Raw Fruitarian...good god, help me

[RogueFarmer]

Would be interesting to know exactly how much carbs the Masai eat. Milk is fairly high carb and is supposed to be similar to blood, does blood gots lots of carbs too?

[cherimoya_kid]

Would be interesting to know exactly how much carbs the Masai eat. Milk is fairly high carb and is supposed to be similar to blood, does blood gots lots of carbs too?

The Masai diet is not zero carb.  Not only that, but there are a fair number of RPDieters that report they have to cut back on fat consumption in the summers, because they become uncomfortably hot. It wouldn't surprise me if there are other more hidden problems with the zero-carb diet in hot weather.

[RogueFarmer]

The Masai diet is not zero carb.  Not only that, but there are a fair number of RPDieters that report they have to cut back on fat consumption in the summers, because they become uncomfortably hot. It wouldn't surprise me if there are other more hidden problems with the zero-carb diet in hot weather.

... I know, milk is their staple and it is high in carbs. My point was that they eat mostly animal foods and very high fat animal foods at that. Their cows make milk that is more than twice as creamy as milk you can buy in the store in the west.

[cherimoya_kid]

... I know, milk is their staple and it is high in carbs. My point was that they eat mostly animal foods and very high fat animal foods at that. Their cows make milk that is more than twice as creamy as milk you can buy in the store in the west.

For the purposes of this discussion, animal carbs from milk and plant carbs are pretty much the same, don't you think?

[PaleoPhil]

The Maasai have also traditionally consumed honey, mead and other foods. I'm not aware of any strict so-called "Zero Carbers" who advocate honey or mead. Neither strict fruitarianism nor strict Zero Carb have any equivalents among traditional human societies or wild animals. Not even the Inuit have a rule forbidding all carbs or all plant foods like many Zero Carbers do, and they traditionally ate berries, the livers of certain animals (such as seals and loche fish), eggs and animal stomach contents when available.

I’d like to offer a “glimpse” of the traditional Masai diet as it was recorded by the German military officer Moritz Merker at the turn of the twentieth century.

Merker’s extensive study reveals a people who herded cattle for a living, not simply to consume milk, meat, and blood, but to trade with neighboring tribes for a great variety of plant foods and other goods. It reveals a people who used hundreds of local plants for a great variety of purposes, and who regularly consumed wild honey.

The myth that the Masai eat nothing but milk, blood and meat is derived from the idealized diet of young warriors called moran, a diet that men only eat for 15 years of their life and that women never eat. Contrary to popular myth, women exist, and Masai women are just as Masai as Masai men. Indeed, it was the women who conducted most trade during that time, so ignoring the parts of the Masai diet obtained from foreign trade is particularly insulting to the memory of these women. Merker’s study, moreover, shows that even the supposed exclusivity of the warrior diet is a gross exaggeration and ignores their extensive use of herbs and tree barks, as well as the fact that necessity often drove them to consume honey, roots, tubers and fruit as sources of water and calories while on the march.

Wild honey was abundant in the region.  Fermented into a beer [mead], it served as a drink for male elders or as a sacred component of religious rituals.

The Masai Part II: A Glimpse of the Masai Diet at the Turn of the 20th Century — A Land of Milk and Honey, Bananas From Afar

[RawZi]

Merker’s study, moreover, shows that even the supposed exclusivity of the warrior diet is a gross exaggeration and ignores their extensive use of herbs and tree barks, as well as the fact that necessity often drove them to consume honey, roots, tubers and fruit as sources of water and calories while on the march.

    May sound like hearsay, but I know a chiropractor who says he knows a Masai man.  He says the Masai man is very tall strong and beautiful, but was getting health problems eating from the local diet here in the US, so that's how he and the chiropractor met.  The chiropractor says the Masai man says that's what he ate before he came here, bark, roots, herbs, milk, blood etc, and this was normal diet where he came from.

[PrimalWolfbane]

I had never read the Wai diet, but I was eating sort of similiar, though with cooked meat and raw milk. Sometimes brown rice cooked in meat broth and coconut milk.

