Raw Foods for Runners?

I think you are confused:

I realize that logically humans sometimes needed to consume meat in order to survive. But I maintain that in an orchard of fresh fruit, they would not choose to do that. Its not our instinct. And our digestive system is most similar to other primates, which are primarily fruit eaters.

Also, most fruits are a complete protein. They contain all the essential amino acids.

section2runner:

Bananas are low in fat. Each one is about 100 calories.

Ill bet you 3 cool drinks:

Who is Cool Hand Luke? If you don't believe me, come visit my apartment in Pasadena. I'll give you a demonstration after my morning run.

atwell wrote:

Who is Cool Hand Luke?

Just what I thought, young and goofy.

Yeah but imagine 20 people mobbing the apple tree, all the fruit would be gone in a day and for the rest of the season. Also imagine this: apples aren't wild fruit, they are domesticated. Wild apples would be like crabapples, really tart and disgusting and probably not edible by themselves, at least in large quantities. This is the problem with your assumptions: you are using domesticated nuts and fruits for your diet and thinking thats how people used to eat before there was domestication. It is simply not possible to gather that quantity of fruits, nuts, or roots in the wild without completely depleting a huge area of natural resources in future years, and probably not even possible then.

thank you for this. it is sheer lunacy to claim that fruits and vegetables are what we should eat because we evolved on them. I'm not saying you can't do it, but it is a very modern and by no means optimal diet. crabapples are probably giving a good name to what undomesticated apples were like. try eating wild cherries or plums. 90% seed and bitter as hell.

there is strong evidence that humans have had a significant portion of meat (either hunted or scavenged) in their diet for a long time.

once again, have fun with your raw food diet, but don't claim it is more natural than anything else.

Okay, if you don't buy the other arguments, how about this:

Do you run well when you eat like a carnivore? I don't. And I have tried.

I run the best and feel the best with a high carb, low protein diet.

I wish veg*ns wouldn\'t use the \'but we\'re designed to eat fruit/vegetables\' argument. It\'s BS and takes the spotlight off the more compelling ethical arguments. Humans evolved by eating meat (and don\'t give me the \'so that means veg*ns are stalling evolution\' crap) because as was pointed out, food was scarce and meat provided a lot of calories in one hit (though hunter gatherers only got about 30% of the energy needs from meat, most was from roots/berries etc). The thing is, we no longer have a problem of food scarcity (just distribution), so if you can nourish yourself from plants alone, and it\'s environmentally, socially and economically better to do so, then why wouldn\'t you?

quenton wrote:

jeff michigan wrote:

"a meal for me might be 20-30 bananas"

WTF?

wow i just laughed my ass off after reading this

I was in tears laughing at the same post. Imagine going into the grocery store and checking out with a buggy full of bananas and nothing else?

atwell wrote:

a meal for me might be 20-30 bananas.

That's nothing. A meal for me might be 20-30 watermelons.

atwell wrote:

Okay, if you don't buy the other arguments, how about this:

Do you run well when you eat like a carnivore? I don't. And I have tried.

I run the best and feel the best with a high carb, low protein diet.

I have no problem with your diet, and if works for you than go for it. I suspect that it may be a bit of a placebo effect, but that doesn't matter either, if it works for you. I only object to the justification via evolution.

"if it work for you [then] go for it"

atwell wrote:

I do eat 20-30 bananas in one meal, no typo. It fills my stomach. But fruit is mostly water, and digested quickly, so I can go for a 2nd run about 6 hours later.

Big deal, I can eat a bucket of fried chicken and run 6 hours later

How can you possibly afford to eat 20-30 bananas for a meal? Wouldn't that be incredibly expensive?

What is the point in only eating raw foods? I am a vegetarian, but this can be enjoyable. Eating 20-30 bananas for a meal cannot possibly be enjoyable.

Also, for me at least, conserving resources is part of the ethical justification for being a vegetarian/vegan. If you are eating that many bananas (or anything), you are being a very destructive consumer.

Good God man do you ask for a quanity discount when you stroll out with 1000 bananas from the grocery store? Or do you go to a farmer's market and say I'll take em all? Fruit is mainly water but bananas don't seem very "juicy" right? And a lot of fiber too.

30 bananas is about 3000 calories, you eat that for one meal? Even if you burn 2000 just from running every day, if you eat 8000 total that's a lot of calories to burn; perhaps from carrying around hundreds of bananas...

Now 20 watermelons, maybe : )

What a subtle yet large effort to use for trolling! Kind of dangerous though as you deadpan telling people to follow your advice.

6 hours later lol yea I could eat banana splits and a bucket of fried chicken skin and run a quarter day later.

I am really high right now and reading this post has my head going in all sorts of directions

My bad, maybe you shouldn't read it while high?

Someone mentioned something about how humans living in an orchard of fruit wouldn't need to hunt animals. Thats true, if such a place existed. Imagine you're living on the savanna, or even Europe for that matter. There are no apples, bananas, almonds, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, etc, there are only basically wild berries, which are ripe for about a week a year. Tell me how you are going to live on that. You cannot. And if you ate fruit all the time without toothbrushes and modern dental care your teeth would rot out of your skull.

Someone also said something about how now that it is possible to live off of only vegetarian products why wouldn't we? That is quite simply, very wasteful. Take the western plains states, Texas, the pampas of argentina, or any other place they raise cattle. Know what they all have in common? You can't grow crops their. Now yes, I realize we feed livestock with farm products, but we don't have to. Raising cattle on non-arable land the old fashioned way, by grazing, would feed more mouths than not doing anything with that land.

And how can you claim that cavemen lived on mostly vegetables and such, there is compelling evidence to suggest that they hunted many species to extinction, mammoths for example. Now call me crazy, but I don't think humans would take the time to learn to hunt mammoth and risk life and limb if they only did it when fruit was scarce.

And the thing about humans only eating meat when fruit is scarce, thats just moronic. Without modern refrigeration and shipping and DOMESTICATED fruits, fruit would be scarce everywhere about 10 months out of the year. It is simply not possible to live on this diet without all of our modern agrarian techniques and technologies for shipping and distributing food, to pretend it mimics the diet that humans evolved to eat is delusional.

HAHA!!

I think you are confused:

You went to great lengths to prove how impractical carrying over 400 lbs of bananas would be! Why not just say its stupid. Everyone will believe you anyways. You must hate vegetarians/vegans.

Oh man. All this talk about fruits and vegetables is making me hungry! I think I'm gonna go get me some french fries from McDonalds. Maybe I'll get some mcnuggets while I'm there. yum yum.