The Raw Food Diet for Newbies

I had heard some interesting things about the raw food diet in the local media and was interested in finding out more. As I began surfing the internet for more information, I found myself slowly but surely buying into the idea. It seemed to make a lot of sense. Eating whole-fresh, live foods - how could anyone argue with that? However, I had also come across some instances of people “not doing well” on the raw food diet, but surely that wouldn’t happen to me – those things happen to other people.

Well, after a couple of months of getting my feet wet and gradually incorporating more raw foods into my diet, I finally decided to go 100% raw. And guess what, I began experiencing a few problems. First and foremost, I lost a lot of weight – too much weight. I also lost a lot of energy – feeling lethargic a lot of the time. Without going into a long explanation, here are a few of the mistakes I made that, hopefully, you can avoid.

#1) Calories – calories – calories !!! In general, raw foods are not very calorie-dense, meaning you have to eat much more of them to achieve a normal daily intake of say, 2000 calories a day. Fresh fruit and produce contain a lot of water, which is easy on the body and digestive process, but doesn’t help very much in getting the calories you need. If you’re used to eating a standard diet, and then switch to raw, you have to consciously increase the volume of raw foods you take in, just to maintain anything like a normal bodyweight. For example, if you’re used to eating an apple and a carrot as a snack, that’s about 110 calories – a long way from 2,000 calories. See what I mean?

#2) Too much fat !! Raw fooders typically consume way too much fat in their diet (and most of them don’t even know it). They think that because they’re consuming the “good” kind of fat (i.e. unsaturated fat), no problem. Sorry – problem. You just can’t gorge on avocados and nuts, etc. Too much fat in the diet, even if it’s the good kind of fat, can cause all kinds of major problems.

#3) Now that I’m eating better, my health will improve automatically! Eating more nutritionally is only one aspect of achieving and maintaining good overall health. You can’t forget all of the other things that are associated with staying healthy – like physical activity-exercise, proper rest, stress reduction. Don’t obsess on just the diet – good nutrition is just one of the pillars of good health.

When I first began studying raw foods and was searching for information, I came across one particular author who sounded different from the others. In fact, he expressed some opinions that were kind of bold and clearly at odds with conventional “raw” wisdom. I began reading his postings and e-zines, and they made a lot of sense to me. I liked his independent thinking, approach and integrity. He has written one of the key books on the topic of Raw Foods, called The Raw Secrets.

Click here for more information on the book.