Do Raw Foodists Need Greens to Be Healthy?

Michele of Raw Natural Hygiene recently started a new thread titled The Importance of Greens.  The topic has evoked some very interesting discussion points that got me thinking…

Do raw foodists need greens to be healthy?

Most low fat raw vegans, including Dr. Douglas Graham, are big on greens and assert that we absolutely, positively need to consume them in order to thrive on a raw food diet.

On the other hand, there are many raw foodists out there, including 17-year fruitarian Anne Osbourne, who assert that a person can live on fruit alone and be healthy.

While I’m certainly no expert on the matter, I think I can shed some light on what greens can offer to a raw food diet and perhaps help answer the question: Do raw foodists need greens to be healthy?

What Are Greens?

Before I go any further, I want to clarify what I mean by greens.  “Greens” refers to all the lovely tender, leafy, and mild vegetables out there.  This includes:

• Romaine lettuce
• Boston/bib/butter lettuce
• Red lettuce
• Mesculin
• Spinach
• Iceberg lettuce
• Mint
• Oregano
• Basil
• Cilantro
• Parsley
• Cabbage

I also include mild herbs such as mint and parsley in this category, as they are obviously green, obviously tender, and obviously mild.

And don’t forget the less conventional, but equally delicious, tender green varieties such as bok choy, beet greens, and sauropus!

I do not include dark greens, like kale, or cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, in this list as they can be hard to digest and unpleasant to eat due to the bitterness.  However, many raw foodists do enjoy these ingredients and do not experience any digestive troubles when blended and consumed with sweet fruits.

Greens are Mineral Rich

This is the main benefit of eating a diet rich in tender, leafy greens.  Sweet fruits are generally considered rich in vitamins, while greens are rich in minerals.

Calcium, sodium, and potassium, phosphorus, chlorine, sulfur, and magnesium (just to name a few) are all present in sufficient quantities in tender leafy vegetables.

And if you’ve ever been anemic, have experienced any problems with iron deficiency, or know anything about sailors who love spinach, I’m sure you are familiar with the spinach-iron connection.

In addition, greens have higher levels of protein as well.  For instance, 100g of bananas contain 4% of total calories from protein while 100g of romaine lettuce has 24% of calories from protein.

Greens are Cravings-Busters

Eating mountains of savory greens helps with cooked food cravings.  The higher amount of sodium, relative to sweet fruits, is said to stop salty food cravings in their tracks.

To be honest, I think this might be a case of confusing the chicken with the egg.

Usually when people start eating greens and stop craving salt, they have also completely eliminated any rock salt – table salt, sea salt, popcorn salt, etc. – from their diet.  It could certainly be that these people no longer crave salt because the salt is no longer in their system, not because they have started eating greens.

However, I definitely think there is something to be said for the power of savory dinner dishes.

Eating super sweet fruit all day can be rather monotonous (and even sickening for some at first) and eating a delicious savory, hearty, and satisfying green-packed meal can make all the difference in a person’s efforts to stay raw.

Greens Offer Variety

Getting a good variety of produce in your diet is important for a couple of reasons:

1. Variety helps to ensure proper nutrition (this is particularly useful if the quality of your fruit is less than optimal).
2. Variety helps to keep things exciting, since we all know how terribly boring it is to eat raw.

And, as I said in last week’s post on surviving raw winters, variety (in the form of both ingredients and recipes) is especially important during the colder months, when both the quantity and the quality of fruit is limited and less than optimal.

Since high-quality greens are available year-round, this can be an easy way to add more tasty variety into your raw food diet.

But Do We Need Them?!?

I think Michele said it best:

Miss Anne is one of those fortunate few that has access to some AMAZING quality fruit and does well with-out greens and I respect that.

For the rest of us, though, greens are an important “supplement”, if not staple.

I agree.

If you are lucky enough to eat extremely high-quality sweet, non-sweet, and fatty fruits – we’re talking 100% organic, home-grown goodness – then you’ll probably do well without greens.

Fruitbat Anne (the “Miss Anne” Michele is referring to) and her 17 years as a fruitarian certainly stand as a testament to that.

Otherwise, I think it is very important for optimal nutrition to eat enough greens.

Does this mean you have to eat buckets of bib lettuce everyday?  I certainly don’t.  In fact, I rarely even look at a lettuce leaf during the summer months, with all the delicious local tomatoes and cukes around.

That said, you certainly should not neglect your greens or their mineral-rich, non-sweet fruit friends like tomatoes, bell pepper, and cucumber.

The Golden (Apple) Rule

Most importantly of all, never forget that sweet fruit comes first.  As great as greens are, they are simply too low in calories to make up the bulk of your diet.

This is why I do not consume my super salad until after I have eaten all my fruit for the day.

And if I find myself hungry afterward?  You know the drill…I just eat more fruit!

Go raw, gorge on greens, and be fit,

Swayze