watermelon

It's pretty good this way.

Anyways, wish me luck with this. I'm curious and I want to try it for a while.

are you trying one meal a day or one item per meal or one food item for all meals of the day? how are you trying it?

[rawfoodtrip.blogspot.com]
[jugglingforjoy.com]

Go for it!! It's the only way to eat......WY

Fud, I am doing one type per meal.

This is major for me because I usually eat meals high in variety--15 or more different foods per meal.

I was getting sick of the extensive prep and the even more extensive clean up.

One watermelon, one spoon, eat until full. It's simple. I don't expect any health improvement. I still think variety is healthier and more likely to satisfy more of the vitamin, mineral, EFA, and AA needs along with providing a wider spectrum of diverse protective phytochemicals.

But this is something I wanted to try. Summer is the best time for it, too.

arugula Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
I
> still think variety is healthier and more likely
> to satisfy more of the vitamin, mineral, EFA, and
> AA needs along with providing a wider spectrum of
> diverse protective phytochemicals.

"variety" and it's impact on nutrient sufficiency is clearly only meaningful with a timeframe.

per meal, per day, per week?

since you're just talking about variety at the meal level, then you can get the same variety that you think you need through the day, and the week, yes?

Mono-meals sound pretty awesome. I may look into doing that in the near future.

Just started my rawfood journey and blogging daily about it here: [journeyforhealth.blogspot.com]

Fresh, could I match the variety in a week? yes, I could come close with 7*3 different monomeals or 7*4. In a single day of monoeating, probably not.

Some things are probably better on a daily basis. For example, studies on the protection from sun damage afforded by a South American fern (Polypodium leucotomos) found best protection when it was taken daily, just before exposure. That's probably safe to extend to other protective phenolics in plants.

EFAs and aminos are probably also best daily, I'd expect the same from the fat-soluble vitamins. You don't have to have perfect proportions of the essentials in the same meal but they should be at least adequate over the course of a day.

But there might be more leeway for mineralsl and water soluble vitamins.

The reason I ask is because I remember something recently about mono-meals in the news. They were more lax in some respects but the philosphy is that too much variety in the meal creates cravings and that after a length of time on mono-meals your cravings disappear.

They mentioned having a tomato theme all day one day with simple meals and then moving to another theme the next day. The diet in the news was non-vegan though. That's why I'm surprised to see it here. I've actually toyed with the idea of trying to move to that method of eating if I succeed in staying raw beyond my normal failures.

[rawfoodtrip.blogspot.com]
[jugglingforjoy.com]

I found mangos 5 for 5$ and have eaten almost nothing but those for three days... save for some tomatoes and dates which were also delicious by themselves

Heirloom tomatoes are simply amazing and I never thought I could eat a tomato by itself before. I ate 3 by morning after I bought them.. never been able to eat a tomato like that EVER. Maybe part of it has been the amazingly simple way I have been eating the last few weeks. Mono dieting can be fun and yes watermelon is one of those that I think fits the bill well for it. Once had nothing but watermelon for several days and felt amazingly clean and focused.

spoon? watermellon? what?

there can't be such thing as a non-vegan mono meals....pretty much by deffineition anythng that isn't a plant or a fruit, is not a plant or a fruit I would think. mono me ingredients

tis the season for cheap speckeled bananas for lunch, 10 pound melonomaina melonoma for dinner. goode for getting some sun damage...everyday!

arugula Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fresh, could I match the variety in a week? yes, I
> could come close with 7*3 different monomeals or
> 7*4. In a single day of monoeating, probably not.
>
> Some things are probably better on a daily basis.
> For example, studies on the protection from sun
> damage afforded by a South American fern
> (Polypodium leucotomos) found best protection when
> it was taken daily, just before exposure. That's
> probably safe to extend to other protective
> phenolics in plants.
>
> EFAs and aminos are probably also best daily, I'd
> expect the same from the fat-soluble vitamins. You
> don't have to have perfect proportions of the
> essentials in the same meal but they should be at
> least adequate over the course of a day.
>
> But there might be more leeway for mineralsl and
> water soluble vitamins.

you could be right, i haven't investigated it myself.
since humans and many animals fast i wonder what negatives occur and after what period of time.

Hope it goes well for ya!

Mmmm watermelon. I've been mono mealing on watermelon a lot lately. I like mine cut in thick strips. I just sit there with a huge bowl of them and just eat and eat and eat...

Sarah
[goingbananasblog.com]

I love mono watermelon! I do the same - sit with a half watermelon, a spoon, and a glass to spit seeds into. I did it for 4 days recently and look forward to doing more soon. It feels really light and easy on my system. Enjoy!

I wish you luck with mono meals. For me, they were a large part of my enjoyment and success with raw, especially watermelon during the summer!

My first mono meal was watermelon. I had never eaten it much before. Looking back I think it had been because it didn't digest well because I had never eaten it on an empty stomach. When I got Alissa Cohen's book I read about how she might eat nine bananas at one time. I had never thought of actually eating one fruit, and nothing else, to fill me up. This was when I hadn't taken the raw plunge yet and I decided to eat watermelon until I didn't want it anymore. I dug in with my hands and took pitchers of it outside and ate it all day. I never had felt so fantastic. Watermelon had never been so tasty to me. Now I enjoy a lot of mono meals.

