I am here to learn.

[juliebove]

I have a 7 year old daughter who was diagnosed last June with food allergies. She is allergic to wheat, gluten, soy, eggs, dairy, bananas and peanuts. I was recently diagnosed with allergies to dairy, eggs and almonds. We have had to drastically change our diets and because I was struggling to be a vegetarian, I needed to find new sources of protein. I suffer from anemia and although I had been a vegetarian for most of my life, found myself reluctantly eating meat. It was the only way to keep the anemia at bay. But I've since learned that a dairy allergy can cause anemia. So I am hoping this was the cause for me and that eliminating it will stop the anemia.

I have a variety of health problems including diabetes, neuropathy, fibromyalgia, a thyroid problem that seems to go away when I don't eat soy, and a damaged immune system. I find myself eating more and more raw foods and am considering going totally raw but not sure it would be doable for me. First there are the allergies and foods I need to avoid. Many of the recipes I see call for almonds or soy. I also see avocados in a lot of the recipes and I've never been able to eat them. Something about the taste and texture just puts me off.

So anyway, I'm here to learn more about this type of diet.

[RawMagnolia]

Welcome to the board....

I'm new here as well, and am just trying to grasp everything too. But I wanted to say that avacados make me queezy as well... but if you make smoothies you can put them in there, and you won't even taste them... but you'll get the benefit of the good fat as well as it will help to make your smoothies more creamy.

Sandra

[Rawkinlocs]

Hi Juliebove and welcome!!

Well you are definitely making the right move by incorporating more raw into your diet!

First off, the food allergies...those (the allergies to any fresh fruits, veggies, nuts or seeds) can be alleviated. My youngest daughter used to be allergic to citrus fruit and nuts...I eliminated them from her diet in the beginning stages of changing to a raw diet, but once she was cleaner, I re-introduced those items to her and now she can eat them with no problem!

It's good that you don't consume dairy, eggs, etc....check out http://notmilk.com for more on the ill effects of dairy.

You can start off with the raw things you CAN eat and build from there. Recipes that call for things you cannot tolerate at this time can most times be substituted with something else and you can always inquire or do a search within our Recipe Forum to find out viable substitutions for certain nuts, avocado, wheat, soy (such as the Bragg's or Nama Shoyu), etc.

As for protein, you can definitely get good sources of protein eating raw especially by incorporating more greens into your diet (you can acheive this with collard wraps, salads, and the ever popular green smoothies (fruit smoothies that you add greens such as kale, parsley, etc. to).

Check out this article on protein: http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3708

Hope this helps! There is a lot here that you will learn and we're here to support you!

[misslinda]

Welcome Julie!

Best wishes to healing :)

[leeleelocs]

Welcome Julie!!!!!!
This is the right place to be. I have learned soooo much. The people are soooo nice and answer your questions so fast and in a helpful loving way.