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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:
|
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
|
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 |
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).
![]() |
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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.
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 |
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 |
National
Institute Of Health Guidelines (17) |
World
Health Organization (18) |
Andrew
Suggests |
|
Vitamin
E Per Day |
15 mg |
No
Target |
No Target |
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.
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 |
The B12 question is complicated,
and cannot be easily summarized.
To understand your needs and how
to meet them, check out this
page.