I am curious - is it just me? This winter I have fallen of the 100% raw. I have eaten rice, some potato and other stuff, almost on a daily bases. I have always been between 60-70 and 100% raw (those low days were rare, average day would be around 90% raw).

So, one can say that I ate processed food regularly in this period of time. Still, somehow, I had problems digesting the processed food, and I started paying attention to it. I don't think I had these problems before switching to raw food. I just cannot digest these foods any more - with all the symptoms of indigestion. I would enjoy the food but only minutes later start to feel bad. I would have acid, unpleasant burping, bad feeling in the stomach. I can say that 90% of the time, minutes after I ate, I started to feel bad in some way. I have tried to see if this is psychological, and I am very good at watching myself, I am rally trying to be objective, but these things were so notorious, left me without any explanation other than that I became more sensitive to processed food than before. Also, my mood became worse, the more processed food I ate, my thoughts not clear.

So, do poeple who eat a lot of raw food actually get more toxins from processed food than "normal" people? I am convinced that we do.

I don't really know how to answer that one. I believe that when you start to change your life for the better in any area, you can tolerate toxic circumstances less and less. Even relationships! It's almost an energetic thing, as if your vibratory pattern rejects lower, denser energy, whether emotional or from food. So I see it as a good thing.

The real question I have for you is WHY you are eating processed foods? Cooked food is one thing, but why does it have to be processed if you know better? And I say that as someone who has done the same thing--eaten foods that I know I shouldn't and then ask myself why I did it. But I usually don't have the digestive issues that you seem to.

(By the way, I hope that, by saying 'processed,' you are talking about canned/boxed/fast food and not just cooked.)

Yes, that is what I meant - not just cooked.

Funny that you mentioned emotional level - a lot of things become absurd, unnatural, and often confusing. The longer you are on raw food, the more distant you are getting from "every day life". But, if I look back, my decision was not a sudden one, I got the emotional, logical and body mechanisms ready for this before I actually did the switch. So raw food is just another step further.

Why I am eating junk? Because my family has not changed their lifestyle, and because, due to illness in my family our funds have gone law, so I try to get by cheap. There are very few things that you can actually eat that are processed, if any.

Also, during the winter I cut on exercise, which is killing me. I play sports once a week and exercise 5-10 min a day. I will start running now, maybe even today (42F).

Happens to me at first..then I'm able to digest crap again. I've always had issues with starches/carbs though like bread or potatoes but fine with sugar. Makes no sense. It's one thing that makes it hard for me to eat raw again though because I just KNOW if I go down a smoothie that I'll feel like crap after already eating crap. So I play headgames with myself. Might as well eat this cause if I eat something healthy now..I'll bloat up and get indigestion.

You can eat a low-budget cooked diet that does not include a lot of processed foods. It is simple... shop the outter circle of the grocery store and do not go down the isles. The fresh food is typically the outter circle and processed foods are in the isles. Simple. It is all about making healthier choices.

Are there addictions in the family that could be eliminated to free up money for healthier food? Coffee, soft drinks, snacks, cigarettes, dairy, meat, etc?

I shop with my brother a lot and we can both leave the store with $60 of food but my bags are full of veggies and fruits and his are full of meat and cheese and soda. His health is very poor, mine is very good.

The indigestion is likely from poor food combining. You likely experienced it before going raw but were used to it -- you didn't know life to be anything different. Now you are more sensitive to it. Try and follow food combining principles in your meals.

The brain fog is definately from the processed foods. Grains to be specific. Do your best to cut them out of the diet and your head should clear up. I had some penne pasta the other night for dinner after a loooong time without it and the rest of the night and into the next day I was a brain zombie. Couldn't think, couldn't get motivated, blech. And I was insanely thirsty. After two days of recovery... that was enough for me to swear off pasta for a long, long time to come. (I am back to raw zuccinni pasta and loving it!)

The moral of the story -- times are tough but you have to take care of yourself. Do your best to eat a healthy, whole food diet. Leave the processed food in the garbage isles.

yeah, basically what rocket said, although im not a HUGE believer in food combining, I do believe it is very useful for some people, and I even practice it to a certain extent myself, just not as much... uh, beans/brown rice, together, are a very good cooked vegan food that contains a complete protein (and then some) amongst other benefits, they have been a staple of my diet since ive not had enough money to buy mostly raw... not that its helped much other than my wallet,lol.

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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?

RocketShip - thanks for good advice, I do try to eat as healthy as I can. I just need a lot more exercise, but that is getting better also, if only this endless winter goes away...

My family has not changed their habits, and that makes it harder on all of us. We throw out a lot of food (just like an average American family), but I don't think that I have grounds to ask them to change this as I was the one who changed from " normal" diet.
I am not really having that many digestion problems, as I don't really eat much of processed or cooked food. I was just curious about other people's experience - after switching to raw. I truly feel that my digestion is different now when I attempt to eat processed/cooked food.

Never forget the power of the mind, when i used to have a sort of eating disorder behavior where i would get very depressed, angry with myself and sometimes purge if i ate anything unhealthy because of how bad food physically made me feel such as anxiety if i consumed gluten/wheat/dairy, puffy face etc. Anyway onto the point even after a bite or so i would be so sure that i was feeling bad symptoms.

Then i got over the whole issue and could eat even the crappest food with no bad side effects. It was then i knew the power of my mind was damn strong in convincing me that id have bad symptoms etc. Hope that makes sense was pretty hard to explain lol.

I still suspect i had numerous food allergy's and multiple chemical allergy's due to adrenal gland dysfunction, even though numerous tests never showed. But when i would switch my mind off and not care about the possible allergens/bad food i would get low to no bad effects.

I really need to read more into the power of the mind when it comes to healing, an example i heard once a while back was a news story something along the lines of the guys blood test got mixed up and the doctor told him he had cancer and only a few months to live. Turns out he didn't actually have cancer but because he believed he was dying his health degenerated to a similar effect of those who would have cancer and he eventually died. Id love to see the article again if anyone can find it.