When I heard about raw foods I had my doubts. Mostly because raw foodies are also vegans. I tried the whole vegetarian/vegan thing for a couple years and I walked away thinking I had done my body more harm than good. My eyes had dark circles, I was weak and tired all the time, my nails were brittle and broke often, my hair was dry and lifeless like straw. People would take one look at me and run screaming from all thoughts of a vegan diet. It was BAD.
After researching the raw food diet and trying it for many months I have come to some realizations…a vegan diet would have been just fine IF I had gone raw as well. Most of the food I was eating was cooked or processed. Tofu, soy dogs, vegan lasagna, vegan tacos with soy tofu “meat”, soy milk, soy ice cream, etc. Now I realize how dangerous it is to be eating all that soy and I won’t touch it with a ten foot poll. So that combined with the fact that I was cooking everything, except for small salads or the occasional banana, made for a very unhealthy diet.
Cooking usually destroys around 30-50% or more of the nutrient content of any given food. So cooking automatically renders something half as healthy as it should be. Cooking kills ALL of the life giving enzymes. The enzymes are what help us to digest that particular food…they come neatly packaged with everything you need for maximum digestion and absorption. When the enzymes are destroyed our body has to scramble and look for some within the stores of our body. Enzymes are a necessary element in maintaining good health and are responsible for every reaction in the human body. If our enzyme production is insufficient we open ourselves up to many health problems; and if we don’t have enzymes we will die. There is really no other way to put it. While the body has the ability to produce enzymes on it own, it is not enough to produce the quality enzymes needed…not when our optimal diet is SUPPOSED to have that covered.
In addition to the enzymes, raw foods are filled with the necessary vitamins and minerals that we can all use for healthier bodies. There is no need to worry about missing essential fatty acids, iron, calcium, or protein on a raw vegan diet; because raw foods contain some of the highest sources of each of these necessary nutrients.
So when I was eating vegan before I was essentially destroying my food before I consumed it. THAT was why I was so unhealthy…not because I wasn’t eating animal products and meat. I admit that I will not likely give up ALL animal products. I do like my raw milk on occassion and I like sushi something fierce but eventually I would like to make those occasional vices only and the rest of my diet would ideally be vegan.
Because of this realization about raw/vegan eating I have also started to disagree just a bit with Mr. Weston Price. Carrie please don’t flog me. ;) I think animal proteins have their place in many diets..I truly do but only because we humans are not eating what we should be in the first place. I absolutely loved the book Green for Life as it explained this beautifully.
We share an amazing 99.4% of our DNA sequence with Chimpanzees. In fact, many scientists believe they actually should be classified as humans! They have the same A-B-O blood groupings as we do. We are also closely related to Gorillas. With all of the similarities between us why do they not also have our degenerative diseases? Their diet! A Chimpanzee’s diet consists of 50% fruit, 43% greens, 5% pith, bark, and seeds, and 3% insects and on rare occasions…small animals. Are we eating diets proportional to that? Heck no!
They eat hardly any meat but yet would you call chimps or gorillas wimpy??? No, they get ample protein from plants and we can too. We could technically eat 1-2 pounds of plain leafy greens (Kale, Romaine, Spinach, etc) every day but who wants to. I sure don’t…unless I mix them up with some fruit and make a green smoothie. I can easily down a pound of Kale if I put it in smoothies and drink it throughout the day. The problem isn’t that we can’t get the protein from plant sources, the problem is that we aren’t willing or able to eat enough of it most times to GET that protein. Green smoothies though have solved this problem for many people though, including a lot of raw foodies. Consider too that animal proteins are extremely hard for our bodies to digest making it likely that much of the protein will be useless to us and you can see why I think plant based proteins win out every time.
I remember once reading about this a long time ago from a Biblical perspective too. The author talked about how humans were meant to eat what they could get from the Garden of Eden…fruits and greens. Only later did our diet adapt as we were essentially forced to eat what we could get our hands on. I can’t remember what book that was though.
