Raw food people...

[HomeOnTheRanch]

I've been mostly vegetarian my whole life mostly vegan for the past few years. I just decided last night that I want to try going raw for a week or so.

 

My questions:

For those that have done this, what should my system expect for the first few days? I do eat quite a bit of raw food, so I'm hoping it won't be a drastic shock to my system.

 

What type of "results" should I expect?

 

How long should I try this out before I make a decision as to whether this is for me long term?

 

Any good resources? Since I'm just trying it out, I would like to find some good websites with free recipes.

 

I'm not planning on changing my family's diet at all...just me.

 

TIA!

[Sue G in PA]

as well as Jordan Rubin's books. He talks a lot about eating only whole foods that God intended for us to eat. In his book, The Maker's Diet, he describes what to expect from your system after switching to this diet. Good for you for your decision! Hope it goes well...I'm just not that disciplined yet although I have changed my diet drastically in the past few years!

[Lisa at Home]

And you are already vegan, and eat a lot of raw foods anyway, I don't think you'll have a hard time at all. I mean, I don't think you are going to have a major detox experience if you eat a relatively clean diet anyway. Hopefully you'll just feel really good, super clean, and more alert spiritually. Generally speaking, the more cooked foods one consumes, the more painful the process.

 

It's my opinion that six to twelve weeks would be a reasonable amount of time with which to judge how you're feeling. Of course, I am more apt to suggest you go for a full 12 weeks/90 days to really live raw through a few body cycles. Of course, the season of year at which you try this will affect you as well.

 

The commitment to do this for a longer time will also open up doors for you to take this further, as well. It just takes time to get into the swing of things; to learn, to obtain equipment, to experiment, to assess, to discover where your resources are.

 

As far as resources, just googling "raw food recipes" will keep you in recipes for a year!!! You may have some resources at your library, but who knows on that one. Gabriel Cousens' book Conscious Eating is about raw foods and so much more. He is one of the possible resources you might find at a library. He has recipes in that book as well. And of course, you can always post here!:)

 

If you are near a relatively decent sized city, you may be able to google and see if there is a "raw foods potluck" in your area. It's a great way to try new foods and talk to people who really eat this way, and ask one on one questions.

 

Best Wishes to you,

 

~Lisa

[Quiver0f10]

I stumbled across this a while back. There was a thread where people showed pics of their food and I was amazed!

 

http://www.rawfoodsupport.com/

 

Here is the thread with the pictures of raw food:

 

http://www.rawfoodsupport.com/read.php?2,74974

 

HTH!

[HomeOnTheRanch]

Thanks, everybody! Due to my other post this morning, I'll think I'll put this on hold. Although I'm sure such a diet is perfectly healthy, I don't want to try to juggle everything else while starting a whole new diet. Runny instant mashed potatoes has been a mainstay for me in first trimesters.:D

[momo4]

I did this for lent once. Over 40 days. I didn't notice any side effects. I was mostly raw and whole foods before starting too.

 

I beg you to read this web site if you are pregnant and thinking about doing a vegan, vegetarian or raw food diet. I was vegan for a year before I had my first and I regret that.

 

http://www.westonaprice.org/children/dietformothers.html

 

I think an all raw diet is a great way to detox for short time. I would include raw dairy in my raw diet now, but for the long run imo, I don't think it is healthy. I have tried lots of diets, but the healthiest I have found so far is the one in Nourishing Traditions.

 

My favorite raw food books are Rawsome Recipes by Robyn Boyd and The raw gourmet by nomi Shannon.

 

40 days was really hard. Unless I spent a long time preparing something, everything had about 3 different flavors.

[HomeOnTheRanch]

momo4...what were your regrets? My other 4 pregnancies were 100% vegetarian/mostly vegan and there were no problems whatsoever. I don't want to get into a debate about it, I'm just curious why you have regrets.

[Maria/ME]

Before I post more, I wanted to just speak to the pregnancy/raw issue. Many women have done this successfully. Check out The Garden Diet in particular Jinjee has an ebook on raw pregnancy and lots of info on her children, most of which have been raw since they were embryos.

