Kids want to eat NON STOP!

[MaineMomof4]

Just wondering if anyone else has ever had a problem with their kids wanting to eat non stop or saying that they're hungry constantly? We've been doing a raw diet now for about 3 weeks with the exception of a little cereal mostly in the morning (plain organic cascadian farms O's) since they seem to be so hungry. My kids are 5, 3 1/2, and 18 months and they seem to be saying they are hungry all the time even though I've been giving them almond milk, bananas, apples with cinnamon, celery with nut butter, oranges, pineapple, grape tomatoes, trail mix with raisins and nuts, salad for dinner, just started 2 days ago with sorbet (raw foods in the vitamix we just got) and 1 smoothie a day which they don't just love yet but will drink. I have gave in a little here and there and as a TREAT given them part of a whole food raw bar for eating well all day or we made fresh salsa in the vitamix and we let them have a few organic blue corn tortilla chips with it, although my 3 1/2 year old did ask for more salsa so he could just eat it with a spoon and my 5 year old was saying it was too spicey. One night we did give them air popped popcorn as a treat with their smoothie as well because my husband said maybe it would make them more thirsty and they would want to drink their smoothy more. What should I do when I feel like they are constantly hungry and asking for things like cereal, tortilla chips, sandwiches, crackers, etc.? My older son seems to get bored of eating the same fruit or veggies over and over. Any suggestions from anyone would be so greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[Nimmanu]

All the cheating is making them hungrier. This is why it's so highly recommended to be 100%.

I noticed it myself, after only 3 days. After 3 days at 100%, I was less hungry. After ONE single cheat on ONE day, I was back to feeling like I was starving all the time...

[Conscious Midwife]

Didn't see mention of bananas ( my 2 y old, soon to be 3 can consue 3 bananas in one sitting)

make a cacao syrup or honey, dip bananas and roll in chopped nuts freeze and serve as a banana split treat with fresh berries of choice


also avacados, sliced or made as guacomole the good fat will help fill them

[michigan roman]

ive been vegan 14 years and raw 15 months , and at the begining of both changes i was starving for months . so for me it took time . i drank alot of green tea when starting raw cuz it supresses appetite .

all i can think is buy bananas in bulk , by the cases , and always have them around cuz they are filling and always hit the spot .

[MaineMomof4]

We do have lots of bananas but my 5 year old doesn't want them that much and I'm sure the cheating isn't helping but I saw that EPPP on the other posts gives her kids some stuff that isn't completely raw and didn't seem to have any problems. Also my kids didn't like the avacado I gave them but I did see you could make it into a chocolate pudding with raw cacao. Thanks for all the suggestions so far! I'll have to try the banana frozen but I have to order the raw Cacao since by local health food store doesn't carry it :(

[dreamrawalwz]

How much water are they drinking? A lot of the time people are actually thirsty, but think they're hungry, so they end up eating constantly.

[faith4u]

You can make the avocado pudding with carob too. In fact I would recommend using that for kids instead of cacao. I see a huge difference in how I feel and how my kids act when they have cacao. It really revs them up, makes them go a hundred miles an hour and have a hard time sleeping.

What about trying some of the heartier raw grains as a transition. Give them raw oatmeal, bagels, breads or grawnola with almond milk etc... Try Alissa's crepes they are fantastic. Do they eat dried fruits? They are more caloric too.

[MaineMomof4]

They do eat dried fruit but I don't know anything about making raw granola, bagels, or any of that other stuff. I'm getting an excalibur tomorrow and it will be shipped through the mail. I need advice on what to do because as of now all we're doing is raw fruit, veggies, salad, nuts, nutmilk, smoothies and that's about it. I have no clue how to uncook my food and make meals. Any advice?

Doesn't carob taste bitter? I thought I heard that and that I had something with it and it was bitter? Any idea of how to sweeten it if it does?

Thanks everyone you're great!

[kaybee]

I have found that when I switch from cooked food to raw food, I am eating like mad, constantly, for a few weeks, until my body adjusts. During this time I tend to want heavier foods and/or foods that are more similar to cooked foods. after a few weeks i am content to eat just salads or vegetables for a meal, for example, shredded carrots with olive oil, lemon juice, herbs, and sea salt, or a fennel salad with oranges, olives, oil, lemon juice, etc. But when I am first transitioning from cooked to raw these foods alone would not satisfy me. It seems to take the body time to adjust, and some of us may be non-stop eating during these transition times. I find this happens to me whenever I "fall of the wagon" for a while and then try to go back to eating raw, it takes a while for me to not need so much food. If you want to make raw "work" in the long term its going to have to be pleasant and sustainable for the kids; theyre going to have to eat foods they like. Also, make sure they are getting enough calories and variety; it wouldnt be a bad idea to add in some sprouted grains like buckwheat. I think the dehydrator will help a lot because you will be able to make things like crackers, etc; things that they are more familiar with eating. Also you can try things heavier, protein rich things like homemade nut and seed butters if you can afford them, halvah (ground sesame seeds or raw tahini mixed with honey or agave), soaked buckwheat mixed with fruit and honey or juice and/or homemade nut or seed milks for breakfast, and if you have alyssa's book, things like the date nut torte are great because they are quick, easy, really filling, and still good for you. The kids may just need some denser foods. There are a lot of recipes you can find in alyssa's book or on this website that don't require a dehydrator but are a bit denser, mostly things that use nuts and seeds. If you can afford to make raw almond butter that is a great filling thing to have with fruit or veggies, also things like sunflower seed pate are cheap and easy and filling. Anyway, I wouldnt worry about them wanting to eat all the time, I have found this to be normal for me until my body adjusts. I would just let them eat and eat when they are hungry right now and I bet their bodies will balance themselves out a little more over the next few weeks. Raw foods are actually superior and richer in nutrients to cooked but sometimes it seems to take our bodies a little while to figure that out, and/or our bodies could be trying to compensate for previous deficiencies.

Good luck.

kaybee.

[MaineMomof4]

How do you make raw cashew or almond butter in the blender? A recipe I had said to add oil but I had no clue what kind and without it the consistency was WAY to dry. Does anyone have a good way of making either in a blender and what do you add? Thank you

[kaybee]

its helpful if you can use a coffee grinder first to grind up the almonds into powder. then dump the powder in the blender or food processor. if you have a food processor (i just had a cheap one from wal-mart, not an expensive cuisinart or anything) i have found the food processor to work better because u dont have to scrape the sides as often as a blender and the blades in the food processor cover more distance. i have done it in a blender but it can be a bit more of a hassle. basically dump it in your blender/food processor and keep processing it. EVENTUALLLY, and i mean EVENTUALLY, with enough blending/processing, the oil will start to emerge out from the powder and you will start to get a slightly sticky consistency. you will have to keep scraping down the sides to get the stuff back into circulation. and you WILL have to keep stopping the blender or food processor and letting it cool down or else you will end up defeating the purpose by the almond butter getting heated from the blending/processing. the temperature of the almond butter really can get hot. when i make it in my food processor, it takes between 10 and 15 minutes of this turning it on/off stuff to get something resemlbling the consistency of peanut butter. If you blend it enuff, you wont have to add oil, but it will never get as "soupy" as the almond butter you buy in the store. some people add coconut oil, i have also tried using a high quality, mildly flavored cold pressed flax oil and i didnt mind the taste, but i have found any oil i add does change the taste. adding olive oil and sunflower oil were YUCK!. some people also add water, but that will change the texture significantly. oh yeah, and i usually add a bit of sea salt to my almond butter too.

good luck. i have done it in a blender, but far easier in a food processor, though still time consuming. grinding the almonds in a coffee grinder first will help a lot though.

I have also made tahini, with sesame seeds, in the same way. then i would mix it with honey and mix it with chopped fruit for breakfast or whatever. sesame is definitely more bitter though, and the sesame seeds without hulls (the white ones) are less bitter but i have heard they are dried at high temperataures before we buy them and thus questionably raw....

***try using the banana search on this website and you will probably find more tips. im pretty sure ive seen threads on this before.

[goodbeets]

I made almond butter today in the vitamix with coconut oil and a little water. Itwasn't the same as store bought but yummy and cheaper. We do apples with a fat based dip (avacados, honey and carob is good), sometimes my kids will eat 3 apples in a row! I don't do all raw with my kids as they turn some of it down an this is my issue, not theirs. They do like the raw cookies I make. I make cereal with sprouted buckwheat, coconut and agave, sometimes they like sometimes not. I do insist they eat salad before their dinner and that they do very well. They like raw smoothies and puddings and cookies and fudgy treats. They seem to gravitate to the simpler foods. I still give them popcorn. blue corn chips, hummus, whole grain pasta and other vegan foods. I also give them raw cow's milk. I want to learn to make raw corn chips. They also like Alissa's banana-flax crackers. e-mail me if you need other suggestions and good luck with your new toys!!

[Mona]

Maybe this is a true/false-hunger-case?

I´ve heard that what we call hunger is actually the stomach cleaning itself after all the years on cooked food. That we can go for weeks without food and still not feel "true" hunger. Some people, raised on raw food, doesn´t ever have this feeling of hunger in the stomach. They only feel hunger as a mild thirst. According to this theory it will go away after a while and you will feel satisfyed eating only raw.

[rawpriestess]

seems to me they have a grain addiction, since you give them cereal and tortilla chips, and they want sandwiches, etc.


I'd take them off all grains for a while, load them up with fresh fruits, and maybe oat meal, and sprouted grains, flat breads made in the dehydrator, and tons of warmed veggie soups

also, soups and smoothies made with almond milk will make them full with all the oils in the nut milks, this is what keeps my grandkids full

please try this.

[raw-siobhan]

I was looking at your pics and you look wonderful. There is an enormous difference between the pics. What I notice is that you have a particularly beautiful face with beautiful features, but I am curious as to how tall you are as I currently weigh 205 and I am 5'9" and I am trying to figure out if our body build is similar.

[DeadNutrition]

You can do whatever you want; however, I strongly recommend that you limit or stop these kids from eating grains like those tortilla chips. Grains and sugars are very addictive; thankfully, I've never eaten them in my life, but I've heard the horror stories of some obese people unable to stop eating things like cookies, sandwiches, corn, HFCS, sugar, etc. and their insulin levels go out of whack, and their bodies are just feeling false hunger when in reality their bodies want nutrients from Raw, Live Foods like fruits and vegetables to neutralize the toxins of these foods (like acrylamide and other possible carcinogens). It actually takes raw energy from raw, living foods in order to even DIGEST these grains, which is why I never recommend any one eat them, and I sometimes even go as far as scolding my son whenever I find out he eats these foods. Whenever I find out my son eats something like grains, pork, or sugar , I force him to eat as many goji berries as he did these foods in order to show him positive light. I know most parents would disagree on the way I scold my son, but it is the way my wife and I do things in my raw food household.

[RainbowAngel]

I think my sister can agree with you MaineMomof4 because shes the one whos really into nutrition and i'm 12 years old and i'm always hungery sometime i'll be in the kitchen (eating) and she'll come in and say " are you even hungry" because i most likely just ate and she came to the idea that i don't know hungery is.

I think kids just need nutrients to grow!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a wonderful day

[ItsSimplyAmazing]

I just joined today but Im dealing with the constant "eat eat" from my 2yo!

Im really hoping he opens up to trying more and more fruits - he use to be a banana freak lol hed eat 2 sometimes one righ tafter the other .. and sometimes 3-4 a day .. then lately hes turned his noes up that them even after hes asked for it and Ive unpeeled it - so I eat it LOL

Im just starting the raw lifestyle and hoping to teach him better ways then how I grew up, lived uptil now and improve a bit on his intake as I know I loved the crackers, cakes, cookies , breads and hes really shown a interest in those and loves them from time to time

I cant wait to get my excalibur ordered this week and try making the healthy versions ;) and see how they win over!!

I love that this place has a board for us with kids - YAY!!