Why Did I Attempt a Raw Food Diet as a Runner?

One of the biggest questions I get is about why I felt the need to follow a raw food diet as a collegiate cross country and track runner.

Nutrition was important to me from a young age because I wanted to eat well to run well–and I started running consistently when I was 5 years old.

I continued to run in middle school and high school. After years of competing against the best high school runners in the state, and losing some weight my senior year, I thought that weight loss helped me to run faster. That’s when food began to consume my life.

The Raw Food “Lifestyle”

When I first heard about a raw food diet in college, I didn’t think it would be ideal for athletes. I told myself that I wouldn’t get enough protein or that I would be more susceptible to injury since I’d be missing out on protein and calcium. But my doubts about raw food slowly vanished when I wrote a paper on the topic for one of my classes (we could choose anything to research, and of course, I was drawn to food topics).

Much of the information I read in raw food books and on raw food websites convinced me that instead of being harmful to athletes, this diet could actually be helpful. And the wording changed as I dug deeper–this was not a “diet,” but a lifestyle.

Abundance at Last

Raw food forums and websites advertised this diet as a way to eat as much as you want. And as someone who thought that the only way I could eat “normally” meant I had to go a bit hungry after each meal, this was exciting. I could lose weight while eating as much raw food as I want? I could finally have an excuse to give up meat and run okay, if not better? I could give a “good” excuse and reason for only wanting the lowest-calorie foods? I could have the confidence to know I wouldn’t be deficient in minerals (according to the raw food gurus)?

What I didn’t realize was how unsatisfied I would feel eating just raw food. As I embarked on the diet, I blamed this feeling on my lack of discipline and “broken” appetite. But really, my intense cravings and eventual bingeing was a result of eliminating so many food groups. Years removed from my raw food diet, I understand why only eating raw fruits and vegetables wouldn’t feel very satisfying, and that my body was trying to tell me something.

All of this set me up for a rollercoaster of different diets, bingeing, and questioning food more than ever before. It also eventually sparked the realization that my odd relationship with food was called an eating disorder, and that I had something more to fix than food itself.

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2023 Reflection: If I had known it at the time, seeing a registered sports dietitian would have been the best way to help me with my relationship with food. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that seeing an RD would have been the answer, and no one recommended it. If anything, as I fell deeper into the rabbit hole of raw food, the more I was convinced an RD wouldn’t understand this “cure.” This situation highlights the importance of talking about disordered eating and how so many athletes could benefit from seeing a registered dietitian. You can find one in your area at eatright.org, or check out additional resources in this blog post:

This blog post shows how helpful a registered sports dietitian was once I did finally see one: