* What’s New: Meet Me in Michigan

* Feature Article: 4 Ways to Improve the Mainstream Raw Food Diet

Meet Me in Michigan

From Friday-Sunday, October 8-10, 2010, Dr. Douglas Graham (author of The 80/10/10 Diet) is going to be presenting five, 3-hour health lectures in Livonia, Michigan.

The schedule is:

• Friday Night – Fasting: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (6-9)
• Saturday AM – Basics and Basis of the 80/10/10 Lifestyle (9:30-12:30)
• Saturday PM – Nutrition and Energy (2-5)
• Sunday AM – Children’s Health (9:30-12:30)
• Sunday PM – Astonishing Case Studies (2-5)

But that’s not the best part.  The best part is that a “market place” will be open for lunch on Saturday and Sunday, with restaurant vendors offering low fat raw vegan food!  There will be fresh fruit offered throughout both days as well!

And guess who’s booked for the whole weekend?  That’s right, ME!

So if you would like to learn more about health and wellness from the undisputed fruit master AND fill up on tasty fresh fruit with yours truly, then make your way over to Michigan this fall!

You can find out more information on the individual lectures and purchase your tickets here:

http://www.livingyoganow.com/dg/index.html

If you order by August 31 you get a $100 discount on the entire event and if you order by July 31 you get a free gift at the door.

I sure hope to see you there!

Swayze

4 Ways to Improve the Mainstream Raw Food Diet

Last week, I reviewed an essay on evolution and the human diet and concluded with 4 main ways to improve the modern human diet:

1. Eliminate Salt Intake
2. Eliminate Grains and Replace with Fruits and Vegetables, with an emphasis on sweet fruit
3. Exercise Everyday
4. Limit Fat Intake

You can find the rest of the article here.

Unfortunately, modern Americans with their SAD diet are not the only ones guilty of ignoring the lifestyle points above. Many health conscious individuals and their so-called nutritious diets fail as well.

For instance, vegans are known for eating tons of grain-based meals coupled with staggering levels of salt and oil. And while many vegans don’t struggle with hyperadiposity, there is definitely no shortage of under-muscled veg-heads.

But what about RAW vegans? Well, it seems that there is much room for improvement amongst this special class of health hobbyists as well.

Salt

The average raw foodist eats too much salt, as well as other spices and condiments. Here’s a raw soup recipe I found while scouring the web:

• South River unpasteurized miso
• Tomato concentrate by Premier Research
• Hijiki
• Goji Berries
• Hemp Seeds
• Raw Honey
• Sea Salt (pink himalayan salt is a great option)
• Other seaweed (optional)
• Nutritional flakes (optional)
• Agaricus mushroom powder (optional)

Can this really be considered a recipe? It seems to be made up of flavorings, rather than actual nutritious food.

Grains Over Fruits and Vegetables

You would think that most raw foodists would naturally favor ripe fruits and veggies over difficult to digest grains.

Unfortunately this is not the case. Many cooked-made-raw recipes, like burgers, wraps, and pizzas, use sprouted grains.

Here’s an example of a raw pizza:

• 400g sprouted wheat (or sprouted buckwheat)
• 2 medium fresh tomatoes
• ½ a medium sized onion
• 6-8 sundried tomato halves (ideally pre-soaked)
• About 10 leaves of fresh basil
• Liberal shaking of Italian dried herbs mix
• 1 clove garlic
• ⅓ cup of olive oil

And while many mainstream raw foodists do eat good amounts of greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc., they put WAY too little emphasis on sweet fruit. Some even shun fruit completely!

For more on the problem with eating grains, check out my article here.

Exercise

I don’t know what it is, but mainstream raw food vegans seem to HATE to exercise…not including meditation and low-intensity yoga, of course.

Actually I DO know why: they don’t eat enough calories! It’s impossible to find the energy to work up a good sweat when you’re living on heavy fats and low-calorie veggies.

This is why it’s so common to see super skinny, yet still over-fat and under-muscled raw foodists.

Fat

Here’s the big one: raw foodists eat way too many avocados, nuts, seeds, and oils. They’re used in salads, soups, salsas, sauces, and even sweet desserts!

ESPECIALLY the desserts! Here are the ingredients for an almond cake recipe:

• 1 cup walnuts
• 2/3 cup almonds
• 1 cup pitted, packed medjool dates
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

And that doesn’t include the almond creme…

• 1 cup cashews
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 1/2 -2 teaspoons pure almond extract
• 2 tablespoons chopped almonds

…or the whipped creme…

• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup cashews
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 3 tablespoons cacao powder
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons carob powder
• Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean
• Pinch celtic sea salt
• 2 tablespoons melted cacao butter
• 1 tablespoons coconut oil

…that go along with it.

Holy Cannoli!

No wonder so many raw foodists have issues with candida overgrowth.

Raw Rules for Everyone

So yea, unfortunately cooked food lovers are NOT the only ones guilty of dietary sin. But that’s okay, because you definitely don’t have to follow the trend:

1. Eliminate Salt Intake
2. Eliminate Grains and Replace with Fruits and Vegetables, with an emphasis on sweet fruit
3. Exercise Everyday
4. Limit Fat Intake

No matter what your current diet, you will see tremendous health gains by adopting the 4 guidelines above.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. You’ve probably also noticed how most raw recipe books out there follow this same unhealthy pattern: lots of salt and other spices and condiments, lots of fat, grains and low-calorie veggies over sweet fruits.

Not this one:

Low Fat, Fruit Filled, High Fun Raw Recipes

P.P.S. And yes, the unhealthy recipes I talked about in this post actually exist on popular raw food websites (I’m sure you’ve seen many just like them). I didn’t want to put anyone out by linking to the websites while bashing their recipes!

I know, I’m too cool for school.

Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution is one particular book that I have been reading lately. It’s a collection of essays written by numerous anthropologists, biologists, etc. regarding – you guessed it – evolution and the human diet.

In “Evolution, Diet, and Health” by S. Boyd Eaton, Stanley B. Eaton III, and Loran Cordain, the authors examine dietary evolution from the last common ancestor of apes and humans all the way up to modern men of today.

They conclude the essay with four ways in which intensive agriculture (i.e. farming) and industrialization have changed human health for the worse:

#1: Sodium Intake Has Dramatically Increased

About 90% of current sodium intake results from food processing, preparation, and flavoring: Only 10% is intrinsic to the foods themselves.

Many groups of hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, and rudimentary horticulturalists that lack commercially available salt have been studied in this century. These ancestral human surrogates experience neither rising blood pressure with age nor clinical hypertension.

It is also important to note that most of these “ancestral human surrogates” do not consume any rock salt at all (i.e. table salt, sea salt, volcanic rock salt, etc.). They receive all of their sodium from the foods they eat.

#2: Grains Have Replaced Fruits and Vegetables

No primates other than humans ordinarily consume cereal grains, but from the introduction of agriculture onward, grains have been the single most important contributor to human food energy, providing from 40% to 90% of human caloric requirements.

In doing so they have displaced fruits and vegetables that, until the Neolithic [period], had been the dominant energy source for Stone Agers, earlier hominds, and our antecedent primate ancestors for fifty million years.

You may be thinking that this focus on grains has allowed us time to anatomically and physiologically adapt to digesting them. However, the authors make it clear that this isn’t so:

The phytochemicals of grains have interacted with the human genome for only ten thousand years. Hence, substitution of grains for vegetables and fruits in human diets might readily diminish our resistance to development of neoplastic [cancerous] disease.

Some sources do say 30,000 as opposed to 10,000 years. Nonetheless, supporters of evolutionary theory agree that this simply is not enough time for digestive adaption to occur.

#3: Fatter Bodies From Lack of Exercise

For primates and other mammals in natural settings, food procurement is inextricably linked to energy expenditure…The ratio of fat to muscle generally varies with season, but typically lies within fairly narrow limits; hyperadiposity [excess of fat tissue], as it exists for many contemporary humans, is rare or not existent for other primates.

In the present, however, obtaining food energy is no longer dependent on muscular exertion: From childhood on, calories are available at the lowest cost in human experience without reciprocal energy expenditure. The result is relative sarcopenia – deficiency of skeletal muscle.

And here is a dire result of hyperadiposity and sarcopenia (too much fat and not enough muscle):

…a given insulin secretory pulse, in response to a carbohydrate-containing meal, now produces less reduction in blood glucose levels than would have been achieved for prior humans with evolutionarily “appropriate” body composition. Additional, “extra” pancreatic insulin is required to produce glucose homeostasis…the process can proceed to glucose intolerance and overt diabetes.

Essentially, the fatter you are, the harder time your body has of properly assimilating glucose that has been absorbed into your bloodstream.

