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From:	Slavic (static-host-24-149-190-200.patmedia.net)
Subject:	Danger of a raw food diet....
Date:	March 31, 2007 at 5:45 pm PST

Dear forum members,

I'd like to take some time to share with you my awful experience with the raw the food diet. Before I get into that let me just back track somewhat and talk about how I ended up eating it. I was basically raised eating junk food. I remember going to school with a bag of M&Ms and a Pepsi in hand. I loved sweets, especially chocolate. My diet consisted of mainly processed food items included soda, chips, cookies, white bread, lunch meats, etc. I also ate dairy and meat on a daily basis. And I was also skinny. I weighed 102 at 5'3. This way of eating continued to about age 18. At age 18 my interest in health and fitness was sparked. I believe this was due to two things. One, I had a family history of heart disease. My mom had a heart attack in her 30s and my dad around this time was undergoing triple bypass surgery at age 50. Both my parents suffered from high cholesterol and my dad had high blood pressure (by the way, I also had high cholesterol when I was a young boy). The second thing that attracted me to fitness was because I wanted to look good and have a well built physique. I was tired of being so thin and I had dreams of becoming huge. So I started working out and I cleaned up my diet. I started eating actual planned meals instead of random snacking on junk when I got hungry. At this time I ate a ton of lean meat, egg whites, fish, low or nonfat cheese, and lowfat dairy. I tried to eat whole foods and cut out as much processed food as possible though I ate sweets on occasion. I made some good gains in my size weighing in around 120 and still 5'3. Then after a visit to my doctor, I learned my cholestorol was high again. I really didn't want to take any chances with heart disease so I decided to become a vegetarian. I started reading a ton of diet-related material. Naturally I progressed to become a vegan, and ultimately a raw foodist.

I think like most people, the raw food diet made so much sense to me. It seemed like the most natural and healthiest diet one could eat. I followed the words of Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Peter Ragnar, Storm, Stephen Arlin and all those other famous advocates of raw food. I should also mention at this time I was also getting into spirituality and for some reason I thought that this way of eating would somehow get me closer to God, enlightenment, or whatever you want to call it. Anyway, I began my journey with raw foods. My diet consisted of a mix of fruit and nuts in the morning and some kind of huge salad combination for lunch and dinner with nuts/seeds etc. I also bought juicing equipment and I sprouted. I can't really remember how long I ate this way. It must have been over 6 months but under a year.

I didn't eat 100% raw but close to it. While I ate like this, I experienced A LOT of intestinal discomfort. Primarily after I ate fruit. I went through some pretty rough and painful times while on the diet. Sometimes the gas pains were so painful I couldn't even move and could hardly even breathe. For some stupid reason though, I ignored how I felt physically and just continued with raw foods. I thought maybe it's just some healing crisis my body was going through like so many raw foodists claimed would happen. I was so convinced that raw food was the HEALTHIEST DIET ON EARTH and that no matter how badly or sick I felt I continued eating raw food through that year long period. And I also felt extremely cold so often. After many painful days with my stomach I decided to give up fruit. I went on a similar diet to the one Dr. Gabriel Cousens reccomends in one his books, aka the Phase 1 plan. Basically it's just like veggies, oils, nuts, and seeds. I don't know what the hell raw food advocates are talking about when they say this food has fiber in it, but I was so constipated during this period, everytime I went to take a crap (which was not often, thank god) I felt like a watermelon was trying to pass through me. This is also the time when things started to get worse because I finally decided I should start eating carbs like rice, oatmeal, and cream of wheat for the fiber to relieve my constipation. To my surprise however, my stomach felt worse after eating those things. I was very frustrated at this point and at a loss as to what to do. Although I was already thin and looking unhealthy, I chose not to eat and even fasted for a day here and a day there because the pain was so bad from eating. At this time I had gone from a healthy looking 123lbs(when I was working out) to a very sickly, anorexic looking 93lbs. I couldn't bare the intestinal pain any more so I finally decided to throw all the nonsense and garbage of what I learned about raw foods out the window. I realized that my pain is coming from eating carbs. Which was weird because pre raw food I never had a problem like this. But this is how it was and I had to figure out what to do. By the way, I never liked going to the Dr. and I never went for this problem. I was determined I'd be able to heal myself eventually. So, I began eating all the foods I thought I would never eat again. I cut out ALL carbs and ate nothing but meat, cheese, eggs, fish, and milk. Mostly cheese, eggs, and milk though. I ate this way for a couple of weeks and had no discomfort with my stomach. However, I became severly constipated. And when I would eat carbs for the fiber I would again experience gas pain. I ate mostly a low/no carb diet and my stomach started feeling better. So I repeated this method. And then I could incorporate more carbs. And I would be less constipated if I ate more carbs. And slowly over the months the pain actaully went away. Now I eat a ton of carbs and I go to the bathroom very easily. I still experience gas pains.......but it's not even close to how it used to be. It took me about 6 months to recover from eating raw food. And I think I'm still recovering. Unfortuntely, during the period on raw foods I also developed eye floaters which are dark like strands that appear in my field of vision constantly. Although, I can't say 100% raw foods is responsible for my eye problem, I think it's very likely.

