Frederic Patenaude Raw Foods Diet

I’ve been involved in the raw food movement for over 15 years. Years ago, there was a thriving time of raw food events and festivals of all kinds.

Then over the last few years there has been a sort of “dead zone.”

Not many BIG live raw food events and festivals have taken place.

And for the few that did take place, I couldn’t really recommend them because they were all about consuming more supplements, cacao and superfoods, and not about eating REAL raw foods.

Now that’s all changed with an amazing festival that will probably be the biggest raw food event of all times, and this one is really promoting the RIGHT kind of raw food diet.

The Woodstock Fruit Festival 2012 will take place on August 20 – August 28 in beautiful upstate NY.

People from ALL over the world will be coming to this festival.

Including lots of long-timers and experts such as:

- Dr. Douglas Graham – an athlete and a raw vegan since 1978, an author
of 80/10/10 Diet book

- Dr. Robert Lockhart – raw vegan for about 30 years

- Anne Osborne – fruitarian for over 20 years, who brought up 2 children
on the fruitarian diet, an author of the book Fruitarianism – The Path to
Paradise

- Dan McDonald – raw vegan for about 10 years, youtube channel -

- Harley Johnstone aka Durianrider - low fat raw vegan, endurance
cyclist

- Don Bennett – low fat raw vegan for over 18 years, the director of the
Health 101 Institute

- Michael Arnstein aka The Fruitarian – low fat raw vegan, competitive
ultra distance runner

- Tony Wright – raw vegan and human consciousness researcher, the
co-author of Left in the Dark book presenting an outline of his theory
about human brain owing a part of its extraordinary development to the
biochemistry of a fruit diet.

- Dr. Samuel Mielcarski – low fat raw vegan for over 12 years, licensed
physical therapist.

- Karen Ranzi – raw vegan since 1995, author of “Creating Healthy Children”

- Chris Kendall – low fat raw vegan athlete,.

- Ellen Livingston – low fat raw vegan since 2002 and a yoga teacher,
www.LivingYogaNow.com;

- Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram – low fat raw vegan for over 7 years and a
founder of non-profit food co-op called Rawfully Organic.

- Mike Vlasaty – low fat raw vegan athlete and power-lifter.

I think this is something you definitely do not want to miss. The energy of a festival like the Woodstock Fruit Festival is amazing. You’ll come back home reenergized, with new insights that could change your life.

Check out these videos to get an idea:

You can find out more about the festival by going to:

http://www.thewoodstockfruitfestival.com/

I would recommend signing up early. I heard from the organizers that spots are filling up fast.

By the way, sorry about the use of the word “shit” but that’s actually a trend right now on YouTube. It basically means, crazy stuff certain groups for people say. So Veronica and I decided to make two videos on crazy stuff raw foodists say.

By the way, it’s supposed to be a joke! But of course, if you read between the lines, there’s truth behind this.

And to clarify for the 1000th time, I am NOT 100% raw.

Shit Raw Foodists Say

Shit Raw Foodists Say, Part 2

If you’re tired of the raw food confusion, read this:

Have you noticed that many raw food leaders, who once proclaimed that the 100% raw food diet is ideal no matter what, are now coming out of the closet and revealing that they themselves are eating some cooked food?

Raw foodists tend to make a big deal out of it, like when vegans give up and say that eating meat is okay, or politicians revealing that they do some drugs occasionally.

I’ve been looking forward to a new book by Victoria Boutenko. It finally came out today!

The book is called “Raw & Beyond – How Omega-3 Nutrition Is Transforming the Raw Food Paradigm“. You can get it at Amazon.com, or Amazon Canada, or Amazon UK.

The book is actually co-written by three authors: Victoria Boutenko, Elaina Love and Chad Sarno.

Strangely enough, the first part of the book, written by Victoria Boutenko, reminds me a bit of my book The Raw Secrets (published in 2002), where I explained how the raw food diet made me sick and debunked the “raw food is law” paradigm.

It seems that many people, through painful trial and error, are coming to the same conclusion.

I give Victoria a lot of credit, because she’s the one who used to say that eating 99% raw was “not enough.” In her first book “The 12 Steps to Raw Foods,” she talked about her amazing discovery of the raw food diet and the health transformation that her family had following it. She said that even 1% cooked food was enough to keep the cravings alive.

In Green for Life, Victoria acknowledged that raw foodists often reach a “plateau” in their health. But technically, a plateau is when you stop making progress. In this case, she talked about how her family and many people she knew actually got worse on the raw food diet, after a few years of non-stop improvements. She attributed it to a lack of greens in the raw food diet, and recommended green smoothies.

In this new book, she finally says it: I thought 100% raw was best, no matter what, but now I think it’s okay to eat some cooked foods.

I’m paraphrasing, of course.

In her introduction, she reminds me a lot of what I wrote in The Raw Secrets:

“For many years the theory of the raw food diet seemed so flawless to me that I couldn’t find any errors in it . I was following a 100% raw food lifestyle and I was trying to inspire as many others as possible to follow. Years later, to my surprise, I found major flaws hiding in two of my favorite statements:

“Anything raw is superior to anything cooked”
“Raw food is best for humans because all animals in the world consume 100% raw food.”

She then goes on to talk about her experience with green smoothies, and how that made an improvement. But, it was not enough.

“Adding green smoothies to our diet still did not bring us perfect health.”

Finally, she blames her raw food diet as being too high in fat, particularly in omega 6 fats found in nuts, seeds and oils. The book presents some excellent research on the topic.

Finally!

I’m so glad that Victoria finally agrees with the low-fat message, after all these years.

