It goes without saying that sleep is an important part of our daily routine since so many body functions rely upon the restoration that sleep brings for proper functioning of our various organ systems, including our immune system, nervous system, musculoskeletal system, endocrine (hormonal) system, and more. Mood, memory, and cognitive function are also affected by the amount and quality of sleep we experience.
In regard to amount, sleeping 8 hours per night is ideal for me – on most days, I allow myself to spontaneously awaken without an alarm clock and I do not feel the need to drink any type of caffeine containing beverage to get myself going in the morning. In fact, I have only had 3 cups of coffee in my entire life, all before I became interested in raw food 30 years ago. Rick and I also sleep in a fully dark bedroom, which can help with melatonin production. Fortunately, we live in an area where there isn’t much ambient light and we have a dark shade to block out any moonlight that may be present.
To help feel well-rested and refreshed upon rising in the morning, I also stop eating 4 or more hours before going to bed the night before so that I’m not actively digesting food in my stomach while sleeping. I’ve noticed a huge difference in how I feel this way versus eating closer to bed time, which leads to me feeling groggy and not as well-slept the next day. This being said, some people have shared that eating before bed helps them actually sleep better.
Which way works best for you?
Exercise earlier in the day, also helps me experience restful sleep as does several minutes of mediation periodically throughout the day.
Photo: Presenting at the 2019 UK Fruitfest. Often when I’m traveling, my sleep is not as sound as when I’m home, but at this festival my sleep was great! Must’ve been the awesome food and company! Cheers to organizer Ronnie, his impressive team, and to everyone I had the joy of meeting there!
What strategies have helped you experience restorative sleep?
This can sometimes be a challenging one for me, since like so many people, I spend a lot of time working. This being said, I love my work and because of my passion for what I do, I find myself spending 10 or sometimes more hours per day working on a variety of projects to bring science and research-based health and nutrition information to people. Very often, I find that the work I do can be relaxing in and of itself since I experience so much satisfaction from what I do!
Nonetheless, taking breaks from even enjoyable activities can be beneficial and necessary. Since I spend a lot of time sitting at my computer, I find exercise and movement to be an essential relaxation activity. I know this may sound a little counter-intuitive, but I see going for a run or lifting weights as a welcome reward for my productivity whether it’s writing an article like this one, answering emails, doing some research, etc. Taking screen breaks at least once per hour allows me to move around, stretch, relax my mind, and come back to my work with a fresh perspective. During these periods of relaxation, I also give myself a “break” from stress I may be feeling around a deadline, or otherwise.
Interestingly enough, sometimes the best ideas I’ve had have come to me while relaxing, such as while I’m out running or walking or just not focusing so intently on a task.
Have you ever noticed this?
I love it when this happens!
It’s these times when I find my mind integrating what I’ve been focusing on recently, which creates space for ideas to emerge and allows for me to feel more grounded and centered.
So, for these and so many other reasons, I find relaxation to be valuable and essential.
You can find the recipe for this salad, dressings, and lots of other delicious raw foods in our free Holiday Raw Food Recipe Guide eBook you can receive when you register for our email list: https://rawfoodeducation.com/?page_id=3322
What do you enjoy doing, or not doing, for relaxation?
Day 16 of my top 30 for 30: The Many Ways you can Hydrate
You’ve likely heard people say that we need 8 cups of water per day for good hydration (or something similar). The National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine has set guidelines, known as the daily “adequate intakes,” or AIs, for water consumption. These AIs are for people living in temperate climates, and do not take into account exercise, perspiration, sodium intake, humidity, etc., all of which may alter the amount of water needed to be “adequately hydrated.” Nevertheless, the AIs do give us reasonable guidelines.
The water AI for women is 2.7 liters (91 oz. or 11.4 8-oz. glasses) and for men is 3.7 liters (125 oz. or 15.6 8-oz. glasses). The recommendations take into account not only what we consume from drinking water directly, but also from beverages and food.
As we know, a raw food diet or raw food-focused diet is generally a high-water content diet, so what do these recommendations mean for a person eating a lot of high-water content foods? To get a clearer picture, I created some menu plans for various raw food approaches – the water content in them ranged from around 1.9 liters to more than 3.5 liters per day for 2,000 calorie menu plans. The more nuts, seeds, and dehydrated foods on these menus, the less water they contained.
For comparison, we also evaluated a sample standard western menu and found 1.5 liters of water for almost 3,000 calories. For a 2,000 calorie menu plan, the water content would be even lower.
The bottom line is that generally the greater the content of fruits and vegetables (and their juices) in one’s diet, the higher the water content. As we can see here, a diet based on fruits and vegetables can make a significant contribution to one’s daily water needs.
If you are interested in evaluating your own diet or doing your own set of comparisons, an online nutrient analysis program can be helpful – many of our students like Cronometer. Full transparency – we do not receive any remuneration from Cronometer. If you have any similar suggestions, please feel free to let us know which one you like!
I’ve been drinking green juice sporadically for years, however it wasn’t until a few months ago that I actually started incorporating it into my daily diet. I was having a conversation with a raw food friend who said that he had been drinking celery juice daily and noticed a positive change in his overall well-being. I tend to be somewhat skeptical of trends, but nonetheless I was curious, so I added 32 ounces of celery juice per day to my daily diet for a month. I was surprised to see that I noticed a difference within a couple of days – I guess the best way to describe how I felt was an even greater sense of clarity and not surprisingly, hydration. After the month was over, I added cucumber to the juice and I felt similarly to how I felt with the straight celery juice. I’m so happy that I gave this a try, since this experience has brought my health experience to an even higher level!
Nutritionally, I see green juice as added value to my daily diet. For example, my favorite green juice is composed of 10 stalks of celery (12” in length) and 2 medium cucumbers (8” in length). Even though this is a very simple light green juice, the nutrient content of the ingredients used to make this juice is significant: 352 mg of calcium, 2.97 mg of iron, 2.03 mg of zinc, etc. Please note that these numbers are for the ingredients used to make the juice, not the actual amounts in the juice, which has yet to be fully studied. I’ve found this particular recipe for light green juice to be a great way to introduce green juice to family members who are new to healthy eating, since the flavor is not as strong as it tends to be with the inclusion of darker leafy greens. The addition of the juice of one lemon can help as well.
There are juice recipes in in our free Holiday Raw Food Recipe Guide eBook and our New Year’s Juicing Reboot Guide which you can receive when you register for our email list. See link in bio.
