Posted by cindy427 on Feb 03, 2010 · Member since Nov 2009 · 3 posts
Hi I just started a raw food diet and was wondering if soy or almond milk considered as a raw food. If not what are some good alternatives?
Thanks for your help!! ;D :^
Posted by lebkuchen on Feb 03, 2010 · Member since Aug 2008 · 449 posts
Hi Cindy!
Any boxed milk that you buy at the store is not raw. Raw almond milk can be made at home, however. Other raw milks to make at home can include cashew milk, oat milk (using raw oat groats), and virtually any kind of nut milk using raw nuts.
You should swing by the Raw Chit-Chat thread in the Dine N Dish forum - you can meet more raw foodists and learn more about the raw lifestyle!
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Posted by Webmistress Laura on Mar 18, 2010 · Member since Jun 2009 · 831 posts
Great answers, lebkuchen! And welcome, cindy427!
You can also check out our recipes for raw milks in our raw section and beverages section under recipes! Enjoy!!!
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Posted by JulietMylaOwen on Mar 26, 2010 · Member since Mar 2010 · 5 posts
This is the final postmortem of my 30 day trial of the low-fat raw food diet, which I conducted from January 1 to January 30, 2008.
The two posts I made before starting this trial explained the background on this diet and my reasons for doing this, so I won’t rehash all of that here. If you haven’t yet read those posts, I encourage you to do so since they provide the context for this experiment:
* 30 Days Raw * Raw Foods
Adaptation
The initial detox period seemed to last about two weeks. Symptoms included bad breath, chills, headaches, daytime drowsiness, mental fogginess, concentration problems, low libido, and an unstable yo-yoing of my alertness and emotional states. It wasn’t until day 14 that I began feeling consistently good on this diet.
The mental adaptation was more difficult than the physical adjustment. Even during the last week of the trial, I still found it difficult to come to terms with how much food I had to eat each day. For example, on the first day of the trial I ate 8-1/2 pounds of food, and I was 2.8 pounds lighter on the scale the next morning. That really takes some getting used to.
Challenge
I found this trial extremely challenging. It was by far the most difficult 30-day trial I’ve ever done. In some ways it got easier after the first week as I got used to making raw meals and eating larger quantities of food, but it still seemed to require a high level of self-discipline to stick with it. That may be because I transitioned so abruptly instead of making more gradual changes over many years.
Raw Food
Overall I liked the raw food on this diet and didn’t have too much trouble with variety, despite doing this trial during the winter when the availability and quality of fresh produce aren’t the best. I noticed my cravings for sweets declined tremendously, and I was completely satiated by sweet fruits. Even when returning to cooked food after the trial, I had no desire to eat anything sweet aside from fruit. Sometimes I felt a little overloaded by all the sweetness in this diet, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I’ve found that when I ate more vegetables, especially celery, it helped increase my desire to eat more sweet fruits. The vegetables seemed to cleanse my palate of the sweetness.
One thing I really liked about this diet is that I discovered new foods I’d never been interested in before, including okra and Asian pears. I also enjoyed the simple green smoothies made from bananas, spinach, and water. I expect to continue enjoying those foods for a long time to come.
Cravings
The cravings for cooked food on this diet were strong some days and virtually nonexistent on other days. Overall they weren’t too difficult to deal with. Usually when I ate a sufficient quantity of raw food and got enough calories, the cravings diminished. Cravings were strongest when I allowed myself to get too hungry.
No Salt
Early in this trial, I had some strong cravings for saltier foods, but they dissipated over time. I was surprised at how easy it was to go without salt.
No Supplements
I didn’t consume any supplements during this diet at all. No pills or powders of any kind. No superfoods either. I didn’t think it was necessary to increase the price of my urine.
Low-fat
The low-fat restriction, less than 10% of calories from fat, was the most difficult part of the trial. Many days I fell like my cravings could’ve been satiated by including more fat in the diet, such as avocados, nuts, or seeds. However, I didn’t feel as good when I ate too much fat in a single meal.
When I started the trial, I aimed to to keep my weekly average below 15% of calories from fat, but over time I was able to successfully drop it below 10%. My energy levels became more stable once I brought the fat down.
For the first half of the trial, I averaged 12.2% of calories from fat. For the second half of the trial, I averaged 8.7% of calories from fat. Adjusting my fat calories downward became easier as the trial progressed.
