I have always heard that if a person eats plenty of fat then they wind up plenty fat. However, lately I have begun to think that there is a difference in fats and that some raw foods fats work OK in the body without getting stored as body fat. I only eat two high fat raw foods but I eat them daily and I stay lean ? Almost everyday I have a young coconut (juice & pulp) and I also eat plenty of avocados. The amount of avocados I eat should be enough to make me fat -- but it dosn't. I eat 4 to 10 avocados a day ! I don't eat any other high fat foods. I don't eat anything but fresh raw vegan foods and that includes NO oils in bottles, processed foods, gourmet foods, store bought dressings and dips or anything else that is not truly fresh raw. I eat simple fresh raw meals that I prepare myself. I don't eat nuts. I do eat some seeds but they are limited to the seeds that come fresh packaged inside the raw foods that come through my kitchen like citrus seeds, apple seeds, bell pepper seeds etc. I don't eat any seeds that are not in the foods that I eat fresh. I eat the seeds when I eat the raw food that they came in. My food diet is about 70 % fruit and 30% veggies including greens by volume (I don't mathematically count calories). So you can see that I am getting PLENTY of fat in my diet but its not from a lot of different high fat sources. Now here's the mystery - I have been all fresh raw since Aug 1, 07 and have lost fat weight month after month until now I am very lean and I am wearing pants that I havn't been able to slip into for over 15 years. I feel great and I don't want to change a thing about my raw eating habits but I don't get it. Why am I not fat ? I would appreciate any thoughts to help me sort out this mystery. Thanks.

You can eat anything you want and still lose weight as long as you are burning more calories than you consume.

But even with your 7 average per day avocados, if you are also eating 15 pieces of nonfatty fruit, you are getting over 110 g of fiber per day and so you will not be absorbing all of what you eat, neither the protein, the fat, nor the carbohydrate.

Before digestion, your diet is, say 3200 calories, the total usable amount by your body will be maybe 80% of that, or , 2560. The rest passes through you with the insoluble fibers.

Also, even with all that fat, if you include 15 pieces of nonfatty fruit you are getting around 40% of your calories from fat.

Avocado is different from most high fat sources because it's also so high in fiber. So your body doesn't really *get* as much of what's available.

If you switched to fiberless cold pressed oils keeping the fat grams and total calories constant you'd probably stop losing weight and possibly start to gain.

Not sure, but I just wanted to say that you can appear slim but have fatty deposits in your body. I'm not saying you do, but I've seen some "thin" people who have noticeable fat on their upper thighs, buttocks, etc.

For myself, I've found that raw oil-rich foods are OK as long as I don't overdo it. That includes avos, nuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and even a few peanuts. I weighed more when I tried to avoid the fatty foods, because I ended up bingeing on cooked vegan food.

I weigh just under 90, at 5'1".

Right. It's not much of a mystery. In my opinion, raw fats are only partially absorbed due to fiber content. Additionally, raw fats seem to be better processed, utilized and eliminated from the system. I used to eat sometimes 10-12 avocados a day....for many months....and maintained a very low weight....and little body fat.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

very interesting post - thank you. I often eat two avocados a day and feel extremely guilty about it because of the fat - you are causing me to re think and learn - great.

EZ rider, all the weight I lost on raw was on what most would describe as a high-fat diet (and my level of physical activity didn't change either). A raw fooder who visited today and transformed his physical appearance on raw lost it on a high-fat diet. The raw fooder and motivational speaker Philip McCluskey ate all the raw fat he wanted and lost huge amounts of weight.

My own experience and those of others is proof that raw fat is definitely not the same thing as cooked fat when it comes to weight gain/loss.

It's not the case that fat is fat is fat.

Now, once we've lost our excess weight, the amount of raw fat that is then 'correct', is, as you know, highly debated, and my own experience is that the longer I've been raw the less fat I've wanted. However, on a high-fruit diet I still eat considerably more fat than an 811-er and very good I feel on it too.

So, I'm not surprised at all that you've lost lots of weight on a relatively high-fat raw diet. And am of course happy that it's all worked well for you.

Flipperjan, enjoy those two avocados. IMO, the only thing that those who want to lose weight on raw need to watch out for is munching nuts that aren't really raw, eg boiled shelled brazils, steamed cashews etc. Raw fat IS different from cooked fat, ie cooking it mucks everything up...!

ez rider,

do you not feel any negative affects from all those avos?

have you ever tried going a few days without them? noticed anything different?

fresh

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ez rider, do you not feel any negative affects from all those avos?

No, I always feel good from eating them but I think that is partially due to my habit of waiting for a slight return of hunger between foods. Also I usually don't eat them until I feel the urge or "signal" from my inner coach to eat them.

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have you ever tried going a few days without them? noticed anything different?

I should do some experimenting with that but I am so used to being attentive to the raw food "dance" where my inner coach "leads" and I "follow" that my experiments are usually not about things that my inner coach has already established a path but about things that my journey's path has not yet visited.

This has been a very informative thread and I want to thank all of the posters for sharing their thoughts with me.

EZ rider

<<I feel great and I don't want to change a thing about my raw eating habits but I don't get it. Why am I not fat ? I would appreciate any thoughts to help me sort out this mystery. Thanks>>.

hi ez rider

to answer your question: what everyone else posted

anyhow, i think its real cool that you were able to improve your health
and learn from experience that raw fats are TOTALLY different from cooked fats
the major thing being that cooked fats have carcinogenic trans fatty acids in them

and raw fats like avo do not

i guess u also intuitively know
how many of the nuts are cooked as well
not sure why they label a lot of the nuts "raw" when they are blatantly cooked
but i guess no one can pull the wool over your eyes on that one (good

as for the oils that come in bottles
they are all processed
even if they say " cold processed'
etc.

they are processed
and have chemicals added to them to preserve them
so its good that u stay away from those too

as far as i can tell
it seems like avos are the only safe vegetable oil
as far as blatant oils are concerned

keep on living the good life!!!

smile