Before I became interested in raw food 30 years ago, I thought of fruit as a dessert, a condiment, or a decoration on top of my cereal. Honestly, I did not particularly like fruit growing up because invariably I would get an upset stomach almost every time I ate it. When I learned about raw food, my initial thought was that eating this way is not possible for me. At the time, I was looking for a solution to a health challenge, so I was willing to explore my options. I reluctantly gave eating more fruit a try and was surprised at how well I felt.
What was the difference? Placebo? Was I just so desperate to feel better that I just wished myself into feeling better after eating fruit? Well, not really. Honestly, I was hoping that raw food would not make a difference in my health because it seemed so complicated and different than the norm, or more specifically my norm. Raw food eating may seem a bit eccentric to most people now, but imagine how it was perceived in 1990 when I was getting started. Much to my chagrin, raw food did make a big difference for me health-wise and my perception of it was radically changed. My attitude changed to gratitude with the health results I experienced.
So, why did fruit work for me digestion-wise when previously it had not? I'm sure many of you can guess the answer. The fact is, before going raw I was eating fruit with or right after other foods which did not work for my digestion. The food combining principle of eating fruits away from other foods was really a game-changer for me, since I was actually able to start enjoying fruit without digestive distress for really the first time in my life! If you're not familiar with the principles of food combining for digestive purposes, they're definitely worth a look. In our class, Mastering Raw Food Nutrition, we examine food combining principles from a modern scientific perspective.
For many years now, fruit has played an important role in my diet. To see if I could further refine my approach to fruit combining, I did some experimenting. As a result, I've found that fruit blended with certain leafy greens in smoothies works just fine for my digestion. Melons are best eaten on their own for me. I've made raw desserts for special occasions that have contained both fruit and chis seeds without digestive challenges, while recipes containing both nuts and fruit generally do not work for me. These are some of my experiences with fruit combining. Naturally, what works for you is most important.
What principles of food combining have worked for you?
Back when we started our health journeys over 30 years ago, there weren’t nearly as many resources available for connecting with other raw food enthusiasts as there are today. For that matter there weren’t nearly as many raw foodists back then, or even vegans or vegetarians! We knew a small number of people on this path, but even that handful of enthusiasts made all the difference.
We shared our ideas, had get-togethers and potlucks, celebrated our progress, and enjoyed our experience! This was much different than connecting today, given that back then, none of us had computers. The internet was in its infancy and most people, ourselves included, had never even heard of it. There were no websites, smartphones, social media, etc. There were resources, but not nearly as many as are available today.
Nowadays, it’s easier to connect with like-minded people from all over the globe and it has been a joy to witness the blossoming of the raw food, vegan, and plant-based communities into full-fledged movements!
Without a doubt and from our point of view, the value of having a community of people with a similar mindset cannot be overestimated. Our experience of support, friendship, personal development, sharing of personal experience, and so much more has made all the difference for us!
The juice in this photo is straight pomegranate juice that we often enjoy in smaller amounts in smoothies or mixed with orange juice. Recipes for these and lots of other delicious raw foods can be found in our free Holiday Raw Food Recipe Guide eBook that you can receive when you register for our email list: https://rawfoodeducation.com/?page_id=3322
How important has connection and community been in your success on your health journey?
When I started my raw food journey, I experienced a number of health improvements, including a significant improvement in the fatigue I was experiencing, clearing of my constant nasal congestion, a greater sense of well-being, a greater sense of clarity, etc. The sharp contrast I experienced between how I felt before making my transition to raw and how I felt afterwards painted a very clear picture in my mind that is just as clear today as it was 30 years ago.
Having this clear picture of the reasons why I started my health journey is one of the many reasons why I have stayed on the raw food vegan path over the long term.
The reason why I’m covering this here is that, when the challenges come up, if you have a strong picture in your mind or have a strong connection to why you started on this path, this can help to inspire you to continue on your path. On a related note, Dr. Rick can remember back to his early days of making positive healthful changes and working away from the unhealthful ones, which at times seemed difficult, he kept one major theme in mind that was a constant source of inspiration for him: “The bigger the challenge, the greater the reward!”
This photo is of some fresh-squeezed orange juice ready to be mixed with pomegranate juice. You can find the instructions for creating straight pomegranate juice or orange pomegranate juice along with salads, dressings, and lots of other delicious raw foods in our free Holiday Raw Food Recipe Guide eBook that you can receive when you register for our email list: https://rawfoodeducation.com/?page_id=3322
Over the past 30 years of being on the raw food path, I’ve heard many personal stories from people about the reaction of friends or loved ones to the changes they’ve made to their diet. Most of the time when they moved toward a plant-based, vegan, or raw food approach there was questioning, concern, skepticism, etc. Even a shift away from processed foods toward a diet based more on whole foods was often met with similar questioning.
So, what do you do when you are so excited about your lifestyle that you want to share it with others who may not be familiar with it? Sure, you can spend some time explaining the ins and outs of the nutritional benefits or the benefits for the planet and animals, but one approach has worked really well for us – providing an experience of the food.
For example, at past family and other types of gatherings, we just present the food without talking about how raw food is “more healthy” or making comparisons between a raw food diet and any other way of eating. We’ve found that If people think that the food is different or “special,” they may be less interested in trying it. This way they don’t see the food as different. They just eat and enjoy it. Most of the time, the recipes we make are composed of foods they are already familiar with – fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc.
In our experience, tasty raw food dishes are often the first to disappear from the table and people may even ask if there is more. We’ve found that raw desserts are a great way to introduce raw plant foods to anyone, because they taste great and are often prepared in ways that are familiar. Our raw pies have been a hit at family holiday parties.
BTW, you can find the recipes for two of our pies in our holiday recipes eBook that you can receive when you register for our email list. See link in when you register for our email list: https://rawfoodeducation.com/?page_id=3322
During the month of October 2020, I am counting down the top 30 mindset and practical strategies that have made all the difference in my success for 30 years as a raw food plant-based enthusiast to help you on your path!
How have you introduced friends and family members to your lifestyle and how did it work?
When I started my raw food journey 30 years ago, I was ready. Ready to let go of my fatigue and step into a new way of being in the world. This being said, my skeptical mind was casting doubt on whether or not this new lifestyle would actually ‘work’ and I found myself somewhat overwhelmed with all the new foods, where to keep them all, making sure that I was eating them before they would start to senesce, how to prepare them, how to eat enough to feel full, the food combining parameters to consider, and more.
Does this sound familiar?
It was a lot to consider all at once, but one major shift that helped me to organize all of this new information and lifestyle changes was my mindset.
