Earlier this week I posted an article about a study conducted by Princeton University researchers regarding rats, high-fructose corn syrup, and weight loss.

You can read my post here.

In essence, the study showed that rats fed a diet of rat chow and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) gained much more weight than those fed rat chow and sugar water, even though both groups were fed the same amount of calories.

Why is this important, you say?  You are a raw foodist and wouldn’t ever dream of eating HFCS!

All Calories Are Not Created Equal

As I alluded to on Monday, this little study pokes a tiny, but noticeable hole in the “a calorie is a calorie” theory.  It suggests that not all calories are equal, even when they are comprised of the same macronutrient (carbohydrates, in this case).

While you may not consume HFCS or refined sugar (or rat chow, I hope), you may still be buying into the “eat less, exercise more” mantra and believing that you need to severely limit your fruit consumption in order to lose weight.

My Experience

When I began watching my calories on a cooked food diet, I usually averaged about 1500 calories consumed each day.  Even with this low number, I was never able to lose more than a few pounds or get my body fat percentage down below 25% or so.

Now, I eat 2800 calories or more of raw foods each day and yet I still weigh significantly less and have a much healthier body fat % than I ever did on a cooked food diet!  I am a little bit more active now, but not nearly enough to account for the 1300 caloric difference.

Now, I’m not saying that calories are not important.  They are EXTREMELY important, especially if you want to be successful on a low fat raw vegan diet.

But that’s for a later article.

What’s Your Take?

Have you experienced a difference in calories going from a cooked food diet to a raw food one?  Are you able to consume more calories eating lots of fruit without any weight gain, and even with weight loss?  Maybe you’ve even seen a difference between eating high-fat raw and low fat raw?

Whatever your experience, be sure to leave me a comment!

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

No introduction for this post…just kid-friendly raw recipes!

#1: Rainbow Fruit Skewers

Who doesn’t like skewered foods?!  And rainbows?!

Ingredients:

• Red: raspberries
• Orange: oranges
• Yellow: mango
• Green: green grapes
• Blue: blueberries
• Indigo: plums
• Violet: blackberries
• Wooden skewers

Directions:

Stick the fruit on the skewers in the ROYGBIV order.  Of course, feel free to substitute any other fruits that you and your kids happen to like.

And yes, I know plums aren’t really indigo and blackberries aren’t violet, but it’s close enough!

#2: Banana Blueberry Ice Cream

The low fat raw way!

Ingredients:

• 6 bananas; peeled, sliced, and frozen
• 1 cup blueberries; frozen

Directions:

Puree everything in a food processor for about 5 minutes (if you have a powerful blender, that will work as well).  You will likely have to stop and scrap down the sides a few times.

And if freezing takes too much time, you can make “Banana Blueberry Pudding” instead!

#3: Carmel Camel Dip

This one is from my low fat raw recipe book Low Fat, Fruit Filled, High Fun Raw Recipes (submitted by wonderfully raw reader, Melissa Conrad) and it’s a great one for children and adults alike!

Ingredients:

• 16 Medjool dates, pitted and soaked for at least 1 hour
• 1-2 tbsp of date-water
• 2 medium sweet apples (Gala, Fuji, Red Delicious, etc.)
• (Optional): 1/2 medium banana

Directions:

Drain water from the dates, leaving about 2 tbsp worth. Place dates and water in a food processor or blender. Add half of a banana, if desired. The banana makes the dipping sauce extra creamy. More water may be added for a more runny consistency.

Cut apples into slices and dip away!!

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. For more delicious and healthy raw vegan recipes, check out my recipe book Low fat, Fruit Filled, High Fun Raw Recipes at the link below:

Low Fat, Fruit Filled, High Fun Raw Recipes

According to this article we do.

Apparently people who have a “fixation with righteous eating” or who decide to give up certain unhealthy foods like “sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods” have a mental condition known as orthorexia nervosa.

And us low fat raw foodies really take the cake!  Not only do we shun all cooked foods, but we tend to skip on spices, onion, garlic, and most dehydrated foods as well.

I guess it makes sense.  I mean, one of my nicknames is “CRAZY Swayze”.

Sticking to a Healthy Diet Plan is NOT a Disease

According to mainstream media and medicine, you can only be healthy if you subscribe to the “everything in moderation” way of thinking.  Basically, you can eat anything you like as long as it isn’t to excess and still be perfectly healthy.

Now, I don’t dispute the fact that you can eat anything you like.  You certainly CAN eat anything you wish and should only choose a particular diet because it is the way you want to eat.

But to think that you can eat any food, any time and still be HEALTHY is just ridiculous.  Eating meat at every meal, even if it’s in “moderate” 3 oz portion sizes, is not health promoting.  Eating cereal for breakfast, even if you follow the suggested serving size on the box, is not health promoting.  Having Chinese stir-fry for dinner, even if it’s described as “light” on the menu, is not health promoting.

If OPTIMAL health is your goal, you can’t do any better than a low fat, high fruit raw vegan diet.  And this doesn’t just imply limiting your fat intake and shoving lots of fruit into your face.  If you really want to see results, you have to give up on (or at least severely limit) your intake of lots and lots of “normal” foods.

