I've been having little success keeping on raw simply because I'm not getting in adequate calories. Also, I'm striving for low-fat / no oil so it's not as easy as drizzling oil on everything to boost the calorie count. Even with eating every 3 hours (mostly green smoothies and salads) by night-time I'm barely over 1000 calories....so surprise, surprise, I crash and pig out every few days on cooked (vegan) munchies my bf keeps around the house (pasta, bread, cookies, soya chick'n, etc.)

I've been following this blog [rawremnant.blogspot.com] and think this would be an amazing way to eat, but it seems like my body physically will not allow me to eat 600 calories worth of watermelon in one sitting. I get halfway through and feel disinterested/sick. I'm not sure what this is about - I generally have very little interest in actually eating all the healthy food I buy. (Detox?)

I sprouted quinoa the other day and was surprised to find this has about 300 calories in half a cup. I realized I could try eating a cup of this a day and get a huge 'raw' calorie boost, but this feels like 'cheating.' This site says it's 70/15/15, but 'strongly inflammatory' [www.nutritiondata.com].

Can anyone tell me if eating quinoa as a caloric booster is a good/bad idea?

eat fruit for calories

Banana's calorie dense

you mentioned watermelon, calorie dense

no need to scarf in on sitting if you dont feel able!! I dont have a massive appetite myself.. Banana's I find easiest..100 cal a pop..easypeasy..eat em..blend em.. whatever.. eat fruit..simple

CJJ:

Everyone's metabolism is different.....as well as their definition of the ideal weight. How do you know if you are not getting enough calories? Are you terribly under-weight? Many folks I know eat your basic salad, fruit & nuts...and easily maintain weight. The KEY in eating well is to find 90% raw meals that are very satisfying to you....and to be able to eat in a way that causes little stress. This is a primary way (in my experience) to succeed on a long-term track.

Practical: In the short term you could certainly eat more bananas, nuts, eat fewer meals, and weight-lift to pack on denser muscle & bone.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

RawdancerUK,
I don't think watermelon is that calories dense as you recall, not criticising you, just asking for clarification of what you mean by calorie dense.
e.g. 1lb of bananas has three times the calories of 1lb of watermelon.
CJJ, 600 calories in watermelon is over 4lbs of fruit. Even I would struggle to eat that volume. Give yourself a break, and easy does it. For me health is my primary purpose, not 100% raw, it is up to your choice. If quinoa works for a while, use it.
Peace all

Ignore that comment about fruit. Fruit does not contain a lot of calories in general.

Eat bananas, nuts and seeds if you need more calories.

whatever is optimal for YOU

I have no problem eating a whole melon....

if you are aware that you are crashing every few days to eating cooked stuff would it not be better to back off the restrictiveness of NO fat

.. perhaps an avocado every other day would serve you better than the frustration and crashing back into cooked ?

sometimes we can over restrict ourselves in unrealistic ways that lead to frustrations that really arent all that helpful know what i mean?

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

That's a really great point, Jodi.

I am terrified about what I read in regard to fat and the human body. Trying to stay uber low-fat seems to lead me to crashing every few days. These are the two "fats are bad" sources that always come to mind:

1. This site spends a lot of time tearing down a diet with more than 10% fat through a lot of what Ornish, Mcdougall, Barnard, studies say [soulveggie.blogs.com]

2. Jeff Novick's youtube is pretty poignant; oil coagulates your blood and you'll die from it [www.youtube.com]

But then on the other side, I've heard this idea mentioned by Sexy Bitches Like it Raw, Kim Snyder, and basically anyone who is raw but says fat is ok, "Coconut oil has lauric acid which helps you burn fat, and when you eat raw veggie fats they fuse with free radicals and remove them from the body."

Ugh...the whole thing makes me want to give up. Some days I wish eating was optional...I could think of SO many better ways to spend my time.

Whatever you do do NOT use nuts for calories. Note, this is pasted from another board...

