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"6 Diet Trends You Should Never Try"

teacupteacup Raw Newbie

I saw a link to this article as I was checking my e-mail this morning. Low and behold, what is number one?

"Raw food diet

Devotees of the raw food diet aim to get the majority of their calories from unprocessed and uncooked foods. Rawists believe that cooking foods above 116

Comments

  • gratefultobegratefultobe Raw Newbie

    ha - part time vegan. Isnt that what all SAD eaters are?

    Boo :P

  • While this arguement has been played out in extreme detail in other places, I would give the author some credit if there was a list of exactly what phytonutrients in exactly what foods s/he is referring to: the list is quite small (lycopene in a tomato, for example).

    And, besides, she is a regisered dietitian, meaning she sees mostly diabetic patientents who have had diets that are killing them and has probably never come across a healthy, vitality-emiting raw vegan becuase they don't get sick and need dietitians!

    And yes, Ithe whole 'is raw food *really* better than cooking it ' thing has me absolutely worn out to the point I just roll my eyes and realize that if they actually tried the diet for a month they would be singing a different tune, but what I was more struck by the 'part time vegan' thing: shame on you, Julie! You are a 'professional' touting the dangers of a particular diet but are 'name dropping' a diet you don't adhere to? There are shades of grey between vegan and vegetarian, and they have names! None of which include 'part time.'

    Clearly, the raw food movement challanges what most dietitians know, so they are going to be super harsh, judgemental, and imediately dismissive like this woman was. I'm gonna shrug my shoulders, say 'too bad,' and keep living by example, being 'full time' raw.

  • ZemphiraZemphira Raw Newbie

    Well said Court =]

  • Kudos Court.

    Part-time vegan *groan* :P ...either vegetarian or omnivore. Grow some ovaries and call yourself what you are; don't try to sneak in under cover of some pseudo-term. Silly silly dietician. Sounds like she's been listening to too much politician-speak lately.

  • 'Grow some ovaries'. Ha ha. I love it, Aspire.

    Well said Court.

  • wichtenwichten Raw Newbie

    that woman is a moron. she's obviously never done a master cleanse either. Fasting isn't really about weight loss- its about toxin removal. even if you gain the weight back, you'll still reap tons of rewards from fasting.

    I've met some 'part-time vegans' before. They want a pat on the back for a day where they were 'vegan all day' but then the next day they have a cheeseburger. Its a start- but unless you're working to make the transition, its nothing to brag about.

  • SuasoriaSuasoria Raw Newbie

    "Part time vegan?" Is that like being "part time pregnant?"

    But my favorite is "I'm an expert on raw foods because I live in Marin, and there's a raw restaurant here." And someone who lives near an observatory is an astronomer, and someone who lives next to the mall is a fashion designer.

    Yeah, it's that laughable.

  • I think she might just be threatened by those of us who have found a diet that gives us life and energy and radiance and is jealous we found it before she did. And the fact that she called it a "fad" and compared it to the cabbage soup diet?! Seriously!? She obviously hasn't done her research and even talked to any raw foodists who could have informed her otherwise.

  • This is really frustrating. Veganism is a lifestyle, not a diet. You can't do it part time. Vegan all day? So they eliminated ALL of their animal products for that day.

    I know raw isn't as complicated as she's making it out to be, but it drives me up the wall that people dismiss things b/c they might be difficult or take any level of commitment. That seemed to be the primary argument people gave me when I switched to veganism years ago - that it's harder than not being vegan. But it's important to me; it's valuable and I pay for that in my time.

    OK, these lifestyles take more thought and effort than hitting the drive through, but no one has yet to hold me down and force me to make cheeze.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    I've read things like this before, too. I used to get mad, but it doesn't really bother me now. It may be that she feels very healthy the way she eats now & sees no reason for change. As far as whether raw is a "good" way of life or not, some of her main arguments seemed to be that she didn't like the taste or expense of the prepared raw foods she tried, and that making pine-nut cheese takes too much time. Those arguments have little or nothing to do with what is healthy - unless it's causing a higher stress level because you think you have to make complicated recipes all the time or eat only what is prepared for you & sold at a store, or if you fall into depression because you think you can't eat anything that tastes good. :D There are certain foods that should not be eaten raw because they are toxic, but "the raw diet" is not centered around those things. The point about nutrients bing released when cerain foods are cooked is valid, but the nutrients can also be released by juicing, or by slicing & then marinating the veggies before eating them. Lycopene is always used as a big argument against eating raw, but a one-inch slice of watermelon has as much lycopene as four tomatoes, and you don't have to cook the watermelon to get the lycopene out of it. ;)

  • beanybeeganbeanybeegan Raw Newbie

    life begets life.

    When you get to be a senior citizen, then you can think back as to the question of part time vegan or raw vegan. I know what you will say.

  • Looking on the bright side...

    Seems like a lot of free advertizing for the raw diet, to me... I mean, everyone who opened up their hotmail that morning had the chance to click and read about the raw diet, and hear NO substantive argument against it, only advice like, here's a good way of eating, but if you're a working person you're too lazy (or stupid) to figure out how to make this work for you.

