http://fluffygroovy.com/raw-vegan-diet.htm
1. Introduction
Having adopted a vegan diet about a year ago, I’ve recently started experimenting with raw ingredients. Most of the experimentation was done at work. I would pack food at home and eat it at work, either at my desk or at the local canteen. My work colleagues noticed this and took interest in what it was that I was eating. They reacted very positively, to the point where some of them decided to try it out for themselves.
Their reaction took me by surprise. Vegan food doesn’t usually entice regular meat-eaters, at least not in my experience. I agreed to bring similar food for them as well, just for a few days to help them get started. This way they could see what it consists of and in what quantities, and get a sense of how well it supports them nutritionally. It occurred to me then that other people may also take interest in the diet and find this information useful.
2. Background
I’m not a dietician, nor do I have any formal training in the field of nutrition. My knowledge of the subject derives entirely from informal reading. I wanted to stress this so as to avoid unwarranted and potentially hazardous assumptions about the effectiveness of the diet. It is simply something that I’ve been experimenting with in recent months, with good results. I’ve read up on nutritional content of various foods, but not exhaustively. Nor have I submitted the diet to any official organisation in the field of nutrition for its stamp of approval. I wouldn’t know whether someone else has already done this for a similar diet.
I created the diet to suit my work conditions, which involve a lot of sitting at a desk in an office environment. While I’ve done my best to introduce exercise into this setting – with regular walks, using the stairs and going to gym – physical inactivity still predominates. Please bear this in mind when trying to apply the diet to a different setting, as it might require modifications to make it suitable.
Lastly, the diet described below is not the sum total of what I eat during the day. I also have cereal with soy milk, seeds and carrot salad either in the morning before going to work, or in the evening after coming home. Sometimes I also make vegetable stew, risotto or stir fry, usually on the weekends.
3. Food Composition
As the title of the document suggests, the diet consists entirely of ingredients that are non-animal in origin, which are mostly consumed raw. The only ones not eaten raw are grains (wheat, rice, corn) and tubers (potato, sweet potato).
The ingredients are as follows:
- Vegetables. I typically use some combination of the following: lettuce, avocado, peas, tomato, cucumber, onion, green pepper, garlic, mushroom, peppadews, capers and olives.
- Fruit. I typically use some combination of the following: banana, apple, pear, naartjie, kiwi, strawberries and dates.
- Nuts. I use a mixture of macadamia, cashew, almond and hazelnut.
- Grains. Usually whole-wheat rolls, sometimes corn as well.
- Tubers. Usually sweet potato, sometimes ordinary potato.
This selection can obviously be extended to include other ingredients. The above list is what I can find in the shops where I live (Johannesburg, South Africa) or grow myself. It will definitely expand in summertime to encompass other seasonal fruit. Here are some suggestions as to how to expand it, again based on what I can find locally:
- Vegetables. Several lettuce varieties can be used, as well as supplemented with spinach, cabbage, parsley and rocket. Carrots are an obvious addition, one that I consume separately, as a carrot salad (grated carrots mixed with raisins and orange/mango juice). Young broad beans can be added to peas (I’m not mad about the taste of raw green beans). Different kinds of olives and mushrooms can be used. Other vegetables can also be included, such as broccoli, aubergine and cauliflower.
- Fruit. Variety is somewhat limited in winter and spring time, despite refrigeration and imports. During summer and autumn, I will definitely add mango, watermelon, grapes, plums, nectarines, and other fruit.
- Nuts. The selection can be expanded to include peanuts, walnuts, pecan nuts, pistachios, Brazil nuts and mongongo nuts. Roasted chestnuts are a favourite of mine, though very difficult to find here.
- Grains. Several other grain varieties come to mind – barley, oats, rye, etc, as well as their derivatives – bread, pasta, couscous, and so on. I guess it all depends on the region.
- Seeds are another obvious addition – pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, linseed, etc.
To give you a better idea, here is a sample photograph of what I take to work:
4. Consumption Pattern
I would like to point out a significant difference between the way food is customarily consumed in our society and the eating habit that I’ve developed with this diet. The common approach to eating is to observe structured meal times during which sizeable portions are consumed, sometimes larger than what the person was hungry for, and between which one typically refrains from eating. The approach that I follow is to rely on my body’s cravings to tell me what to eat, when to eat it, and how much.
