New to raw and have a question about Cheese

[RedFizz]

I will be completing a 40 day juice fast this week, and I plan to be 80%+ raw. My mom brought me some cheese from amish country, which I love. I want to eat it in serious moderation. Any warnings/thoughts? I didn't eat any other dairy except cheese prior to the fast.

[Rawkinlocs]

Well, because this is a raw vegan forum, we don't advocate eating cheese. You might want to check out www.notmilk.com and even more specifically, http://notmilk.com/deb/071199.html

I haven't read it myself, but often see reference to the book, "The China Study" as well for anyone who still consumes animal products. I don't know if any reference to cheese or other dairy products are in that book, but it's worth checking (need to do so myself!)

But I DO know from personal experience and from other's experiences that dairy in any form, including cheese, is VERY mucous-forming and is linked to things such as allergies, eczema, etc. Not worth it in my humble opinion!

[JEN]

Try some of the cheese recipes from Alissa Cohens book and you will never crave dairy cheese again!

[Brianna]

If you do eat it (which I don't recommend), wait a little while after your juice fast. Your body won't be able to handle something that heavy yet.

[Arky]

As I've stated elsewhere on the forum, in the past, I have a great deal of respect for the NYC cardiologist Dr Joel Fuhrman. He is generally very logical and well-informed in his approach, and has a huge list of patients he has successfully assisted in regaining health. I would therefore urge you to take the following short article seriously, irrespective of your philosophy towards human nutrition. Fuhrman knows what he is talking about.

http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article13.aspx

On a personal note, I used to eat cheese all the time - I really liked it a lot throughout my childhood and early adult life - it's actually quite an addictive substance (as is bread, incidentally). It took me many years to finally realise that the excessive sebum excretion from my scalp, which had bewildered and irritated me, in equal measure, for many years, was directly related to my consumption of cheese.

Very rarely is such a food/symptom connection so utterly & profoundly direct, 'immediate' and abundantly evident, but in my case, having realised a possible connection, I have subsequently proven to myself many times over that if I consume cheese, then within 24-36 hours I will definitely and reliably see a significant (and obviously undesirable) excretion of sebum from the pores of my scalp. Evidently, it's my body's way of excreting the horribly-saturated and unusable cheese fats as fast as it can, and in the most convenient manner. Suffice to say that, having realised this, I swiftly gave up eating cheese, needing no vegan philosophies at all to make my decision!


J.

[RedFizz]

Thank you so much, Archy! I really appreciate your first-hand experience information. I am hoping to go 100% raw, but coming from a SAD diet, I will have to evolve my diet to 100% instead of cold turkey.

I think that because I am ending my 40-day fast soon, my body must know and it's starting to starting to crave SAD food, which I ate prior to the fast. I really needed to read that (and the article) to get my craving under control. You're the greatest.

I feel so good right now from drinking pure, fresh juices, that I am frightened of cooked/processed food and what it will do to me and my psyche. I am afraid the depression will come back, which hasn't shown its ugly head for a long time. Knowing this information about cheese will make me more educated about the choices I make.

Also, thank you, Jen, for the reference about Alissa's book. I will go to Borders tonight and see if I can find the book.

I appreciate everyone's help and support. This is such a great website!

[Arky]

You're welcome, Red Fizz, but I'd like to reitterate that my decision was entirely based upon a simple observation and a decision to take decisive action, not upon any particular vegetarian, vegan, or raw philosophies. It was a logical move, not requiring philosophy in order to be put into action. Many different ways of eating exist, and with a great deal of argument about the relative merits of each. I feel it is always important to remember that what draws one person to a particular diet may not be the same thing that draws another to that same diet - for one person, an adopted philosophy will be the driving force behind their decision for dietary change. For another (as in my case, for example), the driving force was a strictly rational realisation that raw food is, by and large, the most nutritious way to eat. Therefore, please be clear about your reasoning for your own dietary choices. Food is not, repeat not a religion - it is a way of staying healthily alive and anything else one might wish to attach to the issue is, essentially, secondary, so I hope you will keep a healthy focus in this regard, and not get sucked into the uneccessary complexities that many people choose to attach to diet. If you want to eat vegan-only then that's great, but only if you want to, not because you feel obligated. I have a lot of respect for the vegan philosophy but, as I said, my decision to eat a high-raw (and cheese-free!:)) diet was not based upon this respect. Rather, it was based upon a growing realisation of how far-removed my conventional diet was from the natural diet my ancestors evolved to consume healthily. In other words, in seeking to improve my health, it became obvious to me that one of the best things I could do for myself was make the effort to consume a diet full of foods as close to their natural state as possible (you might find the posts in the following thread, from several forum members, interesting: http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11762 )


All I'm trying to say is that I wouldn't want you to become too hung up on following a 'doctrine' of rawness or whatever - that's a trap many people fall into when they come to believe that rawness or veganism are the magic answer to everything - life is not that simple. Both philosophies have their merits but I encourage you to maintain your own sense of self, listening to your body's needs and making your own decisions, influenced by raw enthusiasts, perhaps, but not dictated. To become so enthralled as to lose sight of your own sense of self would be detrimental to your psychological health, a point acknowledged many, many times by other members in the past. So, if you want to give up cheese, for example, do it because you yourself feel it's a good idea, either because of genuine philosophical convictions, on the balance of available research evidence, or because you do not like the way it interacts with your own body, not because you feel you 'should' because of dogma or politics, from any quarter.

That aside, I hope your 40day fast (which is a very long fast) is being medically supervised. Such a long fast can have lasting repercussions if you ignore, or are unaware of, symptoms which a doctor would pick up on right away.

I'm glad to see that you are not intending to go 'cold turkey', as you put it. I personally feel that a relatively smooth transition is a sensible approach, although there are people here who did successfully go 100% right off the bat, so-to-speak. In truth, although this board is here to support 100% raw eating, it is not, IMHO, critical to be 100% raw unless you find it suits your own, unique physiology. Many people achieve great gains in their health without ever making it to the absolute 100% mark, and may find themselves less stressed by their diet as a result of not being too rigid, or too hard on themselves, about maintaining 100% rawness of every morsel they eat.

None of the above is intended to sound negative - I am simply trying to encourage you, as a newcomer, to approach the prospect of a high-raw diet with a healthy psychological attitude of maintaining autonomy of thought and action.

Take care.

J.

[dreamrawalwz]

by craving those foods prior to your fast means you're detoxing and don't give in to the craving or those toxins will jump with joy again! Not right away, but by consuming cheeses, meats, ect. after a raw juice fast I believe that you'll begin to reverse the detox process...

[rawpriestess]

as Rawkinlocs stated this is a raw vegan board, so we don't discuss eating dairy, we do discuss substituting dairy by using nut cheeses or whatever your choice is.

Alissa has some really terrific cheese recipes in her book.

so, much better than actual dairy cheese, which is highly mucus forming.

I used to have terrible athsma, when I ate dairy, and i also had many many symptoms, now that I am 100% raw, no more challenges with any of that.

[RedFizz]

Thanks Dreamraw! That makes SOOO much sense. I should have known better. I have gone through these detox/cravings throughout the fasting process. Thank you so much for reminding me. You're a lot of help!

[dreamrawalwz]

Thanks Dreamraw! That makes SOOO much sense. I should have known better. I have gone through these detox/cravings throughout the fasting process. Thank you so much for reminding me. You're a lot of help!

Glad to be of service :D Good luck!