"4
Raw-Food Diet Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Health"
by Frederic Patenaude
Don't get me wrong: eating a mostly raw or
completely raw diet is one of the most
powerful things you can do to improve
your health, but as in everything, there
are mistakes you can make that can often
lead to more problems.
With the raw-food diet, the mistakes are
sometimes obvious, sometimes not. Unfortunately,
most of these mistakes come from misinformation
spread in various books on the subject.
Here are some of the biggest mistakes
people make on a raw-food diet. You'll
find a more exhaustive list in my book
The Raw Secrets as well as in the upcoming
sequel teleclass “More Raw Secrets:
Advanced Health Secrets for Raw Food
Enthusiasts.”
Overeating
Acid Fruits
Acid fruits are excellent for health,
however, there's a limit to the acidity
that your body can handle. When acid
fruits are consumed in excess, the acidity
can eat away the enamel of your teeth,
or cause other problems.
I've seen a lot of people go on “grapefruit
cures” and in just 7 days softened
the enamel of their teeth, to the point
that they chipped a tooth!
So what is “excess”? It
will depend on each person, but from
my experience, it's fairly easy to consume
too many acid fruits. So my recommendation
is, on average, to have only a maximum
of 2 big oranges per day, or 1 grapefruit,
or half a pineapple.
The
fruits to beware are: oranges, pineapple,
lemons, and most citrus.
A way to “by-pass” this
would be to drink freshly-squeezed orange
juice or an orange smoothie, and making
sure the acid doesn't touch your teeth
too much (don't swirl the juice in your
mouth).
You can also make great smoothies by
mixing acid fruits with non-acidic fruits,
which is good because the acidity is
“tampered” by the other
fruits.
Eating
Dried Fruits
Dried fruits eaten on a regular basis
tend to cause two main problems: digestive
problems and dental problems.
People who eat dried fruits tend to
get a lot of gas, but they also tend
to have strong cravings for foods they
try to avoid. That's because dried fruits
disturb digestion so much you end up
wanting to eat *anything*.
As
for dental health, dried fruits won't
do anything to your enamel, but they
will stick to your teeth and provide
perfect nourishment to the bacteria
that cause cavities.
Unfortunately, raw-foodists often rely
on dried fruits heavily. These include
raisins, dried figs, apricots, and even
fresh dates.
My recommendation is to avoid eating
dried fruit on a regular basis. I recommend
fresh fruit, not dried fruit. Dried
fruit should only be eaten occasionally
when nothing else is available instead,
such as when going on a long trip.
Overeating Nuts
When a person goes on a raw-food diet,
they tend to eat a lot more fat than
what would be optimal. That means a
lot of avocados, oils, and nuts.
Problems will show up fast if you decide
to eat a lot of nuts. People don't realize
the fact that nuts are not only high
in fat, but they are also difficult
to digest for most people.
Overeating nuts will leave you tired
and fatigued, but there's also something
else. Even though they are rich and
filling, when you overeat on nuts you
tend to crave all sorts of food and
never find balance in your diet!
As a general rule that can be modified
depending on the individual, my recommendations
would be to have a maximum of about
2 ounces of nuts per day, or 3-4 tablespoons
of nut butter.
Listening
to Misleading Advice
A lot of people label themselves “experts”
and send out misleading advice to the
masses. When I first learned about the
raw-food diet, the general advice given
by most authors was, “Eat anything
you want, as long as it's raw.”
Obviously, this is not a great plan
for success.
Recently,
the advice was modified to: “Try
to figure out what works for you.”
In that case, the “experts”
left it to their poor confused readers
to go through the hurdles of learning
and experimenting...
Let me just tell you that this is completely
unnecessary!
Eating
raw is great, and the truth is you don't
have to eat 100% raw or even 90% raw
to get some great results! But what
you do need is to get the right information.
Avoid the misleading advice of those
who are just interested in selling you
their new line of supplements. Instead,
learn how to tap into the power of raw
foods by getting the right information,
and you'll see, it's much easier than
you think, and the rewards will just
keep on coming!
Want to Use This Article In Your Website or E-Zine? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it: “Frederic Patenaude, is the author of the best-selling e-book "The Raw Secrets". He is currently giving away free access to his private library of over 100 exclusive articles along with a subscription to his newsletter Pure Health & Nutrition. Visit http://www.fredericpatenaude.com while charter subscriptions last.”