Raw Sacramento News

August 29, 2006

Greetings from the Raw Skipper (Swami Mark):   

The Raw Skipper on SFO Bay

This is Swami Mark writing to you on Tuesday, August 29.   I have two important things I’d like to share with you. 

1.  The more important announcement is that my friend Paul Nison will be speaking this Wednesday evening at the home of Dan and Cheri.  You can get all the details off RawSacramento’s website here.

 Paul Nison is a very well-researched author of at least 4 books on raw foods, and has spoken to Raw Sacramento on at least 3 prior occasions.  Paul has a deep regard for searching out and distilling information that will keep you healthy.   He cured himself of IBS, and has remained devoted to improving his knowledge of human health.

 2. Two Camps Emerge within the Raw Food World:

Within the ranks of the longer-term raw food evangelists there are emerging 2 camps.  It is interesting to me that these two camps fall along similar doctrinal differences that the original Natural Hygenists of 50 years ago debated fiercely.

Camp One members say that while a diet predominant in fruit can be very restorative in the short term, too much fruit is a prescription for long-term disaster.  I would put four well-known long-term raw food evangelists in this camp (and there are more).  I’ll call camp one the “Green Fooders.” 

Victoria Boutenko 

Paul Nison

Brian Clement (Director of the Hippocrates Health Institute)

Dr. Robert O. Young

Camp Two members recommend eating a high percentage of fruit (well above 50%).  The very notable champion of this “fruitarian” diet is Dr. Doug Graham.

Let me summarize the beliefs as I understand them of those in the Green Fooder’s camp:

1. Victoria Boutenko of Ashland, OR has in the last year published a book recommending green smoothies, made 50% from leafy green vegetables.  She recommends, however that the smoothies contain up to 50% fruit—this based upon her study showing that chimpanzees (98% anatomically identical to humans) consume about 50% fruit, and about 45% vegetable matter.  I love Victoria.  I see very good logic to her research and assertions.  Like many of you, I’ve had hundreds of green smoothies in the last year and a half.  It interests me that both Brian Clement & Dr. Doug Graham suggest that green smoothies are of minimal value—they claim that the oxidation of the food due to blending removes most of the benefit.  They both recommend blending with the cheapest blender you can buy—your teeth.
2. Paul Nison, our speaker this Wednesday evening has determined from his ongoing research (and approximately 10 years as a raw-foodist) that eating more than a very small percentage of fruit is potentially harmful.   I would develop Paul’s thoughts further, but you would do better to hear it all from his own lips this Wednesday evening.  I urge you to come hear Paul.  He always has interesting and helpful new material to hear.
3. Brian Clement has 30 years of clinical experience at the premiere health center in the world.  I hold his opinions in very high regard.  Brian believes that we should avoid almost all fruit, especially if it was grown and sold in the USA.  Our farming methods are strictly for the benefit of farmers & merchandizers, not the consumers.  Fruit in this country is never picked when ripe, and therefore often has only 10% of it’s normal or natural nutrition.  Brian does advocate eating some tropical fruit if it is grown with intense sunshine.  He suggests never eating fruit grown in the USA unless you pick it off the tree when ripe.  He further suggests that no one with a health challenge should eat fruit at all, ever.  Hippocrates is a strong advocate of sprouts, green foods, and wheatgrass.
4. Dr. Robert O. Young is a proponent of the PH diet advocating that since almost all fruit will increase fungi/fermentation of our system that fruit should be avoided.   He recommends eating heavily the green foods, and avoiding fruits, especially fruit that is 1 minute beyond ripe, or that is bruised..  At times I have followed Dr. Young’s recommendations, but without noticeable difference.  Dr. Young and his wife both look very healthy, and this cannot be said of all raw food proponents.  My biggest concern with Dr. Young is his close-knit association with a multi-level marketing scheme and the commerciality of his message.

I believe I am representing their positions correctly, and if anyone cares to correct me, please do.  (I can take it).

The Fruitarian View (as held by Dr. Doug Graham)

Two weeks ago I listened to Dr. Doug Graham give a presentation in Southern California.  I have always respected Doug, and for my first 6 years in raw foods followed much of his overall recommendation (which, as I understood it then was to eat about 80% fruit).  I love fruit.  So, this was no problem at all for me.  However, some of you are aware I developed a dental problem (as many fruitarians do), so I sadly did my best to wean myself off of fruit.   My dental issues are largely behind me now, and were found to be of mechanical origin rather than systemic weakness.  Doug looks as healthy as ever, and if there is one thing that has caused Doug Graham to have credibility in his raw diet over others it is that the man exudes health.   It is hard to argue with the very long-term success Doug has had.  He is probably one of less than 10 people in the USA who have eaten an exclusively raw food diet for more than 15 years, and in Doug’s case it is now 30 years. 

