Grazing

[clouddancerss]

I'm wondering, how many people graze all day long, as opposed to eating 3 meals?

[rawpriestess]

Me, I do write down that it is Breakfast, lunch dinner, with snacks, but basically I get up somwhere between 7am to 10am have cup of tea, 1 hour later, a piece of fruit, 1 hour later, another piece of fruit, an hour later somethinge, an hour later something else, etc. it just goes on like that all day, a piece of fruit here, a glass of juice there, etc.


I eat until I go to bed, sometimes, I only have fruit juice all day, but most days, I eat fruit all day, have one cup of soup or one burger patty for dinner, and that's it, I'm happy

[Cinnamon]

I am a grazer, no set times to eat and seem to just nibble all day long. If I set times or limit myself to 2 or 3 meals a day I just set myself up for binge eating and cooked foods.

I have a green juice, green smoothie, nut pate, green salads, fruit salads, banana ice cream, raw desserts... all of this and more most everyday!

[DavidZaneMason]

-I eat rather small meals....perhaps every 2 hours....until nightfall.

-David Mason

[RawChicky]

I eat when I want to and I stop when I am full. Sometimes this results in grazing, sometimes just 1 or 2 large meals a day.

[Graciebeliever]

I don't always eat when I get up. I drink some water but I don't wake up ravenous anymore.

Fruit always in the morning usually Mangos cuz I Love em.
I make a smoothy or Mango-Banana pudding :) Mangos + Banana + Blender = Pudding! hehe
I love fresh OJ too

Another piece of fruit or juice an hour later

Around 11ish I start craving green stuff and salads so I have one!
My fav is diced zucchini, raw corn, crushed tomatos, some sea salt, kelp sprinkles and If I am craving fats, some avocado. Yummy

After an hour or so some Grapes/cherries/clementines or pineapple

late afternoon I need something complex tasting.
I made sprouted sunflower pate today with some tahini and spices and ZOOM dipped it with red pepper. Sooo good.

I try to stay light on supper just because I want to wind down for the night and let my body regen.

Cantalope smoothie or Watermelon soup

I guess you would call that grazing :)

[sport]

grazing is probably not good for your teeth because they never get a chance to get rid of the acid.

[Judy]

I don't graze and have never done so, guess I just don't like it. I also don't eat 'three meals a day' exactly, it is a rule made up by society, I eat when I'm hungry. Usually that would be something like 3 to 5 meals a day with intervals that last a couple of hours. When I think of grazing, I think of munching or snacking all day long and that's not exactly what I do. I never eat only a small hand of nuts, or a little fruit because usually that isn't enough, I just eat properly until I'm satisfied. Sometimes this can be one fruit, but most of the time it's more. So no little snacks, only meals. I also ate this way when I ate cooked, only you could say that the amount per meal is way less now (because a cooked meal and a raw meal are definitely not the same).

Besides that, I agree with sport, it is probably not so good for your teeth. It takes a couple of hours for the enamel to rebuild itself after a meal (especially fruits) or after drinking something other than water, so if you eat very often with small time intervals or sip on fruit juice all day long, your enamel doesn't get the chance to fully remineralize and that may cause problems in the long run, like cavities and worn enamel. Besides minding not to graze too much, taking good care of your teeth (rinsing your mouth with a little water after fruit meals, brushing & flossing properly once or twice a day) also helps to keep your teeth and gums healthy. You might want to do more research on this subject. However, if you have never experienced any problems with your teeth and grazing works for you, well then... Your own experience is always the most important guideline.

[Graciebeliever]

I am glad to hear some more Info on how Raw Vegan eating affects the teeth.

I, myself have noticed a change in how my mouth feels after eating all these lovely Fruits! I have solved this by placing a neat little container of baking soda in my cabinet and brushing a LOT!
After I drink or eat fruit (and salads too actually) I give them a quick once over and I floss at least once a day. A rinse of of Hydrogen Peroxide is great too and leaves the teeth smooth and gums happy :)

[Revvell]

Grazer.

Revvell

[misslinda]

I don't graze b/c I am a believer in that the stomach ( begining with saliva) need a rest. Personally if I grazed all day, my saliva glands would always be salvitating and my stomach enzymes on edge to keep working.

I eat every 2-3 hurs depending on the food. If I do melons, I eat an hour or two if I was still hungry otherwise it's water. If I do sub-acid fruits, I wait 3 hours etc etc.

