I started out at "80% raw" about 6 months ago and have been working my way up to 100% raw ever since. It was kind of hard at first, and I definitely still wanted cooked foods, but resisted as much as I could. Over the holidays, I did kind of slip up a bit and eat a little more cooked (still vegan) foods and felt so awful compared to the raw foods. In the past 2 weeks, I just haven't had any real desire for cooked foods at all. It's like a switch flipped in my brain, I can't help but equate cooked foods to being something I don't want in my body anymore.

At what point did you start to feel this way, or do you still crave cooked food?

To be honest I never really craved it after going 100% raw, I was just excited about the switch and stayed with it. Maybe for others it takes an experience similar to yours (or more than one) where they realize how bad cooked food makes them feel and they finally decide enough is enough. Cravings may also be an indicator of a nutrient deficiency or a detox symptom. I wouldn't say I had cravings but after I went 100% raw, I would randomly get reminded of some bizarre food I hadn't even thought about in years. I've heard that this means your body is detoxing that specific food at that moment but not sure if that's true or not.

2 weeks or so

One of the things which helped me was to eliminate virtually all cravings from day one. How? Fill up with lots of protein rich sprouts so the hunger goes away. You won't have cravings for certain foods, and cravings for cooked will be well under control/. You can get by quite easily. But, if l had a high fruit diet l wouldn't be able to stop the cravings. I do feel a strong robust diet is the key, especially a sprout based diet.

When you start off, eat lots of food so you don't do something silly like eat bad foods.

Hey sproutman- I did actually take your advice about shifting to lower fat and made up some sprouting jars to incorporate more sprouts in my diet. I just got my first 'batch' of mung beans, with the radish and broccoli sprouts coming along nicely. I have already been snacking on the mung beans and figuring out ways to utilize these sprouts in my recipes. I will be experimenting tonight with some sprouts blended into a "gravy" I'm using on a nut-free veggie "steak". My husband is fortunately very open minded about the raw foods, but does not just want fruits and veg, so I'm getting 'creative'. I think the rest of those mung beans I'll use in a carob "sproutshake". I'll be letting you know here and there how adding a lot of sprouts into my diet works out.

Cooked food is disgusting. Do not ever forget that. Tell yourself that over and over and if you feel you have to binge on a hamburger, while you are eating that hamburger tell yourself it it disgusting while you are eating it, then after or during decide you want to be 100% raw vegan. Keep putting that in your head even while you eat it.. Sometimes it takes a long time for our bodies to catch up with our brilliant minds.

Cooked food is nasty - Do not ever forget that!!! COWBIRD, KIWIBIRD HEED!!!





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2015 05:20AM by coconutcream.

The major way to go off cooked food is to eat large sprout salads before a cooked meal. Why? Because the strong flavours of the sprouts will greatly reduce the taste and enjoyment of the cooked meal. After a few days of eating a large bowl of alfalfa sprouts the taste buds have already undergone a major change towards raw food, and you may even start enjoying them by the week's end. Mung bean sprouts are also another potent changer of the taste buds and blocks out the nice tastes of a cooked meal. The change to the taste buds is the finest way to bring someone over to raw imo because it takes away the desire for rubbish food and changes the taste buds in a powerful way which seems to last forever, so...even if someone went back to SAD, they would likely still desire much more vegetables in the diet than they ever did. Once you start enjoying your legume sprouts you can take the bull by the horns and ride it all the way home, night after night.

It took me a l-o-n-g time to get over craving cooked foods. It's OK though. I've been well over that hump now for decades. Well worth it, in my case.

I agree with Sproutarian Man, that a robust diet is key. In addition, I find equilibrium through regular exercise. I also find that intermittent water fasts are helpful for recharging the internal battery, whatever that is.

To be clear, when I say 'craving cooked foods' I mean like oatmeal for breakfast or rice and steamed veggies, not hamburgers and twinkies lol. I haven't eaten that kind of highly processed junk food or fast food in about 8 years and was a ovo-lacto vegetarian for 15 before going raw.