She even agrees that eating cooked foods is better than loading up on nuts and seeds, which is something, honestly, I never thought she would say, given Victoria’s strong stance against cooked foods.

I don’t agree with all of Victoria’s conclusions, such as the raw diet being harder to follow in colder climates due to lower quality produce, but her experience is nonetheless fascinating.

I think the raw food diet IS more difficult to follow in colder climates, but this has little to do with the quality of the produce. It has more to do with the colder temperature. Many people do manage if they find a supplier of imported tropical fruit they can buy in bulk.

In one chapter, she says:

“I still don’t know if it was a coincidence that my family first began to experience difficulties on a raw food diet after we moved from sunny Colorado to rainy Oregon. I think we would have avoided many of our health problems if we had included some cooked food in our diets right then, instead of loading on nuts and nut butters for several years.”

Elaina Love

In the second part of the book, Elaina Love also comes to similar conclusion. She even says “I have noticed that, for whatever reason, I often don’t look as healthy while eating a 100% raw diet. I can’t explain why. When I’ve added some cooked food back into my diet, people often say to me, “You look great! What are you doing?” I find it interesting that when I’m eating some cooked food instead of only raw, I get more compliments on my looks.”

As a side note to this, when I was younger, maybe 25 or 26, I used to be a lot skinnier. My face looked quite thin. Occasionally, I would binge on cooked foods, and not always the healthiest kind. The next day, I would go to a party and people would say, “You look good — stronger.”

In reality, my face was just puffy! But to people, that looked better than a skinny face.

I’m not saying that this is the same that Elaina Love experienced, but I’m just relating some of my experience on how people have perceived my looks based on their own weight expectations.

Chad Sarno: High Cholesterol on a Raw Food Diet

My favorite part of the book was the chapter written by Chad Sarno.

Chad is an amazing chef. I met him in Portland almost 10 years ago, when he was getting started and would design raw food menus for restaurants in London.

At the time, Chad would often eat large salads with kale and oil, and thought it was healthy.

In his chapter, he talks about his first blood test he got done after he was hired to be a chef for Whole Foods Market. He discovered that his cholesterol was high, and that his triglycerides were off the chart.

So what did he do? He decided to go on a 100% whole food diet, with no agave, no maple syrup, no coconut oil, no olive oil. He focused on greens, beans and grains.

In four mouths, his cholesterol dropped by 100 points and his triglycerides went back to normal.

Chad was eating a typical raw food diet with some gourmet dishes, and his blood test was showing him that he was at a high risk for heart disease, even according to American standards, which are not the healthiest in the world.

The he talks about his change in diet, and why he’s living an oil-free lifestyle (I just came up with that phrase!).

He eats beans, grains, whole foods, some avocados and nuts. It was not clear how much fruit he eats now.

Finally, the book includes a ton of great recipes. Most recipes don’t include any nuts and seeds, and the chefs have even chosen to include some lightly steamed foods in some recipes. That’s cool with me. I thought the recipes would be oil-free though, and they are not. So this is a bit strange given than oil is the highest source of fat you can eat. Personally I would omit all of the oil from the recipes. My wife and I NEVER use any oil and our food is still delicious.

Raw Food Leaders Coming to Terms With Reality

I think Raw & Beyond is a very positive book for the raw food world. It’s about time that raw leaders wake up and realize that a lot of what they’ve been saying for years simply isn’t true.

I now feel like an old-timer with the low-fat message. I personally went through a similar process, when I first wrote my book Raw Secrets in 2002. That’s almost 10 years ago! Back then, I was already talking about the concept that just because something is raw, it doesn’t mean it’s healthy, and why raw foodists eat too many nuts and seeds.

At the time, I didn’t get it completely. I still used some oils, and did not ban them completely from my diet until 2005 or so.

The list of former raw foodists is growing every year now, and I know many people are confused and wonder why people who used to be strict raw foodists are now eating cooked food.

The reason is simple: They’ve grown up!

If you look at a lot of the advice given by raw food experts, it simply doesn’t hold water.

In my last book Raw Food Controversies, I spent 400 pages debunking many raw food myths. I used to be one of the lone voices on the subject, but now many others have joined. Thankfully, the 80/10/10 Diet by Doug Graham is becoming really popular and many are waking up to the reality of fat and oils not being a health food.

In the end, I still believe that fruits and vegetables are the best foods we can eat, but as I’ve said many times, eating a low-fat diet is more important than eating an all-raw diet.

What About the 80/10/10 Diet?

Someone familiar with the 80/10/10 Diet might read Raw & Beyond and analyze it in a different way. For example, a case could be made that Victoria, Elaina and Chad never tried to eat a true low fat raw food diet, which would be a very high-fruit diet, with no oil and minimum amounts of nuts and seeds.

80/10/10 people eat a ton of fruit to compensate for the lack of nuts and seeds, or cooked foods, and many do extremely well on this diet.

I personally have had great results with the 80/10/10 diet. In fact, I eat an 80/10/10 diet in terms of my ratio of calories (I get less than 10-12% of my calories from fat on average). The only difference is that I no longer eat an all-raw 80/10/10 diet.

That’s my preference. I go through different phases of eating more and less fruit seasonally depending what’s available and what my wife makes.

As I’ve explained in my book Raw Food Controversies, there are pros and cons to each approach. Some prefer and feel better eating 100% raw, while others, like me, prefer to also include cooked foods.

Of course, if someone eats both cooked and raw foods, they’re no longer a raw-foodist, according to a true definition of the term, which would be “someone who only eats raw foods.”

So be it.