I got ya'll beat in simplicity. One knife, one sink. Cut watermelon slices and eat over sink. As for clean up, rinse knife and sink.

Does anyone else eat the watermelon seeds when they eat watermelon? I love the taste of them. It's also nice to blend the meat and seeds of the watermelon, you get a really creamy refreshing drink.
Ann Wigmore recommended juicing the meat, seeds (for fat or would it be protein?) and rind (full of cholorophyll) together but I can't afford organic watermelons so I skip the rind.

Francis

i love the rind of the watermelon juiced!!! so yummy!!!! hmm if you ever see them on sale or have the money for a little organic one...get it and try the rind juiced...so healthy for you!! and yummy haha has a bite to it though haha..
love earthangel
xoxoxoxoxox

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo

anaken wrote:

"there can't be such thing as a non-vegan mono meals....pretty much by deffineition anythng that isn't a plant or a fruit, is not a plant or a fruit I would think. mono me ingredients"

"tis the season for cheap speckeled bananas for lunch, 10 pound melonomaina melonoma for dinner. goode for getting some sun damage...everyday!"


Anaken, what ARE you talking about? A mono-meal is simply one type of food eaten without any other type of food at one sitting, by definition.

And what is a "10 pound melonomaina melonoma"?

I wonder sometimes whether you are intentionally vague, while at the same time suspecting that you do have some interesting things to share if only we could understand what you are, in fact, saying. You remind me, more and more, of two other (currently silent) members of this board who were as vague and "esoteric" in their posts as you.

But, back to mono eating, which I do more and more of, especially at breakfast/lunch. This started for me as a result of not being hungry or feeling that I didn't need to eat before leaving for work in the morning. So chunking up a good pineapple or large maradol papaya or grabbing 3 or 4 bananas' and eating that between the hours of 10 (or later) and 2:00 works well for me.

Keep us posted on how this works for you Arugula.


khale

I'm with earthangel....Eat the watermelon and juice the rind......WY

hmm I don't think it was vague at a all...it responded to two posts that were fairly close on the roster...so I didn't refer to them individually.

was responding to fud on this one:

a mono meal of anything that is non raw vegan is impossible because it inevitably is a combination of foods, of course you could mono a {whole) - processed food..such as a grain, however thats still vegan. there arn't any other examples because foods comming from a body/flesh or milk certainly arn't the simple carbohydrates of whole foods or even foods for that matter.

Anaken, what ARE you talking about? A mono-meal is simply one type of food eaten without any other type of food at one sitting, by definition.

so to be correct the deffineiton has the implication of raw-vegan plant/fruit

the melonoma thing was kinda a playful crack towards arugula about her comparisson to how plants need a certain nutrient every day from the sun...and therefore we need to get certain nutrients in their entireity from our food sources every day, when in fact...we do quite well with the sunshine...and getting are 'nutrients' throughout the year....certainly I survived for many years on denatured nutrients and antinutrients alone.

melon, in a sense CANNOT be digested with another food..if you are curtious..eat some bananas then eat 10 lbs of watermelon..was another infereance,

if anything I said was vague/false it was that watermellon still isn't in season

Super Monomize Me!!

Now playing at theaters near you.

good luck arugula

have a BLAST!!!!

I thought that was just the normal way to eat fruits and vegetables.

Good luck arugula but it is not something I would try personally. Spring and summer is the season for fruits and I love my fruit salad and fruit smoothies. I could take easily 3 hours to watch a game on tv so spending 15 minutes to make a meal is not a big issue on my side. I personally do not see any health benifit being mono.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2007 03:42AM by djatchi.

[the melonoma thing was kinda a playful crack towards arugula about her comparisson to how plants need a certain nutrient every day from the sun]

The studies gave a P.leucotomas extract to people.

[and therefore we need to get certain nutrients in their entireity from our food sources every day]

Essential fats and proteins are probably best that way.

Maybe not so much for vitamins and minerals.

[certainly I survived for many years on denatured nutrients and antinutrients alone]

Most people do, at least for the first 2-2.5 decades when their innate antioxidant and immune defenses are at peak. But one starts to see divergence typically in the 30s, and more so in the 40s and beyond, based on lifestyles. After a semester back in school with people less than half my age I noticed that almost everyone in the 20s "glows" in spite of the garbage that they eat. But if you could fast forward in time to see these people 30 years from now on those same diets...

[melon, in a sense CANNOT be digested with another food..if you are curtious..eat some bananas then eat 10 lbs of watermelon..was another infereance]

There are going to be some losses when the diet is very high in fiber but not so much as to completely knock out the kcals from an entire melon. You might lose 10% or so if you follow a melon immediately with a high fiber meal.

