In your opinion, is it healthier to eat like this:

- mono-fruit

- occational simple salads (greens, tomatoes, carrots and/or celery and/or beets and/or burdock root, nori and/or dulse and/or laver and/or wakame,
with or without simple dressings (cucumber, tomato, celery, oregano, radish, citrus juice- blended)

- green juices with some beet, apple, lemon, ginger, and stevia

Or to eat the same diet with the inclusion of 1/2 avocado or 2 Tbs. of nuts or seeds per day?

I think that it depends on where one is in their journey. In my first year of raw I ate lots of nuts and I would not change that, it helped me in transitioning. Gradually, the amount of fat in my diet reduced. I have been questioning whether I ever would go without overt fats, because I always seemed to want some. But in the recent weeks, I seem to prefer to go without them. So I started experimenting. There are those who go without them for long time and feel great. I think that if one feels better without them, then it is definitely worth trying.

Gosia


RawGosia channel
RawGosia streams

Thanks, Rawgosia.

Do you have any thoughts about sufficient fatty acids, fat-soluble vitamin absorption, etc?

Mallow

I agree with Gosia. It depends on where you are in your process. If you feel OK without the overt fats, you really don't need them. However, if you require some amount of overt fats to enjoy your raw diet, by all means, do it.

The lower one can get their fat intake, the healthier the diet will be. The overt fat you are proposing is 15% intake, which is a excellent place for a person to start from.

Had you been proposing a 70% fat diet, I wouldn't be saying the same thing. At that point, if it requires that much fat to feel OK, it would be much healthier to include some cooked foods to lower the fat content rather than eat a super high fat raw diet. A whole foods cooked vegan diet at 10% fat is way healthier than a 100% raw diet at 70% fat.

The minimum fat intake is 3% to 5% fat. If you are eating a whole foods raw diet with lots of fruits and greens, you will be getting enough fatty acids, and they will be excellently balanced.

I think it depends on where you live, as well.

I live in Colorado: cold and snow. I have tried just about every combination and permutation of raw that there is. I've finally settled on fruits, veggies, no salt, no vinegar, and 120 calories of overt raw fat per day - either flax oil, tahini, nuts, or avo.

I haven't been doing this in the summer yet, so I cannot say what that might bring. but if I don't get that little bit of oil in me during this cold season by about 3 or 4 in the afternoon, I'm a voracious raving lunatic. Just that little amount balances me, kills cravings, keeps me warm - our heating isn't very efficient.

There's one person's experience, anyway.

PG

I eat 1/2 avocado, 2 tablespoons of nuts/seeds, and a teaspoon of olive oil for my salad dressing. Is this too much fat? Or is it about 10-20% of my calories?

eat in a day. But my advice is not to get obsessive with measuring. Sure, experiment with 15%. See how it feels or works in your body. It may be too little, or not. and that may change over time. If you're raving ravenous with only ! T of oil per day, it's too little for you now. Just keep playing with it. It's fun. Be willing to change as you go along in your cycles.

Enjoy!

PG

rosemary Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I eat 1/2 avocado, 2 tablespoons of nuts/seeds,
> and a teaspoon of olive oil for my salad dressing.
> Is this too much fat? Or is it about 10-20% of my
> calories?


Sounds good to me.

rosemary,

If you eat about 1500 calories a day, depending on the mix of your other foods, this is about 22% to 25% fat. If the rest of your foods were fruits, it would be on the lower end of the range, if you are eating a lot of vegetables, it would be on the higher end.

This amount of fat is not bad. It's way better than were I started at my 60%+ fat all raw diet. Going from 60% fat down to 20% fat was pretty easy for me. Going from 20% fat down to 10% took me years to accomplish.