As I’ve said many times, it’s better to be healthy than stick to a philosophy just for the sake of it and suffer.

On the other hand, you’ll always have many people who will claim to feel a lot better on a 100% raw food diet. That’s okay too.

Here’s what matters:

1) Eat a plant based diet — get rid of the dairy, meats, and other animal products.

2) Get rid of the oil — eliminate all olive oil, flax oil, coconut oil, or other refined oils. They do more harm than good. They’re just refined foods, and can put you at risk of heart disease just as fast as animal products.

3) Limit fats — that includes avocados, nuts, seeds, etc. Eat them in very small quantities, like 1-2 ounces of seeds in one day, or half an avocado. Don’t eat multiple fatty foods a day.

4) Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.

5) Eat your greens!

6) Exercise.

7) Enjoy your food!

I think the new book Raw & Beyond will wake up some people, thanks to Victoria’s popularity. Make sure to check it out.

It just came out today, so you can already order it:

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/wbR6Y9
Amazon Canada: http://amzn.to/xqaMWt
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/zmvMgA

Best Books I Read in 2011

I try to stay current with what’s happening in the health and raw food worlds. Every year, I read between 40 and 75 books.

This year, I read close to 60 books. Here are the top books that are making it on top of my list this year. They are not in any particular order.

Super Immunity — By Dr. Joel Fuhrman

Joel Furhman is a great advocate for healthful living. This new book goes in the same direction as his “Eat to Live” series, but this time he focuses on immunity, how to strengthen it and improve it.

The moral of the book is: eat your greens! But that’s only a part of the story.

If you have your doubts about vaccines and their effectiveness, but don’t want to throw the baby with the bath water when it comes to the germ theory and contagious illnesses, you’ll want to to give this book a read.

It’s the best combination of science, alternative health information and nutrition that I’ve come across so far this year.

Vegan for Life, by Jack Norris

I was impressed by “Vegan for Life.” This is not a raw food book per se. In fact, the author definitely does not recommend a raw food diet, but is a vegan advocate. It contains everything you would want to know about a vegan diet in every stage of life.

The nutritional information is top-notch. I don’t agree with all of the advice, but overall “Vegan for Life” is a must read for all vegans.

 

The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains, by Nicholas Carr

Have you noticed that your attention span is shorter this year than say 5 or 10 years ago? You may think that it’s age-related. But, there’s a great amount of research to prove that the way we use the Internet, smartphones and social media is transforming the actual structures and functioning of our brains!

The bottomline: we’ve moved from being able to focus on one thing — linear thinking — to having a very short attention span. A person today can scan through a tremendous amount of information online, but retains very little of it.

The worst part is: once you’ve changed the way you process information on the Internet, it affects how you process ALL information. A must read.

Sleep: a Groundbreaking Guide to the Mysteries, Problems and Solutions, by Carlos Schenck

The book “Sleep” blew my mind. I thought I knew about sleep, but I was wrong.

Have you ever wondered why some people need a lot of sleep, while others don’t? Why are some individuals labeled as “lazy” because they can’t function unless they sleep until 10, while others are up so early that they inevitably pass out early in the evening and can’t function in social gatherings.

We have a lot of misconceptions about sleep. This is a book that explains the common sleep disorders, a lot of them you’ve probably never heard about.

Sleep sex or sleep eating anyone?

The book is fascinating and will help you understand sleep disorders. The solutions provided are mostly pharmaceutical, so you’ll have to look somewhere else for natural answers, but to understand sleep disorders, this is the best book I have read.

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, by Brian Wansink

This is a new book in a series of books about the science of how we eat. Why, for example, do people inevitably eat more out of large containers, even if the amount of food provided is the same?

This is a fascinating book about how we eat, and why we often overeat. It’s a fun read and I suggest you pick it up immediately if you would like to improve your relationship with food.

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

Okay, this is not a health book per se. I thought the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Issakson was great. This is probably the book I read the fastest this year!

If you’re fascinated by Steve Jobs, and even want to hear some interesting details about his eating habits, read the book!

 

 

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, by Robert M. Sapolsky

This is a book on the science of stress, and exactly how it affects us at every level.

As I’m reading this book, I’m realizing how much I’ve minimized the importance of stress-reduction techniques in health.

We focus so much on food and fitness, but stress-management is just as critical. Psychological stress can make us age faster and can affect many aspects of our lives.

This is a serious, scientifically researched book by a respected professor, but it’s also fun to read.

Movie: Forks Over Knives, by T. Colin Campbell

Have you seen the movie Forks Over Knives? So far, I’ve been able to convert many people to a plant-based diet with this movie alone.

There’s also a book available separately, with lots of great recipes for beginners.

This is the perfect gift for someone you care about.

 

 

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure , by Caldwell B. Esselstyn

I only read this bomb by Dr. Esselstyn this year, after my father died of a heart attack in May. Although I knew that a plant-based diet can prevent cardio-vascular disease, I learned a great deal from Dr. Esselstyn’s book.

If you think that olive oil can be “heart healthy,” then you need to read this book. Dr. Esselstyn demolishes this assumption and many others about heart disease, and proves that if you follow his program, your chance of dying of heart disease will effectively be “zero.”

Raw Food Controversies

Okay, can I throw my own book in there? I spent half a year writing this book non-stop, even while traveling around the world, and managed to release it last January.

Initially, the book was going to be only 200 pages. Then it grew to a monstrous 400+ pages!

This is the biggest, most-researched book on the controversies in the raw food world, and I want you to get your hands on it.