Of course if you don’t chew your greens properly until they are like a liquid paste in your mouth…you are not accessing all of the nutritional benefit. The cells of plants are very tough and have actually one of the strongest molecular structures on the planet. In order for the nutrients to be released from the cells they have to be ruptured or “chewed” to a pulp. Think of how a cow can chew on the same wad of greens for like 5 minutes, LOL. Humans have lost their jaw power after centuries of soft, cooked foods. A good blender will “chew” the food for you and release all those lovely nutrients.
And one more tidbit…greens makes the body alkaline. This is optimal for health. Animal proteins and by-products make your body acidic. In 1931 a man named Otto Warburg won the Nobel prize for his research that showed cancer cells form when the body cells have become to acidic. When I was diagnosed with cancer I was told repeatedly I shouldn’t drink milk and I should reduce meat because cancer cells thrive on the acid. I have already shared that I think meat consumption played a BIG roll in my illness.
Anyway…can you believe I just went on an on about that when the whole point of this post is that I am 
joining a Green Smoothie Challenge? Mrs. Blabbermouth strikes again. ;)
Lately I gotten so busy I have neglected my green smoothie drinking and I have started to have cravings for food I know isn’t good for me. So I need to do this Green Smoothie Challenge from the Raw Divas. It only costs $5 and you get a free pass to gift to someone else. And $3 of that $5 is donated to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization whose mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species. Pretty cool!
In addition to that they are having a celebration on International Green Smoothie Day (August 15) which challenge members will be invited to and you can win prizes.
If you are looking for an easy intro to raw foods or you just want to try and incorporate more greens into your life then I suggest you take this challenge. Hope to see you there! I also whole heartedly recommend that everyone read Green for Life.
Also check out my green smoothies recipe book!
Cheers for Raw Vegan! And cheers for Green Smoothies! They can make such an amazing difference in people’s lives :)
After I read The China Study, (or any books by John Robbins) it was a no-brainer for me to cut out all animal products and by-products. IMO there is no place for animal flesh or products in the diet for health, ethical, and environmental reasons. The treatment of the animals is horrendous and gut-wrenching. I was vegan for a few years before turning to Raw and felt better as a vegan than I did as an omnivore. No doubt about that. But, I wasn’t filling my body with a bunch of soy products either. I definitely had some soy, but I also had grains, nuts, legumes, and veggies.
Then, I found Raw and my life definitely improved even more so :)
I have times when I’m all Raw and times I’m HRAV (High Raw, All Vegan). When I’m both 100% Raw or HRAV (70%+ Raw) I feel wonderful, radiant, vibrant, energized, my weight is perfect, my sleep is terrific and I couldn’t be happier.
Cheers,
Kristen
Although I won’t wholly agree with what you’ve said, there are certainly some arguments. It is true that enzymes will degrade easily, but we can also prevent that if we slow boil to ensure that the vegetables are not subjected to high temperatures. On and off I’ve been a vegan and do take vitamin supplements to help on it.
Interesting. I suppose it is possible to get the protein we need from plants, but as you said, we would need to consume pounds of it! I think it’s great that you feel good on a raw diet, I just don’t think it’s practical for many lifestyles, especially children. I have never been vegan- we avoid soy always- and feel at my best when I follow a traditional foods diet of lots of fruits and veggies-local when possible- with local grass fed meats and whole grains. We definitely still eat white rice sometimes and use all purpose white flour now and then, but if we eat whole foods the majority of the time I don’t struggle with weight and my hair is great and energy level is high.
Hi:
I recognize your writing style I like very much–snappy.and personal while filled w/ info–so I know I’ve read hit-and-miss from following my husband’s home page links several things you’ve written in the last year. However, this is the first time I have had anything to say on a subject you covered, so this is my first comment.
We started drinking Dr. Oz’s green drink from seeing him talk about it on Oprah months ago. (BTW, don’t tell me I’ve sold out to the establishment b/c I record and watch every Oprah show–it’s part of my job to know what is going on in the world and how to fit into trends, as President of Home Grown Food Network, Inc., a 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to educating about and promoting ultra low cost housing, edible landscaping, and use of renewable energy. Lucky me, to have an excuse to watch TV, and I’ll come up with a reason soon that the Gilmore Girls and Denise Richardson are important.)
