Raw Diet?

[guy]

Hi

 

I just found your site, but I recently realised that I have unintentionally eating not much more than 1000 calories a day for several months.

It started with trying to increase the amount of raw food in my diet (I was already vegan, gluten-free and very low sugar) - maybe a meal a day - sometimes 2.  But when I started, it just felt like it was absolutely right.  I craved raw foods, salads and so on, and almost instantly lost my attraction to cooked foods.

So I have been eating mostly sprouts (mung, lentil and pea), salads, I am about to start making probiotic sauerkraut, and I am very happy with this.  I supplement with 30g (just over 1oz) of Hawaiian Spirulina (Nutrex) and a wholefood multivitamin, along with omega 3 oil from Algae.

 

I have been forcing myself to eat some cooked vegetables (e.g. potatoes, peas) - I guess out of an ingrained conviction that you need something warm - though could easily manage without them.  I have also been eating plain rice crackers for the same reason.

 

Even with all of this, I don't think I am getting even 1000 calories every day.  Is that TOO restricted?  As this wasn't an intentional choice, I am not sure I am doing it in the right way, but I don't feel hungry, and strangely, I have not lost weight, so it can't be too bad.

 

As far as anyone can see, is this okay?  Is there anything I should have in my diet that I am missing?  Would I be safe to cut out the cooked veg?  (BTW - I don't eat nuts or seed either, as they wreck my digestion.  More recently, avocado has started to do the same)

 

Look forward to your comments

 

guy

 

 

[Michael R]

Hi Guy,
 

Even with all of this, I don't think I am getting even 1000 calories every day.  Is that TOO restricted? ...

As far as anyone can see, is this okay?  Is there anything I should have in my diet that I am missing?

From these two questions, it seems you are only guessing about your nutritional intake: that is, you have not spent at least a few days weighing and measuring your food and plugging it into reliable nutrition software such as CRON-O-Meter. For a person who is or thinks s/he is eating a very low number of Calories, or who is eating a very unusual diet (as you clearly are), this is reckless self-endangerment.

 

I greatly doubt that you're eating as few as 1000 Cal/d, unless you've neglected to tell us that you're a sedentary feather-boned midget; and I strongly suspect that you're deficient in multiple nutrients, starting with B12 above all, and also likely vitamin D, iodine, and selenium, and a functional deficiency of zinc caused by a combination of low intake plus excessive copper. But the only way to know is to measure, crunch, and see.

 

(BTW - I don't eat nuts or seed either, as they wreck my digestion.  More recently, avocado has started to do the same)

 
From what you describe, I see every reason to think that you're in danger of inadequate intake of essential fatty acids for your long-term health, and more contentiously ditto for total fat intake.

[Dean Pomerleau]

Welcome to the CR Forums Guy!

 

I completely agree with Michael. If you really are weight-stable, you are very unlikely to be eating only 1000 kcal/day. Nevertheless, it sounds like you could be doing yourself serious harm through inadequate nutrition. Besides analyzing your diet over a few days with CRON-O-Meter as Michael suggestions, you might check out these two threads, here and here, in which we discuss advice for another person new to the forums with a restrictive eating pattern not very different from your own.

 

--Dean

[Sthira]

Hi

 

I just found your site, but I recently realised that I have unintentionally eating not much more than 1000 calories a day for several months.

 

It started with trying to increase the amount of raw food in my diet (I was already vegan, gluten-free and very low sugar) - maybe a meal a day - sometimes 2. But when I started, it just felt like it was absolutely right. I craved raw foods, salads and so on, and almost instantly lost my attraction to cooked foods.

So I have been eating mostly sprouts (mung, lentil and pea), salads, I am about to start making probiotic sauerkraut, and I am very happy with this. I supplement with 30g (just over 1oz) of Hawaiian Spirulina (Nutrex) and a wholefood multivitamin, along with omega 3 oil from Algae.

 

I have been forcing myself to eat some cooked vegetables (e.g. potatoes, peas) - I guess out of an ingrained conviction that you need something warm - though could easily manage without them. I have also been eating plain rice crackers for the same reason.

 

Even with all of this, I don't think I am getting even 1000 calories every day. Is that TOO restricted? As this wasn't an intentional choice, I am not sure I am doing it in the right way, but I don't feel hungry, and strangely, I have not lost weight, so it can't be too bad.

 

As far as anyone can see, is this okay? Is there anything I should have in my diet that I am missing? Would I be safe to cut out the cooked veg? (BTW - I don't eat nuts or seed either, as they wreck my digestion. More recently, avocado has started to do the same)

 

Look forward to your comments

 

guy

In addition to the solid advice to weigh, measure, track your nutrition on cronometer, and maybe supplement in the deficiencies, you may want to check in over on the forum at http://www.rawfoodsupport.com/list.php?2 where there's a little more soul and action. Not much going on here, and maybe you'll invite some of those raw folks over here for some cross pollination. I stopped posting there when things got a little too religious for me. But there are def some characters.