If you want to know the full story of how many people have damaged their health following the wrong kind of raw food diet, and what you should eat instead to stay healthy and avoid these problems, read Raw Food Controversies.

Many of my readers told me that once they started reading it, they couldn’t put it down. It’s a combination between a novel and a raw nutrition book! Check it out at www.fredericpatenaude.com/rawfoodcontroversies

Breakfast is universally recognized by the mainstream to be the most important meal of the day. But is it really?

Type the question “is breakfast important” in a search engine, and you’ll be overwhelmed with results such as:

- Why breakfast is the most important meal of the day
- Why skipping breakfast is harmful
- Common sayings such as “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper”

Yet, many healthy people commonly skip breakfast. I recently have been experimenting with intermittent fasting (IM), which involves not eating during a long period of the day, typically 16 to 19 hours, and only eating during the remaining hours.

I find that when I skip breakfast, I have more energy and better concentration, which goes against all commonly held views.

Many raw foodists I know, especially older experienced ones like Dr. John Fielder in Australia, or Dr. Graham, generally only eat two large meals a day and fast in the morning.

Eating a large breakfast is also not a common tradition in many cultures. The French, for example, typically only have coffee and maybe a croissant for breakfast.

About a hundred years ago, a doctor by the name of Edward Dewey wrote an entire book called the “No Breakfast Plan and the Fasting Cure.” This book is now public domain and you can find it easily on the Internet.

Dewey was a big influence to the Natural Hygiene movement of this century. In his book, he describes a simple method that he discovers, and gives dozens of testimonies of people who managed to recover from all sorts of ailment following it.

The method was simple: don’t eat breakfast! Instead, fast in the morning, and eat two meals a day.

Using this method alone, and not changing anything else in the diet, Dewey obtained spectacular results.

How did Dr. Dewey get those results with his patients if we are told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?

The reason we are told this is that some studies have shown that people who have breakfast tend to be thinner than people who skip it entirely or only have coffee.

It’s true that many people, especially guys, skip breakfast, barely eat for lunch, and then overeat all night on junk food at home. They feel so bad the next they that they are forced to skip breakfast again, and so on in a never ending vicious circle.

The idea is not so much that skipping breakfast is good or bad for you. The idea is that many people find relief by letting their body enough time to process foods.

You’ve probably heard of the “daylight diet,” where people, instead of skipping breakfast, skip dinner or avoid eating outside of daylight time. Many even set themselves a cut off time to stop eating, like after 3 p.m.

There’s also the Fast-5 Diet, where you only eat in a five hour window during the day, for example, from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m.. This schedule can be changed around, such as 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

There’s the Warrior Diet, where people don’t eat anything during the day except maybe some fruits and vegetables, and then eat a large meal at night. This diet is supposed to reproduce the pattern of eating our ancestors followed.

Then of course there’s the no-breakfast plan, where you skip breakfast entirely and only eat lunch and dinner, typically a 1 p.m. lunch and a 6 or 7 p.m. dinner.

All of these diets are forms of intermittent fasting, where the body has enough time to fast and bring its blood sugar low enough before you start eating again.

This pattern, because of lower dips in insulin levels, promotes fat burning. If done correctly, the overall caloric intake will be adequate - not too much, not enough. The difference is that the body will start using its own fat sources for calories, instead of always burning the foods you eat.

People who follow any form of intermittent fasting often report a greater sense of energy and well being, and better digestion.

Even modern science supports intermittent fasting. For example, a recent article in the New York Times talked about some research done on fasting and exercise (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/phys-ed-the-benefits-of-exercising-before-breakfast/)

The researchers found that those who exercised on an empty stomach had the best results, as opposed to those who ate a big breakfast and THEN exercised.

I’ve personally found that whenever I skip a meal or two, I have lots of energy. I can easily spend the entire day running errands, even exercising and not thinking about food until about 3 or 4 p.m., when hunger sets in.

Intermittent fasting doesn’t have to be a lifestyle. For some people, the best pattern is to occasionally skip breakfast (or dinner), or even follow a quick 24-hour fast once in a while. You don’t have to do it everyday, although many people do with great success.

Some tips:

- Typically, athletes and people needing to gain some weight should not skip breakfast or dinner. Instead, they should eat at least three meals a day to get the calories they need.

- Some health conditions are not compatible with intermittent fasting. Talk to your doctor.

- Whether you skip breakfast or dinner is up to you.

- You can incorporate intermittent fasting with any diet. However, some diets are low in calories, such as the raw food diet. Therefore, you should master those diets first and learn to get enough calories before you attempt to try intermittent fasting. Please don’t try this if you are inexperienced with a 100% raw food diet.

- Typically, the older you are and the more body fat you have, the more you can benefit from intermittent fasting. Younger, active people should still eat enough for their needs.

- Intermittent fasting is not an excuse for overeating. The pattern should not be “overeat and purge.” Instead, you give your body more time to digest and fast, and then eat normal meals.

What is your experience with intermittent fasting? Let me know below!

by Brian Greco

Are you getting started with raw foods? Need some new recipes for your healthy diet? Or, maybe you’re an old-timer looking for something to spice up your menu?

Well if you’ve ever wanted:

* Savory raw recipes that are still lower in fat
* A gourmet treat for guests or “non-raw” friends
* New ideas for Asian-inspired raw food cuisine
* Or simply some creative vegan dishes

… here’s your solution.

Raw vegan sushi is an all-time favorite that is sure to be a hit for a special dinner, at raw food potlucks, or to share with your friends and family.

You will need the following:

#1: Wrap

First off, what will hold together your ingredients?

