Hi everyone!

The last couple months I've been vegan. About four days ago I decided I was finally ready to started eating 100% raw. I am amazed how violently ill I got starting on day two! I had the worst migraine of my life, vomiting, and a "coldness" that went to my bones with tingling around my neck and back. I thought maybe it was food poisoning, but my boyfriend is also eating raw with me, and although we eat the same stuff that didn't happen to him. Could this already be detox? I thought for sure it would take a little longer than that to get into it?

Should I keep going? Avoid or seek certain foods? I don't feel very good right now, but at least the vomiting has stopped.

Sounds like hypoglycemia and blood sugar issues to me, id find professional help if you want to consume raw, might be safer to just eat vegan and consume a high percentage of raw food until you work out the blood sugar issues.

Tread with caution and don't let anyone fool you into believing that it is detox or normal for such severity of symptoms. I had hypoglycemia issues due to fasting, raw in the beginning and juicing due to adrenal fatigue, so know how severe it can be.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2012 07:01PM by powerlifer.

TheAdventureLady,

This was too sudden to be detox. However you do not say what you ate--if it was a gigantic amount of gourmet raw food, for example, you could have given yourself a digestive crisis! Perhaps you ate something to which you are allergic in its raw state, but tolerate OK cooked. There could be other explanations, like a sudden blood sugar crash, as powerlifer, suggests. Maybe try transitioning slowly by adding in small amounts of raw fruit[on an empty stomach] and larger salads than you are used to, while cutting back on other things. It may take weeks to add and replace items to reach 50% rawness or higher, but it could be the slow start your body needs.

It is a good idea to make sure with a doctor's visit that you are generally healthy before going any further; blood sugar problems and allergies should be ruled out. Good luck!

I disagree. I totally think this is detox! First of all, vomiting does NOT happen when a person is simply low on blood sugar! Why is everyone so resistant the concept of detox anyhow? I think many so-called "allergic reactions" occur when people who normally eat cooked versions of a food actually have something in its raw state and the cleansing leads to some symptom like bloating, skin eruptions, etc.

When I went off caffeine once, I was so nauseated that I puked. It hasn't always been that bad but I guess it depends on how much coffee I was drinking beforehand. And certain "drugs" like caffeine are very quickly eliminated from the body so the detox is particularly bad with lots of cravings. I would say the same about nicotine and even harder substances like heroin and alcohol. This is why I think pot is not considered to be physically addictive: it releases much more slowly than caffeine and alcohol so the detox isn't noticeable for most.

Actually hypoglycemia and low blood sugar can cause vomitting, the strong migraines and coldness are also common symptoms in my opinion anyway.

Detox is over-rated especially with just one day of just upping your fruit and vegetables in most cases.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

Detox is overrated? I think it's the center of it all! I have had hypoglycemia many times and had I eaten something raw, it would have raised my blood sugar. I don't get the connection between hypoglycemia and a raw food diet. You are still consuming food, so there should be steady blood sugar even in cases where you're eating fruits.

This seems to me to be classic caffeine withdrawal. Some people don't even drink coffee but energy drinks or tea. The migraine is very common when going off caffeine. I have a book on coffee addiction and the author even mentions how some people would just drink coffee on week days because of work and they'd always come down with headaches on the weekends and didn't realize it was the caffeine detox!

We must factor in things such as that many under-eat when they start a raw food diet, some don't tolerate fruit/sugar well or high fat which many raw food diets are. This can be problematic for some with issues surrounding blood sugar regulation such as those with adrenal fatigue, diabetes etc.

In the beginning when i tried juicing and a raw food diet comprised mostly of fruit i had blood sugar issues where i would feel very shakey, dizzy and that was with eating more than enough. Now that i am better i can consume any amount of juice or fruit with no issue but certainly not the cause for everyone.

Personally i still feel detox is very over-rated, many of the benefits of a raw diet come from the increased nutrient and phyto-nutrient content in my opinion of course. Detox is over-rated also in the way of an excuse for problems on a raw diet, you have people losing their period or hair and blaming detox for their problems. I had very low blood sugar when water fasting gurus convinced me that my problems were just detox when they were in fact hypoglycemia and i ended up fainting, so i can be a tad wary with these things especially when the symptoms all fall into the hypoglycemia/blood sugar category.

Mild headaches, skin rashes etc can be intial detox symptoms but strong migraines that were described as the worst of their life, coldness and vomitting are not normal symptoms.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2012 09:27PM by powerlifer.

I hear you; thanks for the clarification. Water fasting/juice feasting--yes, I can see how a person could be shaky because there's no fiber there. The sugar (albeit fruit sugar) is mainlined! I do think, however, that severe headaches can totally be linked to something as benign as coffee withdrawal (which is detox, of course). I certainly think it's more probable than an allergic reaction. Most people who go raw are not going to immediately waterfast or anything that severe; most people have enough trouble trying to eat raw foods only. And I also believe that they gravitate towards fat in some form: nuts, seeds (especially gormet raw), coconut, avocados...This will also prevent low blood sugar reactions.

