Is the raw diet really beneficial to everyone?

[blue_soda025]

Recently, I've become a little interested in raw foods. I don't intend on adopting a raw diet where I eat mostly raw foods, but I am interested in incorporating more raw foods into my diet. However, I do have a few concerns. The main one is that I have digestive issues (bloating ESPECIALLY, and heartburn) and I have read that a lot of people who were on a raw diet over an extended period of time develop digestive issues. Not to mention, a whole host of other problems, but my main concern is the digestive issues. It just feels to me like raw foods could potentially cause more bloating for me and may be even harder to digest. Of course, there's always two sides these sorts of arguments so it's almost impossible for me to judge who's right or wrong at this point. Now, I know that I am posting on a Raw Food forum, but I would really appreciate an unbiased view here.

I also have anxiety and that seems to be what is causing my digestive issues. Or well, I suppose they do go hand in hand and sometimes it's really difficult to tell which is causing which.

I guess what I am wondering is whether raw foods will help with my digestive and anxiety issues or exacerbate them. I really do not want to do anything that may worsen these problems since I've been dealing with them for the past few years.

Another thing that's been brought to my attention is that there seems to be a lot of talk about detox symptoms. I understand that it's normal for people to get detox symptoms when they're changing their diet or eating healthier foods, etc. However, how can we know that all the "bad" symptoms we're getting are actually all detox symptoms? They could potentially be due to some other underlying cause, which may not in fact be due to detox. So that's another concern I have. Sorry if I sound overly cautious or cynical about the raw diet; it's just that I've tried changing my diet for what I thought was the better a few months ago and it just seemed to make things really go downhill from there (and they were definitely not detox symptoms; it can't be normal to get "detox" symptoms for 4 months and have them worsen progressively), and caused me to feel my absolute worst several weeks ago.

[Revvell]

In over 25 years of working with people the one thing I can say is, most people will "handle" their system with drugs because it numbs them and they don't have to feel anything. They say the "feel" better yet what it is is, they don't feel.

So, yes, you may bloat, you may feel worse... often happens during natural healing yet, the issue "may" be that you have digestive issues and heartburn because you are eating foods with low fiber.

My suggestion is, look at the long term benefits. Food with enzymes, nutrients will help heal. Dead food, pretty much wont. My question for you is, how to you want to feel long term ~ as in 5, 10, 15+ years from now?

Get you some good enzymes, eat what feels right for you now... I'd suggest going slowly and see how your body responds...

Are you eating ANYTHING raw right now?

[blue_soda025]

Well, I am OK with feeling a little more bloated and "worse" if my body really is healing. However, what I want to avoid is truly worsening my condition. Sometimes there's a fine line between the two, so I just get very confused about what's going on in my body at times.

I've also vowed to stay away from prescription drugs because they often seem to do more harm than good. And they definitely didn't solve my problems, so I am currently seeing a naturopath.

Also, you could be right about the fibre. I just thought about that for a moment and I don't eat very many high fibre foods, although I eat quinoa almost everyday during dinner which is supposedly high in fibre. I guess I don't eat as many vegetables as I should be eating though. I do eat some raw foods, like the occasional raw vegetables and I eat one fruit every night. I've also just purchased a raw food recipe book and the recipes look quite interesting and tasty to me, so I'll probably try some of them in the next few weeks. Plus, I love cooking (well, maybe like preparing than cooking in this case)! : )

I suppose the best way would be to do things quite gradually. I think we all feel a lot worse than we should when we try to take extremes, or at least I do.

[RawMark]

Re: Your digestive issues, have you looked into food combining?

[green goddess]

... and I eat one fruit every night.

I agree that food combining could be a cause to your bloating issues.

I eat rather simply, with meals consisting of very few ingredients, and I find I feel better when I'm combining foods properly (greens with anything, fruit with other fruit of the same type [and greens], melons on their own, veggies with nuts rather than with fruit. If I eat fruit shortly after eating something heavier or more complex, I feel a bit of bloating, because fruit is very quick to digest, and with other food in the digestive tract blocking its way, fruit can't digest optimally, and starts fermenting before it can work its way through.

So, having fruit at night might not be the best idea as far as bloating issues go, so it could be beneficial to switch to having the fruit first thing in the morning, when the tummy is at its emptiest.

This is just one suggestion out of several possible others, but I thought it might be useful to you!

Good luck, and congrats on taking an interest in raw foods!

