how to eat health food

[music]alright this is john kohler with okraw.com, today we have another exciting episode foryou, i’m sitting here in my beautiful garden next to my beautiful bed of lettuce, and we’renot going to talk about gardening today, but we are going to talk about is a fairly importantsubject in raw foods, is what percentage fat should a person eat that’s on a raw foodsdiet, you know there’s all kinds extremes in raw foods, i mean raw foods may be consideredextreme, i personally consider it normal, but there’s some people that say “oh noovert fats man, can’t have more than 10 percent or you’re going to fail,” andthere’s people that have high fat and teach gourmet food recipes that are basically basedout of nuts and seeds, and i think it’s

really sad that most raw food restaurantsthat you go into base their menus around nuts and seeds on this gourmet stuff, which i believepeople should eat a lot more fruits and vegetables, and really chill out on the fats and the nutsand seeds. while we do need some, most people eat far too much. so instead of me gettinginto answering the question, i’m going to get 12 of my friends and then i’ll chimein and sum up things at the end, some popular youtubers, also friends of mine that i’veknown for many years actually since i’ve been raw, some of them have been raw morethan me and this is my 20th year being raw. and i want to encourage you guys to learnfrom people that are getting the results you want, who look the way you want to look. youknow there’s people that have been doing

raw foods and they say “ten percent fat,”and they don’t look super-healthy, well maybe that has something to say about it,you know. so anyways, without further ado, let’s go ahead and get into hearing fromsome of my friends on how much fat should you eat on a raw foods diet.so now we’re here with christina kerlow bukram, she’s been in fully raw, raw vegandiet for the last nine plus years now, and you can learn more about her at fullyraw.com,today we’re going to ask her some questions. so christina how much fat you should you eaton a raw foods diet? i typically stay under ten percent, but ihave to admit the past year there are some times when i’ll do about 20 percent, dependingon if i want to have an avocado or a durian

or something, and it seems to work just finefor me, the lower end side of fat for sure. so now we’re with tim van orton, he’sbeen into a raw foods diet since 2004, so that’s like ten years at this point, i admiretim, i look up to him a lot. you can learn more about him and his work at runningraw.com,or his youtube channel, running raw. so tim, how much fat should you eat a raw foods diet?how much fat, that’s a very contentious subject, especially here at the [inaudible]fest. i eat for performance, that’s my main thing, it’s not an ideology, it’s nota dogma, it’s what diet is going to give me the best performance. so i’ve experimentedwith everything. i’ve read everybody’s book, i’ve consulted with all the gurusand mother and father figures in the raw food

movement when i first started out, and triedeverybody’s diet, and saw which one gave me performance and kept fine-tuning that.so for me, it’s not about having a strict specific ratio, i find that some days i wantand need more fat, some days i want and need much less fat. so if i were to stick to oneparticular ratio, like i know a lot of people here are 80/10/10, i found that 80/10/10 didn’twork for me. there were some days that i needed 25 or 30 percent, there were some days thatfive was great, so it’s this flexible medium, the moves, like the more stress i’m under,the more fat i need and the more fat i crave. and if i don’t allow myself to have a bitmore fat, it stresses me out even more. and it’s a vicious cycle that just kind of builds.so the more stressed i am, the worse i’m

going to perform. so for me again it all comesback to performance, whether it be my training or whether it be my races, i want to makesure that i’m competing or training at my top level. so i’m really flexible with myfat intake, but the thing is like what kinds of fats are you eating? a lot of people categorizefat as one thing, like all fat is bad. but that’s like saying that all north americansare bad, there are many different types of north americans, or all americans are bad,you know we’re all individual and unique. every fat is individual and unique. some havegood qualities, some have bad qualities, some if you take it out of the fruit or the vegetableor the nut or the seed it can become problematic, but when it’s in the fruit, vegetable, nutor seed, it’s got all this other stuff in

there that helps you utilize it effectively.so, nuts, seeds, avocado and some coconut, eat the whole foods. the hemp seeds, chiaalso really good. don’t go crazy with them, don’t go overboard with them, but it changesevery day. so i don’t stick to one particular ratio, but it’s never above 30 percent.so now we’re here with chris kendall, he’s been raw for about a decade now, you can checkhim out at therawadvantage.com, and the question for chris today is, “how much fat shouldyou eat on a raw food diet?” well you know i mean myself, what i foundworks best is to keep the fat relatively low to the general populous, what that looks likefor me is usually hovering between 8 and 15-ish percent, most of the year probably under 10,really. but there are some months of the year

