I've been raw for about two years and all of a sudden I'm retaining water. I noticed it slightly in my calves about a week ago, but it didn't really seem like anything. Then this weekend my hands/fingers felt tight. Now, however, my calves and feet (particularly my left leg) are tight, swollen, and uncomfortable.

I don't think I'm eating anything different. I've been trying to see if it's something I've increased or decreased, but it doesn't seem to be. The only thing that has changed is that it has been extremely humid and hot for a few days, during which I've been more active than normal, and I've been drinking a lot more water than I normally drink.

Any advice? I don't want to just mask the problem...I'd love to figure out why this is happening. But, I'd also like advice on how to eliminate the fluid retention so that I'm more comfortable.

Lots of love to all of you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

My hands swell during hot/humid weather. I've always been sensitive to heat that way. The only things that help me with heat-edema is to drink lots of water to keep flushing out my system and skin brushing before a shower (and, of course, staying cool!)

If it is wter you have increased check out just what might be in the water. Is it from the sink or filtered or bottled???? I hope you find out, keep us posted

Are you getting more chemical salt now ?

rawtastic, I never had a problem from heat before like this. :-/ I'm going to keep an eye on it to see if it comes from the heat. So far, today, all is fine.

pampam, I am pretty sure it's not from the water source. We have a whole-house filter, and I also use an additional countertop filter for drinking water for double filtered/cleaner water. I'd rather go thirsty than drink tap water that hasn't been filtered. :-P

ezrider, I've been trying to think about my sodium intake. I use pink salt and nama shoyu, but I don't think I've had an excessive amount of either (not more than usual) in the past few days. Maybe the sodium coupled with the unusual heat and humidity together made me retain the water, however?

I have a group of raw food friends on Twitter (let me know if you are there, so I can add you to my friends list), and I posted my question there, as well. One friend recommended moving around a lot. So, I did about 20 minutes on the rebounder and that made a huge difference. I also elevated my feet for the rest of the evening.

So far this morning, I don't have much of a problem. My feet aren't looking all plump and strange anymore! It was so weird to look down and see such fat feet and toes again, after going down 90 pounds! They were my *old* feet and the discomfort and swelling was like I used to feel and look all the time. My husband joked I was detoxing the memories of my bloated body, or something. LOL

I'm going to keep a close eye on this, because I don't want it to continue happening. So, if there is any more advice, I'd much appreciate it.

Lots of love to all of you!

Wendi
XOXOXO

I suffer from edema in hot weather as well. Sometimes if your body is fighting an infection this can happen. As far as remedies, although you don't want to use it on regular basis but herbs like uva ursi, dandelion and parsley are excellent diuretics and will help getting rid of some of the fluids. Also rebounding helps with the lymph fluid flow in the body and the overall circulatory system in the body.

The above posts are spot on. If you are still consuming processed foods, salts and chemicals, then you will perhaps have to deal with occasional bouts of illness, edema, allergies or swelling. If this is a concen to you, you can try eating simpler, mono-eating, or light fasting until your condition resolves itself. Just some tips.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Thanks, David.

I'm not eating chemicals (I'm 100% organic) and the only processing I do is in the food processor and Vitamix. :-P I do, however, consume pink salt (at least once a day) and some nama shoyu (a few times a week). It just seemed strange to all of a sudden be experiencing the edema when the only thing that changed that I could tell was the temperature and my water intake.

Today I am eating simply--I did mono of bananas for breakfast, and for the rest of the day it will be equally simple with no salt at all. The weather is a lot nicer today, so I won't know if I'm doing better because of the simpler eating or the temperature/humidity (or a combination).

The rebounding really helped a lot last night. I'm going to make it a habit of doing about 20 minutes each evening.

Thanks, again.

Lots of love to you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

Wendi,

Try cutting out all salts and products that contain salt and see if that makes the edema go away. It make take a few weeks for your body to completely flush the salt out of your body.

I wish I would have check here, before I called the holistic doctor and left a message for her. I had no idea it could take a few weeks to flush out the salt.

Bryan, yesterday I ate very simply and consumed no salt or fat (which also meant no garlic or onions, since I like them with salt and fat). I did great and had no swelling. Today I've eaten relatively simple, but with my salad I chopped up a bunch of fresh herbs from the garden (chives, oregano, sage) and ate the salad with those and lemon juice. I didn't add any oil, but I did add some organic hemp seeds (about 2 Tablespoons). The salad also had some celery in it. Now, my legs and feet are getting plump and feeling a bit tight, again. Also, yesterday the weather was nice again, but today it's getting hot and a bit humid once more.