Sound familiar? That’s because I often talk about FAT as the true cause of sugar metabolic disorders like Diabetes and candida overgrowth, not sugar. As long as you are consuming a low-fat diet, you will have absolutely no trouble digesting the simple sugars in fruit.

For more on the dangers of a high fat diet, check out my article here.

Speaking of too much fat…

#4: Too Much Fat in the Diet

For ancestral humans, the cholesterol-raising saturated fatty acids constituted about 5% of total energy intake, and trans fatty acids intake was negligible. For Americans, cholesterol-raising saturated fatty acids approach 15% of dietary energy, while hydrogenated vegetable fats and oils provide an unprecedented quantity of trans fats.

This imbalance of Omega-6 and 3 fatty acids not only affects physical health (i.e. coronary atherosclerosis, the disease characterized by plaque on the arterial walls), but it also has a harmful impact on mental health:

…studies of plasma Omega-6:Omega-3 ratios in patients with depression reveal a direct association: Higher ratios of Omega-6 to Omega-3 PUFAs [polyunsaturated fatty acids] are correlated with more frequent and severe depressive episodes. Early therapeutic trials with Omega-3 PUFAs have shown symptomatic improvement.

These Guys Must Be Healthy Raw Vegans!

Not really, but I was really intrigued by the ramifications of this essay. As a low fat raw vegan, I agree with and encourage all 4 points…with a bit of modification, of course:

1. Eliminate Salt Intake. Raw fruits and vegetables provide all the sodium your body needs. There is no need to consume sodium chloride.
2. Eliminate Grains and Replace With Fruits and Vegetables. Emphasis on the fruit! The bulk of your calories should come from sweet fruit, but don’t neglect tender leafy greens and non-sweet fruits like tomatoes.
3. Exercise Everyday. It doesn’t always have to be intense (in fact, it’s best to vary intensity throughout the week), but you should do something active each day. Even a short walk around the block is exercise!
4. Limit Your Fat Intake. Optimally, overall fat intake should not exceed 10% of total calories. That may sound impossible, but it is really very easy as long as you are consuming enough sweet fruit. And you’ll notice the benefits almost immediately.

Hmmm. Perhaps we fruit defenders are not so strange after all?

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. That first guideline has got you down, huh?  I know, it’s tough giving up on salt for good.  It’s hard to enjoy the simple flavors of fruits and vegetables without the flavor enhancing, yet irritating and weight-retaining salts, spices, and condiments that we are all so used to.

That’s okay, because my low fat and fruity friend Roger Haeske has some delicious dishes that will put the kibosh on your savory salty cravings.  Called Savory Veggie Stews, these completely raw, completely low fat, and completely free of salt recipes are truly tasty.

Check ‘em out here:

http://tinyurl.com/ygwwahs

So what was this big change?

Did I eliminate animal products from my diet?

No.

Did I start exercising?

No.

Did I stop consuming junk food?

No again.

I stopped consuming grains.

Even though I had already made the above lifestyle changes and had seen good results, nothing brought upon the health and wellness that giving up grains brought for me.

My Quest for More Energy

As I’ve mentioned before, I struggled with anemia for many years.  In 2005, I started exercising in order to lose weight and maybe increase my energy.  I definitely lost weight, but I still felt tired.

In 2006, I stopped consuming junk food on a regular basis.  Still tired.

By 2007, I had cut out animal flesh and animal by-products.  Again, still tired.

While I did see some signs of improved health (i.e. weight loss, clear skin, better hair, etc.) with all of these changes, my energy level barely budged.  I couldn’t help but feel defeated and just, well…tired.

Finally in late 2007, I stumbled upon the low fat raw vegan diet.  Only then did I realize the huge role that grains had played in my life, especially since becoming a vegan.

Before going raw, a typical day looked like this:

• Breakfast: Oatmeal with fresh fruit, orange juice
• Lunch: Vegetable sandwich, rice crackers, fruit
• Snack: Whole wheat crackers with hummus and salsa, fruit
• Dinner: Vegetable stir-fry with brown rice, raw veggies
• Dessert: Fruit and rice crackers

As you can see, every meal features some sort of grain.

Every.  Single.  One

This was a huge wake-up call for me.  I couldn’t believe I was eating that much wheat!  I decided then and there that it was time for me to give raw a real shot.

Giving Up The Grains

Giving up grains was not easy for me.  In fact, aside from eliminating salt, I’d say it is the hardest dietary change a person can make.

