Greetings to all,

I was just wondering if there where any raw foodist/vegans/vegetarians out there to share some nutritional wisdom with me? I'm really concern with maintaining as healthy or as chemical free diet as possible.

i'm with you on this one! lol as you know! i'm all about a more natural approach & want to be a raw vegan myself.

Others may have heard something different, but my nutritionist said there is no way for vegans/vegetarians to do this. For you, I hope it is not true.

sure there is. i know it's wrong & "bad" of me to say, but i will say it anyway.. your nutritionist is severely uninformed. just because someone has a little piece of paper that says that they know all the stuff that was written in a little book for them to know, doesn't mean they know everything there is to know in that entire field.. like matt damon said in good will hunting, "See, the sad thing about a guy like you is in 50 years you're gonna start doing some thinking on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certaintees in life. One, don't do that. And Two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a f***n education you coulda got for a $1.50 in late charges at the public library."... xD

vegans can easily get 60g or more of Protein a day.. as well as all the other Vitamins and minerals needed.. in fact, in the book "becoming vegan" that's exactly what they recommend you do & they show you how to get it using vegan sources of protein.

studies have also shown that plant protein is absorbed by the body more easily than animal protein & that cultures that eat less protein and Calcium actually have thicker bone density, because their bodies don't have to deplete their own calcium stores to process & break down the protein and calcium from animal products... there's a variety of sources of protein.. and vegan sources of b12 & Omega 3 fatty acids & etc. everything required to be healthy & stay on a low carb, low glycemic index diet.

"Vegans who eat a variety of plants, including soy products, are sure to get plenty of protein, but what about vegan raw foodists? There is more and more information being revealed that there is an adequate, if not abundant, supply of protein even in a diet this devoid of animal Proteins. It is further suggested through this research that the body prefers that the protein actually come in incomplete form (as individual amino acids) so that it can do it's job of combining them in the best possible way for it's various purposes. When the body receives complete or complex proteins it has to rip the amino acids apart and reassemble them accordingly. Amino acids from plant sources allow the body to skip that process and go right to the end game.

Everything has protein in it, so the effect of eating a variety of foods is the accumulation of all the essential amino acids. Nuts and seeds have a lot of protein compared to fruits and vegetables but a lot of raw food diet advocates tout green leafy vegetables as a good source of protein. By using a variety of greens (in great abundance I might add, up to one pound per day!) the body receives all the essential amino acids that it needs while also getting many other minerals, plenty of chlorophyll and lots of Fiber."

source: http://vegetarian.ab...and-Protein.htm

what they don't mention there is that you can juice your leafy green vegetables & other fruit & vegetables & get the same amino acids in liquid form, so you don't have to eat pounds of fruit & vegetables. making it into a liquid also saves your body from having to break down the fiber & stuff & it can absorb it that much quicker & easier.

think about it for a second.. one thing that we're all raised (or i would think we were anyway) is knowing something about shaolin monks and/or kung fu & how "cool" it is... shaolin monks are generally thought of as being fierce, strong, agile, and "bad ass"... but they eat an all plant based diet... they're lean, muscular & extremely tough...

here's a video of a shaolin monk knocking out a US Navy Seal... he's shorter & lighter & has a shorter reach & was thus at a "disadvantage"...

most people that think living a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle after the sleeve can't be done just haven't put in the time to research & they're used to what the TV tells them & what is taught in schools.. most people are on what they call a SAD.. "standard american diet"... most people are happy with being complacent and (i'm sorry to say) ignorant of what's going on around them & are fine with doing whatever a doctor or somebody tells them to, without asking any questions or doing any research on their own, just because said person has a little piece of paper that says that they know what a book told them.. i think we find too much comfort in that.. i understand about doctors, because they spend years researching the human body, but they do it from a chemical/synthetic perspective.. they haven't explored everything & a lot are blocked off to the idea of more natural methods.. which i think is funny, because it's how the human race has survived since the beginning & there wasn't diseases like cancer around until recently.. when we started thinking we were so smart & messing with food's DNA & spraying insecticide, pesticide & etc all over our food. HMM... ironic, isn't it?...

there are people on this forum that are vegetarians/vegans, as well as other people that have had other types of surgeries, too.

a lot of nutritionists also have vegan & vegetarian options in their repertoire. yours was probably just spouting things that they personally believe, not what is factual.. a lot of bodybuilders will also tell you that you can't build muscles or get "big" if you're a vegan & that it's impossible & etc... that is not the case.. here's just couple (of many) proofs of that:

^^ the guy above is named marcus patrick- you can look him up on youtube. he's a raw vegan & has been a vegan for 10+ years.

vegans have protein powders, like sun warrior, vega, garden of life, etc.. for vitamins & minerals, there's stuff out there like green vibrance.. for b12, there's spirulina.. for Iron & stuff, there's kelps and seaweeds.. for omega 3's there's flax and other plant based ones.. like vega's saviseed, which has 17x more omega 3 per oz than wild sockeye salmon... for protein, there's also nut milks, like almond, cashew, and even hemp & soy milks. there's tofu, edemame, quorn (which is made from a fungus & is low carb/high protein), seitan, shirataki noodles (which are made out of some kinda yam), etc.. every living thing has some protein in it, too. leafy green vegetables, like kale, spinach, swiss chard, collard greens, beet tops, turnip greens, dandelion greens, etc all have high mineral, Vitamin & antioxidant properties, as well as protein... they all contain fiber as well, which helps keep you from being constipated.

here's part of an episode of tyra, where she did an update for "diet wars"... and this is the result of the weight loss as mentored by Alissa Cohen (a famous raw food chef)..

part 2...

there's also been studies done that link dairy products to breast & prostate cancer.. they said this on the news a few weeks ago- i don't recall if it was local or something like good morning america, but it was broadcast on television... there's also a book called the china study that did a study on various regions of china & showed the most common cancers and diseases among chinese people & what they ate (it goes more in depth than that, but it's hard to condense a huge book down into a few sentences without some sort of discrepancies, so please excuse me)... it was written by one of the top doctors in the united states.. here's his bio...

"For more than 40 years, T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. has been at the forefront of nutrition research. His legacy, the China Study, is the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. Dr. Campbell is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and Project Director of the China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project. The study was the culmination of a 20-year partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine.

Dr. Campbell received his master's degree and Ph.D. from Cornell, and served as a Research Associate at MIT. He spent 10 years on the faculty of Virginia Tech's Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition before returning to the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell in 1975 where he presently holds his Endowed Chair (now Emeritus).

His principal scientific interests, which began with his graduate training in the late 1950s, has been on the effects of nutritional status on long term health, particularly on the cause of cancer. He has conducted original research both in laboratory experiments and in large-scale human studies; has received more than 70 grant-years of peer-reviewed research funding, mostly from the National Institute of Health, and has served on several grant review panels of multiple funding agencies, lectured extensively, and has authored more than 300 research papers.

He is the recipient of several awards, both in research and citizenship, and has conducted original research investigation both in experimental animal and human studies, and has actively participated in the development of national and international nutrition policy.

source: http://www.thechinas...om/authors.html

he knows what he's talking about, i'd say!.. and he grew up on a dairy farm in the 50's, thinking that cow milk was the perfect food, because that's how they were raised & what was a popular belief at the time.. but he soon found out that, that was not the case & that people that eat animals & animal products develop cancers and other problems... and that by eliminating the animal products consumed they could stop or reverse diseases caused by the animal products..

there's also a documentary, called "forks over knives" where Dr Campbell and another doctor- Dr Esselstyn tell their story & how the china study came to be & what they found & etc.. here's the description from youtube:

"Documentary filmmaker Lee Fulkerson explores the possibility that so-called "diseases of affluence," such as heart disease, can be reversed by simply adjusting our diets to include less processed and animal-based foods. Back in the 1960s, Cornell University nutritional scientist Dr. T. Colin Campbell was working to find a way to feed the citizens of impoverished Third World nations when a trip to the Philippines forever changed the way he thought about food consumption. There, he discovered that the rates of liver cancer among affluent children who subsisted on diets rich in animal-based foods were notably higher than in children consuming plant-based diets.

