new raw vegan, digestive problem, confused -help please :)

[netsriksoccer]

hey everyone....I am new to the raw food thing...let me give you a little background: I was vegetarian (ate seafood though) and ate pretty healthy my whole life until this past summer...i started eating meat and not the healthiest foods were served at camp....had a weight gain and just felt really aweful...i've had bad digestion problems and health issues almost my whole life but they got really really bad this summer....so i decided to do anti-flammatory diet then to vegan and now to raw vegan...been almost all raw for about 2 weeks....i am a college athlete so i have been having difficulty getting enough food or at least i think (it seems as if i am eating all the time but am still hungary) and I am still having bad digestion problems....a lot of raw foods i dont eat because they wont digest like broccoli, onions, cauliflower, corn, legumes....i am confused on what kinds of food i should be eating. What should i be eating more of fruits or vegetables? I eat a lot of dried fruit, nuts, and seeds...but now i've been reading on this forum that raw nuts aren't good...if i need to sprout them, how do i do that....are dried fruits good...just a little confused on everything - been reading a lot of material on the internet but there seems to be conflicting reports on some stuff....does anyone know of any good books on explaining everything about raw vegan and enzymes and so forth (I really want to understand everything - just dont want to know how to do it)....I really want to go 100% raw vegan but it is difficult with being in college, trying to hang with friends, and still be having health problems....any help will be highly appreciated...thanks

[SnowBunny]

Wow that's a loaded paragraph!!

First off, you're not going to find A book or several really that will help you "understand everything". After I started eating raw for a while I was able to tell which things I needed to eat more of and especially what to stay away from. Most of what I've read is to eat more veg than fruit, but there are some sources that are contradictory. I know that when I eat more fruit than veg, I get bloated and have cramping. I try to eat lots of greens during the day with other veggies, some fruit and some nuts and seeds.

The still feeling hungry thing... switching from eating too much fruit and eating lots more greens helped and what really helps is making sure I get enough fats. I take a shot of Udo's oil almost everyday. It stops me from feeling famished when I've been eating constantly.

Also, since you've only been raw two weeks, your 'hunger' may be that you're really just missing that full feeling when you used to eat cooked foods. It took me a while to get over that. You could also not be drinking enough water??

Digestion issues... When I started I ate a lot of dried fruit and nuts and seeds and it gave me digestion issues also. I've been told to stay away from dried fruit for the most part. It's sugary and you end up eating way too much because you don't get full. I would eat 20 dried plums easy, when I would only eat 2-3 full plums. So switch to adding more greens and check to see how you feel after. Next time you eat a lot of dried fruit and nuts and seeds, see how you're feeling over the next couple hours after eating them. And then you will be able to tell whats giving you the issues. (again that udo's oil helped me cut back on over eating nuts and dried fruit)

As far as hanging out with friends, they probably know about your health problems. Being raw may be the butt of jokes for a little while, but not when they start to see you feeling so much better. My friends will still say something every now and then... make a joke and ask if I'm still doing the "raw thing" and when I tell them yes, they always commend me on sticking to it and then they go on about how sick they are or how they could never give up alfredo sauce or whatever.

I hope this helps. I'm sure Greenbunny will be on later and reply. She's always got great advise

[greenbunny]

Ah shucks Snowbunny Thanks for the kudos.

Snowbunny is absolutely right. That post was a mouthful. You want to know everything instantly and get going immediately and feel completely new as soon as you can. I can relate to that feeling. You are filled with hope and excitement. As the old one here I am the self-appointed moderator of youthful overexuberance.

My first question is: What exactly are your digestive problems, what is the more detailed history of said problems and what has your diet been up to this point in more detail? Your general statements aren't really enough to go on.

Let's slow down and approach this new thing you are attempting logically. How are you going to know what is affecting you if you change everything all at once? You have going from one radical change to the next it seems. Please give more details about each change and how it affected you. When you say you are an athlete, why kind of sports are you involved in? How many hours a day do you workout?

I will tell you the one thing that I feel is absolutely certain about all diets no matter what anyone tries to sell you. Not any one diet is best for all people and each person has absolutely individual needs and those needs will change even for that individual over time. The only way to go about this is to use a mixture of your common sense and sensitivity to your body and how it is reacting to what you put into it or are not putting into it.

