Cooked food gives me the blues...

[alfredosanchez]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post here (I hope this is the right section?).

I have this issue and its really confusing me:

I was 95 percent raw a long time ago, and it was great. I lost excess weight, had great energy, etc, yadda yadda. You know, the usual story! :)

However, after a few months I fell off the wagon and returned to cooked foods. Well, it wasn't long before I started to gain back the weight, feel tired, depressed, getting suicidal thoughts, wondering "what is the point of living?" etc.

It really shocked me, because I didn't feel this bad BEFORE I went on raw foods. It seemed that going raw, and turning cooked again, had left me feeling worse than if I had never tried it in the first place. Somehow my body and mind had adjusted to the healthy raw foods so well, that returning to cooked food was a massive shock.

My health deteriorated very rapidly. Not only did I gain weight again, but got terrible insomnia, irregular heartbeat, really bad acne, headaches, nightmares, and as I already mentioned: depression and suicidal thoughts. Sure, my health wasn't fabulous before trying raw foods, but now it was worse.

Then, a month ago, while sinking my teeth into a McDonald's BigMac, I decided that enough was enough: I must get my health back by turning raw once again. That was such a happy time. I wanted to be slim again. I wanted to have energy again. I wanted to ENJOY tasty, living, delightful food rather than simply settle for the easiest and uninspiring option of the McDrive-Thru. And I wanted to be rid of these suicidal/hopelessness thoughts and be happy again.

So, I returned to being raw about a month ago. It was amazing how quickly things turned around. Within just one, maybe two days (yes, really!) I felt a sudden surge of energy. I felt so happy, positive, optimistic, and inspired. No more depression, and suicidal ideas seemed ridiculous. It was unreal. This natural "high" continued. I also noticed my stomach and belly felt calmer, and my irregular heartbeat became less noticeable to me. After two weeks, almost all of my acne cleared up, and now I get no more headaches or nightmares. As you can probably predict, the weight is starting to come off again.

So, all is well. Great.

Or is it?

Well, not really, because I now realise how ultra-sensitive I have become to cooked food!

If I eat some cooked food (even just a little bit) I feel TERRIBLE after a few hours. For example, last night, after a full day of being 100% raw, I had some organic wheat-based pasta with some cooked spinach. No sauce. This was something I used to enjoy, and it was delicious!

Today I feel like I've been hit by a train. My arms ache. I have a mild headache. I am extremely tired. I could not get out of bed. I feel depressed.

The same thing happened last week when I had a vegetable curry with organic rice. The next day I felt horribly depressed and hopeless. I was moping around the house, not sure what to do with myself, feeling ill in some odd and non-descript way. Others wondered what the heck was wrong with me. It was two days before I felt good again.

I mean, come on! Organic wheat-based pasta? Veg curry? I could understand these reactions if I had binged out on a Domino's pizza and five pints of lager, but this?! Have I turned into the worlds biggest lightweight?

So.... my questions are:

What the heck is happening to me?
Will it always be like this for me, from now on?
Is this some form of "detox"?
What can I do to ease the symptoms?
Has anyone else experienced something similar?

I know some may say the solution is to only eat raw, 100% of the time. That is the obvious conclusion. However, I want to eat raw because that is what I CHOOSE, not because I have some sort of hyper-sensitivity disability where even the lamest organic-fairtrade-wholegrain slice of pasta touched by a few molecules of steam will send me to hospital. ;) Know what I mean? :D

Any thoughts appreciated! Thanks! :)

[Colorawdo girl]

Well, not really, because I now realise how ultra-sensitive I have become to cooked food!This IS such a good thing. Bottom line is...your body knows now.It knows high quality nutritous food and is telling you what it wants. The symptoms are asking you to listen and hear.


What the heck is happening to me?body wanting raw

Will it always be like this for me, from now on?more raw,more body will react to cooked

Is this some form of "detox"?it is body shock from cooked

What can I do to ease the symptoms?you get to choose....you can eat raw or you can have symptoms of eating cooked. You can go back to cooked always and have the deep symptoms and sickness on cooked.To ease symptoms eat more raw.You can choose whatever you want.What do you want??

Has anyone else experienced something similar? yes most who are high raw and eat cooked have reactions.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR LIFE AND YOUR BODY? p.s. this is like always putting high quality fuel in your engine.....then all of a sudden putting watered down gasoline in. The engine has nothing to go on, has become used to greatness and simply cannot run on this empty stuff. It spits and sputters and konks out and leaves you stranded on the road.What do you want for you?

[Dimond]

Welcome Alfredo. If you are to eat cooked, the smart thing would be to stick to healthy, easy-to-digest foods such as steamed veggie meals. Cooked grains, especially gluten, is bad for you and hard to digest so you'll probably never feel good eating them. If I had such obvious positive benefits, I would never ever eat anything but raw. Why would you even need or want to. It's suppose to be all about feeling good and being healthy. Eating something else isn't going to do that as you said, so why bother just for the few minutes you're eating it. Just not worth it. Something you need to decide...

[alfredosanchez]

Welcome Alfredo. If you are to eat cooked, the smart thing would be to stick to healthy, easy-to-digest foods such as steamed veggie meals. Cooked grains, especially gluten, is bad for you and hard to digest so you'll probably never feel good eating them.

Hi Dimond.

Thanks for the welcome and the info! I did not know that about gluten. I had never even considered it. Perhaps that explains why the pasta and rice hit me so badly!

In fact, I just did a quick Google search on gluten intolerance, and I think you may have hit the nail on the head. The symptoms of gluten intolerance largely fits my own symptoms of eating the pasta and the rice.

This is the list of symptoms according to ezinearticles.com. I've put the symptoms that match in bold. The other symptoms either don't apply because I'm an adult male or they take longer than a day to appear. Nearly all the rest match:


Weight loss or weight gain
Nutritional deficiencies due to malabsorbtion e.g. low iron levels
Gastro-intestinal problems (bloating, pain, gas, constipation, diarrhea)
Fat in the stools (due to poor digestion)
Aching joints
Depression
Eczema
Head aches
Exhaustion
Irritability and behavioural changes
Infertility, irregular menstrual cycle and miscarriage
Cramps, tingling and numbness
Slow infant and child growth
Decline in dental health


This seems to fit so well! So, perhaps the problem was more the gluten in the food that I ate than the fact it was cooked. I just wonder if this is the problem, and if it is possible to see these symptoms so quickly?

I tried searching for an answer to this, but could not find any. Does anyone here have a known intolerance to gluten? How quickly do your symptoms appear if you eat a gluten-rich food?

Just in case, in the meantime I will keep this in mind and avoid any foods with gluten.

Thanks again! :)

[alfredosanchez]

Well this is turning out to be an insightful day! I just talked to my mother about this, and she says "hmmm, you know, all your great aunts and uncles on my side of the family have Celiac Disease, could that be something to do with it?"

OMG!

(Celiac Disease is, of course, gluten intolerance)

How come she didn't tell me about this like, 10 years ago?

Well then, it seems I'll be booking myself in for a test at the doctors office! :rolleyes:

[Colorawdo girl]

OOOOOOOOOOPs Alfredo....how unkind of me to not welcome you. Sorry I apologize. Did not realize you were new. Not paying attention.

Gluten is a big challenge for folks today. Thus you see a lot of companies going gluten free.

What I love about raw is all the sticky gook-em-up foods are gone. Fresh and light and airy. Oh my I love that feeling.
As soon as I eat anything of that nature, I get a right earache and not feel good. Like i am in a fog. Think if I were tested, gluten allergy too. I know my body says I do have that.

Awww best to you.
When you get real clear on what you want, there is not stopping you...GO! woohooo..and welcome once again.

[Dimond]

Yay, glad I was able to point you in the right direction. :) See the thing is we're all usually allergic to cooked food and other toxins in general. Most just don't see the obvious effects from it so they don't make the connection. Once you eat raw and become more pure, your body can more easily distinguish what doesn't work for you. So really gluten is just something you'd want to stay away from permanently whether raw or not because it's likely to be causing all kinds of health issues.

I use to be a huge pasta eater and now love zucchini pasta. Never thought I could enjoy it as much as regular pasta, but I do. Even more so because it's fun to eat something so healthy. You can experiment with all kinds of sauces too. Once you find plenty of raw meals you enjoy just as much or more than cooked, you will find it very easy. Then if you must eat cooked, you can experiment with the foods to see how it affects you. I always highly recommend digestive enzymes when eating it though.

[rawbabymama]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post here (I hope this is the right section?).