There are two main options:

* Raw greens. To keep things simple, you can choose romaine lettuce, collard leaves, or another favorite green of your choice. Make sure to select leaves that are large enough to house your vegetables and other seasonings.

* Raw nori wraps, which will give you a more “authentic” sushi taste and texture. Untoasted nori is available at most health food stores and even regular supermarkets.

Set up your working space with a clean cutting board and knife, and place your wraps on the board – ready to be filled. Let’s continue.

#2: Vegetables

Fresh vegetables are the heart of your sushi.

Possibilities are endless:

* Fruit-vegetables: tomato, cucumber, zucchini, summer squash, baby eggplant, okra
* Root vegetables: carrots, radish, beet, daikon, celeriac
* Cabbages: purple cabbage, green cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli
* More: celery, sprouts, baby greens, shallots, chives

Add in a couple from each category or simply use what you have in the kitchen. Just rinse, peel, and chop them finely to include in your sushi rolls.

#3: Savory Seasonings

Many healthy ingredients are available to make your recipe pop with flavor.

Some recommendations:

* Sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, or a raw salsa
* Avocado slices, or a spoonful of fresh almond paté
* Savory raw dressings made of fruits and vegetables

And if you are not concerned with hygienic rules or just want to splurge:

* Diced fresh ginger, onion, or garlic
* Olives, pickled ginger, or fermented vegetables
* A bit of tamari, wasabi, or other sauce

After assembling wrap and vegetable base of your rolls, top with your choice of seasonings and roll up each wrap tightly, using a little water on the edge to seal if necessary.

Carefully slice the rolls into bite-size pieces (with a very sharp, clean knife). Arrange on a platter and enjoy!

Here are 3 more tips for better sushi:

* Don’t overstuff each roll. Play around with different proportions of vegetables and fillings.

* Vary your fillings. Try making a couple different flavors of sushi rolls to keep things interesting.

* Have your recipe handy! Be prepared for some awesome feedback from any friends who try this.

Give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments below.

This recipe has been inspired by the must-have recipe e-book for health enthusiasts, 7 Gourmet Raw Vegan Recipes Everyone Should Know. Gain access to this e-book and more exclusive content with the Raw Vegan Mentor Club.

Also, for more raw food recipes like this, be sure to check out our brand new Savory Raw Recipe DVD. Veronica has put together some amazing recipes (with video) for you guys – you won’t be disappointed!

by Brian Greco

Now, there’s a lot of talk these days about health and nutrition.

It’s all the rage. Everyone’s asking things like:

* What’s the ultimate healthy diet plan?
* How can we maximize our health?
* What are the best foods to eat?

But because nutrition can often be a finicky science, it’s difficult to find a definite answer to these questions.

Though someone may feel like they’ve find the one true way, there’s almost always another person who can contradict them with their results on a different style of eating, exercising, and so on.

I mean, it really is amazing how adaptable the human body is. Just take a look at any corner of the globe and you’ll find an immense diversity of lifestyle practices that people use.

But what does that mean for us? For people looking to get started on a healthier diet NOW? Where can we even begin? There’s got to be a better way of looking at things.

Well, there is. How about – instead of trying to figure health out from scratch – we start where we are and narrow things down.

So basically, a little bit of dietary process of elimination.

Here are 3 unhealthy foods that NO ONE disagrees with that are unhealthy:

* Hydrogenated 0ils, trans fats and deep fried foods.

Everywhere in the form of hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated  oils in classic junk foods: chips, cookies, candies, and so on. Some of your favourites snacks that include hydrogenated oils might be Ritz Crackers or Twinkies and baking ingredients like margarine, or Crisco. All kinds of chocolate bars contain these hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils and some big name peanut butters (that everyone unknowingly thinks are good for them) do as well.

Deep fried foods like fries, chips, onion rings, pork rinds, corn dogs, chicken fingers, chicken fried steak etc can all be 50% fat or more by calories. When you deep fry foods, you essentially dehydrate them by pushing all of the water out of them and it gets replaced by oil in the deep fryer. So your innocent potato or battered zucchini stick is now 50% higher in fat now that it’s cooked. Eat these regularly and your waist line and arteries are going to start showing it.

Not only are these oils 100% pure fat (zero nutrients, fibre and minerals), they are processed at very high temperatures, creating the trans-fatty acids everyone knows are horrible for your arteries and body.

Don’t be fooled by clever marketing on packages, there is now a new term called mono and di glycerides that means hydrogenated oils as well. “A mono-glyceride (MG) is made of one fatty acid attached to glycerol, a di-glyceride (DG) is made of two fatty acids attached to a glycerol molecule, and a triglyceride is made of three fatty acids attached to glycerol.”

You will find this ingredient in many health food store snacks and products as well. Be sure to read labels!

Don’t buy products that contain hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated, mono or diglycerides, or anything else that sounds like a questionable ingredient.

* Refined white flour and white sugar.

White flour is what’s left after grains are stripped of their husk and bran, while white sugar is the pure sugar crystals refined from sugarcane or other agricultural products.

These empty-calorie foods overstimulate the taste buds and are extremely calorie dense with no nutrition to back them up. To be avoided.

* Processed meat products with nitrates.

Hot dogs, bologna, sausage and other lunch meats are one of the worst possible food choices you can make.

With excessive amounts of fat, salt, and flavorings, these products are difficult if not impossible to digest and do not nourish the body.

So there we have it. No one will ever be able to perfect the art of health, but it’s worth a shot. Simply get these 3 food groups out of your daily eating program and you’re already on your way!

