"Do you ever get bored...?"

Wanted to share this discussion that occured the other day on the Vegsource board. I found it very valuable and inspiring!


From: Christy
Subject: Dr D, Q re: variety in the diet
Date: January 17, 2007 at 2:18 pm PST

Hey Doug, hope you are all having a fantastic time in CR! Think of you guys every day! :)

Q: I've heard you say several times you eat a lot of variety each year, though each days menu is kept simple. I cant remember the exact number of different foods you said you tend to eat each year, but I think it was over 100? Anyway, I looked at my diet over the last year and added up everything I could think of that I consumed, and came out about 35-40 different fruits and vegetables. For those of us who live in a Northern climate year round, is consuming what is seasonally available here sufficient year after year? I am guessing it is fine, but just thought I'd ask since you consume so much more variety than I do. Is this a case where 'more' is better? :) Should I work towards adding more variety into my yearly diet?
I can hardly wait to get to Costa Rica this year to try some new fruits!



From: Dr. Doug Graham (DrGraham.vegsource.com)
Subject: Re: Dr D, Q re: variety in the diet
Date: January 17, 2007 at 6:51 pm PST
In Reply to: Dr D, Q re: variety in the diet posted by Christy on January 17, 2007 at 2:18 pm:

Christy,
Variety in the diet is not an essential in the way you presented it, or the way you heard what I was saying, no. I was presenting essentially two concepts in one.The first is that there is plenty of variety available in the raw diet.The second is that I do not recommend eating a long-term mono diet of just one food, whatever that food is.

I think if you actually re-assessed your diet, you would likely find that you ate far more variety that that which you mention.For instance, most raw fooders eat at least 6 or 8 different types of grapes, 8 varieties or more of apples, 10 or more different types of citrus, and maybe 6 different types of melons in the course of a year. Heck, that is 32 different fruits right there. Add in 6 or more types of tomatoes and a dozen types of lettuce and you are already up to fifty. Are you really only getting 35-40 different foods in the course of the year? Some years I might taste that many different types of dates, and I hardly ever even eat dates.

Get back to me, I will respond to this one. :)

Meanwhile, if you are eating about 6 or more different foods per year, you are likely covering all your nutritional bases.

A diet that revolved around bananas, citrus, lettuce, celery, tomatoes, and mangoes would probably get you just about everything you need. I haven't done the math, and am not recommending such a diet, but I wouldn't be surprised that it did the job.
Dr D


From: Christy
Subject: A thorough answer and I'm thoroughly convinced
Date: January 18, 2007 at 10:06 am PST
In Reply to: Re: Dr D, Q re: variety in the diet posted by Dr. Doug Graham on January 17, 2007 at 6:51 pm:

Yep, you are right Dr D. I really underestimated the variety I ate this year. I grouped together oranges and melons and grapes, and lettuces, etc instead of listing the varieties consumed within each food.
I know it makes for a lengthy email, but I had to add up the numbers a little more closely, just to see. A guesstimate of what I've consumed in the last year:

Acid Fruits
Tomatoes-7 Varieties
Oranges-3
Mandarins
Tangerine
Lemon/Lime
Grapefruit-2
Kiwi
Pineapple
Strawberry
Blackberry
Raspberry

Sub Acid Fruits
Apple-5
Grape-3
Blueberry
Mango-2
Cherry
Nectarine
Peach-2
Pear
Plum

Sweet Fruits
Bananas-2
Carob
Cherimoya-only once, wish it was more!
Date-4
Fig-2
Raisins-2

Melons
Watermelon-3
Casaba
Honeydew
Crenshaw
Cantaloupe

Nuts/Seeds, and Fats
Almond
Pine Nuts
Sesame Seed
Walnut
Pecan
Pumpkin Seed
Avocado
Young Coconut
Olives

Legumes
Edible Pea Pods
Garden Peas

Vegetables
Sugar Snap Peas
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Cabbage-3
Cauliflower
Corn-2
Cucumber-2
Spinach
Sweet Pepper-3
Zucchini-2

Lettuce/Celery
Butter
Green Leaf
Iceburg
Red Leaf
Romaine
Mixed Leafy Greens-6
Celery

Mild Herbs-6(includes dill, cilantro, basil, arugula, parsley, mint)

Wow!! Wow, wow! :) That made me very hungry. So, I've definitely WAY underestimated the variety I've eaten this year. Oh, writing this list made me miss the summer and long for it again!!!!! So thats 60 items I've eaten this year(that I can even remember, there may be more), and a nice 118 foods when you include the different varieties for each item. Several of these foods I have only eaten once this year, but I suppose that is fine.

I recalled also seeing fruits that were available that I didn't eat, that I could have. I passed them up because the expense at that time seemed too much. But now I am thinking-why didn't I make a least one meal of that fruit-surely it would have been well worth the expense. A mono meal of any of the summer fruits sounds AMAZING right now.

So the variety available is a real perk to eating 811-if you get bored, you actually have no excuse to do so, as there are hundreds and hundreds of new fruits to try!

Of course, what I run into is the cost of ordering tropical fruit, but it is so nice to treat myself to some cherimoya or paw paw here and there when it is available.
There are many that I haven't even tried yet that you have Dr D: Sapodilla, mammea, jakfruit, lychee, jaboticada, durian, fuongtong carambola, mamones (some folks know them as kanips), dragon fruit, niezeburra. I havent even heard of many of these, and have no idea what most of them look like.

