|
Nutrition Requirements On A Raw Food Diet
When they adopt
raw
food diets, many people start caring about
their nutrition requirements due to concerns over
inadequacy. What's the RDA for calcium? Am I
getting enough zinc? What about protein?
Knowing what recommendations to follow can be a
bit tricky, as different bodies of experts suggest
different things. There's also no assurance their
recommendations even apply to you because good raw
food diets are so radically different than what
most people eat, and require different standards.
For most nutrients my diet meets - and in many
cases exceeds by large factor - the standard RDA
suggestions, but in some areas I'm "deficient," by
the SAD nutrition requirements proposed by the
usual bodies of experts. Yet in following this
diet since 2005, my health has been near perfect,
with not so much as a head cold in sight. So can I
really be deficient?
We have to look at why the
RDAs are set where they are to understand that a
healthy intake of some nutrients can be much lower
than the official suggestion.
Raw Food Nutrition
Requirements:
Time To Relax
Given how
little thought is given to such considerations
when we're chomping away at hamburgers and
feasting on processed foods, fretting over meeting
vitamin and mineral requirements after switching
to a far more nutrient-dense diet is a bit absurd.
A diet of uncooked fruits, vegetables, and
perhaps a few nuts and seeds will supply you with
a wide range of nutrients that a SAD diet can't
hope to match.
Frankly, you can stop worrying as long as you're
eating a healthy
raw food diet (there definitely are
unhealthy raw food diets).
If you don't want to worry about it, you can stop
reading this article right now and probably be
safe. Keep going if you have specific concerns.
Raw Food Nutrition
Requirements:
Supplementing Is A
Really Bad Idea.
I often run into people who figure they might as
well take supplement pills, "just in case." The
science shows this to be a very bad decision, with
many people causing themselves health problems by
taking supplements.
The isolated nutrients in pills are very different
from the complex packages found in foods, and the
body deals with these sources in vastly different
ways. To understand just how bad an idea taking
supplement pills as a preventative measure is, read
this
article.
There are a few nutrients which can be exceptions,
and we will cover them in this article.
Nutrition Requirements: How To Know?
One easy way to see how well you meet the
nutrient requirements put out by the US Dietary
Institute of Medicine is to use Cronometer (sign
up for a free account for their online service
or download a copy of the program for use
offline).
It's an easy way to
track calorie and nutrient goals. You simply put
in your stats, enter the food you've eaten for
the day, and see if you're meeting the RDA for
each nutrient. You'll note that you probably
fail to meet the Requirements for some
nutrients, and this article discusses why. You
can directly edit Cronometer's nutrient goals if
choose to follow the suggests presented here.
Nutritional Requirements: Protein
|
USDA
Guidelines (4)
|
WHO
Guidelines (5)
|
International
Society of Sports Nutrition: Endurance
Athletes (6)
|
International
Society of Sports Nutrition: Strength
Athletes (6)
|
Common Body Builder
Goal
|
Andrew Suggests
|
Protein
|
0.8
g/kg
|
0.8
g/kg
|
1.6
g/kg
|
1.6
to 2.0 g/kg
|
2.5 to 3.0 g/kg
|
0.8 to 1.2 g/kg
|
Fears about inadequately meeting your nutritional
requirements for protein on vegan
or raw food diets are extremely overblown. You
can read more about some of the reasons why humans
actually do better eating considerably less protein
than what most westerners consumes here.
Average people doing only minimal exercise appear to
need just .69 g/kg a day to maintain their bodies,
an amount that's hard to avoid taking in if adequate
calories are being consumed from varied sources.
Strength athletes are believed to require 1.41 g/kg
for maintenance, which is a bit more ambitious (7).
The USDA and WHO guidelines of 0.8 g/kg for average
people are buffered for safety and to accommodate
some level of growth, and are still easily
achievable on a good low
fat raw vegan diet.
For instance, let's say we have a moderately active,
six-foot-tall, 165 pounds (75 kilo) man who need
2,928 calories to maintain his body weight. How can
he get the 60 grams of protein he needs to meed his
nutrition requirements? Check out the menu below.