The idea that hair loss is detox is silly to me. I would never subscribe to it; it's more likely some deficiency.

Yeah acute caffiene widthdrawal can cause headaches although with the other symptoms adding up i still feel its a blood sugar issue.

Def on the juice fasting with the removal of the fiber like you say.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

Thank you to all the responders!

So to answer the questions, basically every day I was eating a huge smoothie (with one or two types of fruits and a leafy green like kale or spinach) first thing in the morning. Then snack on fruits, big salad for lunch, then with dinner would have something more filling, with lots of veggies and a hummus or nut component. Is that enough?

To share some of my history, I'm 21yrs old and 5'7, 135lbs. Very active with biking and swimming. I have loved fruits and veggies my whole life, I have never eaten fast foods, never ever drank soda, no caffeine and maybe alcohol once a week or less. Unfortunately I used to eat meats and I definitely consumed a LOT of dairy, I mean I was addicted to milk and cheese. Cookies and breads were high on my munchies list, too.

I have been reading and learning about raw foods for a while. Six years ago I started trying to make it and incorporate more raw foods into my diet. The last few years I've eaten more and more vegetarian/vegan, but didn't adhere strictly. I've been trying to get some health issues under control, mainly PCOS and poor digestion.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was a blood-sugar thing, actually it did feel a little like "bonking". But I just thought it happened so fast and hard, I wasn't expecting that! Honestly, I still feel pretty weak and low energy. I haven't done almost any physical activities since starting this



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2012 10:14PM by TheAdventureLady.

Remember that with the animal fat, there are toxins you are consuming via those foods. I wouldn't be surprised if detox was involved even w/o caffeine. Hypoglycemia usually (at least for me) occur when a person has been consuming foods with lots of sugar, refined flour, and/or stimulants and then after an hour just crashes. Or if I haven't eaten in a long time (which I rarely do). It looks like you were eating pretty adequately.

Personally when i did have adrenal fatigue and blood sugar issues i need a moderate protein and all meals to contain some fat also to balance my blood sugars which were always very well controlled, with a high protein vegan high fiber diet. Anyway yeah in the start i did not just tolerate fruits and vegetables on there own very well, if i started with just a fruit smoothie my blood sugar was all over the place.

As my adrenals recovered it was fine though.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

So obviously I'd heard of hypoglycemia before, but I never bothered to look up the direct medical information of it before. That was definitely what I experienced. To both powerlifer and banana who, both of what you're saying makes sense. I think keeping the fruit sugars in an even, steady income throughout my day, as well as combining it with my fats and proteins, will be important, especially as I ease into raw.

Just watch as hypoglycemia and low blood sugar can be dangerous, you might be better off just increasing your intake of raw food for the time being.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

get real.

To me it reminds me of my detox when I first went raw. Before I went raw and cleaned up my diet I would have hypoglycemic attacks that had me so weak it actually would paralyze my body and I knew if I didn't make it to my bed to lie down I'd just fall down where-ever I was at.

I also got horrid ear-aches in both ears and after a month of pain I did succumb to getting antibiotics. This was my choice on how to deal with the acute infections that I was detoxing out of every orifice and pores of my body.

I think that you may be going thru detox issues. You are not your boyfriend and simply due to that reason have different issues with your body. If only we could see and understand clearly what is inside our bodies and what's going on. Someday that will be the case.

Try to give your body some time to adjust to the clean diet and keeping a food and symptoms diary is helpful so that you can go back and re-read and adjust the amounts and types of raw foods you are eating. You might like reading Roe Gallos book Perfect Body as it has as story of her son's girlfriend staying with Roe for a month to go raw and her detox issues were complex.

I'd love that kind of support for a month.

Love,
Prism

Prism, I actually started a food diary today, coincidentally. For me, I have such an active lifestyle, if I don't remember to keep a steady, even supply of food, I might skip meals and then once I'm hungry eat something very high calorie (regardless of whether those calories are carbs, fats, or proteins). And I do think different people will experience detox differently based on our bodies issues as well as it's ability to change.

I think there was/is some mild detox going on, but ultimately I do feel it was the dramatic up and down of my blood sugars that caused the powerful reaction, which is not as noticeable on a cooked diet. I used to race in cycling and also xc skiing, and boy have I experienced and seen others bonk! It just never occurred to me that would happen on raw foods until after that.

rawalice, what do you mean by "get real"? What did this refer to?

Everyone is a little different physically, and have had different habits of eating (some really bad), so experiencing detox type effects seems totally normal to me. The same goes the other way. If you are a raw foodist for a while, and eat a cooked meal, it could make you sick.

Check out my raw food review blog at rawfoodland.com!