Can't believe what I saw on 20/20, things are starting to change

[raweater]

20/20 was talking about vitamins this Friday night. I couldn't believe what they were saying, things like:
-Don't take synthetic vitamin supplements, get your vitamins from fruits and vegetables
-Vitamin D is the red hot topic in medicine, if there is a miracle vitamin, vitamin D might be it
-Vitamin D prevents most cancers, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and mutiple sclerosis
-Most americains are vitamin D defficient
-The best way to get vitamin D is from going in the sun without sunscreen
-Most people are at serious risk of vitamin D defficiency due to lack of sun exposure
-Sunscreen blocks the production of vitamin D

Things are starting to change, slowly but surely.

[RawSinger]

Wow! A step in the right direction! Thanks for sharing :)

[freespirit]

It is so weird to me that people avoid the sun so diligently when it is so obviously the driving force of life on earth. Sun cancer is nothing more then toxins being eliminated through the skin and oxidizing on the surface and if we eliminate toxins from our diet- voila! no more skin cancer. its so amazing to me that more people dont make simple connections like that- how could the sun possibly be bad for us???

[domestic goddess]

I have a severe Vit D deficiency despite the fact I have never been a fan of sunscreen. And, I am a nature lover and am always in the sun. My children are also deficient, and they too get plenty of sun. I am really wondering if there is more to the Vit. D deficiency that has become SO prevalant, that they are going to discover...like something in the SAD diet that is perpetuating it...Before I became raw, I ate a fairly healthy veg/vegan diet and my children still do. Makes you wonder though...

[lytlsprout]

on 48 hours on thursday they had a thing about diets. And they had a 21 day detox one from california. the first week vegan with no sugar or coffee. second week raw, third week green smoothies. some woman lost 27 lbs doing it. most go back to eating sad, but with more veggies. they had julliano on. and then some doctor saying you can't get what you need from veggies if they aren't cooked. and i wanted to scream at the tv, yes you can. just because sometimes there are more if you cook them, your body only needs what it supplies when it's raw.

[lytlsprout]

I saw the thing with vitamin d too. i almost never where sunscreen unless i'm going to be outside for a long time, like all day or hours. i think the sun is good for us. but i have fair skin and sunburns hurt.

[Aleesha Sattva]

tomato juice... make it fresh, drink it and you won't burn!!!

i have to say... this stuff isn't new. i think it's more that you are all more sensitive to hearing it. i've heard (on tv and in other medias) for years that eating more fruit and veggies are good for you and to get your vitamins from them.

the problem is... when most people hear that they think of celery sticks or carrots. they don't think about raw lasagna and fruit salad!

[raweater]

I have a severe Vit D deficiency despite the fact I have never been a fan of sunscreen. And, I am a nature lover and am always in the sun. My children are also deficient, and they too get plenty of sun. I am really wondering if there is more to the Vit. D deficiency that has become SO prevalant, that they are going to discover...like something in the SAD diet that is perpetuating it...Before I became raw, I ate a fairly healthy veg/vegan diet and my children still do. Makes you wonder though...

Do you have dark skin? The darker your skin, the longer you need to be in the sun to make vitamin D. You can also take natural supplements (most vitamin supplements are synthetic, some fish oils would be a good natural source).

[KitaKazoo]

on 48 hours on thursday they had a thing about diets. And they had a 21 day detox one from california. the first week vegan with no sugar or coffee. second week raw, third week green smoothies. some woman lost 27 lbs doing it. most go back to eating sad, but with more veggies. they had julliano on. and then some doctor saying you can't get what you need from veggies if they aren't cooked. and i wanted to scream at the tv, yes you can. just because sometimes there are more if you cook them, your body only needs what it supplies when it's raw.

Was it Dr. Fuhrman? People tend to over simplify what he says about cooking some vegetables. I've been studying his diet - hoping to find a way to get my very overweight and 70 year old diabetic mother to get well without having to change so much as doing a full raw food diet.

Dr. Fuhrman has a modified raw diet he uses to cure many diabetics. When you consider that most diabetics are probably the worst eaters in our society and the hardest to change... His diet has to include some things his patients are used to or they would just reject it.

