There is a sizeable community of people who practice raw veganism near where I live and these folks are hard core. Needless to say, these folks love the green smoothies diet.
This is easy to understand as those who embark on raw veganism typically feel fantastic for quite some time while eating this way. Â Raw veggies are extremely detoxifying! For several months or even a year or two, increased energy, clear skin and resistance to infection may be observed.
Is this because raw veganism is the right way to eat long term? Is the vegan Netflix film What The Health really on to something big?
Far from it.Â
Raw Veganism is for Cleansing the Body, Not Nourishing It!
Raw veganism is really a cleansing diet which helps to detoxify the body. It does not optimally nourish the body long term, however.
The raw, whole foods that vegans consume are certainly a huge leap forward from conventional processed foods and anyone would initially feel better eating raw vegan if he/she had been eating the Standard American Diet previously.
Over time, as the body becomes depleted of minerals, serious health issues start to emerge if raw veganism is continued.
This is because the fat soluble activators A, D, and K2 – only found in animal foods – supercharge mineral absorption and without these critical nutrients in the diet, mineral depletion and ill health is the inevitable result.
The bottom line? You can eat loads of mineral rich foods as a raw vegan and still be mineral starved.
Nutritional Deficiencies Rapidly Occur on a Raw Vegan Diet
Watch this 3 minute video below where Maria, a former fan of raw veganism and the creator of the Green Smoothie Challenge discusses her abrupt conversion to nutrient dense animal foods due to the health and tooth challenges she experienced after two years as a raw vegan. Her vegan catharsis came after reading Rami Nagel’s book Cure Tooth Decay.
You will be shocked how rapidly her health challenges resolved after she began to consume nutrient dense animal foods such as cod liver oil, raw butter, and organ meats.
If you know any folks that practice raw veganism, please forward this video.  Folks who follow veganism are in serious denial about how this way of eating is going to eventually destroy their health if it hasn’t already and a testimonial from a former hard core vegan may be just what they need to realize that humans are not designed to subsist purely on plant foods.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
More Information
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Okay, people. I have been following a raw vegan diet for five months now, thanks to @Durianrider and Freelea. I use the app called cronometer to track my nutrients.
Today, I got:
224% RDA of water just from food alone, all of the RDA of B vitamins (even b12,) 1001% RDA vitamin a, 1941% RDA vitamin k, ALL of my vitamin D from the sunshine, and I consumed ALL of the required minerals today, too. I got 206% of my omega 3s, 105% of my protein, 28% of my fats, 434% of carbs, 232% of potassium, no cholesterol, and very low naturally occurring sodium (24%) from fruits and vegetables.
I am eating raw, low fat, without any alcohol or caffeine, supplements, super foods, shots, or any other special pills or powders in my diet. I am a healthy, happy teenager (14 years old!). I am grateful that I have made this lifestyle switch at such a young age. I know for a fact that it will continue to change my life for the better.
(So to all of you anti-vegans, you can shut up. Your arguments suck anyway. Vegans will always win the argument. Cased closed.)
This has to be the silliest thing ever written grow up and comeback when you are an adult and not some kid
I went Vegan at 13 after spending 2 years as a vegitarian and by the time I was 21 I had lost 3 of my molars,Good f*cking Luck with that kid. Also as a 14 year old you should not be consumeing alcahol anyways it is illegal lol.
You said you get “28% of my fats, 434% of carbs”…
Only 28% of the recommended amount of fats. Do you realize that fat is an important nutrient? Your body needs adequate amounts to function properly. Especially your brain. If you’re going to go vegan, at least follow someone who knows what they’re doing, not that quack Durian Rider and his cohort Freelee.
Also, even though you’re getting carbs from healthy foods, that much carb will bite you in the butt later in life in the form of metabolic syndrome.
So typically nasty of the Harley/Freelee followers.
Eating disordered, poor child. And the raw vegan diet starves the brain so the ability to discern grows even worse.
“People who are vegetarians really have to be aware of all the oxalates they take in. The biggest culprit for all vegetarians is soy protein, and the second is spinach. Virtually everybody who eats a large spinach salad every day is going to succumb to kidney stones. I’ve tested them over and over again and the people who have the highest oxalate values invariably tell me that a cornerstone of their daily diet is a large spinach salad.” Dr. William Shaw, Director of the Great Plains Laboratory for Health, Nutrition, and Metabolism
OKAY. I was following this all and thinking to myself, okay i understand that maybe its mostly a detox, putting aside the fact that I have talked to many people online and watched a lot of videos of people, some of the healthiest people ive ever seen, been raw vegan over 10 years! They look great! I can see how it depends where you live and your body. I am not raw vegan cause canada is fucking cold for that lol but maybe i am just a wimp HOWEVER I am vegan and when you start saying that you MUST have animal products for proper health, you are bullshitting me right? You barely have to read anything to find out that is a lie but ill list just a few facts.
