The Raw Food Diet

Read about how greens play a critical role in the diet here.

This way of eating adheres naturally to the formula of approximately 80 percent of calories from carbohydrates, a maximum of 10 percent from fat, and approximately 10 percent from protein. This naturally occurring formula has been dubbed by Dr. Douglas Graham as the 80/10/10 diet.

The American Diet

How do you do in comparison? The average American eats about 40-50 percent of calories from carbohydrates, 16 percent from protein, and 30-45 percent from fat.

Much of the fat is from meat, dairy and eggs, and many of the carbohydrates come from processed and denatured sources. A very small portion of that diet is made up of raw fruits and vegetables. A fruitarian raw food diet blows it away in terms of nutrients and ease of digestion.

You don't have to sit with a calculator to figure out if you're following the diet formula because if you eat proper foods, the ratio will be in line. Go ahead and consume fruit until satiation three times a day. All but the few fatty fruits -avocados and durians, for instance- are fine.

Follow up dinner with a huge bowl of salad. Plug everything into a website like nutridiary.com. Yep, you're eating right. It's that simple. No counting calories or watching what you eat because everything on the diet is fantastic for you. In a nutshell, that's the diet. Raw, fruitarian paradise.

Worried about not getting enough protein? Read all about the body's needs here.

Wondering if you should be supplementing with superfoods and vitamin pills? Click here.

Raw Food Energy

How do you like them? Like a pear, a lemon, a la Montgolfier, half an apple, or a cantaloupe? Go and choose, don't be embarrassed. -Author Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette

As I sit typing this, I've got a feeling in the back of my mind that I'd love to go for a second run today. I often find that I have more energy than I know what to do with.

The reason is that a fruitarian (or frugivorian) raw food diet gives your body and mind the nutrients and energy you need to work optimally without the high levels of toxins that come from most food, and specifically denatured cooked food.

The body's natural state is one of energy and health, and all that it needs to achieve it is for diet to stop bringing it down. Diet is only half what you eat, and half what you do not.

The waters and sugars of fruit- almost the entirety of the digestible portion- take little energy for the body to digest. It is merely a matter of absorption and assimilation.

Compare this to meat, which can take hours and lots of the body's energy to digest. If you consume grains, which need to be cooked so that they can be dextrinized and used as glucose, it only nets the body about 70 percent of the energy potential. (2)

Let's Talk Quantity

The foods you'll be consuming on a healthy fruitarian raw food diet are also less calorically dense, so you can, and you'll need to, eat more mouthfuls.

Forget about dieting and counting calories. Let hunger be your guide for once. If you're truly hungry- a sensation that is felt in the chest or breastbone, and not the stomach, which rumbles when emptying- eat till you're satiated.

Have you ever noticed that even after large dinners that fill your stomach you're still craving something? That something is more often than not sweet,so you eat desert to satisfy you. That should tell you something.

Your body is designed to run off of simple sugars, and only plenty of simple sugars from fruit on a raw food diet will fill that nagging hunger or craving for something that stays with you.

For details on how to defeat cravings once and for all, read this article.

Undereating At First Is Normal, But You Have To Change Quickly

Because most people are used to eating such small quantities of high calorie food, you may need to work on expanding your stomach's ability to stretch when you first change to a raw food diet.

That's ok, because the vast majority of people are under-muscled and over fat, so the weight you lose while adjusting will be welcome.

You'll eventually want to track your calorie intake for a few days to make sure you're on track, however. Let's say that,like me, you're a six foot tall male who weights about 170 pounds.

Say you go for a morning run for about 45 minutes at about 7.5 mph. I work as a reporter during the day, so I'm often out walking around talking to people when I'm not typing up a story.

A quick stop over to nutridiary.com will tell me that without the exercise I would need 2984 calories. The running ads 722 calories, bringing me to 3706 calories I need to replace in a day.

All The Delicious Fruit You Can Eat

For breakfast I might eat a luscious, juicy watermelon in two sittings, which accounts for 1355 calories. My lunch is two banana smoothies, or 12 medium bananas, which equals 1260 calories.

My dinner is 10 kiwi fruit (464 calories) , followed about an hour later by a large bowl of salad with four tomatoes, a small piece of avocado (I suggest that most people do not consume overt fats for the first few months on this diet, as fat hampers the body's ability to absorb simple sugars from the blood stream into cells, which can diminish energy and causes problems) and some assorted vegetables (235 calories).

For a snack I may eat 100 grapes at 161 calories. The grand total is 3571 calories for the day, and my ratio is at six percent fat, seven percent protein, and 87 percent carbohydrates. Perfect.

If this seems like a lot of food to you, don't worry. If you're not doing a ton of exercise (though you should do some) you'll need less. A 5-foot-tall nonathletic woman would only eat a fraction of what I do. I ate a lot when I was a cooked food vegan as well. But I enjoy the quantity of food I consume, and you'll find yourself loving this diet as well.

If you're sedentary or eager to lose weight quickly, feel free to eat less, but be aware that when you're under eating on calories you may start to get cravings.

To set up your own free individual health plan to make sure you're on the right track, click here.

Following Up

This is only meant to be a brief introduction to the raw food diet and the science behind it. Additional pages of information are located around the site.

Feeling daunted by the idea of switching your diet dramatically? Take a smart first step on the path a simple switch to the ultimate vegan breakfast: the banana smoothie.

Hope you enjoy, and happy eating.

-Andrew Perlot

Raw Food Diet Sources

(1) "Trends in Intake of Energy and Macronutrients- United States-1971-2000," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, February6,2004, pp.80-82. Department of Health and Human Services. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention..

(2) The 80/10/10 Diet," By Dr. Douglas Graham. Pg. 57.

Raw Food Diet Subpages

1) How to control your cravings.
2) Is a healthy raw food diet fruitarian?
3) Create an individual health plan.
4) What are the benefits of raw food?
5) Guide for transitioning to a raw food diet.
6) What about a partial raw diet?
7) Understand the importance of greens in a healthy diet.
8) Why your raw diet should be low fat.
9) Anything wrong with hybrid fruit?

A Raw Food Diet Can Change Your Life

The Body Runs Best On Fruit, So Give It What It Wants