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

* 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.

* What’s New?: Raw Food Meeting in Memphis

* Feature Article: How to Indulge in High Fat Raw Recipes

Raw Food Meeting in Memphis

As I mentioned last week, last night I hosted a little low fat raw vegan meeting in my home.  There was a lot of good discussion and I got to meet some really nice raw foodists in the Memphis area.

I also made a few different dishes for the get together, including my Salty Salt-Free Salsa which I recorded so look out for that on YouTube really soon!

Swayze

Trouble Losing Weight On Raw?  Stick It To This Sneaky Substance!

I figured I’d stick to the salty theme of last week and share my own little sickly salt story.  Enjoy!

When I receive emails from frustrated and often desperate readers asking why, oh why they can’t lose weight even though they are following a healthy raw food diet, the very first thing I often ask is:

*Are you still consuming salt?*

This sneaky substance so popular within the raw food movement is a common reason why many raw foodists hold onto excess weight.

Here’s the simple explanation:

When you consume rock salt of any kind – sea salt, table salt, kosher salt, fleur de sel, etc. – the salt draws the precious water from your cells out into your bloodstream and skin (even killing the cells in the process).

This process of osmosis, although necessary to balance the level of salinity in the body, is what leads to water retention (i.e. puffy skin!).

Don’t believe me? Then let me regale you with a little salty story of my own…

Salty Dinner Salad and Super Inflated Swayze

Late last year, I began adding salt to my nightly salads. I’m not really sure how it happened…

I just noticed the sea salt on the counter while preparing my dinner one evening and decided to add a dash to the dish. I knew it wasn’t healthy to eat rock salt, but it tasted pretty good and I figured it couldn’t harm me that much, right?

I kept up these salty charades for a couple of weeks until I noticed my clothes fitting a bit tighter. I was having a hard time fitting into some of my shirts. I didn’t notice the connection between the weight gain and salt yet and so I was a bit perplexed.

Then I saw myself in the raw pie video I posted Thanksgiving morning of ’09…I looked all puffy! I went to weigh myself and couldn’t believe it: I was 5 POUNDS HEAVIER than my usual weight!

I knew immediately what the culprit was: SALT!

No More Salty Salads!

The salt – even just a dash of it – was clearly making me retain water. I decided to eliminate the dash of salt from my diet that day and had a completely salt-free salad that evening.

And you know what? I was completely surprised that my salad tasted just as good! Better, in fact, because I could actually taste all the different nuances of the ingredients in the dish instead of just salt, salt, and more SALT.

Even more surprising? I weighed myself the next day to test my theory and had already lost 3 WHOLE POUNDS. I had known that salt lead to water retention, but 3 pounds in one day?! That really surprised me.

In addition, I had been waking up each morning slightly nauseated for the past couple of weeks, which was sometimes accompanied by a slight headache. This would last for about an hour or so and then gradually disappear.

Again, I didn’t see salt as the culprit.

But the morning after my salt-free salad…no nausea OR headache AT ALL!

So not only did that little bit of rock salt in the evening make me gain an entire melon’s worth of water, but it also made me nauseated and headache-y!

And it didn’t even enhance the flavor of my food…it just made it salty.

Oh, one other side effect of eating salt…it made my sweat super stinky!

Moral of My Salty Story

Salt is really, really, REALLY addictive.

This is not the first time I have introduced salt back into my diet and each occurrence has the same results:

I try the salt, I love it immediately (even though I haven’t eaten it in many, many months), I continue to use it to enhance my food for a few weeks, I gain weight and/or my joints start to hurt, I give it up and wonder why, oh why I ever introduced it to my diet in the first place!

But this time was a bit different.

The nausea and headaches were definitely new and I usually only gain a pound or two, not FIVE!

Plus, I usually really struggle with giving salt up again because plain savory raw dishes just don’t taste as good anymore. As mentioned above, the salad tasted just fine without it and I forgot all about salt pretty much immediately, which was great.

How to Stick it to Salt

While I usually recommend a gradual transition away from unhealthy foods, salt is sometimes an exception to the rule.

If you are still struggling with weight loss and can’t stop sneaking in and soaking up the salt, the best thing to do is to simply get rid of it completely. You will be surprised how quickly your cravings for this sneaky substance subside.

It really only takes a few days to a couple weeks at most and then you won’t even think about salt anymore. After only about a week of no salt, the thought of adding any to my food honestly made be feel nauseated…and it still does!

Hopefully my stubborn self has *finally* learned its lesson and I won’t go searching for salt again.

*sigh* We shall see.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. If you are finding it exceedingly difficult to give up salt, I suggest checking out Roger Haeske’s idiot-proof recipe system, Savory Veggie Stews. These delicious and completely salt-free dishes will be sure to put the kibosh on all your salty and savory dinner time cravings:

http://tinyurl.com/ygwwahs

“BUY THE BRAND NEW SUPER EXTREME AB BLASTER 5000 AND GET RID OF ALL YOUR UNWANTED BODY FAT!  TURN YOUR FLABBY FAT INTO MIGHTY MUSCLE IN JUST SECONDS A DAY!”