On the news the other day it said that vegetarians are 47% less likely to develop heart disease, adding one 3-ounce serving of unprocessed red meat to one’s daily diet was associated with a 13% greater chance of dying during the course of the study. (http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/13/health/la-he-red-meat-20120313)
“A major new study of 120,000 people has shown that reducing the amount of beef, pork and lamb in our diet to 1½oz a day could prevent one in ten early deaths in men, and one in 13 premature deaths in women.” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114714/Red-meat-death-study-The-truth-neednt-juicy-steak-all.html#axzz2KjDEfQ5I
There is a lot more, im just getting bored of typing…
But seriously do some research. I saw no solid evidence in this article. And along with that, think of the cruelty involved in the meat industry.
There are just as many studies showing the opposite. So, who knows?
How were these studies done? Aside from the meat consumption, what was the rest of the person’s diet like? This is not always accounted for in studies.
The healthiest diet overall in properly controlled studies? Pescatarian.
SO THEN THE QUESTION THAT BEGS TO BE ANSWERED in these conflicting studies is, Who is controlling the study? who is carrying out the study, where are they getting there financing from / who is endorsing the study? All of that information is available if you DO YOUR RESEARCH properly…. Here is were you will find shocking surprises and be better able to predict the ‘truth’ within the study.
Vitamin D is hard to get in a vegan diet, but you can get it from the sun, as well as from supplements (although I think supplements are considered “inert” and potentially less beneficial than other sources). Even in a non-vegan diet the largest source of VItamin D is in fortified milk, so if you chose to be vegan you could drink fortified soy milk, or rice milk, and avoid animal products while still getting Vitamin D.
With Vitamin A–there are a TON of very good sources of vitamin A from vegetables and fruit. Absolutely NOT an “animal only” vitamin. http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/food-sources-of-vitamin-A.php
Vitamin K is an interesting beast. I read articles that suggested K2 was only found in animal products, but this website http://veganbodybuilding.blogspot.com/2012/06/importance-of-vitamin-k2.html
Seems to think K2 is produced during fermentation and can be consumed by eating natto, or sauerkraut. (they don’t mention how much you would need to eat).
LOL QUOTE
” fat soluble activators A, D, and K2 — only found in animal foods ”
Just in reference to this quote.
Foods with significant amounts of Vitamin A:
Amaranth Leaves
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Butternut Squash
Carrots
Chinese Broccoli
Chinese Cabbage
Kale
Leeks
Peas
Pumpkin
Rapini
Spinach
Squash – summer
Squash – winter
Sweet Potato
Swiss Chard Cantaloupes
Grapefruit
Guava
Mango
Papaya
Passionfruit
Tomatoes
Watermelon
Foods with significant amounts of Vitamin K:
Avocado
Blackberries
Blueberries
Boysenberries
Chinese Pear
Cranberries
Grapes
Kiwi
Loganberries
Mango
Mulberries
Pear
Plum
Pomegranate
Raspberries
Tomatoes
Alfalfa, sprouted
Artichoke
Asparagus
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chinese Broccoli
Cucumber
Kale
Leeks
Okra
Peas
Rapini
Spinach
Spirulina
Squash – winter
Swiss Chard
And as for Vitamin D, 90% of people who DO eat meat do not get enough of this, that’s why there are supplements and shots from you doctor. It also comes from the all natural SUN
Whoever wrote this is writing out of their ass, LOL.
“fat soluble activators A, D, and K2” – all these vitamins are fat soluble. They need fats to be absorbed by the body
no, not all vitamins are fat soluble vit c for instance you should check your facts, this Is nutrition first of class stuff!
Actually Jodi, it is you who should be checking your facts. The reference you are bashing clearly mentions vitamin K2, not vitamin K in general, which has several different forms with different properties. While the K1 form is indeed found in the plants you listed, the K2 form–which studies have found has distinct anti-cancer benefits that the K1 form does *not*–is only found in animal foods (with the sole exception being natto, which very people in the US consume).
Similarly, all the vitamin A plant sources you mentioned contain the carotene form of vitamin A, whereas the pre-formed, active form of vitamin A, retinol, is only found in animal sources. Carotene has to be converted into the active form of vitamin A in the body and there are people who cannot properly convert carotene and need the pre-formed retinol form found in animal products.
Since you wrote this in 2013 I am guessing you will not see my comments, but I am posting them for others who, like me, may come across this article and see your misleading post.
