Hello, I am currently going over to a more raw way of life....I am not 100% yet by any means. But so far I am having only fruits for breakfast, and incorporating more salads, sprouts and raw dips into my diet....
would like to know about the following:

I am still eating my salads accompanied by chapati (I live in India at the moment) or rice or similar.
What would be a raw food equivilant (I dont yet have a dehydrator). My understanding is that raw food people make crackers from nuts or seeds but what a bout carbs? Are they not in fact necessary in a diet because I can't see how to get them eating raw (except for sprouted wheat I suppose).

Also - is it necessary to have loads of juices on raw food diet? I can make 1-2 a day but I find its too expensive to make a lot of them and also I feel a bit lazy to clean the juicer so often ....if I'm eating a lot of salads is that enough?
I have access to some greens from my garden - mainly moringa leaaf and amarangth and some trays of lettuce.....but cannot get organic greens locally - so if I start juicing greens I just wont have enough organic supply until my garden gets loads better....can I do without the greens juice and put them in salad and make my juices out of fruits which is much easier?
i have moringa powder here and also amla which I can incorporate although powder is obviously not as good as fresh....

Also what amount of nuts/seeds is it healthy to eat per day because I dont want to overdo them??

Many thanks!!

Hey you get carbohydrates from everything i.e fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds all contain carbs. Many people make wraps and other cracker type foods with a dehydrator.

No its not necessary to have loads of juices or any juices. But if you wish to add a juice of any kind its no problem. Eating the greens whole is better as it doesnt strip the fiber away and thus no blood sugar spikes like with most juices unless the juicer retains some of the fiber.

Amla is great and should be used as a supplement to an already good diet not to replace it. Same goes with most herbs and supplements.

I feel a portion or two of nuts/seeds is fine.

I personally think of juices as a supplement to a fresh, whole food diet. Something you have occassionally when the mood strikes, not something that is a requirement to eating healthy.

The reason I feel that way is because it is a pretty wasteful practice... all the healthy fiber is removed from an already perfect food. I once juiced 5 pounds of oranges to get one large glass of juice. It was an orange massacre and I really felt badly about it! Never juiced oranges again. So unless you save the fibrous pulp and consume that then imo it is wasteful. Also, when we eat a fruits/veggies whole and chew it, saliva is mixed with the food before it is swallowed. The saliva has enzymes which are the first stage of pre-digesting the food, and it helps to protect the food while going through the stomach acid on its way to the intestines. In your situation... save your precious greens for eating whole in salads. Delicious!

I think having a little rice with a salad is fine. But I am not a purist 100% raw either. Perhaps some raw granola? Tubers and squash are good carb foods -- carrots, sweet potatos, jicama, zucchini, spaghetti squash, chayote, etc. (I know your varieties will differ because we live in different regions.)

But when you eat a good variety of raw foods you do not need to worry about carbs.

A handful (or two) of nuts/seeds a day is plenty. You don't want to eat more than that on a regular basis, IMO. But there will be days when that is all you really want to eat and that is what you should eat. Trust your body! You can also get healthy fats from avocado.

Thank you for all the help.... I asked about the juices because the one raw food book I have really raves about them and has a large section devoted to them....but I don't seem to get the big kick out of them that is claimed either and I also feel bad throwing away so much pulp...
I sometimes make some kind of fruit juices in the blender with a little water and honey and just have the pulp along with it.

I love avocados and find them really satisfying but I also find them to be about the only food that gives me major gas...I'm not sure if that means my body doesn't like them or if it's some kind of cleansing effect....for now I eat only small amounts.

At the moment I still feel like eating something more solid and also savoury like cooked rice or bread but I'm trying to make it the minor rather than major part of the meal...I think it might be better for me to stick like that because when I travel in India it will be really hard to get enough raw food and salads in some plces aren't safe ..so I dont want my digestive system to get total unused to cooked things....

thank you all once again!!

