Glossary

I have friends who occasionally read this blog (hi, friends!) who are only reading it to humor me, and sometimes I wonder if people get lost when I start blabbing on and on about 811rv and overt fats and Natural Hygiene (that's when you take a shower at least 5 times a day and use ONLY fruity scented soaps and body products right?)

So I thought I'd put together a quick little glossary of terms I often use in this blog that normal, sane people do not use in real life.

Raw Vegan
As opposed to cooked vegan, a person who eats a raw vegan diet does not eat any cooked food. There are different approaches to the raw vegan diet, the 811 way being just one of them.

80/10/10
The high fruit/low fat version of the raw diet. This term is coined by Dr. Douglas Graham who wrote an excellent book called The 80/10/10 Diet, in which he gives some very compelling reasons as to why to go a) raw and b) low fat/high fruit raw.

80/10/10 simply is the ratios of carbs:protein:fat in the food that we eat. Dr. Graham recommends the following percentages:

80% or more of your calories from carbs
10% or less of your calories from protein
10% or less of your calories from fat.

This may sound slightly complicated, but in reality is very easy if you stick to a high fruit diet. I don't count my ratios. As long as you go very light on the fatty foods such as avocado, nuts and seeds, your ratios will naturally fall within the 80/10/10 guidelines.

If you want to eat more avos, nuts and seeds, using a food diary site such as Nutridiary can help you make sure that you're not consistently overeating on fat and protein.

811
People who follow the 80/10/10 diet over the long term tend to get tired of saying "Eighteeeee-tennnnnnn-tennnnnnnnnnn" or typing "80 slash 10 slash 10" because it just takes forever. So as humans tend to do, we have simplified it to 811. That gives us that extra few seconds in life to eat fruit and exercise.

811rv
This is when a bunch of people who are on the 811 diet, rent an RV and go on a long fruit foraging vacation across the country together. Or maybe, it's just the slightly longer version of the abbreviated version. :) "rv" simply means "Raw Vegan". (This is because you can actually eat the 80/10/10 way on a cooked diet. And low fat cooked diets are certainly healthier than high fat cooked diets. Just not as tasty of course. Anyway, when you tag "rv" onto the end of 811, it leaves no question as to whether you mean a low fat cooked diet or a low fat raw diet.)

Fruitarian
Fruitarian for me is a loose term. Generally fruitarian would mean a person who eats fruit, and ONLY fruit. There are fruitarians out there who probably hate my guts because I have no qualms about calling myself one even though I can put away ginormous quantities of lettuce and celery when I feel like it. I would say though, that all people who follow the 811rv diet are fruitarians, if you look at the calorie distribution of the food we eat. Lettuces and celery barely have any calories. We only eat them because we like to chew. A lot.

Mono diet or mono eating.
While this doesn't officially refer to a diet that cures the mononucleosis disease, it actually probably WOULD help people suffering from this disease. :) Mono diet is just a little technique or practice that many raw vegans do from time to time in order to do a little internal housecleaning in a gentle way. There are different ways to do this - you could either pick one fruit and eat only that fruit for days/weeks or even months, or you could simply eat only one type of fruit at each meal, which is great to do on a regular basis anyway. This is something I'm currently doing.

Either way, this way of eating is very easy on your digestive system and allows your body that extra energy it needs to work on your health issues. Mono eating is also an excellent way to examine your reasons for eating. It tends to lay bare any emotional eating issues you may have. Eating say, only bananas for a week can get extremely boring to say the least, which will lead you to wonder if you regularly eat out of hunger, or merely for entertainment?

Overt fat
This refers to the muffin tops I used to have on my hips when I wore my skinny jeans. But mainly, it refers to foods that are predominantly fatty in their make-up. Avocados, nuts, seeds, coconuts and possibly durian, are all in the overt fats category. Most 811-ers will limit their overt fats, as we feel better and have more energy when we do so.

Personally I tend to eat overt fats in spurts. I have a tendency to overdose on them, so I will go months without them and then eat them for a week. :) Yes, I'm trying to find a happy medium.

Natural Hygiene
I've always found this to be a funny label. It always makes me think of oral hygiene. :) I still visualize vigorous teeth brushing when I see the phrase "Natural Hygiene." But actually, it refers to a scientific philosophy of health. I can't remember who exactly coined the phrase, but Herbert Shelton, one of the important people in the history of Natural Hygiene wrote several books about it, and some of them can be found for free here.

All the recommended reading links on my blog sidebar are Natural Hygiene sites, and they hold much valuable and interesting health information. Dr. Doug Graham is a hygienist and the 811rv lifestyle holds to Natural Hygiene principles.

The gist of Natural Hygiene is that the body is a self-healing, wonderfully made organism, and all we need in order to achieve true health is a) to get out of our own way (eg, do not take allopathic medicines or drugs but instead, fast for healing) and b) live a naturally healthful lifestyle which not only includes a healthy fruitarian diet, but also plenty of exercise, sunshine, fresh air, clean water and more.

SAD
Standard American Diet. I was once witness to an online discussion between raw fooders and non raw fooders where someone really took offense to this acronym, because of what it spells out! It seems they really thought that raw fooders made it up as a derogatory way to make fun of cooked diets. Most raw fooders I know aren't that mean, and if you are, at least keep it to yourself!

As far as I know someone in the FDA probably made it up decades ago to describe what typical Americans eat. Whoever it was, what were they thinking?! Now that's what's sad! Just do a Google search for "Standard American Diet" and you'll see that it comes up on every kind of diet and medical website, not just on mean raw foods websites. :)

No-poo
Synonym for constipation, a chronic condition that happens when you don't eat your fruits and veggies. Okay, sorry, sorry... I know it's so juvenile but I couldn't stop myself. Maybe we no-pooers should come up with a nicer sounding term? :)

No-poo is actually what happens when you walk into your bathroom, pick up your shampoo and conditioner bottles, read the ingredient labels and violently toss them into the trash can as you gasp in shock at the toxins you've been putting on your scalp and skin for the last 3 decades.

There are different ways to wash your hair without shampoo. I prefer water only because I'm always trying to think how I would live if (horrors) you kidnapped me and stuck me in the middle of the jungle with only the clothes on my back. First of all, I'd probably die within the first 24 hours, but also, I figure that I wouldn't find shampoo bottles growing on trees, so nature probably did not intend for me to use it.

However, there are other successful ways you can ditch shampoo other than just water. Some people use a mixture of baking soda and vinegar as a cleanse and rinse, and I have successfully used freshly squeezed orange or lemon juice before, although the pulp was a pain in the butt to get out, so do not try that at home, kids, unless you have a flea comb available.

If you're interested in no-poo, click here for several posts of my personal experience with it. In my posts I also have a couple of photos of myself and links to other sites that talk about it.

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I'm sure I forgot something, so if you think of any terms that I should have included in this post, please let me know!