Since Paul Nison will eloquently present his position about why avoiding fruit might be beneficial on Wednesday evening, I thought I would spend the rest of this article summarizing some of the notes I took at Dr. Graham’s lecture.

Notes from Doug Graham Presentation August 10

Doug said that when the average aspiring raw-fooder “failed” on his dietary goals to remain raw that failure generally consisted of eating complex carbs.  He said that perhaps they were suffering from Hypoglycemia (too little sugar in the blood).  He said that conventional medicine trys to treat this condition by restricting sugars (which he said is completely illogical).   He suggests that in fruits we have a rich and healthy source of sugars, and that by eating sufficient fruit a raw fooder would not become hypoglycemic, nor be tempted to eat cooked complex carbohydrates.  He feels that eating sufficient fruit is the best way to remain on a long-term raw food diet, free from the temptations of cooked foods.

Doug is also appauled by the % of fat in the average raw fooder’s diet.  He suggests 80-10-10, as the proper percentages for carbohydrate, fat, and protein; and has a book coming out very soon with that title “The 80 – 10 – 10 Diet.”   Again, by eating sufficient fruit (with moderation of fatty fruits such as avocado or durian) one can avoid having too much fat in the diet.  Why avoid fat?  He say high fat levels greatly limit the oxygen and sugar uptake ability of our blood which can and does lead to many problems.  He said the average raw fooder is eating as much as 65% fat, which is higher than the average cooked-food eater.  He said that virtually every health expert in the world agrees that fat should not exceed 10% of total calories.

Doug does not recommend green smoothies, believing them to be nutrient depleted due to the oxidation blending causes.  Doug also does not recommend eating sprouts.  He does recommend a quantity of leafy green vegetables.  When he recommends a very high percentage of fruit, he is including botanical fruits such as the tomato and the cucumber. 

When asked about dental trouble for those who eat a lot of fruit, Doug recommended rinsing & brushing after the acidic fruits especially tomatoes and all citrus.  He says to brush thoroughly after eating nuts.  Doug recommends eating very small quantities of nuts (perhaps a handful a week).

Do you want more information on Doug’s view of the raw diet?  Order his new book.  I have ordered 3 copies, and I believe they will be mailed out in September.

Do you want to hear the thoughts of another careful raw food researcher?  Please come on Wednesday evening to hear Paul Nison.

If you are interested in another excellent & recent book on Raw Foods, our friend (and 30+ year raw fooder) Ric Lambart recently reminded me of Susan Schenck’s Live Food Factor.  Ric was impressed with it.  Buy here, or search elsewhere.

Excerpt from The 80/10/10 Diet

by Dr. Doug Graham

The Ratio for Humans … By Design
People ask me how the 80/10/10 diet can apply equally well to people of all ages, sizes, activity levels, etc. “Aren’t we all individuals, with different nutritional requirements and different bodily makeups?” they ask.

Despite all the hype about metabolic typing, I do not believe this ratio varies to any appreciable degree on the basis of our individual needs. (See the sidebar entitled “What about individual differences?” on page 242.)

The fact is, Nature has seen fit to provide the ideal food for every creature on Earth, and all creatures of similar type eat similarly. For example, horses—and all creatures that look like horses (zebras, donkeys, mules)—eat from essentially the same category of foods—those for which their biological systems were designed. Do not let anyone tell you that humans are the one exception to this rule (called the law of similars) in all of the animal kingdom, for there are no exceptions: animals that are anatomically and physiologically similar thrive on similar foods. Cows eat grass, leopards eat meat, and hummingbirds eat nectar. There is simply no need to complicate this simple program, presented in perfection by nature in thousands of examples.

All of the creatures that are anatomically and physiologically like us (known as the anthropoid primates: gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, and bonobos) thrive on a low-fat diet that is predominated by fruits and vegetables. Their caloronutrient ratios closely approximate 80/10/10. With the exception of the gorilla, whose great weight makes it almost impossible to climb the skinny branches of trees to procure fruit, they get more than 80% of their calories from the carbohydrates in fruit. The combined caloronutrient average for chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans is about 88/7/5. Add in the gorilla’s numbers, which come closer to 70% carbohydrate, and the average decreases, making the ratio almost exactly 80/10/10 for all of our anthropoid relatives.

The actual foods humans eat differ according to season, geography, availability, personal preference, etc., but not according to anything pertaining to our physiology. The total number of calories each person needs varies according to many factors, including gender, size, age, activity level, fitness goals, health status, and so forth. But the ratio of carbohydrates to protein to fats we need remains relatively the same. This is true regardless of the dietary specifics, food choices, or total volume consumed. As I explain in Chapter 5, no amount of adaptation or relocation has changed the basic digestive physiology with which we have been endowed since the beginning of time.

Order the book

Mark S. Blackburn, MBA

1310  E  Street Victorian

Sacramento, CA 95814
916.444.6500

Write to Mark