| Our review:
Many people - and I count myself among them - were initially attracted to the raw lifestyle because of a yearning to return to nature. I was convinced this was the solution I was looking for until I found myself at my first raw seminar. The message: no diet can meet all our nutrient needs. The answer: superfoods and supplements. I left that night laden down with jars and containers - and considerably poorer to boot.
Ever since that day I have grappled with the superfood/supplement question. The idealist in me says we shouldn’t need them, yet the realist replies that the world we live in is so far from ideal that many of us may probably do. But how to decide which ones with the vast array on the market: it is a question that gets harder and harder to answer with the ever-expanding collection of powders, pills and potions designed to improve upon "nature’s most perfect diet"...
Against this backdrop, Dr Doug Graham’s long-awaited new book The 80/10/10 Diet arrived on my desk like a breath of fresh air. As I turned the pages I was reminded, over and over again, of why I had first been attracted to the raw diet: for its simplicity, purity and closeness to nature. Dr Graham, who studied with the late T.C. Fry (and includes several excerpts from his erstwhile mentor’s writings in the book), bases his philosophy on the tenets of natural hygiene - yet with his own unique slant based on his 27 years working with a wide variety of clients, including top athletes from almost every field of endeavour.
The crux of Dr Graham’s philosophy is this: that healthy nutrition means a diet based on "whole, fresh, ripe, raw, organic fruits and vegetables". And in case anyone reads that and assumes he meant to add: ..."plus supplements, juices and your favourite cooked foods made in the dehydrator", he makes his position crystal clear: "All animals get their nourishment exclusively from the foods present in their natural environment [...] Animals do not use or demonstrate any need for supplements or condiments. Nature provides adequately for all life forms, and humans are not an exception. Like all other primates, we were made to function perfectly on the amount of nutrients found in fruits and vegetables, in the quantities that we would eat those foods whole."
The second pillar of the 80/10/10 philosophy is found in the numbers, which refer to the percentage of our calories that, according to Dr Graham, should come from carbohydrates, protein and fat respectively. In the book, he summarises the scientific studies that led him to these figures and then goes on to demonstrate that there is but one way to achieve this ratio on a raw diet: get most of your calories from fruit. To achieve this, Dr Graham recommends eating nothing but fruit during the day and also kicking off the evening meal with as much sweet fruit as is desired, before moving onto greens and non-sweet fruit such as cucumber and tomatoes, with - and only on some days - small quantities of nuts, seeds or avocado.
Fruit has fallen out of favour in some circles, accused of being hybridized and too high in sugar, and of causing everything from candida to cancer. There is scientific evidence (and much anecdotal evidence) for all of these claims. Yet there is no shortage of scientific and anecdotal evidence suggesting just the opposite. Dr Graham argues that if we eat all raw, we have only two choices: we either eat a lot of fruit or we eat too much fat - and that the former is the healthier choice.
Although Dr Graham himself is 100% raw and is one of the staunchest and most consistent champions of this diet, he pulls no punches when it comes to the question of whether it is worth staying raw if you can only manage it the high-fat way. If it’s a toss-up between being all raw or eating low fat, his advice is: choose low fat. This book leaves the reader in no doubt about how important it is to get the carb-protein-fat ratio right. With the average raw diet purported to be at least 60% fat, could this be the proverbial "elephant in the room" that people are missing when they wonder why going raw hasn’t given them the results they were hoping for?
Although this book is not short on either hard science or numbers, it is extremely clearly and engagingly written and as such is an effortless and enjoyable read for anyone with an interest in raw nutrition. Its 350 pages include 11 chapters, more than 50 sidebars and tables, and four useful appendices. The first appendix contains sample ‘80/10/10’ menu plans for all four seasons. Each contains a week’s worth of meals, comprising breakfast, lunch and a three-course dinner. The final appendix is entitled ‘Resources For Diet Analysis’ and includes a chart containing full carbohydrate, protein and fat breakdowns for a selection of the most commonly eaten raw foods.
But as Dr Graham emphasizes throughout the book, diet is just one part of the picture. To obtain optimal health on all levels, we not only need to get nutrition right; we also need to get enough pure air and water, exercise and sunshine, plus the important emotional components such as touch and fulfilling relationships. This is a book for anyone who wants a concise and highly readable summary of the science behind the low-fat raw vegan diet and lifestyle...for anyone who has tried eating raw and is not happy with the results they are getting...and for anyone who is ready for the challenge of truly returning to nature - by Sarah Best, editor of Get Fresh! magazine.
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