[Lesla]

As someone who has had gut issues most all my life, I can assure you, Raw is the way to go. At one time I believed that "fiber" was mostly whole grains, like wheat and oatmeal. I read labels, I ate high fiber, trying to relieve constipation that has plagued me most of my adult life.

A couple of years ago, I grew lettuce in my garden. I have always gardened organically, but never planted lettuce. When I would eat a salad made from the lettuce from my garden, my bowels moved. I didn't correlate it to being raw, but it was something I noticed. The best fiber for me was greens, not grains.

About 4-5 days into Raw, the same thing happened, only better. Sorry to be so graphic, but I'm so over being politically correct and sometimes direct is the only way to convey a point. My BMs became much bigger and of normal size, and EASY. I'm still amazed. My bowels tell me when I've screwed up. SAD food will take me right back to where I don't want to be, every single time.

My sleep has improved beyond belief. It's like my body can tell when it's tired, and I get sleepy. Before, I'd fall asleep, but wake up at 3 am like clockwork, and maybe go back to sleep at 6 for an hour. I was a walking zombie.

The combination of resolved gut issues and improved sleep quality and quantity, proves to me that Raw will definitely help gut issues. Removing the grains and dairy I believe helped my gut to heal.

[Katterin]

I went on a detox program and felt amazing. When I came off I ate only raw foods. All was good for a bout 2 weeks, then I got constipation, bloating and felt bad.

During this time I went on a massive information search to what could be doing this... and the answer that I found is probably food combining. In the last few days I have taken this into acount and felt much better.

I read a few books by Natalia Rose who is a nutrionlist and (mostly) raw eater. Her books contain a lot of what I consider from a scientific background to make the most sense. Some of these are


-Substitute juices for breakfast or a meal so that your digestive system has a break, then eat a big salad for lunch and dinner
-transfer into raw foods at your OWN pace. sometimes eating too much raw immediately can cause your symptoms due to the fact that you are "overcleansing" and your system isnt yet equipped to eliminate that many toxins. this is also true if you suffer from alot of bowel problems, sometimes the bowel isnt strong enough and gradually needs to increased in strength
- eat raw as much as possible during the day, but in the evening include some "cooked" vegetables (she has recipes) to help with the above
- food combing - dont mix starches with fleshes, vegetables combine with anything etc, fruit is easier to digest on its own
- consider whether you may suffer from candida (overgrowth of yeast in the gut causing digestive problems like constipation, diarrohea, gas, bloating) in which case its a high fruit/low fat diet or a high fat/low fruit diet needed
-pre and probiotics really do help as well as digestive enzymes (on an empty stomach)
-are you intolerant to a food/do you have an allergy to a food?
- consider colonic hydrotherapy or enemas to eliminate at least some of the putrified waste in the colon (not the normal matter which is some of what you have eaten moving through. putrified matter is the collection of everything that you cant digest which is pushed into the walls of the colon, is difficult to elimate unless you eat raw and use the above therapies, and is what causes toxaemia)

I was purely raw but have been following the above. constipation and bloating has really improved in a week. I also dont feel that I am limiting myself to food as I still do like "some" small portions of cooked food and I can now sense when I am fighting off illness or my body needs purely raw food for a couple of days. green juices have really helped too and I feel happier, less likely to binge and better about the way I look.

[meowimacat]

Last summer was awful for me, I was eating SAD and I felt sick CONSTANTLY. I was constipated, then I would go the opposite way, I just felt ill constantly - it also caused a lot of anxiety problems for me. Within a few days of raw I felt great, as soon as I woke up I needed to go. Whereas before I would wake up constipated and tried to force one out before work. This is where my anxiety would start if I couldn't go! Sorry for being so blunt, I can't put it any other way! My anxiety has now gone and I feel awesome all the time! No nausea, no stomach pains.
I would also second reading any of Natalia Rose's books, the book I read first before changing my diet was The Raw Food Detox Diet, which helped me understand a few things, very useful book! Now I only get bloated if I eat too many dates and prunes in one sitting!! Never again!

Also regarding the detox, when I transitioned I did it slowly, I allowed myself a coffee or a cup of tea if I felt I needed one. On day 2 I had an awful headache in the afternoon that I knew was caffeine withdrawal, so I had a coffee. After that I didn't have a coffee again and had no headaches. What are the detox problems you're concerned about? Perhaps easing more and more raw food into your diet gradually will be better for you, but definitely read up about food combining!!

