This is weird for me. Although I've only started to incorporate more raw foods into my diet, I've been a vegan for going on two years now (and was a vegan through high school before that). Ethical reasons, mostly, though absolutely believe in the health benefits of a whole-food vegan diet.

Anyway, I am usually very satisfied with my diet but have recently started to crave animal foods, specifically shrimp and ground beef. The later is especially odd, as I find it particularly GROSS but what can I say...

I am currently on a restrictive diet to fight candida, low sugar/low carb. I can have one cup of berries OR a peeled green apple daily, 1/2 cup of carrots, and one serving of millet, buckwheat, quinoa, forbidden black rice, legumes, sweet potato, or pumpkin daily.

Everything else consists of raw or lightly cooked vegetables and nuts. I eat a TON of green salads, steamed vegetables... and the occasional coconut curry (it's my favorite food and I've yet to try a raw version). I eat a lot of fat, mostly from avocado and nuts, to help maintain my weight.

I'm not sure if the reason I'm craving meat is because I'm bored with my candida-restricted diet (more so than I realize) or if I'm lacking something. I also craved eggs during the first phase of the diet, which was strictly nuts and vegetables ONLY.

You say you are on a anti-candida diet but you are eating fruit. This is okay for some but not if you are older or have a weakened immune system, or both. And, if you are taking other drastic measures to strengthen your immune system the fruit might be ok.
Don't kid yourself, you are not getting rid of candida in a short time without doing some very progressive therapy, diet alone will not rid you of this. Diet and other stuff might make the symptoms go away for a while but this is usually a tough thing to be rid of. You have it because you are weak in some way if not multiple area's.
We are not suppose to discuss eating meat here so just do the best you can with what you got.

Read this thread I posted by the famous Brian Clement:
[www.rawfoodsupport.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2014 11:31PM by Superjuice.

YOU NEED INSPIRATION. Poetry, write about raw foods, what it does for you. Think about it often.
watch some videos. cooked food is addiction and yes we all have moments where it creeps up our childhood or life programming. Stay raw. Stay gold.

I am working with an RD to help figure out what foods to reintroduce and when. At this point, I do well with small servings of sprouted or cooked pseudo-grains, sweet potato, berries, and green apple. I can also occasionally treat myself to buckwheat pasta and black rice without consequence. These foods were all gradually reintroduced since starting the diet in May.

I am also taking prescription and holistic anti-fungals, as well as probiotics and digestive enzymes. Stress management is also a biggie for me, and is definitely a work in progress. Sleep, too.

I guess the intentions of my post weren't clear. I am in no way looking for "permission" to eat animal products. I am just trying to figure out what these cravings may mean, if they've been experienced or suggestive to anyone else. I can honestly say there are times when I feel bored or deprived on my restrictive diet. To crave chocolate or pineapple (or a slice of vegan pizza) would make sense to me. To crave shrimp, eggs, and BEEF - which I normally find unappetizing - definitely stands out, which is why I wonder if there may be a deficiency behind it.

Believe me. I know that if, for example, I am lacking iron I do not have to eat a cheeseburger to get it.


That said, I will be going for a blood test next week to know for sure. Now that I've missed my cycle and my hair is coming out, I cannot keep putting it off.

you are starving yourself. that is why you are craving. we crave a lot of things when we are hungry. and many people have healed candida while eating fruit. that is a myth that you need to reduce fruit. imo.

it may seem like you're eating a lot, but it's all low calorie, plus dehydrating, which causes cravings also.

I'm curious as to how you've come to this opinion, sincerely. I know that my body is definitely more sensitive to carbohydrates, as I've learned when my RD and I tried to add an extra serving of pseudo-grain or black rice to my diet. After three days, I had a pretty significant flare-up of symptoms. Actually, it has been weeks since and I am still not fully over it. So I can't imagine the consequence of eating, say, a banana at this point. I would assume my body would react quicker (and recover slower) if I were to eat so much actual sugar.

I do eat ALOT of nuts, seeds, and avocado. Too much, actually. Sometimes when the hunger hits, I will eat handfuls of unsoaked nuts and it KILLS my stomach. Though there may be additional causes, I have actually been having issues with constipation since I started this diet. Beforehand, this was seldom an issue for me. Now I'm trying to satisfy myself with adding more oils to my salads.

