Hello, my name is Jimmy, I am from New York City, about 3 years ago i decided to experiment with raw foods, and i felt the need to get feedback in this manner from others who have tried, ALL TOGETHER I WAS ON RAW FOODS FOR 6 MONTHS

I was always a very athletic person, I played football for 9 years, and at the time of my raw food transition I was very active with skateboarding on a daily basis, at first I was eating mostly vegetarian foods, a lot of mexican food, rice and beans, eggs, cheeses, then I started eating only fruits, I did this for a few months and lost a lot of weight, but was still very active and positive, then i went through a phase were I was eating barely anything at all, and only eating small amounts of fruit, I continued to lose weight, possibly too much weight, as I no longer was able to keep up with my daily activiities, mind you I was young, just finishing up highschool, and had no responsibilities at the time, I then became obsessed with eating the raw food diet, and I think it was a problem because I already depleted my nutrients down to barely anything, and then attempted going raw, so I found myself with a mental addiction to eating pure foods, a loss in pleasure of appetite, and it was not fun, about thius time i had been experimenting with the diet for a good 4 months, when I tried eating large amounts of vegetables and green foods I became VERY SICK, I couldnt stomach all of it, and I wasn't getting nearly enough calories from it for what my body needed, I FOUND MYSELF BITING MY OWN LIPS INVOLUNTARILY WHILE EATING, AS IF MY BODY WAS TELLING ME TO STOP EATING IN SUCH A MANNER I'm still stumped as to how anyone can survive on such a diet, I went through a self crisis and eventually stopped living in this manner,, but i feel all I have done is ruin my health, there is more to life than worrying about diet and all this nonsense, I mean some people can;t even afford to eat and here we are trying to purify our diets, I still am an advocate for vegetarianism, as I think it is very healthy and easy to maintain, has anybody else had similar experiences with this? my conclusion, I NO LONGER TRY TO CONTROL LIFE IN THIS WAY ANYMORE, I believe I had an eating disorder, possibly a variation of orthorexia nervosa, not only a mental condition, but a serious illness, as I was addicted to eating raw foods, that werent providing me with enough calories, i mean food should be enjoyable, am i right? thank you for taking the time to listen to what i had to say.

Oh, and all together i went from 190 pounds to 140 pounds, and nowadays I weigh 206 pounds, don't feel nearly as fit as I did in the past, I feel like my figure got very small for a while, and lost a lot of muscle mass I used to have, and I gained a lot of weight back on top of it, I am still very active, although after this happened I was hospitalized several times in a psychiatric facility, and have been medicated for quite some time, i believe this is very common, when one tried to better their health and takes it too far to extremes, i only hope my health improves to somewhere similar to how I have been in the past, because its really a drag feeling shitty all the time, and I don't want to have to regret this for the rest of my life

queensfilmer,

Are you familiar with Tom Billings writing? He was a raw foodist who had troubles and wrote a long article about the state of raw foodism observing a tendency to cling to an ideal at the expense of one's health.

This website defines a raw foodist as who eats 75% or more raw foods (see FAQS) where 75% is "good" and 100% is "better for some". The website "Articles" section has one that states "cooked foods are poison". That's enough to confuse and get a complex going right there, I mean is it alright to eat a diet of 25% poison? Personally I'd rather see cooked food as good and raw as better provided we can find quality raw food and it's not deficient in any way, which is not so easy... Otherwise, I'd have to agree with you that cooked food can be better.

If you'd like to try and salvage something from your experience I hope you keep posting. If you'd like to raise concerns that's all well and good.

Oh, in high school I played tackle and tight end just my senior year at 195 lbs. and am 188 today rebounding up from a thin 178 last spring, and am maintaining this on 75% raw nuts, seeds, roots, fruits, greens, seaweed and use salt and supplements like B12 and D.

..just checked our "articles" section and a Tom Billings article challenging the "cooked food is poison" notion is included. Billings considers the idea as misguided and breeding fear. Did someone remove the "Cooked Food Is Poison" article? Or maybe I imagined it.

It sounds like you developed an eating disorder, I wouldn't blame raw foods. What made you try raw foods? Were you eating only sweet fruits? What was a typical day like for you during this 6 month period? Food should be enjoyable but most importantly meet our nutritional needs.

I went through a somewhat similar experience when I was too restrictive with my raw food diet.

My apologies to all aspiring fruit-only fruitarians, but in my experience, a fruitarian diet is not healthy.

I think success on a raw food diet requires a willingness to consume an adequate variety of raw food groups and some knowledge about micronutrients. I've been doing this successfully for 23 years, but that doesn't include about a decade previously that I tried being a fruitarian and yo-yoed back and forth from one extreme to the other. What a nightmare! At one point, I was down to 70 pounds.

I don't know if an all-raw food vegan diet is right for everybody. Seems logical that it could be right for everybody, if we all knew how to do it the "right" way. But there's a lot of controversy about just what is the "right" way. And then again, one person might have somewhat different needs than another.

I can only say for certain that an all-raw food diet works very well for me, now that I'm doing it the "right" way for me, and I really have no reason to consider eating cooked food again (since it makes me feel awful).

