Raw vegan supporters of his who know him personally have told me in the last few months that he was not raw vegan for 30 some odd years, but little more than fifteen years. I know Nison is claimed to be raw vegan 15 years and I believe it. I do mean Doug. I was recently told he's been 100% raw vegan about 15 years. Of course, I do not know Graham, so I don't know this with my own eyes.
OK, thanks. It’s surprising I haven’t seen vegans give that excuse yet.
EXCUSES MADE FOR GRAHAM’S APPEARANCE:Attempts have been made by his supporters to explain his accelerated aging, but they seem more excuses born of desperation than logic. As I mentioned above, one excuse made for Graham’s aging is that it is due to genes, rather than environment. Graham devotees at FoodnSport wrote: "We believe that health is the birthright of each individual and is the result of
lifestyle choices and environmental factors." So that sort of throws the bad genes excuse for his accelerated aging out the window, right?
Other excuses given include:
> "As long as he feels good though, then who cares."
> "he has previously said that he overdoes the sun-worship and we all know how aging that can be...he was also a very ill child...who knows what effects that has had...we aren't all handed the best genes....another factor....he also works , by all accounts, way too much and doesn't get the adequate rest that he advocates" [The sun-worship argument was responded to with the next point below by another raw vegan]
EVEN SOME 811ERS AND OTHER RAW VEGANS HAVE BEEN ADMITTING THAT GRAHAM DOESN'T LOOK TOO HOT AND EVEN MAKING THE SAME COMPARISONS THAT I HAVE!:> “I'd compare Doug [Graham] to someone else his same age, who is also a long-time athlete and has been in the sun his whole life like Mark Sisson: Mark Sisson on TV: View from the Bay http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYmVAdaS7QU&feature=player_embedded [Mark clearly looks better for his age than Graham in this "Shun Whole Grains" feature,” despite Mark also having engaged in a lot of sun worship]
> “Or Art De Vany, another sun worshipper and a paleo dieter”
http://api.ning.com/files/NmqOOfzqPf9xyJqElm-TqHdLu58WYFpnCFobF5IKTVQycPHrGuMk**zaIQqkbSJjjquf9FjjUmeBEc0ncn96gBc1DzV2LJy3/ArtDeVany3.png [De Vany also looks better than Graham in this png image that won't show up here]
> "I think the effects of advanced glycation are catching up with Doug"
> "Doug doesn't even look healthy any more"
> "a number of fruitarian ladies I've seen pics of who I guessed to be anywhere from 7-12 years older than they actually were (these were long termer's like Doug, so I felt the comparison was somewhat fair). They all had very similar types of aging going on."
> "he looks very odd and much older than his age unfortunately. I guess it is not looks that count at the end, but the actual health and how a person feels. Comment about him having lots of dental work worries me slightly, as my gums got a lot worse when I was eating only fruit. I am new to this, but only have seen a couple of people, who look truly healthy and radiant (all women)."
> “…if someone has been raw for 30 years, they should look good right? I mean, there is no way that my skin is going to ever be line free. … I've accepted that. But, many of these people have been raw for years and never had all of the bad habits that I had. They should have fantastic skin. But, if someone has been raw for 30-40 years, in my eyes they should look glowing...don't you agree? I'm not saying they have to be handsome or beautiful, what I am saying is that they should have clear eyes, clear skin, etc.”
Note: One of the threads in the raw vegan forum where these admissions and concerns were starting to pile up got deleted.
GRAHAM IS NOT AN ISOLATED PHENOMENON:Should we also accept without question the excuses made for the followers of Graham's 811 (short for 80-10-10) diet and other extreme raw vegan gurus and dieters who appear to age rapidly or otherwise deteriorate, such as these quotes indicate…
> I think he [Graham] looks very odd and much older than his age unfortunately. I guess it is not looks that count at the end, but the actual health and how a person feels. Comment about him having lots of dental work worries me slightly, as my gums got a lot worse when I was eating only fruit. I am new to this, but only have seen a couple of people [ie, 811 dieters], who look truly healthy and radiant (all women).
> "As for folks looking older cos they eat fruit,im unsure about that,there are so many factors to ageing,genetics being one,lifestyle choices,too much sun,not enough sun,def not enough sleep,and too much stress."
> “I think our perception of what healthy looks like is a little warped by society's standards. I do agree however that some of these raw [vegan/vegetarian] gurus look malnourished and rather frail. Maybe they are missing vital nutrients, arent getting enough variety or are eating raw foods that hurt more than they help.”
> “When I did 811 I would eat 3000-4000 calories and still be hungry, so I had to step back and re-evaluate my diet.”
...or should we instead ask whether diet might be a factor, rather than excluding it from consideration? Why do the apologists only exclude diet when Graham's book suggests that diet is very important? As you can see, multiple raw vegans are distressed by the rapid aging of both Graham’s and other fruitarian-oriented raw vegans.
MORE COMPARISON IMAGES:Again, while this doesn’t “prove” anything, it is interesting to compare earlier vs. later photos for the Bear, De Vany and Graham...
The Bear as a young man:
The Bear in 1999? at age 64?:
I'm guessing that this is one of Bear's better photos, right? Does anyone have access to any of his poorer photos of recent years that were referred to?
Art De Vany, reportedly age 60:
Ar De Vany, age 71:
Ar De Vany, age 71: (png image doesn't display):
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3Hk10MXU4MI/SyUk9XgVI1I/AAAAAAAAAEw/l_xTFQbucDU/s400/Art-DeVany.pngAr De Vany, age 72:
He's finally noticeably aging a bit, but not much.
Doug Graham years ago:
Doug Graham recently:
Here's another recent video of Graham posted by a mostly-vegan dieter in which Graham looks even worse than in the first video I posted, probably in part due to poor quality video image:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG7bd0lxVfo&feature=player_embedded If Graham was born in March of 1953, then that would make him 56 currently.
Graham today looks like a different person from his younger years.
As was mentioned, Durianrider does look paler and slightly slimmer than before. Not a big change, though. It’s early yet for him and, like Lance Armstrong, I think his extensive exercise probably helps reduce the toxic effects of the foods he eats by rapidly burning them off—so far. Eventually I do think he’ll pay a price if he keeps at it.
He tells his followers that following his diet there is no need for B12 supplementation, yet to please your doctor, it's ok to take the shots. He took his most recent course of B12 shots in November.
Is that responsible, for him to get B12 shots himself but tell others they don’t need them, without any personal experience to back this up?
Tyler, why are even some 811 dieters acknowledging that Graham does not look very good for his age in these videos, while you still have not and instead have only suggested possible excuses? Granted, he doesn’t look as bad in some images as others, but overall he does look older than his age. Again, I’m NOT saying this PROVES anything. I’m saying it should cause us to ask questions, and it IS causing raw vegans to ask questions (and apparently get censored for it). It's interesting that we here seem to be on balance excusing Graham more than the folks at a raw vegan forum.
Perhaps I should have expected it, but I was a little surprised that this thread generated so much feedback and multiple misunderstandings that require responses that are critical of Graham, so I’ve ended up putting out more critical info about Graham than I originally intended to (as I normally prefer to focus on ideas rather than personalities). So in the interests of fairness and politeness, I'll point out that I agree with Dr. Graham on some things, such as the benefits of eating raw vs. cooked and of eating more like our ancient ancestors. Also, some of his followers appear to make many more extreme claims than he does, so he’s not directly to blame for it all and from what I’ve seen his message seems to get exaggerated by his admirers. That said, if the posts of people who follow his diet or used to follow it are any indication, then Graham's 811 diet seems to be one of the worst I've ever encountered. Possibly second worst after Breatharianism.