One reason most grains are so enticing is because they contain the protein gluten.  In Grain Damage: Rethinking the High-Starch Diet, author Dr. Douglas Graham writes:

Gluten, a protein found in many grain products, has been named as a causative factor in several psychoses and neurological disorders. It has been proven to chemically contain fifteen different opioid sequences, or morphine-like molecules.  Opioids that come from outside the body are called ‘exorphins.’

Exorphins are labeled by scientists as addictive and neurotoxic.  They have psychoactive properties and cause related behavioral problems such as addictive eating patterns.  Since the mid-1960s, scientists have repeatedly linked gluten consumption to learning disorders and schizophrenia.

Perhaps this explains why it’s so hard to eat just one cookie or a single slice of bread.

Another reason it is hard to give up grains is not necessarily because of the grains themselves, but what we mask them with.

As I’m sure you have experienced, grains on their own are extremely bland.  And RAW grains?  You’d have to be, well…a BIRD to eat those!

To give them some flavor, we like to add certain salts, spices, and other condiments.  Many of these “flavor enhancers,” such as aspartame and MSG, are more harmful than you might think.

In Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, Russell L. Blaylock, MD, provides shocking evidence that these substances (called “excitotoxins”) are highly addictive and actually lead to the destruction of certain brain cells!

In regards to the dangerous effects of excessive monosodium glutamate (MSG), Blaylock writes:

Within fifteen to thirty minutes after being exposed to high doses of MSG, neurons suspended in tissue culture are seen to swell like balloons.  Under the microscope you can see degeneration of the small structures within the cell, called organelles, and also clumping of the chromatin of the nucleus.

Within three hours these neurons are not only dead, but the body’s defense mechanisms begin to haul away the debris.  Under experimental conditions using animals, this degenerative reaction is seen when MSG is either ingested in the diet, injected into the abdominal cavity, or applied directly to the neurons in tissue culture or into the brain by way of cannula or tube.

In short, you may love grains and their accompanying “flavor enhancers,” but they sure don’t love you back!

How To Make Things Easier On Yourself

Often the reason people struggle so much with eliminating grains is because they make up such a huge part of the diet.  It is important to replace them with another calorically dense food if you want to keep the cravings at bay.  This is something that many raw foodists fail to do.

The best advice I can give is to eat lots of sweet fruit.  Sweet fruit is both calorically dense AND high in volume.  This means that you will feel satiated after your meal for many hours.  You won’t find yourself back in the kitchen an hour later searching for some starchy sweets.

You just have to remember to eat a lot!  Put it this way: a cup of cooked brown rice is about 216 calories.  A cup of sliced peaches is only 66 calories!

But really this is a great thing.  What other diet allows you to eat as much as you want and still be healthy and lose weight?

It Was Worth It

The fact that I was able to eradicate my fatigue made all the effort worthwhile.  Thanks to giving up grains, I could actually drive somewhere in the middle of the afternoon without worrying about falling asleep!

Might sound crazy to you, but it was a lifesaver for me.

You Can Do It!

It might be tough at first to give up grains, but I know you can do it!  If you do go raw and find yourself craving grains and other complex carbohydrate concoctions (e.g. bread, pasta, cereal, cakes, etc.), the first step to take is to make sure you are consuming enough sweet fruit.

Keep adding on fruit to your meals until you can remain satiated for 3-5 hours after eating.  That means not even considering eating until meal time arrives.

And remember, you don’t have to go 100% raw right now!  There is no reason why you can’t gradually replace all your staple grain dishes with raw ones.  For instance, if you usually have oatmeal or toast for breakfast, try a couple of juicy melons instead!

Yes, that’s right.  I said TWO whole melons.

Find an approach that works for you and giving up grains will be fun, enlightening and, maybe for you, even life-saving.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. For more information on the harmful effects of consuming grains, raw or cooked, check out my article:

Should You Eat Grains on a Raw Food Diet?

* Feature Article: Manage This “S” for Health Success

* Your Questions Answered: Should We Consume Sprouted Grains?

Manage This “S” for Health Success

In my recent message to mainstream raw gurus, I provided four essential yet simple ways to improve your health.  If you are deficient in any of these four areas, your health will surely suffer.

Of course, there are many additional factors that can affect overall health.  Clean air and fresh water are just a couple, as well as healthy relationships and mental creativity.

But would you like to know which health factor absolutely TRUMPS all of these?

Oh, you know I’m gonna tell ya.

