Frederic Patenaude's Blog, page 32

Why I’m Not 100%

I’ve been involved in the raw food scene since 1997, but I didn’t eat only raw foods 100% of the time. I only ate a 100% raw food diet for about 3 and 1/2 years in my early days, and since then, after a lot of experimenting, I now eat a combination of raw and cooked foods.

Of course, during the last 15 years, I’ve had periods when I ate more or less raw foods. I also ate 100% raw for months at a time.

But it’s been very clear for many years that a 100% raw food diet as an ideal to maintain for life was just not right for me.

Today I’m going to present to you six reasons why I personally don’t eat an entirely raw food diet. These all apply to me personally, but have also applied to many others before.

6 Reasons Why I Don’t Eat 100% Raw

#1: Cooked food is not toxic

One of the main reasons why I don’t eat a 100% raw food diet is that there’s really nothing that has convinced me that this is necessary to be healthy. A lot of the raw food “advice” spread everywhere in books and websites often implies that eating cooked foods will make you sick, because it is “toxic.”

Pseudo-scientific arguments have included:

- The food enzyme theory

- Pottenger’s cat studies

- The digestive leucocytosis study

- Kirlian photography

- The “diet by design” arguments

- The “no other animals cook their food” argument

In this article I will not debunk each of these myths. You can already find plenty of information on the subject on my website on many of these myths to give you another point of view.

My conclusion is that cooking food does not make it “toxic” by any stretch of the imagination. Some cooked foods are unhealthy, some cooking methods are relatively bad as well, but so are some raw foods or raw food combinations.

It’s not whether a food is “raw” or “cooked” that matters. This is really an oversimplification. We have to look at many more factors to judge whether a food is healthy or what could be its part in a healthy diet.

Raw foods are great for you— of course. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a big proponent of raw foods. This is a lot of what this website and my products are about.

But cooking some foods also can be just as good for some people. It essentially increases the variety of foods you can consume and increases the overall quality of your diet. Many vegetables, for example, are difficult to eat raw, but extremely healthy after being just lightly cooked.

#2: I enjoy traveling too much

One of my passions in life is traveling. And when I travel, I like to discover and enjoy other cultures. On a 100% raw food diet, traveling can be a big hassle. You’re essentially condemned to spend all your time looking for fruit markets and then eat your food in tupperware containers in your hotel rooms. No bueno!

I don’t travel all the time, but enough to want some flexibility when I travel to try some local cuisine, or be able to leave the hotel room for more than a couple of hours without worrying about running out of food.

Maybe this reason wouldn’t apply to everybody, but for me enjoying some stress-free travel once in a while without constantly obsessing about food is one of the main reasons I don’t eat 100% raw.

#3: I like not freezing to death

I live in Canada. While I tend to spend some time in the tropics every year, I do live in a cold climate most of the year.

I’ve done a 100% raw food diet in cold climates. And I’ve done a diet that includes warm, cooked soups and other cooked foods in the same climate. Which one is easier? I think just asking the question is answering it!

Yes, a 100% raw diet can be done in cold climates, for sure. But even the raw foodists that are doing it are often planning to move to a tropical country or state!

At this point in my life I have no interest in relocating to another country full-time. I like to visit other places, but not live there permanently.

In the heart of the winter, coming back home from a cold day only to turn on your blender and make a cold soup can be downright demoralizing. I’m only speaking for myself of course, but I see nothing wrong in enjoying a big pot of hot vegetable soup on cold days, instead of having to settle on a cold salad of raw lettuce and tomatoes.

#4: My digestion is strong enough  

Many raw foodists tend to yo-yo back and forth between 100% raw and cooked food diets, only to return to more cleansing and detox and an even stricter raw food diet later.

They find that whenever they eat cooked food, it totally “destroys” them. A bowl of rice will make them pass out as if they ate a big Thanksgiving dinner, and eating out at the restaurant causes them to feel so sick that they’ll spend a week recovering from it.

I call it “the raw curse” and talked about this weird phenomenon in many of my books. Raw foodists incorrectly think that their bodies have become so pure (as in “super healthy”) that it now rejects the toxic cooked foods that most people are habituated to (like a drug).

In reality, what’s really going on is that the “raw food body” has simply stopped producing the proper mix of digestive enzymes and they simply can’t properly digest more complex foods. By eating only foods that require almost no digestion (like fruit and greens), their digestion has “dumbed down” to the point it can’t handle anything much more complex.

Some people even take this to an extreme, making their diets even stricter with time, like eliminating fatty foods like nuts and seeds entirely. This leads them to become even more sensitive and weakens their digestion further.

The same phenomenon happens in reverse. Someone eating a junk food diet devoid of fiber with lots of meat, white bread and few vegetables can experience some serious digestive discomfort when they start eating lots of fiber-rich foods, like beans or fruits and vegetables. In can take them weeks or months to adapt to this new healthy diet.

Some long-term raw foodists have even fantasized that if they ate a hamburger they would end up in the hospital, and possibly die. That’s a little extreme and probably not likely to happen, but there’s a good chance that hamburger would make them seriously ill!

The trick to avoid the “raw curse” is to retrain your body to digest certain foods. You can do it for almost anything. And eventually, eating a bowl of brown rice won’t put you in a coma, and having a little bit of garlic in your stir-fry won’t cause you to have nightmares all night!

#5: My teeth are stronger now

I will be the first to say, I still eat a lot of fruit. But because my diet is more varied now, and my nutrient intake higher and my teeth are stronger than ever before.

When I was 100% raw or close to it, my teeth would be weak, prone to cavities, and often sensitive. Now I don’t get the sensitivity in my teeth from eating certain sweet foods or acid foods like I did before, nor do I get any cavities.

One change I’ve also made in the last few years is that I now rarely eat a lot of citrus or very acidic foods. Eating large quantities of these foods over a period of time can do a number on your teeth. Part of this is due to fruit ripeness.

Now I focus on fruits that are milder, like bananas, apples, mangoes, papayas, and melons. However, whenever I eat acidic foods, my teeth are fine because they’ve re-enamelized and built some resistance. And because my diet is more varied, I get my calories from a wider variety of foods and don’t have to rely on a single staple food, like oranges or grapes.

#6: I enjoy having a life

You can have a life if you’re 100% raw, I know! But it will be a life that revolves around food.

You will think about food, plan your food intake, and worry about food a lot of the time. And very likely, you’ll have to avoid many social situations around food, choose your friends carefully, always justify your diet, and surround yourself as much as possible with other food-obsessed raw foodists.

After having obsessed about food for all of my 20s, I enjoy having enough flexibility with my diet that I don’t have to constantly worry about social situations and how I will handle them with my “weird” diet.

I don’t go out of my way to eat junk food, and for the most part, I enjoy staying at home better than going out. However, the human being is a social creature. And I enjoy being part of the “world” without having to create a world of my own all the time.

So when family or friends invite me over, they’ll try to make something healthy for me. But I’m not going to analyze every single ingredient that goes in the food that I’m eating all the time. And if everybody is having wine, I’m going to have a glass too and enjoy it.

Your diet has to fit your personality, and make you happy. For some people, eating 100% raw fits their personality and maybe helps them control other aspects of their lives better.

My personality does not fit a 100% raw diet. I’m someone who’s passionate, always interested in new things, open-minded, and not an attention-seeker. I’m also very curious about the world, food in general, other cultures, and new ideas. To stick to a strict no-exceptions-permitted-diet simply doesn’t work with who I am and never did.

I’m not saying that I’m 100% right but I definitely know what’s right for me and that’s what’s most important. I also know that most people, no matter how hard they try, will not be able to stick to a 100% raw food diet. And that’s okay! Seek your own truth and be you, not who somebody else thinks you should be.

So Healthy It’s Sick

A few years ago, I did an interview with Dr. Steven Bratman, M.D., who wrote the book “Health Food Junkies,” which was his personal story of how he became so fixated with healthy eating that he wound up hurting himself.