I had 150g of macadamia nuts (100%) earlier... I figured that past experiences with peanuts were due to the fact that 1. peanuts aren't really nuts 2. in nature primates eat peanuts with their full shells on. So there's a lot of fibre to help the digestion etc.

Other nuts have shells on them and you'd have to crack the shells, so that could slow the eating of them down. However there's nothing stopping a primitive hominid from cracking 100 shells together and eating them... so I figured that's what it'd be like.

But no, my blood is gone cold, my mood is depressed, I feel very bloated and sickly in my stomach, my stomach hurts, I made about twelve trips to the toilet... and they weren't very pleasant.

If something is good in small quantaties then surely you can eat a lot of it and it'll still be good. From my personal experience, nuts just don't go well with me. Considering that they're a raw food, I believe that I have the ability to conclude that they're not a very healthy food for me. I don't care how much nutrients they're supposed to have... they make me feel awful. Again, considering they're a raw food and not a chemically altered food like bread, I believe in trusting myself... no sense making myself get and feel sick because some food-science (which has been known to be wrong a LOT...) says I should.

A couple of hours later, and things have gotten worse not better!!!!

I feel like I'm going to DIE!

It's worse than having a hangover or something (although I never really liked alcohol to begin with thank god).

I cannot believe a single pack of Macadamia nuts would do this to me, I mean peanuts were pretty bad if I ate too much... but THIS!!!

God help me for saying this... but I'd have been better off with a mars bar and a coke!!! I guess I answered my own topic.

Almost hilariously, there's another packet of Macadamia nuts sitting on the drawer in front of me... I actually thought maybe it'd be worth getting another for me to eat another time. On the plus side though, at least I haven't went into sweets or takeaway or anything... anything's possible when you mess up your system this bad and are feeling this sorry for yourself. I'll have to make an extra effort tomorrow to be sure I'm on the right track again as I'll be what I'd consider "high risk" of eating rubbish food.

Graphic warning!!!! I've been to the bathroom about 12 times, it was number twos nearly all those times... >_< I'm excreting liquid!!! It looks like water... I think it might actually be fat... as when you eat some fruit raw at least the body only absorbs the calories it needs.

yup... I'm gonna die tonight. >_<



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2009 04:13AM by SuperInfinity.

i think that the 2 scenarious are so extremely opposite that its not hard to see why you are frustrated

one is low fat and the other is all the fat you want willy nilly

i think you have to find the middle ground , to stop the crashing into bad food choices .. an avocado every couple of days or some fresh young coconut ..something like that

hehe Superinfinity i dont think yer gonna die tonightbut it might feel like it sorry you are having a bad experience ! but look forward to seeingyou tommorrow =)

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2009 06:53AM by Jgunn.

agreed, Jodi v wise

if you need an avo..have it

if you want a gorgeous fruit meal...go for it!!

go for it!

i've been making quinoa milk lately, it's soooo nice and easy, just blend the quinoa sprouts up with water, add a little sweetener of your choice, and maybe a little spice if you wish, and hey presto doesn't even need straining.

Ohh Quinoa.
I love it.
I could eat bowl after bowl of it.
The only problem...I love it cooked.
One of my few remaining cooked foods I eat.
Does anyone know if it has ANY gluten in it or not?
And if its inflammatory??

Vinny



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2009 03:09PM by eaglefly.

Vinny,

Quinoa is pretty much the only grain I can still tolerate cooked, and by tolerate, I mean savor the flavor of. Everything else tastes like pap to me. I felt like I should've been wearing a bib and spitting half of it up when I last ate oatmeal. Wha-wha-wha! Funny image . . . anywayyyyy, quinoa is quite low in carbs and quite high in protein. That is why the Inca traditionally pared it up with starchy tubers. As to its being anti-inflammatory, as with the fat discussed on the other posts here, I think it matters how your particular organism responds. If after eating quinoa, you get mucusy, tired, and achy, then it's not working for you.