So let's hear where you are coming from before trying to understand how what you are doing might be affecting you.

Please outline what your diet was and how you felt and what you changed and how you are feeling differently now.

There is only so much anyone can determine even when living in the body that is affected let alone over the internet, but let's give it a shot. Let's try to figure out a way for you to transition while staying as strong and balanced for school as you can be at the same time.

In terms of the social aspect, Snowbunny hit it square on the head. People will only look up to you for sticking to what is good for you. That is the norm. You will get mostly admiration. If there are a couple of sour apples, you don't need people like that in your dorm room. I will take that one step further. You are your closest friend, you share a body with yourself, and you owe it to your best friend to stand up for him no matter who tries to dissuade him away from doing what is best for him. If there is not one other person in the world on your side, you be on your side.

Greenbunny

[netsriksoccer]

Thanks so much for the replies ?? really appreciate you all taking the time and sorry about the loaded paragraph.
Since the last post ?? I have been feeling better
Well here is some more detailed history (hope it is not too detailed)

Health Problems:
-Starting probably around 8th or 9th grade I would have these spells where I would break out into really bad sweats and then almost past out (everything go blurry and so forth). The spells seemed to occur more frequently in high humidity.
-Through a lot of high school (the worst in 10th grade) I had trouble w/my hair falling out pretty badly.
-I normally was pale in the face ?? white as a ghost some would say.
-Normally I was nauseated.
-Very abnormal menstrual cycle (go 7 months sometimes without having one)
-Oh and I had problems with weight gain even though I was very active.
- August of 2006, Drs figured out that I have a thyroid problem (runs in the family line). Treating it with Kelp and Barley Green It has been a little over a year and I have been doing much better ?? no more hair loss and barely ever have the passing out spells. I still have a problem with gaining weight, abnormal menstrual cycle, paleness (not as often though), and nausea.

Digestive problems are known to run in my family. Towards the end of my grandfather ??s life he basically could only eat baby food (still had troubles digesting). I figure with me still be only 19 I may be able to straighten it out before it gets that bad through going raw. When I eat, especially foods harder to digest, I will have different symptoms of bad digestion:
-gas and bloating
-headaches
-nausea
-stomach pains
-constipation (haven ??t been having much problems with this since I have gone raw )

Now for my entire life I was a vegetarian (ate seafood though). My diet consisted of a lot of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seafood, eggs, and grains. Did get into junk sometimes.
In high school I did tend to eat pretty bad (deserts and dairy) when soccer was not in season (summer and part of winter). Summer of 2005, I introduced a lot more grains into my diet which made me feel worse and gain weight.
Then August 2006 I went off to college. The food was mainly fried and lots of grains. They have a salad bar but no dark greens. Ended up eating pretty badly - lots of dairy (didn ??t have a lot of it before), on the go food, grains and fried food. During exam weeks I ate awful. Didnt feel to good.
May 2007 I introduced chicken into my diet.
June 2007 I began to eat red meat. The meat did not digest well at all. All summer I ate a lot of meat, grains and desert. Towards the end of the summer I felt a lot worse than before when I didn ??t eat meat and a lot of grains.
In the beginning of August after camp, I started an anti-inflammatory diet which consisted of fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, chicken, and red meat (I tended not to eat too much of this). I followed this strictly. (I felt tons better cutting out the grains, gluten, legumes, and sugar) Towards the end of August I cut out chicken, seafood, and meat. After cutting out meat, constipation was not as bad. This basically left me with the salad bar, fruits, and cooked vegetables at college. Then I decided to go raw about 2 weeks ago.
My diet now:
-Breakfast: a plate of honeydew and cantaloupe, a little bowl of strawberries or grapes, a couple slices of watermelon (normally), and a piece of fruit (banana, plum, pluot, or red delicious apple)
-Lunch: a plate and little bowl of salad (no dark greens ?? college don ??t have them), a little bowl of cucumbers, sometimes a little bowl of tomatoes, a green bell pepper, sometimes carrots, and an apple or banana
-Dinner: Same as lunch
-Snacks: (One between each of these meals) ?? a piece or two of bananas, apples, nectarines, kiwis, or carrots; raw nuts (almonds, pecans, and pine nuts); and dried fruit (prunes, raisins, pears, nectarines, apricots, dates, papaya and apples).
After reading the thread that greenbunny posted on raw nut, I have stopped eating them. I am in the process of trying to sprout them. Also I am trying to cut down on the dried fruits due to snowbunny ??s advice.

