It's no raw deal

My colleague, a certain Jaye Lentin, is something of an office phenomenon.

He sits just behind me and every day I hear him extol the virtues of a raw food lifestyle to another curious inquisitor.

We all have our own definitions of ‘normal' but Jaye's diet is certainly unique enough to interest those in the vicinity around him. Probably because he eats whole watermelons at his desk and the sound of coconuts being chopped is audible from the video booth.

For some reason I have always had an inkling that one day Jaye's diet would directly affect me in the form of a news story. That premonition came true when I walked into the editorial conference room just over a month ago and was informed they wanted ‘an average Joe' to live on the raw food diet for one week.

Moral support

I was deemed to be average and a series of medical tests soon confirmed that I was pretty normal for my age (26) However, regardless of the results, it was still going to be pretty tough to forego meat, cheese, bread and pasta among other things for a whole seven days. I instantly began to cut down my food intake in the weeks leading up to the diet in a bid to soften the blow when it actually began.

Read special coverage: Raw food experiment

Ironically, when I eventually started my life as a temporary raw food vegan I was actually allowed to eat as much as I wanted. It never really transpired like that, however, and my days generally consisted of a banana for breakfast, a salad for lunch and another salad or some more fruit for dinner.

My mother and father back home in Scotland also followed the diet for a week in a bid to provide moral support. I checked with them regularly to see how they were faring; my dad was normally moaning about eating an "old raw carrot" for dinner and my mum was always looking for new ways to liven up meal times.

I actually found the diet to be fairly easy during daylight hours. Work invariably took my mind off food and I found that bananas, mangoes and grapes were enough to sustain me throughout the day. Dinner time was a completely different story. I found it extremely difficult not being able to have a cooked meal between the hours of 6pm and 8pm.

I tried to make the diet interesting by experimenting with things such as a ‘cheese' made from raw cashew nuts, sun dried tomatoes, garlic and lemon juice, which was washed down with a chocolate milkshake comprising dates, coconut milk and frozen banana pieces. However, those concoctions failed to make the meat cravings go away.

One night, I cracked to a certain extent and devoured a whole tub of pimento stuffed olives, which Jaye had informed me were not the healthiest but could be considered part of a balanced raw food diet. Unbelievably, I actually felt awash with guilt after eating them; in the same way I have felt guilty for eating a double cheeseburger and large fries in the past. I never thought, however, I would see the day where I felt guilty for eating an olive.

Happy medium

For the remainder of the week — after disastrous attempts at making guacamole and hummus, I stayed safe and ate mostly bananas and salads. But what about the moral support? My parents were ploughing on with the diet but my sister's attempt lasted all of one hour before she caved in and devoured a slab of halloumi cheese and a packet of sweets.

I managed to stay strong throughout and, although the cravings intensified over the last few days, I did not break the diet once. I lasted a full seven days eating only raw fruit and vegetables; during which period I incredibly lost one stone (six kilogrammes)

I can report I suffered no medical side-effects living on the diet and I did feel really healthy after cutting out a lot of fatty foods. In saying that, there is no way I could sustain the raw food diet on a permanent basis; I think a happy medium is what is called for.

The one definitive conclusion I can draw is this: after a week of eating only fruit and raw vegetables, a ham and cheese roll has never tasted better.

The highs and lows of a raw food diet trial

 Highs

Lows

Would try the vegan diet for a week?  Do raw food recipes interest you? Would you be willing to try them out and tell us what you thought? Let us know.