Sample LFRV
Menu To Meet Nutrition Requirements
|
Total Calories:
|
2,928
|
Percent of Calories
From Carbs:
|
85%
|
Percent of Calories
from protein:
|
7%
|
Percent Of Calories
From Fat:
|
8%
|
Foods
|
Protein
|
Breakfast: 10
Large Figs
|
4.8 grams
|
Lunch: 10 Medium
Bananas
|
12.9 grams
|
Snack: 4 Medium Stalks
of Celery
|
1.1 grams
|
Dinner Course One: 19
Tangerines
|
12.9 grams
|
Salad: 3 Heads of Red
Leaf Lettuce
|
12.3 grams
|
Salad: 3 Cucumbers
|
5.9 grams
|
Salad: 4 Medium
Tomatoes
|
4.3 grams
|
Salad: 1 Ounce Almonds
|
6 grams
|
Total Protein:
|
60
grams
|
The amount of protein you take in on this diet
increases as the amount of calories you require goes
up. As you burn more calories through exercise,
therefore also increasing your need for protein,
your hunger guides you to bring in more grams of
protein.
I think it's fair to say that the truly massive 300+
lb football linebacker physique (with large amounts
of body fat) is impossible to achieve on this diet,
but this is a good thing. Such large athletes tend
to die young, largely as a result of consuming the
protein-rich animal foods and fat needed to sustain
their massive frames (8).
Despite what you may have heard at your local gym,
multiple studies have failed to show exceeding 2g/kg
of protein is at all beneficial, and ample evidence
suggests exceeding this amount can negatively affect
calcium stores, heart health, bone strength, and
kidney function (10, 11).
Nutritional Requirements For Protein:
The Percentage Model
I've traditionally
talked about protein needs on this site from a
percentage of calories perspective, which is
applicable for all people regardless of size,
exercise levels, and gender. I suggest you aim to
take in no more than 10 percent of your calories
from protein.
You may be wondering how this perspective meshes
with the grams per kg model which is standard, and I
feel comparing the two can lead to some good
insights.
In the sample
menu above - which meets US and WHO guidelines for
protein nutrition requirements - averages 7 percent
protein.
Generally, only 5 to 6 percent of a diet must be
derived from protein to meet the maintenance
requirements of the body, although higher
percentages are suggested for the physically active,
and you often find body builders consuming more than
20 percent of their energy from protein (9).
The elite Kenyan runners who have been dominating
the professional running world for decades fuel
their runs on a diet of just 10.1 percent protein
(1.3 g/kg).
While eating just 6 to 10 percent of my calories
from raw plant protein, I find myself performing
better than I ever did at higher protein intakes.
This makes sense to me, since human breast milk,
which is designed to be our sole or primary fuel
source during the period of most rapid human growth,
is just 6 percent protein.
Nutritional Requirements For Protein:
Gaining Muscle
I've no interest in putting on large amounts of
muscle for muscle's sake, but I do love gaining
functional strength, and I've never had a problem
doing it on this diet. The largest amount of muscle
I've been able to put on in a month was 2 pounds
while working out 5 days a week, which is considered
respectable in body building circles.
The only time I've have problem gaining muscle is
when I'm failing to take in enough vegetables, which
are rich in protein. If you're just eating fruit
but ignoring vegetables
your protein intake can drop down as low as 4
percent, which is probably too low for gaining lean
mass.
Most
established raw foodists seem to be able to make
strength gains eating 0.8 kg/g or less. Sam Spaiser
is a good example of someone who doesn't even track
calories or protein intake but has managed to go
from skinny to jacked. You can read his story here.
However, on several occasions new coaching
clients interested in body building have told
me they were unable to gain body mass on this diet.
After satisfying myself that they were getting
enough sleep, meeting other lifestyle requirements,
and eating well, I've had them aim for 1.2 g/kg of
their goal weight, instructing them to eat no less
than 3 heads of greens a day, and preferably more.
This approach hasn't failed so far.
This requires a lot of green intake, and I rarely
reach 1.2 g/kg myself because I have no need to, but
it seems to work when people are having problems.
Concerned you're
not getting enough protein to meet nutrition
requirements? Leafy
green vegetables contain far more protein as a
percentage of calories than fruit or nuts,
meaning you can eat tons and have no appreciable
impact on your waistline while packing in the
protein. When I'm doing a lot of strength training I
start cravings young spinach and romaine lettuce,
which I think is indicative of what the body
requires to grow. Green smoothies are a great way to
pack in the protein if you're not a huge fan of
salads. I also suggest you learn to make delicious
low fat raw dressings.
Nutrition
Requirements: Sodium
|
NAS
Guidelines
(2)
|
WHO
Guidelines (1)
|
Average
US Intake (3)
|
Yanomamo
Indians of
Brazil (3)
|
Andrew
Suggests
|
Sodium
per Day
|
1.5 g
|
2
g or less
|
4-6
g
|
23 mg
|
150
mg Minimum
|
Salt is bad - we get it. Eating processed salt
in addition to the healthy sodium found in
plant foods is like committing
slow suicide by pickling.
But the unprocessed
sodium in whole plant foods is necessary for
proper cellular function, and it would be a
mistake to stint on it. Luckily, it's just
another one of those minerals raw foodists
don't have to pay attention to if they're
eating a good mix of fruits and vegetables in
sufficient quantities.
The Yanomamo
Indians of Brazil demonstrate that simply
eating a variety of foods with no added salt
provides for our health. They're healthy
eating just 23 mg per day (3).
Interestingly
enough, the WHO admits that there's no
physiological reason for its vastly higher
minimum suggestion beyond belief that lower
intakes would cause other nutrients found with
sodium to be lacking in the diet (3).
If you're doing a
lot of strenuous physical activity (more than
an hour of strenuous exertion in hot weather)
and sweating a lot, you'll need more than the
believed physiological minimum of 10-20
mg/day, however (3).

|
Sinfully
delicious
raw dressings can spice up your
salad every night of the week. Don't
worry, they're also low fat and
incredibly healthy.
Find out how to create amazing salad
dressings and sauces from scratch.
Check
out Savory Raw Dressings and
Sauces!
|
Over the last year
or so I've regularly gone running for several
hours in the intense heat and glaring sun you
find around noon during Thailand's hot
summers. I was curious to see if I'd run into
any sodium problems because my intake
generally ranges between 250 and 900 mg a day,
far less than is suggested amount, and I'm
sweating like crazy.
So far there's been
no problem. If I took up ultra marathons I'd
probably consider consciously aiming for the
400-900 mg mark, or perhaps even taking salt
tablets during events if I began running into
problems, but so far there's been no cause for
concern.
Concerned you're
not getting enough? Concentrate on
getting in a lot of leafy
greens, celery, and other green vegetables,
which are rich in sodium. I usually eat the
equivalent of 2 to 3 heads of leafy greens
ever day. In the fruit
kingdom, many types of melons, such as
cantaloupe and honeydew, offer a fairly decent
supply. Taken together as part of a diverse
diet, these sources can meet your nutrition
requirements for sodium easily.
Nutrition Requirements:
Zinc
|
US
NRC Guidelines (12)
|
WHO
Guidelines (1)
|
Average
American
Intake (12)
|
Cooked
Vegan
Diet Guidelines (14)
|
Andrew
Suggests
|
Zinc
Per Day
|
Men:
11 mg
Women: 8 mg
|
Men: 4.2 to 7.0 mg
Women: 3.0 to 4.9 mg
|
Men: 14 mg
Women: 9 mg
|
Men:
16.5 mg
Women: 12 mg
|
Men: 6 mg
Women:
4.5 mg
|
Zinc is a mineral necessary for proper
function of the body, but low fat raw vegans
probably don't need as much as is commonly
suggested for vegetarians, vegans, or even
meat eaters.
Zinc is most abundantly found in animal foods,
but plant foods contain it in adequate amounts
as well. The main problem is that just about
everyone, including those eating cooked
plant-based diets, takes in high levels of
antinutrients that prevent the body from
making use of the intake.
The phytates, oxalates, and tannins in food,
as well as processed sugars, medications,
caffeine, cigarettes, alcohol,
stimulants like cacao and " raw
chocolate," and various recreational
drugs will all bind up Zinc and make it
unusable for us.
The diets of most people are dominated by grains,
legumes, and other anti-nutrient-dense cooked
foods, leaving many to consider vegetarians
and vegans at great risk of deficiency, which
studies have born out (15, 16). It's
frequently recommended that vegans take in
twice as much zinc at meat eaters for this
reason (14).
Many of these foods, and particularly
medication and recreational drugs increase the
need for our liver to detoxify our systems,
and ramp up our adrenal and neurotransmitter
activity. These are zinc-dependent bodily
responses can deplete zinc stores and increase
our requirements.
Because low fat raw foodists get most of their
calories from raw fruits and vegetables, which
are incredibly low in antinutrients, and
because we avoid drug use, I feel comfortable
suggesting a figure slightly lower than the
WHO suggestion.