I used to drink coffee, but after a lot of trial and error I realized it caused me a lot of pain and suffering. And I’m not talking about the withdrawal symptoms.

Even though 90% of American adults use caffeine on a daily basis, few realize how bad it is for them.

Coffee is the most common source of caffeine, and also the one with the most negative drawbacks. Although health authorities tell us that up to 400 mg. of caffeine a day (the equivalent of 4 cups of coffee) is perfectly healthy, many people are more sensitive to caffeine and can suffer many symptoms when drinking even just one or two cups of coffee.

Symptoms of caffeine sensitivity include

- Back and shoulder pains
– Headaches
– Chronique fatigue and irritability
– Anxiety and panic attacks
– Depression
– Lack of focus and concentration
– Extreme jitters

When I used to drink even very small amounts of coffee or tea, I would fall into a deep depression and become extremely irritable. These symptoms only went away once I eliminated coffee 100%

A big mistake people make is to try to give up coffee “cold turkey.”

For example, many people don’t realize that even cutting down caffeine intake by half can cause extreme withdrawal symptoms like migraines and headaches.

To give up coffee, the best product I have found is a natural herbal coffee called Teeccino. Unlike other coffee replacement, this one tastes great!

I have even served Teeccino to coffee drinkers and they didn’t even realize that they were drinking fake coffee!

You can find Teeccino in some health food stores in the United States, Canada, the UK and some other countries. If you can’t find it at your health food stores, you can order it on Amazon.com.

Some people are not as sensitive to coffee as others and can get by with small amounts, but many people are not so lucky and will suffer extreme symptoms even with small amounts. The best way for quitting the coffee habit without pain and suffering is to give it up slowly, by replacing coffee with Teeccino progressively over two weeks, until at the end you only drink Teeccino. That way you won’t feel any withdrawal symptoms!

I’ve been getting some questions lately from readers who are afraid to go on a raw vegan diet because of the possible negative consequences of staying vegan in the long-term.

Almost everybody I know has a friend who allegedly went vegan or vegetarian, but then suffered some sort of health problem or deficiency, went back to meat and now feels “much better.”

These stories, along with famous or semi-famous ex-vegans that come out of the closet, are enough to scare most newbies and convince them to give up the diet for good.

Recently, the actress Ginnifer Goodwin gave up her vegan diet after years of outspoken animal activism, for “health reasons.” Other famous actresses like Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel have also given up the vegan diet as well.

A young raw foodist from Turkey, Erim Bilgim, that I had a chance to meet during my travels last year, also went off the raw vegan diet and started eating meat again in addition to his 80/10/10 style diet. He attracted some attention in the raw food community after being interviewed by the website www.letthemeatmeat.com, a site that interviews ex-vegans.

These stories are enough to scare away some vegans, but also give some ammunition to your friends and family who don’t approve of your lifestyle.

Why Vegans Crash and Burn

First of all, I have to state that I am not one of those judgmental vegans. If a person decides to give up a diet for whatever reason, I am not here to criticize their decision. After all, it’s their lives and they can do whatever they want.

I also don’t consider myself to be a true “vegan,” because on rare occasions, a few times a year, I might have some animal products. I don’t do it out of fear of deficiency, but simply on some social occasions, or just to prove that I’m not a vegan.

For example, while I was traveling around the world with my wife last year for 8 months, there were a few occasions were being a 100% vegan was just too difficult. So I slipped a few times during the trip, but mostly because there were very few options available.

Overall, my diet is 99.5% vegan/plant based by definition.

What I want to emphasize is that just being vegan is really not a health choice, but more an ethical choice.

The vegan diet, in itself, can be healthy or unhealthy. It is not by definition a healthy diet, because a vegan could choose to eat unhealthy foods and still call herself a pure “vegan.”

Here are some of the common mistakes that vegans and raw vegans make:

1) Too much fat, especially omega 6 fats

Vegans cut out saturated fats, but often replace it with vegetable oils and other fat sources, which means that their diet is not only high in fat, but also very high in omega-6 fats.

For example, many plant foods contain a lot of omega 6 but very little omega 3.

Take a look at the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in some common plant foods. The first number is the omega-6:

English Walnuts	4:1
Macadamia	6:1
Pecans	20:1
Pistachio	37:1
Hazelnut	88:1
Cashew	117:1
Pumpkin Seeds	117:1
Sunflower Seeds	300:1
Pine Nuts	300:1
Brazil Nuts	1000:1
Almonds	1800:1
Avocado:	15:1
Flax Seeds	1:3.1
Chia seeds	1:3

As you can tell, many plant foods are too rich in omega-6 and not rich enough in omega-3.

Many ex-vegans have blamed the vegan diet for being too low in omega-3. But research has shown that the real problem is that we get too much added omega-6 fat! We’re told to eat healthy fats, like the foods above, but in fact they are throwing our ratios way off.

Omega-6 polyunsaturated fats promote inflammation in the body. When you eat too much of it, it competes with your absorption of omega-3 fats, which are anti-inflammatory.

The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is between 1:1 and 4:1.

Fruits and vegetables, as well as other low-fat plant foods, have a natural ratio of 1:1.

If most of your calories come from these foods, then adding a bit of higher fat plant foods with lots of omega-6 will not overthrow your balance. However, if a significant proportion of your calories come from these plant foods and oils, you are in trouble.

We can see that most vegans and raw vegans not only get too much fat but also promote omega-3 deficiencies through an overconsumption of omega-6 fats.

2) Too much fat in general

Vegans eliminate unhealthy animal protein, but often replace it with foods that are very high in fat, even higher than animal foods. Raw foodists do the same with an overreliance on nuts, seeds and avocados.