The book also talked about some people that Steven met that became so obsessed with health foods that some of them got severely sock, and some even died.

In my interview, Dr. Bratman confessed that the book did not become very popular, because the average person did not care about crazy health foodists, while the “health food junkies” that he talked about were not going to buy a book on the subject.

So the book is now out of print, but the term “orthorexia” that Bratman introduced in his book is now something you’ll hear once in a while.

Orthorexia comes from the Greek word “ortho” which means, “right or correct”, and “orexia” which means, “eating”. So it equates to righteous eating; a fixation in eating what is subjectively deemed “proper”.

Bateman defines orthorexia as an obsession with eating healthy food and avoiding unhealthy food, to the point it becomes physically or mentally unhealthy.

To Steven Bratman, “orthorexia” is a mental disorder similar but different to anorexia. “Orthorexia” is the specific obsession with food and bodily “purity,” not weight and appearance.

So while someone who is struggling from anorexia has the obsession with their own body image and restricts their food intake to an unhealthy degree as a result, those suffering from orthorexia are fixated on food and bodily purity.

The anorexic person may skip meals or skimp on amounts of food to avoid weight gain, while the orthorexic would obsess over the quality of or pesticide residues on their food and how “clean” it is.

But is there such thing as “orthorexia”, or an actual obsession with healthful eating?

When I interviewed Dr. Bratman, he seemed convinced that there was very little evidence that eating junk food such as potato chips or even steak was actually bad for you.

It seemed to me that because he was so obsessed with food quality in the past, he took it to the other extreme by not caring at all about what he eats now.

However, I do think that some people can get a little too obsessed with food and the ideal of “purity” that they end up hurting themselves.

As I talked about in my book Raw Food Controversies, I even met people that died due to their unhealthful obsession with purity.

I think that while some people go totally crazy with this diet obsession, many others go the other way and don’t care at all about what they eat, much like the general public.

And while it’s nice not to have to really pay any mind to the food we eat, much of the time it does result at the very least people not feeling their best, and at worst, developing anything from a long list of other maladies stricken by the average eater.

So it does make sense to care about what you eat and want to improve your health with raw foods, green smoothies, and fasting, but it’s important to keep things in the right perspective.

To me, the biggest problem that I see with raw foodists and other “health foodists” is that they don’t have their priorities straight.

Many people obsess about little details, such as making sure everything they eat is absolutely 100% raw and organic and spend considerable amounts of time, money, and energy in doing so. Although they do end up undoing most if not all the benefits by making BIG mistakes, such as eating too much fat or not exercising at all.

Some people are so obsessed with diet that they find it becomes their primary focus: they can’t stop thinking about what they’re going to eat, and experience anxiety if they are in a situation where their dietary needs can’t be met.

Alas, they end up spending most of their time in isolation out of fear of having to eat or be put in a situation where there are unpure foods present.

Others always feel like their diet is not “good enough,” going from a fairly strict raw food diet to one that eliminates ALL fats, spices, and condiments and eventually many of these people do so much fasting, cleansing and detox that they end up depleting their bodies to the point of no return.

Do you see where I’m going with this? Healthful eating is healthful, as long as we keep things in perspective.

Dr. Bratman wrote in his book: “When an orthorexic falls off the path, the only remedy is an act of penitence, which usually involves stricter diets or even fasting to cleanse away the traces of unhealthy foods.”

He also says: “Whereas the bulimics and anorexics focus on the quantity of food, the orthorexic fixates on its quality. All three – the bulimic, anorexic, and orthorexic – give to food a vastly excessive place in the scheme of life”.

How can you tell if you’re an orthorexic person?

Try it now, for fun!

Give yourself a point for each question. The more points you accumulate, the more “orthorexic” may be:

1.) Do you spend more than three hours a day thinking about healthy food? If you do, give yourself a point. If you spend more, give yourself two points.

2.) Do you plan tomorrow’s food, today? So, do you think in advance, “what am I going to eat tomorrow?”

