Raw Vegans- anyone?

Hey! I've just been wondering if there's any raw foodists in here. Ive been vegetarian for 10 years and vegan for 2, but I have been very interested in the raw lifestyle lately and want to give it a try.

Its pretty intimidating to jump right into, however, and I dont have all the tools, like a dehydrator. I do have a food processor and blender, however.

Does anyone have advice on healthy, affordable ways to try out this lifestyle? Im good at cooking and open to new things, I just need pointed in the right direction.

Thanks!

I've been raw vegan before for months at a time.  You definitely don't need a food proccessor or even a blender.

There are many different approaches to this lifestyle, namely a low fat high fruit approach or a anything-you-want-as-long-as-it's-raw approach.  For a low fat raw diet, you eat mainly fruit and vegetables, with minimal amounts of nuts and seeds and oily fruit.  The anything goes approach you eat as many nuts seeds fruits and veggies as you want, in any amount.  I honestly don't think either way of eating is healthy or balanced.

I think this diet is lacking in protein no matter how you slice it, but it's your choice.  some people claim to thrive, I have done a raw diet for many many months at a time, and felt good, but did notice some muscle wasting, which is an awful thing.  I lost muscle tone, meaning I must have gained fat but lost muscle.

rawfoodtalk.com, 30bananasaday.com, giveittomeraw.com all will give you some more information.  I would also check out Beyondveg.com to give another perspective.

I highly doubt that a raw food diet will be supported on this site though; I would encourage a more balanced approach to eating, and that can be done while still being vegan.

Pm me if you want more info

http://goneraw.com/recipes

I have bookmarked a ton of yummy raw recipes from them

A raw vegan diet sounds very restrictive. Be careful you don't step into eating disorder territory.

I've heard of more failures on a raw diet than successes. Part raw is definitely healthy, but when you get into only raw and are cutting out all grains and many fats, you're restricting your body of many nutrients it needs. And its harder in a raw diet to eat as many calories as you need to maintain a healthy, non-ED style diet.

Check out RAW FOOD REAL WORLD by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngallis

I do MOSTLY raw and MOSTLY vegan, but once a week I have an egg and once a

week I have a piece of salmon, and about 2 tablespoons of plain nonfat yogurt daily.

Below is one of my previous posts on raw foodism "MY RAW EXPERIENCE"

Early in September of 2009

I started eating MOSTLY raw and MOSTLY vegan.

At the same time I quit alcohol (I drank about 3 beers every night)

8 days later I experienced what was probably the best day of my entire life

physically and emotionally speaking. I felt GREAT and almost felt like I was

glowing or something.

Nothing in my life had ever compared to the way I felt

which lasted for a few days. This feeling of euphoria slowly waned but the

benefits I experience from my lifestyle change are ongoing:

• I'm losing weight
• I need less sleep
• I used to be hungry all the time (even after I ate) and now I'm no longer tormented by the constant food cravings
• My blood pressure numbers are now very close to 120/80 or a little less
• I sleep better
• I don't cough in the morning anymore (caused by blood pressure meds)
• No more acid reflux WHICH WAS A TORMENT FROM HELL!
• Way more energy (enough to where I'm exercising again)
• The constant depression I lived with  has lifted, and even when I have a little bout of negativity it fades very quickly

I still count calories on CC, but now  AT LAST  I'm losing weight!