Guest guest Posted April 13, 2004 Report Share Posted April 13, 2004 Now that I've gone raw, I'm so skinny by Dr. Douglas N. Graham Is raw really that different? Americans generally have two features in common: they are overfat and undermuscled. There are good reasons for both of these unhealthy conditions. Going raw can help with both, but in both cases, going raw is simply a start. People are overfat because they consume more calories than they burn. It is that simple, almost. They are also overweight because they hold on to excess water. In the body, the solution to pollution is dilution. One method of coping with those toxins that are more than the body can eliminate is to dilute them in water and store them. This excess water weight is easily lost, and is not the issue of this article. Overfat people usually tell me that they " don't eat that much, really. " They are probably telling the truth, when it comes to the actual volume of food they consume. The SAD has three main features that make it easily recognizable: low water, low fiber, and high fat. Each of these three features reduce the total volume of food while increasing the number of calories per bite. It therefore takes very little food volume to provide more than enough calories for the day, hence people gain, on average, a few pounds every year. The SAD, vegetarian, vegan and most raw diets tend to have these same three features in common: low water, low fiber and high fat. As raw fooders we find a meal of fruit unsatisfactory because we are hungry soon after consuming it. This is no fault of the fruit. Any meal where insufficient calories are consumed will leave the eater hungry soon thereafter. We have shrunk our stomachs to the point of deformity through the continual consumption of concentrated foodstuffs. By removing the fiber (juicing), by removing the water (cooking or dehydrating), and by increasing the fat levels above 10% of total calories consumed (cooked or raw, plant or animal, fat is fat), we mimic the SAD with many of our raw food dishes. This is surely an unhealthy practice. Both water and fiber are essential nutrients. Therefore removing them from our food must be to our detriment. All health experts worldwide agree that we must make dramatic decreases in our fat consumption if we ever hope to achieve health. The solution to the shrunken stomach problem is to eat more volume of fruit, but this takes practice and determination. It requires, essentially, that you go on a flexibility training program for your stomach, allowing it to enlarge to the point of being able to comfortably accommodate the food volume required for a proper meal of fruit. Most folks find that within a few months they can easily double and often triple the total amount of fruit they can consume at a meal, without consuming anywhere near as many calories as they used to consume from more calorically concentrated sources. We go on the raw food diet and lose weight like champions. This is a mixed blessing. Most of us have weight to lose and are pleased at the initial weight loss. However, if we are losing weight consistently and dramatically we must be drastically under consuming calories. At some point we must learn to eat enough volume of raw foods to satisfy our caloric demands, else we fail as raw fooders. Unfortunately, this form of failure on raw foods happens all too frequently. Usually, we blame the addictiveness of cooked food or our own weaknesses rather than acknowledging that we were eating a nutritionally unbalanced and unsustainable raw food diet. Along the way, various unhealthy habits can develop such as overeating of fatty foods, occasional bingeing on cooked foods, relying on refined and concentrated food sources, and the sedentary lifestyle that often accompanies the malnourished state. We are crippling ourselves Labor saving devices have become the standard in America. Shopping carts, rolling luggage, moving stairways, vacuum cleaners, automatic doors, household conveniences such as automatic hot water; we use these things without giving them a second thought. Even our labor saving devices often have labor saving devices. (Ex. - Power windows, steering and brakes for our cars, remote controls for television, sit down lawn mowers, battery powered toothbrushes and screwdrivers). Using them has had disastrous effects upon our fitness. Never before in history have we, as a people, been so unfit, overfat, or unhealthy. In both test case and real life scenarios we have found that a significant percentage of our population is too unfit to make it down a few dozen flights of stairs, even if it means saving their own life. The inertia of the sedentary lifestyle must be overcome if we hope to achieve better health through raw living than that which we brought to it. Losing excess fat certainly is a step in the right direction. Eating foods that require less fuel for the digestive process frees up more fuel to use for activity. Still, I am asked all the time, " what do I eat to gain weight? " After