I really wanted to give this lifestyle a solid chance, and it was that motivation that kept me going at first. I saw all of the changes I was making and my new experiences with them as an adventure! And when I really started to see results, my enthusiasm skyrocketed! Eventually, the day-to-day considerations became second nature and all of the transition challenges started to melt away into a sea of improved health and a greater sense of wellbeing.
The bottom line is my mindset of growth and enjoyment helped to move me through the initial adjustment period and in the end all the changes I made were well worth all the effort.
BTW, you can find the recipe for this salad, dressings, and lots of other delicious raw foods in our free Holiday Raw Food Recipe Guide eBook that you can receive when you register for our email list. See link in bio.
Was there any particular mindset or practical strategy that helped you in your transition to a more health-promoting lifestyle? What role has enjoyment played in your success?
Given how busy we all are these days, I know this can be easier said than done. Creating time for exercise is similar to dietary change in that when you make it a priority, then you get to reap the benefits. Over the years, I’ve been asked what type of exercise I think is ‘best’ and I know there are a lot of different points of view out there on this topic, so I’ll leave the specifics up to the experts and researchers. It’s my thought that whichever type of exercise one enjoys and will regularly engage in is a good choice. Of course, deciding on what form of exercise one chooses depends on a number of factors such as one’s current fitness level, their fitness goals, past injuries if any, and other considerations.
I first transitioned to a raw plant-based diet 30 years ago, I had more energy than I knew what to do with and for the first time in my life, I was actually feeling strongly drawn to exercise. Throughout high school, I ran track and cross-country, so I had a history of being physically active, but I didn’t really enjoy it that much. After becoming raw during my college years, my exercise recovery times were improved, I felt more energetic while running, I could run faster and longer, and my experience of health and well-being rose to a level I never could have imagined! The combination of exercise and dietary change for me was powerful in so many ways!
What are your favorite forms of movement and exercise?
For any change I’ve made in my life, including shifting my diet to whole natural plant foods, I’ve found is that there has been a period of adjustment.
For me, it seemed that the bigger the change the more significant the adjustment, as stretching into a new experience can be simultaneously exciting and unsettling.
Apparently, there’s been research done on how long it actually takes to form a new positive habit, which is really interesting. But what it comes down to for me is that practice, regardless of time frame, has been my best ally in creating lasting change. In addition to getting my new health-supporting practices into my mindset and daily routine, I also had some very compelling reasons for shifting my diet and lifestyle including my health, the animals, the environment, etc.
Having a strong ‘why’ propelled me forward and helped to keep me on track during challenging times. But in the end, practice was one of my most significant keys to success, along with not being hard on myself if I found myself starting to fall off track. When this happened, I would address the challenge, find a solution, pick myself up, continue onward, and learn from my experience.
BTW, you can find recipes for dishes containing pomegranates and lots of other delicious raw foods in our free Holiday Raw Food Recipe Guide eBook that you can receive when you register for our email list. See link in bio.
How has practice worked for you in creating health-supporting habits?
One of the biggest challenges to creating new health-promoting habits is actually having healthful food that you enjoy on hand. How many times have I heard from people that early on in their raw food or plant-based vegan transition that they ran out of food and had to resort to preparing something else that happened to be on hand but wasn’t really what they wanted to make. They were hungry, maybe they just got home from work, or their family was wanting to have a meal soon. They didn’t want to go out shopping for fruits and vegetables, etc. so they just made something in their pantry left over from before they started eating healthier.
Can you relate?
Honestly, I hear similar stories even from people who have been on the path for a while, so if this is similar to your story, no worries. Please know that you’re certainly not alone.
How can this situation be handled? One answer is keeping your fridge and pantry stocked at all times if possible. Implementing this can take practice. Depending on what types of foods you like, whether or not they need refrigeration (like lettuce or other types of leafy greens), or need to be left out to ripen for a period of time (like rock-hard avocados) or can store well in a pantry (like sunflower seeds for sprouting), it may take a while to “get used to” eating this way. And that’s okay.
It took me some time to figure out how much of each type of food to buy and how long these foods would stay fresh versus how much of these foods I would eat and what recipes I would make.
It’s a lot to digest all at once. But in time I figured it out and it became just as second nature as meal planning in the before times. My most helpful strategy was to always have something delicious and easy to prepare on hand at all times. My new ‘staple’ foods which you’ll see in a lot of my recipes.
What kitchen planning success strategies have you developed? What are your favorite staple foods?
Day 6 of my top 30 for 30: Know that your social situations may change, especially when it comes to meals away from home. How do you handle social situations that involve food, such as going to a friend or family member’s house or a restaurant?
Here are some of the strategies that Rick and I have employed in such situations:
For a friend or family member, we have offered to bring a dish to share with everyone, which usually brings a happy sigh of relief from the host. And you may find that your dish is one of the first to disappear with lots of smiles and requests for the recipe!
If you are going to a restaurant with a group of people (such as co-workers or family members), you can suggest a restaurant where you know you can get a healthy dish.
If the group chooses another restaurant that you’re not familiar with, you can call the restaurant ahead of time to see if the menu contains some healthy items, and if not, you can see if the restaurant is open to special requests. During the past 30 years, we have found it to be progressively easier to find dishes we like at most restaurants.
Another useful strategy is filling up on healthy food before going out, so you can be assured that you will not be left with undesirable menu choices and a hungry stomach.
What matters most is what you eat consistently, day in and day out, not what you might consume once a month or a few times a year at various types of social gatherings. So, if you end up eating something that you wouldn’t normally, notice how you feel, without judgment, and get back on track the next day.
By the way, you can find the recipe for this raw pumpkin pie in our holiday recipes eBook that you can receive when you register for our email list.
Day 5 of my top 30 for 30: Know yourself. When I say this, I mean that is helpful to know what approach to dietary transition works for you, or worked for you. Are you the type of person who likes to jump in with both feet and go all out? Did raw food and/or veganism resonate so deeply with you that you transitioned overnight and never looked back? Or are you someone who likes to take your time to transition and give yourself the opportunity to let each step fully sink in and integrate into your daily life? Do you like to know all the facts first, come up with a solid plan, and then start? Or are you somewhere in between? Is your goal to be 100% raw or is it to be high raw or some other percentage?
I ask these questions because over the years, I’ve had many people share their transition experiences with me and a number have expressed that they wish they had done things differently or felt pressure to transition differently than they had.
It’s my thought that there is no one ‘right’ way to transition. One of the common threads I’ve seen in successful and long-maintained dietary transitions is that the person was happy with their experience. They considered the strategy that resonated the most with where they were at the time and started on the path. They minimized the influences painting a picture of what it ‘should’ look like in order to ‘work’.
They were true to themselves. Whether it took a day or a year or more time to transition.
For me, I was really motivated to improve my health with raw food and resonated strongly with the vegan message, so I went full in and figured the out details over time. This was quite a stretch for me given my normal tendency to approach situations more methodically. This being said, I was enthusiastic, ready to learn, open to making changes as needed, and happy with my overall transition experience and health outcome.
What was your transition like?
Welcome to my top 30 for 30! During the month of October, I am counting down the top 30 mindset and practical strategies that have made all the difference in my success for 30 years as a raw food plant-based enthusiast to help you on your path!
Day 4 of my top 30 for 30: When I first got started on my raw path over 30 years ago, there were not the food resources available we have today. I purchased my food at a regular grocery store because that was all that was available to me where I lived in the northeastern US and even though I did not have access to organic food at the time and didn’t have a wide variety of produce options then, my health improved dramatically.
It certainly can be challenging to eat healthy food consistently if it’s hard to find or if it is too costly. Rick and I have listed below several options for purchasing produce other than traditional grocery or health food stores:
1) Farmers Markets
One of the main benefits of farmers markets is that the food is grown locally, and tends to be fresher than food found in a store. At farmers markets in the area where we now live in northern California, organically grown or pesticide-free food is fortunately easy to find. Because the food is local and fresh, one may often find a much greater variety of produce compared to what is available in a store, where shelf life and transportability are major concerns that dictate availability. We look forward to each season to buy the freshest local food. For example, we love peaches and other stone fruit in the summer, and look forward to pomegranates in the fall and persimmons in late fall and early winter.
As you get to know some of the farmers at your local market, you can inquire to see if they would be willing to sell you larger quantities than the average consumer purchases, for a discounted price. Some will and some won’t. We have been fortunate enough to find some good sellers who know that we are raw food enthusiasts and will buy in quantity from them consistently if they offer us a good deal. As there are many other raw food enthusiasts in our area of northern California, many farmers are familiar with the benefits of selling in quantity.
You will tend to get especially good deals on items in season. This seasonal model works out as a double bonus as you get lots of high-quality fresh produce and at a great price. In the summer for example, we often eat a lot of raw zucchini with tomato-based dressing. Dr. Rick has been known to shred up 6-8 zucchini into a large mixing bowl which he tops with his favorite tomato dressing for dinner.
2) Wholesale produce markets
We have visited wholesale markets in both the San Francisco bay area and the New York metro area. We live in the SF bay area, so when we buy from our local wholesale produce market we buy enough food to last the two of us about 2 weeks. Why so much? The food available at wholesale markets is sold in boxes or cases. This works well for us because the produce is so fresh, that it lasts for often weeks at a time in our large-capacity dedicated refrigerator.
On average, we spend about 50% less on produce from the wholesale markets than we would spend on the same amount of food at a natural foods retail market or average farmers market prices. A good example is organically grown Romaine lettuce, which at our local farmers market and in a retail store in our area cost about $2 or more per head. In the summer of 2015, we paid $21 for a 24 head case of very fresh organically grown Romaine lettuce. This price does vary depending on the season. Sometimes cases of romaine may cost $40 or more, but the retail prices at that time are more like $3 per head. In 2020, these prices are similar. It is interesting to note that the romaine lettuce in retail markets are often much smaller than those sold at wholesale, because they are not as fresh and have had several of the outer leaves picked off. We have found that when we buy lettuce at wholesale, the heads are very large, since very few, if any of the outer leaves have been removed.
The wholesale markets we have visited often have a wide variety of produce, since there are many produce vendors who obtain their food from local, domestic, and international farmers. We really enjoy going to the wholesale markets because of the wide variety of food available, especially organic and locally produced. A very large percentage of the food that we eat is organically grown and local. This is one of the benefits for us of living in a major metropolitan area of California where we can access the year-round wholesale produce markets and farmers markets.
Wholesale produce markets are usually further away from home than local retailers, and often are open during overnight hours instead of during the day. While this can present some challenges, we have found it well worth the effort, as for the next two weeks or so we barely have to buy anything in a retail store, have fresher food, and save thousands of dollars per year. On the whole it is also much more convenient to purchase a car-load of food in cases, as opposed to having to run all of that food through a retail cash register. We would often find it a challenge to load up all the produce on the conveyer belt that was not nearly large enough for all of the food, and try to supervise the bagger not to damage any of the produce. At the wholesale produce markets, those issues don’t exist. You either carry the cases yourself, which is great exercise, or if you purchase larger quantities the sellers may bring your order on a pallet right to your car, as we have experienced. Everything is well-packed, protected, and easy to transport.
It is important to mention that wholesale produce sellers are often located in industrial areas with loading docks. It is sometimes very noisy with trucks and pallet loaders zipping around, so while shopping, we have to be constantly aware of our surroundings. We are fine with that, as it is well worth it on the whole to get large quantities of very fresh produce very conveniently at about half the price of retail. We are very fortunate to have Earl’s Organic Produce in San Francisco, where we know most of the people there at this point and have been “regulars” for many years.
We have spoken to some of our students who have considered purchasing food at wholesale markets, but think that cases of produce would provide too much food for them, so they have thought of starting:
3) Produce buying clubs
This strategy allows one to buy fresh produce in quantity with a group of people, who then share the produce. This can help keep produce costs down, while not having to buy individually in such large quantities. Dr. Rick started a produce buying club with a friend while in graduate school. They ordered produce for the group weekly and people would come over to their apartment and pick up their order on specified days. This model worked reasonably well, most of the time. Rick found that the biggest challenge was people in the group not picking up their produce at the specified times, and people would be coming over at times he needed to study. He did have a busy schedule between work and school, so the hours that he was available for pick up were somewhat limited. Also, although there was a minimum order, he had many people in the club who would buy small quantities such as a bag of raisins and a few apples, which meant more small transactions taking up a lot of time. Also, back in the mid 90’s, before the use of personal computers and the internet were widespread, there were a lot of logistics that made things a lot more complicated than they are today.
We think this model would work well for a small group of committed people with pick-up hours amenable to all group members. One could maybe even share the produce pick-up or delivery responsibilities. In the past few years, we have seen many examples of produce buying clubs that work well. We occasionally do some of this informally, such as when we buy a whole case of avocados, which is a lot for us. We’ll typically call some produce-based raw food friends and see if they would like to buy half the case from us. Another example is at times we have split a 20-pound case of dulse with one or more raw food enthusiast friends who live in our area.
4) Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Programs
In this type of program, one “buys in” to the harvest of a local grower or group of growers. Each week when the produce is harvested it is split up among the CSA members who pick up the produce at a specified time and place. This often results in being able to obtain the freshest and most local produce available. We have admittedly not taken advantage of any such programs in our area, as our other methods work well for us.
5) Costco and other wholesale clubs
We are delighted that Costco has been increasing its offerings of organic produce over the past few years. We often use Costco for produce purchases to “fill in” between trips to our organic wholesale supplier. We can buy for example some green and some yellow bananas for staggered ripening so we almost always have ripe bananas available to eat and use in smoothies. Costco also has an excellent selection of organically grown frozen fruit such as mangoes and berries for making smoothies. The prices at Costco are comparable to what we find at wholesale produce markets, often approaching half the price of retail natural food markets. When you don’t need an entire case of something, Costco can come in handy as well.
Other wholesale clubs are following suit so it may be worth checking out those in your area.
6) Mail order
There are times and circumstances that purchasing food through the mail may make sense. For example, buy organically grown sundried tomatoes through the mail from a company that has been around since before our early days of raw food eating. We use the sundried tomatoes in tomato-based salad dressings to add thickness and concentrated flavor. We like the tomatoes more and can get better prices than those that we were previously purchasing from our wholesale organic supplier.
Here is another tip that will interest some of you. Many of you have heard that raw almonds can no longer be sold at retail stores. However, you can buy raw almonds directly from farmers, including mail order. Although almonds are not a staple in our diets, we do occasionally enjoy them, and we have at times purchased a bag through the mail directly from a farmer who sells organically grown raw almonds.
Since we live in northern California, we take advantage of our year-round growing season and have our own:
7) Outdoor garden
We are so thrilled to be able to grow all kinds of food year-round in our own yard! Of course, since we live in northern California somewhat close to the coast, we do have some limitations. We can grow lettuce, tree collard greens, kale, and other leafy greens year-round. In the spring, summer, and fall, we can grow tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, and zucchini, sunflowers, Jerusalem artichokes, basil and other culinary herbs, grapes, and bell peppers, just to name a few. We also have fig, lemon, and lime trees. At some point we plan to plant a persimmon tree and other fruit trees that grow well grow here in this Mediterranean climate. Even though we can grow food year-round, some years we have experienced an occasional frost, so we are prepared with coverings for our most vulnerable plants. From mid-summer to early fall we often skip buying any lettuce, tomatoes, or zucchini as our garden supplies more than enough for us. We rarely ever buy collards as we have a consistent year-round supply in the back yard.
At various times, we have had an:
8) Indoor garden
In the past we have grown wheatgrass and sunflower greens indoors and we regularly sprout lentils and green peas. Admittedly, we go through phases with indoor gardening and our endeavors have been much more off than on, but whenever we grow food indoors we find it to be very rewarding. There are so many foods that can be grown indoors in small spaces. We have visited people who live in large cities and have very little space to grow food, but they have very successful indoor gardens. Indoor gardens can also be aesthetically beautiful while giving a space an ‘aliveness’ that plants can provide.
I (Karin) personally get great satisfaction from gardening, which started in childhood, when my dad involved me in planting and caring for the family backyard garden. From a young age, I had the experience of knowing how plant foods are grown and had a great appreciation for this process. We can only hope that many of you will give yourself and your family the opportunity to grow food, even if it is as simple as growing a culinary herb on a window sill.
9) Other food sources
Of course, there are also the obvious other places to buy whole natural plant foods such as local food co-ops, natural food restaurants, natural food markets, and the organic sections of regular supermarkets. Nowadays, there are so many options available in different areas. Check out the options in your area, or perhaps there will even be opportunities to create some of your own.
Even if you don’t take advantage of the methods above, eating a raw food diet in the modern world is still very feasible and extremely well worth it! For years we each, both before and after we became a couple, purchased most of our food from retail stores and that worked just fine for us. Freshness, greater abundance, and lower cost is great, but even at retail one can still make eating a raw food diet work in the real world. In other words, don’t let anything said here become the limiting factor in your pursuit of health.
Welcome to my top 30 for 30! During the month of October, I am counting down the top 30 mindset and practical strategies that have made all the difference in my success for 30 years as a raw food plant-based enthusiast to help you on your path!
Day 3 of my top 30 for 30: So far, we’ve talked about establishing a strong ‘why’ and getting clear on goals for creating lasting change. Another key I found to be super helpful when I got started on my raw path 30 years ago is organization. For me, this involved taking stock of the contents of my kitchen. I knew that I would need large bowls for vegetable dishes like salads, utensils, mason jars for drinks like smoothies and juices, a cutting board, a blender, a grater, a juicer/homogenizer for juices and banana ice cream (aka nice cream), and other items. Most of these I had already, or should I say that my parents did, since I was in college when I got started and was living with them for part of the year. I did buy some mason jars initially, and used some saved money to buy a popular-at-the-time juicer/homogenizer and some large mixing-sized bowls. I used my parents’ kitchen blender to make smoothies, that a super-enthused raw friend of mine referred to as ‘chunkies’ since the blender didn’t make the mixture completely smooth. This being said, the simple kitchen tools that I had worked just fine for me and didn’t own a dehydrator or a high-power blender until over 10 years later.
In the beginning, I also found that I needed some time to become familiar with the raw plant foods that were available in my area and how to prepare them. At the time, I was living in New England and it was winter. The fruits available were bananas, oranges, apples, pears, grapes, dried papaya spears, raisins, dates, and a few other choices. Available leafy greens included three different types of lettuce, spinach, and other greens that I had never tried, like kale. These and other day-to-day considerations that one needs to address when getting started with raw food became part of my own self-stylized transition that progressed as I became more educated. I made a shopping list of all the foods I wanted to try and thought of the whole experience as an exciting process of discovery. The produce department of my local grocery store was not a place that I had ever spent very much time so this was a completely different world for my 22-year old newly-empowered self.
The bottom line here is that my organization strategy consisted of determining what kitchen items I needed and then learning about and preparing very different foods than I was used to. I know these seem so simple and self-evident now, but back then, for me this was almost like stepping into an alternate universe with brightly colored food, exquisite flavors, and progressively improving health!
What organization strategies did you use when you got started on your raw food journey and how does this compare to what you are doing now?
Welcome to my top 30 for 30! During the month of October, I am counting down the top 30 mindset and practical strategies that have made all the difference in my success for 30 years as a raw food plant-based enthusiast to help you on your path!
Day 2: Yesterday we considered the importance of establishing a strong “why” for making a change, whether that is dietary or some other type of shift. From my experience, really getting clear on the reason or reasons for making a change has been both the strongest initially motivating factor AND the inspiration to continue when challenges arise. If you’ve made changes in your life that you’ve maintained, you know what those challenges can look like. The greatest challenges that I faced when I started adding more fruits and vegetables to my diet included: eating enough, keeping my kitchen stocked with healthy food, and the fulfilling the deep desire to expand my knowledge of nutrition and health. So, in order to address these challenges, I set some goals.
My biggest goal was to overcome the fatigue I was experiencing, which was also the source of my “why”. The rest of my goals supported this larger goal and addressed my challenges directly. The first being, eating enough to feel satiated. I noticed pretty quickly that I had to shift my thinking about portion sizes, which increased appropriately after this realization. Because of this, I found that I had to go shopping more often to keep my kitchen stocked with healthy food. Along with these, and other shifts in ways of thinking and being, I had this insatiable desire to learn more about everything health related, so I found myself reading and researching voraciously which led to more formal education.
I’ll be addressing everything I’ve talked about here and much more over the next few weeks as part of my top 30 countdown, so what I’ve covered here today is just an introduction. The unifying point here is that addressing and finding solutions to these challenges became goals for me. And they all supported the achievement of my initial “why”.
So, while you were reading this did you think of any goals, either official or unofficial, that you have considered for creating positive change that supports your health or otherwise?
During the month of October, I am counting down the top 30 mindset and practical strategies that have made all the difference in my success for 30 years as a raw food plant-based enthusiast to help you on your path!
Day 1: When I got started on my raw food and plant-based journey 30 years ago, I was looking for an answer to the progressively increasing fatigue that I had been experiencing for the previous couple of years. At that time, it wasn’t unusual for me to sleep more than 10 or more hours per night and still wake up feeling like I needed more sleep to feel good. The healthcare providers that I saw didn’t have an answer, so I was going to have to find a solution myself if I wanted to get better.
I started reading and researching different healing systems, which led me to a whole food plant-based dietary approach, which helped improve my fatigue. But when I learned about and implemented a raw food diet my energy soared far beyond the impressive improvements that I experienced by eating a largely cooked whole food plant-based. Long story short, my fatigue vanished along with a variety of other symptoms I had for years and I had more energy than I knew what to do with. I could not remember a time when I felt better! I started to look healthier and slept better. I enjoyed exercising and my digestion improved.
The natural skepticism that I had about raw food and changing my diet to an approach that seemed “extreme” to me at the time started to melt away as my health improved. Making the switch to a plant-based diet was easy, but moving to raw food was much more of a paradigm shift for me.
But I made the change because I really wanted to see if my health would improve. I was motivated. I was committed. I had a strong enough “why”.
I’ve found from this experience and many more that commitment and having a strong “why” is one of the biggest factors for success with anything in life, including dietary change.
While living in my college dorm during the winter of my junior year, I alarmed my friends, family, co-workers, and dorm mates by fasting on exclusively water for 14 days. I absolutely, positively, do not recommend fasting in this context, but at that time I was young, adventurous, motivated, and admittedly a bit reckless. As it turns out, it was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. In addition to so many other incredible and some unexpected benefits, my seasonal allergies that burdened a great deal of my childhood and adolescence up until that point in my life diminished by about 90%, which was absolutely amazing to me in addition to being a great relief.
Ten years later, after completing my doctorate degree, I became a staff doctor at the True North Health Center, a medically supervised, multi-disciplinary, water-only fasting facility in Northern California. During my four years there I had the opportunity to be involved in the care of nearly 1,000 fasting patients. I saw so many extraordinary healing experiences, including many that made my personal fasting experience look rather unremarkable by comparison!
I love speaking and teaching about ketosis, gluconeogenesis, autophagy, and the many other scientific and academic facets of the fasting experience. The bottom line about how fasting really works though is actually quite simple. Our bodies do have the capacity to heal themselves. When we overburden our body systems with extra calories, especially when those calories are from processed foods and foods that otherwise do not support our health, we undermine our body’s ability to heal itself to its fullest extent. This is extremely common in modern societies, so it’s no surprise that obesity, brain fog, low energy, type II diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, strokes, cancer, autoimmune diseases, etc. are so very common. But when we stop eating and rest, that healing capacity is given the greatest opportunity to express itself most fully, hence all the remarkable experiences that fasting patients have recovering from so many of the aforementioned health challenges and others. Not just occasionally, but from my experience, consistently, routinely, and predictably.
As incredible as fasting is, I’ll state the obvious in that it can only be utilized for relatively short periods of time, and is safest and most effective when under the care of a qualified healthcare provider.
How then do we allow the greatest amount of healing ability when we are eating?
In the 1930’s, Dr. Clive McCay and his research team at Cornell University discovered that when rats were placed on diets with lower calorie intakes than typical diets but still supplied needed nutrients, the rats lived about 33% longer than their normally fed counterparts. Amazing! Fewer calories, extended lifespan! Not only did they live longer, but they were healthier throughout their lifespan as well. Since that time, this has been repeated on many different species, ranging from simple protozoans to monkeys. Every time, every species, the same result. Fewer but adequate calories with nutrient needs met, leads to longer healthier lives.
There is some pretty good evidence that this strategy works well with humans, when we look at the healthiest, long-lived populations on the planet. They all consume fewer calories than is common, from nutrient dense foods. Within the scientific community this strategy is known as “caloric restriction.” I am not a big fan of that term, as “restriction” when it comes to food does not sound the least bit enjoyable. I prefer instead to use the term caloric optimization.
One amazing attribute of fruits and vegetables is that they are super high in nutrient density, while simultaneously being low in calorie density. This means we can eat a generous amount of them to feel full and satisfied, while providing ourselves with an abundance of needed nutrients, and optimizing our calorie intake all at the same time. How cool is that! No feelings of restriction! In fact, in order to obtain the majority of one’s calories from fruits and vegetables, one actually has to increase their food intake. Sometimes eating enough to obtain even an optimal quantity of calories from fruits and vegetables can become a significant challenge. Adding just the right amount of still healthful but more dense foods can often help fill in the gaps.
Another strategy that has become popular in the last decade for decreasing excessive calorie intake, thereby reducing the burden on the body and increasing health, is known as intermittent fasting. This usually takes the form of one of two strategies. The first is eating “normally” for 5 days per week while eating a calorie-restricted diet for two days per week. The other strategy is extending one’s daily “fast” to 16 hours per day each day; in other words, eating all of one’s food within an 8-hour time frame each day.
