Weak Digestion?

[Pauvro]

Greetings,

I've been eating mainly Raw for the past 3-4 months. At first it was very easy, and exciting! It's still exciting, but I've found that lately, I've slipped more and more, or been overeatting a lot as well. I'm dealing with that and it's not going to be a problem anymore, but what I'm wanting to know is this. Lately I've had really odd digestion. My stomach has been grumbly, and well, my bowel movements are never hard, or compacted, they are more smoothie like, more...nut buttery like. It's not that I really consume those things, I just feel that my digestion is very weak or something. Intuitively I'm getting the signal to start taking lots of my probiotics, but I'm wondering what any of you might suggest for really rebuilding up digestive fire, if that's what this sounds like, or what your opinons may be on what's going on with me, any help is appreciated.

Namaste,
Pauvro

[The Vej]

uh.....I don't know what to tell you. Stick with it. It'll get better.

[newbie]

hmmm?...okay ... so what are you eating / putting in that's raw?

lotsa different ways to be 'raw'

more info may help someone here give ya more advice from their experiences...

Other than the described consistency What about:

frequency, consistency, color, any discomfort, odd odors

Good luck

[greenbunny]

According to chinese medicine the symptoms that you are experiencing, according to my amateur investigations, would be natural eating all raw. I have found that the same thing happens to me if on raw long enough but can be countered by a couple of things. Firstly, fruit and vegetables are considered very yin and cooling and foods eaten cold are also considered cooling. I take my food out of the refrigerator and let it warm up for about an hour before eating it and that helps a great deal. Cold fruit seems to be the worst culprite for me since it is the most yin food eaten and if it is chilled then it is off the chart yin. Another thing that I do is drink ginger tea. It is very warming, is the best digestive herb I've ever found and it definitely heats up the digestive fire. Cayenne pepper is another great herb to help bring digestive fire and circulation to the digestive tract. I love to put it on avocado. You can take it in a pill form called "cool cayenne" if it's too hot for you. Another thing that you can do is eat some warm foods. Soups slightly warmed and food right out of the dehydrator or food placed in the sun or fruit with hot water run over it. That helps me a lot. The two most important things are not to eat cold food and to get some ginger tea. My favorite ginger tea is by the yogi tea company and is called ginger tea but has under it "digestive aid".

Hope that helps!
Greenbunny

[passionforliving]

Nothing I could add would improve Bunny's advice. Makes perfect sense.

Juliano's recipes add garlic, cayenne, (he uses jalapeno, but cayenne would do) and ginger to every dish - reportedly to add a sense of "heat" to these cold foods. As these herbs also improve digestion, Juliano might have been forward-thinking enough to realize the digestive benefits. Might try adding the herbs right to the food, as Juliano does, instead of as a tea, or a capsule, etc. (Asians do, Natives of India, etc. many cultures use herbs in the food that also improve digestion.)

Have fun with your food!

[greenbunny]

Great suggestion Passion to add the herbs to foods.

May I just add that if you are in an active digestive attack from too much yin food (cold, fruit etc.) often the heat of the tea is also helpful in heating up the digestion.

Tea also has the added side benefit of going through the body quickly and helping right away. Nothing can be better than a cup of ginger tea when you have an upset tummy.

I also thought of another very yang and fabulous food. Non-pasteurized miso broth. Wow, is that tasty and grounding. In warm/hot water it can settle me and make me strong like nothing else when I'm "yinning out". If you have mucous ginger and miso are miracles. It's almost like they evaporate mucous on contact.

I used to put fresh ginger in milk when a teenager. I wonder what ginger would be like in fresh raw goat's milk.

greenbunny