Raw Foods for Runners?

I don't know much about stair running, but Tim is definitely not "getting to the top" (pun on your part?) in the mountain running community. He finished 138th at Mt. Washington this past weekend, almost a half hour behind the leaders. He was beat by 16 women, which means he's going to have to work hard to make the female mountain running world team. Please do not compare Tim to guys like Gates, Blake, and Wells. He's not even in the same ballpark.

Atwell,

I think the diet is a great idea and I'm going to try it. Can you email me cause I have some more questions.

Thanks

Scott Jurek is vegan...does pretty well.

There are some new videos on raw food & physical performance on YouTube:

http://youtube.com/user/ryanscottlove

The speaker is Dr. Doug Graham, author of the 80/10/10 Diet book. I think he explains things pretty well.

I got a lot out of the video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QPip44J3DsY&feature=related

I really liked what he had to say about sodium, water, & running.

I'm going to try this diet. I eat a lot of fruit anyway, so it should be easy.

this thread is full of so many toolbags, it\'s sickening.

"The study measured testosterone levels in 696 Oxford

University men. Of the study participants, 233 were vegan

(ate no animal products) and 237 were vegetarian (ate milk

and dairy products). The remaining 237 subjects were men

who ate meat on most days of the week...vegans had higher

testosterone levels than vegetarians and meat eaters."

British Journal of Cancer, 83(1), July 2000

I think we carnivores may have closed that gap in the last eight years, with the free hormones we get with every portion of factory farmed meat.

atwell wrote:

"The study measured testosterone levels in 696 Oxford

University men. Of the study participants, 233 were vegan

(ate no animal products) and 237 were vegetarian (ate milk

and dairy products). The remaining 237 subjects were men

who ate meat on most days of the week...vegans had higher

testosterone levels than vegetarians and meat eaters."

British Journal of Cancer, 83(1), July 2000

Atwell, maybe you should read the entire journal article next time instead of just posting the stuff that supports your argument.

"Mean serum insulin-like growth factor-I was 9% lower in 233 vegan men than in 226 meat-eaters and 237 vegetarians (P = 0.002). Vegans had higher testosterone levels than vegetarians and meat-eaters, but this was offset by higher sex hormone binding globulin, and there were no differences between diet groups in free testosterone, androstanediol glucuronide or luteinizing hormone."

Hormones and diet: low insulin-like growth factor-I but normal bioavailable androgens in vegan men

N E Allen, P N Appleby, G K Davey and T J Key

British Journal of Cancer (2000) 83, 95-97.

Way to misinform, atwell! Good job!

i havent met a single real athlete who is on a diet anything like this... i HAVE been to word class events as an elite where they put you up in a luxury hotel and everything is free, and do you know what the kenyans, etheopians, south africans, etc eat? EVERYTHING they can find and more... lorna kipligat, constantina dita, hendrick ramaala, martin lel, boaz chebouyow, etc. etc. etc.. i am talking about filling your plates with bacon, eggs, french toast sticks, fruit, etc.

the people who are on diets like you guys are talking about are not real athletes. have you checked out this running raw guy???

http://www.runningraw.com/

BIGGEST douche on the planet award goes to him.

2008 - US Tower Racing Champion at the Empire State Building

2008 - US Mountain Running Team - World Championships

2008 - World Record - Mile on outdoor track - First 40 year old to break 4 minutes.

2008 - US Olympic Track & Field Team - 40 years of age

2010 - US Olympic Nordic Ski Team - 42 years of age

these are his goals, though it looks like he should scratch the olympic team as i don't recall seeing him in the mix at the trials..

also, read his race reviews. this guy runs 16 minute 5k's and makes himself out to be like pre or something.... rediculous! but i strongly suggest the read because you will get a good laugh... this guy is crazy! its also why you can't take anything these people say seriously.. they are all just so delusional.. if some quack came out with an article saying a strict boiled tomato diet is the way to go, they'd be running 16 minute 5k's and attributing it to the power of the boiled tomato diet.

insulin like growth factor 1 is a cancer promoter. Dairy elevates it more than meat from what I have seen. Oh yes for the vegan eating lots of processed soy products like, burgers, sausage links, hot dogs, etc. containing--soy protien isolate--increases insulin growth factor 1 more than dairy. Sorry I had to post as I recently saw a video on this by a Doctor (his facts where backed up by studies).

wether you are a vegan, vegetarian or not increasing fruits and veggies is so bennificial, I think we all know this but just don't want to do it because other foods, atleat we think taste better. I am not talking about 5 servings a day. I am talking like atleast 10 per day (this is not hard) and see if you feel better, recover quicker, sleep better, better quality of life in later years (not just now when we are able to do okay with whatever we put in our bodies).

since reading this post and adding more meals with just raw foods I think I feel better and recover quicker. Just me though.

