From: Michelle A (199.175.65.31)
Subject: Dr. D's insight..."Beginning a raw diet".
Date: March 7, 2005 at 9:21 am PST
In Reply to: Vegan looking to try raw froods - any advice ? posted by Val on March 6, 2005 at 7:40 pm:
Hi! Val,
Here is Dr. D's insight on "Beginning a raw diet".
I would recommend that you simply "INCREASE THE PERCENTAGE OF" whole fresh ripe raw
organic plants in your diet. I would recommend that you keep making your meals simpler,
with fewer ingredients and fewer courses. I would recommend that you start including a few
mono meals per week, and keep increasing their number. I would recommend that you track
your calories on Fitday.com to see how much fat you are actually eating. If it goes much
beyond 10%, you are likely not eating enough fruits or vegetables for optimum health and
relying too heavily on fats.
Fortunately, the mechanics of a healthy raw regimen have been figured out for us, so we
don't have to repeat the mistakes made by others: undereating calorically, overconsumption
of fats, reliance upon dried foods as a mainstay, poor definitions of which foods are truly
raw, use of stimulants irritants and noxious condiments, etc.
If you cannot manage a string of all raw days, string all raw meals, or all raw bites. It just
keeps getting easier with practice.
Dr D
I did 10 years of dietary transition BEFORE going vegetarian.
8 years vegetarian.
Less than 1 year vegan
7 years high raw.
7 more attempting total raw and failing repeatedly.
11 years now of all raw all the time, count on it, and no looking back.
I recommend that you transition as rapidly as you can.
I do not think it wise for you to make all the same mistakes as I did.
I think most people can easily do what took me over 30 years in under 30 months.
In Reply to: Dr. D What IS a good sample daily menu for a raw food diet?
For every person, practically every day, this varies. I rarely have two days that are identical in
the course of a year, honest.
Here are some examples of daily menu plans from our Fitness Week.
Breakfast: Melon, all you care for.
Lunch: Bananas and peaches and lettuce and celery, buffet style. Help yourself to as much of
any as you care for.
Dinner: Oranges followed by a simple lettuce tomato salad. We offer non fat dressings such
as apricot celery blend as well as relatively lowfat dressing such as tangerine-celery-avocado
blend.
OR:
Breakfast: Grapes
Lunch: Banana celery shakes
Dinner: Kiwi, all you care for followed by tomato soup followed by a celery/cabbage slaw
dressed in pinenut/orange
Q. I am transitioning to raw and feel light headed and not grounded.
A. Most people must correct their faulty sugar metabolism before they will feel fully
grounded on a raw food diet. The detox/withdrawal alone is enough to make most people
feel light headed.
Q. I have found that I get hungry and stay hungry. I have eliminated all wheat from my diet
and I believe that is why I am hungry. I am not having the pains in my intestines that I had
but I am still having heartburn. I would guess it is because I am eating things like fried
potatoes and drinking coffee. I know that you do not believe in drinking coffee and I would
like to quit also. What I am asking in a long way around is: How do I not be so hungry. Should
I eat more nuts? More fruit? Or both. I read in some places they say not to eat nuts etc it will
make you gain weight. I figure that since I am being force not to eat wheat because of my
health I am going to transition to about 80% raw. Do you think 80% raw for awhile would get
rid of the heartburn.
A. Whilst transitioning, your diet you will likely still suffer heartburn symptoms, as long as
you continue to consume those things, such as fried potatoes, that result in symptoms.
Sorry, but that is the reality of your situation. If you want to beat the symptoms, you must
play by the rules, Nature's rules.
As for wheat, everyone is allergic to it, just some people react more strongly than others.
Generically, my suggestion would be that you greatly increase your fruit consumption. A
breakfast meal of any relatively juicy fruit is usually acceptable. Perhaps one meal per day of
bananas. A lunch of all the bananas you care for will usually satisfy your appetite for many
hours.
Hope this helps,
Dr D
Q. Hey I'm new here. I've been a vegan for a little while and want to try a raw diet. Any
suggestions would be great.
A. Start increasing your fruit intake while decreasing your consumption of complex or cooked
carbs.
Try eating a raw meal now and then. Breakfast is easy, so I would also try other meals for
practice. Some fruit followed by a huge salad makes a very rewarding dinner.
Keep in touch,
Dr D
Q. I've been intrigued with the idea of a raw diet for awhile now and I've been doing some
reading on the subject and even went to hear Paul Nison speak. But whenever I try to go all
raw, I can barely make it through even one day! I get very shakey, weak and wind up with a
ripping headache - and that's on top of the painful hunger pangs. I've been vegan for 5 years
and I love the concept of all raw but I just can't seem to make it work for me. If I could even
do it for one week and rotate raw and cooked foods for awhile, I'd feel like I was making
progress, but I can't even make it through one day! I've read what raw foodists eat in a typical
day and it just seems like so little food. Maybe I'm just a pig but I can't seem to get by on raw
fruits and vegetables. I would welcome any advice.
