None of these are on my list of edibles but I know there are lots of people who consume them thinking that so long as they're raw, they're good!

[renegadehealth.com]

Thanks, Coco. Very interesting. I have some raw agave that I am finishing up. It doesn't make me feel weird but I never liked the taste of it. I knew it reminded me of something and then I realized: Karo syrup, which was corn syrup! This may also be the stuff I see in coffee houses called 'simple syrup.' It doesn't have body as a sweetener, the way honey and maple syrup do. It didn't seem like the right thing to consume in tea, etc. I bought it to give it another chance. It does dissolve in water, which makes it great for fresh lemonade and tea, but I have heard too much bad stuff about it.

I like to use date sugar in my tea. It has a nice light flavor.

Soaking dates or other dried fruit and using the soak water as a sweetener works great too, use the soaked dates in a dessert or dressing or smoothie. Perfect!

Agree with most of them but really if the sodium in nama shoyu is making his fingers as big as hes suggesting from one ingestion id get checked out for underlying kidney disorders etc as the body should be more than capable at dealing with that level of sodium especially as the typical healthy raw food diet doesn't contain much if any concentrated sodium source such as salt.

Sounds like hes allergic to the maca and the excess adrenaline released to counter the allergen is giving him those symptoms. I used to be like that with many foods and herbs especially given that weak adrenal glands cause allergies. But there is nothing wrong with maca as a food and taking in the right quantities for most it is fine. Like every other food a small portion of people wont get on with it.

One of the biggest problems with maca is that many misuse the powder, you see these gurus and others who make videos chucking in tablespoons upon tablespoons of maca in there smoothies. When really 1 teaspoon up to 3 times daily is more than sufficient. If you can handle more then its no problem. Maca like most other adaptogenic herbs don't have CNS stimulant properties minus(american licorice, rhodiola rosea and korean ginseng), so if it is actually stimulating you making you on edge it is more than likely you are allergic to it. When i suffered very badly with adrenal fatigue i was allergic to a very wide variety of foods, spices and herbs including many of the healthy ones.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

thank god cabbage wasn't mentioned. I was really sweating there for a minute.

Yeah Powerlifter I agree this guy and his girfriend have some issue's, my guess is "Leaky Gut" or like you said kidney. This would allow sodium to enter the system directly and cause swelling. It's intresting that both him and his girfriend have this problem. Leaky Gut is one health challenge that has gotten much worse over the years, and is completely overlooked by doctors and often even holistic practitioners. He also said he had adrenal issues with the cacao wich would also indicate Leaky Gut possibly.

Too much salt after no salt or not much for a while can make anyone retain water. Hands the size of baseball mitts not so much though.

I also had a bad reaction to Maca - after some days of feeling very energetic on it I became extremely tired. I tried to continue on it for a few weeks since it is supposed to be good for hormone balancing and the company told me the fatigue would pass but the tiredness was so overwhelming that I had to stop it. I was not taking big dose of it (I think less than 2 tsp per day) and I tried 2 different makes with same reaction.
I use raw cocoa to make chocolate sweets since I can get it easily and economically where I live - its strange because even though I find even one tea makes me feel jittery I never feel anything with the cocoa - but I never eat large amounts of it - just now and again.
I know nothing about agave but I use dates, jaggery (palm sugar) and sometimes honey which although not vegan provides a good income for tribal people near where I live....

The thing is pretty much all the adaptogens like i say arent CNS stimulants, so the very mild energy boost they provide is through there actions on the adrenal glands. If you are feeling very energetic like i say id highly suspect your mildy allergic to maca. The crash and tiredness would come with that also.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

I dont eat any of those,except for a few almonds now and then.
I am glad beets and cucumbers werent on the list.

Raow cocoa is very healthy it is not the cause of your health pb maybe you were not healthy to begin with. There non organic hybrid varieties that we should avoid

Opinion stated as fact. For YOU this might be true and if it isn't true for others it might not be because they are unhealthy to begin with.

madinah Wrote:
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> Raow cocoa is very healthy it is not the cause of
> your health pb maybe you were not healthy to begin
> with. There non organic hybrid varieties that we
> should avoid

Raw cacao is healthy in my opinion but should be used in moderation. Although there are many more factors than stimulant use in causing adrenal fatigue, stimulant use along with chronic stress have to be a couple of the most important and common reasons for those suffering from adrenal burnout.

A little cacao now and again to those who are healthy will cause no problems and can have benefits such as being a good antioxidant source, studies have shown cardiovascular benefits, mood increases etc. But if you have weak adrenal glands, generalized anxiety disorder etc it would be probably wise to give cacao a miss due to the stimulants it contains.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

You stated as facts that these five foods were not good it was not me. Some raw foodists aer not healthy and resilient because they live on unripe fruits such as bananas, they are 100 percent raw vegans, frail, non resilients blaing cocoa

The title of the thread is 5 raw foods that MIGHT not really be all that healthy after all.

