My First Visit to a Raw Food Restaurant (Part I)

* Feature Article: My First Visit to a Raw Food Restaurant (Part I)

* Your Questions Answered: What About Specific Nutrients in Fruits and Vegetables?

My First Visit to a Raw Food Restaurant (Part I)

During my wonderful week in paradise (that is to say, Ventura, California), my family and I had dinner at Juliano’s Raw (aka Planet Raw) in Santa Monica.

After almost 3 years since first embarking on a low fat, high fruit raw vegan diet, this was my very first visit to a raw restaurant.

Here’s a little video about my experience:

I also ordered a fruit plate as an appetizer, which I’ll talk more about in Part II.  Stay tuned!

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

What About Specific Nutrients in Fruits and Vegetables?

Rebekah asks:

hey girl – i am a fellow high raw vegan, and love your too-cute videos!

but i have a quick question for you. i am curious as to how eating two meals a day of bananas enables you to attain nutrients such as iron, calcium, folate… i guess i’m asking why do you believe you are covering your nutritional bases?

thanks girl!

Thanks Rebekah!  Glad you like ‘em.

Now on to your question.  Why do you think I am not “covering my nutritional bases” eating two meals of bananas each day?  Do you not believe my diet is varied enough?  Would you say the same to someone eating, say, one banana meal and then another type of fruit for lunch?

Yes, I often eat bananas for two meals a day.  But my dinner meal is always varied.  I eat a wide variety of fruit and greens throughout the year.  Just in the past 3 months I’ve had mangoes (2 varieties), peaches (at least 10 different varieties), musk melon, watermelon (yellow, gold, red, and black), honeydew, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries tomatoes (several varieties), romaine, radicchio, arugula, napa cabbage, iceberg, bib lettuce, red leaf lettuce, carrots, radish, broccoli, and much more.

Most importantly, all of my fruit has been excellent quality, most locally grown with organic farming methods and practices, and only eaten when ripe.

If it is the availability of specific nutrients in fruits and vegetables that concerns you, I must ask why.  Why do you think that a low fat raw vegan diet does not provide enough iron, calcium, and folate?

If you are relying on the RDA, don’t.  These guidelines are based upon “normal” Americans (i.e. people who eat SAD, get little to no exercise, lack sleep, sunshine, and fresh air) and, cater to them.  Plus, they also assume that we know everything there is to know about human nutrition.

We don’t and this is why I do not like to focus on individual nutrients and minerals such as EFAs and calcium or eat foods specifically for them.  We simply do not know enough about individual nutrients, except to say that there are many more in existence that we haven’t discovered yet than the number that we do know and that they are codependant upon one another, to micromanage them.

And textbook knowledge on human dietary needs, as well as anecdotal evidence, shows that there is really no need to do so.  Focusing on meeting our need for fuel from an appropriate source (i.e. sweet fruit), as well as avoiding substances and practices that affect absorption (e.g. alcohol, drugs, unhealthy foods, not enough sleep, too little exercise, etc.) ensures that we are meeting our nutritional needs better than any other lifestyle can.

More importantly, eating a low fat, high fruit diet and living a healthy lifestyle means you are avoiding all of the foods and behaviors that lead to diseases of dietary excess (which is pretty much all of them) and malabsorption, two much more pressing issues in industrialized nations.

Hope that helps,

Swayze