One of the main reasons why I stopped the whole raw thing last year was because nuts were becoming too expensive to keep buying.
I borrowed a huge number of Raw Food books from my local library, and started going crazy jotting down recipes.
I wasn’t overly keen on the lack of variation that a life of salad would include, so these ‘gourmet’ recipes really intrigued me. Many of the recipies had nuts as a base … so I bought lots and lots of nuts.
This time around, I’ve been reading more about nutrition and less about fancy recipes.
I realised that I was going at it all wrong before – I (like many who undertake such a dietary change) was worried about where I’d get my protein, so I turned to nuts.
Nuts aren’t cheap … so that’s ultimately what killed the ‘diet’.
What I hadn’t realised was that fruits and many leafy greens have around the same percentage protein as human mother’s milk … so if you think about it, why would a grown adult need MORE protein than a growing infant?
The last thing your average human needs to worry about is where they their protein from.
Futhermore, nuts are very fatty … and since fat is very easily left as fat in the body, you’re actually doing yourself harm.
From what I’ve read, 1-2 ounces of nuts per day should fill the fat allowance for your average adult.
I could go on, but in short, I’m not going to be eating many nuts!
They’re great for making dairy replacements if the desire should arise, but in all honesty, I don’t eat a lot of dairy as it is.
I’m going to have to look at recipes which call for nuts and seeds very carefully, to ensure that my fat intake doesn’t get out of whack.
I guess that just as it’s easily to be a very unhealthy vegetarian, it’s quite easy to eat raw foods in poor proportions.
Useful resources for nutrition information:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/HG72/hg72_2002.pdf
http://www.netrition.com/rdi_page.html
http://www.nutridiary.com/
I’ve put in a request for the book Conscious Eating (2000) by Gabriel Cousens through our library.
PS :: In the course of today, I’ve come across http://www.foodnsport.com/faq.html, and would whole-heartedly recommend anyone read it.
It puts forward that the human diet should ideally be 80% carbs, 10% protein, 10% fat.
Primarily from fruit; secondly from vegetables; with small amounts of nuts/seeds.