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Fully Raw Kristina’s YouTube Channel has about 1.45 million subscribers, and her videos have over 154,000,000 views. She has been a raw vegan for over 20 years. Her Instagram account has about one million followers, so she clearly has a large reach online.
One of the main questions she receives is: where do you get your protein? Many people appear to have the wrong idea about protein — that it is only or mostly in animal-based foods. This notion is not correct because there are plenty of plants that have more than adequate amounts of protein. The 9 essential amino acids are lysine, leucine…
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Fully Raw Kristina’s YouTube Channel has about 1.45 million subscribers, and her videos have over 154,000,000 views. She has been a raw vegan for over 20 years. Her Instagram account has about one million followers, so she clearly has a large reach online.
One of the main questions she receives is: where do you get your protein? Many people appear to have the wrong idea about protein — that it is only or mostly in animal-based foods. This notion is not correct because there are plenty of plants that have more than adequate amounts of protein. The 9 essential amino acids are lysine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. There are many plant foods that contain all the essential amino acids meaning that a ‘protein’ is not only a piece of beef, chicken, pork, lamb/mutton, seafood, and so on.
Kristina says she* easily *gets 70 to 100 grams of protein in a day. To be clear, her daily protein range is not a limit; she can get more if she wants. Her main protein sources are vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fruits. (I wrote an article about how almonds have more protein than some cuts of steak, for just one example. Another example, sunflower seeds have more protein than some hotdogs.) Greens are a big part of her diet and they are one of the most nutrient-dense food types.
Some people might dismiss greens as just ‘salad’ but they are one of the most nutritious food types.
“The dark greens supply a significant amount of folate, a B vitamin that promotes heart health and helps prevent certain birth defects. Folate is also necessary for DNA duplication and repair which protects against the development of cancer. Several large studies have shown that high intakes of folate may lower the risk of colon polyps by 30 to 40 percent compared to low intakes of this vitamin. Other research suggests that diets low in folate may increase the risk of cancers of the breast, cervix and lung.
“The vitamin K contents of dark green leafy vegetables provide a number of health benefits including: protecting bones from osteoporosis and helping to prevent against inflammatory diseases.”
Kristina grows most of her food and consumes organic foods primarily. She gets her bloodwork analysis every year and she said it’s perfect.
She starts her mornings with two different juices that have a combined 27 grams of protein. They also contain vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes.
For lunch, she often has a smoothie bowl with about 23 grams of protein. She adds vegan protein powder to her smoothies. Of course, the smoothies contain fiber because they are plant-based.
She may have an afternoon snack of fruit which has about 5 grams of protein.
Her dinner for that particular night was a Rainbow Salad with about 38 grams of protein.The total number of grams of protein she gets for that day is more than adequate and she gets plenty of other nutrients which she tracks.
She openly states she takes some supplements, including B12, and makes the point that people of all diets sometimes have too little B12, it’s not only vegans.. So, she takes some supplements.
The food she consumes daily has more than enough fiber, an essential nutrient with multiple health benefits including reducing disease risk.
I just wrote an article about a 102-year-old who mostly has a vegetarian diet and still does yoga. In writing that, I came across some information about how the great majority of centenarians in the world are women. Maybe Kristina will be one of them — at the rate she’s going she might become a supercentenarian.
Beef, dairy products, farmed shrimp,lamb, and pork are some of the highest carbon foods, meaning they contribute more to climate change. Vegan diets are low carbon. “The research showed that vegan diets resulted in 75% less climate-heating emissions, water pollution and land use than diets in which more than 100g of meat a day was eaten. Vegan diets also cut the destruction of wildlife by 66% and water use by 54%, the study found.”
None of this is to say people must go vegan, it’s just some information demonstrating it is possible to be healthy living on a plant-based diet. Such a diet also has environmental benefits.
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