 

I have a few sites/books for you to check out. I have found, by far, the most helpful site has been Alissa Cohen's. Her forum, raw food talk, is friendly, happy place. I would suggest searching there for any questions you may have and then posting if you can't find anything. Lot's of people willing to help and support.

 

When I first started this particular raw journey I did it little by little. I started with natalia Roses first book, which didn't advocate going 100% raw right away. That transition worked nicely for me. I suffered no ill side effects beyond a little "D" word cleansing. Before I went raw I was in all sorts of major physical/mental pain. It's a long story and I would be happy to PM you or even post more if you are interested...but more pertinent are some more sites for you to take a look at.

 

Some other raw guru's I have found very helpful are the Boutenko family. Any of their books (along with Natalia and Alissa's above) are very helpful. I haven't researched Hallelujah Acres alot, but they have some great stuff on their site. My brother is more into Doug Graham and his philosophies, but I tend to find that a bit more extreme. Eating all raw sounds as extreme as you might get, dietary speaking, but in the raw community you will find, various extremes. Just as in the homeschool community, right!? :)There are some raw fooders you'll read about/hear and think "This is insane" and others you'll agree with wholeheartedly.

 

A book I whole heartedly recommend is The Live Food Factor. I consider it the Bible of raw food eating. It can be extreme, but not pushy. Very thorough. Answers a lot of questions you may have.

 

I was 100% raw for three months. It had amazing effects and I can't say enough good about this way of life. I don't believe in going back and forth on and off as a way to detox, but if you do that and nothing else I would say its still beneficial. (Do as I say and not as I do) Since leaving 100% raw I have slid from 90, 80, 75 and on down the scale...I notice a swing for the worst in my health and general well being. My dh and I were just talking about starting back to raw in March.

 

Considering how you are eating now, I can't imagine you will have adverse effects going to a raw diet. I never suffered from anything major, although there are various detox stories out there. I think that you find those extremes of detox in people who are eating an intensely SAD (Standard American Diet) and then swing to 100% raw really fast.

 

I have a bazillion more blogs and websites relating to raw if you are interested, let me know. Okay, maybe not a bazillion. Maybe more like another ten or so.

 

I hope whatever you choose to do works well for you!

 

P.S. Speaking to the "three flavors" factor mentioned above. I agree, yet disagree. The hard part at first of this diet is the prep time involved. You are really thinking about food in terms of what to have, planning ahead for taking food with you and so forth. You are missing your typical diet, too. But long term (for me about 60 days into the diet) I started to feel amazing and my taste buds changed. I started to notice the subtleties in what I was eating, textures and flavors I didn't' realize were there before. And pretty soon, an apple, a few grapes or almonds just tastes so dang good and you don't crave any more. Then it's easy. Really easy. There are a bazillion (and I"m not exaggerating this time) recipes out there for raw foods. Recipes that mimic things you miss. Recipes that shake up the taste buds and offer variety and change. In the end, when sticking to this diet you won't really need all those, but it's great to have options to start with. Just plan on more prep time. You've got to rethink all those 'quick' hot food recipes from before. Like it's so easy to pop a pizza in the oven, grab some spaghetti and sauce or quinoa/rice...whatever, but you won't have those habits/traditions to fall back on...so ya, at first it can seem boring. But no more boring and difficult than any other diet I've tried over the years and this actually WORKS.

 

P.S.S. Okay, okay I'll shut up after this I promise. But here is an example of what I am talking about. I LOVE choc. chip cookie dough. Addicted since I was eight. Really. I make dough just to eat the dough. About 2 months into this diet I decided to make some cookies as a treat for my daughter who was missing them. I made the dough and had a bite. I spit it out immediately! It felt hot, made my mouth water and felt really sore. For up to an hour aftewards. I kept trying to rinse my mouth but I could not rid it of that sweet/burning taste. I went to my husband and said "I thought I did everything right in this recipe but I ruined it somewhere along the line." He volunteered to taste it. He said it was the same as it's always been. It tasted fine to him.