I have this issue and its really confusing me:

I was 95 percent raw a long time ago, and it was great. I lost excess weight, had great energy, etc, yadda yadda. You know, the usual story! :)

However, after a few months I fell off the wagon and returned to cooked foods. Well, it wasn't long before I started to gain back the weight, feel tired, depressed, getting suicidal thoughts, wondering "what is the point of living?" etc.

It really shocked me, because I didn't feel this bad BEFORE I went on raw foods. It seemed that going raw, and turning cooked again, had left me feeling worse than if I had never tried it in the first place. Somehow my body and mind had adjusted to the healthy raw foods so well, that returning to cooked food was a massive shock.

My health deteriorated very rapidly. Not only did I gain weight again, but got terrible insomnia, irregular heartbeat, really bad acne, headaches, nightmares, and as I already mentioned: depression and suicidal thoughts. Sure, my health wasn't fabulous before trying raw foods, but now it was worse.

Then, a month ago, while sinking my teeth into a McDonald's BigMac, I decided that enough was enough: I must get my health back by turning raw once again. That was such a happy time. I wanted to be slim again. I wanted to have energy again. I wanted to ENJOY tasty, living, delightful food rather than simply settle for the easiest and uninspiring option of the McDrive-Thru. And I wanted to be rid of these suicidal/hopelessness thoughts and be happy again.

So, I returned to being raw about a month ago. It was amazing how quickly things turned around. Within just one, maybe two days (yes, really!) I felt a sudden surge of energy. I felt so happy, positive, optimistic, and inspired. No more depression, and suicidal ideas seemed ridiculous. It was unreal. This natural "high" continued. I also noticed my stomach and belly felt calmer, and my irregular heartbeat became less noticeable to me. After two weeks, almost all of my acne cleared up, and now I get no more headaches or nightmares. As you can probably predict, the weight is starting to come off again.

So, all is well. Great.

Or is it?

Well, not really, because I now realise how ultra-sensitive I have become to cooked food!

If I eat some cooked food (even just a little bit) I feel TERRIBLE after a few hours. For example, last night, after a full day of being 100% raw, I had some organic wheat-based pasta with some cooked spinach. No sauce. This was something I used to enjoy, and it was delicious!

Today I feel like I've been hit by a train. My arms ache. I have a mild headache. I am extremely tired. I could not get out of bed. I feel depressed.

The same thing happened last week when I had a vegetable curry with organic rice. The next day I felt horribly depressed and hopeless. I was moping around the house, not sure what to do with myself, feeling ill in some odd and non-descript way. Others wondered what the heck was wrong with me. It was two days before I felt good again.

I mean, come on! Organic wheat-based pasta? Veg curry? I could understand these reactions if I had binged out on a Domino's pizza and five pints of lager, but this?! Have I turned into the worlds biggest lightweight?

So.... my questions are:

What the heck is happening to me?
Will it always be like this for me, from now on?
Is this some form of "detox"?
What can I do to ease the symptoms?
Has anyone else experienced something similar?

I know some may say the solution is to only eat raw, 100% of the time. That is the obvious conclusion. However, I want to eat raw because that is what I CHOOSE, not because I have some sort of hyper-sensitivity disability where even the lamest organic-fairtrade-wholegrain slice of pasta touched by a few molecules of steam will send me to hospital. ;) Know what I mean? :D

Any thoughts appreciated! Thanks! :)

My experience was similar, except my health was terrible preraw.

What I noticed was this...before being raw, I was ill pretty much every day, ranging from mild to severe, but I did not react immediately to specific foods. I went 100% raw overnight & did not so much as consider eating cooked foods until I was pregnant (cravings, morning sickness, blech). I found that any time I ate anything cooked, I had a reaction to it. Typically, my reaction was at best congestion and at worst hives and wheezing.

Certain foods are not our natural foods. Wheat and rice may be globally accepted as diet staples, but, in reality, these foods resist digestion and feed unfriendly microorganisms in our gut*. I am not surprised at all you reacted to these foods. As babies, cereals are the first foods most of us were given; our bodies had to form a resistance to them to protect us. Going raw basically stripped this resistance, much as quitting drinking or smoking lowers one's tolerance, so that when the offending substance is consumed again, one gets immediately ill.

If you feel you must eat cooked foods sometimes to be happy, I suggest you avoid grains, dairy and legumes. You can make cooked spaghetti squash as a replacement for pasta, and you can eat the curry veggies alone (or with avocado, mmmm). If for some reason you do eat these foods again, take a high quality enzyme supplement with them, so you don't get the nasty hangover in the morning (much of which is caused by the feast of microorganisms and the waste products of their digestion).