Nutrition
Requirements: Selenium
|
WHO Guidelines
(18)
|
Institute of
Medicine
Guidelines (17)
|
Deficiency
Free Chinese (19)
|
Deficiency
Free Vegans In India (20)
|
Andrew
Suggests
|
Selenium
Per Day
|
Men:
34 mcg
Women:
26 mcg
|
55 mcg
|
13.3 mcg
|
27 mcg
|
Men:
34 mcg
Women: 26 mcg
|
Selenium deficiency is rare in the
developed world, but in some areas where
the soil is lacking in the mineral,
populations have developed Keshan disease,
an abnormality of the heart muscle, as
well as bone disorders and mental
retardation.
 It's
easy to achieve the 13.4 mcg figure taken
in by deficiency-free Chinese farmers (19)
and the 27 mcg intake of deficiency-free
Indian vegans (20), although there's some
research that slightly higher intakes are
beneficial.
The WHO buffers their recommendations, and
their suggestions are safe and achievable
on a raw food diet. Although the slightly
lower intakes are probably safe, I think
the WHO baseline is a good target to shoot
for.
I seen no good rational for why the higher
55 mcg figure of the Institute of Health
is required.
Concerned
you're not getting enough selenium to
meet your nutrition requirements?
Eat a single Brazil nut every other day.
They're packed with selenium, with a
single nut containing 95.9 mcg.
Nutrition
Requirements: Vitamin E
|
National
Institute
Of Health Guidelines (17)
|
World
Health
Organization (18)
|
Andrew
Suggests
|
Vitamin
E
Per Day
|
15 mg
|
No
Target
|
No Target
|
Vitamin E deficiency is extremely rare and
people who take in very small quantities
of it often have no signs of deficiency
(17). So far, studies dramatically
increasing vitamin E intake in the hopes
of improving health have achieved little
or nothing (22).
None the less, we find a somewhat random
suggestion from the National Institute of
Health that we take in 15 mg of vitamin E,
despite it acknowledging, "great
uncertainties," in the the available data
(17).
The view from 10,000 feet is that Vitamin
E need (and no one knows what that need
is) appears to vary depending on fat
intake. The more fat you consume, the more
you need because fat consumption causes a
decrease in vitamin E levels in the blood
and opens you up to the possibility of
oxidative damage (23).
The US guidelines appear to be set with
the assumption that fat intake will be
massive and more E will be needed, but a low
fat raw vegan diet contains
significantly less fat than most diets,
and the need for Vitamin E will likely be
much lower.
The World Health Organization points out
the high fat assumption the US is using,
and while refusing to set a recommended
intake level because of the lack of
definitive data, suggests that the high
levels recommended in Europe and the US
are only needed if you're eating the fatty
foods and oils so often consumed there
(18).
If you track your data in Cronometer,
you'll find that if you're sedentary you
may fail to hit the NIH nutrition
requirements target, but that people who
burn a significant amount of calories and
replace them with fruits and vegetables
can hit it most of the time. Since
exercise is a big part of being healthy, I
don't see why this should be a problem.
Just don't stress if you fail to hit this
arbitrary suggestion on rest days.
Want to
try to meet the higher NIH nutrition
requirements for Vitamin E?
Papaya, Mangoes, kiwi, and spinach are
particularly good sources of it when eaten
in large amounts.
Nutrition
Requirements: Calcium
|
USA Average
Intake (24)
|
African Average
Intake (24)
|
NIH
Guidelines
(25)
|
WHO
Guidelines
(18, 26, 27)
|
Andrew Suggests:
|
Total Calcium
|
1031 mg
|
368 mg
|
1000 mg
|
Western SAD
Diet: 840mg
Relatively Healthy
Diet: 520 mg
Low Salt, Low Animal Food, And
Lots of Vit D: 450 mg
|
450 mg
+
|
Animal Calcium
|
717 mg
|
108 mg
|
|
|
0 mg
|
Plant Calcium
|
314 mg
|
260 mg
|
|
|
450 mg +
|
The idea
that calcium intake is the dominant
aspect of bone health has been
hammered into our skulls by milk
ads, but the data to support this in
human studies is lacking. One of the
big tip offs is that countries eating
much less calcium and animal protein
than developed countries sometimes
have less incidence of osteoporosis
and other bone issues (18).
Obviously,
we need calcium, but the large, mostly
animal-sourced intake of western
countries is unnecessarily high and
probably dangerous.
