I still have diarrhea 2 months into raw foods...help

[chaseLSU]

Has anyone experienced this? I have diarrhea every morning, and I get a semi-solid stool about once a week in the evening. Everything else is loose stool after loose stool. My stools are almost always the same color as the color of the food I ingested as well. Anyone with similar experiences when starting out? Thanks!

Other info about me:

I'm 100% raw
80% organic
Ate decently before going raw
No juices
Green smoothies
Staples: watermelon, bananas, cantaloupe, lychees, dates, oranges, berries
80/10/10 is my main influence
I'm trying to get rid of acne, insomnia, neck stiffness, migraines (already gone, actually), veins under my eyes, etc.

[Revvell]

You're eating fruit. Nothing else for it. Eat more solid foods ~ carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower .... or, talk to the guy who created the system ~ Dr. Doug Graham. This is Alissa Cohen's forum and she's not advocating 80/10/10.

"This board is for the support of the raw food lifestyle, getting and giving advice and connecting with other people who are STRIVING TO GO AND BE RAW VEGAN according to the principles in Alissa Cohen's book Living on Live Food."

"
1. No threads/discussions dedicated to “other” approaches to raw foods. This includes such diets as 8-1-1, low-fat, low-fruit, natural hygiene, fruitarian, raw meat/dairy-eating, mono-eating, no-grains, no-fruit etc. There are boards dedicated to almost every approach to raw foods such as these mentioned above. But they will not be discussed in detail here and promoted here."

[chaseLSU]

Okay, thanks for the info. I've tried eating my greens in solid form, as recently as last week. That made it considerably worse. Fruit is extremely detoxifying, so I'm making it a staple right now. I'm sure a raw food guru such as Alissa Cohen acknowledges this. All I said was that 80/10/10 is my influence, not that it's necessarily my diet right now. I'm trying to find a diet that works best for me, and hopefully someone here can offer me some help.

[Revvell]

and hopefully someone here can offer me some help.

I did.

Fruit is extremely detoxifying, so I'm making it a staple right now.

And your question was?

You know what's interesting about many posts I read ~ people state the issue; then they state the cause; then someone gives them the solution so, they say they'll continue with the cause. Hmmmm....

[MysticTree]

You say fruit is extremely detoxifying and then complain about one of the detox symptoms. Keep at it but maybe include more nuts, greens and veggies. When you say no juiced do you mean none before you went raw or none after? Juices always go through me much quicker than solid food. Try easing back on the things that make it worse. Less fruit juice. More whole fruits.

[MysticTree]

One other point. What are drinking? Are you drinking lots of water as well as all the fruit? You might drink less depending on how much water/fluid you are drinking on top of fruits etc.

[chaseLSU]

I drink until my urine is clear. I don't really keep track. I urinate fairly clear around 10 times/day. I've never juiced as I've never owned a juicer. I freeze and blend bananas with lots of romaine or bok choy. That's a go-to lunch of mine 3-5 days/week.

Diarrhea is in fact a detox symptom. No doubt about that! Diarrhea detox for 2 months though? How about diarrhea detox for 6 months? What about 15? How long am I supposed to deal with raging diarrhea every morning before I start to ask questions? I'm just looking for someone with personal experience with the issue, that's all. I'm curious as to how long people with these kinds of bowel/digestive issues need to stick with the program until they see results.

[lafsalot]

Since sugar tolerance varies by individuals, it sounds as though your body is having a difficult time adjusting to the mostly fruit diet you have been eating. AND since a well balanced raw vegan diet (one that includes nuts, whole veggies,etc - as the others have already suggested) is detoxifying in and of itself, why do you feel that you must limit/restrict the foods that you are eating?

[Aleesha Sattva]

I've found that the more green smoothies I consume the more "relaxed" my stools are. (meaning they are definitely benefitting from the blended greens and fruit)

As for how long do you continue to detox via diarrhea? I guess that's one only you can answer. Personally I do it till it stops. If you want to slow down your detox... reduce your fruits and smoothies and increase your other raw foods (as others have suggested).

(((hugs))) to your journey.

[chaseLSU]

Okay thanks guys.

I'm limiting other raw foods lafsalot because I'm tough. I'd rather endure another couple months of extreme detox symptoms than a year of slowly getting better. I'm implementing things I've learned through Dr. Morse right now as the first month of this trial simply didn't yield an adequate amount of results to keep me motivated.

[MysticTree]

Is it even a journey with an end? People talk about before and after pictures; when do you start measuring "after" from? I don't think there is a point where you can say "right, I'm done with the detox. No need to live like this anymore." so many people in a tearing hurrying to reach a perceived end point.

[lafsalot]

Well said, MT!!!!

[Aleesha Sattva]

i agree. it's why my pics are always "before and during..." LOL cause the after is... I guess after I'm dead?

[streetsurfer]

You might be dysbiotic in the gut. An increase in your fermemted foods and possibly supplementing probiotics would be my recommendation. Kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi, etc. In time then, when the good and bad intestinal bacteria are better balanced, you may be able to forego those and maintain your current eating style.

