New to the Raw Diet

[stephrocks73]

Hi All,

I am on day 3 of my raw diet. I am doing it to feel better (I suffer from Fibromaylgia, arthritis, migraines, CFS) so I have have high hopes. I am wondering what the best recommended balance of fruits, veggies & nuts. I'm trying to incorporate more veggies through salads & juicing but am finding myself eating more fruits. I'm just not sure if this is the best way to go about it. Any suggestion would be appreciated!

Stephanie

[EscapeArtist]

Hi and welcome to the board!
It's all very individual. Try different stretches of different things. A lot of people feel good while eating large amounts of fruit, 30bananasaday.com is an example of that (although I wouldn't recommend eating as much as they do of fruit). Then there are the other people, who may suffer with blood sugar or candida or other, who feel better on a very low GI diet (myself). But I recommend that you try a few different ways before you settle on one, and always try something different if you don't feel AMAZING

I would recommend one thing, (for your fibro, artirits) stay away from glutenous grains, dairy, soy, corn, and nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, potatoes) ! Emphasis on glutenous grains, which definitely could be related to all of your health problems . I used to have arthritis but found that it was all related to food intolerances, and chemicals from certain foods. For example, in nightshade vegetables there is a chemical called solanine which has been linked with arthritis. I can't find the best website for description but you can google it. Used to suffer from really bad chronic fatigue too, and it was mainly linked to the same thing, food intolerances, mainly gluten. That's a nice little story in here (read long post) http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/17452-cfsfibromyalgia/

You can go to celiac.com, click forum, and type some of your conditions into the search box. This is a website that says for celiacs, but it's basically about people who have problems with gluten and possibly other intolerances to dairy, soy, etc.... Chronic fatigue, migraines, and fibro and very commonly posted about there

[therawmichelle]

Hi and welcome to the raw food world! :) I too have struggled with migraine headaches for years, and I find that raw foods are definitely helping. Try incorporating nuts, seeds and fatty vegetables as well (like avocado). My migraines are not completely gone, but they are a lot less frequent now than before, when i used to smoke, eat junk food, and drink tons of coffee. I even ended up going to a neurologist and having an MRI done, thats how bad it was, i feared I had a tumor or something. Incapacitating migraines would kick in at least 3 times per week, and I'd have to take strong painkillers just to make it through the day. Horrible, I know. Now i only get minor headaches maybe once a month. The living nutrients in raw foods are very important in modulating health and they've done wonders for me! I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised too!

[amoux]

Hi Stephanie - I'm pretty new to raw myself, but one thing I am noticing after 6 weeks raw is that the body begins to 'tell you' what it wants rather than going by a set plan. I like escapeartist's suggestion of trying different stretches of different things. As you become more used to raw, you'll hopefully find your own best balance. I started eating lots of fruit, lots of veggies, but very little greens or juices. Now I'm eating more greens because my body responds to them so well, incorporating a lot of juice, and reducing nuts and oils. None of this was particularly planned out in advance, but I noticed the introduction of green smoothies really helped on many levels to 'settle me' on raw foods. Best of luck to you :-)