I tend to workout at least 2 hrs a day but a lot of times 4hrs a day. This should be increasing, though, to about 6 hrs a day in the next couple weeks. I play soccer and tennis for college.

Since I have done the transitions to raw:
-I have lost a lot of weight but my stomach is normally bloated and I have awful gas after I eat anything.
-I still get headaches frequently
-I tend to be more sleepy (My sleep is more solid now, though)
-Nauseated sometimes
-Still have abnormal menstrual cycles
-At first during soccer practice I did not have a lot of energy and felt weak at times but now that is going much better. I actually was able to go on one of my long runs on Friday and felt great ??.woohoo

Sorry about the length, I really appreciate the help

Thanks

[rawhippie]

hey soccer girl, another reason to stay away from dried fruits is they are cooked. what you normally get in the store is heated over the cooking temperature unless otherwise noted, which it usually isn't because most companies don't sell living dried foods. you would have to dehydrate yourself....don't think that is a possibility for you being in college and all.

you sound like you've got a good head on your shoulders, you are quite (seemingly) aware of what foods make you feel what way...very impressive for a college student. i commend you on this awareness. i went from eating all crap all the time my whole life to eating raw....it took me probably six months to really start "hearing" my body and realizing its' needs.

i wouldn't go so far as to say nuts are BAD for you, don't forget, this is a chat forum where opinions fly, and that's okay, but don't take everything as final. this raw journey is different for all of us. my experiences over the last two years are quite different than yours, you were a healthy your whole life before finding this, it's just the next step towards optimal health. i started out much different.

everyBODY is different and it will let you know what it wants. the human body is probably the single most perfect thing on this planet. it can stand up to most of what we throw at it, yet when we let it, can be very informative to patient/quiet listeners. the only way to "learn it all" is to keep reading...here, and other places...especially books, lots of books. and not just raw books, other health related books, take a look at the debates i've recently been getting into with GB, those come from various points of interest, and various avenues of research, it all ties back in together at some point.

you sound like you know what you need to do and how to do it, trust your body, she knows what to do for you

peace
hippie

[greenbunny]

Wow, you seem to have had some very serious challenges since you were quite young. It's really great that someone turned you on to kelp. If you can eat many different seaweeds. There are things in kelp that aren't good for you if you eat a bunch but that are mitigated by eating other seaweeds with it.

Rawhippie is so right on about listening to your body! It does take practice, but if you let your body know that you are listening she will begin to talk to you so loudly that you won't be able to help but know what right for you.

It's true that dried fruit is usually cooked and often has some very serious preservatives on them. If you can get the whole fruit that would be better. Do yourself a favor if you can with your tummy problems - try to let your fruit get closer to room temperature before eating it. The same goes for your salad if possible.

As far as nuts go - they are notorious for being hard to digest when cooked and almost impossible if not soaked for most people that I have known. Soaking is the ticket - especially since you are going to need some protein with all that exercise that you do.

It sounds like your number one problem is that you have a hormonal imbalance because of your thyroid. That's tough. That will effect every part of your body. Since you are having trouble with gaining weight and not losing it I am assuming that you have hypothyroidism - your thyroid is underactive.

Let me just throw out an idea to you that you can do what you will with. The thyroid is located right under the throat and is associated with the throat chakra (energy center). The color associated with this center is blue. The action associated with it is expression your true self through your word .... speaking your mind and your feelings. It is associated with stuffing away your true feeling, stuffing down tears, not expressing your creative side fully and not giving voice to your true needs.

There is an exercise where you tap on your thyroid with your fingers. If you do this periodically all day it is said to stimulate your thyroid glad.

