John Robbins comments on Raw Foods

[Guest guest]

I love John Robbins. He is a great guy.

I had the opportunity to meet him at a Jain

convention in Chicago a few years ago.

 

Here is an interview he recently had with

the zine Common Ground. They asked him about

diets and here is a particular excerpt that

mentions raw foods.

 

Anyone have any comments on what he has to say

regarding calories?

 

***********************************

CG: What do you think of a pure raw foods diet?

 

JR: There are people who say they thrive on raw

foods, and that may be true, but there are many

others who don't. I believe in experimentation

and adventure. People grow through trying things

and seeing how their bodies respond.

 

However, a pure raw foods diet doesn't work well

for children. There aren't enough calories in raw

foods alone (except under tremendously unusual

circumstances) to provide a child's nutritional

needs. As a rule, kids whose parents feed them a

raw foods diet fail to thrive, although the

parents mean well. I respect their high ideals

and bravery to differ from the cultural norm,

yet the results for their kids have not been

good. What is good for adults is not always the

same for children.

 

taken from-

http://www.foodrevolution.org/commonground.htm

***********************************

[Guest guest]

Looks highly subjective to me. I guess John Robbins

knows little or nothing about raw food diets. That

he is a nice chap is clear.

 

PG

 

 

dharma_boost <dhrumil

[dhrumil]

Tuesday, January 21, 2003 10:59 PM

rawfood

[Raw Food] John Robbins comments on Raw Foods

 

 

I love John Robbins. He is a great guy.

I had the opportunity to meet him at a Jain

convention in Chicago a few years ago.

 

Here is an interview he recently had with

the zine Common Ground. They asked him about

diets and here is a particular excerpt that

mentions raw foods.

 

Anyone have any comments on what he has to say

regarding calories?

 

***********************************

CG: What do you think of a pure raw foods diet?

 

JR: There are people who say they thrive on raw

foods, and that may be true, but there are many

others who don't. I believe in experimentation

and adventure. People grow through trying things

and seeing how their bodies respond.

 

However, a pure raw foods diet doesn't work well

for children. There aren't enough calories in raw

foods alone (except under tremendously unusual

circumstances) to provide a child's nutritional

needs. As a rule, kids whose parents feed them a

raw foods diet fail to thrive, although the

parents mean well. I respect their high ideals

and bravery to differ from the cultural norm,

yet the results for their kids have not been

good. What is good for adults is not always the

same for children.

 

taken from-

http://www.foodrevolution.org/commonground.htm

***********************************

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

 

dharma_boost <dhrumil

[dhrumil]

Tuesday, January 21, 2003 10:59 PM

rawfood

[Raw Food] John Robbins comments on Raw Foods

=================

Hi Druhmil,

 

How's the weather in Delaware these days? We

met in NYC at a David Wolfe workshop.

 

=================

 

I love John Robbins. He is a great guy.

I had the opportunity to meet him at a Jain

convention in Chicago a few years ago.

 

Here is an interview he recently had with

the zine Common Ground. They asked him about

diets and here is a particular excerpt that

mentions raw foods.

 

Anyone have any comments on what he has to say

regarding calories?

 

***********************************

CG: What do you think of a pure raw foods diet?

 

JR: There are people who say they thrive on raw

foods, and that may be true, but there are many

others who don't.

==================

Oh really, who are these people that don't thrive on a raw

diet? I didn't thrive on a raw diet and that was precisely

because I wasn't doing it right. I've seen hundreds of

people thrive on a raw diet.

 

It depends on who you hang out with. Unfortunately people

like John Robbins obviously haven't spent too much time with

successful raw foodists.

 

Most people need the mentoring of others who have

successfully done the raw diet. Until I did that I had no

chance at being successful at a 100% raw food diet.

 

I had way too much misinformation in my head. Including

from certain raw food books, and articles by former raw

foodists who said the raw food diet wasn't necessarily the

best or doable by most people.

===============

 

 

I believe in experimentation

and adventure. People grow through trying things

and seeing how their bodies respond.

===============

It seems to me his philosophy isn't letting him advance to

a raw food diet. It just makes common sense to me that

cooking a food destroys it. It certainly makes many changes

in the chemical bonds of the food. We have seen numerous

recent studies proving that the higher the temperature you

cook, the more carcinogens in the food.

 

It's just common sense to me that we should eat like the

other 3 trillion life forms on this planet by eating only

raw foods. Why is it that animals in the wild don't get the

diseases of mankind? I'd suspect much of it has to do with

their diet and lifestyle. We have managed to go beyond our

instincts and in the process exceedingly poor health is the

result.

 

I also don't believe we have evolved to eat cooked foods.

We have adapted but our ideal food will be raw foods. This

is true now and a million years from now as long as humans

exist in the same form. You may want to read chapter 9

called Origins in David Wolfe's Sunfood Diet Success System

book. I think there is a very good argument in that chapter

against the feasibility of the theory of evolution.

==================

 

However, a pure raw foods diet doesn't work well

for children. There aren't enough calories in raw

foods alone (except under tremendously unusual

circumstances) to provide a child's nutritional

needs.

==================

This is pure nonsense. This quote alone shows that he knows

virtually nothing about the raw food diet. Just because he's

an expert on the vegetarian diet, he's certainly not an

expert on raw foods.

