Major health crisis--I am hoping this will help me!

[GastroparesisGirl]

Hi everyone!

My name is Catherine and I am new to Raw Food-ing. I am 32 years old, mom of 2 little girls, married, and while I should be in the prime of my life I am fighting to maintain my health.

The reason for this is that I have a condition called Gastroparesis. Basically that means my stomach is broken. It doesn't break food down and when food sits too long it makes me sick.

So for months now I have survived on nutritional drinks, saltines, and baby food. But I feel and look like crap. I need to do something drastic. Fats and fiber at off limits as they slow digestion...and for me they HAULT it...

I started juicing and drinking all raw fruits and veggies and have started regaining my health. So I am here because I would like to go on a mostly raw juice diet but need some help in doing this. I think this might really help me, and am curious if anyone has ever ever done something like this for an indefinite period of time. I know there are juice FASTS, but this would be a mostly juice DIET.

So I will start a thread about that but wanted to just tell you all why I am here and I hope that through raw food I can maintain my heath despite my condition.

Looking forward to getting to know you!

Catherine :wuv

[ambidestrian]

Well, the following is not medical advice and you should consult with your physician.

If you are on a diet that restricts fat and fiber (is it only insoluble fiber or all fiber?) you will need to be sure that you get enough essential fatty acids to manufacture cell membranes and the signalling molecules your body needs. A small amount of hemp oil and a DHA capsule or two would probably suffice.

Another issue with using juice as food is that it has a higher glycemic index (GI) than whole fruits and vegetables, so it might be helpful to add some protein to your juices - I think hemp protein is readily assimilable and has a good balance of amino acids. I am not sure if it is available without fiber. I understand that the addition of protein to high GI foods will smooth out the blood glucose fluctuations they can induce.


If you are doing a lot of juicing, I highly recommend a twin gear juicer - the increased efficiency will end up saving you money on produce. I own and operate an Angel juicer and I love it; it has very solid stainless steel construction and a strong motor. It is the most efficient juicer I have seen tested in my research. Note that I have not seen the Norwalk juicer tested and it very well may be more efficient. It is a little more complicated to use and clean but it is a serious machine.

[DawnD]

I think a diet that includes raw juices and raw smoothies will be great. I would try to get some fats and hemp seeds can be a wonderful souce of good fats and protein. You can blend them into juice or smoothies. I would think that a little fiber with a green smoothie would be worth a try. Its broken down so fine that you may be able to accept it better. Just make sure that everything you eat has good nutritional value and is live. Give you body the best possible chance to cleanse and heal.

I did google gastroparesis and I am wondering if you have vagus nerve damage. I was thinking that chiropractic adjustment may help nerve function. Just a thought.

Wish you the best!

[ambidestrian]

The vagus nerve is a cranial nerve. I don't see how a chiropractic adjustment would help, since it doesn't emerge from a vertebrae.

Getting enough B vitamins and exercise can assist in peripheral nerve repair. I would also recommend talking to a physician before beginning exercise especially if you have vagus nerve damage, since the vagus nerve plays a role in cardiovascular responsiveness. AFAIK, that's not the only cause of delayed gastric emptying. Have you had a upper GI Barium swallow to look for any structural anomalies?

GG: Do you have any other peripheral neuropathy and/or peripheral neuropathy symptoms?

[michigan roman]

ide make seed / nut mylks to then create fruit smoothies with

hemp seed / almond / pumpkin seed / sun flower seed etc

hemp seeds a hot item currently ands 33% protein plus both omegas

[michigan roman]

heres ani phyo video making nut mylks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPqr-0dBrG0

[GastroparesisGirl]

Wow. Thank you all so much for this AWESOME info. Really.

