I just wrote a bunch of posts on my favourite raw food forum at Raw Pleasure .com .au and realised that I probably have something that I need to share since I wrote something very similar in at least two separate posts!
Well I might as well share it on my own blog too, and that is the idea of eating a low-fat mostly raw diet.
I tried 100% raw, and I have nothing against it whatsoever, I actually thought it was great. But it takes a lot of effort, because the only way to be 100% raw is to only eat raw foods, whereas there are so many ways to eat mostly raw! It is much more easily achievable than 100%, and takes much less preparation to eat a mostly raw diet. During times of stress, such as when moving house, going through financial troubles, having relationship issues etc, putting all the pressure on yourself to follow one specific diet can just be too much, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on your diet completely.
I was a bit concerned that going back to a partly cooked diet was going to give me all sorts of digestive issues, because before I moved house I had been eating 100% raw for a number of months and had also done a two week juice fast. Fortunately I have learned over time (with a lot of trial and error) that not all cooked foods give troubles, but specifically it is cooked ‘high fat’ foods that create a digestive burden.
For me, when the fat is gone, grains, legumes and cooked vegetables are digesting perfectly well in a diet filled with fruit and raw vegetables. In fact, I am finding that I have less digestive troubles when eating low fat grains and legumes with my fruit and vegetables than I do when eating raw nuts and seeds in order to be 100% raw.
Personally, I am looking forward to increasing the amount of raw closer again once I have all my kitchen gear out of storage, but this is more due to the fact that I love being raw, not because I am having any health issues right now. In fact, the opposite – I am feeling very healthy and I am not noticing any digestive complaints at all.
This is what I have been eating in my ‘mostly raw’ diet, with no kitchen appliances or even a decent knife, just my trusty blender and a few basic accessories.
Morning:
- fresh fruit, or
- green fruit smoothie, or
- savoury winter smoothie blended until warm (tomato, parsley, celery, cayenne and optional capsicum, cucumber extra herbs etc)
Lunch:
- thin bread such as mountain bread with low-fat hommous and a large salad in a wrap (a few of these)
- vegetable soup with bread (no butter or sour cream)
- large salad sandwich with salad if I’m stuck at a cafe
Afternoon snack:
- salad wraps again
- fruit
- vegetable sticks in dip
- No added sugar dried fruits (figs are my absolute favourite) with no nuts (dried fruit and nuts don’t mix at all)
Dinner:
Same as lunch. If I’m out for dinner (since I don’t have any kitchen at the moment) then I will order a salad or vegetable dish with bread
Yes, this diet is very basic, but this is my lifestyle without a kitchen and it is suiting me fine.
On the topic of bread: I have noticed that bread is filling, and as long as it does not become the main food, i.e if it is an accompaniment to the vegetables and salads then I am not having any digestive upset. This is very important for me as I suffer from IBS if I am not very careful with my diet, and for some time I believed it was caused by gluten, when in actual fact it was being caused by fat. I had cut bread out for some time when I was feeling addicted to it, and that was important at the time because I was eating bread as the main meal and not an accompaniment. Bread should not be eaten as the mail meal because it is not nutritious enough, contains too much yeast and sugar, and can play havoc with your intestines because the flour acts like glue. It must be eaten with fibre such as lots of salad. I will go through a ratio of 300-400g of raw greens to 200g mountain bread. Be wary of thick chewy breads like foccacia and bagels – they are loaded with gluey white flour!
One thing to keep in mind is that grains can taste very bland and so traditionally they are eaten with fats because fat is considered more flavoursome. If you want to have a mostly raw diet, or you are coming out of an all raw diet, you don’t want to eat grains in the traditional way, loaded with butter, olive oil, margarine or cheese. Instead, say no to the fat and go for low fat hommous (read the label, most add canola oil to reduce the cost of manufacture), vegetable dips (again read the label or make your own – most have cream cheese or added oil), miso, avocado (it is fatty, but at least it is raw and digests well) or mashed cooked veg. Rice can be cooked with freshly blended tomatoes instead of eating it with fatty curries etc. Pearl barley, wholegrain pasta, legumes or cracked wheat can be added to vegetable soups without any need for fat.
Other low fat cooked foods that might work in a mostly raw food diet include eggs, potatoes, fish (although I strongly do not recommend fish – see my post why not here), kangaroo and tofu. With the exception of a bit of tofu I have not tried the others (potato is bland without fat and I’m a vegetarian).
So, if you’re doing raw and having trouble over winter or due to some turbulence in your life, or alternatively if you’re not doing raw but you’re a vegetarian or vegan and having stomach troubles, try cutting the amount of fat in your diet and adding more fruit and raw veg instead, but keep the low-fat elements of your cooked diet. Give it a go and tell me if it helps!
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