Durianrider - Raw Food Diet Interview With A Vegan Superstar

Harley Johnstone, aka Durianrider is becoming extremely well known for being outspoken, controversial and highly passionate about animal rights, the planet, and creating a better world.

I first came into contact with Harley in early 2009 on his raw vegan website and forum 30 Bananas A Day, where he freely gives of his time to help others to thrive on a low fat raw vegan diet.

I laughed out loud reading his posts - this is a really witty dude - and my intuition instantly vibed with the things he said.

While he sometimes says some outrageous things, and has become known for speaking the truth no matter how inconvenient it may be to hear, and no matter how unwelcome it may sometimes be in certain circles (i.e. those who just don't want to know), underlying everything he does is such enormous passion to help his fellow man, and all creatures sharing this planet with us.

Durianrider is someone who really and truly cares, and someone who constantly takes inspired action to make a change in this world.

In this sensational interview with Loving-It-Raw in March 2011, Durianrider shares pure gold with us. This is the information that he would have wanted to have when he began his journey with raw foods, and he shares his wealth of experience with us here.

This is the kind of stuff that sends shivers down my spine and makes me so incredibly excited to be on this path. I am sure it will do the same for you!

Note: To those who may be unfamiliar with the term, 80/10/10 or 811 refers to a caloronutrient ratio and was the term coined by Dr Douglas Graham in his groundbreaking book on the ultimate raw diet, 'The 80/10/10 Diet'. This refers to getting a minimum of 80% of calories from carbohydrates and a maximum of 10% of calories from protein and 10% of calories from fat in your diet.

SAD refers to the Standard American Diet and PB refers to Personal Bests.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Age, where you live, occupation, etc?

I'm 33, I live in Australia and my occupation is a health & fitness coach.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: Can you tell us a bit about your dietary progression, i.e. vegetarian to vegan to raw?

I had chronic fatigue, asthma, chrons disease & anemia and was looking to start eating healthier.

I thought I was eating healthy at the time and then a friend suggested I try lacto vegetarian. I did for a week and felt amazing. I read a vegan magazine on the weekend and went vegan overnight. That was April 2001.

So I've been vegan since then. I started raw foods in 2002. I've done some serious experimentation with my diet in the last 10 years and as an elite athlete, you can quickly tell what works and what doesn't.

Late 2006 I read The 80/10/10 Diet and that really taught me why I was failing on my high fat, low carb raw vegan lifestyle compared to when I was eating high carb, low fat vegan. Now I eat 811rv (80/10/10 raw vegan) and have set personal bests in the last month in both running and cycling.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What was your diet like before you began your progression? Were you in good or poor health?

I had poor health. I had inconsistent fitness and participation in my daily reality. I was hating life too much!! I knew it wasnt natural to feel/perform the way I did. I was addicted to stimulants for energy.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: How did you find the transition to a raw diet? Were there any struggles?

I read Paul Nison's book in April 2002 and that got me started. He said not to eat too much fruit though. I remember eating a 20kg box of bananas in a week and thinking I was bingeing. Yet 20kg box of bananas over a week is only 1400cals!!!!

So I was SEVERELY undereating and feeling down cos I was 'emotional eating' supposedly. I struggled for years and would go back to eating cooked starches to get my caloric sufficiency. That was fine but I wanted to be raw cos I felt the best there.

Durianrdier Raw Food Diet Interview: Are you now 100% raw? Do you ever or would you ever include any cooked items? If so, which ones?

I don't eat 100% raw in the sense that I eat dried fruit and if out training will drink bottled juice.

I didn't do this for 4 years and it was only a recent shift but it's been fine.

I would ignorantly starve myself by trying to just eat local, fresh, organic fruits and my performances would suffer because I wouldn't always get enough calories due to lack of available fruits.

I mean if you give me the choice between quality fruit and dried fruit, I'm going to go with the best obviously.

So I encourage people to eat '100%' raw vegan but don't run out of glycogen and suffer and wreck your immune system. Drink some quality juice instead of eating a bag of nuts cos they are 'raw'.

Don't worry about the drying temp of fruits, just get the quality stuff and stay carbed up and keep dominating in your daily life. People think if they drink some juice then they may as well go eat a big mac or a vegan pizza. That's crazy! It's like people missing a days training and thinking they will wake up the next day unfit! That's just as crazy!

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What benefits have you experienced through your dietary transitions?

Increased sexual stamina (only when I really started eating high calories though. The higher the caloric intake, the more sex drive, stamina, positivity, passion, creativity and strength I have in my daily life.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What do you eat in a typical day?

My staples are bananas and dates. I ONLY live in locations where I can get enough of these. I eat 3500cals a day +.

I have a VERY sedentary job and only train around 1 hour a day on average. I eat nuts and seeds at least every month. I keep my ratio's 811 over the year. If I eat greens/fats its ALWAYS the last meal of the day for peak digestion and satisfaction vs eating fats and then craving sweets after the meal cos you didn't eat enough sweet fruit that day.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: How much exercise do you do in a typical day?

I just looked at my diary from last year. I average 36km a day cycling and 2.7km a day running. Thats not much for someone as fast as me. I'm racing cat 1 on the road bike and running 37:22 for 10k recently.

I like to go to bed near sundown and get up at sunrise. Yesterday I cycled 240km and it was MEGA hard. It was a fun ride with a few thousand cyclists and I started dead last and just passed people the whole time. It was 120km and not a single cyclist passed me.

I was wearing my 'go vegan' www.organicathlete.org cycling kit. I got some fruit juice and water and cycled back. It was 35 degrees celcius. I ate 2lbs of dates, 2 quarts of bottled juice, 5 quarts of water.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: You have written a lot about the importance of counting calories to a new raw foodist. Do you still count calories? How many calories do you generally eat per day?

Counting calories is VITAL!!!! Why? Well we live in an anorexic society where people literally look at you sideways if you eat 500 calories of peaches/melons/bananas when they are eating 1500-5000 cals from a SAD meal. You need to learn how to eat enough if you want peak mental performance. YOUR PEAK, not someone elses.

We live in such an apathetic, fatigued society that the standard is too low and it's easy just to follow the status quo and get complacent.

Eat over 3000 calories a day from your fave sweet fruits if you want to dominate and have a really fun, satisfying life.

People might say: 'but I'm out of shape, I need to keep starving myself! 3000 cals is too much!'

My reply is: 'What?? Do you want to stay out of shape, looking like an anorexic with a 6 ft tapeworm or a fat, pasty, wobbly egg on legs? Do you want to stay dependent on stimulants for energy and anti-depressants for mental stability? Do you want to have predictable energy or unpredictable? Do you want to stop eating the crap because now your body is receiving enough carb calories or do you want to keep bingeing and purging?'

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What are your views on weight loss? Do you feel that weight loss is something that will happen naturally once a person starts to eat natural foods?

When you say 'weight loss' I'm going to assume you mean fat loss.

Weight can be in the form of bone, muscle, glycogen, hydration, blood volume. These will go up when the individual is healthy and the negative ones like excess fat and salt retention will go down over time.

People try and push fat loss and they blow up and eventually blow out and in between they become a burden on themselves and everyone around them.

Focus on health and fitness and life starts to take on a whole new level of fun and purpose. You ever seen a fat longterm 811er? Me either. The problem is you can get too emaciated longterm! I mean people tell us all the time we look too thin! And 99% of the time it's the same people that say 'eating lots of fruit will make you fat!!'. They are so undercarbed they can't see the blatant truth OR their income depends on them not understanding it! ;)

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: Many people have argued the efficiency of counting calories, arguing that the calorie model is inaccurate and flawed. What is your view?

I don't know ANYONE that is thriving to their true potential and is ignorant of how many calories a day they currently consume/need. I say eat 3000+ cals a day as a baseline. Sure if you only weigh 70lbs and you sit in a chair all day meditating and have no children, life passions, responsibilities etc then you won't need 3000 BUT if you want to start really LIVING then just eat more sweet fruit calories.

I know raw vegan athletes that struggle with muscle gains/cardio gains/consistent race results cos they simply refuse to do the GRADE 2 MATHS that will show them how much they need to eat.

