There is a sizeable community of people who practice raw veganism near where I live and these folks are hard core. Needless to say, these folks love the green smoothies diet.
This is easy to understand as those who embark on raw veganism typically feel fantastic for quite some time while eating this way. Raw veggies are extremely detoxifying! For several months or even a year or two, increased energy, clear skin and resistance to infection may be observed.
Is this because raw veganism is the right way to eat long term? Is the vegan Netflix film What The Health really on to something big?
Far from it.
Raw Veganism is for Cleansing the Body, Not Nourishing It!
Raw veganism is really a cleansing diet which helps to detoxify the body. It does not optimally nourish the body long term, however.
The raw, whole foods that vegans consume are certainly a huge leap forward from conventional processed foods and anyone would initially feel better eating raw vegan if he/she had been eating the Standard American Diet previously.
Over time, as the body becomes depleted of minerals, serious health issues start to emerge if raw veganism is continued.
This is because the fat soluble activators A, D, and K2 – only found in animal foods – supercharge mineral absorption and without these critical nutrients in the diet, mineral depletion and ill health is the inevitable result.
The bottom line? You can eat loads of mineral rich foods as a raw vegan and still be mineral starved.
Nutritional Deficiencies Rapidly Occur on a Raw Vegan Diet
Watch this 3 minute video below where Maria, a former fan of raw veganism and the creator of the Green Smoothie Challenge discusses her abrupt conversion to nutrient dense animal foods due to the health and tooth challenges she experienced after two years as a raw vegan. Her vegan catharsis came after reading Rami Nagel’s book Cure Tooth Decay.
You will be shocked how rapidly her health challenges resolved after she began to consume nutrient dense animal foods such as cod liver oil, raw butter, and organ meats.
If you know any folks that practice raw veganism, please forward this video. Folks who follow veganism are in serious denial about how this way of eating is going to eventually destroy their health if it hasn’t already and a testimonial from a former hard core vegan may be just what they need to realize that humans are not designed to subsist purely on plant foods.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
More Information
Angelina Jolie says veganism nearly killed her
12 Year old vegan has bones of an 80 year old
ALso ex Vegan. ALMOSt DESTORYED ME! SAVE YOUR SELF.DONT BE STUPID. GOD SAID EAT MEAT!!!! EXCERCISE AND DONT EAT PROCESSED FOODS AND YOU WILL BE GREAT. 8 MONTHS STILL RECOVERING FROM 4 MONTHS VEGAN. IT SUX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well maybe you didn’t eat right. Did you informed yourself in what foods supplemented your meat?
health care lose weight, G:MbaxIH
This article is completely wrong. You can get all the important nutrients from plants. Animals have Vitamin A and other nutrients from PLANTS people! Think about it!
Vitamin A: It’s true that the preformed active type of this vitamin is found only in animal foods. But plants are abundant in vitamin A precursors like beta-carotene. In fact, these provitamin A compounds are important enough that the USDA measures vitamin A content of foods as “retinol activity equivalents (RAE),” which includes both preformed vitamin A and the compounds that the body turns into vitamin A. There is no separate RDA or recommendation for animal-derived pre-formed vitamin A.
Vitamin D: This vitamin occurs naturally in only a few foods–fatty fish, eggs from chickens who were fed vitamin D, and mushrooms treated with ultraviolet light. With such limited dietary availability, humans wouldn’t have gotten very far if not for the fact that we can make all the vitamin D we need when skin is exposed to sunlight. As humans have moved farther from equatorial zones–and spend less time outdoors–it’s become harder to make enough, though, so vitamin D-fortified foods have become important.
Finally, debunking that K2 argument. Don’t just believe everything you read. Find out the real facts!
Vitamin K: Best sources of this nutrient are leafy green vegetables and canola, soy and olive oils. One form of vitamin K, called vitamin K2 or menaquinone, is found in animal products but in only one lone plant food–natto, a fermented soy product that isn’t a usual part of most western vegan diets. This isn’t a problem, though, because humans have no requirement for vitamin K2. We also have bacteria in our gut that produce this form of vitamin K–so we’re covered either way. Since vitamin K is essential for blood clotting we’d see some evidence of a deficiency if vegans weren’t getting enough. But a study that compared clotting rates between vegans and meat eaters found no difference. (5)
There is no true vitamin A in plants. You are incredibly misinformed. Beta carotene is not vitamin A!
May the gods have mercy on your soul if you’re actually consuming canola and soybean oil.
strongest animals? Lions eat organs. In fact when they were first introduced into captivity they were unable to bread. No one could figure out why they couldn’t breed. Then the were studied in the wild, and it was discovered that they eat organs (in fact they eat them first!). Once organ meats were introduced to the lions in captivity- they were able to successfully breed! So to infer that big strong animals don’t eat organs- is just not accurate
I agree with you Sarah.
I didn’t know that Maria had switched from being a raw vegan – I always find it interesting how long they last, and why they turn to a nutrient dense diet. One question that always crosses my mind is why do raw vegans tend to look gaunt after a year or so on the diet? My opinion is it’s a mode of starvation – what do you think?
As a side note I just have to say that I love the picture. It made me laugh out loud.
Will a vegan diet detoxify your body and make you feel more energetic, YES….will it keep you healthy after the… http://t.co/cGEXuaju
The problem with this story is the ALL of nothing approach. I am vegetarian on the way to vegan – and know that balancing intake is crucial of vitamins, minerals. There is chemistry at work – where calcium (like calcrate a vegetarian based calcium supplement) will only be taken up in the presence of Vitamin D (form sun or supplement and not leech bones as calcium without sufficient vitamin D does – excessive MILK/Dairy intake for instance actually helps cause osteoporosis). This smacks of meat industry propaganda to me. You can get the nutrients found in Cod Liver Oil from Rapeseed (linseed) oil. Its about Balance people. Ethical vegans search out the products that do not harm/kill any animals and stay fit and healthy. rather than slam the vegan why not slam Factory Farming and choose wherever possible to eat only vegetables, pulses, nuts seeds and if you MUST eat meat because you apparenty “have” to then buy only free-range animals, eggs and dairy products. Good luck with that because Agri business dominates and churns out billions of cheap “meat”. That chook you have for dinner – if she was free and living a normal chooky life, she’d have chicks and protect them from hawks. That cow – who became your hamburger mince was a MILKER all her life churning out calf after calf, never allowed to live an love them – as they were pulled from her and killed for veal, that cow. http://www.ciwf.org.uk