How's it going for your now? Have you gotten any relief?

For the neck stiffness and migraines, I would see a dentist and ask if you might suffer from bruxism. A dentist can check for abfraction and examine your teeth and be able to tell. If you have a sleeping partner you can ask them if you grind at night. This affliction wears at the muscles of the jaw as you sleep and they get no healing rest at night......it can affect the jaw joint, the neck muscles and vertebrae, some muscles that wrap your skull, and can leave you feeling like a truck ran over you as you wake in the morning, including migraines and headaches. Can cause shoulder and neck pain, hangover feelings, fatigue, aches, etc. A bite guard called NTI/TSS will give you relief overnight if your dentist finds you do clench or grind and can prescribe one for you.

[Arky]

Having been away from the board for several months, I'm a bit late in posting an answer, but just wanted to say I totally agree with Streetsurfer's suggestion about possible dysbiosis.

In addition, a few other things occur to me, having read your posts, here, chase LSU:

I drink until my urine is clear. I don't really keep track. I urinate fairly clear around 10 times/day.

* Urinating 10 times a day is, frankly, rather excessive. It is not necessary to drink so much that your urine turns clear. It is also worth noting that such a high fruit intake as yours is likely to stress the insulin system of your body, and you would do well to consider that if the insulin system is struggling under the duress of excessive fructose intake, then one may logically anticipate that the body might attempt to purge some of the sugar via the urine. In the old days, doctors used to have a very rudimentary preliminary test if blood sugar problems were suspected in a patient - they'd literally taste the patient's urine to see if it tasted slightly sweet! Anyway, I'm not suggesting you have diabetes, I'm merely pointing out that urinating 10x a day is excessive and that you'd be wise to consider why you may be urinating so much due to a well-meaning but misguided attempt to ensure your urine is clear, or if there might just possibly be a blood sugar issue at play instead/as well.

Diarrhea is in fact a detox symptom. No doubt about that! Diarrhea detox for 2 months though? How about diarrhea detox for 6 months? What about 15? How long am I supposed to deal with raging diarrhea every morning before I start to ask questions? I'm just looking for someone with personal experience with the issue, that's all. I'm curious as to how long people with these kinds of bowel/digestive issues need to stick with the program until they see results.

* Forgive me for being blunt (I mean no disrespect at all), but it is naive to place so much relative certainty on diarrhea being indicative of detox. Sure, it can be, in the short term, but anything more than a few days and alarm bells should be ringing! Again, dysbiosis is a major possible candidate, and supplementation with probiotics (be they food-based and/or supplement-based) is certainly a very wise option to consider (although please consider my discussion, further down this post, on the potential issue of tyramine intolerance).
Also consider that you may be intolerant of one or more of the foods you are eating. I know from personal experience that bananas, for example, can be a problem if one has dysbiosis, since they contain plenty of soluble fibre which can feed pathogenic bacteria in the gut (and your overall high-fructose diet can feed pathogenic bacteria, too). An elimination diet (no pun intended!) can be helpful in establishing what, if any, food(s) in one's diet might be contributing to the digestive system purging itself (diarrhea).
Also bear in mind that longterm diarrhea is potentially very dangerous - it can lead to electrolyte imbalance and (again from personal experience, albeit arising from a different cause than diarrhea) I can tell you that electrolyte imbalance is REALLY bad news, and I don't say that lightly. I'm glad you are consuming plenty of greens, but nonetheless, the rate of daily electrolyte excretion due to diarrhea can exceed the rate of daily electrolyte intake via fruits and vegetables, so please take this very seriously. You can't carry on with this longterm diarrhea without some serious potential consequences. I'm not saying that to worry you; I'm saying it to make you sit up and realise that you must get this situation under control soon, to avoid additional health consequences; don't allow it to drift on for longer.

I'm trying to get rid of acne, insomnia, neck stiffness, migraines (already gone, actually), veins under my eyes, etc

* I'm intrigued at your rundown of symptoms. As you may already realise, they are not 'just' symptoms - they are, potentially, extremely valuable clues.

I can't address every single one if them within this post (not least because it's 4am as I type this and I need sleep!), but I will make a couple of suggestions that may simultaneously answer more than one of them (and this is often a useful approach, since in circumstances where a patient is experiencing a cluster of symptoms, these rarely occur due to a '100%-seperate-cause-per-symptom').


..so what could possibly link together the above symptoms?

Well, in considering neck stiffness and migraines, for example, one could blandly point to a generalised need of the body to detox and/or to a generalised state of a body currently undergoing detox, and indeed, this may actually be the case.

But, to conclude this reply as briefly as I can(!), since I need sleep, I'll offer another possible suggestion. In offering the following suggestion, please note that I am in no way implying that I consider it to be conclusive or that it necessarily excludes other possible causes. It's merely one possible hypothesis of many. So, with that said, I'll be very brief:



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