Do you think the retention today is because my body still hasn't gotten rid of the stored salt, or was it from something in my salad? For the rest of the day, so far, I've only had fruit. I just don't understand why all of a sudden I'm experiencing a problem with fluid retention. I was a bit concerned it was related to my heart (moderate mitral valve regurgitation), but I don't seem to have any other symptoms like shortness of breath.

Any more advice is greatly appreciated. I have a call in with my holistic doctor. I didn't get my bloodwork done, yet, even though I have the script to do it--maybe she'll want to add something to because of this edema.

Thanks for your response.

Lots of love to you!

Wendi
XOXOXO

Wendi,

The longer you stay on the raw diet, the more energy your body has for detoxification. Also, this means that your body becomes less and less tolerant of thing it used to accept.

So it could be that your body is removing old salt from your body. I would play with no salt for 3 months and see how your body is doing. Also, it could be that the herbs in your salad are affecting your health. For myself, I can no longer eat oregano or sage, though in the past they were fine for me. The strongest herb I can eat nowadays is cilantro.

Wow, Bryan. Maybe it *is* the herbs, then! Before I had the major problem the day before yesterday, I had eaten a cauliflower salad with over a cup of spearmint, a bunch of loveage, some cilantro, and something else that I'm not remembering. It tasted divine, but I forgot about eating all those herbs until you just mentioned about not tolerating herbs.

Yesterday, when there was no swelling, I didn't have any herbs at all. Then today, I had a good portion (not as big as the other day) and the swelling is back. I haven't had any salt, now, for two days (other than what's natural in celery).

I'm going to experiment a bit to see what happens with the herbs and salt. Thanks for your comments! Honestly, as much as I love herbs, I think I'd rather give them up than the pink salt. *sighs* I know sometime in the future I'll be even cleaner with my diet, but right now I don't want to give up the salts. However, if they are what's causing this edema, then I'll surely listen to my body.

Thanks so much, Bryan. *HUGS*

Lots of love to you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

Bryan,

The holistic doctor called me back and she said that she's sending another script for me to get further thyroid testing done. She's been wanting me to go on thyroid meds for low thyroid, but I think the raw food will eventually correct everything and I have refused. It turns out that low thyroid can cause the retention, as well as countless other things.

I'm still sticking with the simpler eating--no fats or salts, or herbs--and I'm also eliminating garlic (since I'm a bit sensitive to it, anyway). My tongue has been coated for two days from eating no fats, salts, or garlic. I'm really desiring the heavier feeling of the fats and the taste of the salt, but so far I'm doing okay. I've also been doing the rebounder/mini-trampoline for 20 minutes a day.

So, we'll see what the blood tests say once I gather the courage to go in to get the tests done. I usually have the script for quite a few weeks before I finally just go get it done.

My question today is: if my thyroid is low, still, after the next test results, how can I help my body heal even more with raw foods? Is it just something that takes more time (I'm only raw for 2 years, or so).

Thanks, and lots of love to you.

Wendi
XOXOXO

I used to adore oregano, but I realized, after I was raw for a few months, it tasted like horrible medicine and it made my stomach feel odd. I ruined a GIANT bowl of zucchini pasta that way. >.< I can't tolerate cayenne anymore, either (but it still tastes good, rats).

I can still eat basil, fortunately... =)

Funny how things change!

Wendi,

That sounds great Wendi. The body can heal a low thyroid with the raw diet, and there are things you can do to accelerate that healing.

The body heals itself on its own schedule and it has it own agenda. But you can aid the body by providing the space for the healing to happen. By what I mean by this is that it takes a lot of energy for the body to heal itself. If you are always busy, either working, doing a lot of physical stuff, and using all your energy, there may not be a lot of energy left over for healing. This is why a supervised fast does wonders for the body. Without food to digest, the body has more energy for healing. Plus, the lack of sugars in the blood makes the body feel tired, so it is natural to want to sleep more. In this state of complete physiological rest, the body starts to heal itself. The other necessary element of getting the rest is having a centered and balanced mental and emotional state during the fast, as the mind going out of control can consume any energy that was saved from not digesting.

And while a fast will help, it may not be necessary. If you get in touch with your body more, feeling what is going on inside and getting your mind quiet enough to hear its messages to you, you might be able to alter your lifestyle enough such that your body heals itself. This may look like cutting out foods that no longer serve you, and looking at activities and even ways of thinking that no longer serve.

Thanks, Bryan.

Right now is definitely not a good time for me to do an extended water fast. If I had edema that wasn't going away, I'm sure I'd put a halt to everything in my life and do things to allow my body to heal on a such a deep level as you are describing with a supervised fast.