Dr. Oz’s green drink is spinach, apple, celery, ginger, parsley, cucumber, and lemon juice blended together. The day we saw the show we did a Google search and found the exact recipe, which we put on the refrigerator with a magnet, but over the months we have used so many different variations it’s just a general guideline now. He said at the time you can put in other things as you want to, which we would have done anyway since we just can’t stop experimenting. We used spring mix for the base when we didn’t have spinach, left out cucumber or celery when we didn’t have any, added zucchini or tomatoes when there was a glut, used oranges instead of apples, all kinds of changes, and they all were good, some better than others, but nothing not good enough to drink.
We make that every day, fresh, using what we grew as much as we can b/c then we know what nourished the soil, what was not sprayed on or dug into it, whose hands did not have bacteria on them when harvesting, etc. The rest is certified organic as much as we can find and afford, but I have my doubts, so I’m aiming to grow it all myself. In the M/T, we do as well as we can.
Every time it tastes a little different, but Oprah said the drink Dr. Oz made for her that day was “a glass of fresh,” and that is how it has tasted to us every time. The fruit makes it palatable, but you just know drinking all those raw vegetables is building your cells and it tastes good too, so what’s not to like?.
We also started making what we call “green soup” from mixed greens like collards mustards, carrot tops, and anything else green that we just can’t stand to eat raw, steamed with almost no water for three minutes in the pressure cooker and then pureed in the blender. At first we were adding liquid aminos and Vietnamese fish sauce and all kinds of other things to season it, but lately we like how it tastes just plain. Like the smoothie, it is different every time b/c of what we put in it, but it just tastes great and is so simple to make that we actually eat it every day, which we didn’t do when we were just relying on our good intentions but the recipes were too hard and time-consuming to follow.
Talk about fast and easy, I even have a set of mixed soup cups, so I take it in the car with me and often drink a chopped up poached or hard-cooked egg and green soup plus a green smoothie for breakfast while I’m driving. That is so good and filling sometimes I can’t finish it until lunchtime. And it’s what? 200 calories? And nine or so servings of fruit and vegetables b/4 noon.
We also add vegetable purees like cauliflower and broccoli, again steamed with tiny amounts of water for three minutes in the pressure cooker, to anything they will hide in, a la Jennifer Seinfeld’s cookbook we saw promoted on Oprah also. She suggested putting these purees in things to get nutrition to kids without having to nag them and fight in convincing them to eat vegetables, when most kids just won’t. Dr. Oz said that is evolutionary, that in our history as a species kids who ate unfamiliar things died, so the species is filled with kids who will eat only white things and things that are similar to breast milk and other things they had as babies, easy to digest, etc. You can introduce the love of the nutrients into their bodies without their knowing it and just gently, a little at a time, get them to see by example that adults love vegetables and choose to eat them knowingly. If emulating adults causes teenagers to smoke and drink alcohol, this can’t hurt as an idea to try.
Every day we have at least one huge glass of the green smoothie each and a bowl of the green soup. When we have marinara sauce or (horrors!) mac and cheese or pancakes, we add some puree to them and don’t feel so guilty eating comfort food.
We noticed immediately a huge change in both of our bodies, so that is good. Loving delaying gratification is not a common human trait. I saw David Spade on TV talking about raw food, and disgusting as what he said was, he’s a comedian so he intended to be funny and was, and his talking about how often, fast and with how much volume he has to go “Number Two” made an impression on me. Certain people in my life have been hypochondriacs whose main topic of discussion every day was how everyone’s morning bowel movements went. When you think about stuff staying inside your body for as much as 24 hours between eliminations, which is what most people think is healthy if they try to have one bowel movement per day, that’s what’s really disgusting. Putting vegetables, especially raw ones, in your body means maybe one hour, not 24, and undoubtedly no putrefaction. Stops expense and embarrassment of colonics, too, for some people, I’d bet.
