I'm am new to being raw and am only at 75% raw maybe. Compared to my old diet thats great. Only problem is that I'm always tired. I feel like I can sleep for days. When I wake up I'm still tired and I was not like this before. What can I add to my diet to give me the energy and pep I once had. Oh ya, I'm only 24 so I def. should have more energy. Thanks to anyone who can help.

Hi, Joseph, and welcome!

First thing I'll ask is how is your sleep generally? Have you been under rested in the past and it's gotten worse, or has this happened with the advent of going 3/4 raw?

Second, what sort of raw foods are you eating? It would help to know, as well as what the unraw part of your diet is; you needn't be superspecific, just, "I eat a lot of protein, or I eat a lot of soups," that kind of info. Are you eating enough calories daily? A lot of people going raw aren't really mindful of what variety and what quantity they're eating, and things can get out of balance, though easily put back into balance, too.

Third, have you gotten a clear picture lately of what your general health is from a doctor? If you have an underlying disorder, like a vitamin or mineral deficiency, this could be affecting your energy levels.

Hope you enjoy being here, and learn a lot from cruising through the history of this and other forums

Hi Joseph,

This being tired is actually a good thing. What this is saying is that your previous diet had enough stimulants in it so that you were able to get by on less sleep. The unfortunate side effect of all that stimulation is that you build up a sleep deficit. But now that you are eating cleaner raw foods, you are feeling the effect of all of sleep you missed out on in the past.

But rather than take some new stimulating substances (and there are plenty of those if you use raw superfoods and certain raw condiments are also stimulating), I highly recommend taking some time off to sleep extra, perhap even days or weeks of extra sleep, sleeping as much as you can at night, and getting as many naps as you can in the day until your desire to sleep and your fatigue has passed. This exact thing happened to me, and after 4 months of sleeping all the time, starting with 16 hours of sleep a day, I was able to finally get caught up on all my needed sleep.

For you, since you are much younger than I was at the time (42 years old), you may not need 4 months of extra sleep like I did. But after I was all caught up on my missing sleep, I felt great.

I can't say whether the sleeping and tiredness is a positive thing or not as I'm not an expert but I can say that the same thing happened to me after I did some fasting and then started eating more raw foods after. I was sleeping all the time and it was a real effort to pull myself out of the deep sleep I was getting.I also felt quite headachy. I was really irritated thinking I'd done myself harm with the fasting.
But it seems to have past and I feel much more energetic than before so it could be that its a similar thing for you.

How long has the tiredness / raw eating been going on for? What kind of things are you eating?
Also are you having any kind of herbal supplements or superfoods because two things (maca and Noni) for some reason had the effect in my body of making me extremely tired some time back even though they are supposed to do the opposite.I felt OK again after I stopped taking them.

Did you quit drinking caffiene? Coffee, soda? tea?

Ill second the notion that have you quit stimulants such as caffeine, as if so it takes abit of time for your adrenal glands to restore.

how long have you been raw, you could be missing some essential nutrients.

Thank you everyone who posted. I'm very new to this and I eat mostly loaded salads and lots of fruit. My sleep before was pretty good. I am on alot of vitamins mainly because I have Multiple Sclerosis (which does cause fatigue but its gotten alot worse I had the MS tiredness under control). I may just be freaking out because who would have guessed but changing my diet is making my body go crazy (in a good way). And yes sodas, candies, and caffeine have been cut out they were the first to go.

I too believe it's a good sign, but it's often seen as caused by the new diet, so many return to their previous eating habits or even the SAD. Of course, SAD has mega stimulant content, so people immediately begin to feel better.

Like others who have posted here, I went through the same thing. I just felt lethargic all the time, for around three to four months. I did sleep better, though I tend to believe the lethargy was caused by toxins being disolved into my blood for elimination, although sleep deprivation may be part of it.

Even though I felt tired, I remained physically strong, and continued to increase strength and my exercise regime during this lethargy period. So I knew for sure that I was receiving enough nutrients.

It will pass, so don't worry.
Cheers,
geo

I pretty much echo what everyone else has said. I would add to this..green smoothies! Start your days off with those & see if your energy doesn't return quickly.

I second juicerkatz suggestion. Even when I'm not eating high raw, a green smoothie every morning drastically improves my energy levels and gives me more restful sleep. I blend up kale, water, apples, bananas, etc. It's such an easy way to get a couple servings of raw greens in, and after a few days of drinking them I start waking up before my alarm. I think it's worth a try. Also, when you need quick alertness, some jumping jacks, a banana, or even a glass of water should perk you up a little.

welcome Joseph ! i hope you get the well deserved rest you need and your body starts loving raw foods !

im not sure if you exercise or not but i find a good brisk walk (especially now that its cold up here in canada) really boosts my energy endorphins are a wonderful thing

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I was researching mushroom growing the other day as I'd like to have some mushrooms in my diet, and I came up with the fact that Lion's mane mushroom is supposed to be highly good for nerve regeneration and useful in MS. It is not something I have any experience with - I found it interesting though so thought I would mention it....

There are alot of great medicinal mushrooms merry, shitake, reishi, chaga etc.

