Questions? Comments? Concerns? Lies? Gossip? Innuendo? Statements of fact or fiction? Wanna take it outside? Feel free to contact me privately. I’m not always the speediest with replies, but I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
(Note: After you hit “submit,” you’ll get a “message sent” screen that makes it look like all your paragraph breaks are gone. Fear not: the paragraph breaks are still there when the email lands in my inbox.)
HI I am just educating myself about this lifestyle change and want to know what to do about the tooth decay problem and would you suggest this raw food intake for a developing toddler-thanks Linda
Hey Linda,
I think Denise gives some great advice. If I were a mom I would probably avoid dairy unless necessary (and then I’d do raw goats milk) and include raw egg yolk from local pastured eggs. I’m only just starting to experiment with them myself after being vegan and raw through most of my teenage years, but I would feel more comfortable feeding my child raw vegetarian with some egg yolk as a nice natural multi-vitamin and more concentrated nutrtition source (particularly because lack of certain nutrients can lead to neurological problems and egg yolk contains good quantities of these vitamins such as choline and B12)…plus essential fatty acids). This is hard for me as someone who has been vegan for ethical reasons as well as health/optimal diet interests, but I think using local pastured eggs helps with this (a little)…and it also means you are going to have be consuming a more nutrient rich, healthier, fresher egg.
I would think above all check for vitamin D deficiency. get a blood test. I tested low after winter (shock!). Nothing else will work if you have low D and if you have high D other bad things might not be as bad. Can you absorb your minerals without vitamin D? Not nearly as well, so it doesn’t even matter how many minerals you eat.
I think other fat soluble vitamins are important- A, E and especially K. sure they can be gotten from quality animal products, but I think they can also be gotten from fruits and vegetables- K is especially abundant in greens but not as much in other plant or animal foods, so not just for minerals but K, eat your greens. K may have been Price’s “Activator X”.
I brush lightly before bed. I try hard to stay hydrated so saliva can keep flowing over my teeth. Dry mouth is a very late sign of dehydration, which we can ill afford. We need the minerals. I guess grains are high in phytates, which bind minerals and render then unabsorbable, so they are maybe a potentially draining and demineralizing anti-nutrient. I might be aware of them if I am having problems, and the phytates are primarliy found in the brain and germ, so maybe white rice isn’t as bad as they say. I don’t know anyone with beri-beri because I don’t know anyone who lives on exclusive white rice diet. phytates are also found in nuts and seeds and pulses.
Last I’d be wary of all nightshade foods- tomatoes (I had such a negative experience for a week after eating 2 days of a lot of tomatoes). There are other things in this family- eggplant, potatoes, peppers. Who knows, but just do a search for people with arthritis, when they give up nightshades their pain goes away. That to me is strong evidence. Nightshades have many fat soluble toxins I am led to believe, which accumulate and exit slowly so they may build up slowly, and I guess some of the chemicals affect calcium metabolism, and may result in calcium stripping of the bone and hypercalcemia- trust me, if this is what happened to me, you don’t want it. Jitteryness, anorexia, joint sensitivity, almost like psychological shivers, for a few days intensely
Gerald, there are 2 K vitamins, K1 & K2. K1 can indeed be found in greens. K2 (MK4) only in animal and fermented food (MQ7+). Prices activator-X seems to be K2 (MK4). Read Chris Masterjohn’s serie on it.
http://www.westonaprice.org/blogs/cmasterjohn/2010/01/08/cure-for-cancer-activator-x-may-be-the-missing-link/
raw butter and fermented cod liver oil!
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2011/05/how-i-healed-my-childs-cavity/
http://www.curetoothdecay.com
Hi Linda,
I just left a comment and couldn’t help but notice yours. Cashews help prevent plaque and tooth decay. Xylitol has been around for years and many dentists recommend it for a sweetener. It also has antibiotic properties.
Hi Linda,
My advice for dealing with tooth decay on a raw diet is to avoid acidic foods (especially unripe fruit, vinegar, and lemon juice) and eat only limited quantities of dried fruits, which seem to be the worst thing out there for causing cavities. Eat plenty of leafy greens for minerals, as well, and try to eat actual meals instead of grazing all day.
Toddlers can do well on a diet high in raw foods, but the biggest concern is meeting their calorie needs. Relative to body size, toddlers need a LOT of food each day compared to adults — and so many raw foods are high bulk but low calorie. I would feed a toddler calorie-dense raw foods like bananas, mango, avocado, figs, papaya, etc., and if the child was not being breastfed, I would also include raw milk until he/she got a bit older.
The biggest problem I’ve seen with young children on raw diets is that they are not getting enough concentrated nutrition, and they simply look malnourished. You can avoid this by providing plenty of calorie-dense raw foods and giving your child a wide variety of foods to choose from, in case they’re picky.
I love this info…..Thanx Denise…lv Bette
Thanks for reading, Bette
[...] Contact [...]
I stumbled upon your blog today and would like to keep up with it. Is there an RSS/Atom feed?
Love your blog! I’m trying to go raw, will combine Weston Price with Hallelujah Acres. (or Alissa Cohen or Green Smoothie Girl with WAPF) Thanks for all the info.
Denise
Nice blog, great research.
Hope you have carefully included current research on vitamin D needs.
If not please visit http://www.grassrootshealth.net/ which hosts the best researchers in the US and Canada. UC SanDiego)
There is a good chance that people living at your latitude are seriously sub optimal in 25(OH)D3. Repletion should take care of the teeth opacity, bone density, and other longer term problems.
Apologies if I missed this topic in your archive, and its importance has already been addressed.
Hi, Denise!
This is such an impressive blog. Your writing is so refreshing and informative! You and Stephan Guyenet at Whole Health Source have made a fan out of me.
I don’t know anything about raw dieting. Although I’m a rabid consumer of everything that’s written on health, my diet hasn’t really calibrated to all the knowledge I’ve soaked in—I do indulge in a bunch of garbage on an almost-daily basis. (Hello, Tim’s jalapeno and Hawaiian-style sweet onion potato chips! Egad!)
Having said that, I’m curious to begin experiment with this raw-food thing. I am wondering if you can share a typical day’s worth of meals with us in one of your posts. I know it’ll be custom to _your_ version of eating raw, but nevertheless it’ll give me an idea about variety and quantity.
Thanks in advance!
Your deconstruction of The China Study was nothing short of brilliant – I can honestly say I’ve never seen a more detailed and insightful analysis performed by an “amateur.” I hope you’re seriously considering a career in science or medicine. My understanding of what constitutes a healthy diet has been evolving, and by the time I got around to reading TCS, I already had some doubts about the neutrality of the results. You’ve confirmed some of my suspicions.
I’d like to recommend two other books that you might find interesting, if you haven’t already read them. Good Calories, Bad Calories (author: Taubes) is a very detailed look into the human diet, metabolism and related endocrinology, and the history of the scientific research into diet and obesity. To an interested reader, it reads almost like a detective novel, as the officially recommended low-fat diet somehow results in a massive wave of obesity and related diseases in Western Culture. You’ll never look at your pancreas quite the same way again…
The other book is Catching Fire – How Cooking Made Us Human (author: Wrangham). The author is a professor of biological anthropology, and his book looks at the archeological record of human cooking, and its impact on man’s physiology and culture. He makes a compelling case that cooking food is genuinely integral to homo sapiens. Both books are written in a scientific manner, meaning they’re well-researched and footnoted (GC,BC has over 100 pages of footnotes), and neither tries to be sensational. I found that both books provided important insights into the question of what science has to tell us about the most appropriate diet for humans.
Keep up the great work – if you don’t end up as a scientist, you should be a science writer.
Greg
Denise,you totally rock woman.As one who has been through the wringer eating raw vegan 100% for almost 7 years,the pitfalls can be many.I am very glad i have changed now,as thankfully the body CAN heal from being so severely depleted!
Keep speaking loud and proud woman XX
Hi Denise,
You write that you eat 2-4 pounds of greens daily. Please give examples…I consume about a pound of spinach daily usually blended with water, thinking of upping that, wondering what other greens I might add. Very much enjoy your writing style.
River Rance
Naples,FL
Isn’t there a problem with oxalic acid in raw spinach and other dark leafy greens? If they’re going to be eaten raw, shouldn’t they be lacto-fermented first to neutralize the anti-nutrients?
Annie Dru
good shit lil miss Minger!
My sister e-mailed me about an hour ago that I must read this book that she just read called “The China Study” She was very excited about it.
I just happened to be wandering wordpress–not looking for anything, really, and stumbled upon your blog.
I will take much interest in reading the “flip side” of the book, which I intend to read.
As a health professional, I know how “studies” can be misleading.
Thanks for all your hard work!
Hi Denise. I like your blog. Raw foodism is one of my current interests. I am an ex-vegan (now cooked omnivore) but I was never raw, I ate a cooked vegan version of the SAD diet. I enjoy lots of raw plant foods though.
What I’d like to see you write about is the safety concerns of raw animal products such as raw meat, raw eggs and raw milk. What do you think of the pathogens and parasites that these products can harbor. What do you think of pasteurization and cooking of animal foods, not as a taste-based practice, but a health practice?
What do you think of freezing sashimi (using modern technology) so that the parasites are killed?
Where do you buy your raw fish from? conventional fish from a grocery store or from more organic sources?
Weston A. Price should straighten you out on the whole raw milk end, raw farm fresh eggs won’t hurt you, and fish that is frozen to at a minimum of -10 F should bear no harmful parasites or bacterium. To get the best fish, find a fishmonger or a store that specializes specifically in fish: don’t get it from the grocery store. As a fishmonger, I can attest to the small mom and pop shops having some of the best quality (although may have limited offerings), and take your handy dandy Monterey Bay pocket fish guide with you. You don’t want to aggravate the overfished populations or eat fish high in metals, and the pocket guide helps a lot if you can’t remember the safe and good to eat species.
Actually, I think that raw eggs (farm or not) can hurt you (and particularly your muscles).
Great stuff Denise. Keep up the good work. I wonder what your views are on the 801010 diet.
Thank you. How can we get your kind of brain to debunk the rest of the BS that clouds our thinking — like politics, business and the climate change? So I’m still at a loss as to diet and what is apparent is that there is a dearth of hard science attacking this incredibly urgent and important matter. We return to tradition and our emotional biases. For me, eating flesh of a once living sentient being still remains unpleasant.
Obfuscation is the name of the game. With most dialectic arguments proponents politically ignore key elements. The nutrition swamp is no different to Physics. Where food is concerned, the critical modern problem is simple:
The constituent value of almost all foods consumed today has been devalued mightily by modern intensive factory farming methods.
The equally critical problem is obtaining food that is naturally nutritive. Almost impossible with long periods of storage/transport, even if bio-sustainably grown.
Even the label of Biodynamic Certification doesn’t help much if the food was picked weeks ago.
Humans are basically omnivorous. Our animal biological history shows that clearly. Omnivores can survive on almost anything organic, but at the cost of not being very efficient at metabolising anything.
However, there is utterly no point in looking at what ancient societies ate as the conditions and quality of life is vastly different.
Your animal longevity is simply tied to the proven-beyond-doubt science that says it is relevant to how little you eat and how long you sleep and when.
Want to live to a healthy achievable 120 year lifespan?
1. Eat 25% of whatever you are eating right now.
2.Walk 5 miles per day (NEVER run or jog – it creates danger signals in your brain and releases THE killer: Cortisol)
3. Sleep as close as possible to the circadian cycle: sunset to dawn.
4. Never watch Television. (There are really sound reasons not to…)
5. Avoid broadcast radiation sources. (Get outta town, lose the cellphone)
That’s all…………………
Himagain, excellent advice and much appreciated. Could you provide any more resources which you believe it might be helpful for one to review? Thank you
Great analysis, Denise! You should write a letter to the editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine to point out how shoddy these data are, but more importantly, what faulty conclusions the investigators drew from them. It certainly doesn’t enhance a journal’s reputation to publish nonsense like this. Maybe they’ll be more careful in the future, although they must be enjoying all the publicity from the headline grabbing “results” of this study.
Makes me wonder how they obtained funding to undertake an observational study that doesn’t even help to generate hypotheses!
Hi Denise-just wanted to let you know that you’re doing a great job with the blog! Quick question–what is your opinion on juicing? It seems like a good way to get more vitamins and nutrients, but you miss a lot of the fiber while retaining all of the sugar. Any thoughts? is this something you do or suggest? thx
I wonder why in India, in the north where they eat wheat, they have a fraction of the heart disease of the south, where they eat rice. It seems at first glance the opposite of China. I wonder if you have a second glance.
Hi Denise
I just wanted to see if you like my new blog I started about obesity?
Here is the link. http://razwell.blogspot.com
Hi Denise,
I listened to your interview with Jimmy Moore recently and realy enjoyed it. I have been on a very low carb diet now for nearly two years. I have lost 40 lbs but my energy and vitality are not bouncing back as I had hoped. I sent a link to your interview with Jimmy to some friends that are following a no fat diet based on Fuhrman (Esselstyn, Mc Dougall, Rave all basically same).
They are sold on Esselstyn. Their health indicators seem to be improving. The logic and studies of both schools of thought are convincing. How do I sort out the truth from all of this opinion?
My friends sent me back a link to Dr. Fuhrman’s web site.
