My 80/10/10 Low Fat Raw Vegan Diet Update

I have been doing the low fat, raw vegan 80/10/10 diet (promoted by long-term raw fooder Dr. Douglas Graham in his book, The 80/10/10 Diet) for six months now. It has become second nature to me and not at all difficult to follow. I wrote about why I chose a fruit-based, low fat diet and about my initial experiences on the 80/10/10 diet. Now I thought I’d share some additional observations after eating this way for more than half a year.

The Amount of Food I Must Eat

This is the biggest challenge with the 80/10/10 diet for me, but it’s getting easier. It felt very weird in the beginning to eat an entire giant bowl of fruit salad at one meal. Eating fruit meals now feels very normal and routine now.

Bananas are a dietary staple. I eat up to 6 of them each day.

The longer I eat this way, the more normal it becomes and I feel very satisfied, nourished and even balanced with a predominately fruit-based diet. I don’t even think about the amount of fruit I eat, even though I eat more fruit in a day that most people probably eat in a week or two. I just eat a 500 or so calorie fruit meal and I’m good to go. It’s second nature.

Teeth

I mentioned this on my first 80/10/10 post but I thought I’d touch on it again. I did have some tooth sensitivity during the first week or so of eating 80/10/10. Now I don’t have any tooth sensitivity at all. In fact, I’d say that my teeth are less sensitive now than they were when I started 80/10/10. In fact, I used to use a sensitivity toothpaste every day and I inadvertently switched to a different one that wasn’t for sensitive teeth. I used it for over a month before I realized it and that whole time I had no problems with tooth sensitivity.

I have been making sure that I get plenty of minerals from leafy green and other vegetables. I’m pretty strict with my two large bunches per day rule. On average, I’ll eat an entire head of romaine lettuce (in a smoothie) AND 4 or so cups of chopped dandelion or kale in another smoothie later on. I also make sure I get outside in the sunshine as often as I can to soak up some vitamin D which is important for bone strength and tooth health.

Raw Gourmet Food Is Nauseating

I’ve heard other low fat, raw vegans say that after eating low fat for a while, they can’t stomach the fat and oil-drenched raw gourmet food that is so heavily celebrated in the movement. I completely identify with this observation now. I haven’t been to a raw food restaurant since January! I don’t really have a desire to do so because most of the menu will be high-fat “gut-bombs”. It’s really too bad because I am fortunate enough to live in a city with four or five raw food restaurants, but it’s so hard to find low fat, fruit-based meals at any of them.

I can honestly say that nut-burgers, flax-cracker pizza, raw cacao cookies and raw cheesecake just doesn’t even look like food anymore. It’s unappetizing to me. I hate to be so harsh, but I feel like my body knows what real, whole food that grows on trees is and it doesn’t want anything that’s been processed and refined. That stuff just doesn’t feel like food in my body anymore.

Gourmet raw food makes me feel bloated, sluggish and unhealthy. In fact, I feel the same way after eating a high-fat raw meal as I do if I eat a restaurant meal such as a veggie burger with fries.

Eating Socially on 80/10/10

Anybody who is on a strict raw food diet will know that it is difficult to eat out at restaurants and that it can be awkward to eat at family functions. Well, try doing that when you are eating mostly fruit. Even among typical raw foodists, it’s a challenge to eat low fat, raw vegan in at a social, raw event.

Ironically, I find it difficult to eat at raw food potlucks now because so much of the raw dishes are loaded with nuts and oils. Raw desserts are pretty much fat-laden gut bombs. It’s interesting to watch as people eat large plates full of low calorie greens and then fill up their plates at the high calorie (and high fat) raw dessert table. The vast majority of their calories come from agave nectar, cacao and other highly processed nuts and seeds. It took only one of these potlucks to realize that I just can’t eat that way anymore.

Water

I am surprised at how little water I drink in a day now. I used to drink a gallon or so every day. Now I drink maybe half that, even on a hot summer day. I do get plenty of distilled, nutrient-rich water from all the fruits and vegetables I eat all day. I think it’s strange how many raw foodists make such a big deal about water (ionized, ozonated, “raw”, etc…) when I rarely give it a second thought with my water-rich fruit-based diet.

Heat Tolerance

I’ve heard a lot of raw foodists say that summertime heat doesn’t bother them like it used to before being raw. This seems to be especially true for low fat, raw vegans. I’ve definitely noticed that my comfortable temperature range has shifted. Temperatures in the mid-upper 80′s (Fahrenheit) just doesn’t feel that hot to me anymore.

Fruit Sugar

This is the annoying question that 80/10/10′ers get all the time: “Won’t all that fruit sugar mess up your blood sugar levels?”. That question is right up there with “where do you get your protein?” Oh well, it comes with the territory I guess. From the research I’ve done, there doesn’t appear to be a risk of blood sugar issues caused my fruit consumption. Dr. Douglas Graham discusses blood sugar and fruit extensively in this book, The 80/10/10 Diet. He says that the cause of blood sugar imbalance is not too much fruit in the diet but too much fat! I’ve had no problems with candida or blood glucose or cancer (yes, I’ve heard some people claim that fruit sugar can cause cancer).

Now I’d love to go out an get a blood sugar monitor and test myself for a week, but I haven’t so far. I don’t feel the need to do so. I’m not diabetic and I don’t have risk factors for diabetes. There are other people who have regularly tested their blood sugar on the 80/10/10 diet and their levels have been rock solid. It’s just not something I’m worried about. I also don’t pay any attention to the Glycemic Index, either.

Cooked Food

I wrote about this a couple weeks ago, but I have added small amounts of cooked food into my diet. This longer I eat raw foods the more I realized to I don’t want to be 100%. I feel more balanced eating a cooked dinner.

So I’ve turned to supplementing my raw diet with lowfat, cooked foods like quinoa and brown rice to provide concentrated calories without adding excess fat. As I’ve said before, I believe it’s healthier to be a low fat, high-raw vegan than a high fat, 100% raw foodist.

For me, it is more important to keep my fat intake low than it is to stay 100% raw. I do eat raw most of the time, but if I’m going to a restaurant, I’ll order a vegan.

The Macronutrient Ratios

I’m using 80/10/10 as a benchmark. Some days, I hit that spot on. On average, my protein intake is about 6% of my total calories, which still provides up to 58 grams of protein and 100% or more (usually way more) of all essential amino acids. My average fat intake usually hovers at 10% and some days goes as high as 12%. Rarely I have a day where my fat intake is at or near 15%, and those are usually the days where I have a gourmet raw indulgence (which happens less frequently as time goes on). My carbohydrate intake is most always 80% or more of total calories.

So that’s my current 80/10/10 status as of August 27, 2010. If you have any specific questions about what I’m eating, how I’m feeling, how I address any issues you might be having on your own low fat, raw vegan diet or want to share your journey, please comment below. I’d really like to hear from others on the 80/10/10 or low fat, raw vegan diet, or those of you who are curious about trying it out.

Tags: 80/10/10, 811, 811rv, experiment, fruit, Raw Food Diet