where i eat a little bit more, maybe insteadof being two times a week i eat fat between two and five times a week. sometimes i eatfat once a month, you know? but that’s what works best for me, that’s what i’ve seenthe best results in other people. so seasons provide too, right? fat’s a seasonal food,so i generally don’t eat it in excess dinner meal kind of thing. and the fats that i wouldrecommend the most that i feel the best on and the next day i feel just bright and chipperare coconut milk, freshly made from old coconuts and the water just blended and then nut milkbagged out, i find that really easily digestible, it’s actually one of the only fats you canfeed a newborn and it’s non-allergenic, can replace mother’s milk in poor situations,the other things i love a lot, i definitely

like really good quality hemp, pumpkin seed,and to a lesser extent chia, i use a little bit here and there, but those are the onesi like the absolute most, definitely. alright so we’re here with dan mcdonald,the [inaudible], you want to check him out for sure on youtube at [inaudible], and he’sbeen into raw foods now for the last 14 years, and we’re just going to simply ask dan somequestions today. how much fat should you eat on a raw food diet?well i suppose that depends on where you’re at, if you’re trying to detox and regenerateand hydrate and alkalinize, sometimes it’s best to leave all the fat out, if you’rein a maintenance phase, transition phase or building phase, some more fat can be reallynice. so in the detox, you just take out all

the fat, and then in the maintenance you justkeep a nice, moderate amount, maybe one type of fat per day or every other day, like hempseeds, or avocado, or some coconut in your smoothie. and then if you’re really intobuilding up and wanting to put on a little bit of weight, you can add in a couple differentkinds of fat every day. so now we’re with dr. rick dina, he’sbeen into raw foods for the last 27 years, you can learn more about him at rawfoodeducation.com.so the question i have today for rick is how much fat should you eat on a raw food diet?well how much fat should you eat on a raw foods diet?well, how much fat should you eat on a raw food diet? that is an excellent question,and i think as a lot of the other speakers

have said, it varies among the individuals.one thing i want to make really clear, you should absolutely, positively not be on anon-fat diet, because the only way to get no fat in the food is to process the heckout of it. fruit averages about five percent of its calories from fat. vegetables averageabout 10 percent of the calories from fat with some of the leafy greens having 15 or16 percent of their calories from fat. so for example, some people seem to thrive ona diet where they just eat fruits and vegetables, got to eat huge quantities of food to getenough calories doing that, and when people do that they’re usually averaging eight,nine, ten, eleven percent of their calories from fat. for other people, they just don’thave all the time to eat pounds and pounds

of fruits and vegetables all day, or you eata giant salad that takes a half an hour, you only get 400 calories from that maybe if you’rereally stuffed. so for a lot of people, it makes sense to add some other fat sources,some avocado, some nuts and seeds, and to make their calories more concentrated makesthe whole raw food diet easier for some people. so in that case they might be eating 20, 25percent, maybe 30 percent of the calories from fat. i think ideally, most people somewherearound the low 20’s is probably ideal, again if less than that works for somebody, that’sgreat, if a little more than that works for somebody, that’s great, but a lot of peopleeating raw food diets look at this big amount of vegetables that they’re eating, and thenthey have this small amount of nuts and seeds,

and they don’t realize that this quantityof vegetables and this quantity of nuts and seeds has the same amount of calories, andthey figure “oh lettuce is mostly carbohydrates,” and that’s true, and nuts are mostly fat,so i eat this much lettuce, and this many nuts, so that’s only like 10 percent fat.if they actually study the stuff like my wife and i have because we’re nerds and thisis our idea of fun, you realize that the great majority of the calories comes from that littlebit of nuts instead of the huge amount of vegetables. so a lot of times people willreport to you “oh my raw food diet’s 20 percent fat,” but then when you actuallydo the breakdown, and you look at where the calories come from, 60, 70, maybe 80 percentof the calories are coming from fat, and i

agree with the look on your face and yourexpression, that’s just way too high. and a lot of people don’t realize that’s howmuch fat they’re consuming, then they feel lousy, then they start eating more potatoes,some grass-feed beef, they go paleo, they’re actually eating a lot less fat than they wereon their raw diet not realizing it, and then they say “raw food didn’t work for me,paleo’s better,” right? and they get on the internet and complain and then there’sthis whole, like i said in my presentation this morning, there’s this whole group nowof raw food defectors who support each other “yeah raw food didn’t work for me, yeahthose raw vegans are idiots.” and sometimes it’s because they were eating 78 percentof their calories from fat, and not even realizing

it. alright so back to the being focused hereabout the question, somewhere between ten percent and 30 percent fat, depending on personof percentage of calories, not just how much volume intake, so not what it looks like,but percentage of calories from fat, somewhere ten to 30 is probably optimal for most people.so now we’re here with megan elizabeth, you can learn more about her at meganelizabeth.com,or check her out on youtube at ezbraw, she’s been into raw foods now for the last six years,and the question for megan today is “how much fat should you eat on a raw foods diet?”i guess there’s not any particular amount that you can recommend for any one person,and i think that it changes throughout the year, but i think an average of around 10percent of your total calories is pretty good,

there’s times of the year where i’m eating15 percent fat, and then there’s times when i’m eating lower fat, so 10 percent is agood average, i know some people require a little bit more, i’ve seen people do wellon up to 15 percent fat, and sometimes a little bit more, sometimes 20 percent, but that alsodoes change over time, and with what your body’s going through, i’ve heard of peopleeating 20 percent fat for six months to a year, and then all of a sudden they have sixmonths after that where they’re super-low fat they don’t want any. so i think it’shard to say any exact amount. so now we’re with don bennett das, he’sbeen into a raw foods fruit-based diet for over 20 years now, he’s definitely a wealthof knowledge, if you want to tap some of that

knowledge, you’re going to want to checkhim out at his website, health101.org. so we got a few questions for don today. “howmuch fat should you eat a on a raw foods diet?” an appropriate amount. no seriously, you don’twant to eat too much we know that, but you also don’t want to eat too little, and ifyou’re inactive, if you’re a couch potato, and you’re eating what would normally bean okay amount of fat, caloric percentage of calories, you know six percent or somethinglike that, which would normally be okay if you were normally active and now you’reinactive, then you might bump up against an efa deficiency, it’s possible, it’s notcommon, but it’s possible. so in other words, be appropriately active, and then don’teat tons of avocados.

all right.so now we’re with nomi shannon, also known as the raw gourmet, she’s been doing rawfoods for the last 27 years, this lady is almost 71 now, she looks amazing, you canlearn more about her at rawgourmet.com. so the question for nomi is today, is “howmuch fat should you eat on a raw foods diet?” okay, is the person all raw? [laugh]i don’t know. let’s assume they’re all raw, becausethere’s such a big difference between cooked and uncooked fat, that’s why i asked. andi’ve had ten people say to me today that they want a low fat raw food diet, i’m like“why?” you’re taking the “i’m afraid of fat” paradigm from cooked food and bringingit over to raw food, so should a person eat

fat on a raw food diet is that the question?or how much fat should they eat? or is it okay or [inaudible].okay, well the how much part is completely dependent on the person. but certainly, whenpeople contact me and say “listen i want to do a famous person who recommends 10 percentfat,” i think for most people 10 percent’s probably too low to eat, and i think mostpeople if you could quantify it, is somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. certainly a lotof people that start out, they overdo it on nuts and stuff and they’re eating way toomuch fat. so most people are afraid to eat fat on a raw food diet, where coconut oiland the ingredients in raw nuts and seeds are actually really good fats and people comingfrom a sad diet are suffering probably from

a severe omega 3 deficiency, so they may wantto be doing flax and stuff like that. so yeah, fat’s good for you basically, but you canoverdo anything is my answer. all right so now we’re with dr. sammy mokarsky[?]he’s been into the raw foods for the last 15 years, and you can learn more about dr.sam at drsampt.com, and we’re going to ask him a simple question today, “how much fatshould you eat on a raw foods diet?” the answer to that question is, it depends,and what it depends on is your body’s needs, because your body’s needs are going to changeat a given time, and so any given day, your fat level content may be a little bit moreor a little bit less. i have found personally, and working with hundreds of people as well,that taking your fat levels above let’s

