Diet Answers for Suzanne

[Guest guest]

Hi Suzanne,

 

Here's some information on my diet.

 

Each of my days varies, and I don't pay too much

mental attention to my eating habits, though I

used to. Nonetheless:

 

Each day I eat about 5-6 pounds of fruit, vegetables,

and nuts. I don't eat veges and nuts every day, it

varies.

 

Throughout an average week, I eat about 35-40 pounds

of fruit and vegetables and 1-1.5 pound of nuts.

 

Fruits are of all types and as much wild berries/fruit

fresh off bush/tree as I can get, vegetables are

mainly cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, celery,

lettuces, and mushrooms, nuts are pecans, almonds,

cashews, etc. Very infrequently sunflower seeds.

 

I sometimes eat young coconuts, when I can get them

fresh. I love them, especially blended with a bit of

vanilla bean. I eat two or three as a meal, which will

last 4 to 8 hours. Sometimes I eat them regularly, but

then I do not blend them very often. I could eat a

couple a day, I think.

 

I eat one type of food at a meal. For example, 8 oranges,

or 1 head of lettuce (all mild types), or two cucumbers,

or 6-8 oz nuts, etc. The next meal I eat is about 4 hours

later. I eat 2 to 3 meals a day, with the odd bite here

and there. Somedays I eat 1 meal, somedays 4. My first

meal is around noon, one at 4pm, one at 8pm. My first

meal is rarely before 10 am, and is often after 2 pm if

I'm busy. I like to not eat too late, and I'm still

working on my late-eating bad habit.

 

I sometimes juice my lettuces, celery, and cucumbers,

never together. I drink 2 cups, plus the pulp. I

often have the juice at around 10am to noon, before I

eat anything else. I never juice fruit. I often

blend the nuts into a butter.

 

I rarely eat two different foods at a meal. I eat til

I sense I am full. I rarely drink water, and when I do

its on a long hot hike (creek water). The last time

I drank water is at least a month ago. Water appeals

very little to me, for I eat water rich foods.

 

I love ripe figs/persimmons ripe off the tree and

fresh/ripe blueberries fresh off the bush. They have

often provided the bulk of my diet for many days on

end. The fruit I eat varies throughout the year. For

a month I'll desire oranges, then apples, then cherries,

then figs, then blueberries, etc. I'll eat greens

regularly for a week, then not touch them for a month.

Sometimes I don't eat celery for a half year. Then I

eat it every day for a while. I don't plan anything,

I just eat what I feel like eating, and what is avail-

able/ripe/fresh/tasty/looks good. I love summer because

I can eat lots of fruit off the trees and bushes. I eat

about 60 types of fruit/veges/nuts throughout the year.

I prefer tropical fruit, but I have many temperate

favourites, like blueberries and cherries.

 

I'm not a big eater. Many days I'll only eat 3-4 pounds

of food. Somedays I don't eat, though not that often.

On days where I'm regularly very active, I will eat up

to 7 pounds of fruit/veges.

 

I used to be an extreme overeater, 4-6 thousand

calories/day when a cookie. My greatest struggle in

going raw was overcoming that terribly unhealthy habit.

 

I have simple one/two fruit smoothies a few times a

year. I never mix fruits and vegetables and nuts. I

rarely eat frozen foods,and only as a " treat " . Eg, a

pound of frozen blueberries or cherries. In the

beginning I craved frozen banana icecream, now I have

it maybe twice a year. I have dates a few times a

week, about 5-10 at a time, soft and as fresh as I

can get them.

 

I eat no dried fruit or dried vegetables. All nuts

are as raw/fresh as I can get them. I eat no

cruciferous or starchy vegetables, since they do

not appeal (carrots, potatotes, broccoli, kale, other

roots, etc). I take no supplements/superfoods/etc

and never have. I eat no grain products. I rarely

eat legumes, usually only peas/beans fresh from the

garden as sit there eating them. The last time I

had legumes was a year ago, then a year before that.

I've indulged a bit at potlucks in the past, but I

now never eat any odd combinations or prepared foods.

Maybe a small sampling, but nothing significant.

 

I've written a lot here, but my diet is very simple.

I love eating when I'm hungry, and I love not eating

when I'm not hungry. Though I greatly enjoy eating,

I am not addicted to it, I can easily go a day or

more without eating with no discomfort.

 

I find my overall diet matches an average fruit in the

following way:

 

Average fruit (by weight) = 87% water, 10 percent sugar,

in one group (higher percentages); and 1.5 to 2% protein,

0.5% to 1% fat, in a second group (lower percentages).

