I have been giving the raw food diet a thought; you can find the forum by searching "rawfoodtalk.com". They are pretty self loving over there and it is a big turn off. Anyways
Do you think this is a lifestyle? Can a person really eat this way?
I have also been thinking of a Mediterranean diet.
I have been on LOTS of diets but find many hard to stick to, Atkins (to much meat), WW (always hungry).
Well I think going the route of Raw Food is more than just a diet, it is a way of life for those that do it. There is more ideology behind eating raw because those that do it believe it is better than eating anything that has been cooked. There are many books on raw food diets and I would recommend looking at them because it is important to make sure you are getting a good balance in your food.
If you are just looking for a "diet", then I wouldn't recommend going raw. Look for something that you can stick to and would enjoy doing.
I can't think of very many foods I like that are raw. I think calorie counting is great. I can't even seem to get more than 1200 calories in an average day. I love chicken so I eat alot of skinless, boneless chicken breast and it is so low in calories i could eat a whole chicken and not reach 1200 calories. and most veggies are sooo low in calories, you can eat a ton of them. The only things I try to limit is how much bread products i eat and i try to stay away from junk food...high calories, low in keeping me full. I really just believe in this form of "diet". I can eat anything I want, i just have to count up the calories of it first. Fitday.com is a great resource for helping me keep up with all my calorie numbers.
I think that it is best to find something that could work for you for the rest of your life. Do you think you would be able to eat only raw food for the rest of your life? If so, then go for it. Personally the idea does not appeal to me, and I prefer to count calories and try to follow the harvard food pyramid. That is something I know I can do for life!
Thanks; I really dont see myself doing it for life. The people at that site go off and on all the time; so I know its not easy. I too believe that raw fruits and veggies are best; but I think maybe I can hit a high quota of them in a Mediterranean or whole food diet!
Dr. Weil, who normally encourages everything natural and good, isn't a fan of raw food diets and gives some pretty convincing evidence why we should cook our food.
However, I'm not a proponent of the raw foods diet. First of all, when you eat everything raw, you lose much of the best flavor, texture and appearance of food. More importantly, however, is the fact that many of the vitamins and minerals found in vegetables are less bioavailable when you eat these foods raw than when they're cooked. For example, you can get lycopene, the carotenoid pigment that protects against prostate cancer, only from cooked tomatoes, not from raw ones. The carotenoids in carrots are more bioavailable from cooked carrots than they are from raw ones.
Another disadvantage stems from the fact that many of the natural toxins in edible roots, seeds, stems and leaves are destroyed by cooking. Alfalfa sprouts contain canavanine, a natural toxin that can harm the immune system; button mushrooms contain natural carcinogens, and celery produces psoralens, compounds that sensitize the skin to the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation in sunlight. All of these are broken down by simple cooking. Although our bodies have natural defenses against these toxins, a raw food diet can add to the toxic load we're already dealing with.
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The latest word on raw food diets comes from a new study which shows that vegetarians who eat only raw foods have abnormally low bone mass, a sign that they may be vulnerable to osteoporosis.
Raw food diet