There are
three known factors with wide
scientific support for increasing the
amount of calcium we absorb from our
food, thus lowering our requirements.
These are
eating less animal foods (meat,
eggs, and dairy),
decreasing salt
consumption, and getting
more vitamin
D (18).
In
developed western countries with high
salt and animal food intake, this has
lead the WHO to suggest 840 mg, but
just 520 mg for people eating less
animal foods and salt. It proposes
that those eating still less animal
foods, keeping sodium intake below
1150 mcg, and getting enough sunshine
would reduce their Nutrition
Requirements for calcium to 450 mg. It
also proposes that further reductions
in salt and animal foods would
continue this downward trend (18).
A LFRV diet
is free of all animal foods and
processed salt, and a healthy
lifestyle involves regular sun
exposure, so we might surmise that if
ever there was a diet requiring
less calcium, this would be it.
I suggest
450 mg as a good, easily achievable
target for our nutrition requirements,
although intake levels in excess of
1,000 mg are reasonable when eating
lots of fruits and vegetables. Lower
intakes may be safe, but there isn't
enough data to support the idea as of
yet.
Nutrition
Requirements: Omega 3 and Omega 6
|
Institute Of
Medicine
Recommendation (28)
|
Average US
Intake (30)
|
Paleolithic
Hunter Gatherer Diet (31, 33)
|
Bonobos
And
Chimps
(32)
|
Andrew
Suggests
|
Omega 6
(N-6)
|
Men: 17 g
Women: 12 g
|
|
|
|
Men: 1.6
to 3 g
Women:
1.1 to 2 g
|
Omega 3
(N-3)
|
Men 1.6 g
Women: 1.1 g |
|
|
|
Men:
1.6 to 2 g
Women:
1.1 to 1.4 g
|
N-6 To
N-3 Ratio
|
17:1.6
|
Between
10:1 and 30:1
|
1:1
|
1:1
|
1:1
to
2:1
|
You've
probably heard one nutrition
requirement: that you cram yourself
with the essential fatty acid omega 3,
particularly in the form of fish oil
and flax seeds.
The reason for this is because people
in western countries have increased
their intake of another essential
fatty acid, omega-6, over the last
century or so to the point where we're
taking in as much 30 times more omega
6 than omega 3, putting us at risk for
heart attacks. The sources of that
omega 6 is primarily our skyrocketing
vegetable oil consumption, but also
meat, eggs, baked goods, grain-based
processed foods, and margarine.
Our closest genetic relatives, the
bonobos and the chimps, who share
about 98 percent of our DNA and eat a
healthy raw food diet, consume omega 3
and omega 6 at about a 1:1 ratio (32).
The hunter gatherer societies that
preceded us were still eating around a
1:1 ratio (31, 33).
 As
we started growing our food,
particularly grains,
the ratio began to change, but it was
probably still fairly close as
recently as the beginning of the 20th
century. In 1909, omega 6 accounted
for 2.3 percent of our caloric intake.
By 1999 that had jumped to 7.2
percent, a 213 percent increase. Omega
3 had a smaller jump from 0.35 percent
to 0.72 percent (34).
That's dangerous territory, and
nutritional experts have suggested we
dramatically increase our omega 3
intake to bring the ratios more in
line, thus the suggestion to stuff
yourself with flax seed and fish oil.
But this approach is pretty asinine.
Instead of trying to supplement away
your problem, you should attack it at
the source: The extra oil,
animal protein, and processed food
you're eating.
When you're eating a healthy low fat
raw food diet, your Omega 6 to Omega 3
ratio drops close to 1:1.
Giving an exact n-3 and n-6 targets in
grams is tricky because requirements
increase as your caloric intake rises,
but the ones I suggest above are
probably a safe lower limit.
Want
more omega 3 to meet your nutrition
requirements? Omega 3s are
abundantly found in various greens.
Honeydew melon and golden kiwi are two
fruits with a good supply of it. Heard
you can't get enough DHA (an N-3 fat)
on a vegan diet? That's not
what the science seems to show.
Nutrition
Requirements: B12
The B12 question is complicated,
and cannot be easily summarized.
To understand your needs and how
to meet them, check out this
page.
Nutrition
Requirements: Following Up
Learn how well fruits
and greens match our nutrition
requirements.
Eat a healthy raw
food diet.
The cooking process can change our
nutrition requirements. Find
out how.
Nutrition Requirements: Article
Sources
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