For example, I might feel a craving for nuts mid-morning. After eating a handful, the craving might go away, in which case I will stop eating. It might also be replaced with a craving for fruit, in which case I’ll switch from nuts to an apple or a banana. An hour later, the salad might appear particularly appetising, so I’ll have a bite of every vegetable in it. And so on.
I find that packing more food than I can reasonably expect to eat that day helps me in this regard. The idea is to have enough food of each type available in sufficient quantities to satisfy the cravings, which do change somewhat from day to day. The leftovers can be eaten at home in the evening, or the next day.
An important habit to develop with this approach to eating is not to eat the food because there is still some left on the plate and needs to be finished, but only because the body needs it. Otherwise, overeating will occur.
5. Effects
As a vegan diet, it features the benefits and drawbacks typically associated with consumption of strictly plant-based food. Rather than go into the discussion of animal cruelty and environmental impact, however, I will mention the consequences that have affected me directly:
- Sensation. The diversity of ingredients and colour make the food very appealing visually. It also gives a particularly pleasant, fresh aroma. I have come to appreciate the variety of flavour that it has to offer, particularly the strongly tasting ingredients like peppadews and olives that dominate the meal. Perhaps surprisingly, other people who have tried it have likewise appreciated the flavour, even though meat and dairy were conspicuous by their absence.
- Nutrition. As far as I can tell, the diet is well balanced nutritionally. It is able to satisfy all the cravings that I experience during the day. Other people who have tried it didn’t find themselves craving meat. The fruit was sufficient to satisfy their desire for something sweet.
- Weight loss. After becoming a vegan, I lost 12 kg / 26 lbs pretty quickly before my weight stabilised at about 78 kg / 172 lbs (my ideal weight is about 70 kg / 154 lbs). Changing to the raw diet resumed the weight loss, at the rate of about 1 kg / 2 lbs every two weeks. What I like the most about it is that the weight loss can be sustained because the diet integrates well with my lifestyle and is nutritionally balanced. It is not a crash diet that works by depriving the body of some essential nutrient, and that eventually has to be abandoned for that reason.
- Health. Gradual consumption of food is able to sustain high energy levels throughout the day. It has also had a positive effect on my skin, where some of the very rough skin on my fingers that I’ve had for several years has recently healed. The women who have tried it have noticed a marked improvement in their digestion. I don’t go for medical check ups, so I wouldn’t know about the effects on blood pressure, cholesterol and the like.
- Boredom. Seeing that the food that I pack from day to day is much the same, I expected this to develop fairly quickly, as did other people who have taken interest. Surprisingly, it hasn’t. I suspect that this is because it contains a lot of ingredients to begin with, none of which are consumed in large quantities. Other food that I eat away from work also helps.
- Cost. It is considerably lower than that of popular diets that include animal products, especially meat, cheese and various junk foods. I can’t be sure how much lower because I grow some of the food at home. Nuts, seeds and out-of-season fruit can be quite expensive, but are typically consumed in considerably lower quantities than expensive animal products. Not cooking the food also helps.
- Convenience. The food is quick and easy to prepare, seeing that it involves very little cooking.
- Inconvenience. The other side of the coin is that precious few restaurants and fast food outlets even attempt to offer a balanced meal made from raw plant-based ingredients. The same goes for food prepared by people I know. It is usually easy enough to have such a meal put together if one is willing to ask, but this is inconvenient in itself.
6. Conclusion
I hope that this gives you a good idea of what the diet consists of and what to expect from it. All of the ingredients are listed. It doesn’t involve any additional seasoning, not even salt or sugar. No processing is involved, other than peeling and cutting the food. The only exception is grains and tubers, which are cooked (in a general sense, not necessarily boiled in water).
Even though I’ve only been on this diet for a couple of months, I’ve already noticed some positive effects. The sudden skin improvement was an eye-opener for me. It made me appreciate the marvel of the human body and how well it can work, provided that one takes good care of it. I can only wonder how much better it would be if I were to move away from a city and its polluted air, chemically treated water and fast-paced lifestyle.
7. Addendum – Nutritional Value of Food
A widely shared concern when it comes to vegan food is just how nutritionally sound it is. Can it supply us with enough protein? Complete protein? What about calcium, iron and other minerals? Vitamins? Omega fatty acids? And so on.
The purpose of this section is to provide a nutritional overview of the food that I’ve listed earlier in the document. I’ve omitted references to cooked vegan food that I occasionally eat (stew, risotto and stir fry) in an effort to give an accurate picture of the nutritional value of the diet. I’ve also ignored several exceptional foods (poppy seeds, garlic, parsley) because they are typically not consumed in sufficient quantities to significantly affect nutrient intake, as nutritionally rich as they may be.
The bold entries at the bottom of some of the tables contain foods that do not constitute a part of the diet, but were included only for the sake of comparison. Figures are also expressed in terms of the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI). Please bear in mind that all of these values are approximate, due to differences between cultivars, growing conditions, and variations across sources of information. Similarly, the dietary recommendations depend on age, weight and gender (the figures given are for adult males), have been revised over the years, and still vary across countries.
Most of the information in this section was obtained from NutritionData.com, with supplements from The Vegetarian Society and Wikipedia.
7.1 Energy
The diet is fairly high in energy, thanks mainly to the inclusion of nuts and seeds, whose energy supply exceeds several times those of many commonly consumed animal products. Though much lower, the contribution of grains is also worthwhile. In this instance, RDI refers to a 2000 calorie diet.
| Food | Energy (cal / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Macadamia nut | 718 | 36 |
| Pecan nut | 691 | 35 |
| Sesame seed kernel | 631 | 32 |
| Sunflower seed kernel | 584 | 29 |
| Whole-wheat bread | 247 | 12 |
| Fried pork bacon | 533 | 27 |
| Roasted chicken drumstick | 216 | 11 |
| Cooked salmon | 182 | 9 |
| Boiled egg | 155 | 8 |
| Milk | 64 | 3 |
7.2 Carbohydrates
Unlike animal products, which are largely devoid of carbohydrates, plant-based diet supplies them in abundance. The main contributors are again nuts, seeds and grains, though fruit and vegetables are not far behind.
| Food | Carbohydrate (g / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Chestnut | 44 | 34 |
| Cashew nut | 33 | 25 |
| Flax seed kernel | 29 | 22 |
| Whole-wheat bread | 41 | 32 |
| Long-grain white rice | 28 | 22 |
| Banana | 23 | 18 |
| Baked sweet potato | 21 | 16 |
The same is true for fibre. It would be fair to say that plant-based food provides fibre as easily as animal-based food provides protein. The daily requirement is easily met without trying. The big-hitters are listed below, but many other foods pitch in.
| Food | Fibre (g / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Flax seed kernel | 27 | 72 |
| Almond | 12 | 32 |
| Hazelnut | 10 | 26 |
| Avocado | 7 | 18 |
| Pea | 5 | 13 |
7.3 Protein
With protein, it is a different story. Care must be taken to ensure adequate intake. As usual, nuts and seeds lead the way. Legumes are not too far behind, even when not fully matured (so that they can be eaten raw). Some other vegetables and grains also contain useful amounts of protein. Fruit contains very little.
| Food | Protein (g / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Pumpkin seed kernel | 25 | 44 |
| Sunflower seed kernel | 21 | 37 |
| Almond | 21 | 38 |
| Pistachio nut | 21 | 37 |
| Green soybean | 13 | 23 |
| Green pea | 5 | 10 |
| Whole-wheat bread | 13 | 23 |
| Long-grain white rice | 3 | 5 |
| Broccoli | 3 | 5 |
| Cauliflower | 2 | 4 |
| Fried pork bacon | 38 | 68 |
| Roasted chicken drumstick | 27 | 48 |
| Cooked salmon | 25 | 45 |
| Boiled egg | 13 | 23 |
| Milk | 3 | 5 |
The situation is further complicated by the need to consume all of the amino acids that the body cannot produce. It is not sufficient to simply eat the required quantity of protein; that protein must also be complete. This is where animal-based foods excel. With plants, the challenge is met by combining complementary foods. The frequent recommendation is to mix grains with pulses, but simply eating a variety of protein-rich foods (nuts, seeds, grains, legumes and some other vegetables) should guarantee the intake of all the essential amino acids.
All of the protein sources in the table below whose score is less than 100 need to be consumed with complementary food (within several hours of each other) to ensure that the body acquires all of the amino acids that it needs.
| Food | Protein completeness score |
|---|---|
| Pumpkin seed kernel | 136 |
| Sunflower seed kernel | 88 |
| Pistachio nut | 109 |
| Cashew nut | 100 |
| Cauliflower | 103 |
| Broccoli | 72 |
| Green soybean | 85 |
| Green pea | 84 |
| Cooked salmon | 148 |
| Milk | 137 |
| Roasted chicken drumstick | 133 |
| Boiled egg | 132 |
| Fried pork bacon | 120 |
| Cooked mature soybean | 118 |
7.4 Fat
Unlike animal food, where fat is so common that it must be avoided, with plant food, care must be taken to ensure adequate supply. Nuts and seeds really shine in this department, with a couple of vegetables also making a worthwhile contribution. Macadamia nut deserves special mention for containing 76% fat, 78% of which is monounsaturated. Grains, fruit and other vegetables have very low fat content. In this instance, RDI is based on a 2000 calorie diet.