On the Other Hand…

While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to eat a healthy diet, it is never a good idea to obsess over food.  If what you eat (or don’t eat) causes you any amount of stress or strain in your life, you may want to take a step back and reanalyze your raw goals.

Remember, food really IS just food!

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

While I don’t have any children myself, I do know how difficult it can be to feed them a healthy diet.  This is especially true today with all the fatty, salty, sugary foods meant to tempt them at every turn.

The good news is that kids of all ages love sweet fruit and you won’t have a hard time convincing them to dive into this fun raw creation!

Cantaloupe Monkey Face!

Here are the instructions from www.instructables.com:

First, cut the cantaloupe in half. Use a spoon to clean out the seeds. Discard seeds into your compost pile.

You will need a minimum of 9 wedges, each approximately one inch wide. If you cut each half in half (that gives you quarters) and each quarter in half, that will give you 8 pieces. Do not peel the skin!

Step 3: Three Skins Down!
First, you make the upper part of the monkey face. Take a serving platter. Either square or oval/round should work. Select three winners – thicker wedges and place them on the platter – skin down! Make space for the lips, so place wedges off center.

Take a wedge, put it skin up in between existing wedges. Repeat.

Get another wedge and put it to the left – it makes one ear! Repeat to give it ear #2 – both are important!

Place two wedges flesh facing each other on the second side of the plate. It makes beautiful monkey lips!

Yes, it’s coming all together! If you mastered making thinner slices and you have extras, you may always insert them in the same fashion – skin down/skin up – till you run out of pieces. I managed to cut a total of 11 pieces out of my cantaloupe and it’s looking pretty good so far! Don’t go yet, grand finale is a head of you!

Got a couple of plums? Or strawberries, blueberries, M&Ms? Anything round would do it. Give your monkey the gift of sight in the sweetest form you can manage!

Seriously – if you are anticipating a big party, don’t get intimidated by the amount of attention your creation will give you! Take it in gracefully and save it for those days when you need a confidence boost. Don’t forget to eat a wedge. Yum!

Oh my gosh, what child wouldn’t love this?!  I mean, kids love monkeys.  Kids love cantaloupe.  Kids love playing with their food.  It’s a match made in heaven!

Oh, I would leave out any M&Ms, of course.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

* Feature Article: Is Weight Loss Only About Calories Consumed?

* Your Questions Answered: Calories and Weight Loss

Is Weight Loss Only About Calories Consumed?

I recently stumbled upon this interesting Princeton study on high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and weight gain, the results of which I thought might interest you.

The experiment involved two groups of rats: one fed rat chow along with HFCS and the other fed rat chow along with a water-sucrose (refined sugar) solution.  The amount of HFCS given was half as concentrated as most soft drinks, while the sugar solution was about equal to that as the amount found in soft drinks.

The result?  The fructose fed rats gained significantly more weight than the sucrose-fed rats.

But by far the most interesting part?  Both groups of rats were fed the SAME amount of calories!

And still, every single rat fed high-fructose corn syrup instead of plain sucrose became obese.  The males were especially effected, with a 48% weight gain over the sucrose-fed rats!

The researchers admit that they do not know for sure why the HFCS fed rats gain more weight, however:

…as a result of the manufacturing process for high-fructose corn syrup, the fructose molecules in the sweetener are free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized.

This creates a fascinating puzzle. The rats in the Princeton study became obese by drinking high-fructose corn syrup, but not by drinking sucrose. The critical differences in appetite, metabolism and gene expression that underlie this phenomenon are yet to be discovered, but may relate to the fact that excess fructose is being metabolized to produce fat, while glucose is largely being processed for energy or stored as a carbohydrate, called glycogen, in the liver and muscles.

So much for “a calorie is a calorie is a calorie”, eh?

You can find the full story here:

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. Wanna lose weight permanently, while still eating as much food as is humanly possible?  Then you gotta go low fat raw vegan.

Luckily, I have a raw recipe book to help you with that:

Low Fat, Fruit Filled, High Fun Raw Recipes

Calories and Weight Loss

Shirley asks:

I’m trying to go raw but I also have some weight to lose. [I] have your five week transition program but I’m a little curious as to how one can lose weight eating all those calories as you suggest so if you could please help with this question it would be greatly appreciated.

The meals are just a guideline.  Each person will need more or less calories depending on their height, weight, and activity level.

I admit, something like 1000 calories for a meal does sound like a lot.  In fact, many people will think it is impossible to eat that much food in one sitting.

It isn’t.  I regularly eat this much in bananas for both my breakfast and lunch meals.  I really just want to show what’s possible.

Does that mean you should eat this much?  Not at all.  It completely depends on how active you are.  A 120 pound sedentary female probably will not need 1000 calories at a meal.

Just eat as much as you like at each meal until you are satisfied and you will be fine.  Monitor your weight and body fat % on a regular basis and if you don’t see any change at all after about 3 months, try shaving off no more than a couple hundred calories per day.

Swayze

P.S. For those who would like access to The Fool Proof Transition to Raw that Shirley mentions above, simply fill out the form in the upper right hand corner of this page.