article about pitfalls to avoid , to make eating raw a suceessful lifestyle

Date:   3/2/2005 6:38:49 AM ( 19 y ago)

10 Sure Ways to Become a Healthier Raw Foodist

By Frédéric Patenaude

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Eat Raw


The first step might sound obvious,
but for many raw-foodists,
their 90%, self-proclaimed raw food eating is,
in fact, close to 40%.
All those soy lattes at Starbucks
, those occasional baked potatoes
and chocolate samplings are really adding up at some point.
It’s so easy to get caught in a pattern,
eating the wrong foods and slowly
but surely get off the wagon.
If this happens to you, don’t desperate.
The easiest way out of this is to spend a few
eating very lightly.
You could eat only raw soups and juices for 2-3 days.
With this little cure,
it will be much easier to start eating raw again.

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Take Sleep Seriously


The modern hero is a work alcoholic
who works 16 hours a day
and doesn’t have time to engage in
a time-wasting activity such as sleeping.
Since the invention of the light bulb,
sleep is generally viewed as a mostly wasteful activity.
While this is true that, on a better diet,
your sleep needs diminish,
it does not mean that sleeping 8 or 9 hours a night
is wrong or lazy. It might be just what you need.


When we get less than our required sleep,
which is different for every person,
we accumulate a sleep debt.
A person with a big sleep debt will not digest very well,
even if all she eat is raw foods.
She may even start to loose weight while eating more.


Sleep is so critical that many books have
and could be written on the subject.
But, the average raw-foodist knows as much on sleep
as the average Joe.
It could pay off to study the subject a little more,
especially if you experience sleeping difficulties.
An interesting book on the subject
is The Promise of Sleep, by William C. Dement.

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Exercise


Most fitness gurus will tell you that health
is not possible without fitness.
While sedentary people can live without disease,
they will not experience a high level of vitality.


Let’s be honest: we’re naturally lazy.
That’s the tendency.
Even though we eat healthy and make our juices
and smoothies, it’s still too easy to just hang out,
surf the net, watch the rain fall and eat all day.
But, one day you drive by a gym
where they have big windows
so you can see everyone working out and you realise:
“I think something is missing from my life.”
You don’t exercise!
And you’re really missing out.
Exercise is absolutely vital,
especially to help us metabolize all those avocados
and tropical fruits.

I’ll tell you the secret right now:
you’ll have to force yourself to exercise
—but only for 7-10 days.
After not exercising for a while, you won’t feel like it.
It may even be very difficult to get back into it.
But after 7-10 days, your body will be trained
and you’ll actually be looking forward
to your exercise routine.
Start with 15 minutes and increase by 5 minutes every day.
Pretty soon you’ll be rocking along with everybody
at the gym.

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Don’t Overdose On Nuts and Fat


When you stop eating meat, tofu and cheese,
there aren’t many “filling foods” left.
For that reason, most raw-foodists initially eat
too many nuts and seeds.
Many continue that pattern for many years.
Eating too many nuts and seeds,
as well as eating too much fat in general,
will leave you tired
and will cause many health problems.
From what I have seen,
that’s one of the major reasons why most raw-foodists
are not experiencing exuberant health.

When you eat five avocados,
that’s the equivalent of almost an entire cup of oil.
How would you feel if you sat down and ate a cup of oil?
Yet, many raw-foodists don’t mind eating five avocados
a day. That is too much.
And that’s why they don’t feel so great.
So what’s the solution?
I would say that everybody is different.
So some people can eat more fat
while others will need less.
But, I’d say that almost every raw-foodist
would feel a lot better if they cut down their fat
consumption in half, and in some cases even more than that

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.
Eat Greens


It’s easy to eat fruit. Fruit is sweet,
and eating lots of it comes naturally.
It’s a no-brainer.
Because of that,
the natural tendency is to eat too much fruit
and not enough green vegetables.
This leads to several imbalances
and possibly nutritional deficiencies.
Let’s be honest with ourselves:
we don’t like green vegetables as much as fruit
. Who would honestly choose kale over a mango?
So what’s the solution? Simple enough:
make sure you eat at least one vegetable meal per day.
This meal should contain a good quantity
of green vegetables, either mixed in a salad
or blended in a raw soup.
It’s also a very good idea to drink one green juice
every day.

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Food Combine


Food combining is still valid, even for raw-foodists.
While we avoid most bad food combining
by avoiding cooked foods,
there are still a few bad food combinations
possible on a raw-food diet,
and they may start to matter when we repeat them everyday.
I would say that there are only two rules to remember.


1. Don’t mix fruit and nuts.
This combination can only work in small quantities,
but will definitely cause problems in larger quantities.
The worst combination is the mix of dried fruits and nuts
— although it is one of the most delicious.
Reserve for special occasions,
when preparing a raw dessert!

2. Avocados don’t combine with nuts.
This combination is especially difficult to digest.

As for the other combinations,
you can experiment with them and see what works for you.

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Avoid Dried Fruit


My current recommendation for dried fruit is simple:
don’t eat it, except rarely on special occasions.
The stuff is deadly.
It doesn’t matter if it’s organic, sun-dried
or imported from other planets:
it’s still too sweet and too addictive
and too difficult to digest.
Unless you can limit yourself to eating two dried figs
per day, avoiding dried fruit completely
will be easier and might greatly improve your health,
if you have been eating too much of it.
Instead, reserve dried fruits for special occasions,
when you’ll prepare a raw dessert with your friends
or children.

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Avoid Strong Spices and Irritating Foods


Not all raw foods are created equal.
Just the fact that a food is raw doesn’t make it healthy.
Generally, you can tell whether a food is good for you
by tasting it in its natural state,
without any combinations or seasoning.
If the taste is pleasant, it is good.
If your body rejects it,
it means it contains some poisons or toxins
that the body does not want.

So why do you persist eating hot peppers and onions
when those foods, when eaten in their natural state,
burn your tongue and make you spit them out.
Even children and animals won’t eat them,
and we should certainly follow their example.
They disturb digestion
and are very irritating to the digestive tract.
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Eat Right For Your Shoe Size


Why is it that some folks can get away with 4-5 hours
of sleep a night while others need 8-9
to be functioning normally?
Or that some people can eat a lot of fruit
and feel great while others run into serious problems
attempting to eat the exact same foods?
It’s becoming clear to me that there are two patterns
in people: those who can thrive on a low-fat,
carbohydrate-based diet
and those who are better off with some more fat
and fewer carbohydrates.
The proportions can vary from one person to another,
but that’s the general picture.
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Don’t simply do what the books tell you to do.


Do what works for you.
This means that there isn’t one diet for everybody.
A fruit based diet isn’t for everybody.
A green, Ann Wigmore-type diet isn’t for everybody.
And a 100% raw diet isn’t for everybody.

One of the best ways to find out what works for you
is to keep a food diary for a few weeks.
In this diary, you will write down everything
that you eat, at what time,
and how you feel throughout the day.
I’m sure that from studying your diary
you will see some patterns emerging
that will help you shape the best diet for you.

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Get a Life


For many raw-foodists,
food and diet have become an obsession.
They so are obsessed with food,
its quality, its “perfection”
that they stress out in the way
and forget to have fun.
They also forget that it will never be perfect,
no matter how hard you try,
and that there are other things that matter in life
in order to be healthy.

The best way to become less focused on food
is to be involved in an activity or hobby
where you don’t have to think about food.
It could be taking a class
to learn about digital photography,
learning to play the guitar,
engage in outdoor activities, and so on.

Food is just fuel —
what you do with your life is what matters!

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for more great aticles and recipes from Frederic go HERE





 

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