Can We get Enough Protein from a Raw Food Diet?

That is a question asked very often by skeptics of the raw food diet. If you’ve just started your journey, you may be asking yourself, “Where do I get my protein?” You had better get used to being asked that question from virtually all of your family and friends, plus a large section of the general population.

Most people believe that protein is almost only found in animal products. If you cut out dairy products as well and become vegan, especially raw vegan where you will not eat processed meat substitutes, a lot of the people you meet will be anxiously examining you for signs of protein deficiency. They probably would not be surprised if you dropped down dead in front of them just from not eating meat.

Of course, this is ridiculous. There are many raw food protein sources, even for raw vegans who do not eat raw meat or unpasteurized dairy products. What is more, most people in western societies consume far more protein than they need.

According to the World Health Organization, human beings require around 5% of the calories that they eat to come from protein. The USDA has a higher recommendation of 6.5%. Now let’s look at the foods that people on a raw food diet eat.

Vegetables

Vegetables contain the highest proportion of protein for energy, with around 10% of their calories coming from protein. This is much more than we need. Of course, it would be very difficult to get enough calories by eating only vegetables, but it will surprise most people to hear how much protein there is in a food like broccoli or cabbage.

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds are higher in protein weight for weight but of course, they also contain a lot of fat, which adds to their calorie content. Generally, you will get between 5% and 10% of calories from protein when you eat nuts and seeds.

Fruit

Fruits carry the lowest protein to energy ratio with around 2% to 4% of their calories coming from protein. This means that if your diet consisted entirely of fruit, you probably would not be getting enough protein. You would also be missing out on several minerals and vitamins.

As you can see, it is not likely that anybody following a raw food diet will suffer from lack of protein unless they are trying to live entirely on fruit. Simply vary your diet, including a good variety of all raw foods, and you will automatically cover your protein requirements from plenty of different raw food protein sources.

I’m currently reading a wonderful book called Becoming Raw – The essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina with Ryann Berry. It answers this very question and has a lot of useful information about the Raw Food Diet.

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4. Basics of the Raw Food Diet
5. Eating Healthy with 10 Nutrient Packed Foods