say like 20 percent on a consistent basisif you’re eating over 20 percent of your diet calories coming from fat, consistently,i mean day in and day out, you may feel a little loggy or a little bit different ina way that you don’t want to feel, so, but the biggest thing is it really depends, andthis is a great question john because what i find on the opposite extreme of that ispeople get so fat-phobic that they’re any bit of overt fat in a food they go “i can’teat that because it’s got fat in it” and it really depends on what your body’s needsare, but it also depends on how the numbers average out, it’s not every meal, everybite, every morsel, that’s not a healthy mindset or a lifestyle, you’re going todrive yourself crazy, and the diet will fail

you at that point, so you need to know yournumbers, so that you can just be at peace and just eat fat and not have a problem withit. so now we’re with karen ramsey. she’sbeen into raw foods for nearly 20 years now, you can learn more about her at superhealthychildren.com.the question i have for karen today is “how much fat should you eat on a raw food diet?i always recommend eating per day what you could hold in hands. like for nuts and seeds,what you could hold in your hand. everybody has a different size, physical activity, andpretty much i think that you have to look at each person differently, so what you couldhold in your hand, or a small avocado. but i wouldn’t recommend huge amounts of fatlike i eat the first couple of years, because

it didn’t do well for me. had various problemsthat i could have very easily left the raw vegan lifestyle, but when i switched to alower fat diet and also increased my green leafy vegetables that all changed and i feltgreat. so now we’re with lou corona. he’s beeninto raw and living foods now for the last 41 years, that’s definitely a long time.you can learn more about lou at loucorona.com, and the question i have for lou today is “howmuch fat should you eat on a raw food diet?” like i say for anyone, this is not about whatlou says or any one person says about how much fat you should consume in your lifestyleor in your own experience. i think that based on my experience, again i can only talk forme, and also because i worked with a lot of

people over many years, and helping them tofind their way through life and recover themselves, whatever they have going on. so when it comesto fat, some people can process fat really well, and then some people are not able toprocess fat really well, because some people have an enzyme deficiency going on. so itdepends on how healthy their body is, how well their liver’s functioning, their gallbladder and so on right? so if they’re dealing with an enzyme deficiency, and their liver’ssluggish and their gallbladder’s inflamed or has gallstones going on, they may not beable to handle fats very well, so in cases like that, people like that, it would be betterfor them to take in fats through a raw living form, and maybe even pre-digest it. so inother words, instead of eating coconut meat

from a coconut straight up, right out of the—definitelynot cooked, right? because in all due respect, we’re designed to eat raw living foods,enzyme-rich foods, but if the food is cooked, and people that have this kind of a challenge,they cannot afford to eat fried foods at this point anymore, right? but even eating freshyoung coconut meat as an example, or even a mature coconut. obviously it has proteins,carbs and fats in there, but the fats that are in there, it’s better if they take andculturize it, and turn it into a yogurt kind of thing. personally i like to use life bioticthrough [inaudible] to culturize the coconut, or almonds or any seed or nut, personally.the thing is, si that if you have nuts or seeds going on, macadamias, brazil nuts, pecans,walnuts, pine nuts whatever, but if you soak

them and germinate them and culturize it,it will help pre-digest it so it make it more bioavailable. but how much? well that’swhy i like to always encourage people to listen to their body and let their body, what they’resensing and feeling what they need. some people would call for more than others. and alsotoo, one of the things that’s happening is that a lot of people have what they callmucoid plaquing going on within their intestinal tract, so they’re going to be craving alittle bit more than maybe some people that don’t have that mucoid plaquing going on.because some people have taken time to cleanse, do some intestinal cleansing, and going onto100 percent raw living foods, enzyme rich foods and cultured foods, and do some occasionalfastings and cleanses and colonics and things

to help release all this plaque in it allthis, you see so that way the person can absorb it much better, so they can actually liveon lesser amounts and volume. so when you ask me how much, it’s really a big questionbecause everybody’s different. some people have a lot of mucoid plaquing or they’resluggish, or they’re not operating properly, so they might need lesser than, or some peopleare not absorbing well so they’re not digesting well, so people need some enzyme support tohelp t hem digest better. some people need to culture their fats or proteins or carbs,that’s why i’m really heavy into cultured nuts and seeds, where you pre-soak them first,because it’s pre-digested, so it’s much easier for the body to digest and absorb andutilize it. and i noticed that the cravings