    If I didn't know about raw, I would have taken that as a challenge, like "I'll be the judge of that" and looked into it further. I would totally not be surprised if someone out there goes raw as a result of that article, and checking things out from curiosity!

  • mewmewmintmewmewmint Raw Newbie

    this message brought to you by the kelloggs corporation...

  • Like the comments Suasoria, that made me laugh.....we aren't far from the meteorological office here, so that makes me an experienced weatherperson according to our dietician friend (lol).

    On a serious note, I work with dieticians in hospital and they are all well meaning by bringing high calorie, vitamin enriched drinks in for cancer patients, absolutely needed, but based on absolute crap with milk/whey proteins and all that other stuff. They would have been told that the China Study is all total nonsense and believed it or they wouldn't have heard of it. They wouldn't know a proper juice if it hit them in the face at 90 miles an hour. I certainly wouldn't be guided by anything that they would try to advise me on because they have ultimately been funded by big pharma as well in my honest opinion.

  • I live right by Fermilab...that means I'm a Nuclear Physicist! Wow, good to know!

    That whole lycopene being more available in cooked tomato products really annoys me....yes, that was true in the study people are citing, but what they DON'T mention is the fact that lycopene is the most bioavaiable of all in raw watermelon.

    In the study, the patients ate raw watermelon, raw tomatoes, and tomato sauce....but the funny thing is, they weren't just eating tomato sauce. They were eating pizza, specifically. Researchers focused on the pizza. They said the fat in the cheese and meats on the pizza really helped the patients assimilate the lycopene from the cooked tomatoes! And a tomato sauce media field day began.

    I guess they didn't want to put the spotlight on the watermelon because it's not as profitable as pizza and spaghetti, and more than that, making an argument for pizza as a health food is more interesting to the public.

    I, myself, will stick with watermelon, please!

  • edamame3: "They said the fat in the cheese and meats on the pizza really helped the patients assimilate the lycopene from cooked tomatoes!"

    Well probably, fat is really important when it comes to assimilating nutrients. When people have fatty dressings on their salad, or say an avocado in it, they absorb far more nutrients than if the salad has a no or low fat dressing.

    "For the salsa study, 11 test subjects were first given a meal of fat-free salsa and some bread. Another day, the same meal was offered, but this time avocado was added to the salsa, boosting the fat content of the meal to about 37% of calories. In checking blood levels of the test subjects, researchers found that the men and women absorbed an average of 4.4 times as much lycopene and 2.6 times as much beta carotene when the avocado was added to the food.

    With the salad test, the impact of adding avocado was even greater. The first salad included romaine lettuce, baby spinach, shredded carrots and a no-fat dressing, resulting in a fat content of about 2%. After avocado was added, the fat content jumped to 42%. When the salad was consumed with the avocado, the 11 test subjects absorbed seven times the lutein and nearly 18 times the beta carotene. Lutein is a carotenoid found in many green vegetables and is linked with improved eye and heart health.

    Researchers noted that a small portion of the increased carotenoid levels in the blood of test subjects could be attributed to the compounds present in the avocado. However the vast majority of the increase was attributed to better overall absorption once fat was present.

    Study researchers say they were not only surprised by how much more absorption occurred with the avocado added to the meal, but they were taken aback at how little the body absorbed when no fats were present.

    An earlier study done in 2004 by Ohio State University researchers showed a similar effect comparing salads consumed with no-fat, low-fat and full-fat salad dressings. When the seven test subjects consumed salads with no-fat dressing, the absorption of carotenoids was negligible. When a reduced-fat dressing was used, the added fat led to a higher absorption of alpha and beta carotene and lycopene. But there was substantially more absorption of the healthful compounds when full-fat dressing was used."

    http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB115499279665729249-lMyQjAxMDE2NTE0MjkxOTIyWj.html

  • obviously you need fat to metabolize fat soluble vitamins, and other nutrients like lycopene. That was not my point.

    In fact, that's my main problem with the 80-10-10 people; they eat very low levels of dietary fat and thus are missing out on a wealth of nutrients in all the food they eat simply because the fat is not there to aide in the metabolic processing.

    However, I do beleive that all of the lycopene that was assimilated by the fat in the cheese on the cheese pizza probably went to aiding antioxidants in calming all of the free radicals produced by the digestion of such a food.

    My vote's still cast for watermelon.

  • A new raw foodist, new member to 'Gone Raw' and my first post....I couldn't help but to comment on the article above which, as a 'newbie', gives me the impression that this woman knows absolutely nothing about raw food. We all know don't we, that anything you go to a restaurant for is far more expensive than making yourself at home? So one can only hope intelligent people will see through her facade and don't take this article to heart.

    On a personal note, I haven't found anything to be MORE complicated than cooking SAD but I am struggling to find raw recipes that I enjoy. This problem is disheartening for me when trying to 'stick to it'.

    Not only am I spending many hours researching just to learn about raw and it's benefits but also for recipes I think I might enjoy. It's expensive to buy ingrediants and then very frustrating to discover that what I just made grosses me out...for lack of a better term...and so I make a quick green smoothie to tie me over til my next attempt.

    P.S. I don't see where the article directs anyone to a legitimate raw food website. That would have been handy and perhaps peaked ones curiousity enough for them to check it out for themselves.

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