3.) Do you care more about the virtue of what you eat, rather than the pleasure you get from eating it.

4.) Have you found that as the quality of your diet increased, the quality of your life has diminished?

5.) Do you keep getting more and more strict with yourself?

6.) Do you sacrifice experiences you once enjoyed to eat the foods you now believe are right?

7.) Do you feel a sense of self-esteem when you eat healthy food? Do you look down on others who don’t?

8.) Do you feel guilt or self-loathing when you stray from your diet?

9.) Does your diet socially isolate you?

10.) When you are eating the way you are supposed, do you feel a peaceful sense of total control?

When I look at the questionnaire above, I can honestly say that there was a point in my life where I would have answered “yes” to almost every single question.

I used to think about food all the time, to the point where it would be my main topic of conversation with EVERYONE. I tried all kinds of strict “detox” diets, hoping to finally experience the benefits promised to me by the raw food gurus, but nothing worked!

In fact, with time, I became sicker and sicker. I was so obsessed with this ideal of raw foodism, but at the same time filled with cravings and felt unsatisfied. I was even having dreams of eating various cooked junk foods.

In one dream, I remember eating a giant chocolate cake, and waking up the next morning feeling so guilty, as if I had just killed somebody.

That is just not healthy any which way you slice it.

Now, even though I do still think it’s important to have some measure of control over your diet and not fall for the, “everything in moderation trap”, you don’t need to let it control you and your entire being. There really is more to living healthfully than just eating healthfully.

Here are a few guidelines I’d like to give everyone to help him or her avoid any mental or physical struggles with their food or bodily purity:

1.) Don’t just eat anything and everything , “because it’s raw”.

2.) Don’t absolutely refuse to eat something that’s not organic especially if the alternative truly is far less healthy. A commercial banana is still better than “organic” soy ice-cream or organic raw cheesecake. Organic and vegan pies, pastries, and other delicacies are still foods that need to be reserved for special occasions, or at least not eaten everyday.

3.) Don’t think that just because you value healthful living that everyone else feels the same way. Or that you are somehow better or more enlightened because of your newfound pursuits in dietary purity. You didn’t reach this level of dietary goodness your whole life until now, there’s no need to alienate your friends and family by being “holier than thou”.

4.) Compare yourself with yourself, rather than with others such as raw food “gurus” and anybody else who claims to be an expert on any topic and extolls their virtues and wisdom from (soap) boxes on high.

5.) Realize that it’s okay to give yourself goals, but sometimes fall off the wagon and pick yourself up again. It’s just part of the process.

6.) Stay a bit flexible in your approach, and be open to new ideas. You will never learn anything new with a closed mind. And if you never learn anything new, you’re never going to grow.

7.) Treat others and yourself with dignity and respect. Food is only one aspect of your life!

What have been some of your experiences with orthorexia, food purity, and the mind-body relationship?

 

PS: If you’re interested in my book Raw Food Controversies, you can get it on sale this week only at a 40% discount using coupon code: 0930EZINE
Go to http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/rawfoodcontroversies

Is Low Fat Always Where It’s At?

Quite often I get people asking me questions about how much fat they should be eating in their diet, or what is a healthy amount of fat to eat.

Someone asked me recently what are some differences between my approach and other types of low-fat diets, a low fat raw vegan style diet, for example.

The low fat raw vegan diet is a diet where  the focal point of the diet is raw fruits, like bananas, dates, figs, cherries, melons, papayas, mangos, etc., followed by raw vegetables, like lettuce, celery, and tomatoes.

Although I’ve been aware of the dangers of high-fat raw food diets since 2002 when I wrote my book “The Raw Secrets,” it was not until 2005 that I really gave the low fat raw vegan approach a try.

I’ve learned a lot since 2005, and I have noticed that most people thrive on lower-fat, higher-fruit raw diets more than any other type of raw diet. Most other programs are just way too high in fat and don’t allow for near enough fruit to really be a healthy, long-term program. Short-term cleanse, possibly yes, but certainly not a way to eat for life.

