Hey all,

I went without solid food for the first time two weeks ago on a 10 day Master Cleanse, I feel I definitely benefited from that experience. I was shocked to discover I really don't need to eat very much. I actually started working out during that time albeit gently. I'm tempted to do it again, I can feel people are drawn to me now, it's weird, it's like they are biologically/chemically attracted.

At the moment I have a pile of bananas in my kitchen. Mono diet gets mentioned a lot in here. I thought I'd do it for 3 days just on a whim. I've eaten a few unhealthy things, and feel a short rest and then try again with vegan/raw as my goal.

I was wondering what your mono diets are like. How long do you do it? What produce works well for this purpose? Do you do different produce mono diet back to back eg bananas one week, dates another? Do you drink water? Do you eat it direct and chew? Or do you always blend it up? etc.

When people ask why I'm doing this I only have a vague response saying that it's easy on the body to digest one thing for a few days. Is that the essence to it? Or is there more?

I don't do it and I wouldn't do it. My diet is a little limited anyway as i don't make fancy raw creations and a lot of the fresh produce i would like to eat is very expensive or not ripe etc in England.

So I eat as wide a variety of fruits and vegetables and wild herbs every day - i think it is sensible to get as many different nutrients on a daily basis as possible. I am in favour of perhaps just juicing one or two days a week but again not restricting it to only one type of juice.

I cannot see the wisdom in restricting your diet to only one food stuff for more than one meal.

If it's yummy ripe watermelon I can do the mono-eating for a day. I just can't choke down too many bananas though in order to sustain a whole day of eating them. I would rather have a couple bananas along with just water for a day.

One thing about eating that simply is there is no figuring out what to make or what you "want" to eat.

I love eating just watermelon when it comes out and is at it's peak for a whole day..it's the best cleanse and good for your kidneys. I try to get the seeded large watermelons.

Love,
Prism

adamlogan Wrote:
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> I was wondering what your mono diets are like. How
> long do you do it? What produce works well for
> this purpose? Do you do different produce mono
> diet back to back eg bananas one week, dates
> another? Do you drink water? Do you eat it direct
> and chew? Or do you always blend it up? etc.

I've been eating a mono-diet of mostly raw peanuts which I think works well because they're cheap and contain almost everything a body needs dietarily except vitamins A, C, K, and B12 (which don't really need to be consumed daily and, with the exception of vitamin B12, can all be obtained by consuming a moderate amount of green leaves). So maybe what I've been doing doesn't really count as completely "mono" because, in addition to the nuts, I've also been eating kale as a breakfast appetizer and an after-dinner dessert (so maybe it's a "duo diet"?)...but one of the reasons I picked nuts as the staple of my mono/duo-diet is because I don't think it'd be any different if I only ate the greens occasionally.

So far I've only been doing it for a day or two at a time for a few months, but my goal is to do it every day indefinitely (except maybe on holidays when I'll try to get some B12 which can supposedly be recycled by the body for years). I don't blend (just remove shells, soak, chew, and swallow).

adamlogan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When people ask why I'm doing this I only have a
> vague response saying that it's easy on the body
> to digest one thing for a few days. Is that the
> essence to it? Or is there more?

That's one advantage, but I've also been doing it because:
1. It's easier. No time wasted thinking "what should I eat?" and often little time wasted preparing (if it's raw). I just eat it and get on with my life.
2. Can be cheaper if you restrict yourself to whatever's on sale or in-season or buy in bulk (for semi-nonperishables like nuts...I just bought a month's worth of food for about $25).
3. If you grow all your own food (or aspire to) then what else could you possibly do? In this case when the bananas are ready to harvest you either have to eat bananas or preserve them (or let them rot). I'm also thinking it's probably a lot easier to grow just one or two crops...especially if you want to use the permaculture of the area (which might not contain too many plants that work well dietarily).

I'm new here, but it seems to me that most people on this forum are interested in nutrition and the enjoyment of nutritious food for maintaining and/or regaining physiological health. But IMO mono-dieting isn't much use for that (except to give the digestive system an occasional rest). So for me restricting food variety is mostly a means to achieve goals other than nutrition such as minimizing time, cost, effort, dependence on markets, etc. YMMV.

I like to do 2 meals the same, say for example, watermelon for both meals or a big bowl of leafy greens for both meals. That's about the extent of my mono-dieting. I like juicing, but then I use lots of different kinds of juices too.

Thanks for the feedback all,

Flipperjan: Generally I agree that variety in diet is important, but personally I need a break from deciding what to eat and what to prepare once in awhile. I don't do elaborate creations, but even simple combinations of raw food can be time consuming especially in cleaning the produce, and then cleaning the kitchen. I usually feel too much time has passed if I do the entire process in one go.