Anyways, yeah, fruit was by far the staple of my diet. I was aging fast, getting wrinkles. My teeth felt like they were crumbling. I feel like I managed to reverse the damage however, feel way better than I can ever remember now.

I can't say exactly how long I was eating high fruit, but I took it to extremes last year from June through August when I finally gave up and basically ate as much raw dairy as I had been eating fruit and even less fruit than I had been eating dairy. Results were staggering. Getting on the Primal Diet has been really key for me though IMO.

Would you mind mentioning what you eat now? I was hoping to transition more slowly into the Wai diet, with cooked meats and non-raw milk for a while at first, at least...but you seem to be saying this is a bad idea that won't help me much anyway! Yikes! But what about people like Denise Minger?

It seems that, in my experience, there is a subset group of people that look generally good on a particular "limited" or "fringe" diet, and a whole other subset that just fails health-wise. For some reason I thought I wasn't going to be the one that failed, but hell was I wrong.

For some reason, raw or cooked, I'm still having problems with meat making me feel worse. Could it be that the added homocysteine in my diet, combined with low stomach acid that prevents any absorption of B12, could be causing my problems? Should I separate meat from other foods, like vegetables or fruit or (for right now, at least) dairy and grains? The reason I'm adding back practically everything (but rice and gluten) is because of financial and general panic (I might really really need some nutrient right now...) issues. Granted, I can easily already tell that grains are not doing me any favors at all. Meat, on the other hand, makes me feel great...the NEXT day. Sigh.

Also...for those of us who aren't aiming for zero or even particularly low carb, what forms of raw carbs other than fruit can humans actually ingest reasonably well? This takes starches entirely off the list, I think?

Also, I want to apologize for the late response--I had to visit the emergency room for severe breathing difficulties.

[PaleoPhil]

I seem to handle roots like carrots and parsnips rather well, but it's difficult to find good-tasting parsnips that were raised well. I had a source for a time, they were the tastiest veggies I had ever tried, but then the market stopped selling them and I don't know what farm it was.

[Löwenherz]

- You can't tell by the look of the face, people feeding on cooked junk often have a good looking face but are overweight and many get seriously ill or suddenly die early.

Of course, you are right! And btw: I would never recommend any cooked food diet.

But it seems obvious that high fruit consumption leads always to terrible skin in the long-run, beyond age 40-50.

Here is another zc/vlc-dieter with healthy skin at age 50:

Less sugar, more kids

Löwenherz

[Löwenherz]

The Maasai have also traditionally consumed honey...

Honey is the WORST thing of all foods for my skin. What is your experience?

For me honey is the most aggressive sugar on planet earth...

Löwenherz

[PaleoPhil]

For me, raw fermented honey is the least harmful carb and even helps reduce my dandruff and clear up dry skin.

[Löwenherz]

For me, raw fermented honey is the least harmful carb and even helps reduce my dandruff and clear up dry skin.

I remember, very Interesting. But fermented honey means NO sugar, right?

Löwenherz

[RawZi]

Löwenherz

    I assume he has a busy practice and little exercise. He's nice and slim and relaxed and clear, if a little skinny and very gray (hair only).

[Löwenherz]

    I assume he has a busy practice and little exercise. He's nice and slim and relaxed and clear, if a little skinny and very gray (hair only).

Is his hair gray? I would say it is more blond?

I guess that he is a big fan of milk fat...

Löwenherz

[RawZi]

Is his hair gray

    I assume his hair used to be darker, as his eyebrows are so dark.

[PaleoPhil]

I remember, very Interesting. But fermented honey means NO sugar, right?

Löwenherz

No, it's reduced, but not eliminated.

My eyebrows are darker than my hair, and my hair is not grey, so I don't think that can be assumed.

[CitrusHigh]

"Ashton Kutcher recently disclosed he suffered pancreatic problems brought on by following an all-fruit diet adopted in preparation to play the character of Steve Jobs in the upcoming film “Jobs.” Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer in 2011"

From: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/11/all-fruit-diet.aspx?e_cid=20130211_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130211