Because I do not follow a strict low fat raw vegan diet as espoused by others, many people have been asking me what I think of it and what I would do differently.

I’ve found that most people who experiment with the raw food diet eventually either give up or find their own approach that works for them. In my experience, a low-fat raw food diet with a LOT of fruit and a LOT of greens works for the greatest number of people, but isn’t necessarily best for everyone.

My teachings are still very close to low fat raw vegans diets in many key areas, such as:

- The importance of the low fat diet

- Eating enough fruit, and not being afraid to do it

- Eating plenty of greens

- Fitness being just as important as nutrition for overall health.

Here are the few areas where our viewpoints differ:

1- No obsession about being 100% raw. I’m certainly a big fan of fruits and vegetables, and both still make up much of my diet, but I’m not strict about being raw like I had been in the past. I’ve found that healthy cooked foods like potatoes, vegetables, and whole grains are actually far healthier than the overabundance of fats and oils found in many raw food recipes. Plus I’ve found that some people just feel better including choice cooked foods in their diet.

2- Fat. I allow more than 10% fat, over the course of a month. Although I have done the “less than 10%” thing for a while, I prefer to stay in the 12-18% range, with 15% being a good target for most people.

Many low fat raw vegans have such a fear of fat that they’ll avoid all nuts and seeds. Thus they end up eating only fruit, or only fruit and little greens. However, there are important nutrients in nuts and seeds, such as essential fatty acids and minerals that are hard to get from just fruits and vegetables. So if your fat is coming from healthy sources, especially certain high-omega 3 seeds such as hemp, chia or flax then it’s fine to go above 10%.

3- Supplements. I am no supplement whore. In fact, I’m one of the few raw food promoters to never have launched a line of supplements. That’s because I find that 99% of what’s on the market is useless in comparison to fresh foods.

But, certain supplements can be intelligently used, and it would be hard to argue that they don’t have their place.

I’ve explained in the past why most raw foodists and vegans should consider taking a vitamin B12 supplement to avoid any possible deficiencies that could lead to disastrous results. Vitamin D can also be an issue for some people, and intelligent use of a supplement is often advisable when you live in a northern climate year round.

4- Condiments. Although in theory I agree with the idea that a condiment-free diet is best, most people, myself included, find such a diet too boring and ascetic.

In practice, I have found that using some fresh herbs, spices, and even some raw hot peppers can make food much more enjoyable.

I also don’t mind using some “non-raw” condiments sometimes, such as salsa in a jar, as I find it to be a more suitable way to add zing to a salad rather than using a fatty dressing.

The most important thing is to eat a lot of greens and vegetables. If you find it easy to eat them plain, then by all means go for it. But if you’re like me and find your salads and raw soups more palatable and enjoyable with a bit of spice, then don’t feel guilty for not being “perfect.” It’s far better to eat salads and soups more frequently with a little seasoning than rarely and stay 100% natural hygiene. Eating more fruits and vegetables is really what matters.

Some people can take these to extremes and even formulate “low-low-fat” diets, where no overtly fatty foods like nuts, seeds, or avocados are eaten, resulting in less than 10% of total calories coming from fat.

Even though nuts and seeds should be limited, let’s not forget that they contain important nutrients that cannot easily be found in fruits and vegetables, and I personally don’t recommend following any of these ultra-low-fat diets for any considerable period of time, outside of short-term cleanses.

It’s also noteworthy to consider that the  low fat raw vegan diet is rather new, and almost no one in the history of mankind has actually eaten that way for more than a couple of decades.

Therefore, it’s quite obvious that not *all* answers have been found and that although I think that the low fat raw vegan diet has much to offer, there’s still room for improvements, such as food quality/variety and individualization.

Ultimately there are a lot of overlaps between what I promote and many of the principles found in other low-fat raw and vegan regimes, I’ve just modified it over the years to allow for more individualization and long-term health.