However, his diet is only 15-20% cooked. It is the raw foods he suggests, mostly greens that heal.

The things he has people cook are mostly things they could be blending instead (like collard greens and broccoli) but because of his patients resistance to change is too far out of their comfort zone to eat like that... Even though it is simpler. He claims that the way he has them cook does give the vegetables the same availability with very little loss of nutrition.

He teaches that the live enzymes in raw foods do not equate enzymes we use to digest with. That our body produces the enzymes to digest from the nutrients in our foods. There fore cooking soups and steamed vegetables is acceptable in small quantities. (I am not an expert on this so I will not say if I believe this or not yet.)

He also allows some cooked potatoes, tomatoes and other vegetable if they are in a soup. He also allows a small amount of cooked grains.

I think that it is interesting that despite his diet including cooked foods the 80% raw green veggies heal even the sickest of his patients. It is a real testimony to raw foods.

[lytlsprout]

no i don't think so. it was someone that was very anti-raw.

[Seabie]

I am really happy to hear that it was not a negative report on vitamins. That's usually what gets the main focus. I have olive skin tone and I was Vit. D deficiant. I decided to meet with a nutritionist and holistic doctor. I learned the difference between synthetic vit. and ones from whole food sources. I also learned that D3 is a much better vit. D for the body. I made the choice to supplement with a product that is made from Cod. It doesn't have the old fashion cod liver oil nasty taste. I also learned that if a cod product smells and taste nasty it probably isn't fresh and shouldn't be consumed. Anyway, I was really surprised at the difference in the way I felt and my complexion after taking the product for 2 months. So I am really pleased to hear that the report actually let people know that there is a difference with the synthetic vitamins! So many people go out and get cheap vitamins from the discount super store and think it's all the same thing. When they don't get results they think all vitamins are alike and give up on them.

Aleesha - good tip on the tomato juice! I didn't know that.

[Apasaraw]

It is so weird to me that people avoid the sun so diligently when it is so obviously the driving force of life on earth. Sun cancer is nothing more then toxins being eliminated through the skin and oxidizing on the surface and if we eliminate toxins from our diet- voila! no more skin cancer. its so amazing to me that more people dont make simple connections like that- how could the sun possibly be bad for us???

It didn't USED to be bad for us. But now we have thinning in our planet's protective ozone layer. As children we never burned...now we all do and cancer abounds from the overexposure to UV radiation. The filters in our atmosphere for UV rays are very thin and in some cases over Australia and the US...there are big gaping holes.

[lytlsprout]

tomato juice... make it fresh, drink it and you won't burn!!!

Funny thing is I hate tomato juice. i don't even really like tomatoes.

[FloridaPatty]

you need to use a soap that does not take off the natural oils from your body. The body needs those oils to make the vitamin D.

As for getting a sun burn when I was a kid, I sure remember them. My dad got one about half a century ago. We'd get them when we went to the beach when we lived up north. We palyed outside in summer and winter. We'd drink unpasturized milk and milk products, and all spring, summer and fall we'd eat fresh fruit and veggies. I was thinking about meat the other day. Salami and Italalian cold cuts. Those meats were made by pressing the meat in a dirt floor celler for several months - probably thereby giving them enzymes.

My theory on skin cancer - how about all that chlorize in swimming pools? I do remember spending the summers all day in those pools though.

[walnutty]

Question, then?

As a raw vegan, what would be my best source for vitamin D?

Other than the sun...

[raweater]

You cannot get enough vitamin D through diet, it must come from the sun by going in the sun without any sunscreen, natural or not, and with most of your skin exposed, not just forearms and face. If you cannot do this, the second best source is *natural* vitamin D supplements such as fish oils, the synthetic supplements are worst than worthless and are likely damaging. I'm not sure if there are natural vegan sources in supplements though. Dr. Mercola www.mercola.com has a lot of info on vitamin D. It's also important not to overdose as it can cause severe problems.

[walnutty]

Found this on wikipedia:

Mushrooms provide over 2700 IU per serving (approx. 3 oz or 1/2 cup) of vitamin D2, if exposed to just 5 minutes of UV light after being harvested; this is one of a few natural food-based sources of vitamin D for vegans.