stomach problems by salty snacks? need help

[Junebug]

hey everyone,

still beeing quite new to rawism, i had some health problems the last days and would like to know your opinion and maybe advice.

my problem started thursday: my boyfriend and me, we came home from vacation, and did not have fresh fruit at home. as i was hungry and impatient, i ate some salty little pretzels (was a gift of some colleagues who dont know im raw) before we bought fresh fruit, and i also ate fruit afterwards. beginning in late afternoon, i started feeling sick and my stomach was upset. in the night, i vomitted really a lot and had diarrhea :( i lost 2kg of my body weight. next day, friday, i was very doubtful about if and what to eat. as a child, i learned to eat salt snacks like this very salt pretzels, and drink coke. but now, what should i do if i have stomach problems like that? should i fast? i wasn'tvery hungry either. finally, i ate grated apple with grated carrot, as i remembered these where assumed to calm the stomach. and in fact, i didnt have problems friday night.
but then i acted really dumb :( yesterday (saturday), i learned a nice old lady in our neighbourhood died. i was a bit shocked about that, and sadly ate some snack (chips made from corn and peanut, not sure if it exists in US) and potato chips. i know, very dumb. and this night, again i vomitted and had diarrhea. my first thought was, that this was due to the lot of salt and fat. but also, i always told my worriing boyfriend, i won't be radical about rawism. if it possibly harms my health, i will go back to moderate amounts of cooked food.

now what do you think? was this coused by the raw food or the combination with the chips? and what can i do to preferably fill up my electrolytes and body weight? i was always very small, but loosing 2.7 kg totally, means 5 % of my total body weight :eek: (im 1.69m and normally about 53kg)

normally, if i had this twice, i would go see my doctor, and she is a really nice person. she accepted me beeing vegan, and didnt accuse me for ruining my health or so. but i doubt she will accept rawism, and furthermore me going off the bc pill, and furthermore slowly reducing my thyroid med (i have a little hypothyroidism) on my own, which are prescribed by her.
i have the feeling i cant trust any doctor, i have no one to talk about health issues personally and this frightens me a bit... :(

Edit: wow, very much text. i hope this is the right sub forum for my problem? if not, please tell me!

[sport]

The first thing is...Do not panic.
Your problem was not caused by the raw food. The fact that you reacted twice to 2 different non raw foods would indicate that it was not a contamination problem. It could be a grain problem.
You must stop worrying about your body weight and let it come back when it is ready. Do not force it.
Celery juice (and coconut water if you can get it) would be good for electrolytes.
If you have been all raw then go back to it. I think that I would react like that too if I ate salty pretzels

[Junebug]

Thankyou very much for your post, sport! You're right, i'm in a little panic :( i was always told i was way too skinny, looking pale and so on (though i usually dont feel weak) ...

maybe some stupid question, but do you count corn as a grain?

i don't have a juicer, can i do celery juice with a blender and some sifter? And do you prepare it from the celery root tuber, or the ribs? i will try your advices tomorrow when i can buy new food :) Thankyou!

i just never would have assumed that my body reacts in this extreme way, after beeing approx. 95% raw only some few months. i ate some baked cake on my birthday some days ago, and this didn't have a huge effect besides a very little uncomfy feeling in my belly. so i assume, this time it was the combination of grain and fat and, foremost, salt...

[sport]

I personally do not take any grains (inc corn) or any salt but lots of people do. I do not think that they are meant for human consumption.
I take my celery mostly in smoothies but then I take it for the minerals and not for electrolytes. I do not have to ever worry about electrolytes but am under the impression that it would be needed to be juiced and strained. I think perhaps that that is only necessary after severe exercise.
I do think that it is more important what you take out of your diet than what you add in and the first thing to take out is processed sugar and refined starch. The next time that you have no fruit to eat it would be better if you had some steamed veg.
You will get over this and will be stronger as a result.

[Junebug]

i totally agree about grain - i'm not a bird, who is supposed to pick grains (this is what i like to tell people who can't believe i survive without eating bread) ;-)
salt i only use very sparingly, for guacamole or salad.

Unfortunately, we had nothing fresh in our kitchen, only dry things like rice, crackers etc (my boyfriend is about 50% raw), no fruits, no vegs. but next time i will prefer to be hungry for a little while, rather than staying in the bath half the night ;-)

maybe i should try to eat celery without blending or juicing. i think for my empty belly it might be good to have some fibers to fill?

[sport]

I wish that star trek was real and I could "transport" some of the many beautiful fruits that I have in my kitchen right now to yours.
The plan that I adopted was that I always have some raw bars (I have lara bars) for an emergency so I will never be so hungry that I will give in to temptation.
Right now I have them in the freezer because I use them so sparingly but they defrost quickly. They have saved me on many occasions.
Lara bars are not being imported in to the EU any more (I assume because they are not pasteurised) but If you have a friend going to the US they could bring some back or maybe you could find an alternative.

[Junebug]

Haha yes that would be cool, so us rawists would never again be without beautiful fruits! By now i filled my kitchen up again, and i like so much to just have a look on the many, many colors :cool:

i googled these larabars, and then found out that there are comparable bars available in germany. Thankyou very much for this suggestion!

I think it would be (or will be, hopefully) much easier for me, if my boyfriend turned to a 100% raw, too *sigh* he says he's interested, but not yet ready to take the turn. so there's hope :)

[sport]

My husband is not even vegetarian. The only concession is that he has a rule that no meat is cooked in the house. He does cook eggs and he purchases cooked meat. I hate the smell of meat cooking.

[Junebug]

oh, this sometimes must be hard for you. let me give you a little hug :)

at the moment, my sense of smell seems to change a lot. lately, i mainly find the smell of cheese and eggs annoying. but also, suddenly i notice the body odor of other persons, much more than before.

hey, i do already feel much better! i ate some apple, a little carrot, a little bit of steamed broccoli, baby banana, and now im even eating kiwi and grapes. doesn't seem to irritate my stomach :) and, even more surprising: i don't feel weak, i'm not extremely thirsty! wow :cool: