Is anyone thriving without reducing fat?

[VeryBerry]

I am just curious, did anyone have any major health improvements WITHOUT significantly reducing fat?

What was your diet like before raw?
How long have you been raw?
What health problems went away after going raw?
What do you eat on a typical day?

Thanks in advance for your responses, I am trying to decide which route to take and it is not easy with all the conflicting info out there.

[Veganforlife]

I am just curious, did anyone have any major health improvements WITHOUT significantly reducing fat? I'm not sure how to answer this. I am eating fats, but good fats, like from avocados, nuts, etc.

What was your diet like before raw?I was Vegetarian for 26 years, then Vegan for 2, now raw.
How long have you been raw?18 weeks this past Monday - WOO HOO!!!
What health problems went away after going raw?My migraines that I suffered my entire life. THAT is monumental. I do not E V E R remember NOT having them. Plus my thyroid meds have been cut in half. I've dropped 33 pounds too.
What do you eat on a typical day? First thing I have a couple ounces of wheatgrass, then for Breakfast - frozen fruit smoothie w/hemp seed powder. Then snack on fruits until lunch. Lunch I usually have a green smoothie and maybe some Kalamata olives. Dinner I'll have whatever I've dehydrated - like chick-un fingers and another green smoothie, sauerkraut. Things like that.

Thanks in advance for your responses, I am trying to decide which route to take and it is not easy with all the conflicting info out there. Try some simple foods first. Do you have Alissa's book? Do her 4 week meal planner. Once you get going with raw, you can listen to what your body craves.

[VeryBerry]

Vegan for live,

I am happy to hear that you are doing well. Although it does not seem like you are eating a lot of fat. What do you dehydrate?

[Veganforlife]

Hmmmm. What do I dehydrate? Well. I just did up a batch of Alissa's "Chick-un Fingers". I've done eggplant bacon, kale chips, fruit leathers, caramel/coconut cookies, gosh, lots of things.
I don't think I am eating a LOT of fat. Why do you say that?

[VeryBerry]

I don't have Alissa's book, I really don't enjoy any kind of food preparation. I like to keep it simple. I make some smoothies & blended soups in the Vitamix, that's about it.

[Veganforlife]

Oh, I can understand that. But for me? I like the variety. I've never minded preparing foods. Her book is so full of information too about foods and what they can do (healing wise) for your body. I'd say half of it is informational. The other half is preparation.
Have you read Victoria Boutenko's GREEN FOR LIFE? Another excellent book.

[VeryBerry]

I guess it is a lot of fat.
My fat intake per day: 1 or 1/2 avocado, a few handfulls of nuts or seeds.
The rest are fruits, veggies & greens. I have been doing 100% for a months.
I am considering reducing my fat consumption to speed up healing. So many people advocate this way of eating, just wanted to see if anyone is doing well and still eating fats.

Veganforelive, did you eat soy products when you were cooked vegan? Did you eat a lot of wheat? Did you eat proccessed food?

[VeryBerry]

Did not read "Greens for life", i read her article about green smoothies. I figured the main message of the book would be eat more greens, so i do that.

I have "instant raw sensations" by Fred P, it has some good easy ideas. I also have "The complete book of raw foods" but I don't use it very much.

[Veganforlife]

Yes, I did eat quite a bit of soy products, wheat and healthier processed foods, but still cooked. Foods that had the life cooked out of them. When I was Vegetarian I would eat a lot of the processed Vegetarian foods. I called them Vegetarian "fast foods". You know - the frozen food products, like garden burgers and such. Then when I became Vegan, I started to go away from those types of products. Now being 100% raw? I am eating a much more varied diet then I can ever remember. I had some of my leftover food in my freezer that I had created, like tofu, corn, broccoli, bean mixture and it looked grey and dead! I had to compost that baby!
All I know is that this is truly working for me. Losing the 33 pounds is secondary to not having the migraines! I feel alive. I have loads of energy, I sleep well, I am sharper with my thinking. Life is good.

[VeryBerry]

Your improvement can be due to giving up soy & proccessed foods. I did really badly with soy and had major improvements when I gave it up.

[Veganforlife]

It could be, but I truly believe the improvement is due to eating all raw. I did Dr. Fuhrman's which includes NO soy and followed his "plan" if you will, for about six months and did not see the results or feel the way I feel since having been raw for 18 weeks.

Think about it. It just makes sense.

Dead foods = dead bodies
Live foods = live bodies

I know my body. I know what makes it work and what makes it crash. Raw is definitely working.

[Alba]

soy made me feel really bad -giving it up is the best thing I ever did - I ate and drank a lot over a year (almost 1ltr/a day and half a block of tofu!?) - the phytoestrogens made my boobs grow and get all tense and I gained like 11 punds!! After gigving it up (aprox. 2 month before going raw) I immeadeately lost the weight I had gained and my breast returned to normal size - that scared me, I now warn people about soy, sometimes they get mad though.
Love alba

[swingbolder]

I don't eat low fat and I feel great. I usually eat one avo a day, maybe a palmful of nuts and/or a T of coconut oil and 1-2 T of tahini.

Other than that I eat mostly smoothies, salads. Tons of water-rich fruits and veggies. I rarely eat dehydrated food.

I have been raw since December 2004, with a few brief periods of slipping here and there, always when visiting family.

I was mostly vegan before going raw, for years. I feel much better on raw food than I did on a vegan diet, when I was eating lots of grains/soy.

I am a firm believer that some people just metabolize fats differently than others. Two longtime rawfooders that I really respect, Storm Talifero and Gabriel Cousens, don't advocate low-fat for everyone. In his book Conscious Eating Cousens talks about low and fast metabolizers. Fast metabolizers need more fat.

The few times I did eat lowfat for a period of time, I got extremely skinny and felt frail, sort of spaced out. I didn't like that. I couldn't even sit down without my tailbone whacking into the seat. Perhaps at some point I may try lowfat again, but right now I'm happy eating the way I do.

[Trinity]

Hi:)
I do not eat what I would call low fat. I eat dehydrated meals like stuffed mushrooms or pepers, big fan of eggplant bacon too. I also make my own cookies and I eat a good amount of nuts in either whole form or in a pate on flax crackers, I'm generous with my salad dressing. I eat some fruit, like applea, pears, pineapple and berries, I do the green smoothies, love em and alot of greens. I'm about 100lbs. and I feel great. I sometimes think I'm eating too much fat but my weight stays the same. If I feel heavy inside, I just cut down on the avo/nut deal for a couple of days, but I do think I'm a good fat metabolizer. Lovin fat and thriving.

[rawfigure]

soy made me feel really bad -giving it up is the best thing I ever did - I ate and drank a lot over a year (almost 1ltr/a day and half a block of tofu!?) - the phytoestrogens made my boobs grow and get all tense and I gained like 11 punds!! After gigving it up (aprox. 2 month before going raw) I immeadeately lost the weight I had gained and my breast returned to normal size - that scared me, I now warn people about soy, sometimes they get mad though.
Love alba


I have the same reaction to soy, my boobies got VERY VERY sore.

[VeryBerry]

My boobs got very sour while eating soy too, I could not figure out why for about a year. I am glad to hear that not everyone thinks that low fat diet is the answer. I think I am a fast metaboliser I alway ate lots of fatty foods before raw and stayed thin. I think that fasting & clensing too much can mess up your metabolism & make you gain weigh.

My main health issue right now is constipation, any advise there.

[Shmoopie]

Are you 100% right now? If not, a colon cleanse (like drnatura). If so, I don't know. Is it an ongoing thing? I know for short term, they say prunes, berries, and even bananas (which is weird because they can also be used as a binder when having diarrhea). For the long term? No idea.

[Shmoopie]

Also, just read this post by missrawdiva. Try flax crackers?

http://rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22231
(hers is the original post)

[shelah]

veryberry,
for me, the answer to my constipation issue was probiotics. even though i ate raw vegan and very little dehydrated food, drank tons of water between meals, included ground flaxseeds and cultured veggies in my daily diet and took digestive enzymes, i had to have an exact routine in place in order to have one daily bm.
with probiotic supplements, i tried them all. only one was effective: natren.
since taking the three strains together, i still follow the same diet, but i have absolutely no problems. if i can be of further assistance, please e-mail me :)
many blessings,
shelah

[VeryBerry]

Shmoopie

I am 100% 1 month, high raw 2 years. Don't plan on going back & have absolutely no desire to eat anything cooked. I do eat bananas & apples, i know they are supposed to be binding, but they are some of the few fruits I can tolerate. I can't eat anything high in acid.

[VeryBerry]

A lot of the standard remedies, flax, prunes ect don't work for me. Drinking lots of water helps a little, but not enough. I tried diffrent probiotics & fibre with limited results, taking magnesium helps, but that is not very healthy and habbit forming.

Shelah, thanks for recommending a probiotic. I will e-mail you in a few minutes.

[livenraw]

I have been around 85% raw for the past year and have NEVER reduced my fat intake. I just do better with higher fat. Too much fruit causes me to gain weight. (I'm the only one in my family without high blood sugar) And I still got good results - better skin, feeling energized, deeper sleep. Oh yeah. And I lost those last 12 stubborn lbs as a side benefit.

Before that, I was a heavy meat eater for some reason even though I was never fond of meat that much. Then the dh and I gave up dairy but continued to eat meat. And now we've given up both.

My typical day is:

Breakfast - 2 bananas or some juicy fruit like mangos

Lunch - HUGE salad consisting of cabbage, spinach, celery, cucumbers, green peppers, carrots, jicama and avocados with 2 Tbsp of Extra Virgin
First Cold Pressed Olive Oil

Dinner - another smaller salad with 2- 4 oz of raw nuts and a baked sweet potato and maybe one more piece of juicy fruit afterwards. Or sometimes I might cook up some organic black beans and have them with my salad.

My advice would be to be consistent with whatever you decide to do. It might take more than one day to see results. It took me about 2 weeks. So just be consistent. Consistency is the key.

[Free Energy]

Hi VeryBerry,

I went 100% raw almost one year ago and the first several months I ate a lot of fats. Those were the only filling foods for me as I have a BIG appetite.

Before raw I consumed a lot of soy products also, and I was very irritable 3 weeks out of the month. I felt very exhausted in the afternoon and got frequent migraines. My pms symptoms were so severe I had to take the day off from work the first day of my P. I lost about 5-8lbs the first two weeks I went raw and then gained it back but am at a comfortable weight now. I felt I was too skinny and I don't worry about my weight. I eat sooo much more food now and I stay at a comfortable weight. If I eat too many nut and date combinations everyday, that's when I feel heavy and my clothes don't fit too well.

A typical day for me now is a hug smoothie in the morning with kale, spinach, or radish leaves with one packet of NuPlus and 1 pack Quinary (both Sunrider foods,) soaked chia seeds, hemp oil, dates and an apple.
Seafood Nori wrap with nuts, lemon juice, greens, and guacamole or marinara over angel hair zucchini pasta and raw veggies.

[Sunshine9]

Hey VeryBerry,

I don't follow a low fat diet, and I'm feeling pretty good ! However, I had digestive issues before raw, and I wouldn't say they are 100% gone so I'm still unclear as to the right amount of fat for me. I do know though that combining fat = disaster in many cases. I also think that a generally low-fat diet is healthy, but I don't want to push too hard or too fast to get there. I know I will when I'm ready and I'm focusing more now and just getting into balance, and living a joyful life. I know when I go too fast too many emotions are triggered and I feel defeated.

Anyway, in terms of constipation. I had a problem with this for a few months after I had already been 100% for quite a while. I was baffled, and figured I was eating too much fat. I tried lowering fat and while it helped, it didn't solve it. I started to juice everyday, about 20oz of all-green juice and suddenly- I wasn't constipated anymore! I think for me, it was acid/alkaline balance. And I was eating a huge salad plus green smoothies before that, but for me it was the juice that made everything work better. Didn't change my fat content. Probiotics and healthy ferments are really important too. Also eating late at night was constipating for me when I first went raw.

If you need any further support, feel free to email me
Sunshine :)

[VeryBerry]

Sunshine,

What are the ingredients of your green juice?
Do you drink it forts thing in the morning or just anytime?

[Sunshine9]

I use.... 1/2 bunch parsley, 1/2 bunch of celery (to make 12oz), 1/2 bunch dinosauer kale, 1 cucumber with skin, few big leaves of chard, few big leaves of collards, 1/2 lemon

that makes about 20oz. Sometimes I drink less, sometimes a whole liter.

I like it late afternoon, so my stomach isn't full and it's before dinner
anytime is good though :)

[VeryBerry]

I will try green juice too.
More veggies & less nuts is probably the key, even if you diet is not low fat.
Do you take probiotics, what brand?