New challenge – Raw vegan for 30 days
Sep 13
To those of you who know me this should come as no surprise, I tend to embark on what some might consider rather extreme challenges. Raw vegan is really not that extreme in my opinion seeing as though I’m already vegan, and have been for the past 6 years or so… still alive.
Today marks the start of the challenge and I have to admit I wouldn’t have minded a somewhat better start… I’m home ill, very likely due to some people at work refusing to stay home when they are ill. Few things annoy me more than those that decide, despite what most would consider obvious signs (such as sneezing, snotty noses etc), to goto work and quite clearly spread the germs.
I remember reading some study that said a significant portion of people who get ill at work have gotten ill due to colleagues who refused to stay home when they clearly should have. Unfortunately I don’t have the figures to substantiate the statement, but I bet a rather significant amount of money is spent on sick leave due to irresponsible co-workers.
Anyway, enough whining.
For quite some time I’ve been having some most awesome smoothies each morning, smoothies which I’m quite happy to continue having for this challenge. They aren’t particularly complex or anything, but filling and well, tasty. They consist of blueberries, mango, bananas, walnuts, soaked oats and water. The oats are technically not raw, but I love having them because they really make the smoothie very filling and keeps me going for quite a while (good few hours).
For lunch Johanna made a big nice light salad topped with sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds. I decided to add a drizzle of olive oil for extra moisture. Lunch was complemented with the most awesome raw balls ever… think Johanna will share the recipe on her blog.
On a fairly related topic I’ve also decided to create a fairly well and researched resource of information about the effects of eating raw vegan. While I’m pretty convinced myself about the benefits of a vegan raw diet I would like for it to be substantiated with solid research and studies confirming the alleged benefits. I think my first mission will be to research all the vitamins and minerals and get those out of the way. I’ll try and find studies supporting various claims.
A reason for doing this is that I find both sides of the argument (for and against a vegan diet) often very uninformed, and arguing mostly from either a politically or emotionally point of view. Personally I can also get caught up in the same drama, but I try and remain as informed as I possibly can. A huge problem is that most people arguing against a vegan diet are not really interested in hearing any arguments at all, but rather verifying and justifying their already made up mind.
Vegans do tend to be more informed, but also here a clear bias is to be expected as with anything else. I mean, I clearly am biased as well, but aren’t we all somehow? This is also why I think science is perfect as it has no side. No, it doesn’t. Science really doesn’t have a side, the people behind might, but science itself doesn’t. Science is simply about establishing a “… systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a correct prediction, or reliably-predictable type of outcome…”
I think that’s a very good definition (fetched from wikipedia). Science really is all about repeating something so as to prove it’s predictability.
I intend on trying to show various health benefits such as reduced incidents of various forms of cancer, reversal of diabetes and so forth. There are some very intriguing studies that I intend to grapple with such as EPIC which is intended to display link between cancer, environment and diet, VERY interesting. Already the study have shown what can only be considered very convincing arguments for not eating such massive amounts of animal products as the west is currently doing.
Anyways, this post is already getting quite long, but I invite anyone to comment and explore this with me. I do beg that any emotionally and politically motivated agendas be kept away from the discussion. Science shall rule here.
Regards,
Christoffer
good luck with your 30day challenge, I am sure you will feel the benefits of the raw vegan diet (not that i have done completley raw for any extended period).
I will follow with interest, to see what information you find in support of a raw vegan diet, although like you, I am probably biased. I also like to think of myself as being very well informed, however alot of my knowledge is based on reasearch i did at the time i went vegan, some 13yrs ago now. I haven’t been vigilant in updating my knowledge, certainly to the extent of verifying the source of any new information I may hear on the vegan ‘grapevine’.
I would also like to pass comment on your statement regarding ‘science’, you are right that most people show bias and that science should be factual. However, the way science/testing is carried out, reported and the way the resulting statistics are calculated can be biased. The bias often comes from the sponser of such information, this bias also extends to which science papers ever make the public domain. This of course is true for both sides of each argument.
As they say ‘There are lies, damn lies and statistics’.
Good luck with your challenge and I look forward to reading the inormation you post.
VBB
Excellent blog… I will be following with interest as I am about to go raw for the last month of the pregnancy so will help inspire you as you your blog will inspire me! Thanks for sharing! Hugs xx
Eating low calorie food has helped me lose a lot of weight. That means a lot of vegetables. Which is fine for me because I like them.
If that was your goal, loosing weight, good for you. I don’t necessarily think that a raw vegan diet is only for loosing weight though. And I’m not entirely convinced about this whole calorie intake business. I have yet to find a study, or authoritative source, that details exactly how one would determine the amount of calories necessary to maintain energy levels.
I’ve read some sources that claim that raw food will require less food since it’s calories are not empty and actually provide “clean” food. Again, I’m not entirely convinced about the “clean” food aspect, but I can certainly logically agree with that raw food is richer since it’s closer to a natural state and should hence be more nutritionally rich than their cooked counterpart.
Excellent. That sounds cool. I’ll try and make updates as often as I can, but also not too often. There need to be something of value to present add… Looking forward seeing you guys soon! :-)
Thanks mate! What I meant about science is that science as a method of proving is not faulty, it’s always the people carrying it out that will represent the actual fault due to bias or assumed outcomes. Science to me is fairly binary, it either is, or it isn’t. I’ve not thought this argument through entirely so there might be some obvious flaws with it ;-)