go down, so they need lesser amounts, becausethey’re getting so much more value from what they’re consuming, and that makes sense,so again if you feel the hunger for it, you take it in that form, you’ll need very littleof it, and your body will, as soon as it’s satisfied it will stop. it’ll go like that.so that’s really a rule of thumb is listen to your body, take what the body needs, butdo it at the highest level. that’s why i’m really heavy into raw living foods, plant-basedand cultured seeds and nuts, because of that fact. and since because i’ve been doingit for 41 years, i’ve noticed how i use a lot less volume of food compared to whati did before in the past, you know when i used to have a conventional lifestyle.so now we’re with ronnie, which is half

the ronnie and min team you can learn moreabout them at ubraw.com, he’s been into raw foods for the last 14 years, and the questionfor ronnie today is “how much fat should you eat on a raw food diet?”well, my best answer to that question is it’s up to you, because in my raw journey, i’vespecifically avoided any scientific nutritional research or learning because i don’t putmuch [inaudible] in any of it. and i think that once a person decides to go raw, andthey start eating raw living foods, i think like with anything else in life, whether it’schoosing a mate or choosing a career, your intuition will tell you what’s going tobe right for you, because everybody’s different. some people need to carry more fat than otherpeople. some people burn more fat than other

people. but i think if you are raw, and you’veeliminated junk from your life, you can listen to your intuition, you’ll find how muchfat you need in your diet. all right so what’d you guys think man?did you like that video did you like this compilation where you get to hear from a lotof the different raw food teachers out there and all my friends on their opinions? becausesurely everybody’s opinion is just a little bit different. there’s no cookie cutteranswer for everybody because we all are different, some of my favorite answers are a combinationof all the different people’s. and it’s my personal belief that fats are essentialon a raw foods diet, you know whole food, plant-based sources of fats are essential.and for me personally, what i like to do is

i like to include a handful of nuts a day,maybe two if i’m feeling a little bit frisky, and sometimes i won’t eat any nuts in aday. some of my favorite fats are coconut milk or the young coconut meat and also avocadosand other water-rich sources of fat. they tend to digest a lot easier for me than nutsand seeds do. of course, by soaking and sprouting your nuts and seeds, they’re going to digestbetter, and even better yet is to ferment them into a seed cheese. so i do also includesome nut and seed cheeses in my diet as well. another thing that really helps with the digestionof the nuts in my opinion is creating more service area, so soaking them or just puttingthem in the vitamix and blending them up, going to make it a lot more easier to eat,and not all nuts and seeds are created equal,

i see far too many people in a raw foods dietconcentrating their diet around almonds and sunflower seeds for reasons unbeknownst tome, those nuts and seeds have been used for the ages in a raw foods diet like ann wigmorestyle, and they’re like the basis of that diet, but they’re very high and unbalancedin omega 3 to omega 6’s. so not only should you get some fat in your diet, you shouldalso pay attention to the ratios of omega 3 to 6’s, and this is why i prefer someof the seeds, like the flax seeds, chia seeds, the hemp seeds, they have a much better balanceof omega 3 to 6’s, macadamia nuts are also one of my favorite nuts, they have a morefavorable balance than something like almonds that i personally don’t tend to digest toowell. so in general i like to eat anywhere

from about 10 percent calories from fat toabout 25 percent calories from fat, that’s where i feel the best and i would say thati don’t believe going over 30 percent is optimally healthy, and yes it is true thatsome people burn fat better than others, and some people are extreme athletes, and thosekind of people might want to eat a little bit lesser fat. i feel happy with where ieat and the percentage of fat i eat. one of the things i want to let you guys know islike dr. rick dena said, the leafy greens, they contain about 15 percent calories fromfat, and i believe we should be eating copious amounts of leafy greens a day, like my goalis to get two pounds of leafy greens a day, and it’s really not that hard, if i harvestsome greens out of my garden, take it in and