So to try to address everything I will work through it all systematically, by post:

My diet restricts all fiber (both soluble and insoluble) since it slows digestion. That is why MOST people try to get MORE fiber--so they feel full longer and might lose weight. For me this is a bad thing. I notice that eating just a few grams of fiber makes me sick. Same thing with fat. If I was only taking a capsule of hemp oil, though, I think that would work fine. It can't have more than a gram or two of fat, right? I'll give that a shot. I'm making my health food store grocery list as we go here! :)

Hemp protein is a great idea. I did some reading on it and it seems that it might work. I will try to find some that doesn't have the fiber...I don't know if the fiber is there because it is added as most people want that thrown in, or if it is part of the help protein itself. But I did find out that 1 serving of Nutivia Hemp Protein Powder has 6g of fiber. That is too much for me to take all at once, but I could divide the serving throughout the day and I would be fine. As you said, it seems to be helping to build muscle and I have lost a lot of muscle since this condition took over my diet. So...adding Hemp Protein to my grocery list here... :excited:

I do have a juicer. It is a Samson. My in-laws bought it for me for Christmas a few years ago. I think the idea was to make baby food. I don't remember for sure, though, because homemade baby food never happened in real life, and I wasn't into juicing. In fact, I have never liked juice. Or thought I didn't like juice. Since making raw juice recently, though, I have discovered that I DO like juice, just not the bottled, sugary stuff they market and sell as juice. Yuck. But the real stuff is really good and my kids keep asking me to make some for them, too, so the juicer is now in full use. The Samson was purchased because it is versatile, but I don't know how great it is as far as juicing itself goes. Should I get something else or would this be fine? It's easy to use and easy to clean, so I don't have complaints. I just don't know if it's not as efficient a juicer as others? Is the Samson a twin gear? I need to Google what that means.

Green smoothies...I have tried and tried smoothies and they make me sick. I have tried cooking the fruit before making the smoothie since some people with Gastroparesis can do that. I get sick. Baby food makes me sick. I mean, really. The stuff they give to little babies I am unable to digest. :/ I can't even drink Ensure. It might be the high fat content. But it's made for old people and it is a nightmare for me. So...Green Smoothies are a no-go for me but I did try making Green Juice and that has gone well. I tried it first 2 days ago and have done it yesterday and today again and it is so great. I can't taste spinach in anything. I just make whatever juice I want--orange or apple or tomato or a mix of whatever, and turn it green. The advice to make sure everything has nutritional value seems really basic but it is something I do need to remind myself. When you can't eat anything you get stuck in a rut of just going for whatever you CAN eat and usually it's white flour crackers or popsicles. I think one day a couple of weeks ago I realized that I had eaten 12 Otter Pops that day. 12. That is so gross. But I was starving and my body was screaming for something, it wasn't getting it, so it kept screaming and screaming. Giving myself real nutrition through juicing will hopefully resolve this issue. I am hoping that it will not only give me nutrients I need but also that it will prevent me from eating things my body doesn't need. Putting crap in there just makes my body work all the harder to clean itself out. It doesn't need to have to work any harder than it already does...

About the Vagus Nerve and how I got GP: Yes, GP is usually caused by vagus nerve damage. There are other causes but I have been tested for every other possible cause they know of and it was all negative. I even went to the University of Michigan and was seen by one of the top research doctors for motility disorders and he agreed that my case is classic idiopathic GP, but probably actually post-viral. So, the theory for me is that when I had this horrible flu in January it caused an immune response that damaged the nerve. Basically one day I was fine, a normal healthy woman outside jogging, I started feeling weak so I went home, went to bed, woke up really sick, was sick in bed for 3 weeks, and when I got up and around and started to resume living me life I found that I could no longer eat anything. Just like that. Some people recover from this over time but many others don't. For now I am just stuck, not getting worse but not getting better. I did get worse for a while but have stabilized since around June. So adjustments won't help...just hopefully time will allow my body to heal itself. And my thinking is that my body has a better chance of healing itself if I am healthy. Kind of hard to be, though, when food is the enemy. So frustrating, but I am here right?? I haven't given up hope that there is a way!!! :)

So I walk everyday and do yoga. The walking really seems to help my digestion. My doctor has been ok with it as long as I can get enough calories in. But my weight is fine (thanks to the white bread probably) so I am fine with the exercise.

Which brings me to a question of weightloss. I am fine, a normal weight, but I don't NEED to lose weight. Would I lose too much? Maybe the juice fast thread would be something to look at?

Anyway, the nut milk thing is also interesting. I watched the video and I am pretty sure blending the nuts up would not work out for me but I am thinking I will try juicing them. I do worry about the fat content, though. Would I just be making nut OIL if I juiced them? I can try. No harm in that...if I juice nuts and it looks like oil then, well, I have my answer. ;) Is there a nut that is low in fiber and fat? Or maybe I could make the almond milk and strain it? (I do have a Vitamix, BTW--so I can pulverize things...they still make me sick, though, apparently since the fiber is there, pulverized or not...)

