but I'm going to ask it anyway!

I thought that one of the major reasons for changing to a raw food lifestyle was to clean the toxins out of our bodies and keep it clean by eating raw foods. Yet as I have been reading the boards for a week now, I see plenty of posts from people wanting info about clensing this or that organ in their body, etc. Why do people need to go thru these clensing efforts if they are eating a raw food diet? I've never been one to do any clenses, mostly because until I really educated myself about it I'd not want to mess up what seems to be perfectly functioning little chem lab inside my body. Why the clenses? Are they necessary on a raw food diet?

Molli Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ......... Why do people need to
> go thru these clensing efforts if they are eating
> a raw food diet?
Most people here, myself included, are not only eating
a Raw Food Diet, but overeating it. The Body cannot cleanse
properly on food, no matter how good the food is. Besides,
most of us have built-up Toxins from years of abuse.
Forgive me, I shouldn't speak for anyone else, but I feel pretty
safe on this issue.....WY

ahhh that makes sense. Thanks for answering. I wouldn't have any idea what I should cleanse!

Some of us don't believe you can overeat or undereat raw food in its natural form.

To add to what WY said;

We are also "bombarded" throughout daily life with innumerable amounts of toxins, we cannot escape them in this environment. Now, I am am talking about manufacturing waste/heavy metals/pollutant air, etc.

Juicing is one of the most excellent was to go about cleansing, as the body does not need to digest the liquid. Water fasts can also be very beneficial for toxin release, although can be a bit hard to take, especially if one is severely toxic.

Superinfinity, I don't quite understand your statement;

"Some of us don't believe you can overeat or undereat raw food in its natural form."

I can see both happening...

I don't do cleanses myself. If my body wants to cleanse, it will make me tired or give me symptoms, which I accept and adjust my lifestyle to accommodate.

What do you mean you can "see both happening"?

You know people who are either undereating or overeating and are 97%+ raw and have been for months and are only eating foods as they would appear in nature? (ie. not juicing all the time).

I don't know, maybe it is true. If you can persuade me then I would believe it. But I doubt you can or would over or under eat on raw foods.

juicerkatz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To add to what WY said;
>
> We are also "bombarded" throughout daily life
> with innumerable amounts of toxins, we cannot
> escape them in this environment. Now, I am am
> talking about manufacturing waste/heavy
> metals/pollutant air, etc.
>
> Juicing is one of the most excellent was to go
> about cleansing, as the body does not need to
> digest the liquid. Water fasts can also be very
> beneficial for toxin release, although can be a
> bit hard to take, especially if one is severely
> toxic.
>
> Superinfinity, I don't quite understand your
> statement;
>
> "Some of us don't believe you can overeat or
> undereat raw food in its natural form."
>
> I can see both happening...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2009 09:14PM by SuperInfinity.

In GENERAL, I think the cleansers are ones who eat a higher fat raw diet.

I would assume that unless you eat a 100% ORGANIC raw food diet,you will be getting chemicals in your body that need periodic cleansing????

SuperInfinity

Quote

Some of us don't believe you can overeat or undereat raw food in its natural form.

I think a person can eat an all raw diet and get thiner and thiner until they look like a stick person.

I also think a person can eat an all raw diet and gain weight. This could easily happen if a person were to eat gourmet raw or eat lots of complicated mixed recipe meals that have plenty of fat in them.

That doesn't necessarily mean they're undereating if they "look like a stick person", that's just your observation based on your idea of "normal". If you go to plant-based rural China... virtually everyone is "a stick person"! I can't get over how thin they are when I see them walking down the streets.

Maybe we do gain metabolic syndrome a little bit if we're on a SAD diet for years and years. But unless you've gone over the diabetes edge (and some say even after it to a lesser extent), OR intentionally keep taking loads of avocados and nuts, I think after a long time on raw it would all be reversed or nearly reversed. Remember I'm not counting things like oils, dried fruits and gourmet, which I think it really is possible to overeat on. I've eaten over 1000 calories of sultanas in a sitting more than once, it's wayyyyy too easy, it would be practically physically impossible to do that with grapes though in their natural form. Otherwise the body is totally confused, still nothing as bad as cooked but perhaps the "sugar spike" thing would have merit in that instance.

