curious about raw foodism - Raw Food Chat

pixie5dust7 · 12-23-2007

I have a friend who is thinking about becoming a raw foodist and after reading a little about it I think I want to try it too. I'm really excited to dive right in but have a few concerns concerning health, convenience & cost.

I'd love to hear from someone who has made the transition and see how to make it safely without shocking my body too much. I'm a college student and I am very busy with lots of organizations & schoolwork so I don't have much time or money to prepare a lot of these in depth recipes. I figure I'll eat a majority of salads with a variety of ingredients. I'm mostly here to hear from people who've had different experiences with raw foodism so yeah, shoot me an e-mail. I'd love to hear from you!

Double Helix · 12-24-2007

I read a great quote the other day about transitioning. The person asked about how fast or slow he should transition and the response was:

Quote:

"As fast as possible and as slow as necessary".

To me that makes perfect sense! Just go 100% and see how you do. This is food, not pharmaceuticals, so there's no need to be "careful" unless you have severe allergies or reactions to fruits and vegetables. Funny how people want to transition slowly to raw, but they'll binge on toxic food or drink or take prescribed drugs without caution. Not saying *you* do, but many people do.

Also, you will get the fastest and most satisfying results from going all raw at once, than doing it slowly.

If it doesn't work for you or you have cravings or detox, you can always slow it down.

nothinkingbehind · 12-29-2007

Great quote, DH, it makes perfect sense!

I found that for me, it varies by the day. Some days i am great with lots of raw, other days i am not. As long as I am eating food that i know is good for me, with lots of nutrition and no empty calories, I eat cooked food. I found that I quickly craved raw foods, and it is probably 50% of my daily diet on average.

As far as cost and convenience, don't bother with anything too crazy. Eat salads and fruits, along with some soaked nuts and seeds. I find that I feel healthier on the days that I incorporate superfoods, which are a little expensive but per serving aren't bad.

Good luck, and keep us posted!

Melissa

RawFoodGrl · 12-30-2007

I know a lot of people who have had fabulous ongoing success by slowing transitioning, and not trying to go 100%. I think it depends on you and how you respond.

I tried to go 100% raw and had a severe reaction, so I took my time to learn more about it and what I needed to do for my specific biology.

In the meantime, while I was eating cooked vegan meals, I would try to ALWAYS have a raw salad with it, and try raw food recipes every week or so. I figured that way my body would get used to raw, I'd have time to learn, and have a bunch of recipes to turn to as well.

I also know several people who are successfully 90-100% raw doing salads and smoothies (and blended soups). Nothing fancy at all, things you can quickly do with just a blender and a knife.

I would recommend looking up smoothie, green smoothie, soup and salad recipes, as well as different salad dressings just so you can have a variety and keep things interesting.

I would also strongly recommend adding superfoods, things like maca, goji berries, raw cacao, as well as blended superfoods like Pure Synergy. I discovered I REALLY needed to have that daily for several weeks before my body could handle a more than 50% raw diet. I still have them nearly daily, and cannot imagine trying to function without them.

Another thing I found for me is I need quite a bit of protien, so I did better once I added more seeds, nuts, hemp powder and things like that.

Everybody's body really is different and can handle different foods and different amounts of food. Part of the journey is finding out what works for you, reading, learning and asking questions.