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Nutrition Requirements On A Raw Food Diet
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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.
| Nutrition
Requirements: The Questionable Standards |
|||
| Protein |
Sodium |
Vitamin E |
Omega 3 &
Omega 6 |
| Zinc |
Selenium | Calcium |
B12 |
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.
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.
| 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 |
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.
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 |
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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