 

So, for a fruit, water/sugar = 97%; fat/protein = 3%,

by weight.

 

Weekly diet = 25 pounds fruit, 10 pounds vegetables,

1.5 pounds nuts/seeds approx.

 

Fruit/vege (hi water/sugar) = 35 lb = 97% of my diet.

Nut/seed (concent'd fat/protein) = 1.5 lb = 3% of my diet.

 

My weekly diet is water/sugar = 97%: fat/protein = 3%.

 

Though there are fluctuations in my diet, in a week and

throughout the year it averages out to the nutrient

content of an average fruit.

 

The human being is a frugivore, a species

evolved to eat mostly fruit, about 70 percent of

diet, by weight. My diet matches that fairly closely.

 

The human can digest raw animal flesh/bugs in small

quantities. If these foods are made a part of the

nuts/seeds category (a part of the 1.5 pounds), and

not overeaten, the human will still do very well.

 

Though I do not eat meat, I'm not against meat eating.

Humans are a frugivore, and I don't know of any

non-human frugivorous primates/monkeys that don't eat

meat/insects/grubs to some degree, usually a smaller

degree (by weight). This does not say that humans

should eat meat, since we are only distantly related

to the large apes. We share very similar digestive

systems, with some noteable differences.

 

I have experimented with some raw meat eating in the

past, to see what effect it would have on me. As long

as I didn't overeat it (a few raw oz at a time), I

experienced no problems. If I was living in the wild,

I'd be very unmotivated to eat flesh, since I'd have

to catch and kill the animals myself (very difficult

compared to picking fruit/eating greens) and the sight/

smell/texture are unappealing. Eating fish raw, fresh

from the lake is not pleasant, unless one is very hungry.

 

In analyzing by weight the nutrient content of my foods,

as I did above, I keep it very simple. There are various

ways to evaluate a diet, including counting calories

and measuring volume. Weight is very basic, natural,

and simple. The method above allows me to eat according

to my full senses, and it all works out. My nutritional

analysis merely reveals consistencies in my diet, and I

do not use it to force myself to follow a certain diet.

 

Of course, I'm a long time raw fooder. It took over

10 years to get near what I do now. A new raw fooder

is not able to adopt all good habits right away.

A person new to raw food will experience all kinds

of challenges as they face their addiction to

cooked foods.

 

Very few succeed out of the many that try, since

food addiction is the hardest addiction for the

civilized human to overcome. Food is always needed,

unlike drugs, and our whole lives, from birth,

have been conditioned around cooked and inappropriate

foods. Our entire physical, mental, and emotional

states have been corrupted, and it's not easy to

overcome that. It can't be done in a mere five

years, even as a person can greatly improve their

health in that time.

 

Trying too hard to be perfect often leads to worse

problems than trying to improve slowly. Trying

to improve slowly often results in addictions never

being resolved. Even as there are better ways, there

are no perfect ways, and no one way for everyone.

It's try healthier habits, persevere, avoid

poisons, always be willing to improve/be open, even

later on, use successful rawfooders as inspiration,

and enjoy/appreciate the improvements that come.

 

Your diet sounds very complicated compared to mine,

of course. There are many things that you can do to

make your transition a bit easier. It will not

always be easy, but the rewards will come as new

healthy habits take hold. If/when you fail, pick

yourself up, and start moving forward again.

The body is provident and health is re-built

slowly.

 

The direction is more important than the speed,

during transition. Be where you are, making

improvements as you are able. Often, adopting

a less harmful bad habit to replace a worse habit

is helpful. Examples are eating miscombined

recipes, overeating a bit, indulging here and there,

using " treats " , blending, juicing, etc. Ultimately

all unhealthy habits need to be dropped. Often,

some bad habits can be dropped quickly, while

others persist longer. Hang around inspiring

people. Train yourself to think positively

and constructively and be honest with yourself.

 

I hope that helped, Robert

[Guest guest]

Oh, Robert I love you!!!! You described the way I have been eating these past

few weeks. Except for the nuts and cocos, I've had to forego them to get past

my over eating.

 

But what struck me most was, some days you don't eat until 2. I've noticed if I

exercise in the morning, even a walk with the dog, I'm not hungry for a very

long time and it is a rather pleasant feeling. People have been harping on me

and while I've tried to tune them out, I do have those niggling little voices in

the back of my head still.

 

Yesterday I cleaned off one whole pea bush for lunch. Dinner I had about 2 -3#

of blueberries off the bush.