Then in the longer run we’ve both seen bigger, more important changes. Weight loss in my case, body firming and sculpting in my husband’s, both of us having more energy and vibrancy in our daily lives, hair and nails more healthy, needing to sleep less, huge brain-power changes, amazing things. It’s clear when you actually notice how your body is reacting, when you are doing more healthy things.
I’ll join the green smoothie challenge as you suggest, but what we have already observed fits in exactly with what you have said. I always laugh when people say you don’t need to take vitamins or some other supplement b/c a “good well-balanced diet” will provide all those nutrients. Who in America has a good well-balanced diet? Very few people. And one of the reasons is what Katie said about how hard it would be to consume enough raw food to get all those nutrients.
However, our website has lots of tips and lots of links to other sites that have more, about how to grow enough greens on a tiny lot where you live–and even on an 8′ x 10′ balcony, if you don’t have a lot of any size–to provide 80% of the needs of a family. Like you, I have not been able to eliminate some things I have to buy from what I really really want, so I still buy them. Milk and eggs are probably the last vice I have, but I don’t always crave milk now, so sometimes it gets sour on us. Chocolate still gets eaten here by someone, I think a woman since my husband has shifted to cacao beans, which I still just can’t like.
I like this gradual approach we’ve taken, with enough sudden changes to see what really works. Raw vegetables in the smoothie was that for us, and I’m grateful. Keep talking about it.
Thanks.
Brenda
I know she’s Denise Richards. Typing and editing are not my forte.
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Awesome comment Brenda! Thanks for sharing. I like Dr. Oz. ;)
Great post! I’ve heard a lot of good things about going raw, and experimented with it a little a few years ago. I’m going to go check out the challenge. :)
Raw is definitely the best. I’ve recently heard that things need to be eaten within 3 days of being picked because they may lose up to 75% of the nutrients after that.
One other side note…heard most organicly grown veggies/fruits are sprayed with insecticide before being shipped! Ugh! So now I’m paying more for something that is still contaminated?
Let us know how eating RAW is working for ya! I personally thing that after the fall (Garden of Eden after sin enter into the world/ eating the forbidden fruit) God did the first killing and therefore death enter into the world (beginning vegan diet then into eating meat) Before the fall God said that what He had created was good but after the fall the earth change and we change and our DNA change so I think that we were created to be vegan but need meat cause of the fall
Sorry about this rambling of mine!
did you know that our DNA and organ etc.. is more compatible to a pig then to the Chimpanzees!!! and look at what they eat!!!
Thank you! I was vegetarian in high school and ultimately came to the realization it was contrary to my biblical beliefs to shun all meats. However, I also want to avoid all the yucky biproducts of the meat producing industry here in America, so I’d like to ultimately eat only grass fed and free range meat and animal products. I love the idea of the raw diet, but are you concerned about the safety of animal products? This has been my question and I admit I should do more research, I’d probably find the answer! Is it very expensive, too?
Bought the book. I eat meat and likely always will but I know we need to get more raw veggies into our diet so I’m looking forward to this book.
I’m curious your thoughts on taking Juice Plus suppliments in addition to getting raw fruits and veggies in the diet?
:–) Nell
Is there a good website for someone who is looking to get started on a raw diet?
You just knew there would be one person defending soy! Soy like any food, including raw foods are not healthy eaten in excess. If you ate 10 lbs of spinach a day every day, do you think your body could process and rid itself of all that iron? Too much iron is toxic. Soy is an excellent food choice eaten in moderation and eaten in it’s original form. People who become vegetarians or vegans automatically think they need to start stuffing themselves with soy and processed soy foods and I’m not sure why. The root of both of those words is vegetable not soy, and yes soy is a vegetable :)
I do agree we should eat our foods raw. My family is switching over little by little. Anyway, I think the Green Smoothie Challenge is a great idea.
Cindi, I will eat natural soy like soy beans. I just won’t eat processed soy like soy milk, soy cheese, etc. But soy is also commonly a GMO so I try to limit even that.
Alaina, here is a resource for you:
http://www.naturemoms.com/benefits-of-raw-food.html