I mean psychical and also in your body.

And what do you say to your self after that? what do you think and what do you do?

I now that it dosent help to be angry at your self but i do,im sad and angry because im soo week.

Don't worry Gurkan82. Many of us go through this. It's not your "fault". If you're persistent and if you're getting enough nutrients from your raw food diet, you'll do better and better.

Going from cooked to all raw means overcoming lifelong habits. These aren't broken easily - for anybody.

Whenever I ate cooked food, I'd feel exactly the same way about myself that you describe. Then I realized that the physical discomfort passes, that I'd have another chance, and that the best way to deal with it is to try to learn something.

It was helpful to me to realize that it didn't do much good to try to fast immediately after eating cooked food. What that does is create a mindset that it's OK to eat the cooked food, because I can fast afterwards.

You might try using each cooked food experience to begin to accumulate a mental (or even written) record of what you were thinking that led to eating the cooked food. Then, when those thoughts come up again, you'll be forewarned! Try to replace those thoughts with the memory of what it felt like after eating the cooked food. Memory is a great tool for learning. Without it, experience is useless!

Sometimes though, that's still not enough. If you've recently eaten cooked food and regret it, it's a good time to review what you were most recently eating raw, and determine if your raw food diet has been providing sufficient nutrients. Your body's instinct to survive can be stronger than any effort of willpower. Most raw fooders get plenty of vitamins, but it's important also to make sure you're getting enough iron, calcium, and zinc.

What if you feel better after eating cooked food?

Like a bowl of rice? or some cooked millet?

Or some fish.. Im sure some people would actually feel better.. does that mean there meant to eat cooked? I know everyones different... heh..

Hi herbalgerbals,

Good question! To me, it seems like this:

If a person's normal response to eating cooked food is that they feel better, then it could mean that:

A. They're in the midst of heavy "detox", and eating the cooked food temporarily stops the detox process. OR

B. Something is missing in their raw food diet.

I don't know if either A or B would imply that a person is meant to eat cooked food. If a person is in the midst of heavy "detox" (A), it might mean that they could be more patient with the process, or that they could use more rest, or that they could try eating some steamed veggies, drink tea, or whatever might slow down the detox while keeping it moving forward.

If a person is missing something in their raw food diet (, it might mean that they could find something else to eat raw that would fill a nutrient need, and might help make them feel as good (or better) than they feel when they eat cooked.

Or, a person could incorporate some cooked food in their diet, if that's what they feel comfortable doing. Either way, it's an individual choice. (Poor little fishies though, if that turns out to be the choice!)

How do we know if it's A or B? If we're relatively new to raw foods, it's probably A. If we've been eating raw foods for a while though - say over a year or so, even if we're not 100%, it's probably B (but just guessing, since everyone's somewhat different).

Either way, A or B, it never hurts to know whether or not you're getting all your raw food nutrients. Temporary fasts or restrictive diets can be a good thing, as long as we don't take them too far.

Anyway, that's my take on it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2009 03:55AM by suncloud.

That sounds really good, thanks for that reply suncloud =]

A heavy detox could last for months and months huh? and could it cause outbreaks with acne? or could that just be from to much fruit?

Hi herbalgerbals,

When I first went vegan, I was 23 and thought my days of acne were pretty much long gone.

But almost immediately after giving up meat and dairy, my face broke out worse than it had in many years, and that continued for several months. I was eating mostly cooked - not raw - vegan food.

I remember applying hydrogen peroxide to my face to fight the acne. It worked pretty well, but turned my eyebrows yellow! (Wouldn't recommend it.)

I did my first juice fast during that time. I had fruit juice and herb tea for a week (as recommended by Jethro Kloss in "Back to Eden". It helped clear my skin and gave me an enormous amount of energy. I was also doing enemas at the time and saw all these hard stringy balls of mucous come out (sorry).

I was reading Arnold Ehret's books. They were great. I think "Mucousless Diet Healing System" is a good one to read first. I no longer agree with everything Arnold Ehret ever said, but he definitely knows how to convey the concept of "detox"!

Staying vegan and going through the detox process was definitely worth the zits, and even worth the yellow eyebrows.

Too bad I didn't stick with it back then. Afterwards, I went in and out of veganism for the next 13 years. I guess we each have to go through our own process and follow our own path. I've been vegan now for nearly 23 years, and I can tell you for sure that these years have been a lot more pleasant for me (and for all the critters that survived as a result).

Best wishes to you herbal!

I have had a couple cooked vegan foods after going high-raw and quickly changed my mind. My skin isn't as fresh, and I feel like I have an alien in my belly.