I realize this sort of communication is just your way but it is helpful to present your opinion as just that, Your Opinion, rather than fact. When you claim to KNOW something outside of your own personal experience it states that anyone who knows something different than you is Wrong. Not really conducive to communication.

madinah Wrote:
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> You stated as facts that these five foods were not
> good it was not me. Some raw foodists aer not
> healthy and resilient because they live on unripe
> fruits such as bananas, they are 100 percent raw
> vegans, frail, non resilients blaing cocoa

What? The article isn't mine its from Kevin Gianni at the renegade health show, i didnt write it. All i said was that i mostly agreed with his choices or gave my reasons why if not.

Its fairly accepted that prolonged use of stimulants have the ability to burn out the adrenal glands and leave people either dependent on them to artificially boost there energy or they burn out and end up fatigued. This goes for all stimulants obviously you stand more chance of burning yourself out quicker on crystal meth than you do caffeine or raw cacao but they still work in similar ways.

You only have to look at the millions who have burned themselves out with there daily caffeine use or are dependent on it to get going everyday, crash by lunch time and have another cup, crash by dinner time and have another cup. The cycle is endless until you completely burn out and/or become so sensitive to stimulants that they make you panicky and on edge that you cant consume them.

Those who are healthy it takes longer, some might even be lucky to never burn out even with repetitive stimulant use. Like i said other factors such as chronic stress(probably most important), poor diet and others all play a role. I speak from experience being someone who was healthy and managed to severely burn out there adrenal glands through binging on cocaine and other strong stimulants.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2011 06:10PM by powerlifer.

These are not the foods I eat but I would not blame them for my health pb either for an occasional cocoa in my smoothies. The right food is raw living food with hihg water content. Raw foodists not living on high water content foods are not healthy resilients and need supplements and B12 injections.

When you are eating high water content raw foods and are healthy and resilients a one meal grandma's cake will not hurt you and destroy your adrenal

Food with water content is appreciated by many because they dont consume adequate water to stave off dehydration daily, but it maes little difference to whether you need to supplement b12. There is no real vegan dietary source of b12, water rich foods will do nothing to offset this.

You are agreeing with what i said above then, like i said if your healthy a little raw cacao in moderation will cause no problems to your health or adrenal glands. You used the analogy of one meal grandmas cake wont not hurt you and if you read my posts back that's what im saying. But chronic prolonged usage of stimulants does weaken the adrenal glands.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

I don't know, the healthier I am the more I feel it when I do have something unhealthy. Even odours are too intense, give me a headache, make me feel sick. Eating 100% raw makes me very sensitive.

Hi Powerlifter, hope you dont mind me asking, but you mentioned you had really bad adrenal fatigue. How did you get over this?

veganicity Wrote:
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> Hi Powerlifter, hope you dont mind me asking, but
> you mentioned you had really bad adrenal fatigue.
> How did you get over this?

Hey veganicity, sure course not. Really getting over adrenal fatigue can depend on the cause/s/. Usually there is no one cause, emotional issues and chronic stress are usually the most important and hardest to deal with. Its easy to eliminate stimulants, change your diet etc, but deep rooted emotional or chronic stressors which you cant eliminate make overcoming adrenal fatigue much harder.

The main thing i did was start by eliminating stimulants like i say, my choices were sadly much stronger than most choices such as caffeine or nicotine. The next was changing to a high nutrient diet although at that time i wasn't 100% vegan i was consuming a very high percentage of plant foods.

I used various adaptogenic herbs which increase the bodies resistance to stress whether emotional of physical ailment. Adaptogen herbs are very good for restoring proper endocrine/adrenal gland function. Some of my favorites are schizandra berry, jiaogulan, ashwagandha, maca root, suma root, reishi etc.

Underlying issues such as heavy metal toxicity, poor digestion and liver function etc all need to be taken care of to heal fully.

Hope that somewhat helps, its a complex topic and not as simple as some think in that one diet, one herb/food etc will cure all. There are multiple causes and some can be hard to take care of especially like i say the emotional/stress based ones.

Take care
[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2011 07:29PM by powerlifer.

Thanks so much for being so honest about your own experiences. I really am grateful. You're right.... the physical and emotional stressors are those factors that are perhaps not so easy to control and eliminate. Especially when often the emotional can aggravate the physical, and often it is the external environment that triggers this cycle. For me, ive just tried to listen to my body, and start to treat it with the respect it deserves....whether or not my mind believes this to be true,

thanks again Powerlifter,

x x x