It's 5g of carbs per lb of bodyweight per day. Or 10g of carbs per kg of bodyweight per day. So for a 60kg human, that's 30 bananas a day as each large banana has around 20g of carbs.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: Were you ever overweight? When/How did this resolve?

I've never had excess weight issues. Maybe if you compared me to a 2:03 marathoner but not to what is a sustainable healthy body composition.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What advice would you give to someone who is coming to a vegan/raw food diet with some excess weight that they would like to lose?

EAT MORE CARBS!! Be it rice or bananas or dates (fruit is of course the healthiest). Just eat your 10g of carbs per kg of bodyweight per day.

Watch my youtube vid 'Durianriders advice for fat people' (posted below). I mean have you EVER seen someone with excess weight after 5 years of a high calorie, high carb, low fat raw/vegan programme? I mean EXCESS weight! Not 'I've only got a flat stomach instead of a 10 pack like those steroid munchers have on the magazine cover...'

Eat more to live more. Carbs are where it's at. The fat we eat is the fat we wear. If you want more fat, eat more fat! If you want more life, eat more carbs as the carbs we eat is the glycogen we get to live with. SIMPLE AS THAT!!! :)

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: You are a very accomplished athlete, can you tell us about the kind of sports you do and your accomplishments?

Thanks. Heck, if I did the drugs that my competitors do, I'd be WAY more 'accomplished'. But I refuse to dope or even use caffeine. Sure it's tempting but it just makes you suffer later in life so I race/train/live 100% clean. I race road bikes, mountain bikes and have just started up competitive running. I do kick boxing when staying in Thailand too.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: How has your performance improved with raw foods?

My performance went up when I went low fat, high carb vegan back in 2001. When I finally learned how to REALLY eat enough calories (2008) I started to set pb's. Not just in sport either, in life as well.

Cooked vegan is easier to get enough calories cos you can literally get a feed anywhere! But getting enough ripe fruit calories can be a real struggle in Australia ESPECIALLY if you're a newbie/longtermer that feels guilty for eating enough.

My recovery, speed, strength, agility, stamina have all increased. My pb for cycling solo in 1 day is 515km.

I've cycled over 180 000km as a vegan. I've been riding the same hill in Adelaide for the last 14 years and have set my fastest time in 2009 up it and just a few days ago rode it 8 seconds slower. I was wearing running shoes a few days ago as I had left my cycle shoes at home.

So this week I will 100% set a new pb up that climb. So I like to laugh at people that say 'you will die if you dont eat animal parts and products!' I'm like 'yeah, come out training and lets go ride 300 miles with zero stimulants and then you tell me how it is?' :)

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What is your training schedule like?

I do 1-2 hard short rides per week and the rest of the days riding is just rolling around looking at the scenery. I do a running/cycle race every weekend on average. I do some pushups on occasion and stretch for a few seconds each night in bed. Some people think all I do is train, train, train but 99% of the people on the bike I race with train more than me. Maybe I should start training more. ;)

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: Do you take any supplements, i.e. B12? Why or why not?

I take b12. Sublinguals/injections. I used to take them as a meat eater back in the late 90's. ALL the cyclist guys I race with and have asked, take b12 supps. None of them are vegan.

I live in a polluted city and breathe in a LOT of pollution out training. I fly on planes, I live a very passionate lifestyle and come from a history of chrons disease. I didn't take b12 for 8 years and NEVER had a problem but recently I thought 'hey, what's the negative? There is none! What's the positive? I get to have better blood values and my body aint running on 3 pistons perhaps...'

I've met a few raw fooders that have claimed they dropped a lot of fat/fluid retention after doing b12 injections. I'm not saying that isn't true as LOTS of weight loss clinics in the US use b12 injections but I think it can be a bit of a trap to rely on a supp to avoid going to bed early, eating enough, staying hydrated etc

I say do your own homework and consider a course of b12 injections under qualified supervision.

B12 deficiency occurs in around 39% of the US population according to a recent Tufts university study. I've got raw organic, grass fed eating animal product eating friends that are against supplementation and must do it 'natural' but they still have clinical b12 serum deficiencies. So when someone says 'I had to start eating animal products' they really have no idea.

ALSO what you will find is that these people get tested for the first time in their life as vegans and show up deficient and blame a vegan lifestyle but what were their levels before? It's like me blaming someone for stealing money from my pocket when I didn't even know how much money was in there to begin with!!

To supp or not to supp? Do it for a year. Use methylcobalmin/hydroxycobalamin injections and YOU decide if it's helpful or not. If doing b12 was ONLY for vegans then how come 99% of the anti vegan, athletes/speakers/ authors sell/use b12 supplements themselves?

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What would you say is the best thing about eating raw foods?

When you get enough carb calories, water and sleep, you feel like you're on cocaine when you start moving.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What do you think is the most challenging aspect of this lifestyle?

GETTING ENOUGH DAILY CALORIES! ;) We live in such a fruit phobic world mostly.

Below: Durianrider with his long term partner Freelee (also a high fruit low fat raw vegan athlete) - check out her fabulous ebook: Go Fruit Yourself!

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: How do you find the social aspects of being a raw fooder in a world that is dominated by cooked foods?

It's fine. I go to a lot of potlucks and bring my dates and lettuce. People start conversations with me all the time. I keep it fun and empowering. I like socialising full of fruit as I can be more real and witty. That's fun.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: How do you feel about the raw food movement as a whole?

It's changing. The fat, drug addicted, anti vegan, fruit phobic hucksters are getting shown the door. People are starting to learn that eating enough calories is vital and it's physiologically IMPOSSIBLE to become a super chunker on fruit.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: Have your family and friends been influenced by your way of eating and lifestyle?

I actually have cooked up vegan food for them cos it's a zillion times easier to be a vegan than an 811rv in this '$10 a kg of bananas Australian society'. They are more vegan conscious and I have seen some profound increases in their health & fitness relevant to what they used to be. Still, the hardest thing about being healthy and fit is watching your friends and family rip their health & fitness apart.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What would you say is the biggest factor in your success?

Desire, eating enough calories, staying hydrated, getting early nights and waking up each day with an attitude of gratitude. I also take advice from those getting the results I desire.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What would you say is the biggest problem most people have in sticking with a raw food diet long term?

Getting enough sweet fruit calories. Drinking enough water and getting early nights. People think they have to eat less cos they become more 'spiritual'.

They think they don't have to drink water cos they eat juicy fruits. They think they need less sleep cos they are raw. Well I've seen people die, end up in hospital and/or just perform at a lower standard than is possible for that individual.

Put me on a $5 thrift shop bike and I will still perform amazing on the hills but NOTHING compared to being on my properly fitted, clean and lean race bike. Does that make sense? Live a lifestyle that helps you perform instead of you performing in SPITE of your lifestyle.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: What advice would you give to someone just starting out with raw foods?

LEARN HOW TO EAT ENOUGH CALORIES!! I say it over and over but it's the foundation of healthy eating. Get early nights, join a club in your fav sport and train with the best and learn from them. Write goals and stick em up where you see em each day. Drink a litre of water each morning upon rising REGARDLESS if your having melon/coconut water for breakfast. Drink enough water so your urine stream is clear. If it's yellow or straw, you need to drink more.

If you crave lots of nuts or cooked starches you havent eaten enough fruit that day, week or month.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: Do you feel that you'll be on a raw food diet for life? Or do you just take it day by day?

Someone asked me that recently. It's a great question. It's like would I stay fit, lean, drug free and living a life of purpose each day? Of course! I mean I've done my experimentation and fruits are where it's at as your caloric source. Vegan is human physiology.

I've slept naked in a jungle and foraged wild fruits and greens. I looked at the animals and how hard/dangerous it would be to catch them. I see dead animals on the side of the road and it looks gross! I see the poor health of my raw meat eating friends. I see the stimulant dependence of my SAD eating friends.

If I ended up in a prison, for sure I'd eat rice and beans but if you give me a choice between good, great, better and best? Why not have best every time? What food has more nutrients per calorie than fruit? What tastes better? What is more satisfying? What DIGESTS better? What makes you look better?

Don't starve yourself cos you can't get fruit, eat rice if you have to but don't think for a moment that you can get a better nutritional staple for humans than sweet fruits. Just be sure to eat enough calories from them!! Fruit is like money, you need enough of it to live in this world! ;)

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: Do you ever get any cravings for less healthful stuff? How do you deal with them?

Cravings? For sure but ONLY if I undereat on fruit. It's always cooked starches/gourmet raw. I just eat more fruit and they go away. Easy. I will eat gourmet raw food on rare occasion if it's not overtly salty/greasy but I dont say 'man I feel like a vegan pizza' and then go make a raw vegan pizza. I say 'I really haven't eaten enough over the last few days and my body is craving more carbs to replenish my glycogen so lets go chow some ripe bananas/drink some blended dates and give my body what it really needs: carbs.

Durianrider Raw Food Diet Interview: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?

If you're not getting told you are 'eating too much fruit' by your raw gurus/friends/family/co-workers then you are NOT eating enough fruit! ;) Learn your calories!! You NEVER have to worry about getting obese on fruit.

Sure you might have had anorexia and your bodies fat/fluid levels will flucuate so you can get your hormones/blood back in order but that's just a teething problem. You want to be fit, lean and strong and have emotional joy to share with those around you. You want to stay hydrated, eat enough sweet fruits and get LOTS of early nights. GET FIT! and have a few months of the year where you don't do any extreme athletic pursuits so your body can have a proper break. Stay active all year long but not super active all year long.

Commit to being a vegan FIRST before worrying about raw. So many people try and do 811 straight from a SAD diet and they are just doing it cos 811 makes you lean eventually but then they just go back to eating flesh cos they undereat to speed up fat loss and their health suffers and they blame 811.

I see ALL the 811 hitters have a background in vegan lifestyle first. They understand the health, ethical, environmental aspects of a vegan lifestyle and see that 811 is an extension of this. Basically if you can't eat enough carb calories from rice/pasta you got ZERO chance of eating enough bananas/dates! It's like you got zero chance of running a marathon if you can't walk one first. Does that make sense?

B12? Just do b12 injections. I'm not one to promote supplements but I see how much pollution, stress and bad health people are coming from. B12 injections are safe in the hydroxycobalamin/methylcobalamin form. People might say 'injections?! that's not natural!' but neither is breathing b12 depleting pollution, having a history of digestive issues, living in this super high stress world, worrying about money, family, status etc ALL of which deplete your b12 levels.

Thinking you can raise them 'naturally' is like never wearing shoes or never using products made with oil and trying to thrive in society. It's like saying 'I will only eat fruit that I find and not use shoes, cars, bicycles or houses cos they aint natural. I won't use money or macbooks either and I will only drink every few months when I find a stream. I won't sleep in a tent and just let the mosquitioes bite me. Does that make sense?

I've had a vasectomy, I race bikes, I use money, I do b12 injections, I wear clothing, I drink water from pipes, I wear shoes, I soak up EMR for hours a day. I'm far from natural but I want to make a massive positive impact on the planet and sometimes you gotta use the system to break the system if people know what I mean.

Thanks for the interview Alison. GREAT questions!! I'm basically sharing what I would have like to have known 8 years ago when I first read about raw foods and it made common sense.

That concludes this amazing interview with Harley Johnstone aka Durianrider. If you'd like to know more about Durianrider, you can find him at 30 Bananas A Day, on his YouTube Channel or on his Blog, Durianrider.org.

But before you go, check out this awesome video of Harley for the Living On Fruit Video Series!

Related Articles

Raw Food Health - Freelee's Story
Go Fruit Yourself
Raw Food Diet Testimonials and Success Stories
Female Triathlete Kathleen Leonard
Josh Fossgreen Raw Food Eating
Raw Food Health Interview Andrew Perlot
Raw Vegan Diet Interview - Chris Kendall
Woman Athlete Ashley Hamilton
Yoga Girl Kath Ford
Organic Raw Food Pioneer Krstina Carillo-Bucaram
Raw Food Vegan Diet Interview - Michelle

Return from DURIANRIDER RAW FOOD DIET INTERVIEW to the Raw Food Diet Interviews Main Page

Return from DURIANRIDER RAW FOOD DIET INTERVIEW to the Raw Food Diet - Loving-It-Raw Home Page