discerning that the requested weight gain is not to be in the form of fat or water, the question is refined to, " what do I eat to gain muscle? " The answer is, " There is no food that will cause one to gain muscle. This can only be achieved by performing the appropriate strength demanding activities " . Unless demands are placed upon the muscles, the brain will perceive no reason to direct growth of the muscles and the muscles will likewise acquire no reason to hypertrophy. " I went raw but I got so skinny that I went back to eating cooked " , I hear again and again. I can only reply that most people are skinny, they just hide that fact under a substantial layer of fat. We have become used to seeing fat people, they are the norm. So used to it, in fact, that people who are not fat look abnormal to us. They look too skinny. Though for my height I am absolutely a normal weight (5'10 " , 150 pounds) I have been told that I am " thin, skinny, too trim " and once even, " emaciated " . (This last by a man 5'10 " , 300 pounds). We know the shape that we think humans should be, what appears to us as " normal " . The undiscerning eye usually does not differentiate between a person with a low degree of musculature whose body fat levels are double or triple normal from one with adequate muscular development whose body fat level is healthy. They look basically similar, especially when they are inactive and even more so in street clothing. The telltale indicators of low fat with muscular development; well defined vascularity and the shredded or ripped look to the musculature, are simply not noticed or even visible until bodies go into action. Muscular development takes time. It is rare for a body builder to gain more than one pound of muscle in a month. By the same token, barring a total cessation of physical activity, muscular loss of size also is a slow process. Of the three caloronutrients: carbohydrate, fat and protein, the body will always use carbohydrate and fat before consuming protein for fuel. Hence, when we switch our diet to raw, the likelihood that the body will consume its own muscle tissue for fuel is practically zero. At least, that is, until starvation is initiated, which is not until all available carbohydrate and fat sources have been utilized. When people say to me that they got so skinny on the raw food diet, I can only smile and say, " You have probably always been skinny, you just couldn't tell because you were fat, too. Congratulations on losing the fat, for it was only then that you noticed how undermuscled you are. " If you do what everyone else does, you will get what everyone else gets. For uncommonly healthy results, one must be willing to live an uncommonly healthy life. Anyone who puts in the effort involved in building muscle will see the muscular development and will reap the concomitant rewards. This can be done in various ways and will be a focus of a future article: Four methods of increasing strength related performance. In health abundance naturally, Dr. Douglas N. " Mono-Man " Graham www.doctorgraham.cc All raw, all the time, count on it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 14, 2004 Report Share Posted April 14, 2004 Can you tell us where you found that article? is it in Living Nutriton? Sonia --- southladogs <southladogs wrote: > Now that I've gone raw, I'm so skinny > by Dr. Douglas N. Graham > > Is raw really that different? > > Americans generally have two features in common: > they are overfat > and undermuscled. There are good reasons for both > of these > unhealthy conditions. Going raw can help with both, > but in both > cases, going raw is simply a start. > > People are overfat because they consume more > calories than they > burn. It is that simple, almost. They are also > overweight because > they hold on to excess water. In the body, the > solution to > pollution is dilution. One method of coping with > those toxins that > are more than the body can eliminate is to dilute > them in water and > store them. This excess water weight is easily > lost, and is not the > issue of this article. > > Overfat people usually tell me that they " don't eat > that much, > really. " They are probably telling the truth, when > it comes to the > actual volume of food they consume. The SAD has > three main features > that make it easily recognizable: low water, low > fiber, and high > fat. Each of these three features reduce the total > volume of food > while increasing the number of calories per bite. > It therefore > takes very little food volume to provide more than > enough calories > for the day, hence people gain, on average, a few > pounds every year. > > The SAD, vegetarian, vegan and most raw diets tend > to have these > same three features in common: low water, low fiber > and high fat. > As raw fooders we find a meal of fruit > unsatisfactory because we are > hungry soon after consuming it. This is no fault of > the fruit. Any > meal where insufficient calories are consumed will > leave the eater > hungry soon thereafter. We have shrunk our stomachs > to the point of > deformity through the continual consumption of > concentrated > foodstuffs. By removing the fiber (juicing), by > removing the water > (cooking or dehydrating), and by increasing the fat > levels above 10% > of total calories consumed (cooked or raw, plant or > animal, fat is > fat), we mimic the SAD with many of our raw food > dishes. This is > surely an unhealthy practice. Both water and fiber > are essential > nutrients. Therefore removing them from our food > must be to our > detriment. All health experts worldwide agree that > we must make > dramatic decreases in our fat consumption if we ever > hope to achieve > health. > > The solution to the shrunken stomach problem is to > eat more volume > of fruit, but this takes practice and determination. > It requires, > essentially, that you go on a flexibility training > program for your > stomach, allowing it to enlarge to the point of > being able to > comfortably accommodate the food volume required for > a proper meal > of fruit. Most folks find that within a few months > they can easily > double and often triple the total amount of fruit > they can consume > at a meal, without consuming anywhere near as many > calories as they > used to consume from more calorically concentrated > sources. > > We go on the raw food diet and lose weight like > champions. This is > a mixed blessing. Most of us have weight to lose > and are pleased at > the initial weight loss. However, if we are losing > weight > consistently and dramatically we must be drastically > under consuming > calories. At some point we must learn to eat enough > volume of raw > foods to satisfy our caloric demands, else we fail > as raw fooders. > Unfortunately, this form of failure on raw foods > happens all too > frequently. Usually, we blame the addictiveness of > cooked food or > our own weaknesses rather than acknowledging that we > were eating a > nutritionally unbalanced and unsustainable raw food > diet. Along the > way, various unhealthy habits can develop such as > overeating of > fatty foods, occasional bingeing on cooked foods, > relying on refined > and concentrated food sources, and the sedentary > lifestyle that > often accompanies the malnourished state. > > We are crippling ourselves > > Labor saving devices have become the standard in > America. Shopping > carts, rolling luggage, moving stairways, vacuum > cleaners, automatic > doors, household conveniences such as automatic hot > water; we use > these things without giving them a second thought. > Even our labor > saving devices often have labor saving devices. > (Ex. - Power > windows, steering and brakes for our cars, remote > controls for > television, sit down lawn mowers, battery powered > toothbrushes and > screwdrivers). Using them has had disastrous > effects upon our > fitness. Never before in history have we, as a > people, been so > unfit, overfat, or unhealthy. In both test case and > real life > scenarios we have found that a significant > percentage of our > population is too unfit to make it down a few dozen > flights of > stairs, even if it means saving their own life. > > The inertia of the sedentary lifestyle must be > overcome if we hope > to achieve better health through raw living than > that which we > brought to it. Losing excess fat certainly is a > step in the right > direction. Eating foods that require less fuel for > the digestive > process frees up more fuel to use for activity. > Still, I am asked > all the time, " what do I eat to gain weight? " > > After discerning that the requested weight gain is > not to be in the > form of fat or water, the question is refined to, > " what do I eat to > gain muscle? " The answer is, " There is no food that > will cause one > to gain muscle. This can only be achieved by > performing the > appropriate strength demanding activities " . Unless > demands are > placed upon the muscles, the brain will perceive no > reason to direct > growth of the muscles and the muscles will likewise > acquire no > reason to hypertrophy. > > " I went raw but I got so skinny that I went back to > eating cooked " , > I hear again and again. I can only reply that most > people are > skinny, they just hide that fact under a substantial > layer of fat. > We have become used to seeing fat people, they are > the norm. So > used to it, in fact, that people who are not fat > look abnormal to > us. They look too skinny. Though for my height I > am absolutely a > normal weight (5'10 " , 150 pounds) I have been told > that I am " thin, > skinny, too trim " and once even, " emaciated " . (This > last by a man > 5'10 " , 300 pounds). > > We know the shape that we think humans should be, > what appears to us > as " normal " . The undiscerning eye usually does not > differentiate > === message truncated === Tax Center - File online by April 15th http://taxes./filing.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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