Raw Foods for Runners?

I seriously doubt that the recipes have 'too many carbs'. There is a chance you may be getting too much protein, but if you're watching your diet closely probably not.

he said there aren't enough carbs. I suppose you could try root vegetables like potatoes, parsnips, and turnips raw but I can't imagine it would taste very good.

Get the 80/10/10 book.

If you have the willpower and perserverence to make it work, good on you.

I also have been following Doug Graham's 811 raw vegan program over the past 6 months. I can say that I am running better now than I ever have before.

I typically run doubles, and eat a large fruit meal after each run. Although it varies by season, the fruits I most typically eat are banana, mango, grapes, peaches, persimmons, & cantaloupe. I also have a large salad of green leaves at the start of the 2nd meal.

I have no trouble getting enough carbs...its about 90% of my diet! Eating like this has also allowed me to lose some weight (I have always been a bit heavy as a runner). But you can get enough calories on this diet; I've been doing 100 mpw the past month, and haven't lost any additional weight. You just need to eat enough fruit; a meal for me might be 20-30 bananas.

The protein in this diet is enough. You don't need a lot; most people eat too much protein.

Oh, and one more thing:

As far as preparation goes...just eat ripe fruit! Nothing is easier to prepare!

As long as you eat enough variety of fruit, you won't tire of it, and all of your nutritional needs will be met (as long as you include some daily raw greens too).

Bananas are my staple fruit, because they are a good fuel for runners, are cheap, and are easy to eat. Just make sure they are ripe before eating them. But some people who dislike bananas still follow this 811rv diet.

Doug Graham also has an online discussion forum, which you might want to check out before getting the book:

http://www.vegsource.com/talk/raw/index.html

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

WTF?

jeff michigan wrote:

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

WTF?

Yeah, is this a typo? 20-30 bananas?? If you eat all fruit, where do you get your fat? I think around half the calories you burn on a run are from fat, plus there is a certain amount of fat that your body needs to for its daily functions. I have a healthy diet, mostly raw stuff, but I found that my fat intake was too low. Since then I've replaced skim milk with 2%, started eating raw nuts, etc. to get my fat intake up. I've been feeling better throughout the day.

Plus, the all fruit diet would probably make you fart 24/7.

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.

Having such a large volume of food in one meal takes practice; your stomach gradually stretches out. Most people who start will eat 5-6 fruit meals per day, but then gradually increase their size and decrease their frequency.

In Doug Graham's 80/10/10 program, he suggests:

-a minimum of 80% of calories from carbs.

-a maximum of 10% of calories from protein.

-a maximum of 10% of calories from fat.

Most fruits have a ratio of about 90/5/5, and most leafy green vegetables are more like 70/15/15. Eating both, you naturally get around 80/10/10.

You don't need a lot of fat or protein. The amount you get on this plan is sufficient. On his plan, you can eat fatty fruits (avocados, etc.), nuts, & seeds, but you are not supposed to go above 10% for protein or fat (so highly concentrated fat sources need to be a small part of the diet).

And no, I fart less than I did on the standard American diet. Why? Because fruit is easy to digest, and moves through your system quickly. My bowel movements are also very regular. But if you mix fruit with something which moves slowly (like meat), then that can lead to problems.

Try it for a week or two. See how you feel. My running has never been better.

But I am not the expert. Check out the links above, or get the book.

So you don't eat nuts or anything? This sounds like a horrifically unhealthy diet.

What is the point of eating very large meals? Isn't it better to space your eating out?

atwell::

Trying to explain the 80-10-10 diet to the "average runner" is much akin to go back to 800 BC and preaching the internet...

I've tried it in other forums with little to no success.

As for myself, I tried to do it for a while and failed, tried again, got better at it, and am now attempting it again. The hardest part for me has been fitting it into my strange work schedule and getting my GF to be okay with it. And the mental block/habits...even though I know some things are bad for me and will kick me off the path, I give in under stress...still some work to do there. Of course, me going off the path still means being 60% raw vegan ;)

Others:

go to YouTube and search for "running raw". Watch some of his posts...sould clear things up.

jeff michigan wrote:

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

WTF?

wow i just laughed my ass off after reading this

You seem to be under the impression that humans were adapted to eat all fruit and nuts and no meat. You can eat meat raw, except for pork or chicken, but red meat is fine, and fish is too. In fact, the human body digests raw meat more quickly than cooked meat. The human body was adapted primarily to eat meat, not vegetables. If you don't believe me compare the digestive tract of a human to that of a gorilla, which eats mostly fruit. And whoever suggested raw potatoes-they are poisonous, so I wouldn't recommend doing that.

Ticktock: I do eat nuts sometimes, just not too many.

Unholy Cumulus: Eating just a couple large meals per day is easier for me with my work schedule. I'm not sure if this is better or worse than smaller meals. I can say that I tried to eat just one huge meal per day, and that didn't work for me. I need at least two.

I think you are confused: My opinion is that humans are not natural meat eaters. We can survive on meat, but I think early humans only did it in areas where there was a scarcity of fruit. Imagine walking through a field, and seeing a squirrel and an apple tree. Relying on instinct, which would you feel like eating?

That is terrible logic. Humans evolved on the savannas of africa, where there is not an abundance of fruits. There is, however, an abundance of herd animals that can be run down by humans without tools (like gazelles for example).

Besides, their is the fact that our digestive systems are similar to meat eaters more than they are to herbivores, as well as the fact that our teeth are not tough enough or large enough to withstand chewing fibrous foods without dental care. There is also the fact that vegetarians today who think that you can live easily without meat are correct in that assumption only because the get plant foods from all over the globe in all seasons. You cannot get a complete protein from foods found in nature in most places in the world. And don't tell me rice and beans and soy or whatnot, because those are all domesticated and historically isolated.

When you talked about the fruit that you ate, you mentioned bananas, mangoes, apples, all of which were historically isolated and they are now domesticated.

You gave me the example of squirrel and an apple tree, allow me to give you an example: you and your band of hunter gatherers see an apple tree, and they see a deer. They know they can run down and kill the deer in less than an hour, and it will provide food for all of them, as well as a hide, bones, sinew, antlers, and meet that can be stored. And of course the fat deposits which you can't get from apples. True, they could take the apples and be full for an hour or two, or they could kill the deer and have meat and supplies for a couple of days. Which would you do?

I forgot to mention one other thing. Lets say you have just killed a deer or a bison or whatever. You can dry that meat in a day or two and have traveling food that will last a long time and is high in calories and protein. Obviously for hunter gatherers constantly moving around and storing food for the winter this is essential. Now you said that you eat 20-30 bananas for a meal, so lets for the sake of argument say a person eats a meal 3 times a day. For a weeks worth of food you would be carrying 420 bananas-and I used the 20 per meal for that estimate. Thats impossible, but its also impossible to assume you can always find bananas every meal (which you in fact couldn't unless you live in Malaysia and found a wild banana tree if you were alive 10,000 years ago) or enough fruit in the wild to feed a band of 20 people 20-30 pieces of fruit 3 times a day. A human carrying dried meat, however, could easily carry enough food for himself for a week, while supplementing himself with whatever roots or vegetables he found while traveling. Also, if a band of humans had killed a deer or two, or a bison or something, there would be enough meat to store and sustain all of them.

you forgot the most important part: the apple tree isn't going anywhere. I'd kill the squirrel and then eat the apples.

dont bananas have a lot of fat? they have 172 calories per so that would be like 4000 or more calories

atwell wrote:

a meal for me might be 20-30 bananas.

I'm calling bullshit. What are you, Cool Hand Luke?

Thanks for the laugh though.