Meanwhile, surgeon Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, head of the Breast Cancer Task Force at Cleveland Clinic, was also discovering that many of the diseases he was seeing in patients were practically nonexistent in areas of the world where people were primarily consuming plant foods. Several subsequent investigations by the researchers (who would not meet each other until the 1980s), including a groundbreaking study in China by Dr. Campbell, led them to the revelation that a whole-food, plant-based diet could prevent, and even reverse, such degenerative conditions as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer.

In this film, Fulkerson examines Dr. Campbell's and Dr. Esselstyn's theories by following the two doctors' individual, yet very similar, story arcs, from their farm-based upbringings to their astounding discoveries. The film also records the experiences of a group of patients suffering from chronic maladies as they participate in an experiment in which their diets are substantially altered and wholesome, plant-based food is, essentially, used as medicine."

you can watch it on Netflix here: http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Forks_Over_Knives/70185045?locale=en-US

or if you don't have Netflix, you can watch it for free on Hulu:

there's also a book by a scientist who cured herself of terminal breast cancer just by eliminating meat & dairy & all other animal products from her diet.. she had cancer 5 times at varying stages & went the traditional, medical route.. she did the chemo & radiation & even had one of her breasts removed.. the 5th time was the one that she was terminal with & she was like "modern medicine can't help me" & figured out how to beat it & she did. she duplicated the results in other people, too.

http://www.dailymail...red-cancer.html << there's an article about her, and her book is called "your life in your hands" by Jane A Plant & is available for purchase on Amazon (and yes, i have read it & i own it).

then you have people like max gerson who did a study in the 1920's on people with various kinds of TB... he studied 450 patients & 447 were completely cured... his daughter, charlotte gerson also had TB & she cured it by following her dad's diet & is still alive, in her late 80's now... the gerson institute cures people with terminal, inoperable diseases all the time.. you can watch a couple documentaries about them here:

The Beautiful Truth: http://www.youtube.c...e?v=wvzDHGLEUyw

The Gerson Miracle: http://www.youtube.c...e?v=sbIixJI_oa4

then there's ann wigmore, and the hippocrates health institute.. they do the same thing... very large percentage of cured patients that were diagnosed with terminal illnesses. she wrote many books that are available & there's videos of her & stuff on youtube & stuff.

there's a lot of raw vegans that have cured various diseases, like IBS, Crohn's disease, cancer (all kinds- pancreatic, liver, kidney, brain, breast, prostate, etc).. as well as recovered from things like PCOS (which is an infertility issue in women), as well as recovering from paralysis from strokes/heart attacks, like this guy here.. Dave the Raw food truck driver:

it's also great for weight loss...

this guy lost 200lb in 1 year by eliminating meat & dairy & processed food from his diet & eating raw food, lots of fruit, juicing and doing a doctor supervised Water fast for 21 days..

this guy lost 230 lb, beat cancer, cured his diabetes & healed himself from a paralyzing stroke... as well as other issues.. he was on 25 pills a day & doesn't take any now. (i mentioned him above, this is another interview)

this guy went from 455 lb to a bodybuilder.. restored his body, got rid of his medications, overcame diabetes, etc..

this guy went from 400 lb to 185 & has even been featured on the tv show "the doctors"

there's also a documentary called "fat, sick & nearly dead" which is about an australian guy who had all sorts of issues & was on all sorts of pills and things.. he decided he would come to the US for 60 days, drive across the country & do a "juice fast"... and it documents his journey & has some really cool surprising things happen.. like meeting a truck driver who weighed over 400 pounds & helping him lose weight & stuff.. the guy ended up losing almost 100lb in 2 months. and no gallbladder issues for either of them! you can watch the documentary on hulu or netflix..

netflix: http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Fat_Sick_Nearly_Dead/70173634?trkid=2361637

hulu:

they even have a website where they go over everything in the documentary & have recipes & etc.. http://www.jointhereboot.com/

so yes, it is possible for vegans and vegetarians to succeed with a sleeve. the only thing a sleeve does is restrict how much you can eat, it doesn't have limits on what you have to eat or where you get your Protein & Vitamins & minerals.. there are alternatives for everything that you have on your regular meat & cheese diet, just from a different, more easily absorbed, easily digestable source. and like everyone else here says.. the sleeve is just a tool to get you where you want to go. you still have to diet and exercise.. and one of the reasons that i want the sleeve is because of the freedom of diet that i can have.

also, no, i don't expect you to watch all the stuff i posted... i know that no one would. i just posted it to be thorough and in hopes that someone would find something they were interested in watching & watch at least one of the videos... and in case you or anyone else ever got curious and wanted a place to start researching vegan/raw foods.

nyxa, I read every word you wrote and I just wanted to say I totally admire your passion for the topic. I'm a meat eater but will definitely be taking some of your ideas on board. Thanks!

