High carb, low fat, raw vegan lifestyle

Are you scarred of carbs? I was. I honestly was scarred to eat an apple. Why? Because I’ve been told that “Carbs make you fat”. Where did I get that from? Well let me tell ya, there’s so much information out in the internet and so many different studies proving exactly what you want to believe. I’ve heard a lot of great things about Paleo diet and how easily people lose weight with it. Being the “science nerd” that I am, I looked into the science part of how it works. Insulin is a fat storing hormone. Carbs raise insulin levels. Therefore, carbs make you fat and we should avoid them. Makes perfect sense right? Except I couldn’t find any studies on how your body processes fat only foods. My whole inspiration for this blog was to share my paleo success. Well maybe that’s why this blog hasn’t had very many posts, because I didn’t have any success!

I ate vegetarian for 3 years. And ate paleo for the last 6 months. None of those worked for me. I still suffer from an awful brain fog and never been super lean despite of eating very healthy most of the time and always working hard in the gym. I was developing gluten/dairy sensitivities and other health issues.  This made me question the food choices I’ve been having and lead me to discover what high carb raw vegan lifestyle is. I recently watched a documentary on the Gerson Method. Gerson Method diet is mostly raw fruits and vegetables protocol which includes the use of coffee enemas to cure cancer patients. I loved the fact that you can use the food as medicine and can heal your own body. I thought that if the Gerson Method can cure cancer patients, it certainly can cure my brain fog/insulin resistance issues.

 Then I ran across a YouTube channel of Freelee the Banana Girl. She follows a high carb, low fat, vegan diet. I was in shock to watch Freelee eat 51 bananas a day! I was amazed and skeptical at the same time. Freelee is incredibly tiny with very low body fat percentage and is never hungry! I do believe that eating too much (bananas only diet) of one thing is not a healthy lifestyle and  will deprive you of other useful nutrients, but she did it to prove a point.

High carb vegan lifestyle inspired me to research more about carbs. I didn’t understand how can someone be eating 3,000-5,000 calories a day and stay incredibly lean.  This is when I discovered that everything I knew about carbs is a myth. Excess carbohydrates do not get stored as fat. All carbohydrates consumed in excess of your glycogen stores are simply burned off as body heat through the process of “facultative dietary thermogenesis". Feel free to consume all the carbohydrates you want as long as you keep a concrete limit on your daily fat intake. When you consume high carbohydrate foods such as potatoes, bananas, pasta, and rice without adding excess fats to them, there isn’t any excess fat for your insulin to store. Majority of the society consumes “carbohydrates” like pizza covered with cheese, bread slathered with butter, potatoes covered in sour cream, deep fried French fries, and fried rice prepared with globs of olive oil. People ultimately blame the carbs for making them fat. It’s true that healthy fats help you lose weight but daily requirement of “healthy” fats are really minimal.  We as humans only require two essential fatty acids; Omega-3 alpha, linolenic acid and the Omega-6, linoleic acid in order to maintain cell membranes, absorb certain vitamins, and regulate hormones. The human body only requires 10 grams, or the equivalent of about a teaspoon. Humans grow at a very slow pace, protein requirements is actually less than 50 grams per day and not 1g of protein per 1 lb of body weight.

I have been eating mostly high carb vegan for the past 2 weeks, and honestly, my body loves it! I am beyond excited to finally not having to count calories, not feeling hungry, and healing my body inside out. I am adopting a high carb, mostly raw, vegan lifestyle for 90% of the time. The other 10% I am allowed to eat anything I want. For example I am out with friends, I will eat sushi or a chicken pizza. I am not limiting myself to certain food group, but just making really good choices 90% of the time and believe this is what life balance is all about. Stayed tuned to see my results at the end of the month!