As to dehydration, I can honestly say that I don't always get in my 8-12 glasses of water a day, but what have I posted prior that suggests this (again, sincerely)?

don't take this as a criticism, it's just my view for you to consider or reject. my views come from 3 decades of study and experimentation.

it's not helpful to use words like Carbohydrates , Sugar, fats, etc , in my opinion. it's better to take a higher order view and look at which foods are best for us based on our physiology.

so when you say you're sensitive to carbohydrates, and mention grains/rice, my thought is that there is a confusion of terms.

you cannot put grains/rice in the same category as bananas as far as its impact on the body.

your reaction to a food is dependent upon what else you ate before that as well.

It can't hurt to try and eat simply and try more fruit and see how it goes.

Don't eat unless hungry- if the body is not ready, symptoms can arise .

grains/pseudo grains/rice are not ideal foods and will create all kinds of problems especially when a person is not in a healthy state.

trying to eat grains and nuts, seeds, avocados, oils is not going to help you at this point...

as I said many people have healed from candida without restricting fruit, it's more a matter of your overall diet that will help you.

but you may not believe that, I don't know.

dehydration will result from many of the things you are eating and it's difficult to fix just by drinking water. also don't drink based on a certain amount of glasses. just pay close attention to your thirst.

it's possible to find a good mix of fruits and veggies that will work. I'm not suggesting eating more fruit than you're comfortable with. If you're going to be afraid of fruit, then it's a formula for failure unless you can get enough calories in with veggies and roots and eat cleanly without all the fats and grains.

as far as foods, you're wasting your time and energy on some things like carrots, grains, and too much fatty stuff... focus on a balance of fruits and greens and celery raw eaten or blended and potatoes or veggies if you want some cooked.

satisfaction doesn't come from large amounts of oils or fats, it comes from time and simple diet and water rich foods with enough calories.

NUT MEATS!!! Try NUT MEAT RECIPES!!

My favorite comfort meat is the Bountenkos nut meat burger recipe

or the miami raw picadillo recipe. I have posted it in this recipe section on this board here

for ex meat addicts

I wouldn't be asking questions if I weren't looking for answers, so thank you for your response! It can be hard to interpret tone from text, but my questions are genuine -- I'm open to your answers.

While I have been unsure of the addition of black rice to my diet (as attractive as its nutritional profile/taste can be) I do know that my body responds positively to buckwheat. I get sustainable energy from it, sprouted or even cooked. Even if I come to consider eliminating other grains or pseudo-grains from my diet, I would still probably keep buckwheat as this seems to work well for me. Quality of carbs is a good point, though. I've noticed I can do berries and sweet potato in the same day without consequence, i. e.. I have been keeping a food journal to try to keep track of these things, what works and what doesn't.

To reduce fats is almost as intimidating to me as increasing sugars. I have gained back six of fifteen pounds last month and I still haven't gotten my period. Excessive weight loss is definitely a concern for me and I don't know how I'd maintain or even gain additional weight on fruit and greens alone. Another concern that I have for such a restrictive diet is the fact that I have a history of disordered eating (restrictive type).

But getting back to the addition of fruits, I have come to reduce symptoms significantly after almost four months on my candida diet. It has taken a lot of will power to stick to, but managing my symptoms is such a relief to me that it has been worth it. My biggest issue was suffering from chronic yeast infections -- I wouldn't even go a full week without one. It would be back after treatment, prescription or OTC, in 3-5 days and left me in constant physical discomfort. This went on for months and I would hate to start that cycle again.


And, on a separate note, CoconutCreme, your suggestion made me grin. I just received "Eating Without Heating" in the mail last week.

So, just a bit of an update here, I suppose.

On the plus, I've got my period back. Took over two months, but along with some apparent weight gain at least those things seem stable.

On the negative, my hair is still falling out. I've had to postpone my blood test until the end of this week, and as much as I dread needles I really just want to get it over with. The fatigue has been pretty bad, too. I've been falling asleep with the lights on lately between 9-10PM and still end up sleeping through my alarm.

Appetite is poor, yet I find myself eating what feels like too much. A bit is definitely emotional influence, as I've been spending way too much time alone right now, but I may be worrying a bit too much as this triggers the remnants of my eating disorder. Have actually been trying to keep dieting -- as in, losing weight -- out of my mind lately, when clearly I needed to put some on.