 

And to hear that yes, in fact, you do eat nuts every so often is heartening as

well. And to not want to eat greens for some time is good news for me. Celery

does the same thing to me, I can go for a long while not wanting it, but when I

do that's all I want to eat for a few days.

 

Right now it's usually melon in the morning and I'm talking the entire melon or

two. Drives my mother in law crazy that I want to eat two entire melons. " A

slice is sufficient " as she proceeds to eat eggs and bacon after! Oh well.

 

Then I switch to blueberries for the rest of the day.

 

Thank you again for calming the static in my mind Robert.

 

Happy Hump Day - Shari

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi Shari,

Hearty congrats on your simple eating. I know how tough it is to stop eating

nuts and complex combinations. I ate them everyday for 3 years after going raw,

and toward the end of that period was experiencing some annoying symptoms. I

knew it was time to give up the fat and start eating more simply, so I stopped

all nuts, avocados, durian and even coconuts for 6 months and ate only fruits

and tender greens (only lettuce and celery, infrequently). I felt so much

better. Interestingly, when winter arrived that year and I wanted fat (nuts

mostly) again, I was able to get away with eating it daily or 3-4 times a week

for 6 weeks or so before I started feeling sluggish again. I cut back to a

couple times a week (3-5 ounces at a sitting) but it was still too much and had

to wean myself completely off fats again in the Spring. It seems like

nut-eating is a difficult thing to get a handle on unless a person has healthy

digestion, eats very small amounts and has conquered the overeating habit. I do

still want fats in the winter but the trend so far is that I'm eating less of

them every year. Eventually I expect I'll get to the point where Robert is and

I'll be able to eat a handful of nuts every couple weeks or so and not have to

struggle to stay away from them the rest of the time. That's my goal, anyway.

Kind regards,

Nora

 

 

 

 

-

SV

RawSeattle

Wednesday, July 26, 2006 7:05 AM

Re: [RawSeattle] Diet Answers for Suzanne

 

 

Oh, Robert I love you!!!! You described the way I have been eating these past

few weeks. Except for the nuts and cocos, I've had to forego them to get past my

over eating.

 

But what struck me most was, some days you don't eat until 2. I've noticed if

I exercise in the morning, even a walk with the dog, I'm not hungry for a very

long time and it is a rather pleasant feeling. People have been harping on me

and while I've tried to tune them out, I do have those niggling little voices in

the back of my head still.

 

Yesterday I cleaned off one whole pea bush for lunch. Dinner I had about 2 -3#

of blueberries off the bush.

 

And to hear that yes, in fact, you do eat nuts every so often is heartening as

well. And to not want to eat greens for some time is good news for me. Celery

does the same thing to me, I can go for a long while not wanting it, but when I

do that's all I want to eat for a few days.

 

Right now it's usually melon in the morning and I'm talking the entire melon

or two. Drives my mother in law crazy that I want to eat two entire melons. " A

slice is sufficient " as she proceeds to eat eggs and bacon after! Oh well.

 

Then I switch to blueberries for the rest of the day.

 

Thank you again for calming the static in my mind Robert.

 

Happy Hump Day - Shari

 

[Guest guest]

Robert,

Thanks for another brilliant and insightful post. It is not very often that we

are treated to such detailed information about a successful raw fooder's diet.

Please, keep posting.

Kindly,

Nora

www.RawSchool.com

 

 

 

-

Robert Rust

RawSeattle

Wednesday, July 26, 2006 4:13 AM

[RawSeattle] Diet Answers for Suzanne

 

 

Hi Suzanne,

 

Here's some information on my diet.

 

Each of my days varies, and I don't pay too much

mental attention to my eating habits, though I

used to. Nonetheless:

 

Each day I eat about 5-6 pounds of fruit, vegetables,

and nuts. I don't eat veges and nuts every day, it

varies.

 

Throughout an average week, I eat about 35-40 pounds

of fruit and vegetables and 1-1.5 pound of nuts.

 

Fruits are of all types and as much wild berries/fruit

fresh off bush/tree as I can get, vegetables are

mainly cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, celery,

lettuces, and mushrooms, nuts are pecans, almonds,

cashews, etc. Very infrequently sunflower seeds.

 

I sometimes eat young coconuts, when I can get them

fresh. I love them, especially blended with a bit of

vanilla bean. I eat two or three as a meal, which will

last 4 to 8 hours. Sometimes I eat them regularly, but

then I do not blend them very often. I could eat a

couple a day, I think.

