Hi everyone,
My name is Ashlee and I'm completely at a loss of where to go for raw advice so I decided to join this post. I have been attempting to switch to raw since June now and have had quite the journey. I have yet to have many 'normal' bowel movements, I constantly have diarrhea and a odd deep pain/tingling almost straining feeling in my right side lower abdominal area..Any one have similar symptoms? Maybe im switching over too fast, releasing too many toxins for my body to handle? I read SO SO SO MUCH but every book tells me something different..When I am completely raw I feel fantastic when I do not over eat, or eat in the wrong combos, sometimes it's hard for me to stay so fixated on raw when my body has such bad symptoms...Being Diarrhea, pain in right side, bloatedness, headaches, irritability and sometimes fatigue..It takes me on average 45 minutes to have a bowel movement which is pretty much a lot of softer watery stool.I seem to not be able to take fruit it, my digestion seems far worse after eating lots of fruit, even if I eat it in the correct combos. My stool usually smells awful, and is very dark green, I notice a different stench if I have dairy products, which I have promised myself to omit completely. I don't know what to do? I have had 2 colonics, they always make me feel fantastic afterward and my digestion and body seem to be back to normal after them but I have a hard time keeping up the consistency of raw due to my love for foods that seem to be irritants (nuts, nut butters, fruit, dried fruit, chocolate sweets). I love fruit and do not want to stop eating it so I don't know if I'm at a loss? I usually eat fruit, or green drinks until about noon, and then a large raw salad for lunch sometimes with sprouted grain toast, ill snack on veggies and sometimes nuts, and usually have a smoothie or cooked wild fish for dinner with veggies.. I need some advice as soon as anyone has a moment to help me out. I appreciate it friends! :-)

Did you have any bowel problems before you went raw? I ask because I have chrones disease (not to scare you) and have all of the symptoms you do. Raw helps, but I'm not 100% raw yet, so I still have quite some problems. Days were I'm 100% raw are perfect. If you didn't have problems before, I'd say take it slow and start eliminating some foods that give you trouble. I find citrus and alot of fibrous foods give me more diarehea.

Ok Ill try that...and No I had absolutely no health/diarrhea problems before going raw, i actually was very in shape, and liked how I felt much better than I feel lately to be honest. I know the end result of being as raw as possible will be far better than continuing with cooked foods/mis-combining foods, but the struggle has been long for me, maybe this way of life is not meant for me. but thank you so much!

It also takes your body time to adjust. I've read or heard that diarrhea is cleaning out toxins of your body. SO, I'd just give it some time. I think raw is right for everyone, it's just a slow transition. I've learned that I'm not comfortable being 100% raw. I still love my coffee and steamed veggies, but that's all I eat that isn't raw, and hopefully one day, these habits will die off to. I used to beat myself up about it, but I realized I just needed to let that go and be happy with the improvements I have made thus far.

Right. I would make smaller changes.....over a much longer period of time. Eliminate obvious irritants, and try to practice good food combining. If you are CONSTANTLY in a process of VERY SLOWLY improving your diet in the right directions YOU have identified....you will surely achieve all your goals.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

So are you suggesting I still eat cooked foods? I do not know how to reverse what i have already started stirring up inside of my system to start again and to more slowly eliminate what I cannot have. I ALWAYS have eaten very healthily so im surprised the changes with minimizing cooked food have effected me this greatly. if I do have cooked food it's ONLY sprouted grains, or wild fish of salmon, trout, bass, cod, or halibut. I just do not know how to re-start the 'right' way.

It sounds like you are eating many processed and/or mixed foods already. Make sure you ALWAYS start any dietary changes from a place where YOU are 100% comfortable. Make the small stretches and goals (with timetables) that you are PREPARED and MOTIVATED to do on a daily basis. Make sure the PROCESS is so good.....that you could do that forever. The actual implementation is then free to have it's ups and downs. A process of ALWAYS maintaining your car....will result in a healthy car.....even if a tire blows....or the car breaks down......or even goes in reverse! LOL. Power to you.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

I do not eat ANY processed foods, nothing with additives, or anything canned, or 'man made' the only things I eat cooked are sprouted grains, starchy veggies, dark chocolate with a cocoa content of 78%, or fish. Those are the only things I eat cooked if I eat cooked at all..which is usually only 2x a week.

why not keep it simple?
why not skip a few meals? especially when the gut is already upset
then after it calms down
why not temporarily eat mono meals of whatever healthy food you enjoy at that time?
and listen to the body and learn from it. Noticing how you feel while eating and after.
In any case I would take probiotics after a colonic.
Then take your time and learn about food combining

as lizard said it could be a detox reaction
or
it could be a reaction to high fiber content of raw diet
or
something else...
only patience, calmness, and loving attentiveness will begin to sort it out.


and it would seem you have to ask yourself, at least for now
what is more important:
indulging in chocolate (with sugar) and dried fruit and getting a raw sore anus,
or giving yourself the gift of a little real grownup self love?


this book
" The Raw Secrets: the Raw Food Diet in the Real World 2nd Edition
by Frederic Patenaude
( 204 pages, July 1, 2006 # ISBN-10: 097309303X # ISBN-13: 978-0973093032 )
is the best and shortest book for getting the basics of making the whole raw diet work. It is available from Amazon.
The book "The 80/10/10 Diet" by Dr. Douglas N. Graham is also very good. It is longer and more expensive, and would be a good second book. It explains in detail the science of balancing the carbohydrate, protein, & fat, 'elements' in raw diet.

for free scientific information about fasting available on the web go here:

[www.soilandhealth.org]

then click here:

"I agree to respect the library and the copyrights within it: Take me to the library. "

then here:
"Alternative Medical Therapies"


then scroll down & click here: ( and you can download a pdf file of a great out of print book )

"DeVries, Arnold. Therapeutic Fasting. Los Angeles: Chandler, 1963.
A complete, sensitive and intelligent survey of fasting and of fasting literature. Arnold DeVries was an American researcher, writer and hygienist, who already in the 1950's changed from a fruitarian (Fountain of Youth, 1946) to a paleolithic understanding of what constitutes optimum human nutrition (Primitive Man and His Food, 1952, Elixir of Life, 1952). Therapeutic Fasting, 1963) has been one of his most popular and widely used titles. Downloads as a single PDF of about 275 kb. Thanks are owed to Dr. Bass of the International Natural Hygiene Society for providing this excellent book. OUT OF PRINT."

then scroll down and you will find a "gold mine"
the books of
Shelton, Herbert among many others
if you can't afford "The Raw Secrets" then read some of this stuff.

Food combining and alkaline/acid food charts are available many places on the web.