Good luck, I hope you can find something that works well for you and helps to sort your tummy troubles! Especially the anxiety.:heart

[Raw Angel Mom]

Some people get bloated because of too much fax seed etc... The body needs to adapt.

I suggest since you don't want to do 100% raw, to do maybe green smoothie and do a raw vegetables very well chew before any meal. It will help you gut to digest better. Maybe a fresh vegetable juice half hour before a meal.

Supplement also with enzyme. I like the therapeudic enzyme very expensive but they helped me with my leaky gut. I used to be constipated and thinking that finally going once a couple week was good, well now i can go more then once a day. I could be weeks before having a bowl movement.

Yes stress without question. DEEP BREATH, practice with 5 in the morning, 5 when you feel the tension and 5 before going to bed. That is free and no time consuming.

If you could plan to go for walk, or could do yoga, rebunding (excellent to get the gut working great and immune system, or anything that will support you to release your stress.

Nothing worked for me in the past, except doing exercise and learning to relax. I did the fiber, eat the food that help you to go, drink tone of water. It is only by doing exercise that i could be more regular. But when I started to be finally normal with my bowl movement is when i let go the dairy and became raw vegan.

Watch a diet for all reason and a diet for a new America, this will give you faith that you will be more then fine on plant food.

I wish you all the best, and i know that reversing this condition is possible because i did it myself.

p.s I am not a doctor please do your research

[Psychalone]

Recently, I've become a little interested in raw foods. I don't intend on adopting a raw diet where I eat mostly raw foods, but I am interested in incorporating more raw foods into my diet. However, I do have a few concerns. The main one is that I have digestive issues (bloating ESPECIALLY, and heartburn) and I have read that a lot of people who were on a raw diet over an extended period of time develop digestive issues. Not to mention, a whole host of other problems, but my main concern is the digestive issues. It just feels to me like raw foods could potentially cause more bloating for me and may be even harder to digest. Of course, there's always two sides these sorts of arguments so it's almost impossible for me to judge who's right or wrong at this point. Now, I know that I am posting on a Raw Food forum, but I would really appreciate an unbiased view here.

I also have anxiety and that seems to be what is causing my digestive issues. Or well, I suppose they do go hand in hand and sometimes it's really difficult to tell which is causing which.

I guess what I am wondering is whether raw foods will help with my digestive and anxiety issues or exacerbate them. I really do not want to do anything that may worsen these problems since I've been dealing with them for the past few years.

Another thing that's been brought to my attention is that there seems to be a lot of talk about detox symptoms. I understand that it's normal for people to get detox symptoms when they're changing their diet or eating healthier foods, etc. However, how can we know that all the "bad" symptoms we're getting are actually all detox symptoms? They could potentially be due to some other underlying cause, which may not in fact be due to detox. So that's another concern I have. Sorry if I sound overly cautious or cynical about the raw diet; it's just that I've tried changing my diet for what I thought was the better a few months ago and it just seemed to make things really go downhill from there (and they were definitely not detox symptoms; it can't be normal to get "detox" symptoms for 4 months and have them worsen progressively), and caused me to feel my absolute worst several weeks ago.

You are right to question such things. There are many people who fail on the raw vegan diet due to mis-information and trying to stick to ideals. Then they switch and start bashing raw vegansim due to their ignorance. My exerpience and study has shown me that while raw vegansim is indeed workable and brings enormous benefit it's also filled with pitholes and one must be well informaed to make it work (and also know how to listen to their body).

In both Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and ancient Indian medicine (Ayurveda) there are a few common traits that I think are worthy of attention. First of all they both say to cook your food. Now if cooked food is bad then why would they recommend it? If you look at their culture the answer becomes clear. They didn’t cook fruit or milk they only cooked vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains and beans. Being as both these culture are agricultural their main diet came from vegetation. Now if you eat raw vegetables, raw beans, raw nuts, raw seeds, and raw grains you’re asking for digestive problems. The vegetables contain indigestible plant fibers. While they don’t always cause problems for everyone, these cultures obviously saw the potential harm and digestive distress this could cause. Grains, beans nuts and seeds all contain enzyme inhibitors and phytates which prevent the break down and digestion of the foods. This is a defense mechanism to increase the survival of the seed until it germinates and sprouts into a plant. Normally if eaten by an animal it will go through the digestive tract unchanged and sprout in the feces of the animal. Cooking these foods does make them more digestible than eating them raw. Cooking deactivates the enzyme inhibitors and phytates to a certain degree, making the nutrition more available. It does kill the enzymes and harm certain nutrients depending on the cooking method however our body makes enzymes so its still possible to extract nutrition from these substances. That does not, however, mean that cooking is the BEST method, it’s simply what they used.