I had to make a list of what I have eaten in the last month, approx 25 items:
Butter Lettuce
Mixed Leafy Greens
Zucchini
Tomatoes-2
Spinach
Celery
Corn
Sesame Seeds
Avocado
Oranges-2
Mandarins
Lemon/Lime
Kiwi
Blackberry
Raspberry (frozen)
Apple
Blueberry (frozen)
Mango(frozen)
Bananas
Dates
Carob (powdered)

I have felt limited this last month, and bored even-but this is a lot more than I thought it would be. I suppose it is because I am tired of bananas, as they are an everyday item and the bulk of my calories. What I wouldn't do for a fig! But i am thoroughly convinced I get enough variety in my diet. ;)
Yay for 811! ;)anything you want to add Dr D?


From: Dr. Doug Graham (DrGraham.vegsource.com)
Subject: Compare your diet to SAD
Date: January 19, 2007 at 6:38 am PST

In Reply to: A thorough answer and I'm thoroughly convinced posted by Christy on January 18, 2007 at 10:06 am:

A typical SAD eater has an EXTREMELY limited diet. It is becoming more limited as the years progress.

Breakfast is typically cereal and milk, or some fast food item that they eat almost every morning of the year. Usually, if they enjoy their breakfast, they want it to be reliably THE SAME, every time.Compare that to a breakfast of fresh fruit. Each week of the year, watermelon tastes a bit different. Almost every tomato I have ever eaten tasted different from all others. Fresh squeezed citrus juice is never the same from one day to the next, but citrus juice in a carton is guaranteed to taste the same, always, forever, as if that was a selling point rather than a drawback.

People typically slip into patterns for lunch, and raw eaters are not that much different. The difference for us lies in the fact that Nature and the seasons brings us different fresh fruit every month of the year. Compare that to someone eating a hamburger for lunch daily, or pizza, or some other fast food. Those foods are reliably the same, month after month after year after year. Heck, even if you ate bananas for lunch every day of the year you would notice that the same variety tasted differently at different times of year.

The world of food opens up to raw fooders at dinner time. The varietions available are HUGE. Compared to those on SAD, who have their "Tuesday night is spaghetti night, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are pizza nights, it's beef on Tues and Sat, and Sunday night is always chicken," regimen. I feel sorry for them.

The idea of suggesting that ketchup is a vegetable is absurd. Ketchup always tastes the same. The beauty of raw recipes is that you can almost never make them come out the same because each ingredient tastes a bit different depending upon the time of year, the growing conditions, ripeness, and a wide variety of other factors.
Dr D


From: Christy
Subject: Re: Compare your diet to SAD
Date: January 19, 2007 at 7:55 am PST
In Reply to: Compare your diet to SAD posted by Dr. Doug Graham on January 19, 2007 at 6:38 am:

You're right. I've been seeing peoples SAD diets in a new light lately. Its the excitotoxins that add the flavor and variation for them, not the actual foods for the most part. I think children these days have a horrible diet. Some kids I know for instance, will have cereal with milk for breakfast most days, and some variation of white flour and cheese for lunch and dinner, with chicken or some type of meat. They get an apple or banana here and there, a few pieces of lettuce or veggie here and there too. But they imagine they are eating something different when they have quasadillas one day and grilled cheese the next and mac and cheese the next-its all the same thing basically. Then for dinner its noodles with parmesan. :) Its all just dairy and grains.

I love it that fresh food always tastes different. The most amazing experience is to eat out of a garden. I had the best tomatoes in my life last summer out of our garden-some were indescribably sweet, some smoky. It was so good.
Thanks for sharing Dr D. :)

Christy's list inspired me, so I decided to post my own:


From: Bethany
Subject: Cool! My turn!
Date: January 18, 2007 at 10:22 am PST

In Reply to: A thorough answer and I'm thoroughly convinced posted by Christy on January 18, 2007 at 10:06 am:

Cool, Christy! This is fun! Here's what I've eaten in the last month (not counting a couple times eating "gourmet" raw at potlucks or restaurants):

Bananas (cavendish, apple, and red)
Oranges (navel, cara cara, valencia, moro)
Dates (medjool)
Tangerines (fairchild)
mandarins (satsuma)
tangelos (orlando and minneola)
Lettuce (romaine, red leaf, green leaf)
Mixed baby greens
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Celery
Tomatoes (beefsteak, grape, cherry, campari)
Avocado (haas)
Persimmon (fuyu and hachiya)
Cucumber
Bell Pepper (red and orange)
Papaya (gosa? or maridol?)
Baby bok choy
Bok choy
Carrots
Purple Cabbage
Pumpkinseeds
Macadamia nuts
Tahini
Kiwi
Red grapefruit
Blackberries
Mango
Strawberries
Pineapple
Honeydew
Cantaloupe
Basil
Grapes
Dried figs

Look at that! Who would get bored with all of that variety? So cool that even in the winter time, over the course of a month, we can really mix it up if we want.

If you made it to the end of this very long post, hopefully you are looking at your diet in a new light (no matter what your diet is! ) =)