There is a more esoteric exercise whereby you imagine healing light all around your throat and your thyroid. You see in your mind's eye your thyroid getting strong and functioning fully. The color light that you would imagine around your throat would be blue or white. You might even wish to wear a blue or white scarf or piece of jewelry - like a crystal right over your thyroid. This would remind you to send that color to that place. You might want to Google the thyroid and make sure that you know what it looks like and where it is. You might even want to ask your thyroid what it is trying to express to you. This might sound really weird but it can really work.... especially if done right before you go to sleep. You ask your thyroid and your subconscious what they are trying to express to you and ask that you have a dream about it and then watch your dreams carefully. You might want to keep a piece of paper and pen by your bed.

This could be a powerful exercise for you. Be prepared that you might have some kind of reaction. If strong feelings or reactions come up it's ok. You are asking to be shown what is in there.

The fact that you are not menstruating also has to do with having a hormone imbalance. Your hormones are what make all that female cycling happen. That is another whole set of associations, but it sounds like your primary place of road block is your thyroid.

Let me say that with a thyroid imbalance it is going to be quite hard to say what is affecting you how. A thyroid imbalance can affect so many systems that it would be very hard to say that one thing or another is best for you or one thing in particular would be detrimental or beneficial.

Raw hippie is really right. Getting to know your own body, what it is telling you and what it needs is the way to go.

Here are some simple and nutritive things you might try:
Peppermint tea. Oh so soothing to the tummy.
Oh, I'm so tempted to give you more powerful herbs to balance the female hormones - but you really should have an herbalist watching after you if you take them.... so I won't.
Raw chocolate (cacao) is great for hormone balancing and is very gentle and filled with nutrtion.

You know, I'm a little concerned with that salad bar you've been eating at. Would you do me a favor and ask them if they spray anything on those greens and vegetables to keep them fresh. Many salad bars do. You might be sensitive to such things.

Have you ever had yourself tested for food allergies? Just curious.

With eating so much salad and veggies do you eat celtic sea salt? That's usually pretty important when eating so much vegetable matter. It also is important for you to be able to absorb water into your cells. Do you drink a lot of water?

I'd love to see you drinking juice and smoothies to make sure you are actually getting some nutrition. It doesn't sound like your digestive tract has been working very well for many years. That might be hard for you at school though. Maybe just a little portable juicer?

I'm concerned about your bloating and naussea. Did you have this before going raw or only afterward. I'm a bit confused here.

How about those passing out spells. Are those all over and done with????

If you are bloating and nasseaus since going raw I would question so much salad. That's a great deal of fiber increase. If it was just after you went raw you might want to experiment with eating some steamed veggies to see how they do for you. Your digestive fire might need to be increased a little before being able to handle two salads a day.

This is all just ideas and thoughts. I'm not a doctor and haven't even seen you. I hope that perhaps some of these thoughts strike a bell and are of use to you. Will you please keep us posted as to how you do.

Greenbunny

[netsriksoccer]

Thanks for the advice I am definitely going to give it all a try.

I checked on the salad bar at the cafeteria and they don ??t spray anything on it.

No, I have not gotten myself tested for food allergies. I do know that I am slightly allergic to peanuts and dairy. I don ??t eat them too often because they mess with my breathing.

I haven ??t been eating celtic sea salt but I will definitely go buy some the next time I get a ride to the store. Now, should I be eating a lot of this or just a little on top of my food?

I do drink a lot of water ?? at least a gallon of water a day plus the water I drink at practices and meals.

My Mom is sending me my smoothie maker from home. She also may bring me her old juicer in a few weeks when she comes up to visit...at least I am hoping. I am so excited ?? I love smoothies

I have had the bloating and nausea for a long time, way before going raw. The only time my stomach is normally not bloated is when I wake up but once I eat, it is bloated again. It is getting a little better, now that I only eat soaked nuts and cut out the dried fruit. Oh, and today I tried drinking a glass of water with lemon and apple cider vinegar before my meal and it helped a whole lot with digestion

The last bad passing out spell I had was in the spring of 2007. Sometimes they will still start to come on but if I get a cold glass of water and normally sit down or go to sleep they pass.

If I was going to eat raw cacao beans, do I need to sprout them? Is it better to buy the whole bean or the powdered?

Thanks so much ?? it is so helpful being able to get on here and ask questions and share thoughts