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Alright, this is John Kohler with okraw.com. Today I have another exciting episode for
you and this may be a controversial one. There are people on YouTube that advocate, you know,
adding sugar to your bananas if they're not ripe enough, they're not sweet enough, and
what I'm here today to do at the 2013 Woodstock Food Festival. They interview 12 of the pioneers
here that teach the raw plant-based message to you guys and get their opinions on is refined
sugar okay to add on a raw foods diet or is it not okay? So, without further ado, lets
just get into the clips and share with you guys the opinions of the different pioneers
here. So, now we're with Megan Elizabeth. You can learn more and check her out at meganelizabeth.com.
She's been into raw foods for over 5 years now.
Well, I would have to say no, in my opinion. I really believe that as you're getting into
raw food, you're trying to avoid refined foods. It would never exist in nature. We can only
get whole foods in nature, so we should eat whole foods and anything that's refined is,
especially refined sugar, it's lacking in fiber and water, so it'll absorb right into
your system and cause blood sugar issues and things like that. It also is not very nutrient
dense, and I think especially coming form cooked food diet, most of us need to just
start eating the most nutrient dense foods that we possibly can, and eating enough calories
of nutrient dense foods. So, I don't think that refined foods should be a staple in anybody's
diet.
Alright, thank you, Megan. So, another question I have is you said you should eat whole foods.
So, I mean, I go to my whole foods all the time and, you know, they sell refined sugar.
Does that make it alright?
No. Whole Foods sells a lot of stuff. I mean, they sell like happy meats and-
How can meat be happy?
It can't be happy. That's the point. So, just because Whole Foods sells it doesn't mean
that it's a whole food.
Thank you, Megan, for clarifying that. So, now we're here with Dr. Samuel Mielcarski.
It's drsampt.com. He's been into raw foods for 15 years.
No. No, it's not. Refined sugar is not the same as fruit sugar, and this is the big misconception,
I think, when people think eating fruit's dangerous because they equivocate fruit with
fructose. Fructose and high fructose corn syrup is not the same kind of sugar you're
getting when you eat fruit, when it's attached to the water, the minerals, vitamins the fiber.
Then, it's really not the same thing. So, refined sugar, no. Fruit sugar form whole
natural fruit, yes.
So, now we're here with Tim VanOrden. Runningraw.com is his website. 9 years into raw foods. He
has a lot of experience besides the experience of like how Tim thinks.
Wow. Really controversial because there's the general consensus is that refined sugars
are bad, but there are some people in the raw community that are promoting the consumption
of refined sugar. Lance Armstrong's coach, Chris Carmichael, who has written several
books, basically I read those books when I was becoming an athlete and he says eat like
sugared cereals before your workouts and all this stuff and the people in the raw food
movement telling you to eat refined sugar are reading Chris Carmichael's books.
Oh, interesting.
Because I just saw one outside of the door next to the shoes. So, maybe that's where
they're getting this information. For my, I read all the time. So, I'm always looking
at sugar metabolism and how it effects the body. Refined sugar is not a health food in
any way, shape, or form. There are certain polyphenols and flavonoids, which are really
beneficial nutrients, in fruits and vegetables that help the body deal with the sugars in
a regulated fashion. It's like electricity. Sugar is energy. So, if you stick your finger
in the wall socket, not good, but if you plug something in to the wall socket and it's coated,
and it goes to a video camera and a microphone or lights, these are all the tools that those
plants provide. So, the plants are providing it, the extension cord, they're providing
the camera, they're providing the lights, they're providing the switches, all the safety
hardware so you can effectively and safely use that energy, but when you take all that
safety hardware away, what you're doing is you're sticking your finger in that socket.
That's what it's like to eat refined sugar. There's nothing to help you regulate it. So,
not good. Sugar's bad, okay?
So, now with Durianrider. His website is 30bananasaday.com. He's been into raw foods now for 11 years.
The question, I'll say yes. Some people say no, I'll say yes. I've got personal experience
about this in my blood cells, my hemoglobin A1C, my (unclear) hemoglobin, my glucose,
triglycerides, etc. I found it's fine. It's not better than whole fruits. Obviously, whole
fruits are the best, 'cause you get vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, etc. Refined sugar,
however, like organic coconut sugar, organic (unclear) sugar, organic cane sugar, etc,
can help have a bit more simple meal. Instead of a fruit meal, where you live the fruit's
not that good, but you want to eat fruit, you don't want to eat anything else but fruits
and vegetables. Adding the simple sugars that would've otherwise been there if the fruit
was frown properly can add the simple sugar content to your meal. I remember in 2009,
my mom was adding sugar to some pineapple and I said, 'Mom, why are doing that? That's
stupid. You shouldn't be eating it if it's not ripe, if it's not ready,' and she's like
'Oh, okay,' and she threw it out and then later on she's eating ice cream, but if she
had the pineapple with the sugar on it, she would've been satisfied with her sweet tooth.
So, I've learned a lot over these last 11 years. Obviously, fresh fruit's the best,
high quality sugar rich. If you can't get it, maybe sprinkle a little but of organic
sugar on the fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth so you're not reaching for the Hershey's or
the Wonka or the Baskin Robins later on.
Alright, so now we're here with Dan McDonald, also known as the life regenerator or DTM.
You can call him any one of those. He's been into raw foods for the last 13 years.
I don't. I don't like sugars without minerals. I don't like it. I don't like cooked sugars
because the minerals being out of the agave, especially not the white sugar. You don't
want to do that. That makes you go crazy because it's like rocket fuel without any of the electricity.
The example is put the white sugar in the water and put the diodes in the water and
see fi the light bulb lights up. No light bulb. Now, put the salt into the water, put
the diodes in the water and see the light bulb light up. Again, out the diodes into
fruit, with the sodium and the cell salts in the whole organic fruit, the light bulb
lights up. So, if the light bulb doesn't light up, then I don't want to eat it because every
meal should be lighting you up. I want my food to lift me higher and not drag me down.
I don't know where y'all are going, but I wan to go up that way and outwards this way
and have that conductivity and flow of the divine energy. SO, I'm going to avoid those
sugars. Now, am I like religious or insane about it? Maybe every 6 months I'll have apiece
of chocolate with agave in it just for the heck of it, you know, but for the most part
I will have the dates, I'll have the bananas, I will have the oranges. Whole fruit sugars
with minerals, minerals, minerals, minerals, minerals. Make sure everything has their minerals
form the soil coming up through the plant into the fruit and then those minerals are
the frequencies of energy which allow cells to communicate which allow the electricity
to flow through you so that your light bulb is on.
So, now we're here with Grant Campbell, rawaussieathlete.com. He's been into raw foods for the last 8 years
now.
That's a flat out no for me. I think all refined foods cause a problem with nutrient. We're
designed to eat whole foods that give us a full nutritional package of enzymes, vitamins,
minerals, carbs, fat, protein, antioxidants, fiber, water, all these great things. If you're
eating refined foods, you're throwing out that balance and you can't meet your needs.
I think, if you're looking for extra sweetness in your food then, because that problem down
the line is not going to be addressed adding refined sugar, you need to seek out sweeter
produce, grow your own. You can, you know, eat the fruit riper. It may be that you're
not ripening it enough. Some thing lie this. There's no shortcuts to making good quality
food. If it's not sweet, then you've got to solve the problem, grow better quality produce.
So, now we're with Don Bennet DAS. His website is health101.org. He's been into a fruit-based
raw diet for over 20 years.
Well, it's absolutely okay to eat refined sugars on a raw food diet if you're eating
an unhealthy raw food diet. That's just fine, but if you want to eat the healthiest of the
raw foods diets, refined sugars don't really have a place. It all depends on, how healthy
do you want to be? If you only want to be 80% f your health of longevity potential,
the that's fine. Some processed sugars are just fine, just not too much, no more than
like a 5-pound bag a day, but if you want the healthiest health that your genetics will
allow you to have, and I'm talking about your health not just today or tomorrow or a week
from now, 40 years from now, way in the future, you got to remember you're doing this for
your future health. So, if you want to be as healthy as your genetics will allow you
to be, processed refined sugars really have no part in an optimal healthy diet.
Alright, so, now we're with Freelee, the banana girl. Be sure to check her out on YouTube.
Banana girl. I mean, she's all about bananas. She loves bananas more than I do. Is that
possible? Anyway, she's been into raw food now for the last 7 years.
Is it alright? Well, is it raw? Is refined sugars raw? Well, look, personally I have
(unclear) sugar, and whether it's raw or not is debatable because it's evaporated sugar
form the sap of the palm tree, but, you know, if you're in a bind, and you cant get enough
quality fruit, then, yes, I would recommend that you have some refined sugar such as coconut
sugar. That's really the only one that I recommend. White sugar, I'm not a fan. Coconut sugar
I am because it's actually low GI and it doesn't give you any sugar spikes. So, if you add
that to your smoothie, if your banana quality isn't high enough, you can't get enough quality
fruit, add that in and you're going to feel a lot more satisfied and then you're less
likely to fall off the wagon and go back to eating that junk food because I'm sure you
agree that is going to be better than eating a whole lot of processed rubbish, high fat
foods and things like that. So, yes, in some cases it can be okay.
Alright, thank you Freelee. So, now we're with Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram. You can check
her out at fullyraw.com. Highly recommend it. She's been eating a fully raw plant based
fruit based for over 8 years.
No. No. Why would you eat refined sugar when you can get the natural sugar in the fruit
itself? You get those natural sugars that're going to be more easily absorbed by your body,
they have more vitamins in it and it's going to be way more hydrating. It's separating
that juice from the fiber. It's not what's going to keep you healthy. Consider your body
like a juicer. When you eat an apple, your body literally absorbs all of that liquid,
it absorbs the vitamin from that juice and you poop out the fiber. Your body is a juicer.
So, if you're eating just the refined sugar, you've separated a part of the food. You've
taken out some of the vitamins, some of the minerals, some of the fiber, and you're just
eating that sugar. It's not as optimal as a food as it could be and the most optimal
food that is high in water content that has those simple sugars that your body need is
fruit. Go for the fruit.
Go for the fruit and get good sweet fruit instead of pouring sugar on it when you can't
get sweet fruit.
Organic fruit tastes better as well. Just making a point.
So, we're here with Dr. Robert Lockhart. His website is sunfoodhealthretreat.com and he's
been into raw foods for the last 25 years.
You want a simple answer? No. No. I certainly wouldn't. Anything that's been refined, heated,
I know the sugar mills in my area that are living in Australia and I know that the additives,
the heating, the way that sugar acts to cause chaos in the body in the long run, especially
refined sugar. We need glucose, which is provided by our normal whole foods, that's fruits and
vegetables, will provide the natural sugar. You're not going to find natural sugar in
refined sugar, I'm afraid. Sorry. You're going to get spikes happening, you're going to get
hypoglycemic lows taking place when your sugar level drops so suddenly after the body is
hit with that high level of sugar, which suddenly floods into the bloodstream. With whole raw
foods, the sugar enters into the bloodstream is far more gentle and takes place over a
period of time rather than being a total hit like you're getting in a sugar caffeine drink
or whatever you happen to be drinking. So, simple answer to your question: no. Refined
sugar has no part in a raw food diet.
Now we're here with Dr. Doug Graham. His website is foodnsport and that's the letter n. He's
been into raw food for 35 years. He's often looked up to as one of the pioneers and true
pioneers in the movement here.
Wow. That sounds like a really judgmental question. It's not up to me to judge what
other people do, but I question highly the efficacy of a program of taking just a simple
sugar and eating it just sugar. I mean, at that point, we might as well eat protein powder
out of a can or fat out of a box. I think that foods are supposed to be in a whole component
of all their associated nutrients. If I want something sweet, I'll eat sweet fruit. If
I want something with some acid taste, I'll eat acid fruit. If I want something with a
lot of crunch and not much sweet, then I'll eat some vegetables. If I want something super
salty, I'll eat more vegetables, but if I just want sweet to simply add sugar, I can't
recommend that as a course of action for anybody. Even if they say, 'Oh, well this is absolutely
guaranteed not refined, 100% raw,' well, it had to be refined. The water's been removed,
the fiber's been removed, the associated nutrients aren't there. Always, always, always raw foods
and always, always, always whole foods, and whole foods are always the best option. So,
in a world of good, better, best, I trust people to make their own decisions about what's
best. If the only thing you have is raw sugar and no other food options for the next 6 weeks,
and you have to live on a bag of raw sugar, well I guess it was probably smart to do it,
you know, but otherwise, there are better options available. Whole food is always your
best options. I'll go through it. There's 6 parameters, 6 adjectives. Whole, fresh,
ripe, raw, organic, plants. Look at what's on your plate. If it's whole, fresh, ripe,
raw, organic plants, you get a gold star.
Thank you, Doug. So, you guys just heard 11 opinions on if sugar should be included on
a raw foods diet, and to refresh you guys 2 of the pioneers said, yea, it's alright,
and all the others resoundingly said it's not okay. Next, I'm going to give you my opinion.
So, I'm John Kohler. I've been into raw foods for the last 18 years now. You can check me
out more on okraw.com, and do I believe sugar should be consumed on a raw foods diet? Absolutely
not. It should not be included. Why? Well, I don't know about you, but when I got into
raw foods, it was trying to improve my diet, and we know that like white sugar, white flower,
all those white processed foods are not good for us. So, why would we want to include ad
food that we probably got rid of along time ago? Another reason for me that's really important,
near and dear to my heart, is that, you know, over consumption of sugar may depress your
immune system. I got into raw foods to save my life literally, and I don't want to eat
excess sugar that may compromise my immune system even just one bit. Another reason why
I do not like sugar is because, you know, it just literally one nutrient. I mean, we
all talk about whole food. Why eat whole foods? It's full of nutrients. Besides the sugar
it's the antioxidants, the phytochemicals, the minerals, but when you just take the isolated
sugar, you're just getting sugar, whether it's in the form of sucrose, glucose, or fructose,
and our bodies are not really designed to handle, you know, sugar without extra nutrition.
It's the fiber that kind of buffers the sugar in the bloodstream unless you want that, you
know, fast sugar rush, sugar hit. I don't think it's really a good idea. We should get
our sugars from whole foods. Another thing that's really important to me is that because
we're living in this modern day and age, you know, from the time we are little, young wee
ones, we've all been fed refined sugar products. So, we have a real sweet tooth or, you know,
perverted sweet tooth, in my opinion. What do I mean by perverted? Perverted means we
really need a lot of sugar to be stimulated, man. If you ever went on a water fast, for
example, you go one a water fast, don't eat anything for a period of time. My dad actually
went on a 30-day water fast. After your 30-day water fast, your taste buds reset. It's like
resetting that video game when you're messing up and making the score zero again so you
can start all over. Your taste buds reset. So, not it's more calibrated. So, even a little
bit of celery is like, woah, man, that's like some of the saltiest stuff I've ever tasted,
and the same is true with sugar. Now, if you don't to go on a fast to reset your salt and
sugar taste buds, another real easy way to do it is just eat the foods found naturally
in nature that don't have such a high sugar content. I mean, the natural we would eat
in nature that's high in sugar is fresh fruits. So, we want to eat just natural fruits, and
we want to of course get the ripest fruits, most mineral dense fruits and possible that
you can. I mean, to me the solution for nonsweet fruits that aren't totally ripe is not pour
sugar on it so they're edible, it's to get higher quality fruits. Well, that means you
got to go to the farmers market to get is fresh from the farmer that's fresh picked.
Go to a you-pick farm where you can pick your own fresh off the tree, or even best yet,
grow your own food, and, you know, grow it in rock dust minerals, pick it at its absolute
peak ripeness and also get the varieties that era going to have the highest sugar content,
if that's what you're really after. So, we need to get used to the standard levels of
sugar in food because we're used to like this much sugar and we need to get right to this
point. I've learned after many levels of raw foods, I'm fine with having just sugar in
fruits. I don't need like that extra kick. I mean, occasionally I might indulge in some
dates or something like that, but I don't even eat dates all that often. So, if you're
unable to source the ripest, highest quality fruits and still aren't sweet enough, what
I would recommend instead of adding your sugar and taking the easy copout method, add some
dried fruits, you know. If you have some bananas that don't taste too could, cause you live
in Australia for example, make a little banana sandwich and just cut in half and put a whole
bunch of dates in there and every bite of banana you get some dates with it, or make
some date sauce with even some vanilla powder or vanilla bean and pour that over your bananas
and eat it. Man, that's going to be good. You could use more than just the dates. You
could use literally any dried fruit just whole or blending it up back in with water to make
a nice creamy delicious sweet sauce. Another method I like to do sometimes, you know, instead
of pouring sugar extra sugar which I do not do, is if I have a fruit that's not tasting
so good, I'll juice it. When you juice it and you get rid of the fiber, so no, this
is not a whole food any longer, but it's much better than pouring sugar crystals on your
pineapple, juice the pineapple, get the pineapple because you're removing the fiber, heightening
the sweetness sensation. I mean, another thing you can do is dehydrate or take some of the
water content out of the food or go another direction. I mean, that's just an option so
you can get some more fruits down. So, to sum it up I want to encourage you guys to
live your life by a motto I constantly strive to do. It's called CANI. CANI. It stands for
constant and never ending improvement. You know, hopefully, if you deleted or took out
the sugar out of your diet a while back, and now you're adding it back in, that's not improving,
man. That's like going the wrong direction. Improving would be going out and start your
own banana orchard and growing your own bananas so you can get sweeter fruits. It would be
go and out and, you know, dehydrate your bananas and have some dehydrated bananas with some
fresh bananas that have the water removed so you get some more sweetness, you know.
We want to try to always improve what we're doing instead of go backwards and in my opinion
eating refined sugars in the form of, you know, coconut sugar, white sugar, agave, whatever
it is, it's going to wrong direction. We want to eat more fresh fruits and some dried or
juiced one if you need to for that extra sweetness. So, hopefully after watching this episode
you've learned if it's alright to eat refined sugars on a raw food diet, and the majority
of the pioneers of the Woodstock food festival was a resounding no that you should not eat
refined sugars, you know. Once again, I want to always encourage you guys to think for
yourselves and, you know, don't just blindly follow the leader because, you know, sometime
the leader could lead you off a cliff, but think for yourselves, do your own research,
and, you know, look to others for advice. Like, if you had a situation, you had to go
to the doctors, would you just get the opinion of one doctor? My mom always taught me to
go get a second, maybe even a 3rd or 4th opinion, you know, to see what's up and I would ways
encourage you guys to fact check and, you know, question everything and do your research
so that you can eat the healthiest raw foods diet ever. Once again, my name is John Kohler
with okraw.com. We'll see you next time and remember, keep eating your fresh fruits and
vegetables. They're always the best.
Sugar's bad.
Sugar's bad.
Sugar's bad.
Okay?
Doug, what's the difference between an 80/10/10 diet and the 30 bad diet or one of the diets
that's being promoted as something similar to 80/10/10?
It's a great question.