 

I just had over 1,200 calories for a big breakfast this

morning on fruit only. I had a big workout and felt quite hungry. Now

I'm completely satisfied.

 

Dr. Douglas Graham trains professional and Olympic athletes

on a 100% raw food diet and they need to eat lots of

calories to be able to fuel their incredible physiques an

workouts. I read an article where Ronnie Grandison said his

record for most bananas eaten in a day was about 52. That's

over 5,200 calories right there.

 

Also younger children don't need to eat as much as adults.

Now if you start adding some raw fatty foods to your diet,

you can easily pack on the calories. Eat three avocados and

you have an extra 900 calories. I don't personally recommend

eating more than 20% of your calories from fat. But fats are the highest

calorie per bite in the raw food regimen.

 

If you only ate raw vegetables then it might be impossible

to get enough calories from the diet. But we still have the

sugary foods like fruit and fatty the fatty foods. Please

note that fruits like avocado and durian can be fatty as well.

===============

 

 

As a rule, kids whose parents feed them a

raw foods diet fail to thrive, although the

parents mean well.

=========================

Another bunch of hogwash. I've met several raw food kids

and they really thrived on the raw diet. One big benefit

for these kids is that they don't get acne. They don't

get the usual childhood diseases either.

 

Just look at the

Boutenko kids who had illnesses they overcame like juvenile

diabetes (supposedly incurable) and asthma. Now they are 16

and 17 years old and going into their junior years in

college. They are brilliant, well balanced and beautiful

spiritual beings. My friend spent a whole day with them.

They slept only a few hours and went to several museums and

an opera and didn't eat anything because they intuitively

felt they needed to fast. My friend teaches children and

he was amazed at their demeanor. They've even published

their first book, " Eating Without Heating. " I'd say that

they are definitely thriving on the raw diet.

 

There are even success stories of children being raised

from birth on raw foods. Any mother breastfeeding their

child is giving them a raw food diet. So what is so strange

about that?

==================

 

I respect their high ideals

and bravery to differ from the cultural norm,

yet the results for their kids have not been

good. What is good for adults is not always the

same for children.

====================

Again I question his philosophy. Why are we the only

species on the planet that our children can't survive on raw

foods? It's because the scientists would have you believe

that we can't get enough of the nutrients unless we get them

from animal foods or unless we cook our foods.

 

There are new findings every day on nutrition. The fact of

the matter is that I have met people who have thrived on the

raw food diet for 40, 30, 25 and 20 years eating only

vegetarian/vegan raw foods. They are usually quite athletic

and young looking for their age.

 

The Vegetarian diet is better than a modern meat eating

diet, but it doesn't even come close to being as beneficial

as a raw food diet. Personally, when I was on a vegetarian

diet I didn't notice any improvement in my health. It

actually got slightly worse. But I wasn't eating the best

vegetarian diet either. One can eat plenty of junk food like

French fries and still consider it vegetarian.

 

My first day on a raw diet I healed my 6.5 years of

depression. So I knew I was on to something. I had immediate

benefits. However, I wasn't able to thrive on a 100% raw food diet for

over five years. I made many attempts but my

knowledge was incomplete.

 

One would think it would be easy to do. But we have to undo

the damage we have done from years of cooked food eating.

Also we have to deal with the incredible misinformation we

have on the raw diet. If we trusted John Robbins on this

then we wouldn't have a chance at being successful on the

100% raw food diet.

 

To Your Radiant Health, Roger Haeske

 

P.S. Get a Free 6 Step Technique to Transition to a Raw

Diet, go to http://www.superbeingdiet.com/awesomediet.htm

 

 

taken from-

http://www.foodrevolution.org/commonground.htm

***********************************

[Guest guest]

" Roger Haeske " <roger@s...> wrote:

> Oh really, who are these people that don't thrive on a raw

> diet? I didn't thrive on a raw diet and that was precisely

> because I wasn't doing it right. I've seen hundreds of

> people thrive on a raw diet.

 

Roger, could you give some examples of things you weren't doing right

when you first started with the raw diet? That would be really useful

for us beginners.

 

> It's just common sense to me that we should eat like the

> other 3 trillion life forms on this planet by eating only

> raw foods. Why is it that animals in the wild don't get the

> diseases of mankind?

 

Good point. Actually, people are not only making themselves sick with

their cooked food, but the domesticated animals as well. There are

very few healthy dogs and cats around these days. Lots of cancer,

diabetes, rash, thyroid problems etc - because they are fed cooked,

processed foods (like kibble). Cattle are fed tons of antibiotics to

keep them alive until they are ready to be butchered.

 

> I also don't believe we have evolved to eat cooked foods.

> We have adapted but our ideal food will be raw foods.

 

I agree. How would the human kind have been so succesful in filling

the earth? I bet if homo sapiens had discovered cooked foods first

thing, there would be a lot less of us today - maybe none.

 

> I read an article where Ronnie Grandison said his

> record for most bananas eaten in a day was about 52.

 

Poor Ronnie Grandison and the rest of us banana-lovers are going to

face rough times. I just heard really shocking news the other week:

the banana is going extinct! There is some kind of fungus disease

that is destroying the banana plants, and since bananas are hybrids

and don't produce any seeds themselves, there is very little chance

of survival for the banana. Boohoo!

 

Nanna