So the best thing you can do to find out what works best for you is to experiment with different approaches and giving yourself permission to do so. Ultimately what matters is how you feel and the conclusions that you’ve reached for yourself.

The Truth About Vitamin Pills

Supplements and their merit or demerit is always a bit of a passionately discussed topic. On one end you will find people who have shelves and closets full of all kinds of bottles, boxes, potions, pills, and perfumes, and they swear by every single one of them. They also spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on these supplements every month.

On the other hand, you have the naturalist: the people who won’t even think about taking anything that was isolated or altered from it’s natural state, meaning vitamin pills are out of the question. I’ve had personal experience and observations that I’ve experienced over the years on both sides.

Check out Dr. John McDougall’s take on supplements and whether or not they really are healthy, let alone necessary. You’ll learn:

The difference between taking things that are actually good for you vs. taking them on faith.
Why you might actually be flushing hundreds of dollars down the toilet each and every month.
How some nutrients, and a surplus of them, may actually cause more harm than good.
Why those big bottles of vitamin supplements could actually lead to cancer and heart disease.
How the food you eat and the nutrients in them all work synergistically together, not in isolation from each other.

 

 

I’m somewhere in between the gradient scale of the extremes of the naturalist and the superfood connoisseurs when it comes to supplements. Some people can greatly benefit from taking specific supplements, even isolated supplements, during certain times or for specific needs. Vitamin B12 is a great example of this.

But at the same time I don’t think you need to spend hundreds of dollars on all kinds of potions and pills to be healthy, either. Eating a varied diet filled with an abundance of fresh foods will take you much, much further than any amount of supplements ever could.

Low Carb Diets and Diabetes

Dr. Michael Greger is someone who really does keep up-to-date on all the latest nutrition information, and he’s passionate about sharing it with people. He has been a medical doctor in the plant-based nutrition field for years and always presents his information in an easily digestible way.

Low carbohydrate diets are a diet fad that has been around for years. Whether it’s Atkins, paleo, primal, or anywhere in between, there have been people writing books saying that eating bacon and eggs, in lieu of starches and vegetables, is the panacea of good health. Some of us may have an idea as to why that’s not really the case, but not everyone understands the real health challenges people can face on such diets.

Check out this video of Dr. Greger explaining the pitfalls of low carb diets, how to avoid them, and more:

Understand what the insulin index is and how certain foods’ different indexes directly affect your health.
Take a look at why beef, a carbohydrate-void food, actually spikes insulin levels higher than that of white potatoes, bread, or pasta.
What exactly causes diabetes and how what you eat can either help with or cause it.
Why your insulin sensitivity is so important to your overall health and how this common practice can actually wreak havoc on it.
How treating the cause for diseases like diabetes vs. simply treating symptoms is the only way to allow people to become truly healthy.

There will always be fad diets out there claiming to offer all the health benefits and absolutely none of the pitfalls. The reality is that there really is no perfect one-size-fits-all diet that you can box every single person into.

That being said, sausages and eggs for breakfast every morning may not prove to be the healthiest for anyone involved.

But with a combination of common sense and modern science, we can say that eating more whole fruits, vegetables, grains and other plant foods in your diet will almost always be for the better.

What is SOS? Salt, Oil, Free Diets.

Today I have a great interview to share with you with Katie Mae, who’s a nutritionist based in Northern California, and a plant-based diet specialist.

In this interview, we discuss everything about the SOS-free diet. That is, a plant based diet that is free of salt, oil and sugar. Katie shared her experience with me of using this diet with incredible results. We also talked about her work with the True North Health Center, a fasting center in Santa Rosa that recommends this diet.

You will find something useful in this interview!

NOTE: To find out more about Katie’s online coaching program, click here.

When “Health Food” Isn’t Really Healthy

Reading food labels can be a tricky thing. From the bright packaging to the bold claims right on the box that try to reel you in, we’re bombarded with information and [false] claims right from the beginning.

For many people, learning how to find out what’s really in their food is a major step towards reclaiming their health. So many people on a daily basis eat ingredients in their foods that even the most astute English major would have difficulty deciphering.

So today I present to you a clip from a presentation given by Jeff Novick on how to properly read food labels to find out what’s really in your food. Considering how many claims don’t hold up when you read the fine print, it’s always good to look a little closer and see for yourself.

You’ll learn:

• How food manufacturers can mislead you in their marketing claims and how you can find the truth for yourself.

• Understand why food marketers make it difficult for you to decipher what you’re really eating.

• How manufacturers actually make “low fat” and “fat free” foods. And no, it’s not just putting in less fat!

• Why it’s a good idea to read food labels carefully and not just taking the packaging claims at face value.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd9Xn...

Food manufacturers have been dubious in their practices over the years as they try to sell more product at a cheaper cost. Unfortunately, this usually results in a serious compromise in the health of the food for you.

I certainly don’t recommend you stand in the grocery isles with a calculator to test the authenticity of the label claims of the food you buy, but I do recommend you learn to be aware of what is in the foods that you eat.

How Sugar Makes You Older, Faster

Every single macro-nutrient (carbs, fats, and proteins) has been demonized or ostracized by different people for different reasons, but none among them have taken a beating more so than sugar, a carbohydrate. Whether it is crystalline in a glass jar on a café tabletop or cooked into candies and lollipops, refined sugar is everywhere, and people are eating a lot of it.

Check out this video by Dr. Michael Klaper to hear his findings on excess sugar in the diet:

Take a look at why your arteries are so vitally important to your overall health, and why you are “only as young as your arteries”.
How the insides of your body (including your arteries) can become “glycogated”, or sticky, as a result of excess refined sugar in the diet.
When looking at a loaf of bread can give you insight into what actually happens in our body when we eat excess amounts of sugar and protein.
Understand the significance of “Advanced Glycation End products” in your diet and how they can actually age you faster.

Most people will unanimously agree that refined sugar isn’t good for us and we should probably eat be eating less of it, but still not everyone agrees that only refined sugar is the issue. Some people may include fruit sugar in this “Sugar = Bad” category, but I haven’t seen any convincing information that fruit sugar eaten in healthy quantities is really an issue. Weaving out the refined, processed sugars in your diet and replacing them with whole fruits and vegetables is always a good idea!

What Is The Truly Healthiest Diet?

There always has, and possibly always will be, debate within even the health community itself regarding diet.

Person A says that the program that they created and wrote about in their book is infinitely better than Person B’s similar-yet-different program they wrote about in their book. The theories and ideas proposed vary immensely.

Even niches within the health food world you will find disagreements and passionate debates. The interesting thing is that each party is completely convinced that they are correct.

Check out this video featuring a short debate between several plant-based doctors, including Caldwell Esselstyn, John McDougall, and Joel Fuhrman. You’ll discover:

• Why all successful populations of peoples since the beginning of civilization have lived on starch-based diets.

• When it may be appropriate to consciously limit the amount of starch you eat.

• How including more raw fruits and vegetables into your diet really makes you healthier.

• What you can learn by traveling and seeing what people eat around the world and how this can relate to your own health.

• How eating from and avoiding certain food categories can ultimately lead to a simpler, and healthier diet and lifestyle.

Despite all the disagreements and what we could even call “bickering” amongst people in the health field, most people can agree on at least a few things. Being active on a regular basis, emotional poise, fresh fruits and vegetables and foods in their natural form are all good for you.

Whether or not you eat 100% raw vegan or 100% organic and GMO-free really isn’t the biggest determining factor in your health. The whole totality of you as a whole human being is what determines your overall health. Try stepping back from all the disagreements and work on finding your own truth!

The Mono Fruit Myth

There’s a myth spread in some raw food circles, that says it’s better to consume fruit one at a time, rather than mixing them together. Proponents of this idea think that each fruit is better digested when it’s consumed “mono style,” one at a time, and ideally one type of fruit per meal.

They will make giant meals containing only watermelon, or papayas, or mangoes, or bananas.