In the context of people eating conventionally, I love these intermittent fasting strategies. They allow the body to get a break from the calorie-dense foods commonly consumed, to allow it to “clean up” from the excess and be able to do a bit of extra maintenance and healing at the same time. It gives the body a much-needed regular break from the usual burden of overeating, which is of great benefit in so many synergistic areas.
But what about when someone is already optimizing their calorie intake by eating very large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables, like many fruit and vegetable based raw food enthusiasts do, and then they add one of the intermittent fasting strategies on top of that? This can create a further challenge / hurdle to obtaining an adequate / optimal quantity of calories. I have had several patients and students who have found themselves with this extra challenge in their commendable attempts to be as healthy as possible.
I would rather see someone eat within a 12-hour window and fast for 12 hours per day when their diet is based on fresh fruits and vegetables, as opposed to having them try to get all of their food in within an 8-hour window so they can fast for 16 hours per day. With the latter approach, people can get pretty stressed about eating enough fruits and vegetables to obtain all of their calories within this limited time frame, especially when real life schedules factor in. They may overeat during this eating window, which means they are overburdening their digestive system, thereby putting more stress on their body. Then they will need that 16 hours of fasting per day to recover from the stress of overeating. Without the extra stress, one doesn’t need as long of a recovery period.
Another strategy I’ve seen is adding too much dense food back into one’s diet in order to obtain enough calories within the 8-hour time frame. Again, I would rather see people extend their eating time / shorten their fasting time, to be able to eat lighter, healthier foods more consistently.
Another result I’ve seen is that people can become too lean and sometimes depleted from a lack of calories (and the nutrients that come along with those calories from healthy foods), when both strategies are employed together for extended periods of time. In this case they are not optimizing their calorie intake as they are restricting too much for too long.
Having said that, I have met some who do center their diet around fresh fruits and vegetables AND engage in one of the intermittent fasting strategies, and if that is working well for them on all levels, I do not want to be the one to discourage them. But if this strategy is causing more stress and harm than good, please know it can be quite a challenge for many of us to eat enough fruits and vegetables to get to an optimal calorie intake, and if one needs some extra time to do this, then it’s not a problem in this context. One will have less stress and be less likely to feel the need to overeat or eat foods that are too dense for them to experience their optimal level of health and vitality.
In my opinion, the majority of people who over consume conventional foods could benefit from either of the intermittent fasting strategies discussed earlier that get them closer to an optimum calorie intake and allow their bodies the much-needed periodic breaks. However, when one eats healthy foods that do not cause such undue stress on the body, the periodic breaks do not need to be as long as there is less to recover from in the first place. With these shorter breaks, one usually still comes out ahead with the strategy of giving oneself longer to eat larger amounts of fruits and vegetables, all things considered.
As with all complex, multifactorial processes for which we need to make good decisions, we must consider all factors and how they interact with and affect each other. Taking one consideration out of context can sometimes lead to an out-of-balance health equation which makes it harder to achieve the results one is seeking. When this occurs, one can feel defeated because they have put a lot of effort into something that hasn’t worked as well as anticipated. This discouragement often leads to giving up and going back to conventional eating, which now means one doesn’t experience the benefits they have worked so diligently toward. We don’t want this to happen to any of you! Sometimes a key modification, such as giving oneself a few extra hours per day to consume an optimum calorie intake from a diet based on fruits and vegetables, can help one stay on the healthiest path for one's particular set of life circumstances.
We hope you have enjoyed this perspective on the intermittent fasting and fruit and vegetable centered diet combination of considerations! For more details and information on this topic, feel free to watch the 33-minute video presentation from our June 2019 webinar on this topic as seen below this article. The section on intermittent fasting begins at the 17 minute, 30 second mark, and continues until about the 51-minute mark. For those of you who like what you see and hear and would like to find out how to learn a great deal more about plant-based and raw food nutrition and how all the considerations fit together into a cohesive whole, you can keep watching to hear about our Mastering Raw Food Nutrition online curriculum. Enjoy!
It’s certainly not news that there’s been a lot of conversation in the health community for some time about the importance of probiotics, prebiotics, and microbiome health. In fact, we have been teaching about these topics for more than a decade in our Science of Raw Food Nutrition series of classes and our Mastering Raw Food Nutrition online and interactive program. We also created a webinar (see below for the video replay of it) to share with you our latest findings on this topic.
So, what exactly are probiotics? Simply stated, they are microorganisms with studied health benefits that can live in our digestive tract and compose our intestinal microbiome.
The most well-known probiotics include the bacteria lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidobacterium bifidum, and many more that have been studied and have become popular recently. Probiotics start to populate our digestive tract upon birth and establish a mutually beneficial relationship with us.
It’s important to understand the health benefits of probiotics, but there is one piece of the microbiome puzzle that is often omitted from these health conversations, which has to do with how to keep these important organisms viable in our GI tract.
How do these probiotics stay alive?
One important consideration is food. But what type of food is consumed by probiotics?
Do probiotics prefer the same types of foods that humans do?
The answer to this question, is partially yes. Because the preferred food of probiotics is certain types of fiber, which we as humans don’t digest or use as a food source. But many of the plant foods we consume contain these certain types of fiber preferred by probiotics.
Fiber that can provide nourishment for probiotics is referred to as prebiotic fiber or prebiotics.
Probiotics prefer certain types of fiber, but not all types. The one of the most plentiful types of fiber we find in whole plant food is called cellulose. Cellulose is composed of glucose molecules hooked together by bonds that cannot be broken down by our digestive system. In other words, the glucose in this fiber is not digestible or usable by us as humans because it is bound in the fiber complex, so it passes through our digestive tract largely undigested.
Here’s what cellulose looks like:
As you can see, cellulose is composed of a series of glucose molecules hooked together by bonds that are not digestible by humans.
By contrast, the fiber preferred by probiotic bacteria is composed of fructose molecules instead of glucose. We can’t digest this type of fiber either, but probiotic bacteria can digest it and it is their preferred food.
Here is an example of a fructose-based type of fiber:
Instead of glucose molecules hooked together by bonds, prebiotic fiber is composed of fructose molecules hooked together by bonds.
This type of fructose-based fiber would include both fructooligosaccharide (FOS) and inulin. There are others too, but we’ll focus on FOS and inulin in this article. These are two of the main types of prebiotic fiber found in plant foods.
Now, what exactly are FOS and inulin? They are each composed of fructose molecules and the difference between them is in the number of fructose molecules they each contain. FOS are composed of 2 to 10 fructose molecules. Some sources say 2 to 9. If we look at the term ‘fructooligosaccharide’ we see the fructo- which means ‘fructose’, oligo- which means ‘few’, and saccharide- which means ‘sugar’. So essentially, FOS are a type of fiber or undigestible sugar composed of few fructose molecules hooked together by bonds.
By contrast, inulin is composed of over 9 or 10 fructose molecules linked together by bonds.
Probiotics break down FOS and inulin into fructose and free fatty acids. The probiotics can then use the fructose as a food source. Because these prebiotics are probiotics’ favorite food, this creates a microbiome profile in favor of the probiotics. Additionally, the abundance of probiotics helps to keep the less desirable organisms in check.
What happens to the free fatty acids the probiotics produce?
They form into short chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
There are 3 short chain fatty acids, butyrate, propionate, and acetate, each of which has beneficial properties.
Butyrate, also referred to as butyric acid, is used by the cells of our large intestine (colon cells). Propionate or propionic acid can be used by the cells in our liver. Acetate or acetic acid can go to fuel peripheral tissues, such as our muscles.
Now that we’ve laid the foundation, here is the big question: where do we get the prebiotics FOS and inulin?
The good news is that FOS and inulin are found in more than 36,000 plant species.
Some examples of rich sources of FOS and inulin include: artichokes, leeks, shallots, jicama, dandelion greens, bananas, and many more. Even popular raw plant foods such as carrots, lettuce, raspberries, watermelon, and oranges as well as many others also contain prebiotics in smaller amounts as we’ll see shortly.
Is there an official recommended amount of prebiotics to consume daily? Because this is such a newly emerging field of study, there are no set US DRIs (Dietary Reference Intakes) for prebiotics. Researchers have been studying varying amounts for general health and therapeutic benefits. The research on prebiotics is an exciting work in progress and I’m looking forward to more in the coming years contributing to and clarifying what is currently known.
Even though we do not have a daily value for prebiotic fiber, we do have established DRIs (specifically Adequate Intakes – AIs) for total fiber:
25 g for women (21 g over 50 years of age)
38 g for men (30 g over 50 years of age)
To put these numbers in perspective, most Americans get around 15 g of total fiber per day. Standard western diets tend to be lower in fruits, vegetables, and whole plant foods in general so this number is not surprising. People on ketogenic and other types of low carbohydrate diets, which usually end up being low fiber diets, are likely not consuming this level of prebiotics either. Self-evaluation of one’s dietary approach would help determine where one stands on prebiotic intake.
Getting back to our conversation about prebiotics specifically, here are some foods that are especially rich in prebiotics: bananas, dandelion greens, and Jerusalem artichokes (also known as sunchokes).
Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) from our garden
Here is the FOS content of certain foods. There are a number of foods that have been measured for prebiotic content, but many more that have yet to be measured. Hopefully more will be known in years to come.
It’s interesting to see the FOS and inulin content of individual foods, but what does the prebiotic content look like on a raw or plant-based meal plan. Here is an example of a couple of meals (not everything) that I ate on one particular day a couple of summers ago. On this particular day, I went for a long run, so that’s why I had a large fruit smoothie:
3 oranges ¼ cup blackberries ¼ cup raspberries 1 cup mango slices 3 cups kale 2 bananas
And here is the salad I had on that day. On many days it can be even larger than this:
2 cups dandelion greens 10 cups lettuce 1 cup carrots 1 cup cucumber 1 green onion 3 tomatoes 1 date 1 tablespoon chia seeds 1 tablespoon tahini Juice of one lemon
The prebiotic content of these foods is at least 4.6 grams. The reason I say at least is because many of these foods have yet to be measured for prebiotic content, so given what has been measured, we can expect to find at least 4.6 grams of FOS and inulin in these foods and most likely more. However, the 2 cups of dandelion greens and 2 bananas were not included in the original calculation of the 4.6 grams, so when we add in the bananas and dandelion greens we actually see a total of at least 21.1 g of FOS and inulin! That’s amazing! This shows us that plant foods can provide a notable amount of prebiotic fiber and that certain plant foods like dandelion greens and bananas are extra-rich sources of these prebiotics.
As we can see, whole natural plant foods provide these and other beneficial types of fiber, which is just one of the many health benefits derived from eating whole natural plant foods.
What about the total fiber content of these foods?
Total fiber content is 61.1 g from these foods alone!! This is much higher than the average American intake of 15 grams of total fiber per day and the DRIs for total fiber.
For some added perspective, I usually eat more than this in a day so my total fiber intake is even higher than this.
And the information in this article is just the tip of the iceberg on probiotics, prebiotics, and raw food and plant-based nutrition!
The video of our webinar on this topic has additional information and explanations (see below). The information on prebiotics starts at around 16 minutes and 35 seconds and ends around the 30 minute mark. You can also learn more about us and our class Mastering Raw Food Nutrition by watching before and after these points.:
References and Research:
Brownawell AM, Caers W, Gibson GR, et al. Prebiotics and the health benefits of fiber: current regulatory status, future research, and goals. J Nutr. 2012;142(5):962-974.
Campbell J, Bauer L, Fahey G, Hogarth A, Wolf B, Hunter D. Selected Fructooligosaccharide (1-Kestose, Nystose, and 1F-β-Fructofuranosylnystose) Composition of Foods and Feeds. J. Agric. Food Chem. 1997;45(8):3076–3082.
Davani-Davari D, Negahdaripour M, Karimzadeh I, et al. Prebiotics: Definition, Types, Sources, Mechanisms, and Clinical Applications. Foods. 2019;8(3):92.
Kelly G. Inulin-type prebiotics--a review: part 1. Altern Med Rev. 2008 Dec;13(4):315-29.
Lloyd-Price J, Abu-Ali G, Huttenhower C. The healthy human microbiome. Genome Med. 2016;8(1):51.
Markowiak-Kopeć P, Śliżewska K. The Effect of Probiotics on the Production of Short-Chain Fatty Acids by Human Intestinal Microbiome. Nutrients. 2020;12(4):1107.
Moshfegh AJ, Friday JE, Goldman JP, Ahuja JK. Presence of inulin and oligofructose in the diets of Americans. J Nutr. 1999;129(7 Suppl):1407S-11S.
Niness K. Inulin and oligofructose: what are they? J Nutr 1999; 129 (7 Suppl): 1402S – 1406S.
Slavin J. Fiber and prebiotics: mechanisms and health benefits. Nutrients. 2013;5(4):1417-1435.
Van Loo J, Coussement P, de Leenheer L, Hoebregs H, Smits G. On the presence of inulin and oligofructose as natural ingredients in the western diet. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 1995;35(6):525-52.
Vyas U, Ranganathan N. Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics: gut and beyond. Gastroenterol Res Pract. 2012; 2012: 872716.