Stress Management

Once my stress gets out of hand, all hell breaks lose.  Simple things like eating and sleeping become utter chores.

When I’m stressed out, I can’t stay raw. I can’t maintain an exercise routine.  My sleep is disturbed.

And you just better pray you’re not anywhere near me if I’ve had more than a couple nights of less than restful sleep.

In other words, the whole system fails.  I simply can’t stay healthy when I’m stressed and I KNOW I’m not the only one.

How to Manage Your Stress

It’s not meditating.

It’s not taking a nap or drinking chamomile tea.

Just like ingesting an Ibuprofen to alleviate your headache, these tactics only help to alleviate the symptoms. They don’t come anywhere close to the cause.

To do that, you have to get to the root of your problem and figure out what’s contributing to your stress in the first place.

For me, this means tackling the workaholic and perfectionist in me who says, “If I’m not constantly working, then I’m not working hard enough, and if my work isn’t “perfect,” then I’m not working hard enough!” and has me setting ridiculous daily goals for myself that I can’t possibly meet while at the same time reducing my leisure activities to almost nil.

Before I know it, I’m overworking, undereating, and having mad cravings for all kinds of cooked food comforts.

So what do I do to combat this?  I set reasonable goals, plan out my work periods for the day, make sure to leave ample relaxation time and VOILA!  I’m more productive, more relaxed, and stress-free!

In other words, I DO SOMETHING about it! I don’t just read lots of stress management articles (like this one).  I don’t just sit down to a self-help book.  I apply that information to my own life and put it to work as soon as possible.

It’s just like with going raw.

You can read all the raw food literature you want or watch as many raw recipe videos on YouTube as humanly possible.  It won’t mean diddly squat if the only raw food you eat is an ounce of lettuce under a mountain of Ranch dressing or a sprig of parsley with your Chicken Carbonara.

You have to actually EAT RAW FOODS to experience the benefits!

Putting It All Together

So if you want to stay raw, maintain an effective exercise program, and obtain overall health, you’ve got to get your stress under control. To do that, you have to figure out what causes your stress, develop techniques for managing it, and then get to work!

As Nike says, JUST DO IT!

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. I know what you’re thinking…”But Swayze, I can’t ‘Just Do It!’ because I don’t know what it is I just gotta do!  What’s the first step?”

I think I can help.  If you’re at all struggling with maintaining a healthy raw food diet due to emotional stress, you should really check out my program 21 Days to Conquer Your Cooked Food Cravings.

www.cookedfoodcravings.com

This is a complete step-by-step, daily program and each day contains a short lesson and action step so that you can effectively deal with cooked food cravings, emotional eating, and the all too familiar binge-diet-binge cycle.

The action step ensures that you will put the techniques explained to work and actually DO SOMETHING each and every day to understand and manage your emotional needs.

To find out more, just follow the link below:

www.cookedfoodcravings.com

Should We Consume Sprouted Grains?

Angelbe asks:

I also noticed sprouted grains being used in some of the gourmet recipes. What’s your opinion regarding those?

There is no reason to consume wheat, rye, barley, etc; these foods offer nothing in the way of nutrition that cannot be found in fruits, greens, nuts and seeds.  “Raw” grains – I use this term loosely because the kernel must be processed before human consumption – are acidic, low in vitamin C, high in insoluble fiber and low in necessary water-soluble fiber.

If you want optimal health, get your calories from simple sweet fruits and leave the grains for the birds.

For more information on grains, check out my article here.

Swayze

* What’s New: End of Summer

* Feature Article: Should You Eat Grains On A Raw Food Diet?

I can’t believe summer is almost over!  It seems like just yesterday my kitchen was full of summer staples like peaches and heirloom tomatoes.

Now I’m lucky to find a decent (and cheap) cantaloupe.

*sigh*

But no worries!  Cold weather is coming and that means crisp apples, juicy pears, delicious citrus fruits, grapes, and more!

There is always some new flavor to savor.

Swayze

Should You Eat Grains On A Raw Food Diet?

It is no secret that we as a species consume a lot of cereal grains.  It’s in our breakfast, our lunches, our side dishes and entrees.  It’s in our Mexican, Italian, and Chinese staples.

Grains even make up most of our favorite snacks and desserts.

And according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society, this is a good thing.  These institutions feel that “whole” grains, such as wheat and brown rice, should be the foundation of a healthy diet.

