Caron's Testament Regarding ... The problem with high-fat raw diets

[Guest guest]

Hi Caron,

 

I wish to congratulate you ... you have not just learned, but genuinely

internalized and made part of you, a vast array of paradigm shifts and a

tremendous amount of information in a rather brief time. Although one could

pick out a few technical corrections here and there, overall what you say

here captures the spirit of self-guided, self-sustained health creation to

an uncommon degree. And the corresponding transformation you are making in

your life and that of your son seems truly remarkable and very

well-grounded.

 

Bravo!

Elchanan

_____

 

rawfood [rawfood ] On Behalf Of

Caron

Friday, July 06, 2007 7:36 PM

rawfood

Re: [Raw Food] Erica: wasRe: The problem with high raw fat diets?

In your own words....

 

 

A product of my recent teaching ... Enjoy! (Long, though)

 

_____

 

rawfood [rawfood ] On Behalf Of

Caron

Friday, July 06, 2007 7:36 PM

rawfood

Re: [Raw Food] Erica: wasRe: The problem with high raw fat diets?

In your own words....

 

 

- Joe Postma Forget about fat/nuts/meat/

etc. I just want to know if fruit can possibly have that effect. I used to

think ALL fruit was low glycemic, but lots of people are telling me that

diabetics are told to avoid fruit for a very obvious reason. So I would

appreciate your take on it.

 

I was told by the diabetic counselour/dietitian, to avoid fruits, to eat

more bread and grains, and more meat. All of which made me very sick. You

can't have it both ways - either you're following medical advice, or you're

eating raw (INCLUDING fruits). I've read, from a few raw foodists, not just

the one who shall remain unnamed, that going halfway is worse than not at

all, for the very simple reason that fats in your diet, cooked or otherwise,

however small the amounts, WILL impair your body's ability to process the

sugars.

 

As far as I can see, the solution give is very simple - if you will eat fats

and/or cooked, do it at night, as your last meal, so that your body has all

night to process those foods. Because of the blood sugar issues in this

family, and yes, I've been diagnosed with insulin resistance and diabeties,

we eat fruit all day, from the first meal of the day, through lunch, and all

snacks, then the fat meal (an avocado for my son) is the last meal before

bed. I continue to eat fruits only, as I have plenty of fat stored to meet

any needs for a while. This satiates both of us, and no, we're not eating

all day (though he likes to bounce around the loungeroom with a banana in

hand). I sit down to a plate of fruit in the morning, and though I'm not

full, I don't feel the need to eat again for at least 3 hours, which brings

me to either a snack, or lunch. This continues till about 8pm, though it's

getting earlier, and shortly after that I feel the need to go to bed and

sleep (still training myself to listen to that, I've been going to bed

between midnight and 4am for many years).

 

I've looked at NutriDiary (www.nutridiary.com <http://www.nutridiary.com/>

), and discovered some very interesting things about fruits. My plate of

fruit that I have for breakfast has 3% fat (yes, fruits contain some fat, I

never " knew " that, though it makes perfect sense when I think about it), 4%

protein, 10% of my " recommended daily intake " of iron, as well as the other

" major " vitamins that we're said to need. That's just breakfast. Multiply

that by 5, the average number of meals I eat a day, and I'm doing pretty

well, about 100g of protein (from memory, which is a bit vague), and 50% of

the recommended intake of iron, which is about perfect, given that the iron

is in a form that the body can use, rather than a supplement, or cooked

meat. I say this because breastmilk is supposed to be " low in iron " , yet

it's very rare to find a fully breastfed infant who is anemic, because the

iron in breastmilk is in a form that can be directly absorbed into the body.

That was bananas I looked at on nutridiary, it's probable that other fruits

have different ratios of fats and proteins, and different amounts of

vitamins. Oranges, I recall, are particularly high in protein.

 

It's worth taking the time to sit down and run some numbers through

nutridiary, and see what's actually in what you're eating. Not just one

banana, I eat about 3-6 at a time (following the example of my boy, who

stops grazing if he eats 3 at a time), even though the ratios stay the same,

the amounts are more realistic according to what we need.

 

Eating this way, I'm not hungry, yet don't have that pain in my belly that

used to mean I was full after a meal. I don't have the insane spikes of

high and low blood sugar, though I did get shaky yesterday when I went too

long without eating, it was soon fixed by a plate of fruit. I don't get

that buzzy feeling in my head like after a high sugar meal (fruit is NOT

chocolate cake), and I'm losing weight, which is literally physically

impossible for someone with insulin resistance, or typeII diabeties. My

activity levels aren't particularly high at this stage, though I often feel

as though I WANT or NEED to move around more, whereas before, I avoided

movement at all, because it hurt too much. Now I can do a little without

ill effects, it's great.

 

One last thing, on the distinction between fruit sugar and processed sugars

(which are also in bread). Sugars are made up of carbon chains, in which

each carbon is attached to a water molecule (2 hydrogen atoms and an oxygen

atom), so each breakdown of that chain takes an oxygen molecule (2 oxygen

atoms) and releases a water molecule, and a carbon dioxide molecule, and

energy from the broken bonds. Processed sugars are glucose, which is a

6-carbon ring, and the simplest sugar for our body to break down for fuel.

 

Fruit sugars, on the other hand, are fructose, which one of the very

simplest starches, in that it is 2 simple sugars bonded together, sucrose (a

 

5-carbon chain), and glucose (the 6-carbon chain) (more complex starches, as

found in potatoes, are many many glucose joined together in a particular

sequence, ie joining on a particular carbon in the chain - either 5 or 6, I

can't remember; cellulose is fibre, which is basically a starch joined the

other way, and gives plant cells their structure). The metabolism of these

sugars differs, meaning that the glucose in the fruit sugars will be used as

fuel first, giving you that immediate burst of energy, leaving the sucrose

as a backup, extending the length of time the fuel from the fruit is

available. I realise this is a lot of chemistry, is may be a bit difficult

to understand if you don't know the basics of chemistry (I left out the

biochemistry, as it's far more complex), but hopefully it will help you

understand the whole situation a bit better.

 

Caron