Here is my conclusion. The raw food diet may be great for some people, especially those who are on the heavier side. But it's definitely nowhere near a healthy diet for someone like me. And there's no way in hell I would ever consider eating that way again. That's why I like Ayurveda. By ayurvedic standards I'm considered a vata and raw foods and vata do not mix at all. I think there's an ayurvedic saying that goes something like this. "What is healthy for one man, can be another man's poison." So true.

Through a long period of trial and error, when it comes to raw food I was able to figure out the following:
1. Raw fruit, especially when poorly combined can create SO MUCH PAIN AND DISCOMFORT
2. Raw cruciferous veggies like broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts, etc. cause a hell of a lot of gas and discomfort
3. Oils, butter, or any high concentrated similar fat causes me to get extremely tired after I eat it
4. Blended fruit drinks cause me to get extremely tired after I drink them
5. Wheat grass tastes really bad
6. Sprouts taste really bad
7. Soaked nuts taste really bad
8. Soaked seeds taste really bad
9. Soaked grains are probably the nastiest things I've ever put in my mough (YUCK!)
10. Dried fruit is a dangerous food for me. When I ate it in excess it was extremely painful and caused a ton of trapped gas to accumulate
11. On raw foods I was cold all the time
12. Raw food is not healthy for me, and may not be for others
13. Raw foods will NEVER bring you an inch closer to God, Enlightenment, Nirvana or whatever you want to call it

Through a long period of trial and error, when it comes to cooked food I was able to figure out the following:
1. Milk, or any other dairy product for that matter has NEVER given me any type of problem. *
2. Meat, Fish, Fowl, and Eggs have never given me any problem *
3. Grains are ESSENTIAL to my intestinal health.
4. Certain beans when cooked porperly taste great, and are loaded with fiber which are great for me.
(* Only one problem with these foods and that's my sensitivity to cholestorol. I try to eat very little and I use them as condiments)

What I eat nowadays:
Carbs - Oatmeal, whole wheat cous cous and pasta, brown rice, sweet potatoes.
Protein - Beans, a little cheese, very little meat, fish on occasion (I also try not to have milk - that stuff is for baby calves!)
Fruit - None for now but I may include stewed fruit in the future. NO DRIED FRUIT IN MY LIFE EVER AGAIN!!!
Veggies - all steam cooked except for onions and scallions. I can also tolerate raw cucumbers and tomatoes but don't eat them now
Fats - No extra effort to include any fat. Maybe on occasion some ghee or extra virgin olive oil
Junk food - I still love my chocolate. I'm not obsessed with it or anything. If I feel like eating junk, I'll do it. However, I believe that junk should be limited or eaten not at all

So that's it. If I have any reason for posting this it's so that people don't just blindly follow others like I foolishly did. My suggestion is to listen to your body and if you decide to introduce something as drastic as raw foods, do it slowly and pay close attention to how your body reacts. Good luck.

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