juice it, one pound of greens makes one cupof juice, i could easily drink that no problem whatsoever, i could take some greens, blendthem up into a green smoothie and of course for dinner, most of my meals at dinner areeither a soup made out of some greens or a big salad made out of once again, a lot ofgreens. so besides the fruit, we really want to focus on the greens, and then when we eatthe fats with some of the greens and some of the things like tomatoes and other anti-oxidantrich foods, it slows down our digestive system, so what this does, this allows for a greateruptake of the phytochemicals and phytonutrients, so you know there’s studies that say lycopeneis more absorbable when it’s cooked than raw, and i don’t really know about that,but i do know that in that study, one of the

things they don’t tell you most of the timeis to actually add in some oil with that, because that boosts up the amount of absorptionyou’re going to get, and for me, that’s one of the reasons why i like to include somefat in with my dinner, to increase the uptake. in addition adding fat to your meals willbasically just keep you satiated longer. so one of my favorite recipes to make in themorning, actually i put a link down below, it’s my famous cactus fruit coconut milkrecipe, and that i juice a ton of cactus fruits man, cactus fruits are probably the most anti-inflammatoryfruit, so this is very important if you’re into sports. and then i make that along withmy coconut milk extracted from the white coconut that has less saturated fat than the brown,more mature coconut, and i put those together

and it tastes amazing, and it also allowsme to uptake more of the phytochemicals and phytonutrients in the cactus fruit. but inaddition, it tastes so delicious because fat, let’s face it, fat does taste good, buti think the big issue, and the strongest issue is that we should eat whole food sources offat, and i have another good video, i’ll put a link down below, is how many nuts wouldyou eat if you had an almond tree right behind you and you able to just harvest all the almondsand open them up and eat them? well i’ll put the link down below to a video where idid just that, because people, and i see too many people far over eat the nuts and theseeds on a raw foods diet, you know, i think nuts and seeds are totally healthy in my opinionin moderation. unlimited fruits, unlimited

vegetables, and eat some nuts and seeds tomake your recipes taste good, to get increased uptake of the different phytochemicals andnutrients, and to just plain have fun because i think life without fats is a life of austerityin the end. so if you like this format, if you liked meinterviewing some of my friends, please give me a thumbs up to let me know that you likedthis format, because i have other videos that i will put up soon, interviewing my friendsabout a wide variety of topics, so not only do you get to hear my opinions, but you getto hear many of my friends that have been doing this for a long time and are big voicesin the raw foods movement, that teach you guys so you can hear all of us at once andthen make your own decisions, and that’s

why i feel this style video is so important,because hopefully after this video you realize that you probably want to eat somewhere betweenten percent and 25 percent calories from fat overall, not percentage of your plate, notlike “one third of my plate’s fat, one third is fruits and one third is vegetables.”no we want to look at the calories because calories are very important and people tendto over eat the fats. in addition i do not recommend extracted oils like olive oil, flaxoil and all these kind of things. if you want to get the fats out of olives, instead ofdrinking olive oil, eat the olives instead, or same thing out of coconuts, instead ofeating coconut oil, the positive medium chain fatty acids and all its benefits, get someyoung coconut meat that will have some fat

in there, if you want to get more then geta more middle-aged coconut which are my favorite, the white coconuts from mexico, and if youwant to get more saturated fat, but still in its whole food form and extract it yourselfso it’s truly raw, get one of those brown coconuts.so anyways give me a thumbs up if you liked it, and be sure to check my past episodes,i have over 400 episodes now on this channel teaching you guys all aspects of eating asuccessful raw plant-based diet, since this is my 20th year i will have a video soon onten or 20 tips from a 20 year successful raw foodist, because i’ve been through the trialsand tribulations and figured out what’s working, and that’s what i want to sharewith you guys so you guys can take the “get

out of jail free” card and just have theeasy life instead of trying to figure everything out and re-invent the wheel, and i see manyyoutubers teaching maybe not the best stuff, and that’s why i make these videos, to sharethem with you guys. so yeah, check out my past episodes, and be sure to subscribe, super-important,if you’re not subscribed to me, please be sure to subscribe. you’ll get updates ofall the upcoming videos, and when i come out with new videos interviewing my friends, andwhen i’m doing all kinds of stuff so that you guys could eat a more successful and moreinexpensive raw foods diet based around the fresh fruits and vegetables. so once againmy name is john kohler with okraw.com, we’ll see you next time, and until then remember,keep eating your fresh fruits and vegetables,

they’re always the best.[music]

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