An attendee of the last RawSkilz class emailed me and voiced concerns about getting "enough" fat in their diet. Nobody ever got sick or died or even had slightly lowered performance by having "too little fat in their system". Same with protein. According to the major medical studies of Harvard, Cornell and all the rest, there has not been a single case in 500 years (since medical books were written). The only people who need to worry are those with mental disorders - anorexic behavior. But they are such a tiny fraction of the populace. Fat and protein have been so overly abundant in our society for as long as modern history has been recorded. People get sick due to abundance.
Major problems are caused by excess fat and protein. Not the least of which is protein-induced hypercalicurea.
I was lucky to get into seriously performed weight training and seriously applied nutrition at an early age. Even before I became vegan and even before I became raw. I found that the most important overall factor was calorie management within the framework of proper macronutrient ratios. What that means is that you have to consume enough calories to fulfill your energy needs and make sure to 1) get the majority of your calories from carbs, 2) limit your protein, and j never worry about fat. In fact, you will see that from paleontologists to nutritionists; from the beginning of recorded history the absolute most impotent factor has always been calories. Mankind needed enough calories to do his or her tasks. Getting enough energy in scarce times was the goal. Forty thousand years of scarcity has created a perfect genetic system that allows us to be healthy when we do not eat that much fat. Modern times, however have created illness and obesity for the masses due to food becoming artificially plentiful. Notice that even poor people suffer from being too fat.
Until recently in history, food has always been scarce- and our genetics remember that. We tend to store energy since our bodies are not sure when we are going to be fed again. Women especially have extremely efficient metabolisms. They store fat easily and can go many months without any bad effects.
In fact the most famous illustration of this occurred in the Philippines during WWII when women (and men) were deprived of their usual total calorie intake during the long war. The women normally lived on 1800 calories a day, and that was cut to 500 per day for eighteen months. During that period there were no recorded still births or birth problems whatsoever, let alone illness in the mothers. In fact all the children born had slightly lower weight, and they were tracked for 21 years to monitor their health. All were significantly healthier, had stronger immune systems, and were brighter. (By the way, health skyrockets in all populations in times of war.) It is amazing today that people think that they are eating too little when they go below 1500 calories!
Of course when most people eat less they are just reducing their amount of ALREADY DEPLETED NUTRITION to begin with. But, once they make their entire "calorie pool" 100% fresh ripe fruits, dark greens with a tiny tiny amount of outside fat added every day or every other day, then their health thrives. In my 33 years experience training people for physical excellence in strength, cardiovascular, flexibility and body composition as well as optimum health, I have discovered that the basic 80/10/10 or 85/15/5 ratio is by far the most efficient formula for proportioning your macronutrients by far. Quantifiable physical performance and obvious (as well as measurable via medical tests) health over the short as weeks as very long term (myself and my students have been raw vegan over ten years now and vegan over 25) has proven this.
In addition, building strength and high quality lean muscle mass is also possible with slight raw vegan dietary modifications. Personally my students and I have discovered that any kind of pill, powder or gimmick only detracts from health and thus, genuine healthy muscle mass.
Most people consume animal fat plus loads of trans fat from all the cake, bread, bagels, pasta and cookies, etc. that they eat. Those fats actually destroy absorption of the essential fats (Of course health food stores want to sell you pills to get these!) But even if you eat nuts and seeds or avocado a few times a week, plus you are having proper amounts of blended dark greens daily, then you will get plenty of the good fat. There is nothing to worry about when you consume enough calories from 100% raw fruits, greens, veggies too, and SOME good outside fat such as avocado, nuts or seeds. To learn the exact proportions for you and your body size and energy requirements is not a complex matter, but doing it is another thing. Most people do not stick to the correct proportions of fat, carbs and protein within a rational calorie base. That is why a proper raw diet is such a help, when it is done properly. Most of the time the raw diet is undertaken by just "going raw" blindly. I made that mistake in 1999 when I started. Luckily I already had a substantial background in nutrition, so I knew to consume enough calories, plus I knew that protein was not necessary beyond tiny amounts for creating pure muscle, and I never consumed much fat, but I still did not know how to put it all together until years later. The dogma of "raw" mixed with the holding power of old food habits, along with the "newness" of this fascinating yet confusing way of eating, not to mention addiction to improper foods, all added up to confuse me to no end. Luckily I persevered and became successful with it. The main "secret" was to make a 100% commitment to becoming 100% raw while changing my eating style completely. Combining basic timeless nutrition with a total decision to stop getting distracted by multiple opinions and sticking to the proper task at hand long enough to glean significant results was the answer.