I need to go to bed. But thank you all so much. If you have ideas to add please do. I am going to stock up on everything I need tomorrow (hemp oil, hemp protein, and produce) and start juicing 100% on Monday. I am hoping this all goes well for me!

~Catherine

[michigan roman]

ive read many many raw foodist love the sampson juicer

with seed / nut mylks just get a paint strainer bag / nut mylk bag and strain the fiber out

concerning vegas nerve the late great raw foodist norman walker said celery juice good for nerve fibers

there was another women here back a year or two had same ailment , ' donnyandcathy ' . ide search her post for info as many people chimed in on her ailment then so there could be valuable info there

[michigan roman]

paint strainer bags are like $3 for two at home depot or paint places , i get 5 gallon size as opposed to one gallon size then i can put the paint strainer bag right over a big like 3 gallon soup type pot and the elastic band around edge snugs up right around pot perimeter and ive a big pot to pour anything from blender into so its less of a mess than messing around with smaller pots if using one gallon bag

[ambidestrian]

Hopefully the raw diet will allow your immune system to recover if you have some immune-related nerve damage. Raw/juice diets have helped others recover from autoimmune conditions.

The Samson juicer is good. If juicing works for you, it may be worth it to invest in a more efficient model, but it is definitely more efficient than the centrifugal types.

In order to heal nerves, your body will need B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids. If you consume 1-2 tablespoons of hemp oil spread out over the day, you will probably get the omega-3 fatty acids you need. I am not sure if it comes in capsules; I have seen it in bottles in the refrigerated supplements section of my health food store. The body is not particularly efficient at converting omega-3 fatty acids from the vegetable form to the forms needed for nerves, so it may be worth it to get a DHA supplement. I use the vegan algal-derived DHA from a company called Deva. It isn't wise to change too much at once, though, because if any side effects arise, you won't know what the cause is. I would try juicing for a week or two to make sure it will be compatible with your digestive system before you add in b-vitamin and/or fatty acid supplements.

If you tried to juice juts, you would probably get nut oil. I don't know of any nuts that are low in fat.

If you drink enough juice you probably won't need white bread to maintain your weight. I question the nutritional value thereof, anyway. Have you been tested for gluten intolerance?

I hope that answers your questions.

[GastroparesisGirl]

I haven't tried making nut milk yet (you call it mylk?). I plan to but want to go slowly. Part of that is to minimize the risk of getting sick, and the other part is to know what is causing me to get sick if someone is doing that (pretty much like ambidestrian said in the last post). Sometimes I don't know for a couple of days how sick a food is making me. For right now I am juicing and drinking kefir (I know it's not vegan--I might take the plunge later but for now I am still drinking the kefir) and those 2 things have kept me completely GP symptom free for almost a week now. This is the longest I have gone without getting sick for about 8 months now. But I do plan to get the strainer bags and give it a shot. Maybe next week.

The Nutivia Hemp Protein and so far so good. I think the fiber in it, since I have been dividing the servings throughout the day, has been fine. I also have eaten some avocado with success, but only twice in the past 4 days. Again, I am careful to not add more than one thing into the equation at a time so the primary variable right now is the Hemp Protein. The avocado is something I am slowly trying.

The white bread was mostly to maintain my weight but also because I was CRAVING it. I think because I was malnourished my body wanted carbs. I still like bread but since I started juicing the craving has diminished. I'm trying to quit eating it completely. I was tested for gluten allergies/intolerance/Celiac and it was negative, so that is not a problem for me. But yeah, it's pretty void of nutrition.

I'll try the hemp oil and B vitamins. They're good for lots of things and maybe it can help my body to heal. I can see this is going to be a process of changing all that I consume, but it has already changed my quality of life just since going on the juice and kefir diet. Taking kefir out eventually and putting all raw ingredients in might be something I could aim for. I know a lot of people have found optimum health on a completely raw diet.

:eat

[MysticTree]

let's hope this journey culminates with you having to ask admin to change your screen name!