:)

[Judy]

About the tooth brushing, I have read that you better wait at least half an hour after a meal before brushing, because the acid softens the enamel and when you brush immediately, you will damage it even more and your body has to work harder to remineralize. Flushing with a bit of water (which brings back the ph level in your mouth to neutral) or a tiny bit of salt (which does the same and also stimulates your saliva gland) directly after a (fruit) meal seems to be better and then wait at least half an hour before brushing. Tooth picks or floss can also be used when you have fruity gunk between your teeth, like after strawberries or when you have eaten dried fruits.
By the way, a good flossing (always floss! I didn't use to but the dentist recommended it saying it really helps to prevent plaque and cavities and it was a blessing for my teeth) and brushing is only needed once or twice a day. You can also brush too much, in fact, although brushing cleans the teeth from plaque and food leftovers (don't know the English word) which can cause tooth decay, it also damages the enamel and then, yes, then it has to remineralize. So you may not want to brush too often and use a soft brush. It is said that really hard brushes can damage your enamel very much, and a soft brush and brushing gently for a longer period is better.
Brushing the gums while your at it also keeps them (extra) healthy and brushing the tongue, like Indian people do (and other Asians, I'm from Indonesian heritage and my mother taught me to brush my tongue), which contain the most bacteria. Brushing your tongue is especially pleasant when you have (detox) symptoms like a white tongue or first thing in the morning.

And yes, personally I've also noticed the 'acidy' stuff and the way my mouth feels after eating fruits too. I don't have this with vegetables (which have an alkaline/salty ph level I believe). Once, I ate this pineaple that was just too acid. My tongue and gums, it felt like they had burnt or something! It took half an hour or more before my mouth felt normal again.
So as far as the fruit is concerned, the water trick really helped and I also dip my finger in some salty mineral tooth powder and suck on that to help my toothies (salt is alkanizing, so it helps to neutralize the acid).
I also started using a soft hand tooth brush from the Swiss brand Curaprox, which contain special hairs that removes more plaque in a very gently manner, and some natural tooth powder containing minerals that gently clean the teeth and gums, and helping to remineralize quicker. Since taking care of my teeth this way, I've noticed they have just flourished.

I'm not a know it all in the teeth department and I may be wrong or incomplete on some points, but I did do my research and had my experiments (like using hard brushes, brushing to often, hardly brushing, using electric brush, or hand brushes, no flossing and so on what effects that had on my teeth), so I hope this information can be of help to you too. I've read of some raw foodists (Sergei Boutenko and Frederic Patenaude are two of them) who stopped brushing their teeth because they thought: 'Well, I eat all natural now, and animals don't brush their teeth either', and they got (a lot) of cavities. Frederic Patenaude wrote he hasn't got a single tooth left that hasn't been filled. Especially eating lots of fruits and worse, dried fruits (concentrated sugars, and very sticking to your teeth) and NOT brushing... Then they started to do research and started brushing again and rinse with water after meals and in time their enamel got stronger.
Here in The Netherlands they have this saying that used to hang in the dentist office (printed on a large poster), that translated goes something like this: 'Instead of candy, eat an apple', saying it is better for your teeth. However, lately researchers have found out this saying is outdated, and fruits can be damaging to the teeth also because of the fruit acid. Of course, your body can handle a lot, but grazing all day long especially on fruits doesn't give your teeth enough time in between meals to remineralize and can cause tooth problems.
There may be some people out there who don't experience any problems when not brushing at all (if so, I like to hear from you!) and I can imagine that when you are raw for a long period, your teeth become very very strong and may be capable of taking total care of themselves, but for the people who like to be informed and are new to raw, this information might come in handy and they may want to use it.

[Vegan Diva]

I'm a grazer I don't have a set time when I eat. I only eat when I'n hungry. I noticed after making the transition to raw I don't need to eat as much food.

[clouddancerss]

I was meaning eating every couple of hours at the most, sort of spread it out.As far as the teeth are concerned, if you rinsed your teeth on a regular basis, preferably right after you eat, wouldn't that rinse the acid off the teeth pretty well? Also, for what it's worth, my dentists told me you can't brush too often, but you don't have to use toothpaste every time.

[Revvell]

I was meaning eating every couple of hours at the most, sort of spread it out.As far as the teeth are concerned, if you rinsed your teeth on a regular basis, preferably right after you eat, wouldn't that rinse the acid off the teeth pretty well?.


nod,nod,nod. Of course grazers don't just eat continuously. The difference in grazing to me and having regular meals is ~ eat when hungry not at set times. That would be, as you say, every couple of hours therefore the stomach does get rest. The upside is, the metabolism keeps going and studies have found that those who eat 5-6 small meals a day (a meal can be a peach or two or a handful of cherries) have an easier time of eliminating weight if that be their desire.

Revvell