Usually I'd try to get in more activity, nevermind for physical health but just peace of mind. But between my moods and fatigue I'm just not inspired. If I'm not in a daze I'm just crying all the time.

Hi Manta91,

It could be that your cravings for animal products is the need for more protein. On a raw diet, its hard to get the protein over 5-7% of the calories. It may be that in the short term, you might want to eat some high protein cooked vegan foods, say like cooked beans/legumes.

As for living on only fruits and greens, this doesn't have to be a long term solution. You might just try this while you have candida symptoms, and when the candida goes away, you can play with increasing the fats.

Getting on a high fat raw diet can be a challenge, but there are some like Tavis and Suez who swear by it. I myself don't recommend it.

You will have to figure out what combinations of foods work for you during this healing from candida period. There have been many people who have healed from candida with a low fat raw diet. But just because it worked for them doesn't mean it will work for you.

Hair falling out has also been a classic detox symptoms for people going raw. This however is a short term issue and resolves itself after a few months. If it continues, there may be a deeper issue involved.

"I myself don't recommend it."

Based on what, exactly?

When I eat high fat, I feel low energy and need to sleep more. On the other hand, I'm not saying to eat 5% fat either.

Prana Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When I eat high fat, I feel low energy and need to
> sleep more. On the other hand, I'm not saying to
> eat 5% fat either.


Could be because your body is used to burning carbs for fuel, which is NOT the preferred fuel for the vast majority (not 100%) of people, even those who have been following low-fat high-carb diets for decades. Maybe you're in the very small minority of individuals who do well on high-carb diets. Having to exercise copious amounts just to burn off the sugar in your diet so it doesn't negatively effect you is a liability, not healthy. However, there isn't a right or wrong way, everyone has different nutritional needs (including fats, carbs, protein)... which is why it's ridiculous to hear low-fat high-carb people tell everyone else they need to be low-fat, especially when that's terrible advice most of the time. That being said, low-fat plant based diets are still very low in EPA/DHA, selenium, iodine, zinc, and many times iron. Maybe those who do well have small needs for these nutrients, maybe they could unknowingly be doing much, much better.

[www.marksdailyapple.com]

"Naturally, in the presence of all that glucose, and provided you actually do some exercise, your genes will eventually get the signals to up-regulate the enzyme systems, pathways and receptors involved in sugar-burning and fat storage and they’ll down-regulate all those involved in accessing and burning fat for energy. Of course, that doesn’t make it right, but it sure makes it appear as if glucose is king. What makes it worse, if you don’t exercise, you head down the path to insulin resistance and/or obesity."

"Glucose is not the preferred fuel of muscle cells under normal human resting metabolic conditions or even under most normal human movement patterns (exercise). Fat is. Sure, given an unlimited supply of glucose and regular refilling of glycogen stores, skeletal muscle will burn through it during exercise the same way a fire burns through kindling when that’s all you have to offer. The body can shift carbohydrate oxidation to keep up with intake. But skeletal muscle can burn fat with great efficiency (and far less oxidative fallout) at relatively high outputs for very long bouts. Cardiac muscle actually prefers ketones, and the brain can run just fine (maybe even optimally) on a blend of ketones and minimal glucose. Our survival as a species has depended on these evolutionary adaptations away from glucose dependency. Entire civilizations have existed for ages on what is practically a zero-carb diet. Think about this: there is actually no requirement for any “essential dietary carbohydrates” in human nutrition. It’s possible to live a very long and healthy life never consuming much – if any – in the way of carbs, provided you get adequate dietary protein and fat. The same can’t be said for going too long without protein or fat. Cut too far back on either of those macronutrients and you will eventually get sick and die."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2014 09:10PM by jtprindl.

I recently had candida and I had the same intake of fruits (50%) while no overt fats, and 50% veggies, and the candida went away just like it came. I also used coconut oil and shea butter locally (both pure organic, unrefined), and they did wonders, I really recommend trying them both, or at least one of them.

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Raw vegan for life. Vegan for the animals. Raw for my health.

Good to know about hair loss as a detox symptom -- I have never heard of that. However, as mine has been accompanied by increased fatigue/dizziness I am still just as concerned.

Ela, glad to hear you tolerated the fruits well. May I ask, what were your symptoms and how long did they last?

Also, I do use coconut oil topically and agree, it is soothing.