WHA????

Isn't raw food low fat, already?!?

I'm really new to this and still not all raw, eating whole grains and beans and not planning to give it up until I understand this stuff better. Anyway, I'm drawn to avacados like a mad-woman who functions off avacados because I feel like there is practically no fat in my diet. Plus they taste amazing.

Am I missing something?!

Questions! What raw foods are high in fat (aside from mentioned avacados...and yummy, yummy coconuts..oh and nuts...okay, I see where this is going...)? Are there fruits and veggies that I wouldn't know are high in fat? And what are the health benefits of lowering fat intake?

Do any of you think that low-fat is a bad raw-thing?

Thanks to you all, my lovely, lovely teachers.

-I think reasonable fat is a good thing. Just so long as YOU are consciously setting a level that YOU feel is reasonable....and are very comfortable with it. Especially in the beginning, I would not overly deprive yourself of raw fats....unless you are also trying to bring your weight under control.....in which case 10-20% fat sounds like a very generally reasonable number to me.

-David Z. Mason

Hey thanks! I actually would, ideally, gain some weight.

Raw foods helped me lose a few extra pounds, then helped me lose more-- pounds that I had wished to keep! I liked them where they were.

That was another thing I wanted to include in that post. I know people do it, I've seen big men, body-builder types on raw. I, of course, don't want to be body-builderish, but I do want some cushion to my body and I find it a real struggle to get the calories I need/want.

Well, a bit of a struggle. I also love green juices, but I doubt those are giving me any extra flesh. Hmmm...

Overt fatty foods:
Avocados, coconuts, durian, pine nuts, macadamia nuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, pistachios, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds etc.

Avocado, coconut and durian = when eaten fresh - more easily digestible for your body than the other nuts which are typically dried to some degree before you buy them.

Eat whatever you want but you may find with time that your body starts to not want many high fat foods anymore. They make you have a feeling of fullness that is similar to the full feeling you used to get from cooked foods - because fats take a long time to digest. It will take you awhile to get used to feeling satiated vs. feeling full.

Dr. Graham from foodnsport.com recommends less than 10% fat in the diet. Have you read the 80/10/10 Diet book? It is a great read.

By the way, foods like lettuce, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers etc have a higher percentage of fat in them than most sweet fruits do. If your diet consisted mostly of fruit for calories and lots of greens, as many as you care for, you'd easily get enough fat but not too much. So have as much fruit as you care for and as many greens as you care for, and know that research and many of our experiences have shown that we feel and fare better when eating sparingly or at least moderately from the overt fatty foods - the avos, nuts and seeds.

Hope this helps a little...I love avos too! But have learned to get my calories from fruit instead and am now pretty happy and full with a lot of fruit, and find that when I eat too many nuts or avos, I either feel a little sick, or sluggish.

But...but...but....

Lettuce and celery, etc. don't have that lovely, slippery, slimey feeling that avacados and coconuts do.

Thanks for the book suggestion! I've been wondering what that 80/10/10 thing that I've been seeing everywhere means, and I've been meaning to read up on it.

I'm certainly doing this real slowly and comfortably, I'not a fan of deprivation, by any means, and so far the whole experience has been great. Minus the excess weight-loss. Though, I realize that many people who go raw would love to drop some extra weight, so I'd suggest it proudly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2007 06:52PM by noelle.

Noelle, if you want to gain weight, you can do so by increasing your overall number of calories while keeping your carb/protein/fat ratios the same (hopefully, fat being on the lower end). Excess fat *may* cause weight gain, but not the healthy kind.

Green juice - not too many calories, I don't think.

For more calories - eat bananas! They're about 100 calories per banana. Or ripe plantains. I'm a tiny person and can eat up to 10 bananas in a sitting. You simply may not be getting enough calories and carbs in a day, if you're mostly drinking green juices and eating avocados?

Sarah
[goingbananasblog.com]

Yeah Sparkler, I hear lots about people eating like 5-7 bananas a meal, and here you are with 10!! Holy..jeez. I usually can eat up to 2 or 3. Maybe the apetite is, in fact, my problem.

Weird thing is, the I started eating less after eating mostly raw; I used to be well-known for my outrageous, almost comical apetite. I'm assuming this has something to do with my body just being so pleased about actually getting fed and getting nutrition, even if it could use more, eventually.