In another thread, djatchi Wrote:
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Quote

Of course one could try very hard to be 100 percent raw by taking all precautions but in the end what is the point? I do not see any additonal benefit for going to that extreme. I should be able to enjoy a hot cup of tea with friends or colleagues without compromising my health or being afraid of losing my membership in the have-been-100-percent-raw-the-last-10-year club. If I am drinking juice daily, eating green smoothies and plenty of fruits daily my body has plenty of enzymes to tolerate an occasional hot tea or a slice of bread grandma has baked with love. Animals in the wild feed on other animals killed by wild fire.

The same can be said about being 100 percent vegan because fruits and vegatables have living organisms on them as you acknowledge. If we are so concerned about destroying life, we should not have a walk in the park because of our footsteps kills millions of living organisms in the grass.
It seems to me that people are more concerned about how long they have been 100 percent raw or vegan than how long they have been healthy on a diet of mostly raw food.

arugula Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

Quote

One watermelon, one spoon, eat until full. It's simple. I don't expect any health improvement. I still think variety is healthier and more likely to satisfy more of the vitamin, mineral, EFA, and AA needs along with providing a wider spectrum of diverse protective phytochemicals.

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

ok...why don't we just come out and say...everything we write is based on speculation and fear about how the body works...and that the bulk of what we post is based on a defensiveness to how we are comfortable eating. and that everything outside of our experience with 'nutrition' is just flat out wrong.


i'll play...the whole 'enzyme thing' you propose is wrong.

You don't balance out your indiscretions with your enzyme boost. Possibly for a meat eater, they can prevent some of acidiy of the meat eating by drinking a green juice prior..but in no way is the individual cleansed or healed of eating the meat...the level of health is of course: subjective

if its really your karmic anxiety of squishing bugs when you walk, or the inability to blow off all the bug feces from your celery...giving you the 'what the heck' attitute to eat however makes you happy...power to you friend...certainly nothing wrong with enjoying tea with colleagues..or eating burgers in that respect. personally my body would not tolerate it...that doesn't make me feel like a member in a special club. but what I leave out of my diet makes me thrive. not a bombardment with enzymatic living foods.

as for balance of EFAs and adequate protein...this has been 'proven' over and over that comes from getting enough 'calories' of fresh fruits that this isn't even worth discussing. One can go on a fast and regain the ability to absorb/(not require) minerals. One can go on a fast and return (gain) to a natural weight. These arn't mystic parlor tricks

people in there mid 20's might glow...give them a few days of mono melon and they certainly will be detoxing their from their school britches....even if you gave em enough *^&^&@ kcals..and it wouldn't be from a mineral diffeiciency...


if I was to eat some bread form grandma...she'd probably have to come visit me in the ICU. if I ate 10 lbs of melon after eating a hand of bananas...i'd be writhing in agony...to me these are signs of health...

Khale, sometimes I like to have some fun with my posts if its appropriate. if no one is looking for support per se, then we are actually discussing something...I would think.

I do not care much about enzyme theory or practice, the truth is that people on 100 percent raw diet are not necessarly healthier. There is not a single case of long living 100 percent raw foodist. I am sure you did accomplished great things in your life before turning raw.

anaken wrote:

"if I was to eat some bread form grandma...she'd probably have to come visit me in the ICU. if I ate 10 lbs of melon after eating a hand of bananas...i'd be writhing in agony...to me these are signs of health..."

I can not agree with this definition of "health" or that ending "in the ICU" after eating a piece of homemade bread is a "sign of health". I think that I understand your reasoning here anaken, but it seems by its destination to be faulty.

You've questioned, or even asserted a lack of, the validity of the restoration of digestive health; choosing to take the stand that raw, vegan food represents the optimal in human nutrition, therefore the only thing the human body SHOULD be able to digest, versus SAD, in which case it's a sign of ill-health to properly digest junk or at least counterintuitive to expect any healing diet to restore digestion to the point where junk can be eaten without consequences. And I agree. But we have people on this very board who are experiencing nausea after eating steamed vegetables. This seems to me an extreme digestive response to what is universally considered "healthy" food, and not at all a sign of health as I understand it, and certainly not of digestive health.

Given that it is impossible to claim complete physical health without the appearance of digestive health, it seems very important to me that we clarify what we mean by each. To say that we can have hardy physical health while suffering an overly sensitive, fragile digestive system is to underestimate the importance of digestive health and strength to the whole physiology. And wholeness is, all in all, the definition of health that most resonates with me.

I don't want to point to an example of archaic man who has been forced by time and circumstance again and again to adapt and re-adapt diet, climate and terrain countless times in His evolution. But I do want to point out that adaptability and hardiness are extremely important to survival, and at least to some extent, constitutes a part of the signs of wholeness or health in mankind.

...aside from that I appreciate your sense of humor and value your contributions to this board, anaken.


khale

Well, I think there are two possibilities with GI upset after introducing foreign foods:

1. your stomach gets used to secreting less pepsinogen and gastrin, your pancreas gets used to secreting less of the proteases, lipases, and amylases, and when after a long period of time they are secreting less and they you suddenly throw a meal at them which requires much greater secretion, they lag a little bit.

2. psychosomatic effect: you are convinced that this food is a poison, and your body responds accordingly.

Probably if people made gradual changes they would not experience any GI distress, or if they kept those difficult foods in their diets but at a fairly low level.