 

I eat one type of food at a meal. For example, 8 oranges,

or 1 head of lettuce (all mild types), or two cucumbers,

or 6-8 oz nuts, etc. The next meal I eat is about 4 hours

later. I eat 2 to 3 meals a day, with the odd bite here

and there. Somedays I eat 1 meal, somedays 4. My first

meal is around noon, one at 4pm, one at 8pm. My first

meal is rarely before 10 am, and is often after 2 pm if

I'm busy. I like to not eat too late, and I'm still

working on my late-eating bad habit.

 

I sometimes juice my lettuces, celery, and cucumbers,

never together. I drink 2 cups, plus the pulp. I

often have the juice at around 10am to noon, before I

eat anything else. I never juice fruit. I often

blend the nuts into a butter.

 

I rarely eat two different foods at a meal. I eat til

I sense I am full. I rarely drink water, and when I do

its on a long hot hike (creek water). The last time

I drank water is at least a month ago. Water appeals

very little to me, for I eat water rich foods.

 

I love ripe figs/persimmons ripe off the tree and

fresh/ripe blueberries fresh off the bush. They have

often provided the bulk of my diet for many days on

end. The fruit I eat varies throughout the year. For

a month I'll desire oranges, then apples, then cherries,

then figs, then blueberries, etc. I'll eat greens

regularly for a week, then not touch them for a month.

Sometimes I don't eat celery for a half year. Then I

eat it every day for a while. I don't plan anything,

I just eat what I feel like eating, and what is avail-

able/ripe/fresh/tasty/looks good. I love summer because

I can eat lots of fruit off the trees and bushes. I eat

about 60 types of fruit/veges/nuts throughout the year.

I prefer tropical fruit, but I have many temperate

favourites, like blueberries and cherries.

 

I'm not a big eater. Many days I'll only eat 3-4 pounds

of food. Somedays I don't eat, though not that often.

On days where I'm regularly very active, I will eat up

to 7 pounds of fruit/veges.

 

I used to be an extreme overeater, 4-6 thousand

calories/day when a cookie. My greatest struggle in

going raw was overcoming that terribly unhealthy habit.

 

I have simple one/two fruit smoothies a few times a

year. I never mix fruits and vegetables and nuts. I

rarely eat frozen foods,and only as a " treat " . Eg, a

pound of frozen blueberries or cherries. In the

beginning I craved frozen banana icecream, now I have

it maybe twice a year. I have dates a few times a

week, about 5-10 at a time, soft and as fresh as I

can get them.

 

I eat no dried fruit or dried vegetables. All nuts

are as raw/fresh as I can get them. I eat no

cruciferous or starchy vegetables, since they do

not appeal (carrots, potatotes, broccoli, kale, other

roots, etc). I take no supplements/superfoods/etc

and never have. I eat no grain products. I rarely

eat legumes, usually only peas/beans fresh from the

garden as sit there eating them. The last time I

had legumes was a year ago, then a year before that.

I've indulged a bit at potlucks in the past, but I

now never eat any odd combinations or prepared foods.

Maybe a small sampling, but nothing significant.

 

I've written a lot here, but my diet is very simple.

I love eating when I'm hungry, and I love not eating

when I'm not hungry. Though I greatly enjoy eating,

I am not addicted to it, I can easily go a day or

more without eating with no discomfort.

 

I find my overall diet matches an average fruit in the

following way:

 

Average fruit (by weight) = 87% water, 10 percent sugar,

in one group (higher percentages); and 1.5 to 2% protein,

0.5% to 1% fat, in a second group (lower percentages).

 

So, for a fruit, water/sugar = 97%; fat/protein = 3%,

by weight.

 

Weekly diet = 25 pounds fruit, 10 pounds vegetables,

1.5 pounds nuts/seeds approx.

 

Fruit/vege (hi water/sugar) = 35 lb = 97% of my diet.

Nut/seed (concent'd fat/protein) = 1.5 lb = 3% of my diet.

 

My weekly diet is water/sugar = 97%: fat/protein = 3%.

 

Though there are fluctuations in my diet, in a week and

throughout the year it averages out to the nutrient

content of an average fruit.

 

The human being is a frugivore, a species

evolved to eat mostly fruit, about 70 percent of

diet, by weight. My diet matches that fairly closely.

 

The human can digest raw animal flesh/bugs in small

quantities. If these foods are made a part of the

nuts/seeds category (a part of the 1.5 pounds), and

not overeaten, the human will still do very well.

 

Though I do not eat meat, I'm not against meat eating.