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/diet-myths-the-misinformation-of-barry-groves-and-weston-price.html
Would you mind addressing these authors conclusions on your site? I need to know if I am doing the right thing with my diet in order for me to regain my health.
Kindest regards,
Robert Unger
Hi Denise – I had a few issues with “The China Study” as reported in T Colin Campbell’s book (starting with – rats aren’t supposed to eat casein anyway…). I’ve just come across your formal report and am looking forward to reading it! All the best, Marie-Claire
Hi Denise,
I’m a vegan but I still like you and appreciate your efforts. I don’t see the China Study as the flagpole where I salute my veganism. In fact, I’m always looking for critiques on veganism, rather than praise, because it keeps my own critical mind alive. I doubt I could ever eat any kind of meat again simply for ethical reasons, but I don’t try and say it’s unhealthy if you follow some rules.
I’m a raw vegan mostly, and when I cook I try and stay away from tofu, and I never have fake meats. The fewer ingredients the better. I make sure I get the goods from food and not supplements (except for a couple).
If a friend who’s trying to be vegan will say, I feel sick because I don’t have time to prepare all the foods for my nutrients, I’ll tell him to a, eat greens (they usually don’t!) b, introduce some animal protein back into the diet and see how that feels. This happens a lot when people go vegan without researching nutrition. They just go on eating a vegan version of crap and expect to be healthier. Then when they’re not, they’ll just say saving animals’ lives is more important. So I understand your problem with extremist vegans. Wonder why they’re all so uptight and on edge though, clinging to disparate shreds of science as if that’s what validates their reason for being who they are. Chill, people! You’re not doing yourselves or the animals any good.
To get to the point: this reasonable vegan girl has your back. At least I think I am, though I passed my mom a magazine about herbal remedies yesterday and she called me a fanatic ^_^ I hate it when vegans, or any group, proclaim crap like it’s a gospel.
Now, a purely health-related question: I had always had problems with dairy. Do you think it might be the pasteurization?
Hi Denise,
Like Linda above, I am also vegan but appreciate your efforts. I just heard about your blog after reading your interview on Eat Your Meat. I am vegan purely for ethical reasons. While I do think a whole foods-based vegan diet has mainly good points nutrition-wise, there are a few gaps significant enough for me to always remain cognizant of. And I do not think, like many vegans, that nonvegan diets are the Devil. Far from it! I am especially unsure about whether or not I will remain vegan while pregnant and breastfeeding in the future, especially after hearing you say that no long-terms studies have confirmed the ADA’s conclusion that “well-planned” vegan diets are safe during pregnancy. I’ll be doing more research and thinking about that.
I haven’t read The China Study but am interested in taking a closer look at it and your posts about it. I am a pre-nursing/midwifery student currently studying nutrition and anatomy and physio and it is that studying that makes me say I’m vegan for now and, while ethically I hope always to be, I plain to remain open to new, evidence-based info as it arises.
Looking forward to learn about what you are eating,
thanks,
i would like you to comment on the overwhelming new research (pubmed medline) indicating the increased risk of cancer (especially breast and colo- rectal cancer) relating to meat and processed meat products.
as a doctor with a masters degree, i would also like you to outline your qualifications in scientific research as i see a LOT of interpretation of data on your blog.. there is a LOT more involved than mere “number crunching”
i might also add with reference to the “china study” that since this time, a STACK of cohort, DBRT’s have been undertaken (once again peruse medline/pubmed), most of all supporting the books claims. I mean seriously – look at the obesity, diabetes and cancer stats.
i would also like to bring to your attention the pitfalls of evidence based medicine in this current world and the importance of looking at retrospective studies and epidemiology, and the importance of this in making an “overall” judgement on lifestyle habits. Unfortunately the paleolithic diet only saw humans live to the age of 25. My issue with this diet is the meat (as is supported with the literature and the history of diet and lifestyle of humans in the last 200 years) and its increasing trend towards chronic disease.
the movement towards a plant based diet is the most important one our generation. i see it walking through my office every day – people struggling to walk, to breath, to LIVE. i find it disheartening that when i google “the china study” this blog pops up – i believe you are missing the point. the point is bigger than the china study – its about our history as humans and the health of the masses, and this relative COST to us as tax payers.
of course you are entitled to your opinion, however anyone reading this blog needs to er on the side of caution. from what i can read, you are NOT a scientist, or have any qualifications in research – and to be honest, i think that was the polite gist of campbells response to your critique.
You are busy seeing patients and she is busy doing research and writing. I think Denise is better equipped to handle this topic than you are. Maybe you should pay attention. I had a doctor like you once, a know-it-all-listen-to-me-or-else type. I fired her.