Do you wanna know what I think?  (Since you’re reading my blog, I’m going to assume that you do.)

The USDA, American Heart Association and American Cancer Society are completely WRONG.  You do NOT need grains to be healthy.  In fact, it will serve you well to completely eliminate them from your raw food diet.

Would You Eat Them Raw?

Seems like a silly question, but bear with me here for a moment.

If you were out in the wild foraging for food and you came across a field of wheat, would you be inclined to it some?

Would your mouth water at the sight of uncooked, unprocessed, unseasoned wheat kernels?

For the 1% of you who answered yes, I have to wonder about the possible fowl genetics present in your lineage.

On a more serious note, eating raw grains is not just unappetizing to the human palate.  In Grain Damage: Rethinking the High-Starch Diet, Dr. Douglas Graham writes:

At best, raw grains taste unpleasant and bitter, even when they are sprouted.  More often, they are inedible or poisonous if eaten in the field.  Even birds, the only natural grain eaters, feed their young on insects, as grains are deficient in protein and nutrients.

On the other hand, ripe fruit is instantly appealing to our senses.  It’s beautiful to look at.  Its smell makes us salivate.  It gives nicely in our hands.

Last but not least, fruit tastes wonderful.  What sane person can honestly resist a perfectly ripe peach or a fragrant muskmelon?

What About Cooked Grains?

You may be thinking that cooking grains is a better option than eating them raw.

Think again.

When a complex carbohydrate food such as wheat or barley is heated, the molecules of the food are fused together into a glue-like substance.  Even though cooking has broken down the complex starches into simple glucose, the body must do extra work to process the now chemically fused molecules.

This presents a huge problem in terms of blood-sugar levels.  In Left In the Dark, authors Graham Glynn and Tony Wright write:

Carbohydrates also appear to be problematic when eaten in large amounts.  A diet high in carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates (cakes biscuits, pasta, etc.) dumps large amounts of glucose rapidly into our bloodstream.  This can cause insulin resistance in which the absorption of glucose from the bloodstream is disrupted.  This in turn can lead to obesity, adult onset diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks and strokes.

And a little further down the page:

“If we compare refined carbohydrates with fruit we can see that fruit has a much lower glycemic index, which means it is digested more slowly thus avoiding the problems of the ‘glucose rush.’”

But that’s not all!  Here are some more problems associated with eating cooked grains:

• Migraines
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Depression
• Crohn’s disease
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Autism

But Humans Have Been Eating Grains For Thousands of Years!

While 10-30,000 years may seem like a long time to we humans with a mere 100-year life span (at best), it is but a flash in the pan evolutionarily speaking.

Here is an excerpt from Human Diet: Its Origin and Evolution on the increased consumption of grains since the Neolithic Period (when humans settled down and began farming extensively):

Becoming dependent on grains reduced intake of fruits and vegetables, often to 20% or less of total energy intake.  Accordingly, access to micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals) previously supplied by fruits and vegetables was substantially decreased.

Of course, cereal grains also provide micronutrients, but not necessarily those to which human biology became accustomed throughout a multimillion-year evolutionary experience, during which fruits and vegetables were the overwhelmingly dominant plant foods.

Quite simply, we have not been consuming a diet high in grains long enough for our anatomy and physiology to have adapted to them.

And anyway, grains do not fulfill our nutritional needs as fruits and vegetables do.  For instance, they are very low in vitamins A, B, and C and sodium and calcium.

This is why when you pick up a box of cereal or whole wheat pasta, you will often see  “Fortified with,” preceded by a host of vitamins and minerals that have been added to the product.

Not only that, but certain properties in grains affects absorption of vital nutrients within the body.  It is now known that grain consumption decreases Vitamin D absorption.

And while many proponents of a grain-based diet site fiber as a reason to indulge, there is a huge caveat here.  You see, the fibers in grains are not water-soluble like those present in fruits and vegetables; they are insoluble.

This means that they lack the ability to absorb water and move comfortably through the body.  Think of a harsh bristle brush slowly making its way down your digestive track.

Yikes!

Leave It To the Birds

In short, there is no reason for you to consume grains.  Raw or cooked, they are completely inferior to raw fruits and vegetables.

If you are having trouble consuming enough calories on a raw food diet, there is no need to turn to sprouting grains…or legumes for that matter.  Simply increasing your consumption of sweet fruit until you feel satisfied will do the trick.

Remember, fruit always comes first.

Go raw and give up grains,

Swayze