Frequently Asked Questions
There are lots of questions that will come up, and often very quickly too, when you first get into raw food.
Because of this Karen has compiled an eBook "The 30 Most Frequently Asked Questions About Raw Food - Answered!". This is a great guide to all those questions - big and small - that come up as you journey further into raw foods.
Below you will find the top 3 questions asked and Karen's answers. If you'd like to read more, and see what the other 27 commonly asked questions are, then check out her eBook here.
Question #1:
What’s the best way to get started with raw foods – the very first step?
"The best first step is usually to start with breakfast – or, more precisely, your first meal of the day. I have found through my own experience and those of my clients that what you start your day with tends to set the scene for what you eat for the rest of the day, so, for example, if you usually start with toast, you will likely crave sandwiches (more bread) for lunch and pasta (more wheat) for dinner. Conversely, if you start with fresh fruit or something raw for breakfast then you will feel much more inclined to eat a fresh lunch (typically including salad) and a fresher dinner (perhaps including steamed vegetables or something very light and healthy). So start with fruit, a fresh juice or a really delicious smoothie for breakfast (if you have Candida try making a fresh nut milk based smoothie from almonds, water and a low-sugar flavouring of your choice such as mesquite meal, agave nectar or vanilla), and make sure you stay well hydrated throughout the day. Once you’re established with eating a fresh and raw breakfast, then move on to bringing more raw foods into your two main meals of the day – which is really much easier than you might think!"
Question #2:
Do I have to "go all the way"?
"No, not at all. In fact when you first start that should probably be the last thing on your mind. Remember you are not signing up for anything! You are experimenting to see if this way of eating has tangible results for you. And that’s your first objective. You will find that as you start to notice a difference in the way you look and feel you will naturally want to eat more raw foods and then, further down the line you might want to start thinking about going raw for a day, 3 days, a week or even a month, but let the process be organic and natural and not something you force on yourself. Just get started and see where it leads you!"
Question #3:
Where do you get your protein?
"First of all, let's be clear that we are not eating protein per se, but amino acids which combine together to create protein. So as long as we are eating a good quantity and quality of food (ideally organic as standard) and eat a wide variety of foods in the necessary amounts, then our protein needs should be more than adequately met.
There are 22 amino acids that our body needs to thrive - or at least that is what science has identified to date (we must always remember that nutrition is not yet a complete science and may well never be). Eight of these are termed "essential amino acids" because the body cannot manufacture them itself and therefore needs to obtain them from food. In a raw vegan diet, the best and most concentrated sources of amino acids come from those food groups listed below, although protein is present in every living thing, so not getting enough, while not impossible, is generally difficult!
Green Leafy Vegetables ~ Nuts ~ Seeds ~ Sprouted Grains ~ Sprouted Beans
And some good examples of foods from each of these food groups are:
Spinach, kale, broccoli, sprouted wild rice, carob, cacao, oats, raisins, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds (linseed), sprouted wheat, sprouted buckwheat, sprouted soya beans, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, hemp seeds, hemp protein powder (excellent), sprouted quinoa, mung beans, lentils, aduki, chickpeas etc, bee pollen, spirulina, E3 Live, Pure Synergy, maca, avocado, and many more - so plenty of choice!
If you eat dairy produce, the cleanest source widely available in the UK that I currently know of is Emmental Organic Cheese which is available in the organic dairy section in Tesco. This is unpasteurised cheese so is a raw food, but not vegan.
Raw Protein Facts & Figures
The RDA of protein for an adult female is cited as being somewhere between 45g and 50g per day, with an additional 25g required when breastfeeding. For adult males the figures cited stretches between 45g and 65g per day, depending on who you listen to. More protein is needed by those especially active or athletes.
Our bodies recycle approximately 80% of our protein; cooked protein is denatured and largely unusable, thus our protein need may very well be far lower than what is taught by conventional dietetics.
35g of bee pollen can satisfy one man's protein requirements for a whole day - it contains more protein per gram than meat or fish.
High Protein Content Vegan Raw Foods
1 cup sprouted lentils = 49g
1 cup haricot beans (navy) = 46g
1 cup sprouted aduki beans (adzuki) = 39g
1 cup broad beans (fava) = 39g
1 cup sprouted black eye beans (cowpea) = 39g
1 cup sprouted chickpeas = 38g
1 cup peanuts = 37g
1 cup pumpkin seeds = 33g
1 cup sunflower seeds = 32g
1 cup almonds = 28g
1 cup oats = 26g
1 cup sprouted wheat = 21g
So, with all this new info now under your belt, hopefully you feel confident that it's not hard to get enough protein at all! The key, as you can see, is to eat sprouts every day - especially if you are trying to eat low fat - and to eat lots of greens (which are about 1-2g protein per cup) with them. An avocado - most raw fooders great love - offers 4g of protein per fruit, not great, but it all adds up. (Many raw fooders eat 3+ avocadoes per day, which equates to a quarter of an individuals protein needs before anything else has even been eaten.)
My final and potentially most useful piece of advice is to visit Fitday.com. Here you can enter what you have eaten in a day and get a reading for the fat, protein, carbs and calories eaten that day. It also shows you what percentage of your daily intake comes from where - very enlightening!
So, a lot of info here but I hope you feel confident enough now that you can indeed receive adequate protein on a raw food diet. Naturally as a first stop I would recommend that you get sprouting those seeds and beans and check out fitday.com to see how you are faring so far. Then it's just a case of further exploration and refinement until you find what works for you."
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If you'd like to read more answers to frequently asked questions, don't forget to check out Karen's invaluable eBook.
In addition, you can read her answers to reader's questions posted on her blog here and if you have a question you'd like answered on any raw-related issue, then please feel free to post it below.
NB: Please note that due to time constraints Karen is not able to answer personal questions by email, but will do her best to address them via her blog and this web site.
If you have a burning issue, lots of questions that need answering, or you'd like some one-to-one help then a coaching session or consultation with Karen is the way to go.