The swelling has not come back since I last wrote about it. I continued with no salt, fats from oil or nuts (I did include a few avocados and some young coconut), no herbs, and no garlic or onion. I have not continued with the exclusions, though. I did, however, learn a lot by how my body responded as I added things back into my diet this week.

Before I added anything back, I noticed that my left ear was no longer congested! Both my ears have been congested for over ten years. The only time they ever cleared up was during a Master Cleanse. They immediately became congested again after the Master Cleanse, however. When I did that mono mealing not very long ago, I was hopeful that they'd clear at that time but nothing major happened.

The first thing I added back this week was fat in the form of cashew nuts. I created a raw cheesecake for a friend who had ended a juice feast a few weeks prior. I ate the cheesecake (two pieces, I think) and felt fine. The next morning, however, my ears were more congested than before I eliminated the fats. The saliva in my mouth was also less fluid, or something, after adding the fat back. My eyelids were a bit puffy (not noticeable to anyone else) and I looked tired.

The next thing I added back was a small amount of salt. I made alfredo sauce to put on top of some beet pasta. It didn't taste very good without the salt and garlic, so I added about half the amount of salt that I would normally use (which was enough after going without salt for a while). It tasted good, so I didn't add the garlic. When I woke the following morning (yesterday), my tongue was slightly coated again (not white, but definitely felt and looked less healthy), I felt extremely thirsty, and I had a belly ache. I almost felt like I had bile stuck in my stomach over night (maybe it was from the beet?). I drank lemon water, which is the only thing I felt like consuming. Later, I felt like a pineapple would make me feel better, so I blended one up with some frozen bananas. That made my stomach feel a lot better. This morning, I am feeling okay.

I still have not added garlic or onion back into my diet. I love both of them, but the garlic definitely doesn't do nice things to me--my face turns red and blotchy when I consume it. I had a small amount of wild edibles over the week, but I'm not sure if they are considered greens or herbs. If they are greens, then I don't think I've had many herbs, either.

My experimenting is continuing. I'd really love to narrow down what it was, exactly, that caused such a drastic change in my body (resulting in the episode of edema). Today, or tomorrow, I'm going to make the cauliflower salad loaded with herbs and some salt to see if the edema comes back.

I find it interesting that when I did the nine days of mono meals, I did not experience any of these symptoms (more ear congestion when eating fats, tongue coating and thirst when adding the salt) when I returned to eating more complex foods and salt. I think the rebounding that I was doing the past week, or so, helped to clear my left ear of the congestion when I wasn't eating the fats.

You are so very right about listening closer to what my body is saying. I've known for over a year that my body doesn't want as much fat. I've been very slowly cutting back on it, but I definitely notice that when I abstain from it I feel lighter and more present in each moment. Tuning in to our bodies, and following the messages we receive, is definitely something I think everyone can do. For some of us, however, it's a longer process. I've been doing so much healing (most of it emotional and mental) over the past two years, which my body fully appreciates. I'm getting closer to a point where I'll make the jump to the next level of health, but I'm not ready for it at this time. However, experimenting and learning more about my body and how it does and doesn't like what I eat/don't eat, how it responds to my thinking patterns, and how it feels when I'm more active/less active is something I've been working on more. Perhaps all that I learn will help me easily transition to the next level of health that is close at hand for me.

Thank you, as always, for responding. When we arrive in California in the near future, I'd love to meet you, Bryan.

Lots of love to you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

do you eat enough fruit? (potassium)

Hi Rosemary.

If anything, I eat too much potassium. ;-)

=======
MY UPDATE:

Well, I repeated the herb-heavy dish that I ate prior to the edema and nothing happened (other than experiencing some amazingly tasty food!). I've been including salt again, but at about 1/2 the quantity I normally used (which I'll try to maintain and someday decrease it even more). I've been eating the fats in larger quantities again, but not nearly as much as I used to eat them. So, that's a good thing. I rarely use oil and figure if I'm going to eat fats, I'd rather it come from an avocado most of the time.

Something interesting that I've noticed since I did the 9-day mono meal thing a few months ago, is that I am liking fruits a lot more these days. When I went grocery shopping today I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of my cart was filled with fruits. That's a big deal for me, since I tend to mostly like greens (which I still do, but I'm starting to really like and crave fruits more). Right now I'm completely crazy about pineapples! YUM!

Anyway, I just wanted to update that the edema has not returned. I guess I'll never know exaclty what caused it (it was probably a combination of a lot of things).

I'm working toward simpler eating, with less fat and salt, and I know that one day I'll be there--and my body will be even healthier and happier.

Love,

Wendi
XOXOXO