Exercise
During the trial I experienced increases in both strength and endurance. I continued doing light aerobic and strength training workouts during the trial, and I experienced strength gains in all muscle groups. I also noticed on several occasions that my aerobic workouts seemed easier than usual, as if my heart was beating at a lower rate even though the heart monitor showed that the rate remained the same.
The biggest improvement was in my muscular endurance. On day 3 I was able to do 27 pushups. On day 7 I was up to 31, and on day 24 I did 36 pushups, setting a new lifetime personal best. Those were the only times I did pushups during the trial, and I didn’t do many chest workouts during this time. This is definitely a very unusual improvement for me.
The muscle endurance improvements helped me accelerate my strength gains because I was able to progress to heavier weights more quickly and manage more reps with those weights. Weights I struggled to do just 2-3 reps with, I could crank out 7-10 reps with ease the following week. The weight still seemed just as heavy, but my muscles didn’t give out as soon. That really surprised me.
I don’t recall experiencing any serious muscle soreness during this trial at all. I often get sore when I progress to significantly heavier weights, but this time there was nothing. Also, while lifting the weights, I didn’t experience much pain when I reached the point where my muscles were about to give out. Sometimes the acid build-up in my muscles creates intense, burning pain before my muscles reach the point of failure. During this trial I seemed to reach the point of muscle failure before that pain got too strong. This made it easier to crank out a few more reps. That was new. I suppose this diet could reduce the waste build-up in the muscles, since simple sugars provide the cleanest burning fuel the body can use.
I can certainly see why this diet is so attractive to many athletes. In my case it seems to provide an obvious edge in the area of physical performance. I would definitely give this diet some serious consideration if I was involved in any sort of competitive sports.
Weight Loss
During the 30-day trial, I lost 8.0 pounds, about 1.9 pounds per week. I started at 186.0 and ended at 178.0. My body fat also dropped 1.8 percentage points. As of the morning of Feb 3rd, I weighed 174.0. That additional post-trial weight loss was largely due to the illness I experienced upon eating cooked foods on day 31.
Here’s a chart showing my weight loss day by day. I charted my weight for a few weeks before this trial to establish a baseline and for a few days afterwards as well. You can see that before I started this trial, my weight was fairly stable. In fact, my weight stayed very close to 185 pounds throughout all of 2007. I also didn’t make any significant changes to my exercise routine or routine physical activity during the trial.
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Posted by MarieJaniyaNelson on Mar 29, 2010 · Member since Mar 2010 · 5 posts
Hi Cindy!
Any boxed milk that you buy at the store is not raw. Raw almond milk can be made at home, however. Other raw milks to make at home can include cashew milk, oat milk (using raw oat groats), and virtually any kind of nut milk using raw nuts.
You should swing by the Raw Chit-Chat thread in the Dine N Dish forum - you can meet more raw foodists and learn more about the raw lifestyle!
Great answers, lebkuchen! And welcome, cindy427!
You can also check out our recipes for raw milks in our raw section and beverages section under recipes! Enjoy!!!
This is the final postmortem of my 30 day trial of the low-fat raw food diet, which I conducted from January 1 to January 30, 2008.
The two posts I made before starting this trial explained the background on this diet and my reasons for doing this, so I won’t rehash all of that here. If you haven’t yet read those posts, I encourage you to do so since they provide the context for this experiment:
* 30 Days Raw
* Raw Foods
Adaptation
The initial detox period seemed to last about two weeks. Symptoms included bad breath, chills, headaches, daytime drowsiness, mental fogginess, concentration problems, low libido, and an unstable yo-yoing of my alertness and emotional states. It wasn’t until day 14 that I began feeling consistently good on this diet.
The mental adaptation was more difficult than the physical adjustment. Even during the last week of the trial, I still found it difficult to come to terms with how much food I had to eat each day. For example, on the first day of the trial I ate 8-1/2 pounds of food, and I was 2.8 pounds lighter on the scale the next morning. That really takes some getting used to.
Challenge
I found this trial extremely challenging. It was by far the most difficult 30-day trial I’ve ever done. In some ways it got easier after the first week as I got used to making raw meals and eating larger quantities of food, but it still seemed to require a high level of self-discipline to stick with it. That may be because I transitioned so abruptly instead of making more gradual changes over many years.