-A Harvard School of Public Health student
Farming is to blame for obesity? We started farming 12000 years ago, obesity is a recent “plague” due to processed & fast foods..and you can deep-fry carrots just as easily as anything else so don’t try to shove that on our NATURAL omnivorous diets.
You don’t have to eat meat EVERY day, I eat vegetarian a few days a week, but don’t tell me that it was/is bad for us and blame something that helped our species survive and evolve! If we didn’t start drinking milk we as a species would’ve been screwed, respect our survival instincts & respect us as the animal we are and have become!
Vegans always love animals & nature, yet all they do is pity it and condemn the animals they are themselves, hypocrites.
If you’re properly detoxified, B12-generating-bacteria will live in a very friendly way in your mouth and part of your digestive tube….very friendly little thing, doesn’t do harm just chills around.
This is the reason why fruitarians (ok… vegans that are close to being a fruitarian) that have done a proper detox (this can last a long time if you’ve been eating a lot of processed foods and dead food) don’t have any B12 problems… nor do they have strong bones.
If you look in nature…. the animals that are truly powerful are the plant-eating ones, not the carnivores. The ones that can run the fastest and the longest at the same time are also these animals. Carnivores get tired quickly and give up.
Just look at the carnivore animals….they’re the old-school animals…. felines, gators…etc. Eat SOME fish if you want and find trust-worthy sources but stop telling people the vegan concept has anything unnatural in it, cause it doesn’t. THE BAD VARIATIONS of it do, not the authentic raw veganism.
Most of you peoples’s comments are just sad. What you fail to understand is that there’s no such thing as “the raw vegan diet”….and there are tons of variations of it. There are tons of doctors out there recommending not eating dead animal corpses or anything from animals. The human body is not meant for that kind of junk food. The problem with most vegans is that they still have the mindset they had when they were not vegans…thinking about “meat replacements” and stuff like that, so they eat all kind of crap. There’s no such thing as a healthy diet that doesn’t include fruits. Just look at your body….you body is designed VERY simplistically, nothing aggressive about it: flexible hands to pick fruits and nails to peal them. We’re definitely not carnivores, not necrophiliacs eating all kinds of disgusting organs and DEFINITELY not erbivores to eat a raw vegan diet comprised of mostly vegetables and leaves. Those advocating that obsessively are very lost people.
We’re actually meant to live mostly of raw fresh fruits….those will give you most of what you need…..and some vegetables and some nuts. We’re not root eaters. Someone posted we should eat meat and roots which is veeeeery very sick.
All you guys bringing here all kinds of scientific data ….please acknowledge that nobody knows more than 30% of the body’s actual chemistry. There were many people who lived extended periods of time on oranges (as Prof. Hotema mentioned in many of his works)… and the explanation is pretty simple. Our body (liver) can convert substances and generate substances, sometimes with little energy consumption.
So yeah, the raw vegan diet or whatever you guys call it can be very dangerous if you don’t get that you’re a FRUGIVORE species and your closest relatives are chimps, gorillas and urangutans. If you’re getting it you’ll probably burst into laugher when you read some of the anti-vegan propaganda out there.
Drinking milk for calcium is like sucking on a pipe for iron. My calcium went way up after fruit fasting and giving up milk… no such thing as milk being a healthy calcium source. It actually ruins your blood.
Most of this “scientifical” reasons for you to be an omnivore (which comes from the latin omnius, meaning everything, not human) are bullcrap. They’re put out there to confuse you cause there’s a huuuuge industry out there called the alimentary industry…and then there’s an even bigger one that’s called pharmaceutical industry.
I hope the website owner has the integrity to validate this post.
Take care, guys. 🙂 Start seeing what doesn’t work and fix it. It’s pretty obvious that your variation of this lifestyle is not the natural one if it doesn’t work for you, read more about it from people who are successful for a long time. Start eating those fruits, no such thing as glycemic problems caused by fruits in a healthy body. And no, we’re not different among each other, it’s just that some of our organs are weak. Regenerate them with fruits and herbs.
Great comment. The lady who wrote this article is a painfully obvious shill for the meat dairy medical pharma complex. As frustratingly illogical and misleading as these types of pieces are I always take some heart that the very fact that people are being paid to put the propaganda out there is proof positive that the aforementioned industries are getting worried that the masses may be close to finally understanding and (gasp!) acting on the truth about the human diet.
Read 80/10/10 by Doug Graham to learn just about everything you need to know.There is nothing better you could possibly do for you long term mental and physical health.
The fruit will set you free.
Chimps, gorillas and orangutans all hunt and consume meat when they have the opportunity to do so. Meat is prized so highly among chimps, for instance, that the males give it to females in exchange for sex.
A video of chimpanzees hunting and eating monkeys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMXk5Z6-IHY