Raw Food Diet and Running
Tuesday April 29th 2008
I finally got the results of my annual health check-up back. Is the raw food diet working? Are my B12 and homocysteine levels normal?
Since eating a predominately raw diet from 2004 I have had an annual check-up.
I watched my homocysteine levels go from a healthy 6.7 umol/l in 2005 to 10.9 in 2006 to an alarming 23.01 in 2007 (I felt awful, very weak). Megadosing (100,000 % RDI) daily on B12 for a month only dropped the levels to 18.93, four months later it was back up to 19.96 (my B12 megadose consumption was down to once a week). The normal healthy range is 5-14 umol/l (varies country to country), the CVD risks are not linear, I believe they start to increase significantly from 9.0 umol/l. My folate and B6 intake is very high so as far as I was concerned the problem was B12.
After increasing my B12 consumption to 4-5 times a week over the last 9 months I had my annual check-up.
Hurrah!
My homocysteine levels had dropped down to 8.8 umol/l.
As I'm not a keen pill popper I'm going to drop my megadose consumption down to twice a week and get my homocysteine retested in 6 months.
Apart from mild anaemia (common in endurance athletes), all my liver, FBC, kidney & blood sugar tests have been normal. This year is the first year I'm not anaemic! Must be all those green juices. I still take a chelated iron supplement once every other day (5mg).
My cholesterol levels have always been good. The latest numbers are:
Cholesterol 148 mg/dl (< 200 mg/dl)
Triglycerides 97 mg/dl (< 150 mg/dl)
HDL 53 mg/dl (33-65 mg/dl)
LDL 76 mg/dl (< 130 mg/dl)
Considering CVD is prevalent on my father's side I'm doing OK.
Despite the humid conditions my electrolytes are OK too.
I went for my first run yesterday - just 5km fartlek. It felt great, I ran 300m/600m stretches at speeds up to 5:39 min/mile pace.
I think I'll go celebrate with a green smoothie :-)
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