String addiction to salt!

[Sophie429]

All right...Wanting to detox faster and try what it would be like to be 100% raw (c: I did a 7 day raw detox program I found online. Since I'm a busy mama I decided to buy te menu they sell on the site and just use that menu for the whole time. I bought everything I needed and started last monday.

For the seven days, you are not allowed any fat or or salt ( not even olives or avocado )Only fruits and veggies and some sprouts. I followed the plan and menu without cheating at all until day 5. The first day is a water fast and then at 6pm you eat a monomeal of any fruit you like. First day no problem. Second day no problem. Third day...I am sick of fruit and start to crave salt like crazy. It only got worse from there. Their recipes are delicious but the thing is, I don't have a sweet tooth I much prefer "salty" food and therefore always been kinda heavy with the salt. I kind lost interest with the meals because most of their meals have some fruit in it. For the past month ( when I started the raw food, see intro in "who are you " ) I have been cutting down on the salt but I still salt my food. By day three, I was so sick of eating "sweet " that I could not stand the thought of my next meal. I was very hungry but the sweet taste of my meals were such a turn off that I could nto eat but a little of it and draged my meal for two hours. I also could not drink water. Well I could but it just did not appeal to me so I'd just sip once in a while and I think I got dehydrated )c: My lips are all dry and cracked and my throat is very dry even if I have been brinking a lot of water for the past two days. By day Five, the craving for salt was so intense ( I swear it was even worse than the craving I had for a cigarette when I quit 10 years ago ! ) that I had half of a hotdog that night. It did make me feel better ( I know, I was detoxing and I went and added toxins but I did it what can I say /c: ) and the thirst came back almost immediately and I was able to drink a liter of water in minutes. After that I was able to continue on with the detox but I modified it a little by eating salads of greens with a no fat salad dressing made with zucchini and dijon mustard. During the detox I was also craving fat like crazy...I am talking about disgusting fat dripping from a steak, thats what I wanted. As for the salt, I seriously comtemplated just aiming straight for the salt shaker and licking it lol.
But seriously I did not know my addiction to salt ( or fat ) was that bad, kinda of scary. Oh and by the way...those redish bags under my eyes I mentionned in my intro...salt related. The morning after my hotdog mistake, I woke up with huge bags under my eyes /c:
I still don't understand why I did not have those bags before I started raw. They started a few days after I started teh raw diet, they completely went away while on the 7 day detox but now they are back. I've only been raw for over a month and not even 100% raw... I can't imagine I have become that sensitive to salt in that short amount of time. Anyone experienced this too? Any thoughts? Also...why do I do so bad with fruits? I really had a big aversion to all that sweet in my meals, made me lose my appetite... all I was craving where salads or anything salty. Anyone else prefer greens over fruits? Is this normal?

Thanks guys!

Sophie

[Aleesha Sattva]

did you know that cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados... all fruits. zucchini is also a fruit... anything with seeds is a fruit!

perhaps you need to create your own program of things you like... cause honestly a hot dog??? what were you thinking? LOL that's horrid. why not a tomato with salt on it?

i wish you all the best... but really... make this yummy... not horrid. if you don't want sweet fruits then don't eat them.

[rawmiss]

Table salt is sodium chloride - a poison - which is why it makes you thirsty, your body senses that it has been invaded by a poison and it makes you thirsty so that you drink water and dilute the poison. I bet you could get rid of the salt cravings by eating or juicing celery - it is a great source of the type of sodium that the body actually uses. More links about that:

Is ingesting salt toxic to the body?
http://tribes.tribe.net/goodliving/thread/a5046a04-d910-4cf3-9503-75a867b0c242

http://www.ajpip.com/foh2/slt/org.htm
"The truth is that the body can only use sodium that has been chelated (attached) to a protein molecule. These minerals are referred to as organic. And guess where you can find chelated sodium in huge quantities? In plants.

Here's how plants create sodium in a form our bodies can use. Through photosynthesis, plants bind inorganic minerals to a protein molecule. This process transforms the inorganic minerals into a form that we can use. In effect, turning rocks into food."

[Sophie429]

Thanks for the replies.

Allesha...I know right a hotdog horrible. I knew tomato and avocado were fruit but not cucumber. And yes, a tomato with salt makes more sense but at the time it happened, thats what I had then and there and I just poped it in my mouth, very bad choice, I know.
I was cooking for my kids and their 2 friends and thats what they wanted. I have been doing fine for the past month doing raw without being tempted by the food they all eat. I don't impose my way of eating on them therefore I still cook "regular" food for them without a problem. On that particular detox though I could not control myself that one evening which, to me, is a big red flag that I am addicted to fat and salt. But one of the questions I had was really about the fruit...is it normal to have such an adverse reaction to the fruit ( I am talking about sweet fruit here )? And why was the thirst gone ? I really felt sick to my stomach with all the sweet. I have read that some raw fooders believe a fruitarian diet is the ultimate goal for a raw diet. After those 7 days, I don't know if I could do that.
Now that I am done with the detox I will go back to eating the way I ate before the plan, there was no doubt in my mind that I would do that. I don't eat junk food, even before I started raw a month or so ago, I very rarely ate junk food. That is why I think the transition to raw food this time was actually pretty smooth compare to the first time few years ago.
So I will go back to having my sweet in the morning; I usually have a big green smoothie and then its salads or raw "spaghetti" for the other 2 meals.

Rawmiss, thanks much for those links, very interesting. I very seldom use table salt they sell at the store, only exclusively use hymalayan salt or celtic salt but I am addicted to it, it is clear now )c: Thanks for the tricks.

[Revvell]

....Only fruits and veggies and some sprouts.

Fruit AND veggies AND sprouts! Why only fruit?

[Sophie429]

I don't understand the question. Is it because of the way I wrote it? I meant no oil, no olives, no avocado, no nuts no salt. I should have written "Just" fruit and veggies and some sprouts?

[Revvell]

" By day three, I was so sick of eating "sweet " that I could not stand the thought of my next meal."

Why eating so much "sweet" when you can eat veggies and sprouts?

"Third day...I am sick of fruit"

Eat veggies! Greens! Carrots! Celery....

[Sophie429]

Oh I know, I totally agree with you and that is what I did after my hotdog mistake. I ate more greens, followed my taste ( in a healthy way ). I was just trying to follow their menu as I thought their menu would be a "better" way to detox than just following my own recipes. I understand I should have done this by day 3 when I really could not handle the sweet anymore. I am just wondering why my body was so "against" the sweet, why I did not want water and why I was craving the salt and fat so badly. I am assuming I was having a strong detox reaction of some sort with the salt and fat may be?! I read somewhere that salt craving might mean you lack minerals. I was also just curious to see if other people also crave the veggies more than the sweet fruit. (c:

[Revvell]

I was also just curious to see if other people also crave the veggies more than the sweet fruit. (c:

It's that time of year.

[Stina]

Hey, my heart goes out to you. It's horribly hard for most people to change their eating habits. Don't give up!