Another thing about these cultures is how they viewed health and disease. They didn’t have modern science and technology so they weren’t aware of enzymes and probiotics and nutrition the way we are now. Therefore they simply observed how things made people feel, The folly in this approach is that if one were to lace foods with addictive chemicals then these cultures would likely view these food as having “essential nutrients” and being necessary for good health. Their way they view health was being happy, having enough energy to carry out basic functions and peaceful. Therefore the sedative effect of cooked food was also probably noticed by these cultures which is likely why they continued to cook their food and still continue to. They do, however, have many other good practices which allow one to maintain physical and emotional equilibrium Seeing as how both of these cultures had strong religious and spiritual aspects, meditation was often a part of daily life, thus anything that excites the mind or gives too much energy would probably be frowned upon.

Another aspect of both these systems was to avoid eating when the mind is disturbed. Eating was viewed almost as an offering or as a prayer or ritual to the body. Thus they advise things like not watching television while eating, focus soley on the meal, chew and taste your food thoroughly. It’s actually very Tantric, lol. The point is that they also take into consideration mental and emotional “toxicity” which is just as dangerous to the human body. Science is just catching up to this now.

Another interesting commonground was to eat the main meal at the noon hours. They say it's because digestion is strongest at that time, but in reality it's because the sun was at the hiest point in the sky at that time. Paul Nison of the Hippocrates Health Institute wrote a book called "Daylight Diet" which showed a direct link between sunlight and digestion. Also to compliment eating only when the mind is undisturbed, sunlight is shown to have positive effects on the mood.

Now from a nutritional standpoint it would be advisable to focus on 3 aspects.
1.) B complex. The B vitamins all work together to help maintain the function of the brain and nervous system. Normally when the body and mind are in balance then you don’t need to worry so much but when one deals with elevated stress levels then the body uses B vitamins to maintain equilibrium. Here’s a goo article on this matter: ARTICLE (http://www.suite101.com/content/vitamin-b-for-anxiety-and-panic-disorder-a70971)
2.) Vit D. Anxiety tends to run in my family. I tend to be a perfectionist and worry a lot about certain things as I usually like to know everything about something before I begin to experience it, I don’t like surprises. Having this tendency my biggest health issue has been my nervous system. There was a time when I adopted a diet heavy in raw dairy which balanced me almost perfectly. I thought it was all the raw fats, amino acids and B12 that was doing it. Well later I decided to abandon raw dairy and again I noticed increase agitation of the nerves until I re-discovered sun gazing. By spending enough time in the sun I began to notice my nerves were soothed and I felt very calm and balanced. I later made the connection of Vit D. Since our body gets it from the sun and most people spend most of their time indoors and when they’re ourdoors they coat their body with sunscreen… well vit D may be one of the TRUE “deficiencies” we have, even though I’d rather say “sunlight” deficiency. Read this account of how Vit D made a difference in this man’s life: ARTICLE (http://www.mindalive.com/1_0/article%209.pdf)
3.) B12- B12 is synthesized in the gut by bacteria. We don’t need very much at all and if we don’t take antibiotics and keep our emotions in check we’ll never need to supplement it through diet. HOWEVER, most people don’t meet these conditions, especially the second. B12, like the other b vitamins, is only really needed if one is over-stressed. Normally we make enough, but if the body is out of balance then the need for B12 increases to an amount that we may not be able to make on our own. And our stores begin to diminish. Now before going on about this or any other vitamin, I’d suggest getting a bloodtest. This will tell you undoubtedly if you’re actually deficient in anything, and this should be done before anything is assumed. However if B12 is indeed an issue and you want to stick to the vegan path then you could get a shot (about as unnatural as you can get but hey,…some people choose that), or use an ACTIVE algae supplement.. For a test to check whether the algae is active or not, I’ll quote from another of my posts:

Another fun test is the gluten test. Sprout some wheat for 2-3 days. then take a handful of wheat sprouts and chew them up for roughly 3-5 mins. You should be left with a glob of gluten "gum" in your mouth. Now take another handful of sprouts and chew them with about 1 gram of the algae. This time, if the algae is enzymatically active, the gluten should dissolve and liquify.
Now this isn't to say that if the gluten doesn't dissolve that the algae doesn't contain enzymes, but simply that it's enzyme activity is low. A good brand with have such a high enzyme activity that it will have enough spare enzymes to digest the gluten/geletin.

pt. 1/2

[Psychalone]

pt. 2/2

As for nutrition in the diet I tend to recommend srpouts and I’ll quote one of my posts to explain why:

If you look at the nutritional profile of a kidney bean... http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/...roducts/4296/2

This is a typical inorganic dry kidney bean, average serving 1 cup. Now lets say you take 2 cups and sprout them. Well according to this site: http://www.sproutnet.com/Press/sprou..._nutrition.htm

When you sprout, nutritional value increases by quite a bit. There's a chart under "benefits" that shows some common uncreases. Lets apply those increases to the nutritional profile of the kidney bean. Now lets say it's organic and you sprout it with sea salt to increase mineral content...
With 2 cups of sprouted kidney beans you have all the nutrition you need in a day. Whats more is that the RDA of each food is set for the typical unhealthy american who needs to superdose on inorganic supplements just to be able to get enough nutrition. I would say that if you're colon is healthy and if you're taking enzymes and probiotics then you only need ONE cup of sprouted kidney beans to meet all nutritional needs.


Ok, sorry to kinda get off topic but I wanted to address that real quick, Now on to answer you actualy questions.

Bloating/gas and general indigestion is caused mainly by 3 things (I’ve found)
1.) Unripe fruit- I always recommend if your going to eat a lot of fruit, buy local over organic. Local is usually picked closer to when it’s actually ripe as opposed to when it’s from far away it’s picked unripe. Not only is the nutritional value of local fruit better but it’s digestibility is higher because, again, it’s usually picked ripe and sold the next day at farmer markets. That not to say that fruit from other countries/states is bad, but simply that there’s a higher tendency to mistakenly eat unripe fruit if it was picked and shipped unripe rather than if it was picked ripe and local.

2.) To much plant fiber. Cellulose is an indigestible plant fiber found in most vegetables. Since it cannot be digested it can be somewhat “abrasive” to the intestinal tract and cause a lot of gas/bloating. I remember when I first started raw vegan LONG time ago I was eating a lot og raw spinach and raw brussel sprouts and I had to start watching myself because it created a lot of discomfort and bloating. I eventually switched to fruitarianism which served me quite well as there was a local farmers market just down the street from where I was working. I believe this is one of the main reasons people like high fat diets. The fat lubricates the digestive tract and thus protects it from the abrasive plant fibers.

3.) Raw nuts/seeds. Nuts, seeds, grains and beans are not meant to be eaten by humans. They contain phytates and enzyme inhibiters (along with other elements) which prevent its break down and digestion. This is a defense mechanism of the seed and why they can be stored so long. The enzyme inhibiters prevent the enzymes from breaking the seeds down and decomposing. Normally when ingested by an animal it will pass through the system undigested and sprout in the feces. Unless sprouted (or at LEAST soaked) ingesting these is asking for digestive distress. Now some people can handle them, and for they who can, Kudos!.
I remember a time when I went camping with a friend of mine and I brought along some raw pumpkin seeds to munch on. I started eating them during a game of cards (Magic the Gathering). We fell asleep about 2 hours later. IN the middle of the night I was awoken by what felt like stomach sugery without morphine. I was literally shouting in pain (into my pillow) for over an hour. I was trying desperately to find some position to give me relief. Eventually the pain lowered to a degree that rocking in a fetal position helped enough so I could sleep. I never again ate raw pumpkin seeds, now I sprouted them ;)

So again my suggestion is to stick to local fruits and sprouts (seeds, beans and grains). Now sometimes one will still encounter digestive trouble or may simply want to indulge in the flavour of something that causes digestive stress, and for that there are enzymes. Find an ACTIVE enzyme supplement and you’ll never have to worry about digestion again. Here’s a few tests you can do to see if an enzyme supp is active or not :
http://rawfoodtalk.com/showpost.php?p=654536&postcount=4

I’m known for my extreme self experimentation. A few months ago I wasn’t aware of the enzyme tests so I decided to do something much more dangerous. I fasted on water for about 4 days, then I decided to have a full meal of Chinese food. By day 3 of water fasting your digestive system shuts down so normally I’d be rolling in pain and have some very unpleasant bowl movements, but instead I took about 8 or 9 capsules of enzymes (they say only take 1-3 with a meal) and then I waited to see what happened. Nothing did,. It was as if I didn’t even eat anything, I felt no pain, no bloating, no discomfort. Now obviously you should NOT go out and do that to test because if you’re wrong…well lets just say I was lucky I picked an active blend. The point is to show how effective enzymes can be when it comes to digestive health.

