Is Your Raw Food Diet Dehydrating?
This may be hard to believe, but on a raw food diet, you should never be thirsty during or after a meal.
As I explained last week, a healthy raw food diet is full of water-rich produce and, therefore, is very hydrating.
What’s that? The raw foods you eat make you thirsty? Here’s what you’re probably doing wrong:
You Eat Too Much Salt
Most mainstream raw food recipes are full of salt, pepper, and other condiments. While these flavor-enhancers can make food taste really good, they also irritate and dehydrate your body (especially salt).
That’s right, you don’t need salt. You can get all the sodium your body requires from fresh fruits and vegetables.
Remedy: Get rid of the salt and spices. Try flavorful substitutes like sun-dried tomatoes, fresh herbs, and scallions instead.
You Eat Too Many Dried Foods
While foods like dried fruits and nuts are perfectly acceptable on a raw food diet, their use should be limited. Any food that has been dried is no longer whole, fresh, and raw. Most of the water is gone, taking some of the nutrients in the food along with it.
If you eat a lot of these foods, you simply won’t get the water your body needs.
Remedy: Limit dried ingredients like raisins and sun-dried tomatoes to a handful or less per recipe. Many other popular processed foods within the raw food movement—like cacao and hemp powder—should be limited (ideally, avoided completely) as well.
You Eat Too Much Fat
A diet high in fat is typically a diet low in water. That’s because most raw fatty foods like nuts, seeds, and oils are very dense, low-water foods.
And while other high-fat foods like avocados and mature coconut meat do contain a good deal of water, they’re also high in calories. Getting lots of water from these foods means you are eating too much fat AND too many calories.
Remedy: Limit your fat intake to no more than 10% of total calories. Focus on getting your calories from fruit—that’s FRESH fruit, not dried—instead.
Today’s Take Home Message
The more fresh fruits and vegetables you eat, the more water you will consume. The less dehydrating foods you eat—like dried nuts and salt—the less water you will need.
Go raw and be fit,
Swayze
P.S. Having a hard time eating enough fresh foods? Be sure to check out my recipe e-book:
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6 comments
As I sit at my desk I have this wonderful view of the St Clair River that separates the State of Michigan from its Northern neighbor Canada. It has such beautiful light blue water flowing through it that it makes me want to step over to the muddy shore and take a big drink. But on second thought, I can see in the waters reflection the silluette of something dirty and black looming above. As I look up, my view is clouded by the outline of a large group of chemical refining plants situated on the Canadian shore. Certainly, my clean blue water may not be as clean as it is blue. This is one of the dilemmas of water in the human diet. Where is the best place to get the type of water which we were meant to consume and more to the point what type of water should we be putting into our bodies? From the first time I became conscience about health, I have read so many different articles regarding water. Mainstream nutritionists often push drinking large quantities of water. (As Swayze points out this is mainly due to the poor diet of those listening to the mainstream nutritionists) I would be floating in the River if I followed their advice. Many raw foodists push either distilled or RO (Reverse Osmosis) water as being the best for us. What in the heck is RO water anyway? Again, all of this information is very confusing. Personally, I agree with Swayze (hope that is not coming as a surprise) I think we should get most of our water from our food in the form of luscious fruits and vegetables. This should be one of the cleanest forms of water as the fruit filters the water for us. As far as supplemental water I still like spring water best. I know, I know, I have heard all of the info regarding it being more difficult to assimilate all of the minerals in spring water but have any of you actually tasted distilled water? It tastes like distilled Clorox to me. I like the mineral taste of the spring water. You know when you really think about it, some of that spring water may actually be goat’s pee. The goat pees on the mountain which flows to the stream…sorry. So really, I may be depending on the diet of the goat for getting good tasting water. Note to self: push congress for better food for goats. Also, I think that it would be more similar to the water we may have occasionally used in the wild. You know, back when there was a wild and no chemical factories blocking my pristine view. Back then I would have actually taken that sip of water from the river (which is just a big spring) and likely moments later I would have been eaten by a bear. So much for the wild!
Have a great day,
Bill K.
[Reply]
stillewaters Reply:
July 28th, 2011 at 8:49 AM
Some 1925 poetry from an amazing american rawfood-vegan , writer and health-food businessman OTTO CARQUE :
” The amount of water needed by the body depends , on various circumstances , principally
on climate and occupation . The greater the functional activity of the organism , the greater the need for fluid . This need is indicated by thirst , which is best satisfied by pure water …
… Most fruits contain a very large percentage of water – from 80 to 90 per cent – so that people partaking freely of fresh fruits and vegetables , need little or no water in addition to that supplied by their food … ”
Impossible to improve on his formulations !
[Reply]
The most realistic talk about the dangers of regular daily use of destilled water , i found in the pdf-article from M.D. ZOLTAN RONA :
” Early death comes with regular drinking of distilled water ”
http://www.mydoctor.ca/documents/users/2509/5253.pdf
[Reply]
stillewaters Reply:
November 5th, 2011 at 5:21 AM
The opinions around special kinds of water – for or against some wizard waters – are very diverse
and very contradictory
The article from MD Zoltan Rona on distilled water , gets very severe critic on the forum of Life Extension :
http://forum.lef.org/default.aspx?f=40&m=16693
It only shows how difficult it is to get an uniform scientific standpoint
Finally , the best way is to avoid any pollution in your drinking water , certainly avoid fluoridation
And to avoid any possible residus from chlorination in tapwater , i guess it is best to drink
bottled mineral water in glass bottles
The soft plastic bottles will give you a contamination by Phthalates ( material used inside the soft plastic )
hopely the URL-link is correct ,
)
[Reply]
Oh yes , i noticed that the consequence of using a diet high in fresh fruits and juice-based smoothies , results in very little need to drink extra water between meals , in fact practically never !
I think that to force yourself to drink 2 liters of water daily ,
just because it is written very often in healthy nutrition books , and not listening to what you yourself really experience , is not very wise
[Reply]
Stumbled on a good article, debunking the myths of all those
( pseudo-science ) recommendations for drinking a special kind of water :
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html
http://www.chem1.com/acad/sci/aboutwater.html
The second link ( after some scrolling ) tells you about : pure water , drinking water , what kind of water is most healthy to drink ( includes comment on rain water ) , ion-free water , how much water should I drink ? , …
[Reply]
Leave a comment, beautiful.