Raw Food Diet a Fad Diet?
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Is the raw food diet a “diet” to you? If you’re anything like me, it’s definitely more of a lifestyle shift than a diet. It’s more long-term than short-term. There are bigger and better benefits involved than just weight-loss, that’s for sure!
I was at the gym the other day and I normally like to have a book or magazine to keep me preoccupied while on the elliptical machine (the K-1 machine is more of a resistance training, weight-bearing exercise machine, not really a cardio machine). I was actually in the mood to look at a woman’s magazine so I borrowed an Allure from the gym shelf and proceeded to go through it. I was laughing out-loud when I came across this part of the article:
The Five Latest Celebrity Diets You Won’t Believe: Inside Allure …
Yup–you guessed it. The miracle-producing, cancer-reversing, degenerative-disease healing, life-transforming raw food lifestyle was of course in this article about crazy and extreme fad diets that have been tried by dozens of celebrities (supposedly) to lose weight fast. Other diets they mentioned (and you can read the article for all the details on each one) were the “Baby Food Diet,” the “Air Diet, ” the “Cookie Diet,” and the “Apple Cider Vinegar Diet.” These are really hilarious. Totally not “fun, healthy, and/or sustainable” like we’re doing with raw foods! There are some even funnier things that celebrities are quoted as trying in the actual magazine itself. For example: Cabbage diet, Watermelon Diet, Bananas and milk diet? Umm…Seems like all failed or abused methods of a detox if you ask me.
The funniest thing about this article is some of the things the author wrote about the raw food diet. I’m sure you’ll see it for yourself but I’ll underline below:
The Raw-Food Diet
The plan: Devotees believe that cooking food destroys its nutritional value, so they eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains that are not heated above 116 degrees (meat and chicken are out).
The pros and cons: It’s easy to shed pounds when you’re eating lots of unprocessed fruits and vegetables, which are low in saturated fats and calories and high in filling fiber. But let’s face it, it’s also boring. And unless you’re willing to live on salads and smoothies, the diet pretty much requires a personal chef or a raw-food restaurant to make the food more appealing.
The bottom line: It’s really hard to stick with this diet—and to do it healthfully. Getting enough protein, calcium, and B-complex vitamins can be a challenge; plus, too much fruit can cause intestinal distress and increase insulin (making the body store calories as fat).
So I don’t need to say a whole lot about this. I think if they asked celebs like Demi Moore or Carol Alt, the author would have some more light shed on the subject. I suppose we should be feeling pretty good that so many celebs have at least heard of and perhaps given raw food a whirl right? For now, the REAL raw food diet will have to be our little secret… ;)
Maybe the next fad diet should be the “Cereal Diet” with all these “healthy” cereal box claims recently. Have you seen this yet? http://www.naturalnews.com/027386_Kelloggs_food_cocoa.html
Here’s an awesome Fall green smoothie recipe I made A LOT last year. It’s easy, filling because of the health fat in there, and delicious!
Pumpkin Pie Green Smoothie!
Original Recipe by Kelly Hoffman, Natural Health Girl
Ingredients:
Spinach
2 Bananas
1 Avocado
Water
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Cloves
Directions:
Blend in the Vita-Mix or other blender several handfuls of spinach with 1/2 to 1 cup of water. (Depending on the power of your blender, sometimes adding the bananas right away helps it blend better.) Add 2 bananas, 1 avocado, 2 shakes of cinnamon, 1 shake of nutmeg, and a pinch of cloves. Blend all ingredients. If the ingredients aren’t blending well, add more water and poke down with a spoon. Blend until smooth and creamy.
Taste test to see if you want more spices. With the right amount of spice, the smoothie will taste like pumpkin pie.
Makes approximately 3 cups.
(Notes by Lenette)
You can adjust the sweetness to your liking by using more or less bananas too. I think I added in half a banana more, as well as some ginger powder and vanilla bean–yum!
Also, I think the ratio for a proper pumpkin pie spice is something like 4 parts cinnamon to 4 parts ginger powder to 1 part nutmeg to 1 part clove so hopefully that will help you get the pumpkin pie flavor just right :)
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