I’ve got nothing against this practice, but it’s false to say that it’s healthier to do it.

Ripe fruits of all kinds are easy to digest, and have an almost identical chemical nutritional composition, consisting of mostly carbohydrates, some fiber, and low levels of protein and fat (around 5% each by calories). Your body will have absolutely no problems digesting them together, when mixed in a fruit salad, for example.

Other people are afraid of consuming certain fruits, like melons, along with other fruits, like oranges, fearing that this combination will lead to fermentation and gas.

Many of these ideas come from Dr. Herbert Shelton, in his book “Food Combining Made Easy.” Shelton gave a lot of rules with no reasoning at all behind them.

Also, a lot of people have misinterpreted that book. Because Shelton said “eat melons on their own”, some people think they should never eat melons with other fruits (such as peaches), when in fact Shelton clearly stated you could do so.

Essentially, his rule was meant to avoid the common combination/abomination in those days of a big slice of watermelon after of rich meal of meat and pasta.

There is absolutely no problems combining ALL kinds of fruit together, including bananas with melons, oranges with figs, or any combination you fancy. If you find that a certain combination gives you problems, avoid it in the future.

Also, by combining certain fruits together, you can avoid the problems of consuming a great quantity of any one fruit.

For example, pineapple and oranges are very acidic, and can hurt the enamel if you eat too much of it. But combining them with other, less acidic fruits buffers this extra acidity.

Eating great quantities of grapes or melons can give people a stomachache. Again, by eating a combination of different fruits, you avoid the problems.

If you’re used to eating your fruit “mono style,” you may not understand the appeal of having a big fruit salad ready, but once you try it, you’ll be converted!

It tastes amazing. When you use high quality fruit, the flavors not only blend and become more intense after just a few hours of marinating. A great homemade fruit salad doesn’t taste anything like the low quality stuff that’s sold in restaurants and in convenience store.

In addition to making a giant fruit salad, you might also want to prepare some other fruit and store it in containers, having it pre-cut and ready to eat.

Ingredients for the Fruit Salad

Any fruit you fancy can be thrown in a fruit salad, but I don’t personally add bananas. That’s my personal preference, because I don’t like the texture of bananas after it marinates in a fruit salad. But if you enjoy this combination, there’s no reason to avoid it.

My favorite fruits to add to a fruit salad are:

- Pineapple, especially when ripe and extra-sweet

- Melons, including watermelon. I’ll generally use only one type of melon

- Berries, I always try to include some type of berries in the salad, often strawberries and raspberries

- Mangoes, they add extra sweetness and creaminess

- Citrus, a few oranges or tangerines are excellent.

- Apples, I’ll throw in an apple or two for crunch

- Grapes: As long as good grapes are in season, I use them in fruit salad, generally slicing them in half.

- Papayas — in cubes, they’re my favorite in fruit salads!

ALSO:

Apricots — Deseed and slice in quarters.

Bananas – Slice them, if you enjoy the taste in fruit salads.

Cantaloupe and other Melons — Deseed, peel, and cut in cubes.

Cherry — Remove seed, ideally using a cherry pitter. I love the Cherry-It cherry pitter by Progressive. Cut in half.

Figs — Add fresh figs to salads, sliced.

Grapes — Use seedless grapes and slice them in half, or more if they are really big.

Kiwi — Gold kiwis are best. Peel and slice.

Watermelon — Use seedless and cut them in cubes.

Nectarines and peaches— Use good quality ones. Slice the flesh.

Berries — Throw them whole. Slice strawberries.

Oranges and citrus fruits — Slice the orange quarters in half.

Papayas — You may use them slightly (but not too) hard. Peel and cube.

Pears — Use the bosc varieties. Other varities are too soft.

Pineapple — Use fruits that smell the fruitiest. Do not use the inner core.

Pomegranates — Add seeds to the salad.

Star Fruit — It may add a visual element to the salad, when sliced in “stars.”

Fresh Herbs — Fresh herbs like mint, cilantro, parsley,  etc. — all go great in a fruit salad!