Prism:
Water melon is what's on the menu this weekend. It's been a real treat. As far as the bananas I have been blending them up with nuts and then adding a little some greens and a carrot. It's funny but what started out as a mono diet experiment turned into something similar to baby food! =). I am aware of how much sugar is in a banana, so it's hard for me tor me to resist from adding other varieties of nutrients.

ExperimentsWithTruth:
I have noticed that I've been gravitating towards nuts lately. Almonds, walnuts, plain peanut butter. Yum. I'll have to check out other varieties in the bulk department. I soak my almonds, but have yet to do it with other nuts. I'll give it a try with the walnuts soon and see how that goes. It definitely helps with chewing/indigestion. I've never tried sticking to just nuts and greens. I'll have to try it sometimes for a few days.

Nic:
So is this a case of preparing once and dining twice? I suppose sometimes yes sometimes no? Either way it sounds efficient to me in terms of consuming food.

Interesting Adamlogan.

Did you not prepare food before you went raw? I find it much quicker to throw a salad together than cooking a vegan cooked meal but I have always cooked from scratch with fresh ingredients which takes time.

At first I thought your original post was about the benefits or not from mono eating but your last response to me seems to be about time spent in the kitchen. I find it hard to understand you because to me one of the joys of eating raw is creating a beautiful plate full of fresh, vibrant, delicious looking salad. It takes as long as running it under a tap and putting it from the fridge, via a chopping board onto a plate. Actually for me it is also a lovely wander around my garden collecting fresh leaves and herbs and flowers to add to my salads. I get such enormous pleasure from this. The cleaning of the kitchen involves one plate, one knife and fork and maybe a chopping board.
Making juice is a bit messier but it is still only the juicer or the blender - NOTHING like the work of the old food that I used to cook. Maybe you used to buy takeaway stuff before and not cook much?
Personally I think that for raw to work for me I have to love my food and love the process of collecting, buying, growing it -
I think that somewhere along the line I am probably missing the point you are making

Well for starters I'm not really raw, I'd like to be raw and I'm leaning towards it but I still eat things I shouldn't. From everything I've been reading though it seems like raw uncooked organic produce is about as safe easy and nutritionally sound as it gets.

I've only just started making meals from recipes yeah. I'm still learning about all the intricacies of various produce as well. I've been eating better than the average American for 4 years now thanks to the ease and versatility of making my own green smoothies and just by not eating fast food ever, and by not consuming the worst of processed foods.

What keeps me in the kitchen longer than usual is the fact that I wash all my produce with a samson ultrasonic washer, and in order to do that the sink needs to be completely empty. My parents come and go all the time and leave stuff in the sink. So I usually end up having to wash the dishes or put away dry dishes so that I have space & the utensils I need.

You're right, many vegetarian/raw recipes require more work than preparing a salad. Many of the "ingredients" needed for vegetarian recipes are practically a recipe in themselves or more accurately, require equal to or more work than making a salad.

With all that I've been reading about the horrors of processed food and the harmful effects of cooking I'm more motivated than ever to go go raw and try doing salads more regularly. I like how easy it is to make salad dressings. I've made two so far.

I am genuinely interested in the mono diet, I am just not able to really do it very well right now. One thing that is unacceptable to me is wasted food. My parents often have food that is on it's way out. So while I was all set to eat only bananas, I wound up adding carrots and lettuce.

I was interested in the mono diet as a short term way to relax and take it easy and let my body clean up shop and recharge a bit. I have eaten too much including some junky things since the master cleanse. Doing the master cleanse again so soon does not seem wise to me. I could do it just for a few days I suppose, it's been a few weeks now. The mono-diet seemed like a well suited alternative that begged exploring. I'm going to try it again. I liked the watermelon suggestion. I'll just have to commit myself as I did with the master cleanse and accept it when produce my parents buy go to waste.

I can relate a little bit to your satisfaction in your garden. I spent a month at a zen monastery, most of my work practice periods were spent weeding or watering two greenhouses and three outdoor gardens there. Although not produce, I loved picking off the hydrangea buds. I felt like I was breathing better around those plants. Yeah I LOVE the beauty colors and scent of fresh produce on my plate too.

I hope to have my own garden someday. I don't have experience growing things from start to finish though. I'm thinking about doing a WWOOF experience this Summer if I don't find a temporary job in the next week or two.

It's late here, time to get off the puter and read a good book and wind down for sleep.

Warm regards Flipperjan, and thanks for the feedback.

~Adam

Mono eating sure makes for easier meal prep and clean-up.