Re-Detox, you’re right to be skeptical in this area. Here’s what I understand of it. Detox is when your body releases toxins into the bloodstream to be processed and eliminated by the body. Normally this causes various feelings of discomfort that can last for quite a few days. How do you know when it’s not detox though? Certainly one wouldn’t stub their toe and blame the pain on detox :p Basically how I see it is like so. One should allow a certain time period for the symptoms to “run their course". If it is indeed detox then eventually the symptoms will disappear whereas if it’s being caused by deficiency or something we’re eating then it will continue until properly addressed. For example if someone was eating too many unsoaked, unsprouted raw nuts and seeds and experiencing digestive distress, they may very well decide to blame it on detox where the actual condition is because of the food they’re eating. If you look at people who have fasted (myself included) there are days when you’re low on energy and quite uncomfortable (Usually the earlier stages for the inexperienced), and then there are days when you have bounding energy and are euphoric. This is the cycle of detox. You have the lows of when your body is getting rid of junk, then you have the highs which occur after the junk has been eliminated. Then you have the time in between when your body switches tasks. So my advice is to examine your symptoms and give a reasonable amount of time to consider them as “detox”. As a rule of thumb I usually say 2 weeks. If the symptoms persist past the given time then it may be worthwhile to make a slight change in diet or lifestyle to properly address these symptoms. Most of the time if the symptoms are flu-like you can be assured it’s detox. Most colds are indeed detoxification.,

The other aspect is the emotional detox that occurs. As you eat raw less energy goes into digestion and more is available for the higher functionings of the mind AKA awareness. Cooked food has a very sedative effect and lowers awareness. This is one of the reasons ancient cultures adore cooked food as they do because one seems more calm and happy on cooked food because they don’t have to face what they are unknowingly repressing. When you increase your awareness you begin to process everything more, you may feel like you’re finally “FEELING” for the first time, it may feel kinda like being “high”, lol. While this can be a blessing to feel the wind against your skin in a way that gives the feeling you’re being hugged, it can also be a curse because while you can process the good better you also process the bad batter. You become more sensitive to things. You may notice little things you never noticed before. You may start to feel a “vibe” or “Energy” from people or situations, you may start intuitively understanding things better, etc. Also, from a sort of psychological standpoint…you may begin to tap into your unconscious mind more. Usually when you experience a traumatic something or other, you can only mentalyl process so much of it at once. The rest is stored in the unconscious for later processing. Usually when there’s unprocessed experiences they are lived out and processed in dreams. When someone lives on a cooked food diet however, and lowers their awareness 3 times a day, there’s a lot of collected unprocessed “junk” that influences one’s life. Usually people go through hypnosis or trance or meditation to start processing this stuff, but the raw food diet will do it too. If you start getting vivid, maybe even kinda “messed up” dreams you’ll know you’re clearing out your unconscious.

This is usually why we crave cooked foods though. When we become aware of things, we may not be able to handle it all at once, so we’ll “fall off the wagon” and sedate ourselves. As our awareness increases and we adapt to it we learn to deal with life’s problems in a more constructive way rather than just eating our problems away. SO you may experience some irritability or temporary mood swings in the initial stages. Remember it’s like going through withdrawl. However through this experience you learn to derive comfort from healthier sources. If you meditate or do yoga or qigong (all of which I highly recommend) it will help you ALOT.

Anyway, these are some of the things I”ve found with the raw food diet. Hope you find the answers you’re looking for, and best of luck to you on your journey

[terry brown]

dang Psychalone, you know how to answer a question!
I enjoyed reading the information you provided.

[blue_soda025]

Thanks for all of the responses, they were all helpful and interesting. :) I have not tried food combining, but will look into that. And wow, Psychalone, that was very comprehensive, lol!

It's interesting that you mentioned Chinese medicine because I am Chinese and so naturally I've picked up on a few of its theories from my mom. I forgot to mention that that's another concern I had -- the Chinese medicine view of raw food is that it's too "cooling," which is not good for me because my body tends to always be on the "cool" side. I have poor circulation, get cold easily and don't feel as great if I'm always eating cold foods.

[RawMark]

my body tends to always be on the "cool" side. I have poor circulation, get cold easily and don't feel as great if I'm always eating cold foods.

Eat foods like ginger, chilli, garlic, etc. :)