I do not understand the logic of a raw food diet. I am involved with showing dogs and this raw food craze has hit the dog community in a bigger way than it has the general human population.

Here are my problems with it:

1. The claim is based on the assumption that humans are designed for it... to this end I ask the question haven’t we adapted are physiology towards a civilized diet? I am not a anthropologist but as I understand it we have been farming for at least 10,000 years, we have had access to fire as a means of cooking food for much longer than that. It seems logical that this technology has affected who could survive and who couldn't the net result being a group of humans who are well able to thrive off of cooked foods and domesticated species. In the dog world, whose populations cycle through generations far more rapidly than ours do, the adaptation to being the pets of civilization has resulted in certain breeds not being able to eat a normal wolf’s diet of ungulates, and instead have to eat poultry or fish. No wolf would have access to those foods on the levels that a dog can now. So the argument that we are not changed by our technological advances seems spurious at best, and the idea that raw is best is fundamentally based off this assumption.

2. Natural for whom? I mean what areas of the world are you assuming to be a natural diet for humans? I doubt anyone would want to live solely off of the natural forage of Northern Europe without some kind of preparations. Not to mention that a common staple like potatoes were not introduced into western diets until the discovery of the "New World" so if you are making a diet up to be "natural" which natural environment are you going to pick and why?

Now I have many more objections to these kinds of diets but I thought I would throw those out there. I also don't want to be considered a Pizza Pocket and Pepsi eating fiend. A large portion of my diet is made up of raw greens and fruits, in fact, as a child living on a farm I would eat fresh green peas over ice cream any day. The point is that you don't have to go to the extremes of diet to be healthy and while I respect the effort that needs to go into one of these diets, I fundamentally disagree with their logic and the assumptions which they are based on.

I'm waiting for atwell's response to spreading lies.

hmmm:

I'll be honest. Did I read the article before posting? No. I read a summary on a vegan website, and thought I might pass it along. I put the quotes on the statement, because those weren't my words. I went back and found the full article after you brought that up. It does appear that somebody was picking and choosing in the results they chose to state. I'm sorry about that. Also, I don't know what kind of vegan diet they were eating. There are lots of unhealthy vegan diets: a vegan French fry diet is certainly worse than a balanced omnivore one.

rabb:

I have heard of the runningraw guy, and I agree that he's not as hot as he thinks he is. Some people may be inspired by him, but others will be turned off from the diet, which is not good.

cancer:

Well said.

runner_pucci:

#1- There are several arguments for a raw food diet, including: performance, health, environmental, & compassion. And then there is also the thought that its what our ancestors ate. 10,000 years is a short time relative to our evolutionary past. Other primates are primarily fruit-eaters.

#2- True, it is hard to live on a raw food diet all year based on the foods found in northern Europe. But I think that just means that humans are not supposed to live in cold climates. Other primates live in the tropics, and I think that is our natural environment.

Also another study, A diet low in saturated fat (aka animal fat) boosts VO2 Max:

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=2872733

atwell wrote:

Also another study, A diet low in saturated fat (aka animal fat) boosts VO2 Max:

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=2872733

That one should inspire all endurance athletes. I am being serious. Not for raw food, but at least for veganism.

I still don't buy it.

well, atleast you are sensible about it.. the main thing i hate about health professionals is their flip flopping about... seems one thing is good for you one day, then gives you cancer the next.. putting all your eggs in one basket so to speak doesn't sound like the best idea to me (not to mention i love a good steak, burger, lobster, duck, etc.) i also think that the mind is pretty powerful, and if you think its better for you you'll feel better by virtue of that.. not to mention self sacrifice can create a better feeling of accomplishment over indulgence.

I agree there is a lot of flip-flopping in nutrition science. I notice this the most however on things like meat & dairy (one day they're good, the next they are bad).

But, there seems to be a CONSENSUS that the MOST HEALTHY foods are RAW FRUITS & VEGETABLES. Every nutritionist seems to agree on this. So it shouldn't really seem all that extreme to make this the foundation of your diet.

All raw would be the most boring diet ever. I want to be able to go out and order a nice big steak every once in a while, not a stupid fruit plate.

It is no surprise that atwell is an ultra guy.