Vegans Only: What Percent Raw? (sardines, substance, dinner, avocado)

[sll3454]

I've seen a few threads about eating raw, but I'd like to do a poll. What percent of your diet is raw? Vegans only, please.

[sheena12]

Not a raw food eater. Some foods I eat are raw. The ones that are traditionally eaten raw suck as salads, carrot sticks, avocados,tomatoes etc.

I adore hot cooked food in the winter and I love soup.

[mermaid825]

I've tried going raw and was sorely disappointed especially after all the miracle stories I've read. I really have to wonder if the raw gurus out there aren't sneaking sauteed broccoli when no one's looking.

The main problem with raw for me is the huge amounts of raw nuts required by most recipes. Rawists use ground nuts and nut flours where regular people use flour. Nuts and nut flours are very expensive even if you buy in bulk. One cookbook I bought had a pancake recipe where a single batch would have cost $40 to make, probably more if organic. That's just obscene IMO. Not to mention the massive calorie hit you're going to take eating so many nuts. I love nuts but I never go further than 2-3 oz a day.

Sprouted beans tasted disgusting to me. Sorry. I just can't believe god/ the creator/ nature doesn't want us to use heat to prepare things like beans, potatoes, squash, rice, eggplant, and so on.

I think the best guidelines I've read are Eat to Live. Fuhrman recommends 1 lb greens a day, half raw half cooked. All fruit should be raw, minimum 4 servings a day. Beans and starchy veggies are served cooked. So to answer your question about half of what I eat is raw but I eat beans and starches cooked. And I do cook with wheat flour.

Some people consider yogurt a "living food" due to the living cultures in it, even though it's neither vegan nor raw. Just food for thought.

[OpenD]

After being part of the raw community for years, working as a raw chef and having a sideline business preparing and selling raw desserts, and also living 100% raw for more than a year while I worked towards a teaching certificate, today I'm maybe 5 - 10% raw, mostly in the form of salads or garnishes or raw fruits.

As I have said before and I firmly believe, I encourage personal exploration, and I feel each person needs to find their own truth. I have no criticism for how anyone else chooses to eat. But for me, once I went 100% with it, in thought, word and deed, and even profession, the raw food diet totally fell apart on me. I never really felt great, I always felt a bit deprived, and I never liked the social isolation that went along with eating in a way that the culture I live in perceived as "weird." Again, that's my personal experience, and YMMV.

I do feel a totally raw diet can be supportive of a systemic cleanse in the face of serious illness, primarily because it is easier for most people to sustain than is a total fast. But my personal truth is that it's not a good approach for daily life for most people. It's too radical, too hard to maintain, and it fosters too much food craziness. I want my diet to support my life, not to rule it.

And as the article by Dr. Andrew Weill says, the one that someone else recently posted in a related thread, most of the major claims by the "raw food gurus" that I followed so trustingly and for so long simply crumbled in the face of long-term personal experience and the latest scientific research. The proven facts are that cooked food is far more digestible than raw food and the nutrients are generally more bioavailable. The theories about enzymes in raw food being better for the body have turned out to be pure myth, because the body doesn't really use them in the way the raw gurus claim they do. And as I discovered when I got into the center of the culture, most of the "stars" of the movement have a strong profit motive to keep saying what they do. They tell a good story, but in the end I found there's was little substance to what they were selling. So I recommend you question everything, resist the hype, and don't surrender your common sense to anyone, ESPECIALLY to peer pressure or groupthink.

Do your own research, try what makes sense to you, and then DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.

[coldPlay]

Originally Posted by mermaid825

I've tried going raw and was sorely disappointed especially after all the miracle stories I've read. I really have to wonder if the raw gurus out there aren't sneaking sauteed broccoli when no one's looking.

...So to answer your question about half of what I eat is raw but I eat beans and starches cooked. And I do cook with wheat flour...

your approach is pragmatic, as is my own. Had to laugh about your remark about sneaking a bit of the broccoli. When I juice I'm constantly munching the carrots, spinach, and all during the process, and by the time I'm finished making the juice, I'm stuffed.

There are few things better than stewed veggies and potatoes and cheese and breads during the winter months. For me it's all about comfort. I can be vegetarian and still enjoy that wonderful home cooked style gramma used to make. lol.

Amazed about the level of energy I have after my regular two times a year of pure raw, but only for a week at a time. I would like to do it all the time, but like you, it feels like something missing and the first thing I want to do is to eat heavily salted boiled eggs and or sardines when I'm done. Whereas with a regular vegetarian diet, I'm good all the time.

[sll3454]

Thanks, everyone. I see I was a little off in my poll choices.

[Cattknap]

Originally Posted by coldPlay

your approach is pragmatic, as is my own. Had to laugh about your remark about sneaking a bit of the broccoli. When I juice I'm constantly munching the carrots, spinach, and all during the process, and by the time I'm finished making the juice, I'm stuffed.

There are few things better than stewed veggies and potatoes and cheese and breads during the winter months. For me it's all about comfort. I can be vegetarian and still enjoy that wonderful home cooked style gramma used to make. lol.

Amazed about the level of energy I have after my regular two times a year of pure raw, but only for a week at a time. I would like to do it all the time, but like you, it feels like something missing and the first thing I want to do is to eat heavily salted boiled eggs and or sardines when I'm done. Whereas with a regular vegetarian diet, I'm good all the time.

I agree with you about the juicing - we have a green smoothie for dinner each night - so filling...vegetables do fill you up and the "appetizer vegetables" while making the smoothies do help satisfy - I drink a glass a water afterward or a hot cup of herbal tea - stuffed.

I have been 99% vegan for about 5 months now and still struggle with making presentable, tasty dishes - I cook 3 meals most days - we go out once or twice a week (mostly to vegetarian or vegan restaurants).....I find that my husband is much more likely to eat things like a good lentil loaf with spicy vegan barbecue sauce (that slices up and looks like a beef meatloaf), along with some roasted vegetables and a 1/2 cup of quinoa and a small green salad - he his much more likely to eat that kind of traditional looking meal than a conglomerate of foods in a one-pot meal. I think one-pot meals have their place and I cook them now and again but often they really don't look that great. The only cheese my husband eats is a shaving of fresh parmesan on the occasional pasta dish....and we keep our bread to a minimum as well.

I do not think that we could ever go 100% raw but our diet is about 50% at the present.

[KristyD]

Don't think I could ever go raw. I love my Mexican food (beans and rice) too much

I do try to eat alot of vegetables raw but I know have more nutrition cooked like Spinach, Carrots and Kale.

[sheena12]

Originally Posted by KristyD

Don't think I could ever go raw. I love my Mexican food (beans and rice) too much

I do try to eat alot of vegetables raw but I know have more nutrition cooked like Spinach, Carrots and Kale.

I agree Kristy! I like some foods raw - but pretty much the ones that were intended to be eaten that way.

[jasper12]

I downloaded a free raw food cookbook today on my Kindle. And....wondered how much time these folks have to do their meal planning and diet...seemed like a lot of work and time goes into eating "raw". Use of a dehydrater seemed mandatory in most of the recipes in this book. And a lot of cashews, other nuts...Used as protein source, but seemed like a very high fat diet to me.

Of course, this is one book...but it was interesting to read. Not so sure this diet would be good for children.