A. Increase the percentage of raw, rather than trying to go all raw. Start the day raw or just
start each meal raw. There are many ways to go about this successfully. The way you tried
didn't work, so try another. Gradually, increase your percentage raw. In a year, you will be all
raw and looking back saying, 'wow, that was easy'.
The headache is your withdrawal pangs, the lightheaded/shakey bits are symptoms of a
sugar metabolic problem you have. Nothing wrong with the food. Everybody tells me I eat a
lot! Who's menus have you been reading?
Dr D
Q. i just read everything on your web site about raw fooding...but i need a sample menu.
what would you eat for breakfast and how much of it?
A. I recommend eating fruit for your breakfast meal, and keep it simple. Usually one type of
fruit is sufficient imo. All the melon you care for, or all of any relatively juicy fruit, or a fruit
smoothy. All you care for is my best advice on quantity, or a sufficient quantity to 'hold' you
until lunchtime. This might require practice, you may find yourself eating breakfast again
around mid morning until you get the hang of it.
Dr D
Q. If someone is on the SAD diet and they would like to change there eating habits what
steps do you suggest or recommend?
A. We are guiding people to a diet of whole fresh ripe raw organic plants. Simply by eating
more of those, they are going in the right direction. My program is low fat raw vegan, what I
call 'ethical vegan'. It is not ethical, imo, to maintain your health at such poor levels that you
are a burden to someone else.
I recommend increasing fruit and decreasing starch. That is the toughest challenge, so it
should be addressed first, middle and probably last. It is easy to get off meat, there are
substitutes. How many of you out there, trying to go raw, find that starch is the challenge,
not meat? Eating more fruit enables us to get past consuming starch.
Dr D
Q. Dr. G. should fruits always be eaten first?
What if I chose to blend greens with water.
Should I have this first because it is a liquid (goes thru the system quicker) first and then
fruit? (To avoid any natural gas ;-)
I was thinking of eating the fruit then waiting about half an hour then having a green drink.
A. There are no 'rules' such as this. You must use your sense and experience.
Fruit is not even 'always' eaten, so out the window with rules.
Yes, a good guideline is to begin with fruit, if you are later going to eat, or drink, greens.
DR D
Q. Dr. D,
I realize there are countless variables, but is it possible for you to make any genral comments
regarding an average timeline for changes that take place within a typical human body once
it is adequately supplied with it's requirements via a raw diet, say to a more or less, ideal or
optimal degree? Assuming that the starting point was an average SAD state, can any
generalities be made along these lines? I know others have made such statements, but they
do not seem to have the experience or credibility that would make their claims very
compelling.
A. Typically, I find that 7 to 14 years is reasonable to expect that your body will have
adjusted fully to raw foods.
The variables are huge, however.
Let us remember that health is no more about just food than a bicycle is about just the
pedals.
Dr D
It is really easy to become a raw fooder. Simply increase the percentage
Of raw foods in your diet. Try making breakfast a raw meal, for example, say,
all fruit. Or begin every meal with raw before moving on to cooked. Next
thing you know, you will want even more raw. Tip: most people seriously
undereat of fruit. Include lots of it. Maybe even start every meal with it**
Making the transition to raw can be a long trip, with many detours. Just
keep your eye on your goal, head towards your target when you get off track,
and persist. It only gets easier with practice. Hang in there folks, it is
totally worth the effort, a hundred times over
The trick is to increase the percentage of the following factors in your diet, singly or all of
them.
Whole
Fresh
Ripe
Raw
Organic
Plants
Inch by inch, even eating low fat raw vegan is a cinch.
Dr D
Q. I use to be a vegetarian until 6 years ago when I was heavily encouraged to eat meat by my
family doctor. Since then I have realized a host of problems which includes allergies. (Lots of
allergies). I am 5'6", small bone female who use to weigh 116 to 125, now I am 154. I have
been told I am now toxic and am retaining a lot of water due to the allergens in my system.
What do you do first in terms of detoxification? Also what is 80/10/10?
A. There are many ways to approach this challenge. I think that the easiest method is to
simply increase the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat at every meal by beginning the
meal with these foods.
Breakfast is easy to eat raw by simply eating fruit, as is lunch.
The dinner meal should at least start out with raw foods. Eventually you will find that it is
easy to have some dinners raw and some including cooked. Finally, you will be eating raw,
effortlessly, simply be increasing the percentages.
8/1/1 refers to the caloronutrient ratio. 8 = 80% carbohydrate, the other two represent
protein and fat.
Dr D
I believe the criteria you will be best served by, at this point in your journey, is, "for how long
will a meal of this food hold my appetite at bay?" Eventually, you would like to be able to last
4-6 hours between meals during the day, without need to snack. This skill requires some
practice. Until you get the hang of it, you may find yourself eating breakfast twice, and then
eating lunch twice as well. :)
Hope this helps,
DR D