Too much fat in the diet now only promotes heart disease and cancer, but it also affects every aspect of your health negatively. It’s also much easier to gain weight eating fatty foods rather than eating low-fat, carbohydrate-rich foods.

Too much fat does the following and more to your body:

- Negatively affects insulin sensitivity and promotes diabetes and high-blood sugar
– Is easily converted into body fat and promotes weight gain
– Negatively affects energy levels and athletic performance due to lower oxygen uptake
– Promotes inflammation and omega-3 deficiencies
– Negatively affects digestion and nutrient absorption
– Promotes heart disease and high cholesterol, as even vegetable fats contain appreciable quantities of saturated fats (like coconut and palm oil)

Some raw food recipes especially, but also vegan “junk” food, can be especially rich in fat and calories. Compare for example:

	Big Mac	Big Mac w/ Large Fries	Raw Vegan Taco*
Calories	570 calories	1040 calories	1500 calories
Fat	34 grams	54 grams	142 grams
Protein	24 grams	31 grams	30 grams
Carbs	47 grams	108 grams	57 grams
Sodium	1070 mg	1394	1700 mg

*For the Raw Taco recipe, I used a recipe found at: http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet. com/2009/04/genuinely-meaty-raw-taco-meat with-chunky-guacamole-and-fresh- cherry-tomato-jalapeno-salsa/. It is made with mushrooms, walnuts, olive oil, raw cacao, tomatoes, avocado, pine nuts, and a few other seasonings.

As I discovered while writing my book Raw Food Controversies, a raw food recipe like “Raw Tacos” can contain more calories, more fat, and more sodium that an order of a Big Mac with large fries at McDonalds!

For raw vegans, sources of fats include olive oil, coconut oil, flax oil, avocado, nuts and seeds — all of which are often used in large quantities in every recipe.

For cooked vegans, fat sources that pile up include: all oils, fried foods like fries, chips, donuts, crackers, “Earth Balance” products, coconut milk, vegan cheeses, “sour creams”, and fake meat products like Tofurkey.

Vegans should make the center of their meals low-fat, high-carbohydrate foods like fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains, and only use higher-fat foods as condiments for flavour, if they are to be used at all.

Raw vegans need to make the center of each meal fruit, and eat plenty of it to meet their caloric needs. Greens should be consumed for minerals, and fatty foods should be used as condiments, not as the main ingredient in a dish like raw tacos or burgers.

3) Vegans could be deficient in Vitamin b12

Vitamin B12 deficiencies are common in vegans, especially raw vegans who don’t take any supplement. Many symptoms can be attributed to a B12 deficiency, including fatigue and failure to thrive.

The standard recommendation is to take a B12 supplement containing 25 to 100 mcg every day, or one containing at least 1000 mcg three times a week. If you’ve been on a vegan diet for a while, you might start with some B12 injections, as low B12 levels can actually prevent absorption from dietary or supplemental B12. Taking an oral supplement later, can be too little too late, so get tested for deficiencies if you are concerned.

Vegans who don’t make these mistakes

Some vegans and raw foodists say that they don’t make these mistakes, but yet still don’t feel right and think they should go back to meat in order to feel better. In many cases, cleaning up your diet, eating whole foods, getting enough calories without too much fat is enough to make a difference. In other cases, more complex factors may be at play.

For example, some vegans, especially raw foodists, overly restrict their diet by eating only a few types of food. This type of nutritional narrowness can lead to some deficiencies, overtime.

How Can You Be a Healthier Vegan?

Vegans and raw vegans can make some simple changes to immediately improve their diet and their health.

1) Get rid of all oil in your house. Avoid drizzling oil on your salads, instead, use low-fat salad dressings. homemade is best.

2) Whenever you make a recipe, just omit the oil and usually it will taste just as good without it!

3) Avoid using nuts, seeds or avocados as a main ingredient in any recipe.

4) Vegans beware of vegan products that are often too rich in fat, such as “Earth Balance” “Toffutti” products, “Daiya Cheese,” “Gimme Leans” “Gardein” products and other dairy or meat replacement.

5) Raw vegans: learn to eat fruit as the center piece of your meal, instead of raw recipes that are high in fat, or salads that will leave you hungry 30 minutes later.

6) Minimize the use of all processed plant foods, including ALL oils, sugar, agave, white flours, etc.

To discover how to make delicious, SAVORY, and OIL-FREE raw food recipes that taste great for dinner time, check out the recently launched product Savory Raw Dinner Recipes! We have a special bonus and more, offered during the launch only. Go to:

http:/www.fredericpatenaude.com/savory

Last week I stopped by a restaurant, as I was out of town and needed to get a bite to eat. I spotted a health food restaurant that offered a giant buffet, including a salad bar where you could pay by plate size instead of by weight.

They had two different salad prices: small and large. I of course chose the large one.

Whenever the deal is “fit as much as you can on your plate for this price,” my caveman instincts kick in, just like everybody else. So I started to pile an unrealistic amount of salad on that plate, filled with all kinds of veggies, some slices of avocado and other good things.

When I made it to the counter to pay, I thought I had a pretty big salad, but I still felt I could have piled even more on top of it all.

When the cashier saw my salad, he started laughing.

To my surprise, it was not just a pleasant, friendly laugh.

The guy actually started to laugh uncontrollably! He just could not contain himself and started laughing and laughing while making comments at my salad.

At first it was “wow, that’s a really big salad”… and then he started gibbering nonsense. “Oh my Go… oh no, that salad, oh no, wow, oh man…”

I did not know whether I should feel insulted for being treated like a freak, or whether I should start lecturing him on the virtues of eating high-nutrient-dense foods.