As I said, I don't know whether the sleeve can accommodate that type of diet. To set the record straight, however, my nutritionist is a vegan. I agree with chubbyperthchic I will be incorporating some of those recipes into my repertoire.

I think I fall into a particular catagory when it comes to being a 'vegetarian'... I have not had beef, veal, lamb, ect ect for at least 4months but I do eat eggs, chicken, turkey, seafood. Those sorta things. Most of my Protein comes from veggie burgers and such. I buy Morning Star Farms line of products and I am love them. Also from my Protein shakes too.

nyxa - I read it all and also will incorporate some of the ideas mentioned. Very interesting post by the way. It shows your convictions and that is great!

thank you all for the kind words & support. i realize i can come off as overbearing sometimes.. but it comes from a good place.. i'm just passionate! lol --- i come in peace! <3

notime-- that's cool that your nutritionist is a vegan. but there are vegans/vegetarians out there rocking their sleeves. lol it may be a little harder in some ways, but it's doable! even if you can't or don't want to be a vegan, it's good to incorporate some stuff from that lifestyle in your diet, like you guys are talking about doing! doesn't have to be a full on conversion, a little does help a lot!

here's a video of a lady whose been sleeved, she's demonstrating how to sprout some seeds to eat & talks about the benefits of the Water that the sprouts are in..

on a side note, in regards to sprouts.. i saw on doomsday preppers (a tv show) where one family stocked up on various sorts of seeds and water to sprout & live on in case of a major disaster.. because they (the sprouts) have everything you need to survive.. amino acids, minerals, Vitamins, carbs and fiber. i thought that was pretty cool!

nyxa, I don't think you seemed overbearing. You were very respectful of me and provided good information that supported your perspective and gave each of us something we can use.

nyxa' date=' I don't think you seemed overbearing. You were very respectful of me and provided good information that supported your perspective and gave each of us something we can use.[/quote']

I agree with notime. It was respectful and gave great info that we take OR not.

CoolBreeze

thank you all for the kind words & support. i realize i can come off as overbearing sometimes.. but it comes from a good place.. i'm just passionate! lol --- i come in peace! <3

notime-- that's cool that your nutritionist is a vegan. but there are vegans/vegetarians out there rocking their sleeves. lol it may be a little harder in some ways, but it's doable! even if you can't or don't want to be a vegan, it's good to incorporate some stuff from that lifestyle in your diet, like you guys are talking about doing! doesn't have to be a full on conversion, a little does help a lot!

here's a video of a lady whose been sleeved, she's demonstrating how to sprout some seeds to eat & talks about the benefits of the Water that the sprouts are in..

on a side note, in regards to sprouts.. i saw on doomsday preppers (a tv show) where one family stocked up on various sorts of seeds and water to sprout & live on in case of a major disaster.. because they (the sprouts) have everything you need to survive.. amino acids, minerals, Vitamins, carbs and Fiber. i thought that was pretty cool!

Thank you for this link, So much Information.

I really want to say thankyou too because there is a huge part of me that wants to go raw too..

Thank you Nyxa. I think your posts are awesome. I am a meat eater but I am only 3 months out and CRAVING vegetables. I can't eat enough right now to get it all in so I'm looking for sources of Protein that are not animal based. I'm also having some kidney stone problems so looking for alternatives.

Can you recommend any good books for us? Probably did in your post but no I couldn't read all of it. I'm not looking to go vegan, just looking for alternative protein source recipes.

I've been vegan for a few years, vegetarian for years before that. I was sleeved on 8/14. My NUT has been wonderful working with me to make sure I can be successful with the sleeve. She said it is not common for vegans to get the sleeve, but it can be done.

@ smallvegan, did you do some raw juices post surgery, I'm thinking about adding in some fresh wheatgrass juice and beet and ginger juice for healing. What are your thoughts?