Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.

- Hippocrates

Raw Foods Diet: And So It Begins
Finally, the day of reckoning has arrived. Today I start my 30 Day 100% Raw Foods Vegan Trial. If you are confused, read about it more here:

Raw Foods Diet: 30 Day Trial
Raw Foods Diet: Laboratory Testing

I decided to go on this trial after experimenting with a week-long version. It was fantastic. I had high levels of energy, and I didn’t have a single detoxification symptom, much to my dismay. It seemed like a perfect solution. The reasons I stopped were twofold: one, I felt like I was wasting all the huge stockpiles of food (lots and lots of canned tuna) that I had, and two, I wanted to use the trial as an experiment on my body.

Benefits to Raw Food
I have been reading quite a lot of material on the ideas behind this diet, and from what I can gather, eating a vegan-based diet of 100% uncooked foods can perform miracles. In all seriousness, there are a LOT of hefty claims out there about what this diet can and can’t do. Everything from curing any kind of disease to providing you with better focus and mental clarity.

People eating a raw food diet are the healthiest looking people I have ever seen. They have a glow in their skin, a shine to their hair, a sparkle in their eyes, a healthy, fit, body and look younger than their age. They have a youthful energy and they feel good about themselves and happy to be alive!

If you are sick, tired, overweight or just want to feel better than you do right now, know that this way of eating could be the answer to your prayers. Does it sound like I’m promising a lot? Well, I am because I have seen this raw diet work time and time again. This has been one of the greatest miracles in my life and in the lives of other people whom I’ve shared this with.

- Alissa Cohen

She is promising a lot, but that doesn’t mean that this way of eating won’t fail to deliver on those promises.

What appears to be the most beneficial aspect of this diet is the increased energy levels. I was only on it for a week, but I was bouncing off the walls, and I had eaten my share of fruit before. The reasoning behind all of this has to do with digestion. Fruit, normally a large portion of this particular type of diet, is one of the easiest types of foods for your body to digest. On a more normal diet, your body expends a lot of calories digesting its food. The thinking with a raw foods diet is that you have more energy because your body isn’t wasting so many calories for digestion.

We shall see whether or not these benefits come true, and if they do, whether or not they outweigh any possible negatives that may happen to arise.

Blood Testing and Urinalysis
To further stress the objectivity of this experiment, I ordered blood tests, and recently got them done. The purpose of this was to help me see what had exactly changed after the 30 days are up.

I ordered three tests. The two blood tests were CMP14 LP TP TSH 5AC CBC/D/P1T and a Vitamin B12. I also got a urinalysis.

For further information on what these tests were, what they included, and a description of the importance of each, please check out my recent blog post: Raw Foods Diet: Laboratory Testing.

Daily Measurements
However, this will not be the only testing that I do. I have decided to do daily measurements and have broken them down into two parts, the mind and the body. I feel that each person is composed of these two separate entities, which is why I felt it crucial to ensure that I tested both on a daily basis.

Mind

Lucid Dreaming

Morning Pages

Meditation

General Feelings

Body

Body Temperature

Resting Heart Rate

Body Weight

Blood Pressure

General Feelings

Counting Calories
I will not be counting calories while eating raw, and I think this is where many have failed in the past. In previous experiments and diets, I have obsessed over calories and macro nutrient ratios. It got to the point where I would eat the same thing everyday because it was easier to know the exact amounts of everything I was consuming.

Now, to help combat my perfectionist ways, I will not be so specific in regards to calories or macro nutrient ratios. I might estimate, purely out of habit, but I will not be keeping track. This will allow me to introduce much more variety than I would have allowed beforehand, and I hope it will actually help my mind be more relaxed and at ease. If I don’t have to stress out out over this, my mind will be more clear and focused.

I will listen to my body for the most part. When it is hungry, I will eat. When it isn’t, I won’t. I will earn my food.

My Diet
So what will my diet consist of? Since I am not going to keep track of my calories, my options are quite open. My main focus will be fruit, with some vegetables, and a lower fat diet. I will be eating avocados though, but I don’t think I will be eating any nuts. However, this all could change quickly. If I sense that fat is what my body is missing, than I will focus more on that. I am placing restrictions on myself in the form of all foods have to be both uncooked and vegan, so I think that is restrictive enough.

Furthermore, since most of the food I will be eating has a very high water content, I will not need to be as religious as I was with my water intake. Again, if I feel my body needs water, I will drink water. I am not worried about dehydration because of all the water I will be getting with my food intake.

Exercise
My exercise habits will not change, in fact they will become more intense. On my previous week-long trial, I had an incredible amount of energy. To me, that was one of the biggest benefits, so I am going to take this extra energy and run with it.

Organic Produce
Because the nature of this diet is one that aims to remove toxins from your body, it doesn’t make much sense to me to eat conventional produce. I may be forced to, but my goal is to eat all organically.

Theory vs. Practice
This is where I differ from many people. I have been told of the benefits of this diet, yet I have also been told of its drawbacks. Unfortunately, many of the people who have discussed this with me have yet to try this kind of diet.

I can read about theory until I am blue in the face, but I simply won’t fully believe it until I try it out on myself. I love using myself as my own laboratory, and maybe this is my own bizarre psychosis at work, but I think everything need to be put into practice.

So I come at this experiment with an open mind. Yes, I would love to receive some benefits over the next thirty days, who wouldn’t? I certainly don’t want the next month to be painful. But I feel what I am doing will be beneficial either way.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 by Chris at 10:29 pm and is filed under Raw Foods Diet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.