Same here, Utopian Life! I think cooked vegan is good for the animals, and definitely an improvement over SAD; but raw vegan feels so much better!

Agree Utopian Life. After eating cooked food my skin and scalp become itchy. My energy levels go down and whats worse, my regularity isnt ,my blood sugars increase which is not good for me as being diagnosed type 2 diabetic is the reason I started raw eating
I have been experimenting on how my body reacts to various foods - cooked and uncooked - and raw is much better overall for me.

suncloud says:

<<Same here, Utopian Life! I think cooked vegan is good for the animals>>

which animal are u referring to
i know i am an animal
but i never thought cooked foods was good for me

hmmm...

La V,

Yes, good point! I meant that cooked food vegan diet is good for all the animals that don't get eaten!

But, when I think about it, eating cooked vegan food uses fuel, and it uses up a lot of topsoil. Acquiring and depleting those resources has a negative effect on the environment that all of us animals live in.

Tree foods, on the other hand, don't require fuel for cooking, and the trees renew the soil rather than deplete it.

A cooked vegan diet is a huge improvement over Sad for the benefit of other animals, but raw vegan is best for all us animals!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2009 06:42PM by suncloud.

okay confession time...
i went out to the movies with some friends and they went to a restaurant to eat. with all the foods/smells around me on the table i gave in and ordered some fries. then on sunday (i've been craving a burrito for weeks since going raw ) i finally ordered a big rice and bean burrito. to make matters worse I have been drinkin the past the 3 days. what a mistake! today (and all weekend) i have felt like crap, mentally and physically lethargic, my eyes are not as clear/bright as they have been, headaches.....
but i'm tryin not to beat myself up over it. i've been doing very well the past few weeks. i went from cooked vegetarian foods to straight raw overnight and i don't have a dehydrator to make gourmet raw foods so I think it's been challenging for me to overcome my cooked foods addictions. but i think over time i will have less cravings - i just have to stay committed to it.

herbalgerbals Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What if you feel better after eating cooked food?
>
> Like a bowl of rice? or some cooked millet?
>
> Or some fish.. Im sure some people would actually
> feel better.. does that mean there meant to eat
> cooked? I know everyones different... heh..



Seems to me that cooked food is an addiction, as some people claim, and it seems to be true in my case also. In that case, it might make you actually feel better to eat it sometimes, but you can't trust that. (at least I can't) When you give up smoking (for example) and give into your cravings, that cigarette seems to make you feel a whole lot better, at least for a little while, but it is a false sense of well-being - addictions can be tricky that way! Reality is that going back to your addictions doesn't really help you in the long run. For me, when I eat cooked food, it makes me crave even more cooked food, which I don't trust. But, on the other hand, we should all do what works best for us personally, so if that works better for you, then I fully support your choice.

Not everyone is 100% raw, or even wants to be. Any improvement is good, and should be looked at that way. I'd rather take a dozen small steps that I feel proud of than try to take a big giant step that makes me fall on my face!

This actually happened to me the other day! I've been trying to just go fully 100% raw, and it just gets really hard when I'm around my friends because they don't agree with it and they look at me weird if I'm just eating fruits (the raw veggies at my university are not very good most days..lol). Anyway, I gave in and I ate a grilled cheese and a couple of tater tots, and it was horrible. As soon as I finished, my feet started hurting, my leg muscles started throbbing and my head started hurting. I felt sick for the rest of the night, it got better as time went on, but I still felt sick. I had heard of that happening, but I really didn't think that it was real, but when I felt it, I can tell you that it's horrible.

Now I know how I really do not want to feel. Does eating hot food again and ate bread this time, it was so good but felt so wrong, both mentally and fysikst. Do not why I am like that when I know how I will feel later. But I feel that it is easier to resist the food.

I have nuts figs, dates pecans and a little otherwise good. Then I have a little fruit and vegetables.
Do you have any good recipes for green juice? has spinach, cucumber tomato parsley.
What do you say?

Thank fine you for taking your time to read and reply to my post.
hug!

Gurkan82

Quote

why I am like that when I know how I will feel later

I think when an unhealthy addition occurs it scrambles the thinking process in a way similar to a short circuit in an electrical system.
I once saw a video of a guy who had a severe cig smoking habit. He had a trake hole in his throat with a tube in it to breathe and the tube was plugged into a machine that assisted him in breathing. When he couldn't resist the craving for a cig he would unplug the breathing machine long enough to put a lit cig into the tube end and smoke away. Of course he wasn't supposed to do this because it was killing him but thats the nature of addictions.