How raw am I?

[paleogirl]

Hello all!

I hear a lot of talk about 90% raw, 95% raw, etc. I'm curious as to what I would be classed as. Right now I eat all raw except for one portion of cooked meat or fish at dinner (the rest of the dinner is raw, only the fish/meat is cooked).

Here is my typical day's food:

Breakfast -
avocado
raw porridge (one apple, 3 handfuls raw soaked almonds, 1 T cinnamon, 1 t celtic salt and a splash of water blended). I usually only eat a third to half of this, and finish it off later in the day as a snack

Lunch
baby carrots, Whole Foods raw mashed potatoes (cauliflower, cashews, lemon, salt... can't remember the rest, but it's raw and delicious as a carrot dip!)
A large juice (usually carrot, spinach, apple, ginger)

Dinner
salad - spinach, alfalfa sprouts, baby tomatoes
portion of cooked fish/meat - salmon, haddock, grassfed organic steak
Maybe another juice after dinner.

Snacks -
ginger larabar
apple or pear with raw almond butter

filtered water and green tea throughout the day.

At the weekend I endulge in some lovely dessert from the Whole Foods raw bar - maybe a raw cheesecake or cinnamon roll. They are so rich one piece lasts as a treat for a few days. :)

I would love to juice for breakfast but I find the sugar content sends me into a mental fog if I drink juice on an empty stomach, so it's better tolerated after dinner.

Based on this diet I am feeling the benefits of being raw but without the super-bad detox I experienced when I tried to be 100% raw off the bat. The only days I am 100% raw are if I have sashimi for dinner. Gets expensive though so that's a once a week thing.

So the rest of the time, what am I - 90% raw? 95%?

Thanks guys!

[lissomllama]

Your diet sounds pretty yummy! I would say you are 95% raw but that's just how I notice it. I spent most of the time fantasizing about how yummy all those raw foods sound (I'm on a fast so I've been thinking about raw creations all day, hehe)

[karenisraw]

I would say you are about 95-97% raw.

k :)

[sport]

I think that you are doing very well but would suggest the following.
I think that it would be better to be less raw and drop the animal produce than to be all raw and eating them.
Please read "The China Study"
Victoria Butenko also suggests that it is better to have a diet that is not 100% raw but includes blended greens than one all raw and no blended greens.
Of course the ideal is 100% raw vegan with a large green smoothie every day.

[rawpriestess]

When people say they are 95 to 99% raw, it is usually because they include a canned olive or a tsp of liquid smoke or maybe 1 T of bottled salad dressing in a week's worth of meals.

I'd say you are about 75% RAW, but what is a number anyway,

If this works for you, then great. I wouldn't eat meat even if I was starving, haven't for over 11 years now, but it is an ethical thing for me, so that is just me.

You might try eliminating the meat and adding some nuts instead, or if you like sashimi, try making your own sushi out of raw nori, and cauliflower instead of rice, or even eat the rice if you wish, and eat other good things in there.

You can transition if it works for you, I can't eat any cooked, as It draws me right back into the cooked food binge world. again, this is just me

So, as long as you feel great doing this, there is no challenge.

WAY TO GO!!!

[gatorgrrl]

RP, I just learned that about myself. I thought I could just eat 1 or 2 cooked meals a week and be ok. Well all it did was make me sick and want more. So here I am trying to get cooked food off my mind when I had been doing soooo good. I am a little worried about myself. I am going to my grandparents this weekend and they live almost 5 hours away. It has been a long time since I did raw and went on a trip. I am trying to think of what foods I am going to take with me. I think I may just take some fruits and nuts. I am sure my grandmother has some raw vegetables and if she doesn't I guess I will go to the store and get me some. I know what my grandparents usually eat. For breakfast they have yogurt and eggs, for lunch they have salad and a boglone sandwich, and for dinner they have yogurt and sardines. Yuck! That is their idea of a healthy diet. I think it is very sad, but it works for them. My grandfather is always trying to get me to eat sardines and I keep telling him I don't eat meat especially if its cooked. He saids that I need the oils from them. I think I can live with my olive oil, LOL.

Any suggestions for my trip this weekend would be appreciated!

[LovingLife]

I'd say you're at least 95% raw. I used to figure percentages by comparing portions or food for food. But once Dr. Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live book) says in his 90%/10% lifetime plan -- he figures it by calorie to calorie. So that's how I figure it now. So if I'm eating cooked broccoli, for example, it wouldn't get as high a percentage as cooked bread.

Gatorgirl -- Maybe you could offer to "cook" for your grandparents while you're there. When I went to my parents for Thanksgiving last year, I shopped and made a few things to contribute to the dinner because my suggestions fell on deaf ears. :)

[rawpriestess]

Hi gatorgirl, I just came back from a 5 hour trip myself and this is how I handled it.


I made raviolies and marinara sauce, and the enchiladas, and some truffles and I froze everything in portions in baggies, or plastic tupperware tubs, put them in the cooler, then I brought cut up pineapple, several different kind of nuts and oranges, bananas, and apples and a couple of big jugs of ice water, I had my trusty swiss army knife with me (don't do this if you are flying) and we drove over.

we were delivering my son his new Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator that I bought him for his birthday, otherwise, I would have taken my 4 tray (which I have for traveling)

I just grabbed my containers as we went and ate fruits and nuts on the way, then when I got there.

When we got there that night, I had the enchiladas all nice and warm from the dehydrator, I brough the cashew sour cream with me and some salsa, so we all had that, then the next morning we had fresh fruit again, and the rawviolies for lunch, ate the truffles just here and there.

My granddaughters scarfed up all the fruit, so on the way home, we went to the store, and bought more to take with us on our journey back over the mountains, I also bought a bag of salad (I don't usually do this, but it looked good) and some lemon and tossed in some of the left over nuts we had and it was delicious. added some carrot and pea pods, and bought a tomato to toss in too, it was great.

it is really easy to travel and eat raw foods, you can always find a grocer or fruit stand along the way.

[Sharon in Colorado]

Percentages can be very confusing. Some people base their percentage on the amount of calories consumed, others the volume of food, others the number of meals. You might just call yourself high raw.

A large chunk of cooked meat would make up a considerable percentage due to its caloric denseness. If that is calorically one-third to two-thirds (as salad isn't highly caloric) of your dinner meal, you could be looking at about 80%. If you are really trying to determine a percentage I suggest figuring out the percentage of calories that meat (and anything else regularly consumed non-fresh like the dressing in your salad for instance) makes up of your entire day, on average.

Like RP I considered anything over 95% being raw but using non-fresh condiments and seasonings such as (any kind of) soy sauces, miso, commercially dried fruits and coconuts, nutritional yeast, olives, oils, vinegars, questionable nuts and nut butters, jarred spices, dehydrated foods, etc. Then again I personally classify that as being "all raw" instead of a percentage. I avoid identifying my own eating patterns with percentages.

[gatorgrrl]

RP,

Thanks so much for the travel advice. I am going to work on getting my food together this evening.

[LovingLife]

Then again I personally classify that as being "all raw" instead of a percentage. I avoid identifying my own eating patterns with percentages.

I like that Sharon.