Sounds familiar?

Although infomercials and promotions such as these have been debunked thousands of times by countless health experts and enthusiasts, there are *still* people who believe the hype.

No more, I say!

Spot Reduction Works

Spot training proponents believe that working a particular part of the body will result in fat loss in that specific area.  For instance,  they say that doing crunches will result in a slimmer stomach.

*NO, NO, NO!*

This is completely unfounded and just bad science.  There is no way you can reduce fat surrounding the muscles in your abdomen by working those muscles. Muscle and fat are two completely different things!

If you ever encounter someone claiming that it is possible to eradicate belly fat by doing some brand-new ab exercise (usually requiring you to pay $19.95 for unnecessary equipment) or turn pounds of fat into muscle, turn the other way and run as fast as you can.

Then Why Do Crunches At All?

What you *will* achieve by doing strength training exercises like crunches is…surprise…stronger muscles!  The exertion will also burn some calories, which will help you to release some overall excess weight.  However, this loss will be minimal.

So what’s the most effective way to burn fat?  Why, I’m so glad you asked!

How to Reduce Fat

Adopting a healthy diet is by far the best way to lose excess weight.

Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule?  I’m sure you have if you’ve ever talked to any reputable person in the health field.  It simply means that 80% of weight loss comes from diet while only 20% is a result of exercise.  I would even go so far as to say that 90% is a direct result of diet!

It’s likely that you know people who exercise hours a day and yet eat a less-than-ideal diet.  The result?  You would never guess that they exercised at all!  They may be very muscular, but no one would ever know because of the predominant layer of adipose (fat) tissue.

How to Get Started

The best way to lose weight is to adopt a healthy raw vegan diet.  Not only will eating this way result in weight loss, you will also experience an increase in energy, mental clarity, and improved digestion.

The low raw raw vegan diet I recommend is healthy and simple.  If I had to describe it in one sentence, it would be this:

EAT MORE FRUIT, EAT LESS FAT, AND DON’T FORGET YOUR GREENS!

With guidelines that simple, there’s no reason you can’t get started today!

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

It’s no secret that many people, raw foodists or not, struggle with releasing unwanted weight.  Often times this inability to lose weight stems from seemingly uncontrollable cravings for unhealthy cooked foods.  These cravings often lead to binge eating, which (of course) leads to weight gain.

There is a good chance that you struggle with this problem as well.  Sure, you might stick to a raw food diet for maybe a week or so, but those killer cravings always seem to rear their ugly heads again.

Once they’re back, it’s all you think about and before you know it, you’re parked at the nearest fast-food joint chowing down on the fattiest, most unhealthy food you can get your hands on.  You spend the rest of the day feeling guilty and dreading your next visit with Mr. Scale.  And the cycle continues…

What to do?  Is there anyway to end this madness?  Don’t you wish that there was one easy and effective way to finally lose weight?

Well, to day is your lucky day!  Here is the #1 rule for healthy raw food weight loss:

Eat More Food!

Sounds crazy, right?

To tackle the weight loss issue, we have to get to the root of the problem: cravings.

Many of these cravings can be avoided by simply eating more!  We are so often told to eat less and less and less for weight loss.  This is not the answer.  Eating less food than your body needs means receiving less volume and fewer nutrients than you require.

If you allow yourself to eat as much food as you want, I promise you will see a significant reduction in cooked food cravings.

Of course, you can’t just eat *any* foods.  You want a raw diet comprised of mostly raw sweet fruits, 1-2 pounds of non-sweet fruits and tender greens, and limited amounts of fatty foods (i.e. half an avocado or 1-2 ounces of nuts per day).

You also want to be sure and eradicate (or at least limit) food such as salt, onion, garlic, and pepper from your diet.  These foods are irritating to the body and they can and will lead to water retention.

How This Rule Helped Me

As wary as I am to admit it, I used to binge eat.  Not only was this physically and mentally damaging, it prevented me from staying at my ideal weight for very long.  Luckily, this never became a daily practice for me, but it was a nasty frequent habit nonetheless and one that became harder and harder to stop.

It was not until I learned the value of eating as much raw foods as I wanted and actually implemented this in my life that I no longer felt the urge to binge on unhealthy foods.

There were many days in which I actually ate 3000 calories worth of raw foods…well over my caloric needs for the day.  And yet, I still lost weight!

That’s the beauty of a low fat, high fruit raw food diet.  You really can eat pounds of food a day and experience vibrant health.

What other diet can promise that?

Moral of the Story

Eat more raw foods!

I don’t care if you just had a huge meal of 20 bananas!  If you feel cravings coming on, go grab an apple or some grapes or pineapple, etc.

And don’t cause yourself unnecessary stress by worrying over how much you are eating.  Your appetite will gradually lessen as your taste buds and tummy become accustomed to simpler foods.  You won’t have to eat quite as much to feel satisfied.

Today, I honestly can’t even imagine eating those unhealthy foods that I used to binge on.  My belly is far too full on delicious sweet fruits!

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze