What do I need to eat?

[RawFoodGrl]

Because this seems like a pertinent topic to all of us, and I'm learning a heck of a lot from posters and outside sources, I intend to keep updating this thread with new questions and most importantly information.

On December 20, 2007 I added an update that summarizes what I've learned so far, however there is a lot of fascinating and interesting information and discussion throughout this thread.


Begin original post:

I've decided to go 100% raw food. I've been transitioning some, but haven't liked a lot of the recipes. So instead I'm going to have salads and then throw different things in the blender.

I'm wondering what things I should be sure to eat on a regular basis. I know I need a lot of spinach for iron (otherwise I crave beef) and I'll be eating pumpkin seeds to be sure I get the extra zinc I know my body needs. I also plan to have sprouted nuts and seeds for snacks, maybe 2-3 oz daily.

But I was wondering if there are other foods I should be sure to be eating.

I know from doing other kinds of eating plans, it takes a while for the body to know what it's hungry for. At first, I've found, it really helps to talk to other people to get ideas - and then after doing it a while you just "know" what it is your body needs.

[Double Helix]

If you didn't worry about nutrient intake on cooked, try not to give it a thought on raw. Because with raw food, you know you are getting way more nutrients, in the best form right now than ever before, so that should be the last thing on your mind.

If the recipes turn you off, keep it simple sugar (KISS). Smoothies are really easy, use a base of fresh OJ or water, several bananas and another fruit (mangos, peaches, strawberries, pineapple, etc). You can use some spinach if you want to get more greens in.

I will drink at least a quart of smoothie for a meal. A glass is not enough to satisfy me, there just aren't enough calories there.

Also don't limit yourself if you are hungry. Always carry something with you like some bananas so you have something to eat. Later on you will be able to eat more in one sitting.

As to eating whole fruits, fruit meals, or fruit salads, just look at what's in season. Citrus fruit, apples, and persimmons are good right now. Bananas are available year round. Just eat and eat until you are full. That's the easiest way to eat raw. You can vary your fruits from one day to the next, so again, no need to worry about nutrients.

Just think of how animals in the wild eat, or long ago how the nomads ate.

A bear doesn't go to the stream, pluck up a fish, then run to a berry bush, then pull up an onion out of the ground and make a sandwich right? So it's totally natural to eat one thing at a time, if you want to.

The nomads wouldn't run around from tree to bush and mix everything up. They would usually stop at a tree, eat until full and move on to a different one the next time around. Or they would hang out at the same place until all the fruit was gone.

Eating raw causes folks to think differently about how they eat. We've been brought up to think that we need a starch, a veggie and a meat dish together as a meal. Also as vegetarians many have been incorrectly taught to mix 2 foods to get a complete protein which was later proven to be wrong. The best amino acids to build proteins and the best nutrients are going to come from whole fresh plant foods.

So a lot of it is a mental un-doing...changing the thought patterns about what's okay to eat. People on the standard American cooked diet generally think that it's "weird" to just eat fruit for a meal, or a smoothie or a salad. They think something is wrong with that. It can take a while for someone coming off a cooked diet to change that kind of thinking, and also thinking about where they are going to get this and that nutrient even though they didn't give it a thought before on cooked.

Again - the last thing to worry about is nutrients, especially if you have been eating mainly cooked food all of your life.

All the best to you on your journey!

[RawFoodGrl]

Actually, I DID pay attention to my nutrient intake with cooked food, because if I didn't, I was *very* hungry. Sometimes it was a hungry as in "I'm not full, didn't eat enough" and other times it's like "I need broccoli". But in the beginning with every eating plan, there's a couple months when I'm hungry, but don't always know for what.

For instance, it took 22 **YEARS** for me to find out that when I'm hungry for beef, all I have to do is eat at least 1 cup of spinach every day, then I'm never hungry for beef.

Each time I change eating plans, such as going meat to more vegetarian and fish, and from that to more vegan, it takes a long while for me to figure out exactly how much to eat of what to make sure I'm getting everything I need that makes my body feel fully nourished. And in the meantime, it's crazy-making.

It's this exact thing that has kept me from being 100% raw food for the last 10 years ... I try, but then I'm hungry and don't know what for, or craving beef and didn't know what to do (now I know, but I didn't then).

I've found raw food to be FAR MORE DIFFICULT in this respect than any other eating plan.

I'm just trying to find out if there's things folks know that you should eat regularly to be nutritionally satisfied and also feel full, so I can be raw food this time and stick with it - without the insanity of being crazy-hungry and not knowing what to eat that'll feed whatever that hunger is.

It's really a feeling like I'm insane, of being so ravenously hungry, and eating all kinds of things, yet never feeling like that nutrituional need has been met.

I'd like to try to avoid that as much as possible.

[Double Helix]

I'm so sorry I misunderstood you, thanks for clearing up where you are coming from. Hopefully you will find that you will feel more fulfilled eating larger amounts of raw as time goes by.

That is interesting about the beef/spinach thing. It's good that you were able to connect the dots with that. I have a feeling you'd do really well with green smoothies (blended fruits & greens).

For me I see it as a catch 22 sometimes, raw food is not as dense calorically, so I have to eat more to be full (unless it's a high fat raw food), however I feel much more satisfied with a smaller amount of food than when I'm eating large amounts of cooked.

For instance, if I'm eating cooked, and I have, say, some kind of empty starch (like a cooked grain), I can keep going back to that over and over because it is so nutritionally bankrupt.

However, with raw, I've eaten a fruit salad with 2 bananas, a large mango and some avocado and I feel totally full and satisfied and not wanting to eat for hours. Now I couldn't do that with a cooked sweet food like a baked good, I'd go back to it 15 minutes later.

I really think that once you eat enough raw food to satisfy you, it is so rich in nutrients that you can go for longer periods of time before the next meal. It just takes some practice, since raw food is so water-rich and makes you feel full when it's actually the water giving you the full feeling instead of the fiber and other nutrients in there.

Hope that helps!

[pony500]

Man, this is all so freaking interesting and it actually reminds me of all the learning I did when feeding my dogs a raw diet. I feel like I'm doing this all over again! It is the same thing with the dogs and I fretted and worried about their nutrient intake and are they getting exactly what they need and in the same respect, we have this mentality that everything needs to be balanced every single day--which is how kibble is promoted. The dogs, just like most animals, are not really supposed to eat complete and balanced meals every single day. It's hard to change that mentality.

I am finding the whole thing about knowing what your body needs by listening to the cravings and figuring out that eating something like spinach can satisfy a craving for beef. I had heard a while ago that sugar cravings meant a need for vitamin C, but I don't know how true that is.

Anyway, I'm just chiming in here because this whole raw food thing for me started with raw feeding for my dogs--all for the same reasons of why raw food is good for us. It all makes sense, but it can be really difficult especially in the beginning.

I recently had my parents dog stay over for a couple of days and I forgot to ask how much kibble she eats and my fiance asked me how I fed our dogs, but it's totally different--I don't even know how to feed kibble now! So, it is interesting how you can change and I am only in the beginning stages, so I have a ways to go.

I am so glad to have found this forum though, you guys are really supportive and helpful and it's just great to have other raw foodists out there to ask for guidance.

[RawFoodGrl]

How long does it take to get to that point? I've been 100% raw since 5 pm yesterday am getting a low blood sugar headache now.

I understand what you're saying about things like rice and sweets, but that's far, far away from my diet. I haven't had rice or potatoes in months (nearly a year) and the only desert I've had recently is some raw pudding sweetened with honey. Even that I don't have often, maybe once a month or less.

My foods are more whole (and organic) veggie based. I typically would make a tofu scramble with bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, avocado and vegan cheese for breakfast.

Lunch would be a lot of things like vegetarain crab patties, made with onion, zucchini, egg, and cheese, or a grain burger made with oats, walnuts and a few other things.

Dinner would be a stir fry with broccoli, snow peas, green beans, onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, things like that (no rice). Or I might have a BBQ with homemade BBQ sauce and with seitan, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini.

