Hi all,
could anyone please offer me some advice re: raw food and the illness ME/CFS. I've had this illness since 2001 and have tried raw foods in the past (100% raw for 18 months and dropped from 224 to 160 lbs but with little success related to pain levels (my weight's now climbed to 196 lbs at just under 6ft). I opted eventually to go with a pescetarian diet rich in raw foods (without the fruit but with cooked and cooled wholegrain rice and lentils only). My question is this: I've found this diet to be the most compatible with my body so far and easy to follow but I recently had some cooked food (monkey nuts). Despite disturbingly higher pain levels and horrific nightmares/anxiety attacks I actually looked healthier and both skin and hair was improved and eye bags began to disappear even.

I felt there must have been something in that food that was healthy given how much more healthy I looked in such a short time. I was wondering if there was any equivalent raw foods that would offer the same benefits but without the side effects? I already have one avocado per day for healthy fats and obviously the fish. Sorry for the jumbled question I hope it's legible. My priority is to reduce pain but it gave me a shot of hope when hair and skin began to improve so I thought there may be other long-term benefits if I could find a similar alternative to whatever was in those nuts that helped. If anyone has any suggestions I'd be most grateful.
Many thanks,
Matthew

when you ate the cooked food you could have been under the impression that you assumed the pain would get worse and have anxiety because of the stress that comes with the thought of it hurting you, when in fact, it could be helping

the mind is really powerful.. I would keep experimenting. When you experiment there is no failure, only results to get you closer to what you want (in this case, health, well-being, feeling GOOoood)

Hi iLIVE,

That's an interesting suggestions, I'm sure you're quite right about the power that mind has over the body. That's something to consider so thanks for your advice, I am of a similar belief as yourself but lack the skills you mention (as yet)!
Matthew

some thoughts...

Mn44 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi all,
> could anyone please offer me some advice re: raw
> food and the illness ME/CFS. I've had this illness
> since 2001 and have tried raw foods in the past
> (100% raw for 18 months and dropped from 224 to
> 160 lbs but with little success related to pain
> levels (my weight's now climbed to 196 lbs at just
> under 6ft).


well done. maybe your body wasn't done doing the work?


I was wondering if
> there was any equivalent raw foods that would
> offer the same benefits but without the side
> effects?

it's not about the food you eat.
but what you don't eat.
perhaps foods don't provide benefits, but raw material that the body uses to do its job.

the body heals during fasting, so why attribute it to food

I would focus on anti inflammatories, like papayas, pineapple, coconut, alliums and tart berries. The EFAs you are consuming should be helping you. Pulses and legumes cause inflammation in some people, so maybe try going without those. What on earth are monkey nuts? This is what I say to describe someone who's gone deranged, but I didn't know it was an actual food! I don't think any amount of physical improvement merits putting up with, "disturbingly higher pain levels and nightmares/anxiety attacks," but I guess we're different people, Matthew. Perhaps try eating more raw nuts or seeds like hemp, chia, apricot kernels and macadamias? Sorry to be of so little help.

"Foods do nothing in the body. They have no powers of cleansing, healing or anything else. Foods have no will or purposes of their own. To be consumed and used is their inherent design."

[www.rawfoodexplained.com]

Is this a joke? Also, is there cogent data from this century which could be sited? I'm asking sincerely.

Quote

They have no powers of cleansing,

I wonder if water is cleansing ? Water is a big part of some raw foods.
I have read some posts where the poster is concerned that distilled water is so clean that it is "hungry" and can go into the body, especially in the spaces between the cells where debris collect, and pull out stuff similar to a form of chelation (but milder of course). The water in plants is also said to be very clean.

I think monkey nuts is peanuts.

I also think that when people describe a raw vegan diet as 'cleansing' what might really be meant by 'cleansing' is devoid of junk, but that's only true when it isn't one of those highly processed high fat high sweet gourmet fancy high-falutin junky raw diets.

I see the 'cleanest' raw diets being along the lines of 80-10-10 but with more emphasis on greens than what is currently discussed. And very high in fiber.

It's too spartan for most people, I tip my hat to those who can stick with it. Me, I do a little more fat, a little bit cooked, and some light beer and coffee, too.

I am in agreement with fresh, that it is the body that heals itself, not foods. A food is more healthful than another food because it has few toxins in it. This is why raw fruits and vegetables are more healthful than their cooked counterparts.

As for healing anxiety and horrific nightmares, raising your consciousness will help. Read The Power of Now (or better yet, download the audio book from Audible) to see how to use consciousness to get the the root of your emotional pain.

Thanks for all your help everyone, it's been most helpful to read your suggestions. Thanks also Bryan, if you haven't done so already you might be interested to read the Law of One/Ra Material from L/L Research.

With love,
Matthew

"100% raw for 18 months and dropped from 224 to 160 lbs but with little success related to pain levels "

by the way, the above does not insure that one will be pain free, beyond the fact that your body may not have been done healing.

so the conclusion that 100% raw failed to help is not a valid conclusion that should send you away off into another diet.

many raw foods will cause pain.

fresh,

I am alarmed by this: what raw foods cause pain? Is it dependent on individual physiology? Yikes!

spices, condiments, dehydrated foods, nuts are all/can be raw and at the same time can cause painful symptoms in the body, depending on the state of the person in question.

What spices exactly, fresh?--most of the ones I use have quelled physical inflammations in me, and I swear by them. I understand if one has an allergy, of course . . . Condiments? Like vinegars? Dehydrated foods, because they're too hard on digestion, I'm assuming . . . you don't have to respond to this. It's just a verbal panick attack. Spices?! . . . Off to the Almighty God Google, do-de-do . . .

What fresh is saying about spices and condiments matches my own personal experience. I did not have that experience until I had been eating a diet without spices for some time.

When I was eating cooked foods, spices helped my digestion, made things taste better, and seem to give me more vibrant health.

As I simplified my diet, my body began to tell me it didn't like the taste of the spices, and when I would consume them anyway, I would experience my body detoxing out those spices (I could smell them in the waste products coming out of my body).

This is an experience that is observed in many people who have been all raw for many years, as their bodies have given them the message to simplify their diets.

For folk who are still eating some cooked foods, or still at the beginning of their raw life, or are still eating spices and condiments regularly, they will not have these experiences until their bodies have detoxed out all the spices and have reacquired sensitivity to those spices that they once had as newborns or infants.

Everyone has already given you some valuable info. My only thought is,"Do you consume a lot of foods in the nightshade family?"

Hi zanjabil,
I do have tomatoes and bell peppers - three tomatoes per day and the equivalent of one whole pepper (mixed colours) per day also.

Would you consider that a large amount?

Matthew