Raw diet

Question
What kid of veggies do you recommend on the raw paleo diet?  Do you recommend some fruit or all veggies and none sweet fruits like, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.?  And how does a person calculate 5%to10% of veggies in the diet?  I have been a raw vegetarian for about a year in 2003/2004.  Then I gave it up wasn't feeling that great on it.  But when I was doing it I had a thought that maybe humans have to eat raw meat to complete the circle.  Anyway I never researched, went back to eating cooked foods with meat ofcourse.  And now I am interested in eating the raw paleo way and see the results but I want to get it right as far as what kinds of foods to eat, regarding veggies and fruits.  Do you think we should eat nuts and seeds also?  I have injured my self wrestling last year, and the injury doesn't seem to properly heal, and I'm thinking it might be due to the lack of enzymes in a mostly cooked diet.  Your thoughts and answers are appreciated.  Thank you.

Sincerely,
         Etaal Q.

Answer
Well, I, personally,  only rarely feel the need for raw vegetables. About the only raw veg I eat, these days,  is the occasional seaweed or seaside herb(like raw samphire) in the summer-time. I do eat fruit, though(c.10% of diet).

I did try raw veggie-juice for a short time a while back, but it didn't seem to work, and I got slight diarrhetic side-effects from it. In short, I can't really offer any proper advice re veg - even in my former Raw Vegan days, I only really liked to eat raw carrots for my veg - the rest of the time as a Raw Vegan I was eating raw fruits, instead.

Generally speaking, a number of rawpalaeodieters find raw, solid veg to be quite bland, and difficult to chew(eg:- raw broccoli), on a raw diet, so they either turn to raw veggie-juice as an alternative(using sweeteners such as raw honey in the drink), or they tend to reduce the amounts of plant-food in their diet, in general.

I would suggest eating mainly raw-animal-food dishes and using fruit and veg as a side-dish to your raw-animal-food, and/or as seasoning for your meats - that's better than working out exact,artificial daily percentages, which would be  difficult to stick to, anyway. Obviously, you should then experiment on your own to see if you do better on higher or lower proportions of plant-food in your diet.


( When I first started on a rawpalaeo diet, I would go in for things like raw garlic bulbs, green peppers/black pepper etc. as extra seasoning for my raw meats, and would chew the occasional bunch of raw carrots).

Re raw nuts/seeds/mushrooms:- These are a problem as they contain antinutrients(ie enzyme inhibitors and mineral blockers such as phytic acid etc.) The standard Weston-Price advice for nuts and seeds is to soak them in water for at least 24 hours so as to get rid of most of these antinutrients. I found, when I first started the RPD diet, that I'd become  particularly sensitive to those antinutrients due to my then weakened condition,
so I cut out those 3 foods, at first - Now, years later,
I've since eaten a few mushrooms and nuts on occasion, as my body has recovered and I can tolerate them in very
small amounts,(though I usually soak the seeds/nuts
in water, first) -  but I've avoided taking them in large quantities as they then cause a few digestive side-effects.
. If your digestive system is in a very bad way, I would suggest avoiding them for now, but otherwise I don't see a
major problem with you eating them in small amounts(after soaking them in water for 24 hours, of course).


Hope This Helps
RPG

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