The tofu scramble was about 1.5 cups of food, but pretty much all other meals were about 1 cup - so it took very little food to make me feel full. Even eating out I find I want about 1 cup of food - no more.

And or snacks I'd have things like 1 oz of cheese or sprouted nuts, usually twice a day (morning and afternoon), but sometimes again after dinner. I have to eat frequently.

The thing I'm trying to figure out is what to eat to keep feeling full and nutritionally balanced. I feel physically full right now after eating my salad, but at the same time I feel hungry for .... something ... but I don't know what.

I also feel a low blood sugar thing coming on. I know the symptoms can be like that of detoxing, but I'm hypoglycemic, and keenly aware of how my body feels when I'm having a blood sugar crash.

[RawFoodGrl]

Oh, I wanted to say I think it probably IS true that you don't need to eat 100% nutritionally balanced every day, when you've been doing it a long while, your body is used to it, you know what you like, and you've had enough practice and experience to know "this" feeling means eat "that".

Maybe I'm more biologically sensitive than some, maybe it's the hypoglycemia, but I know every time I switch eating habits, it's extremely important for me to be sure I'm as close to 100% every day in the beginning, or I'm crazy hungry all the time.

After that, when I have practice and routine, after I've gotten more used to it and my body is more used to it, then being off here and there occasionally isn't a big deal.

I know there's a lot to know and learn ... and I've always needed help transitioning, whether that was getting away from rice, potatoes, pasta and bread, or getting away from beef, or transitioning from vegetarian to vegan.

For instance, when I know a bit of cheese would hit the spot, what do I reach for instead? Or is it like the spinach where if I eat it daily I never feel the urge for cheese - and then what might that be?

I've gotten great suggestions from other sites as I moved through other eating plans ... I really need that kind of help, ideas, suggestions and advice to successfully go raw food.

I mean, not necessarily "eat pumpkin seeds when you are hungry for cheese" (just a probably-wrong statement), but what kinds of things do you need to be sure to eat regularly?

I know it's critical to eat a lot of leafy greens, but I'm wondering if there's other things .....

What veggies do you all eat on a regular basis?

[RawFoodGrl]

Here's the kind of thing I'm struggling with.

It's now 2 pm. Since 5 pm yesterday I've just been raw. I've had 3 oz nuts &/or seeds, 1 lb broccoli, 1 lb tomatoes, 1 medium onion, 1 very large bell pepper, 1 avocado, 1/2 cup guacamole, 4 cups leafy greens, and about 1 cup salad veggies (like celery, cucumber, etc.). I've also had 2 T flax seed oil and 1 T olive oil in my salad dressing (with a bit of brown rice vinegar).

I'm so hungry I could scream. I'm having trouble seeing straight, and I'm getting a low blood sugar headache. On top of not being able to focus clearly, I also am losing peripheral vision.

I keep trying to type, but can't work the keyboard properly - and I can't type or spell properly. I'm losing my train of thought, forgetting what I'm trying to say before I get to the end of the sentence. I have to keep re-reading what I'm writing in order to try to remember what I'm saying.

I'm not able to accomplish anything today, because my mind keeps wandering ... and an hour will go by and I don't remember what I was doing, or what I should be doing.

Also, while adding 1 cup of spinach to the primarily cooked vegan way I was eating before was enough to ward off burger cravings, right now I'd give almost anything for a bacon cheeseburger.

I understand these experiences to be different from that of detoxing, where detoxing is typically more feeling sick like having a cold or flu, and sometimes emotional issues come up.

I just feel POWERFUL hungry, and POWERFULLY low blood sugar, as if I'd not eaten anything in more than 24 hours.

This is why I keep asking the questions about what you all eat, how much, anything I should eat regularly ... because detoxing I can handle ... this is just miserable. And if it keeps going on, I won't be fit to live with.

Oh, I wanted to clarify, that I'm not craving a bacon cheeseburger itself, it's just I know, when I'm hungry like this, that it's something that will quickly restore my blood sugar and end the ravenous hunger. I could have something else ... fish stew, vegan bbq, a chicken dinner, a proper burrito ... it's just those would take more time and be harder to get right now.