People get so extreme and over the edge with food and things like fructose/sugar sometimes.... then the next the very same people probably nonchalently eat a lot of dried fruit or zucchini altogether, sending blood sugars over the roof to extremes they should never be, and them thinking it has sugar and perhaps a little bit bad but hey those fruitarians get away with it... if they just listened to nature *rolleyes*

EZ rider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SuperInfinitySome of us don't believe you can
> overeat or undereat raw food in its natural form.
>
> I think a person can eat an all raw diet and get
> thiner and thiner until they look like a stick
> person.
>
> I also think a person can eat an all raw diet and
> gain weight. This could easily happen if a person
> were to eat gourmet raw or eat lots of complicated
> mixed recipe meals that have plenty of fat in
> them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2009 09:57PM by SuperInfinity.

the body is a wonderful thing, it knows how to cleanse itself and take perfect care, IF you give it the tools to do so. fresh air, clean water, proper food, exercise, adequate sleep, creative outlets, intellectual stimulation, LOVE. i believe that cleansing is unneccessary unless you are seriously missing the things on that list and then it's not cleansing a body needs but the things on that list! we are designed to withstand a certain amount of toxins, i think it stresses the body to push it to cleanse in an unnatural fashion at an unnatural pace, to rush and work hard to do it. it's like stretching too far in yoga, it might get you there but at what cost? gently, gently, slowly, slow... steady and peacefully.

cleansing is a form of giving our organs a break so they can perform more efficiently later

if u never had a single day off in your life, well then.... a day off is in order

From my personal experience, I have no doubt that fasting can accelerate a "cleansing process" to at least about 5 times the speed you would experience on raw foods, possible more. You also have to be sensitive and courageous enough to listen to your body on raw foods. It may tell you not to eat anything for a few days or just eat an orange a day, in essence asking for an aggressive cleanse. The whole concept of a "daily" requirement of vitamins and minerals, even calories, is pretty much a fallacy. You won't get osteoporosis if you don't eat any calcium today or even this week. You won't get scurvy if you don't eat any vitamin C today, etc. You CAN survive a day on 0 calories from food. (unless you are already so sick and addicted that the resulting mini-cleanse would kill you)

hi molli

its like this ...

all the years that we may have been eating not so well caused a certain amount of toxic matter to accumulate in various places inside of our bodies. it was a day after day process a...a little bit each day. evan though our bodies got rid of most of the junk a little bit was not ejected.

a routine cleansing program....mine coincides with the four seasons ...allows the body to take a rest from digestion and turns on the internal houscleaning program called elimination.

juice fasting is a wonderful way of getting rid of toxins which may have had a chance to accumulate over the years ...and evan on a raw food healthy diet ...there will likely be some incomplete metabolites which will hang around and need to be eliminated.

i do the juice fasting routine for 5-10 days somewhere within the time frame of the four seasons. i have been doing this for at least twenty years or more and it has really made a difference in my life.

for example i used to have spring time allergies to pollens from the june grass and the allergies started getting less and less every years since i implemented the seaonal juice fasting program.

i read about using enemas along with juice fasting in a book by paavo airola and started adding enemas to my seasonal fasting programs and noticed a good result.....later on a few years back i added a laydown sauna to my program so that i also detox and cleanse with saunas during my seasonal fasting.

i must say that the results which i have obtained are really noticeable and i actually look forward to doing my seasonal clensings. no particular scheduled dates...but i just seem to know when i need to start my fasting with each season.

juice fasting will keep you feeling young and beautiful!

juicin' john

la_veronique Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cleansing is a form of giving our organs a break
> so they can perform more efficiently later
>
> if u never had a single day off in your life,
> well then.... a day off is in order


ah, but i just consider that resting, not cleansing. when i refer to cleansing i mean doing it purposefully, with action. though i think long fasts, colonics, enemas, drinking olive oil (ok, maybe not that one) have their place when there is an illness to address, simply abstaining from eating solid food for a day or two is just... not really all that drastic. some days i don't feel like eating, so i don't. no big deal, i don't make an issue of it, i don't think it has a Major affect, it's just listening to my body. a day off now and then? sure! if you feel like it, why not...