If you are eating 100% raw or VERY HIGH RAW.....

[SheLovesToEat]

I have been wondering what the effects of items that you UNKNOWINGLY bought , that might NOT be RAW, does to your bodies progress in sustaining you as a raw eater.

for instance..... maybe you order some dried fruits and nuts online.....or get some in a store that CLAIM to be raw....but really ARENT! you dont know this ...and you are eating them anyway.

what does that do to your system? Has anyone ever bought nuts or dried fruits or anything for that matter only to find out later that they were dried with a high heat....and the enzymes destroyed? in hindsite... did it make a difference in how you felt... or affect your weight ?

trader joes sells all kinds of raw nuts and dried fruits.....but upon inquiry....i have found that they are NOT ALL really raw. i am sure that some people who eat raw are buying them thinking that they are REALLY raw.

we can all see when fruits and veg. are raw .....but we cant always know...without inquiry.... if nuts and seeds and dried fruits still have their enzymes.

I have been wondering about this for some time now....because for some of us.... seeds and nuts and low temp. dried friuts make up a fair part of the diet.

love to hear from you...what do you think?

[srsarri]

Thank You for posting this question! I have been wanting too but kept getting all frazzled every time I tried to explain what I meant!

HOPE WE GET SOME GOOD ANSWERS!

[morningbell]

I am very careful as to where I purchase my food. What company it comes from and sometimes how it is shipped. If you happen top eat something that is not raw like this in hindsight I don't think its going to hinder your goals. You are filling your body with other goodness that it may not make a difference. Just be wary of where your food comes from.

Thats why I like mom and pop places as opposed to chains like Tader Joe's.

[Aleesha Sattva]

Well, if I eat dried fruit... it's made in my dehydrator, so I know it's raw. I seldom eat nuts but when I do... I buy them from my local health food store that happens to specialize in raw foods. (There's quite a raw community near me I guess... I live in a very small town near a very small town where this health food store is.)

So... your question was, how does this affect your body.

Same as any other cooked food will. It'll cause you to have more SAD cravings. It won't benefit your bodies health. It will bring unhealthy fats into your system.

If your desire is to reduce unhealthy foods and fats but not eliminate them, there isn't a problem here. If it's to eliminate them... then you'll want to stop purchasing these items.

If in doubt... sprout! Soak one of the nuts and see what happens.

[SheLovesToEat]

Well, if I eat dried fruit... it's made in my dehydrator, so I know it's raw. I seldom eat nuts but when I do... I buy them from my local health food store that happens to specialize in raw foods. (There's quite a raw community near me I guess... I live in a very small town near a very small town where this health food store is.)

So... your question was, how does this affect your body.

Same as any other cooked food will. It'll cause you to have more SAD cravings. It won't benefit your bodies health. It will bring unhealthy fats into your system.

If your desire is to reduce unhealthy foods and fats but not eliminate them, there isn't a problem here. If it's to eliminate them... then you'll want to stop purchasing these items.

If in doubt... sprout! Soak one of the nuts and see what happens.



yeah i guess i was wondering if one would notice a difference....say if you ate the supposedly RAW almonds from trader joes....thinking that they REALLY were raw. they arent roasted....but then they arent raw either.
the enzymes are dead.....but the nut still has a raw flavor.

so you get this kind of inbetween thing. i was just wondering what affect that would have. i guess eveyone is different but still i was thinking about it because it would be so convienent and cheaper to buy those dried fruits and nuts from trader joes. BUT.... not if they are dead food.
pity.
cant take any chances. like you said.... best to sprout to make sure.

[RawHeaven]

when i unknowingly eat something that is not raw, my stomach makes gurgling noises or i'll get a headache, have slight digestive issues or a combination. generally though it moves right through me even with those symptoms.

[Vaclare79]

Well, if I eat dried fruit... it's made in my dehydrator, so I know it's raw. I seldom eat nuts but when I do... I buy them from my local health food store that happens to specialize in raw foods. (There's quite a raw community near me I guess... I live in a very small town near a very small town where this health food store is.)

So... your question was, how does this affect your body.

Same as any other cooked food will. It'll cause you to have more SAD cravings. It won't benefit your bodies health. It will bring unhealthy fats into your system.

If your desire is to reduce unhealthy foods and fats but not eliminate them, there isn't a problem here. If it's to eliminate them... then you'll want to stop purchasing these items.

If in doubt... sprout! Soak one of the nuts and see what happens.

Nuts will cause you to have sad cravings??

[victorlegge]

My rule of thumb is that seeds are probably raw when they say they are in stores because they are easy to extract from a plant without heat. Raw nuts in a store are never raw unless you are talking about a little health food store who knows exactly where everything comes from. Never sure about dried fruit because I know some people weird stuff to dry fruit.
I get all my nuts and dried fruit online from people who say they check the farmers are extracting nuts and drying fruit without excessive heat. I use Raw from the Farm.

[Vaclare79]

I soaked my seeds that I had last night and they sprouted so I know for sure they are raw..I didn't eat them though because they've given me diarrhea the past few days ( I think ) because the pieces are just passing through even when I try to grind them up.. I think my digestion isn't right.. I don't know for sure what's going on. Might need not to eat the seeds for a while.

[Ilse W.]

The FDA decided that all almonds should be pasteurized (to save us from all the unhealthy raw things), and the California Almond Board or Growers' Association agrees. The only way you can get raw almonds in the US is to mail order them from a source that gets them from other countries, or deal directly with a small family grower. Some of the websites I have been to lately claim that their "flash pasteurized" almonds will still sprout, and are, therefore, still raw. ???
I find that I do well on raw sunflower and raw pumpkin seeds, and will forgo eating nuts, unless they are in their shell.
On the other hand, unless you have been 100% raw for a while, and especially, if you are still young and have not had decades to abuse your body, you probably will not have any horrible consequences from accidentally eating some not so raw nuts. I noticed that they sit in my stomach for 12 hours or more and I cannot eat anything else. Of course, I HAVE had decades to abuse my system...

[Eva]

Many of TJ's nuts aren't raw but say they're raw. The dried fruit's not raw and doesn't say they're raw. In hindsight, when I got the nuts from TJ's thinking they were raw, I totally binged on them and felt sort of bad about it. I had no idea at the time they may not be raw. As for the dried fruit, it made me feel like crap, so I knew not to buy it again and let my stepkids have it in trail mix. They were thrilled.

The best thing to do is (like Aleesha suggested) dry your own fruit and be very careful where/what you buy. If you are eating a lot of fresh fruits and veggies from a farmers' market or from a place you trust, you're golden. And you could just make the other stuff for the less frequent occasions.

I do trust Alissa's stuff to be raw, and I have had very good experience with www.organiclivingfood.com with stuff like bulk olives and bulk seaweed. I don't trust them quite the way I do Alissa, but I have never had reason to believe the things I ordered from there were not raw (as I did with the "feeling like crap" after the TJ's dried fruit).

[Rawmommie]

When I eat anything that is unraw, my throat gets scratchy and I get a headache. There have been times I thought something was raw and realized it wasn't after eating it.

[rawstrength]

The only nonraw "raw" foods I eat on occasion (very rare occasions) are lara bars. They make me a little bit gassy but otherwise I am fine.

I have to be very careful to get raisins and vinegar that don't have sulfites added because sulfites give me terrible headaches. I also don't eat from restaurant or supermarket salad bars because they often add sulfites to the lettuce to keep it fresh while it is sitting out for so long.

[Emma-Liza]

When I started transitioning to raw, I used the nuts and dried fruits I had available locally. As I have run out, I've ordered from places like Alissa's store to replace. It has kept the same basic tastes going for me and I haven't noticed any difference with the truly raw stuff, except...it all tastes (even) better! :)

[petaltothemetal]

rawstrength, thank you for mentioning the sulfites... I'd forgotten about that and was wondering why I got headaches and a runny nose at restaurants! Now I know!

[SweetTangerine]

I also don't eat from restaurant or supermarket salad bars because they often add sulfites to the lettuce to keep it fresh while it is sitting out for so long.


I read that there was a ban on using sulfites on fruits and vegetables. Is this no longer a concern then or do a lot of places still use them anyway? My b/f and I went to a salad bar a few days ago and both of us had stomach problems after eating...:confused:

[annavon]

When I eat non-raw foods, I get an upset stomach and digestion problems and the fatigue comes back. I had a really hard time once, about a year ago when I was first trying to be raw, I made a sause with cashews and macademia nuts that said they were raw. It wouldn't digest right!!! I didn't know they weren't raw. As a result I actually gave up eating raw for a year because I thought I was getting sick on raw nuts:( . Now I know better and I know if I use those nuts to do so sparingly.

[Pitaya]

i am still learning to pay attention to this so thank you for the great post! i have varying effects when i eat something, even the tiniest amount, that isn't raw (and sulphites are the worst for me!!):

cold sores
mild to debilitating headaches
digestive issues causing cramping, diarrhea
tiredness, lack of energy
smells emanating from my body (usually i do not smell at all)
acne
return of old pains from old injuries
bone aching
mouth sores
bad breath
nails change from white and hard to thin, clear, flimsy
concentration affected

just goes to show food really IS a drug...so we must be careful how we use it. this learning is wonderful thank you : )