When eating avocado it is best to follow food combining principles... eat it with a protein, fat, or vegetables such as lettuce.... never with a high carb (like rice) or a fruit. I used to love avocado spread on a tortilla - yum! - but it gave me the worst indigestion and gas. So I switched to avocado spread on lettuce or kale leaf - still yum! -- but no indigestion or gas. (Due to proper food combining.)

Although... I can handle a little avocado in a dip with fresh tubers (jicama, yams) but never with cooked breads or carbs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2010 08:20AM by RocketShip.

I make dehydrated "chips" out of the pulp, if made right, they can be the yummiest/healthiest snack foods you can eat...far better than a potato chip or something similar when you get into that snacky mood...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Curator Wrote:
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> I make dehydrated "chips" out of the pulp, if made
> right, they can be the yummiest/healthiest snack
> foods you can eat...far better than a potato chip
> or something similar when you get into that snacky
> mood...

Sounds good, i take it you need a dehydrator though?

merry,

The rice and chapati are a starch, or complex carbohydrates. On the raw food diet, its best to get carbohydrates as simple carbohydrates found in fresh sweet fruits. Raw starches are hard to digest and usually don't have much taste, so they need to be enhanced to taste good.

A bowl of rice is the equivalent to a pound (or half kilo) of bananas in terms of calories or carbohydrates.

When eating an avocado, its best to not eat any sweet fruit after the avocado for a few hours. One way to eat fats and fruits is to eat fresh fruit in the morning and afternoon, and then eat your fats in the evening, after you've finished eating all the sweet fruits. This way the digestion of the fat does not interfere with eating fresh fruits and you don't get any gas.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2010 06:45PM by Prana.

Prana Wrote:
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> Raw starches... don't have much taste, so they
> need to be enhanced to taste good.
>

WHAT?? I disagree... they are delicious plain! They have a fresh, crisp earthy flavor. Yum.

yes powerlifer, I do need one, I had a home made one that was pretty cool, but i couldn't take it with me when I moved, I have my juicer and thats about it now, I have very few other possessions left.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

thank you for all the replies once again - I am experimenting with the avacados again....locally they are only used in milk shakes.....
I guess the thing for me is that although I may get the same amount of carb from 1/2 a kilo of bananas as a bowl of rice, its very hard for me to eat so much sweet fruit at a time. I don't like a lot of sweet taste and not only that but I am a little fearful of having too much sugar because of long term yeast infection issues.
I'm managing to have my breakfast of only fruit but sometimes fruit makes me more hungry and then I feel like I have low blood sugar....it's easier since I did a little fasting but it still happens sometimes...

Above all, follow your body's instincts and remember that you're probably already eating a pretty healthy diet. Increasing the amount of raw foods is excellent and I hope you don't ever feel like you "should" eat only fruit for breakfast because raw diet dogma reccomends it. That being said, it takes a little time to adjust to eating "lighter" foods that assimilate quickly. I've had success with green smoothies and literal raw foods. I'm sure dehydrated foods are fun, but for me it takes away from the purpose of eating raw, so I just eat as much fresh food as I can, and when I want some hummus or tofu, I have it. Good luck with everything, and if you need inspiration/information, the backlogs on this forum are very useful.

merry Wrote:
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> I don't like a
> lot of sweet taste and not only that but I am a
> little fearful of having too much sugar because of
> long term yeast infection issues.



This is the part of eating raw food that becomes your responsibility... learning about carbs and sugars and fiber and the rate of digestion of carbs.

Some questions for you to answer for yourself are:
What is a carbohydrate?
What is a sugar?
What is the difference between complex carbohydrate and simple carbohydrates?
What is the glycemic index?
What is the glycemic index of your current cooked foods vs raw foods?
What is the glycemic index of rice?
What is the glycemic index of various fruits?
What role does fiber play in carbohydrate digestion?

I think once you answer those questions you will learn that a cup of white rice has a more dramatic effect on your blood sugar than a cup of mixed fresh fruits.



> I'm managing to have my breakfast of only fruit
> but sometimes fruit makes me more hungry and then
> I feel like I have low blood sugar....



The best way to understand why this is happening is to learn about food digestion and food combining principles and insulin response to food digestion.

Some questions to answer for yourself:
What is proper food combining principles?
What is the role of fiber in the digestion process?
What is insulin response to food digestion?


Basically, fruit passes through the stomach within approximately 30 minutes. Most of fruit digestion takes place in the small intestine (not the stomach). That is why you feel hungry shortly after eating fruit. It is normal.

Choosing high fiber fruits will also slow their digestion and slow insulin response.

It is best to follow a fruit meal with something a little more substantial such as vegetables or nuts/seeds because they digest slower and will keep you feeling full and stabilize any blood sugar fluctuations. (Insulin response)

If you find that you aren't able to eat something substantial after a fruity breakfast (for lack of time or convenience - maybe you're in class or at work) and you just don't feel grounded after a fruity meal, then skip fruits for breakfast and eat salads instead.

merry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you for all the help.... I asked about the
> juices because the one raw food book I have really
> raves about them and has a large section devoted
> to them....but I don't seem to get the big kick
> out of them that is claimed either and I also feel
> bad throwing away so much pulp...

You can preview (read a large part of the book) of lots of raw food books online here:
[www.google.com]

Hello - these replies have all been very helpful to me...I'm not yet too up on glyecimic index and things like that....
I'm not eating fruit for breakfast because raw food dogma recommends it...I got the idea first because the naturopathy centre where I did some fasting recommended it for me...and when I was fasting I found that my mind was much clearer and I didnt once in 2 weeks there take a sleep during the day but when I'm eating I nearly always do so I'm imagining that eating ligher foods may help with this.For this reason I hope I can adapt over a little time and I'm giving it a few months to see...but I have a snack mid morning if I feel I really need it.
my mother for the past 20 years or so hasn't eaten anything until 6pm during the day . She did this because she felt like it not on anyones advice. She also doesn't drink anything usually except when its hot in summer. This may sound unhealthy but she is about the most energetic and active person I know and is 74 (she is not raw foodist).

The body's digestion is slow waking up in the mornings (energy is still being used for healing elsewhere in the body) and it is best to eat fruit in the AM because it is easier on the digestive system and doesn't take energy away from other important duties. Around noon (mid-day) heavier foods can be eaten. That eating regime is for optimum digestion and for people that CAN eat like that. If a person is having issues with bloodsugar after fruit consumption - such as you described - then there are two options... don't eat breakfast until later in the morning or around noon OR eat something more substantial about 30 minutes after eating fruit.

You really have to listen to your body. I don't suggest continuing to do something if it makes you feel hungry and low bloodsugar afterwards.

I hope I didn't offend you, I eat fruit in the morning too, I just wasn't sure if you were trying to make it work but really didn't feel the best from it. I'm sorry, and I'm glad the advice here is helping you with your health journey.

Hello - no cyclopsicle I wasnt' offended at all - I agree its important not to do things because of dogma - but at the same time if something is recommended and seems sensible I'm willing to try it and see if it works for me and I guess some things we need time to adapt to...in fact I do think its getting easier for me just to have fruit....
I used to always have porridge for breakfast but I am really keen to have at least my breakfast 100% raw now...
I like the idea of having something else say at 11am but so far haven't quite found an appealing raw food breakfast idea...preferablly non sweet.no doubt it will come to me!

In a perfect world, my preferred breakfast would consist of a small amount of sweet fruit to start (a really ripe pear would be awesome...mmmm) a quart of veggie juice (primarily carrot and kale) 10-15 minutes later, then an hour or two after that a small amount of something high in fat/protein... Its the combo I tend to feel best on.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

I am experienting having the fruits early and then a juice to which I add some moringa powder as like I said before I dont really have enough greens yet for regular juicing.
Some people on this forum have mentioned possibility of protein deficiency from raw food diet. I am a bit confused by this since raw food recipes seem to have a lot of nuts and seeds, also bean sprouts . Aren't those high protein foods?v I feel like the raw diet seems like quite high protein. I also have a little yoghurt or buttermilk.

If you include an ample amount of nuts and seeds and dont under-eat on fruit and greens you should be able to get the RDA of protein. Caloric calculators such as fitday can help you.