Raw Food
Overall I liked the raw food on this diet and didn’t have too much trouble with variety, despite doing this trial during the winter when the availability and quality of fresh produce aren’t the best. I noticed my cravings for sweets declined tremendously, and I was completely satiated by sweet fruits. Even when returning to cooked food after the trial, I had no desire to eat anything sweet aside from fruit. Sometimes I felt a little overloaded by all the sweetness in this diet, but overall it wasn’t too bad. I’ve found that when I ate more vegetables, especially celery, it helped increase my desire to eat more sweet fruits. The vegetables seemed to cleanse my palate of the sweetness.
One thing I really liked about this diet is that I discovered new foods I’d never been interested in before, including okra and Asian pears. I also enjoyed the simple green smoothies made from bananas, spinach, and water. I expect to continue enjoying those foods for a long time to come.
Cravings
The cravings for cooked food on this diet were strong some days and virtually nonexistent on other days. Overall they weren’t too difficult to deal with. Usually when I ate a sufficient quantity of raw food and got enough calories, the cravings diminished. Cravings were strongest when I allowed myself to get too hungry.
No Salt
Early in this trial, I had some strong cravings for saltier foods, but they dissipated over time. I was surprised at how easy it was to go without salt.
No Supplements
I didn’t consume any supplements during this diet at all. No pills or powders of any kind. No superfoods either. I didn’t think it was necessary to increase the price of my urine.
Low-fat
The low-fat restriction, less than 10% of calories from fat, was the most difficult part of the trial. Many days I fell like my cravings could’ve been satiated by including more fat in the diet, such as avocados, nuts, or seeds. However, I didn’t feel as good when I ate too much fat in a single meal.
When I started the trial, I aimed to to keep my weekly average below 15% of calories from fat, but over time I was able to successfully drop it below 10%. My energy levels became more stable once I brought the fat down.
For the first half of the trial, I averaged 12.2% of calories from fat. For the second half of the trial, I averaged 8.7% of calories from fat. Adjusting my fat calories downward became easier as the trial progressed.
Exercise
During the trial I experienced increases in both strength and endurance. I continued doing light aerobic and strength training workouts during the trial, and I experienced strength gains in all muscle groups. I also noticed on several occasions that my aerobic workouts seemed easier than usual, as if my heart was beating at a lower rate even though the heart monitor showed that the rate remained the same.
The biggest improvement was in my muscular endurance. On day 3 I was able to do 27 pushups. On day 7 I was up to 31, and on day 24 I did 36 pushups, setting a new lifetime personal best. Those were the only times I did pushups during the trial, and I didn’t do many chest workouts during this time. This is definitely a very unusual improvement for me.
The muscle endurance improvements helped me accelerate my strength gains because I was able to progress to heavier weights more quickly and manage more reps with those weights. Weights I struggled to do just 2-3 reps with, I could crank out 7-10 reps with ease the following week. The weight still seemed just as heavy, but my muscles didn’t give out as soon. That really surprised me.
I don’t recall experiencing any serious muscle soreness during this trial at all. I often get sore when I progress to significantly heavier weights, but this time there was nothing. Also, while lifting the weights, I didn’t experience much pain when I reached the point where my muscles were about to give out. Sometimes the acid build-up in my muscles creates intense, burning pain before my muscles reach the point of failure. During this trial I seemed to reach the point of muscle failure before that pain got too strong. This made it easier to crank out a few more reps. That was new. I suppose this diet could reduce the waste build-up in the muscles, since simple sugars provide the cleanest burning fuel the body can use.
I can certainly see why this diet is so attractive to many athletes. In my case it seems to provide an obvious edge in the area of physical performance. I would definitely give this diet some serious consideration if I was involved in any sort of competitive sports.
Weight Loss
During the 30-day trial, I lost 8.0 pounds, about 1.9 pounds per week. I started at 186.0 and ended at 178.0. My body fat also dropped 1.8 percentage points. As of the morning of Feb 3rd, I weighed 174.0. That additional post-trial weight loss was largely due to the illness I experienced upon eating cooked foods on day 31.
Here’s a chart showing my weight loss day by day. I charted my weight for a few weeks before this trial to establish a baseline and for a few days afterwards as well. You can see that before I started this trial, my weight was fairly stable. In fact, my weight stayed very close to 185 pounds throughout all of 2007. I also didn’t make any significant changes to my exercise routine or routine physical activity during the trial.
Thanx for the Tips