*I'll post some links tomorrow.

Best Wishes

[alfredosanchez]

OOOOOOOOOOPs Alfredo....how unkind of me to not welcome you. Sorry I apologize. Did not realize you were new. Not paying attention.

Gluten is a big challenge for folks today. Thus you see a lot of companies going gluten free.

What I love about raw is all the sticky gook-em-up foods are gone. Fresh and light and airy. Oh my I love that feeling.
As soon as I eat anything of that nature, I get a right earache and not feel good. Like i am in a fog. Think if I were tested, gluten allergy too. I know my body says I do have that.

Awww best to you.
When you get real clear on what you want, there is not stopping you...GO! woohooo..and welcome once again.

Hi Colorawdo girl, thanks for the welcome also.

What you said was very interesting. I can certainly recognize the "fog" feeling! Thats exactly how I felt this morning when I woke up after my pasta last night (i also had a rash all over my arms... weird). I find it amazing how much what we eat can effect us. And going raw seems to be so much better than any other diet for so many reasons!

I just wish I had known about raw food years ago.

And by the way, I love your username :)

[alfredosanchez]

I use to be a huge pasta eater and now love zucchini pasta. Never thought I could enjoy it as much as regular pasta, but I do. Even more so because it's fun to eat something so healthy. You can experiment with all kinds of sauces too.

Yes! I tried making the zucchini pasta a couple of times, and it was very good (well, once I got the sauce right it was anyway :) ). I should try that again... yum! :)

[alfredosanchez]

My experience was similar, except my health was terrible preraw.

What I noticed was this...before being raw, I was ill pretty much every day, ranging from mild to severe, but I did not react immediately to specific foods. I went 100% raw overnight & did not so much as consider eating cooked foods until I was pregnant (cravings, morning sickness, blech). I found that any time I ate anything cooked, I had a reaction to it. Typically, my reaction was at best congestion and at worst hives and wheezing.

Certain foods are not our natural foods. Wheat and rice may be globally accepted as diet staples, but, in reality, these foods resist digestion and feed unfriendly microorganisms in our gut*. I am not surprised at all you reacted to these foods. As babies, cereals are the first foods most of us were given; our bodies had to form a resistance to them to protect us. Going raw basically stripped this resistance, much as quitting drinking or smoking lowers one's tolerance, so that when the offending substance is consumed again, one gets immediately ill.

If you feel you must eat cooked foods sometimes to be happy, I suggest you avoid grains, dairy and legumes. You can make cooked spaghetti squash as a replacement for pasta, and you can eat the curry veggies alone (or with avocado, mmmm). If for some reason you do eat these foods again, take a high quality enzyme supplement with them, so you don't get the nasty hangover in the morning (much of which is caused by the feast of microorganisms and the waste products of their digestion).

*I'll post some links tomorrow.

Best Wishes

Hi rawbabymoma (another cool username!),

Thanks for your reply. That's interesting what you say about building up a resistance to these foods as a child, then losing them when going raw. That certainly makes sense, and your comparison to tobacco is a good one.

It will definitely be zucchini "pasta" and cauliflower "rice" from now on I think... :)

[RawHeaven]

What the heck is happening to me?
Will it always be like this for me, from now on?
Is this some form of "detox"?
What can I do to ease the symptoms?
Has anyone else experienced something similar?

I know some may say the solution is to only eat raw, 100% of the time. That is the obvious conclusion. However, I want to eat raw because that is what I CHOOSE, not because I have some sort of hyper-sensitivity disability where even the lamest organic-fairtrade-wholegrain slice of pasta touched by a few molecules of steam will send me to hospital. ;) Know what I mean? :D

Any thoughts appreciated! Thanks! :)


Oh my goodness Alfredo! I just had this conversation with 2 of my real-time raw food friends. I experienced the same thing in terms having severe reactions from eating cooked vegan foods that I used to eat for years after being 100% for 2 years. And so did they! We were talking about the same thing...seriously. I'm starting to believe it's par for the course. I don't see this as a negative, but rather a testament to how awesome you are and how incredible the human body is in its capacity and ability to heal itself. It will eventually go back to reaching it's highest potential given the proper tools. I think it literally is a huge shock when we do indulge in dead, cooked foods after vibrating in such food ecstasy for so long. Not only from a physiological standpoint (digestive system), but emotionally. Living foods are alive and the body gets accustomed to receiving a ton of nutrition and boosts of energy down to the black and white particles you know? I think once you go Raw for any considerable length of time and you're conscious of how you feel in your body and feel a supreme, effortless motivation to keep walking this path. This probably does make it a little tough to go back to cooked.

It could be detox that you're experiencing each time you do consume cooked food as you're essentially confusing your body and starting the ticker over again. Sometimes it just takes time to figure out your rhythm of what the body truly wants. If you're eating foods that are offered by Ronald McDonald this may also be exacerbating your detox....going from one extreme to another. I'm just keeping it real and this is not a judgement. We all know what's in that fast food and how it's prepared. It's a choice most definately what you choose to eat, but I think your body again, is not hip to the previous choices if I can be so bold and direct. It is simply not on the same page anymore. It's a machine that wants the best options to keep it running at peak efficiency. It's like putting diesel fuel in an electric car. Get the picture? This isn't about You, it's about your Body. Your body is talking to you and saying "hey Buddy, I don't even think so, you'd better knock it off!" LOL! That's what I learned anyway. Again, I think this is all positive and part of the journey. You are in tune with your body on an entirely different level. Were you were oblivious and perhaps even unconscious to how your body was reacting to certain foods, well now you're super aware. Now is the time to really make a choice of what you're going to do moving forward. And this is the hard part I think, harder than when you first went raw in the first place, because you're at another fork in the road. Pun entirely intended! :D

[EZ rider]

alfredosanchez,
I had a small scale experience similar to yours. I went all fresh raw on Aug 1, 07 and got very pure raw and stayed that way until at 10 1/2 months raw I "slipped". I had a cooked Mexi-veggie wrap and then continued on with my raw journey, Two days later I was visited by a very strong craving for more cooked food and after resisting it for awhile I finally gave in and had a baked potato. The next day the cook monster visited again and I yielded. After that I had cooked food everyday and my percentages were changing fast from raw to mostly cooked. As time went on I was feeling much worse physically and mentally. I realized that I was now a raw food has been. It was weeks after my Mexi-veggie wrap and I was wearing pants that I had set aside months ago because they were so loose they wouldn't stay on. I made a commitment to getting back on raw. Surprise - I found that it was much harder to return to raw then it was to get there the first time. I succeeded in getting back to raw but I had to white knuckle claw my way back resisting a very strong cook monster all the way. I had a total of 6 weeks that I don't want to go through again. I got it ! Since regaining all fresh raw everything is good again. I feel good and I am slim and trim again. I know some people post that they can straddle the fence and have one foot in raw and the other in cooked but I can't do that. If I try to do raw and cooked together the cooked gains and the raw diminishes and I rapidly go back to where I was before raw. I have remained all fresh raw since that experience and I guess you could say it scared the cook monster out of me and I am keeping the door closed on that unwelcome visitor.

[SweetTangerine]

Wow what an insightful thread! I am sitting here with massive diarrhea (well not at this exact moment obviously :p) from the vegan spring rolls I had last night. So far all I have had was water and some fresh apple/carrot/ginger juice... it seems to be all I can stomach. I figured that it was ok, most of it was raw, what harm could it do? Besides, I had spring rolls about a month ago while attempting to do 100% raw and I didn't feel sick. The key words here are about a month ago. I have been 100% this time around since Feb 27 09. So my body is obviously at a much purer state at two months raw than it was at only one. Sure the spring rolls were good, but I know I could make much better 100% raw ones.

Alfredo, good luck on continuing your raw journey. Since you now realize your possible gluten sensitivity, it will probably make it much easier for you to stay raw.

[Colorawdo girl]

alfredo.thankx.......beauty is you know about raw now...wooohooo....never too late to start.
Really, all of us, are always and only at the beginning.

[LemonFlower]

I've been wondering about this too. I have heard one long-term raw foodist in particular talk about how hyper-sensitive he has become to all drugs, scents, cooked foods, some raw foods. This was kind of scary for me to hear. That isn't something I want for myself.

I noticed that I reacted to certain foods much more after being raw for a period of time (a month), but I wondered at the time if it was because I was actually paying attention to how foods made me feel whereas before raw, I didn't notice how ill some of the staples made me feel.

I want to be raw. I want to live on all the abundance nature has to offer. I want to able to be around and live with others who don't feel the same way without suffering ill effects too though.

Food for thought!