I'm sure it'll all even out.

"I used to be well-known for my outrageous, almost comical apetite."

That is hilarious. My family always said I had a hollow leg. I mean.. I'd eat and eat and never get full or gain a pound. Now I find I hafta force myself to eat.. which is really foreign to me. I think that the gist of raw foods is to eat what you/your body feels it needs. Sometimes I'll want a bunch o' avos.. other times I'll just munch out on a bag of greens OR eat an entire orange orchard. Ya know what I mean? This is supposed to be a simple, natural way of eating. I think *some* people make it far more difficult than it has to be.

-zapple



"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.." - Thoreau



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2007 09:54PM by zapple.

"And what are the health benefits of lowering fat intake? "

improved health ! !

-------------

Dr. Doug Grahm's New book explains it all in great detail chapter after chapter

topics Candida, Diabeties, Digestion, types of Sugars, FOOD COMBINING, etc.

you can't expect it all to be explained in a simple post or two.

His web site, and bulletin board may have some more info.

--------------

If a person can only eat so much, and fat is a particularly filling type of food then excess consumption of fat will end up replacing better nutrients that are more important, thus reducing health.

----------------

the classic "must read" book:
"The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health (Paperback)
by T. Colin Campbell (Author), Thomas M. Campbell II"
# ISBN-10: 1932100660
# ISBN-13: 978-1932100662
documents the benefits to health of low fat and low protein with a great number of scientific studies. Rates of many diseases go down as these guidelines are followed.

About the Author
T. Colin Campbell, PhD, is the project director of the China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project (the China Study), a 20-year study of nutrition and health. He is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University. In more than 40 years of research he has received more than 70 grant-years of peer-reviewed research funding and authored more than 300 research papers. He lives in Ithaca, New York

Book Description
Referred to as the "Grand Prix of epidemiology" by The New York Times, this study examines more than 350 variables of health and nutrition with surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan, and conclusively demonstrates the link between nutrition and heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. While revealing that proper nutrition can have a dramatic effect on reducing and reversing these ailments as well as curbing obesity, this text calls into question the practices of many of the current dietary programs, such as the Atkins diet, that are widely popular in the West. The politics of nutrition and the impact of special interest groups in the creation and dissemination of public information are also discussed.

---------------------------------------------------

" Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss"
by Joel Furhman MD, also explains the benifits of low fat scientifically.
# ISBN-10: 0316735507
# ISBN-13: 978-0316735506

Joel also wrote
"Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor's Program for Conquering Disease"

---------------------------------------------------
besides...
...there are other ways to experience "that lovely, slippery, slimey feeling "
than over eating fatty foods...

----------------------------------------

Doug Grahm is a raw fooder and his book will explain how to make it work on raw diet.

"The China Study" will remove all doubts.

If one isn't ready for all raw Furhman's book & diet are the best alternative,
His book on fasting is the only one by a contemporary MD.

"Isn't raw food low fat, already?!?"

obviously NO...
(depends on which foods you eat and how much...celery is not coconut, etc...)
although if truly 100% raw you you are automatically spared from hydrogenated oils.


to find out precisely what the fat content of YOUR daily food intake is you may use

CRON-O-Meter which is free, open source, and cross-platform dieting software.

[spaz.ca]

there are also other web sites which can calculate diet components

Zapple, I certainly do know what you mean! My family and friends never said the hole-in-the-leg bit. Instead, they question, "where do you put it?" As though I know!

I do find myself eating a LOT less when eating raw. And I agree, part of the awesomeness is how simple it is, yet I do find that some people I've talked to make it a bit more complicated than I'm in it for. Confusing, too. :-/

As far as the greens, it made me think of a little story.

I love greens, Lovelovelove spinach. Yum. I take a big bag of it to classes and work with me, so I can chomp on it, instead of munching on chips and yucky things. I was in the main office of my work, openning a bag of spinach and one of the woman said, "I'm really curious to see if you're going to eat that spinach like that."

I told her how I really like spinach, so yeah, I was going to eat it like that.

She said, "I mean...yeah, I like spinach too. But don't you want to throw in some...I dunno...like--"

"---Salad dressing?"

"I was thinking, like, pizza. Or something."

Hah, before raw I would have thought the same thing. Ohhh silly!