Raw Vegan Questions Answered: Cherimoya Mono Meal AMA

B12 myths, cravings, guilt, immune health, staying raw, and why cherimoya might be the best fruit on the planet

With just over 38 hours left in the Ultimate Raw Vegan Bundle window, I sat down with a plate of cherimoyas for a live AMA, raw vegan questions answered in real time from anyone who wanted to ask. No script, no agenda, just mono eating one of my favorite fruits in the world while diving into whatever came up.

What came up was good. B12 and the misinformation circulating around it, cravings and guilt, immune function on raw food, how to actually stay raw long-term, the overt versus covert fat distinction, favorite fruits, greens, dehydrators, traveling, cats, skateboarding, and more. This is one of those raw vegan questions answered sessions that goes everywhere and covers real ground.

Cherimoya First

Mark Twain called it the most delicious fruit known to men. He was not wrong. Cherimoya is from the atemoya family alongside guanabana, sugar apple, custard apple, and the Rolinia or birabaa, which is yellow and spiky and one of my absolute favorites. Each cherimoya can be completely different, some super sweet and tangy, some almost milklike in texture. The seeds are the only downside and some fruits come loaded while others have almost none. Worth it every time regardless.

One of my favorite mono meal practices is to eat half of the best piece of fruit first, set it aside, work through the rest of the meal, and finish with that saved piece so the last bite of the meal is always the best one. Nothing sadder than ending on a mediocre cherimoya.

B12: Raw Vegan Questions Answered Directly

This came up in the live and it is worth addressing clearly because the misinformation is genuinely dangerous. There is a view circulating that B12 does not exist, that deficiency is not real, or that any improvement people notice from supplementing is just stimulation from a toxic compound. I have addressed this in depth in my dedicated video B12 Deficiency, Is It a Joke? and in my conversation with Raw Chef Yin, Do Raw Vegans Need Supplements. I deliberately do not name the source of this view because I have no interest in giving it further reach.

B12 is a bacterial nutrient. It can be measured, isolated, and tracked in the body. Doctors like Dr. Rick Dina and Dr. Tim Trader who do extensive blood work specifically on raw vegan populations see deficiency come up as a real and recurring pattern. Dr. Tim Trader himself went clinically deficient, developed permanent neurological symptoms, and is now a strong advocate for proper monitoring and supplementation.

Serum B12 testing alone is not sufficient. The meaningful markers are methylmalonic acid, homocysteine levels, and red and white blood cell morphology. The concern about cyanocobalamin containing cyanide is addressed simply: a standard B12 supplement contains roughly one ninth the cyanide found in a single apple seed in a far less bioavailable form, and the body produces trace amounts of cyanide as a metabolic byproduct anyway. The dose makes the poison. Monitor with proper tests, supplement with methylcobalamin when indicated, and do not let ideology override observable measurable reality.

Immune Health on Raw Food

Someone asked about immune function and it is a good one for raw vegan questions answered sessions because the results really do speak for themselves. In over twenty-two years I have had two sick days related to stress in the late nineties, a brief sore throat this year from pulling myself too thin during the bundle, and one COVID morning where I woke up with sweats and a positive test and felt completely normal by 11am the same day. Raw food plus adequate sleep plus stress management is genuinely the most powerful immune support available.

The lifestyle affords the highest heights of vitality and robust immune function when the whole picture is attended to. Diet provides the raw materials. Sleep provides the recovery window. Stress management provides the nervous system stability that allows everything else to work properly.

Guilt, Cravings, and the Rule Book Problem

This is one of the most important raw vegan questions answered in the whole session. Someone asked about falling off raw and I shared something I feel strongly about.

When I first went raw I equated raw with good and cooked food with bad. If I ate all raw I was a good person. If I had a bite of cooked food I was bad, unworthy, deserving of guilt and shame. That mental framework genuinely diminished my health and wellbeing more than the occasional non-raw food ever did.

What helped most was making a different choice around conscious eating. Instead of hiding and distracting and rushing through something I felt guilty about, I chose to be fully present with it. No TV, no distractions, just sitting with the experience. And what I noticed every time is how clearly I could feel the difference from raw food. That awareness, without the guilt layered on top, becomes its own teacher. You stop needing a rule book because the body is giving you real-time feedback.

What you resist persists. The more you label something as forbidden and push it away, the more magnetic it becomes especially in low moments. Letting go of the labels and recognizing that nothing can diminish your worth as a human being makes the pull toward non-serving foods significantly weaker over time.

Most cravings that feel like they are about food are actually about something else entirely. Comfort, numbing, nostalgia, social connection, celebration. Getting clear on the actual need makes it much easier to find another way to meet it.

How to Actually Stay Raw Long Term

One of the most common raw vegan questions answered in coaching and live sessions. The short version is this: build a lifestyle you love, not just a diet you tolerate. The bundle itself is an expression of this philosophy. Recipes that excite you, information that grounds you, community that supports you, inspiration that reminds you why this matters.

If it feels like a chore, if you are eating health kibbles and watching everyone else longingly, that is not a sustainable place to operate from. Find the foods you love. Find the recipes that make you excited to cook. Find the people who get it. Build the rituals and the environment that make staying raw the path of least resistance rather than constant white-knuckling.

The Overt Versus Covert Fat Distinction

This came up and it is worth repeating here as it is one of the most practically freeing nuances in the 801010 framework. The ten percent fat target in 801010 refers primarily to overt fats, meaning nuts, seeds, avocados, and other overtly fatty foods. Covert fats inherent in all whole foods sit around three to five percent of calories even when eating no overtly fatty foods at all. That means if your total fat on Cronometer lands anywhere between five and fifteen percent on a given day, you are well within the spirit of the framework. That buffer removes a lot of unnecessary anxiety.

Greens, Seeds, and a Few Other Raw Vegan Questions Answered

On greens: iceberg lettuce gets unfairly dismissed but per calorie it is genuinely nutritious, comparable to cucumber and tomato and more enjoyable for most people than choking down raw kale. Eat the greens you actually enjoy. Arugula in banana smoothies is one of my favorites, a combination I call the spicy monkey. Dandelion greens, bok choy, nappa cabbage, pac choy are all regulars in my kitchen.

On seeds: hemp, chia, flax, and walnuts are the four I use most. Hemp and chia blended into a curry sauce with a tablespoon or two of each creates an incredibly thick, rich, omega-3 dense dressing that is one of my staples. No grinding needed, blend them straight in.

On dehydrators: I use my Excalibur mainly to dehydrate mushrooms and tomatoes, occasionally for recipes. Buying nine kilos of mushrooms at a dollar a kilo and fully dehydrating them for later use in curries is one of my favorite budget moves. The texture and flavor of fully dehydrated then rehydrated mushrooms in a warm sauce is genuinely excellent.

On nutrition per gram versus per calorie: comparing foods per gram is almost meaningless. We eat a certain number of calories, not a certain number of grams. Water-rich, fiber-rich, lower calorie density foods are advantageous precisely because volume contributes to satiation. That is the framework that actually makes sense.

The Bundle and Where to Find Everything

All of the topics touched on in this session, B12, cravings, staying raw, fat ratios, emotional eating, are covered in depth in both The Model Diet and the 80/10/10 Diet Masterclass with Dr. Douglas Graham, both included in the bundle. Raw vegan questions answered at this depth across seventeen and a half hours of content from Dr. Graham alongside four hundred pages in the book is a genuinely rare resource.

Over $1,500 worth of content for just $50 until midnight Pacific time May 11th.

As Always

Wishing You Much

PeaceLovenSeasonalFruit ck