No fat at all on raw, good or bad?

[sebzzz]

Hi,

I'm trying raw food since January 3rd and so far things are going well. I'm 20 years old and pretty healthy in my standards (not overweight at all, even some people think I might need more weight)

I haven't heard about the raw food diet since this time but I saw what Steve Pavlina (stevepavlina.com) is doing and read about it on different sources on the Internet and was inspired to do the same.

I come from a SAD diet with lots of dairy and some meat but I was considered a healthy eater (no junk food, ever). I do lots of sports, especially running, but I have problems with tight hamstrings that prevent me from running since 3 months (hoping the raw food diet could help here).

So far I'm having very good days as well as lower ones, but everything looks fine. The first two weeks were sometimes bad with sore troath and stuff but it passed.

A lot of people say that the transition should be gradual, but being an all of nothing kind of guy I decided to go a 100%. I even went for the low fat version of the diet.

I have no major cravings and so far I'm loving it. Don't know, maybe my emotions weren't so attached to food at the beginning.

Of course I read lot of things telling that I'll get deficient in this or this vitamin or nutriment, but I believe in those who tried and succeed.

However, I have a question. Being a student with no steady income, I try to cut on fancy food and since I read that lots of fatty raw food is not better than the SAD diet, I decided not to by any fatty raw food.

I had a couple avocados in the beginning but since the second week, I haven't bought a fatty fruit nor eaten any nuts or seeds.

So, the diet recommends 10% from fat, but I must get even less than that, maybe only 5% or maybe even less, I don't really know. I want to know if this is recommended or not. I read that eating no fat at all is very bad for ones body and it does damage to lots of things.

Now, someone posted on stevepavlina's forum that signs of Omega-3 deficiency are dry skin and urinating very often. Well, I have both. Very dry skin on my hand since the second week of going raw and I urinate often also, sometimes every hour.

Now, I'm used to get dry skin in winter and this could be normal or just from detox and the urine thing could come from the fact that I probably consume much more water since there is plenty in fruits and vegetables.

So, do you people think that not eating any fat is good or bad. Depending on your answers, I may introduce more avocados in my diet.

Thanks in advance. (sorry for the long post, I'm very verbose even if English is not my first spoken language)

[rawitup]

hi sebzzz. it was funny reading your post because i've gone through and have been going through the same things in the past month. i'm also a 20 year old student so i don't have that much money and don't make fancy recipes often. i started eating raw on the 1st, although i just had a week where i went off raw food, but am now back on it. i also do not eat very much fat and i have the same symptoms as you as far as dry skin and urinating often. so, if those are signs of being omega-3 deficient then that makes complete sense. i think i'll try taking some flax oil every day and see how that works out for me. it'll be great to see if that's what i'm missing from my diet and if it'll help me get rid of those annoying symptoms. it'd be fantastic to hear how things go with you and eating more avocados if that's what you end up experimenting with. good luck, welcome, and happy days!

[healthyme]

Hello, thought I'd say something. I have been about 80-90% raw since Christmas. I have lost about 6lbs and any detox symtoms have been only minimal to moderate. I grind up some flax seeds for my smoothies and I do have 1-2 avacados a week. My skin is actually better now, not so tired looking, my fine wrinkles have diminished considerably and dry around my nose. I think that has more to do with the weather though because it's been so up and down as temperatures go. But the rest of my skin I have not needed to apply any lotion to and that's a first. I usually have plenty of flaky skin on my legs and itchy all over. Our bodies need some fat to support the tissues, it's just the kind of fat you take in. As long as it's in moderation and healthier fats like flax seed and avacados and other forms you should see an improvement in your skin and urination. I think you may be detoxing but I think you are also fighting against the body's ability to heal itself by not taking in enough fats.

[Double Helix]

Hi there - You are still getting fat NATURALLY through everything you eat, even if you are just eating fruits and vegetables.

I personally don't buy into all the Omega and EFA jive, because humans have been thriving since the beginning of time on all kinds of natural diets (unsupplemented) with so much less disease than we have today.

Also animals in the wild eat with instinct and don't say "oh, I need to eat these oils and seeds to get a particular kind of fat", they just eat and they are relatively healthy and long lived (for the most part).

I think the most dangerous thing is when people *read* about this and that and think they need to go and purposely eat some kind of food, supplement, oil, etc based on fear.

Your symptoms are most likely detox and/or from years on cooked. If you haven't been raw very long don't expect to have a perfect body from the start. It can be years before you experience perfect health depending on how long and how damaging your your cooked diet was before hand.

There are so many long time raw foodists who don't go around eating EFA's and Omegas, etc. and have perfect skin. I would ask THEM personally and not armchair raw foodists aka those who give advice without personal experience. Have you gone on Dr. Graham's message board?

[sebzzz]

Originally Posted by Double Helix

Have you gone on Dr. Graham's message board?

I thought about this, be couldn't find it, is it at the foodnsport.com website?

Of course, I think that getting the opinion of a professional would be the best bet for me.

[rawitup]

i don't think that we can eat exactly as we would have eaten before the industrial revolution because we have put our bodies through so many different things. most people have eaten lots of bad food and toxic chemicals for at least the first part of their life, but every person is different and has eaten different things. so their bodies are at different stages. so one person might need to take a supplement while another person might not. one person might need one type of food while the other a different. also the soil in which our food is grown is so much different than before the industrial revolution and does not provide all of the minerals and nutrients that it would have before because it's natural supply of minerals and nutrients has been depleted over time from pesticides and chemical runoff and just all around pollution.
so really i think, supplements and oils and fats and herbs can all be good depending on the person you're dealing with. yes, we need to listen to our body and eat natural food. but, our world is not in the same place it used to be and sometimes our bodies are so bad off that supplementing our diet with something can benefit us.
i also don't think it's safe to listen to a guru and believe that just because he/she has seen it work for them or other people that it will work for you personally. if it doesn't feel good then don't do it. but if it feels good then do it. it's not good to rule out something completely just because there are a few people out there or even a lot of people out there saying it's not good. you need to analyze and think for yourself.
this reminds of my favorite quote of all time.

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
- Buddha

alright, well please don't take this as an attack on what you said, double helix. i'm just opening up conversation and if you disagree with anything i said please feel free to respond. i'm open to anything.

[rawitup]

just wanted to add-i still agree with you about instinct and that detox symptoms will happen and sometimes you can't tell the difference between them and defiency symptoms at the beginning of eating raw!

[Double Helix]

Hi Rawitup. Your response is great, don't worry about it!

I admit that I saw this same question from the OP on another raw food forum and there were so many "eat fat" answers it was a little ridiculous.

Oh, eat your EFAs. Eat lots of avocadoes. Eat your omegas for your brain!!! Blah blah blah.

Even more ludicrous, was a response that said anyone who avoids eating too much fat has an eating disorder.

???

So, someone who chooses to eat whole foods (most of which is low in fat, except for avocadoes which you can hardly make a nutritious meal out of alone) has an eating disorder?

Someone who chooses not to consume a ton of fats, produced oils, and supplements has an eating disorder?

Shouldn't it be the other way around? Maybe someone who is buying supplements, oils and superfoods because they are afraid that whole natural food plant food isn't going to give their body enough nutrients - wouldn't that be more of an eating disorder?

Now, I am not saying that MY diet is perfect, it is far from it. But I do believe that whole plant foods are the #1 source of every nutrient needed for a body. Supplements cannot come close to that.

I also believe that if you are truly deficient in something, than *temporarily* supplementing is fine, but you really need to be deficient by way of true symptoms and a blood test and not just thinking you are because you don't feel 100% perfect. Especially if it's detox or anything else that is temporary. Too many people get over the top worried when there is no need to be.

[Double Helix]

Originally Posted by sebzzz

I thought about this, be couldn't find it, is it at the foodnsport.com website?

Of course, I think that getting the opinion of a professional would be the best bet for me.

his forum is on vegsource.com - you have to look under the list of message boards and it will say "raw & sports"

I'd be interested to see what they say about it.