Humans are a frugivore, and I don't know of any

non-human frugivorous primates/monkeys that don't eat

meat/insects/grubs to some degree, usually a smaller

degree (by weight). This does not say that humans

should eat meat, since we are only distantly related

to the large apes. We share very similar digestive

systems, with some noteable differences.

 

I have experimented with some raw meat eating in the

past, to see what effect it would have on me. As long

as I didn't overeat it (a few raw oz at a time), I

experienced no problems. If I was living in the wild,

I'd be very unmotivated to eat flesh, since I'd have

to catch and kill the animals myself (very difficult

compared to picking fruit/eating greens) and the sight/

smell/texture are unappealing. Eating fish raw, fresh

from the lake is not pleasant, unless one is very hungry.

 

In analyzing by weight the nutrient content of my foods,

as I did above, I keep it very simple. There are various

ways to evaluate a diet, including counting calories

and measuring volume. Weight is very basic, natural,

and simple. The method above allows me to eat according

to my full senses, and it all works out. My nutritional

analysis merely reveals consistencies in my diet, and I

do not use it to force myself to follow a certain diet.

 

Of course, I'm a long time raw fooder. It took over

10 years to get near what I do now. A new raw fooder

is not able to adopt all good habits right away.

A person new to raw food will experience all kinds

of challenges as they face their addiction to

cooked foods.

 

Very few succeed out of the many that try, since

food addiction is the hardest addiction for the

civilized human to overcome. Food is always needed,

unlike drugs, and our whole lives, from birth,

have been conditioned around cooked and inappropriate

foods. Our entire physical, mental, and emotional

states have been corrupted, and it's not easy to

overcome that. It can't be done in a mere five

years, even as a person can greatly improve their

health in that time.

 

Trying too hard to be perfect often leads to worse

problems than trying to improve slowly. Trying

to improve slowly often results in addictions never

being resolved. Even as there are better ways, there

are no perfect ways, and no one way for everyone.

It's try healthier habits, persevere, avoid

poisons, always be willing to improve/be open, even

later on, use successful rawfooders as inspiration,

and enjoy/appreciate the improvements that come.

 

Your diet sounds very complicated compared to mine,

of course. There are many things that you can do to

make your transition a bit easier. It will not

always be easy, but the rewards will come as new

healthy habits take hold. If/when you fail, pick

yourself up, and start moving forward again.

The body is provident and health is re-built

slowly.

 

The direction is more important than the speed,

during transition. Be where you are, making

improvements as you are able. Often, adopting

a less harmful bad habit to replace a worse habit

is helpful. Examples are eating miscombined

recipes, overeating a bit, indulging here and there,

using " treats " , blending, juicing, etc. Ultimately

all unhealthy habits need to be dropped. Often,

some bad habits can be dropped quickly, while

others persist longer. Hang around inspiring

people. Train yourself to think positively

and constructively and be honest with yourself.

 

I hope that helped, Robert

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Thanks, Nora. So far the only thing I've missed the most is spice. Jalapenos

to be exact. One day eating tomatoes I really, really wanted something spicy

with them. Interesting to note, the toms weren't perfectly ripe, for me. Maybe

that had something to do with the craving.

 

Spent a lot of time in the water last weekend trying to avoid the food at the

family party. That worked too! It was so very warm I lived on watermelon

anyway and came away feeling much better than the other 99.9% of the people

there. The .1% who felt good was my husband who ate honeydew.

 

Off to pick blueberries - later - Shari

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi Shari,

 

Thanks for the very kind words. I too love all the

amazingly beautiful people I know from the past that

helped inspire me to eat simply and raw, they having

lighted the way for me.

 

I admire you for your sensibility and simplicity.

 

I think I forgot to mention that sometimes I also

do not eat nuts/seeds for a week or two, occasionally

longer, but then my consumption of coconuts, mushrooms,

avocados, durian, and similar higher protein foods goes

up.

 

It's a bit difficult to precisely quantify my

average fare. I don't worry about or intellectualize

my diet that much while eating. I focus on general

body senses and signals I get, while being wary

of and careful not to re-establish my former

overeating/processed-food habits with all their

withdrawal feelings/effects/symptoms that I used to

misinterpret as hunger and actual needs.

 

Nora mentioned a dropping in her nut/fat/protein

eating habits over time. I experienced the same too.

When I first went raw, it was hard not to eat 1 lb of

nuts/day, among other things. I was an incredible

gourmand. I am amazed at the difference in my

behaviour now, and that I am the person with such

improved and different habits. I truly love myself

for my changed behaviour and accomplishments.

 

Surfing Wednesday's hump to the weekend, Robert