If an alcoholic quits their drinking habit, they are eliminating one damaging substance that they have been consistently intaking. In contrast, if a person goes on a 100% Raw Food Diet, they are simultaneously eliminating a VAST number of damaging substances from their intake, all at once. Not only is the Raw Foodist eliminating MASSES of damaging substances from their intake, but generally they have also been consuming this WIDE ARRAY of damaging items for decades on end (usually two to five decades). If you think that an alcoholic or drug addict has a challenging time getting past their addiction, talk to a 100% Raw Foodist and they will tell you what detoxification is really all about!
I would guess that 99 out of 100 people who attempt a 100% Raw Food Diet do not continue eating this way in the long-term. Why is this? Because when a person starts eating 100% raw, they feel like CRAP from the detoxification. If this detoxification isn’t handled well over time, they end up with Body Odor that reeks, I personally can’t comfortably get within 10 feet of their rank breath, and they often don’t look so healthy either. On top of that, there is usually a lack of support… (let me rephrase that)… there is a “strength of opposition”, from their close loved ones, including their friends and family members.
It is true that we all require a certain amount of calories and protein each day. However, in my opinion, we really require A LOT LESS than what is generally recommended. When someone starts a 100% Raw Food Diet and becomes inundated with toxins being released and running through their bloodstream, they don’t tend to feel well. They then try everything in their power to make the raw food diet work for them, such as fasting, increasing raw proteins, increasing calories, etc. However, these methods usually don’t work, because the true cause of their problems is the detoxification they’re experiencing. It is the internal outpouring of these toxins that slows people down, leaving them with low energy and intense odors. I feel that the easiest and best way to overcome this internal detoxification process is by cleansing the colon on a periodic basis. I encourage you to read the four articles that I have written on cleansing the colon by clicking HERE.
At some point, a person dealing with this kind of intense detox usually gives up eating 100% Raw. They then later believe that there is “not enough protein” and/or “not enough calories” available with a Raw Food Diet to sustain them. The truth of the matter though is that they were most likely inundated with toxins as they detoxed, slowing them down and leaving them feeling unhealthy. Bad breath and rank Body Odor are not a result from a “lack of protein” or calories.
How much protein and how many calories do we require?
I feel that we truly require a lot less of both than we usually think. In my opinion, one of the main purposes of food is to act as a “Detoxification Regulator”, which you can learn more about by reading the article HERE. Food helps to stop the outpouring of internal toxins from your cells. I estimate that at least half of the “energy” you might think that you get from food is simply due to the silencing of toxic cellular outpouring. The amount of calories that a person truly needs depends on how “clean” they are on a cellular level. The longer you have been eating raw, then the more toxins you will have eliminated. Your body becomes cleaner and cleaner with time. When your body becomes cleaner it also becomes more efficient. The more efficient your body becomes via a “cleaner” diet, the less food and calories you need to establish high energy levels. Simply put, your dependency on food lessens. Some years ago I did some testing with myself to see how little I would have to eat to truly sense that a “lack of calories” was affecting my energy levels. I carried out this experiment for about three weeks in a row. I kept eating less and less…and my energy levels kept going up and up. I had to take my diet down to eating only the following tiny amounts in the space of one day, all within a two hour time period, to be able to sense my energy levels were adversly affected:
1:30pm 8oz of green vegetable juice (15 minute digestion time)
2:00pm 4 ripe fresh figs (30 minute digestion time)
2:30pm 8oz of green vegetable juice (15 minute digestion time)
3:00pm 2 almonds, a spoonful of avocado, with a big pinch of sprouts
Nothing else was eaten throughout the rest of the day. This experiment was about seven years ago now. I believe that if I adhered to this same kind of intake today, I would surely have more energy now than I had when I attempted this seven years ago, because I am now so much more “cleaner” at a cellular level. For the last thirteen years I have been THRIVING on a 100% Raw Food Diet without any health issues whatsoever. I have more energy now than I have ever had before. I know of other 100% raw foodists who have eaten this way for many decades on end and experience the same kind of patterns. It’s very rare, for example, that you’ll find an 80 year old man who can get up and run five miles on the beach many times a week, like one long-term raw food eater friend of mine. Maintaining and enjoying a raw lifestyle is truly more about managing detox than facing a “lack of calories” or protein.