Please provide the data.
Thank you for your brilliant insight. Keep up the great work….I love reading your posts. Have you heard the quote: “Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions.” – Evan Esar
Thanks Bella — love the quote.
The truth is factory meat is probably horrid for our system, especially laden with chemicals, hormones and antibiotics. But like you point out in your critique, there are many variables, isolating just one is cause for idiocy. Thanks for the work you do!
Hi Denise,
Was it you who wrote an incredible little article about when to detox and when to build? It contained some health signs pertaining to both situations.
If so, could you please give me a link to it or email it to me?
Thanks,
Clarita
add to email list please
* Thank you for automatically allowing my comment in your blog settings, Denise — a heads up here.
(-:/
A poster on http://EricCressey.com/healthy-food-options-why-you-should-never-take-nutrition-advice-from-your-government posted a link to your article — and I replied to him, as follows, incorporating my reply to you — I wanted to give you a heads up. Blessings. —
@ Tylor Simmons — THANK YOU for your link to Denise Minger’s ‘RawFoodSOS.com’ blog…
I’m having too much fun! — and when Denise, obviously a very bright young woman, started pushing ‘bad science,’ I let loose on her!
Her blog, http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/08/06/final-china-study-response-html/ which you linked above, automatically accepted my reply to her ‘Conclusion’ that: “If both whole-food vegan diets and non-Westernized omnivorous diets yield similar health benefits, this is a strong indication that the results achieved by McDougall, Esselstyn, Ornish, et al are not due to the avoidance of animal products but to the elimination of other health-harming items.”
Riiight. — Here was my reply to her -and it bears repeating — a firm, but respectful dissent: AND is/was quite funny!
—
Gordon Wayne Watts (22:13:12) : wrote:
OK, you’ve made some salient points, Denise, but the fact is that there is a VERY strong positive correlation between a vegan diet and lower rates of both cancer and fertility problems.
Note, if you would, the p-factor, in the graphs on MY research page, mirrors on 3 servers -in case the Internet highway has …uh,,… a ‘traffic jam!’:
http://GordonWatts.com/consumer.html
or
http://GordonWayneWatts.com/consumer.html
or even:
http://Gordon_Watts.Tripod.com/consumer.html
The p-value on the top cancer graph (relating vegan vs animal food with cancer) is SCARY! — it is 0.0000001.
Do you remember your basic statistics, Denise? That p-value answers the question: What are the chances the dots just randomly fell into this pattern like raindrops or whatever… The chances that the pattern is mere “correlation” but not causation is 1-in-10,000,000 –yes!! One in TEN Million!!
NOT die by chance… now… moving right along… look at the tight pattern and the ‘R’ (relatedness) values of each of the graphs, OK?
The translation of the various R-values means that while other factors in lifestyle may affect health, diet is a VERY strong influence.
Case closed, discussion over: The scientific evidence is OVERWHELMING that a vegan diet is a chief factor in health -and the graphs put into “picture language” what the peer-reviewed scientific papers say in plain-English.
Mind you, the key word is “peer-review” scientific studies –not tripe and urban legend force-fed by the US Government –with such nonsense is ‘Milk Does the body Good.’ — .. LOL… NOT.
The science is in, and the food pyramid is out.
Word.
Gordon Wayne Watts, editor-in-chief, The Register, scientific research blog
http://www.GordonWayneWatts.com / http://www.GordonWatts.com
ALWAYS FAITHFUL – To God
BS, The Florida State University,Biological & Chemical Sciences
double major with honours
AS, United Electronics Institute, valedictorian, class of 1988
I would love to hear your comments/review on another nutrition movie making its way around; “Food Matters” , similar to the dissection you did for FOK.
A
Ps. Your blog is awesome
I saw your talk about reasons for defending a meat diet versus vegetarian. You point at healthy resons, good. Then you refer the audience to letthemeatmeat.com for further accounts on environmental issues. It’s this focus of environmental issues I would like to know more, like, what is worse for the environemnt, a vegetarian or omnivore diet? But in that website is more about freeganism over veganism… and we omnivores can’t just shield ourselves with the argument that freeganism is a better option than veganism… because omnivorism is still worse than veganism… so I want real facts, real reasons to make up my mind about whether omnivorism (ethical one) makes less, equal or more damage to the environment than (ethical) veganism. In equality of conditions, which reduces more the impact. Health issues not involved here. Thanks a lot, I really would appreciate where to find this scientific evidence.