In my opinion Jimmy, whatever diet you were following wasn't working for you, and it's good you changed it. Sounds like you're still not completely settled in your diet, but that's fairly normal in today's society. Glad you're still vegetarian, and I hope you can find a diet that works well for you. If possible, try to get active again. No matter what you eat, getting more exercise will help you tremendously.

As far as I'm concerned, the best part of being a raw food vegan, is the vegan part (B12 supplements included).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2010 08:57AM by suncloud.

queensfilmer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ........................... I then became
> obsessed with eating the raw food diet, and I
> think it was a problem because I already depleted
> my nutrients down to barely anything, and then
> attempted going raw, so I found myself with a
> mental addiction to eating pure foods, a loss in
> pleasure of appetite, and it was not fun, about
> thius time i had been experimenting with the diet
> for a good 4 months, when I tried eating large
> amounts of vegetables and green foods I became
> VERY SICK, I couldnt stomach all of it, and I
> wasn't getting nearly enough calories from it for
> what my body needed, I FOUND MYSELF BITING MY OWN
> LIPS INVOLUNTARILY WHILE EATING, AS IF MY BODY WAS
> TELLING ME TO STOP EATING IN SUCH A MANNER I'm
> still stumped as to how anyone can survive on such
> a diet, I went through a self crisis and
> eventually stopped living in this manner,, but i
> feel all I have done is ruin my health, there is
> more to life than worrying about diet and all this
> nonsense, I mean some people can;t even afford to
> eat and here we are trying to purify our diets, I
> still am an advocate for vegetarianism, as I think
> it is very healthy and easy to maintain, has
> anybody else had similar experiences with this? my
> conclusion, I NO LONGER TRY TO CONTROL LIFE IN
> THIS WAY ANYMORE, I believe I had an eating
> disorder, possibly a variation of orthorexia
> nervosa, not only a mental condition, but a
> serious illness, as I was addicted to eating raw
> foods, that werent providing me with enough
> calories...

queensfilmer,

After football season I trimmed down for the wrestling team in the 186 lb class and had almost no visible fat on my body. To quickly go down to 140 like you did would have amounted to starvation for me, burning off large amounts of protein not just from skeletal muscles but possibly from internal organs. As you know that's one of the potentially damaging aspects of starvation.

Going 4 months fruit-only, as you did, then for a time vegetable-only in the Purist fashion could mean swearing off nuts, seeds, and maybe seaweed and salt. Unless getting educated in fruit and veggie sources of calories and minerals, and unless willing and able to find and eat them, the Purist way could leave anyone deficient.

Fruits and veggies are entities unto themselves and were not put on this earth to meet our every nutritional need, the way I see it. The further we get from the sea, many say the origin of life, the more we need to be careful.

I'm agreeing with you, Jimmy



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2010 11:27AM by loeve.

Hi! I have had orth orexia before and mild anorexia. I have also tried and failed at a raw food diet. Here is what I have learnt:

Never TELL or FORCE yourself to eat a certain way. The healthy way to go about raw, is to simply try to have raw food whenever possible. If you really strongly feel like something else, like brown rice, a burrito, home made pizza, or a salad sandwich, HAVE IT! Just try to make your next meal a raw salad, or raw fruit.

It can be VERY DANGEROUS to get a picture in your head about what you think you NEED to do; use LOGIC: basic logic is, that unprocessed food is best. For instance, plain cooked brown rice, whole oats, plain quinoa, millet, amaranth, lentils, beans, among other cooked foods should be included when first going raw.

The reason you should include unprocessed cooked vegetarian options if you want to try raw again, is that it takes A LOT OF PRACTICE for most people to learn WHAT WORKS FOR THEM. I cannot STRESS ENOUGH that each individual with need to eat raw food in different ways! For instance, eating large amounts of raw fruit in one meal does not react well with some people. Too much raw fruit in general is not great for every one. Although some people who cannot tolerate large amounts of fruit in one sitting CAN tolerate it in smaller amounts, eaten more frequently.

Other examples of how there is no ONE IDEAL WAY to eat raw that works for every one, is that each person needs varying amounts and types of fats. Some people need 2 handful’s of nuts and seeds, where as some people need more, and some need less. Although, in my opinion, a LONG TERM FRUIT AND VEGETABLE ONLY DIET IS NOT HEALTHY.

Although a diet consisting of purely raw fruits and vegetables with little or NO fats is a way to cleanse or fast, it is not healthy, in my opinion, to do long term.

The BIGGEST thing I have leaned in my roughly 2 years raw, is that each person needs to include more than just raw fruits and vegetables, and THEY KEY TO SUCCESS for each person, is for them to find out exactly WHAT this extra food is… raw fruits, raw vegetables… and then what? Each person needs to be open to ANY possibility! It is dangerous to have a set idea in your head of what you THINK is best, because you will unconsciously try to reduce your options to what you THINK sounds best.

Eating a lot of raw food in its natural, un altered state is no doubt mans natural and optimal food. However, there are OTHER essential foods you need, and your job is to find out what it is that YOUR body needs. It may be some unprocessed grains, pulses, sweet potato, a large variety of raw nuts or seeds, OR……. Occasionally I personally believe that certain animal proteins, such as goats cheese, raw and cooked fish, and other things, and needed in small amounts.

Sorry this is long - but I really feel for you after the disordered eating you experienced, and felt compelled to tell you everything I have learned so far! I hope you come visit my journal too.