raw food is making me angry!

[amanda]

Yeah, my sisters say it is too. I think I'm going crazy. Food is definitely an emotional thing...I've been raw since May 2nd. I just feel like it's all boring, life is boring, food is boring. Yikes.

[lissomllama]

I don't think that the raw food is making you angry, I think it's probably an 'emotional detox'. The same thing happened to me for a little while. I was feeling very emotional and overwhelmed and frustrated during my physical detox and since I'm still detoxing a bit I wouldn't be surprised if those feelings resurfaced. In my case, cooked food made me angry but I didn't notice it until I stopped eating it and I was getting it out of my system. It's impossible that something as pure and wholesome as organic raw fruits, veggies and nuts could cause anger by themselves. There has been evidence of things like dairy and meat and gluten causing anger and emotional issues though. And a detox is basically all those toxins coming back into your bloodstream to be cleansed out. I hope you feel better soon because going back to cooked won't make you feel better.

[vgloveforlife]

I just went through the same exact thing. I was so bored with raw food. I was considering not eating it anymore.

I recieved Alissa's book just in time and that gave me huge encouragement to continue. I've already made two of the recipies.

I think I was just going through emotional detox too. Now I am back to loving the food and the lifestyle!

And when I think of it, non-raw food is actually probably more boring.

[Conscious Midwife]

It could also be a bit of low blood sugar.

Try eating salads with raw corn , sliced straight of the ear. Also incorporate dates into your smoothies.

I found on my first few days o raw that regulating my blood sugar was critical. Since I was without a dehydrato Iwas doing without all of my favorite starches, which later converted to sugar. Fruit in genral spread through out the day and in great variety.

Good Luck

[Jackie1995]

Very interesting post, Amanda.

I have not had that experience, even at the beginning of my lifestyle change. In fact, I've had just the opposite: I find it impossible to get angry, and I feel alive and inquisitive and certainly "bored" is one term I would NOT use to describe where I'm at.

It's been said that our bodies need to be at ~7.3 alkalinity and if our bodies are too acid, we encourage anger, disease, etc.

Perhaps you could try eating more alkaline foods for a week or so, see if that doesn't help your emotional inbalance?

Here's a site that lists alkaline vs acid foods:

http://www.advancedhealthplan.com/foods.html

It will give you information that may help you balance out your intake, thereby helping with your (probably temporary) problem.

Good luck, good reading! Feel better!

[cornvalley]

Yeah, my sisters say it is too. I think I'm going crazy. Food is definitely an emotional thing...I've been raw since May 2nd. I just feel like it's all boring, life is boring, food is boring. Yikes.

If you are expecting the same kinds of pleasures from unadorned natural foods that you had with cooked and spiced with all kinds of taste enhancers (stimulaters), you are going to experience a let down for awhile.

Neurosensory adaptation is the adjustment that happens when a change occurs in the intensity of excitation to the sensory organs. Your pleasure centers are not yet down to the level that can appreciate the subtleness of your new food choices. Adaptation takes time, more or less depending on previous behavior.

Fasting is the quickest way to allow the body to reset it's pleasure sensitivity to a lower level of excitation

[rawnora]

What Cornvalley says is true. For example, every time you ate spicy or salty foods in the past, your taste buds were irritated and hyper-sensitized. This resulted in their becoming LESS sensitive over time. For this reason, spices and salt are called 'excito-toxins' in natural hygiene parlance. When you stop eating them, your taste buds will heal and recover their natural sensitivity and you'll be able to appreciate all the wonderful flavors in natural foods. In the meantime, food might seem a little boring but there are relatively healthful things you can use to simulate the zing that harmful food flavorants impart, like lemon or lime juice, dehydrated veggies or celery 'salt'.

When I first went raw I had a feeling I could only describe as grief or loss. It persisted for years, intermittently. I sometimes felt that if I couldn't eat cooked food, there was nothing left to live for! Fortunately I realized this was just a little lie I was telling myself because I didn't like the feelings of cooked food withdrawal I was experiencing. I wanted to eat cooked food again so the feelings would go away. The way I got through it was to take my eyes off the big picture and focus on making small improvements and keeping myself satisfied with really delicious raw food recipes and combinations. I wrote about this in my raw evolution essay. Here's the link if you're interested: http://www.rawschool.com/rawevolution.htm

Best wishes,
Nora
www.RawSchool.com

[AJ Bodine]

"When I first went raw I had a feeling I could only describe as grief or loss. It persisted for years, intermittently. I sometimes felt that if I couldn't eat cooked food, there was nothing left to live for!"

Nora, thank you for posting this response. That sums up what I've gone through on my raw journey precisely! I feel so fantastic on raw, most of the time. Clean, energized, happy. And then I go through a low period where I feel like I'm mourning my old cooked life. Thoughts of cooked rule me and sometimes I can beat it and sometimes I haven't. For 3 years now I've been yo-yoing on raw. I make it about 3 months and then slip back, then a few more months and I slip back. At times I wonder if I have it in me to stick with all raw? I know in my heart that raw is the way of life I want to continue pursuing. It is my truth and I'm never far from it. But what I would like to stop doing is the yo-yo, back and forth. I let a little cooked potato/rice back in and before I know it, I'm eating sandwiches and my face is getting old and puffy!

Amanda, I too suffer with depression when I first get back on raw. My first time on raw, my husband said I was like a junkie trying to get off the drugs. It was horrible! I had physical pain and I cried and got angry a lot! Imagine all the toxic stuff that was built up in me! It's much easier now though. If I have a few days of cooked eating, it might take me a day or two to feel better, but trust me, you will begin to feel a lot better if you stick with raw.

[sport]

Yeah, my sisters say it is too. I think I'm going crazy. Food is definitely an emotional thing...I've been raw since May 2nd. I just feel like it's all boring, life is boring, food is boring. Yikes.
Food, like everything in life is what you need it to be.
You create your own reality and you put the food in where you want it.
Some people use food, some alcohol, some drugs, some sex, some cruelty etc.
You have got to realise that food is a tool and you are the tool user, not the other way around.