But as he kept laughing more and more, I ended his party by looking at him straight in the eye, with the most serious Poker face I could muster, and asked him, “How much do I owe you?” trying to sound like I was a high-paid CEO talking  to a low class subordinate.

I could not believe that a health food employee would actually insult my salad!

At first, I was wondering if he was laughing so hard simply because I was taking advantage of their $7.99 plate of salad by piling more than most people would fit onto such a plate.

But then I kept thinking of other buffets where you pay by the plate, and all over the world I’ve seen people do the same thing: pack as much as they can onto the tiniest, cheapest plate possible.

There’s a restaurant in my city called the “Mongolian Grill” where you can get a pretty good vegetarian stir fry. You take a bowl, and pile as many vegetables as you can onto it, and a guy will cook it in front of you on a giant hot plate.

At all of those restaurants, I’ve always witnessed people pack in as much meat as possible, and if they’re vegetarian, as much veggies as they can possibly fit onto that plate, so much that sometimes stuff starts falling off it as they bring it to the counter.

So after this health food store employee laughed uncontrollably at my salad, I came to the conclusion that he was actually laughing because I was going to EAT such a big salad, not because he though I was ripping off his store.

In his mind, eating such a giant salad would be the equivalent of someone else eating a three-foot sub sandwich!

I’ve actually had similar reactions from people in the past when they saw the sizes of my fruit meal.

I was once interviewed by a local Montreal newspaper that was doing a feature on raw food diets. When I told the reporter that I was often eating 8 to 10 bananas for lunch, he also started to laugh uncontrollably, as did the filming crew. It seemed so odd to them that I would eat that many bananas at once!

Let’s stop for a moment to talk about caloric density.

Less than two years ago, I was in Hawaii for my Honeymoon doing a dinner cruise with my wife. We signed up for an organized package, but asked for a special meal to be prepared for us.

As we sat down to eat, I looked at what the “regular” meal looked like. People received a seafood appetizer (shrimp), followed by lobster and rice, then steak and potatoes, then finally a big chocolate cake dessert.

I took out my iPhone and started analyzing the caloric density of that meal. I calculated that most people ate anywhere between 3000 and 4000 calories, not including the alcoholic beverages, for that meal alone! That’s almost twice as much as most people should eat in a single day.

On the other hand, our meal of salad, fruits and vegetables was less than 800 calories, and we had way more food on our plates.

The Importance of Caloric Density

Caloric density is one of the most important concept in health and weight loss.

It’s simply a value of how many calories are in a certain weight of food, either by pound or kilo.

If you eat foods with a low caloric density, you get full much faster because you have more volume to deal with, and more fiber to keep you full.

If you eat foods of high-caloric density, you get fat because you tend to eat more calories than you need.

Study after study has shown that caloric density is the most important factor in making a diet work long-term.

Why?

Because if you eat foods of low caloric density, you get full much faster, and it’s literally impossible to overeat and gain weight.

For example, lettuce has a caloric density of only 100 calories per pound, while olive oil has 4000 calories per pound.

Now you’ll say… yeah, but nobody just eats olive oil!

True! But whenever you add olive oil to a food, you increase the overall caloric density.

For example, a famous study showed that when they fed a group of people the same food but without the added fat, people ate the same amount of food, but consumed fewer calories, and lost weight. But, the other group being fed the same food but with extra oil sneaked in gained weight. They were taking in extra calories without realizing it!

At the same time, if you add lettuce to any meal, you lower the caloric density.

That’s why they’ve found that when people had a large fat free salad or a big apple before their meal, they ate less at the meal and were able to lose weight. That’s all because of caloric density!

Let’s take a look at the average caloric density of different food, in terms of number of calories by pound.

Food	Caloric Density Per Pound
Fresh raw or cooked veggies	100
Fresh raw fruit	250-300
Cooked Starchy Vegetables, Intact Whole Grains	450-500
Legumes and Beans	550-600
Meat Products	900-1000
Dried Fruit	1200
Processed grains and Flours (even if made from whole grains)	1200-1500
Cheese	1800
Nuts and Seeds	2800
Cheese	1800
Oil	4000

 

Keep in mind that this is an average across a category. For example, we know that bananas contain more calories per weight than apples, but overall fruits have a similar caloric density.

Looking at this table, you’d be tempted to only eat vegetables, as they contain only 100 calories per pound. It’s important to note that nobody can live on just vegetables, and that you’d get so hungry on a diet of just vegetables that you’d eventually break down and eat something else! However, you want your diet to contain plenty of raw vegetables by weight.

The concept of caloric density is to look at the overall caloric density of your meals.

If the caloric density of your food is below 400 calories per pound, you will lose weight no matter what you do!

Many traditional diets of long-lived people have a caloric density of around 600 calories per pound. If the caloric density of your food is below 400 calories per pound, you’ll be able to maintain a healthy weight without counting calories and even without exercising.

When people laugh at you when they see the size of your meals, tell them about caloric density. Tell them that you can eat as much of these foods as you want because of their low caloric density!

The next time someone laughs at my salad or my fruit meal, I’ll point at their sandwich and say:

“Laugh all you want, but did you know that I could eat two salads like this and still eat less than 600 calories? Your sandwich alone is 800 calories and I know you’ll be hungry in two hours, looking for a chocolate bar, while I’ll feel full because of all the delicious food I ate. That by the way, is why I’m slim and you’re not!”

Okay, maybe I won’t say the last part. But I’ll think it for sure…