| Food | Fat (g / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Macadamia nut | 76 | 117 |
| Pecan nut | 72 | 111 |
| Sesame seed kernel | 61 | 94 |
| Sunflower seed kernel | 52 | 80 |
| Avocado | 15 | 23 |
| Olives | 11 | 17 |
It is worth mentioning that none of the above fatty foods contains any cholesterol. This is to be expected since plant-based food in general doesn’t contain cholesterol.
Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids can be found in most foods, even those with low fat content. However, this is one area where a few hero foods (nuts and seeds) really shine. Most of them contain copious amounts of omega 6. Omega 3 is much more rare, with flax seeds being the main source (flax seed oil contains approximately 6 times more omega 3 than most fish oils).
| Food | Omega 3 (mg / 100 g) | Omega 6 (mg / 100 g) |
|---|---|---|
| Flax seed kernel | 15833 | 5278 |
| Sesame seed kernel | 263 | 25226 |
| Walnut | 9079 | 38092 |
| Pecan nut | 986 | 20630 |
| Avocado | 110 | 1689 |
| Olives | 64 | 847 |
| Cooked salmon | 2568 | 220 |
7.5 Vitamins
Having played a marginal role until now, this is where fruit and vegetables start coming into their own. Even so, they don’t often eclipse nuts and seeds in vitamin content. I will only mention the highlights, due to the large number of vitamins and the correspondingly high volume of data. I find that simply eating a variety of fruit and vegetables is usually sufficient to ensure adequate vitamin intake.
| Food | Vitamin A (mcg / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Baked sweet potato | 19217 | 384 |
| Carrot | 16705 | 334 |
| Food | Vitamin B1 (mg / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Flax seed kernel | 1.6 | 107 |
| Sunflower seed kernel | 1.5 | 100 |
| Macadamia nut | 1.2 | 80 |
| Pistachio nut | 0.9 | 60 |
| Food | Vitamin B2 (mg / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Almond | 1 | 60 |
| Button mushroom | 0.4 | 24 |
| Food | Vitamin B3 (mg / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Assorted peanuts | 18 | 88 |
| Sunflower seed kernel | 8 | 42 |
| Sesame seed kernel | 6 | 29 |
| Button mushroom | 4 | 18 |
| Food | Vitamin C (mg / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Broccoli | 93 | 155 |
| Strawberry | 82 | 137 |
| Sweet pepper | 80 | 133 |
| Cauliflower | 46 | 77 |
| Orange | 45 | 75 |
The only vitamins that I wasn’t able to obtain from plant sources are D and B12. Vitamin D is produced in the skin when exposed to sunlight. Both vitamins can typically be obtained from fortified cereals and soy milk.
7.6 Minerals
A similar pattern can be observed with minerals. Because all fruit and vegetables have something to contribute in this regard, eating variety is a prudent approach to take. Again, I will only list the figures for the few minerals that receive the most publicity.
| Food | Calcium (mg / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Almond | 264 | 26 |
| Flax seed kernel | 255 | 26 |
| Green soybean | 197 | 20 |
| Rocket | 160 | 16 |
| Milk | 119 | 12 |
| Food | Iron (mg / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Pumpkin seed kernel | 15 | 188 |
| Sesame seed kernel | 6.4 | 80 |
| Cashew nut | 6.7 | 84 |
| Green soybean | 3.6 | 45 |
| Spinach | 2.7 | 34 |
| Food | Potassium (mg / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Pistachio nut | 1025 | 22 |
| Flax seed kernel | 813 | 17 |
| Pumpkin seed kernel | 807 | 17 |
| Green soybean | 620 | 13 |
| Banana | 358 | 8 |
| Food | Sodium (mg / 100 g) | % of RDI |
|---|---|---|
| Capers | 2964 | 198 |
| Olives | 872 | 58 |
Somewhat ironically, the only mineral that I struggled to acquire from plant sources is sodium. The above table lists the only plant foods that I could find that contain it in appreciable quantities. Of course, this is easily remedied by simply adding salt to the food.
