just a couple of weeks I was experiencing visible results.

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Should I watch calories?

I don't count calories or watch a scale. Instead I listen to what my body is telling me by tuning in to my body's positive and negative signals.

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Other advice?

I would recommend you go all raw or as close to that as possible. If necessary you could eat some compromise raw foods as a "transitional" phase. I would also recommend that you eat as much of your raw foods as possible as: fresh, raw, natural, vegan, and eaten with emphasis on simple eating as opposed to gourmet complicated recipes and food combinations that make digestion more difficult. The more raw you get the better the results will be for your test drive.

I too struggle(d) with the idea that all the sugar in fruit would make losing weight harder,plus complicate issues like diabetes.At one time I ate no fruit at all.Not one piece.
But since eating fruit exclusively for breakfasts,my weight and blood sugar have both improved.
Maybe try sticking with the higher water content fruits...like melons.
Many theories say that fruit is the most cleansing food you can eat,and its what HELPS with weight loss,not deters it.
I am finding it to be true.
Brian

When I have fruit or all fruit smoothies for breakfast, I lose weight. When I don't eat breakfast at all, I don't lose any. Pretty cool, huh? I lost over 25 lbs in my first month of being raw, and the more fruit I ate (fruit alone, fruit smoothies, fruit salad) the more I lost.

Fruit, not milk, does a body good



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2008 04:16PM by something beautiful.

Oh, and I'm very happy to hear that there are some well-informed nutritionists out there! She sounds great. I've always understood that the carbs in fruit and vegetables are assimilated differently than the starchy carbs in pasta, bread etc, and the sugar in fruit is assimilated differently than cane sugar, but I don't know this for a fact and don't understand that process. Maybe you could ask your nutritionist to explain it to you and then you could explain it to me

I was impressed myself with what seems to be a well-informed nutritionist. Rare in my experiences at least.

80% of the body's immune system lives in the gut. When you eat cooked or processed food, the body recognizes this as a threat/invasion, and activates the immune system to help you digest your food.

When you eat raw food, this does not happen--so that 80% of your immune system is free to just hang out and clean up the body.

This is why eating raw makes SO many awesome changes and healing take place inside the body--it simply allows you to work at full power!

Also, the rules that apply to cooked foods (regarding "sugar and carbs," for example) do not apply to raw foods in the same way. There were some studies done in Japan a few decades ago (I forget what they were called), where a researcher and his wife experimented: they ate about 800 calories of raw foods/day and their bodies absolutely thrived. When they switched to 800 calories of cooked foods/day, they quickly developed all kinds of horrible maladies (I think that a lot of prisoners experienced, hence the reason for the study? anyone else remember reading about this?). Anyway, that's just to illustrate that the body treats cooked food and raw food very differently.

Welcome to the board! There's a wealth of information available here and everyone is very friendly. =)

As for fruit, eat as much as your heart desires! The only thing people doing raw seem to have problems with is eating too much fat over a period of time (nuts, oils, dehydrated foods). If it's fresh, from a tree, or from the earth, you can NEVER eat too much. Unless it's something like nightshade berries.

Something interesting that I was just thinking about as I was rebounding just now and hopped off just long enough to add this to this thread. In regards to excess calories and eating raw foods including fruits is that if you eat a little more then you need I have found that it translates into more energy for activity. As I have continued along my raw journey I have felt more and more like moving. Eating high energy foods results in being more alive including better attention, being more alert, more movement like exercise, etc. There was a very recent thread about the physical changes that people have experienced since going raw that you should check out because its very interesting. I'm getting back on my rebounder now. Good luck and I hope you have a successful raw journey.

The sugar in fruit is so, so different from refined sugar. Refined sugar resembles cocaine; it's true name is sucrose, not sugar; and it originally had 64 vitamins and minerals!


...Dr. David Reuben, author of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Nutrition says, "…white refined sugar-is not a food. It is a pure chemical extracted from plant sources, purer in fact than cocaine, which it resembles in many ways. Its true name is sucrose and its chemical formula is C12H22O11. It has 12 carbon atoms, 22 hydrogen atoms, 11 oxygen atoms, and absolutely nothing else to offer." ...The chemical formula for cocaine is C17H21NO4. Sugar's formula again is C12H22O11. For all practical purposes, the difference is that sugar is missing the "N", or nitrogen atom. . . .

...During the refining process, 64 food elements are destroyed. All the potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, manganese, phosphate, and sulfate are removed. The A, D, and B, vitamins are destroyed. Amino acids, vital enzymes, unsaturated fats, and all fiber are gone.

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