Cool Merry, it might boost nerve energy hey? Unfortunately for MS sufferers, the disease destroys the myelin sheath with covers the neuron axion,and cannot be replaced. However, there is evidence suggesting that abstinence from all dairy products will place the disease in remission.

You can rebuild the myelin with lecithen and essential fatty acids, also b12.

Ok, that's interesting powerlifter, if you have access to the research article, can you post it here plz? I was under the impression that once you lose the myelin sheath...that's it???

It was actually a book i read whilst doing hyperbaric oxygen at an MS center a while back, but i cant for the life of me remember what it was called.

Ill have a google for you in abit.

Hmmm thinking about it now....obviously, I understand that when new neurons are build, so is a new myelin sheath...but I'm talking about replacing the myelin on existing axions....any thoughts about this?

K thx mate. Here is the article I read about the dairy.

[www.drmcdougall.com]

geo Wrote:
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> K thx mate. Here is the article I read about the
> dairy.
>
>

From what ive read online MS is triggered by a herpes virus and like all autoimmune diseases is part down to adrenal gland dysfunction due to low levels or immune regulating corticosteroids. I dont have time to read the whole article from him just now but MS is definitely not caused by diet, but a poor diet that is under-nourishing and low in immune boosting nutrients could possibly lead to it, but there are so many other factors such as stress, genetics etc.

Cool thx powerlifter. I did find that MS/dairy article quite interesting though, sounds logical too. But yes, I agree there maybe many factors involved, and I think that if a high dairy diet was one of the causes for MS, or that feed the disease, then I'm sure the MS society would've promoted a low or no dairy diet for MS sufferers....wouldn't they???

geo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cool thx powerlifter. I did find that MS/dairy
> article quite interesting though, sounds logical
> too. But yes, I agree there maybe many factors
> involved, and I think that if a high dairy diet
> was one of the causes for MS, or that feed the
> disease, then I'm sure the MS society would've
> promoted a low or no dairy diet for MS
> sufferers....wouldn't they???

When i was using the MS therapy center i was shocked at the level of help most were getting even though they were paying through the neck for "naturopaths/gurs" and supplements that were doing little difference. Many of them were taking things that were either of no use or could be potentially harmful for someone with MS.

I got talking to many of them about diet and how many of them felt they had allergies, as allergies are also a result of adrenal gland dysfunction many of them felt better eliminating wheat, gluten, diary etc.

geo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
if a high dairy diet
> was one of the causes for MS, or that feed the
> disease, then I'm sure the MS society would've
> promoted a low or no dairy diet for MS
> sufferers....wouldn't they???

Are you kidding? They would NEVER say a word against dairy. That is completely forbidden in this culture, you can't say thing one against animal food producers without an enormous backlash, even if what you've said is true. Anyone remember Oprah's big court case when the beef industry sued her for saying it wasn't a good meat to eat? She won but it must have cost her a boatload of money to fight it. Most people can't afford the hassel, the MS society being no exception.

ok, first I want to ask you were you drinking diet soda before?????
It's a major government cover up, but many many people who have MS are actually dealing with aspartame toxicity. It slowly eats away at some of us, and after I read about this a few times, I started noticing people in wheel chairs at the super market filling their cart with diet soda.....but OMG i just don't have the heart to talk to them about how our government doesn't actually care about our health, and that no, Our government would NOT tell us if this was real, and no they would not deregulate aspartame until the very last moment possible.
I get so much of my energy from green smoothies greens, fruits, water, and flax seeds or oil or hemp seeds. Good luck Joseph!

The Raw Lion 440 pounds to 225 pounds!

I wouldn't be surprised if MS was caused by pesticides, as the organo-phosphates used in pesticides are the basis of nerve gas, which causes nerve damage.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2011 05:50PM by Prana.

I am so thankful and surprised at the response to my post. You all have helped me so much and make me so happy I found this internet raw community. You given me so much to look into again I thank you all.

I'm really glad that our response to your post has brought you some happiness ^_^

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Yes Coco, I was being sarcastic haha. The Doc who did the research re the correlation between MS and dairy couldn't believe it also. As well as the fact that the dairy industry would suffer, it's also about power, jobs,and research dollars. Afterall, it doesn't cost anything to change your diet. Just imagine the money that is raised for MS research that would dry up, all the jobs that would be lost etc. etc.
It saddens me that human life doesn't seem to be worth much these days by our society. Well, the more that people suffer, the more money is made as a result, and cancer is another such cash cow

I'm not any kind of expert on the topic - the lion's mane mushroom was just something I came across - its seems to have some specific function for nerves - i'm not sure if the other medicinal mushrooms do.
But as far as if the myelin sheath can regenerate - I have read cases of people who through a gluten free diet have kept their MS in remission for many years and also recovered from quite disabling symptoms with improved MRI scans - so I would suppose that some kind of regeneration / regrowth is happening and therefore possible?
I have also heard of cases of recovery using EFT which focuses more on emotions. I guess different approaches would work for different people - I don't suppose there is only one trigger factor...

Geo (((big hug))). I care, you care, pretty much everyone on this site cares about human health and, even better than that, is doing something about it! There's a ripple effect, look how raw consciousness has spread in the last few years. Lots of people care but just don't know what to do to change things. We'll be a living example of one way that works to heal our bodies and the earth. <3