RAW Feedback

Since my new girlfriend Sandy wanted me to stay at home 3 days in a row, it´s finally time to catch up on my blogging. And there is a lot of catching up to do. Let me start with my official feedback on the raw diet.

Being on the raw diet reminded me of travelling India actually. While I did it, I hated it and once I finished I wanted to go back to it. I initially only lasted about a week, not only because I hated it so much, but because I new that I would travel to Chicago in the beginning of August and therefore decided to stop the raw diet earlier than originally planned.

Let me tell you… if you want to drop a few pounds in minimum time, try the raw diet. I initially dropped about 3-4 pounds in the first 3 days and couldn´t believe how fast my metabolism and digestion got. Those are about the only benefits I got out of this though.

The burdens clearly outweigh the benefits. Let me name a few:

Social Implications: the biggest burden of all was probably not being able to socialize with others. Would you like to join me for a raw burger and by that I mean raw veggies wrapped in more raw veggies? Unless you have some pretty adventurous friends, the answer is very likely to be “thanks, but no thanks!”

Unfullfilling Fi(ee)lling: I can´t describe the feeling as anything else than unfullfilling, literally. You find yourself munching a lot more throughout the day, but no matter how much you eat… you never get the nice feeling of finally being satisfied and having a full stomach. And for somebody who loves food and trying new things, I honeslty felt like a cow at times. I am not a big meat eater, but if I eat a burger that one time a year, it better be an actual cow between my teeth, instead of that veggie on veggie crap! And to make matters worse… every unfullfilled feeling is going hand in hand with a pretty bloaded tummy… so you´re not full, but you sure look like you are!

Teeth Problems: I didn´t do a research study on this, but I can tell you, after consuming an unusual amount of lemon and lime juice (since it´s used as a subsitute for vinegar in many recipes), my teeth hurt and got incredibly sensitive to hot and cold! And all of this started about 3 days into the diet. So it may be that my teeth are just super sensitive, but it is definitely not a unique problem among raw foodies. Read more on the raw dental drama.

Time Consuming Food Preparation: All I want to say to this… I hate the food processor! I can deal with the inconvenience of searching 2 to 3 different stores until I find the “wheat germs” or “jicama” I need for sprouting or my next extravagant recipe,  but the noise and wait time of food preparation in the raw cuisine bring the annoyance of cooking to another level. My morning doesn´t really start very well if I have to blend my smoothie and can´t hear myself think while I do so! It also takes a long time to clean up after processing just one meal. You usually end up cleaning the inside of the food processor at least 2 or 3 times for the preparation of one dish alone! And then you sometimes have to let the food “sit” in order to “cook” it or “sprout” it. That just takes so much planning ahead and pretty much takes the fun out of cooking.

Health Risks: There are a lot of studies out there that are concerned with the many health risks that come with being vegan, be it fruitarian, juicetarian or meatarian. A study from 2005 reports a lower bone density for raw vegans, as well as amenorrhea and underweight in women.

The conclusion I draw from my 1 week trial is that I actually felt very energized on the diet, my metabolism was super high and I discovered the best desserts I´ve ever tasted! But to me this really is a diet, meaning it should be restricted to a certain period of time. The negative side effects, like loosing too much weight, having sensitive teeth, running risks of low bone density and not being able to socialize, are not things I would like to deal with on a regular basis. I would use it as a pre-bikini season or after-christmas-binge-eating detox if I wanted to get the energized feeling back. I think it would be a good way to transition back into “healthy” eating, because you definitely would feel bad if you ate a candy bar after one week of healthy raw food. It is also a great way to try out new recipes that will make you incorporate more raw foods into your lunches, snacks and heavenly desserts. 24-7? Never.

Ra(w) Ra(w) ooh la la…

So I am gonna keep this blog post very simple because going raw is not.

It seems like there are a million different concepts out there not only on how to go raw, but how far you should go with it. Should you stay vegan on a raw diet or should you incorporate raw meat and fish, or should you stick to raw meat only… how about just eating fruits – go raw and be a fruitarian, juicarian, and so the list goes on.

Ooh la la, right? Yes. So if you´re interested in a dozen different subcategories check out the wikipedia summary.

Here is what was interesting to me. So far, I haven´t found a clear concept. It seems a little bit like everybody lives according to their own principles when it comes to raw. The only thing Rawtarians do share is the belief that the consumption of raw food is the most natural and essentially most nutritious way to feed our bodies and live a healthy lifestyle. Brings us back to the ape diet I´ve mentioned before!

Although Rawtarians sometimes “cook” their food, nothing is ever heated above 104° F because this is supposed to be the temperature at which food looses its nutrients and enzymes.

I went RAW last week and chose to go the “common” path, with a vegan raw diet and the occasional consumption of raw meat or fish in order to have a sufficient B12 intake. I will not use a dehydrator, simply because i don´t own one and there is a lot of controversy around dehydrated food. So if I can, I´ll skip it.

Check back for my raw feedback on Thursday!

On a side note (or 2), did you know that the roots of the raw diet reach back to a Swiss doctor, who also invented  “Müsli” and even further to the Greeks? And that some cultures are believed to eat mainly raw, including some Indian and Middle Eastern ones?