I guess this is all a process and I do feel I am on my way to being a raw vegan for the long term. I just kind of expected it to be more like when I went vegetarian, it was instant repulsion, never wanted meat again. With going raw, it has been more of a transition. And thanks to everyone who replied with how much time they took too. I was curious if it was "normal" or not to need a few months before you finally started not wanting the cooked foods any more.

Kiwibird Wrote:
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> To be clear, when I say 'craving cooked foods' I
> mean like oatmeal for breakfast or rice and
> steamed veggies, not hamburgers and twinkies lol.

Yes, understood in my case. Same answer. Brown rice, tofu, steamed veggies, beans, and pasta were difficult to give up.

I'm transitioning, as I still eat steamed vegetables fairly regularly and occasionally cooked millet. Could do worse, could do better. It's working for me right now, so I feel okay about it.

One observation I have made lately, though, is that I'm more satisfied by simple foods. That's not to say that I don't enjoy more complex meals either, but I just don't need them as much to feel satisfied.

Quote
Brown rice, tofu, steamed veggies, beans, and pasta

GIVE IT UP PERMANENTLY. You will feel thousand times better and more amazing things will happen to your life. No more excuses. Go 100%

Going 100% in your brain is all you need. The rest works itself out.

Feed that stuff to your cooked family. Not you!!





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2015 06:46AM by coconutcream.

There are lots of great comments here. The one I think I like the most is coconutcream's "Cooked food is disgusting. Do not ever forget that."

When you see it that way, you won't have any cravings. Cooked food is disgusting; it looks dead, it looks like it's had the living daylights kicked right out of it. Right now, you're in a spiritual transition and as your consciousness grows and you can see cooked food for what it really is - DEAD - more and more, you'll prefer life to death. It may sound a bit extreme but it's true anyway.

Why would you crave something that looks lifeless? I'd say in order to lose the craving, make lots of visual comparisons - living food vs. cooked food. Looked at them side by side. Living food has a crisp, living, vibrant light about it. Cooked food looks like glop; it's limp. What's to want?

I've been completely raw for about six years of my life but not consistently. Most recently, I've been 100% raw for 32 months now and I crave living food more than I ever craved cooked food.

Rather than answering to how long the cravings last, I would rather speak to how long until cooked food is repulsive - personally it takes less than a year and now, I abhor the smell, the look, the deception.

I FEEL LIKE I AM WITH MY OWN KIND > GOODNIGHT LOVIES.

Those who are promoting a 100 percent raw and nothing else are missing the point.
It is not just the food, the nutrients, there is the joy and excitement of eating.
People have hard time breaking old habits.
If someone enjoys a particular cooked meal, he may feel more excited eating a raw salad before the cooked meal.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2015 03:21PM by RawPracticalist.

After I first went raw, I experienced plenty of cooked food cravings (like mash potatoes, polenta, my homemade bread). Then they were gone. But they hit again after a while and they were pretty strong (the same cravings plus cravings for frozen green peas). I had good guidance and they went away. But I still like the smell of certain cooked foods, even of non-vegan ones. That's weird, I know. I'd never go back to vegan cooked food (non-vegan cooked food is out of the question anyway).

I'd like to know when I'll be able to stop liking the smell of cooked food. What do you think about that?

Btw, I love raw vegan food, I love the smell, the colours, the taste, the way it makes me feel, it makes me feel complete and fulfilled on all the levels.

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



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2015 09:07PM by Ela2013.

Ela2013 Wrote:
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> I'd like to know when I'll be able to stop liking
> the smell of cooked food. What do you think about
> that?


Ela, aside from the smell of cooked meat (which smells ghastly to me) I find it such a blessing, and so freeing, to be in the position to have learned that all along the best part of cooked food was their smells! Now I can enjoy and appreciate that best aspect of cooked food and not in the least be tempted to eat them.

Ela2013 Wrote:
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>
> I'd like to know when I'll be able to stop liking
> the smell of cooked food. What do you think about
> that?



I think you should just live in the present, enjoy the smells for what they are, and eat your healthy food and move on

Thank you so much, SueZ and Utopian Life, I'll do just that.

I think the key is to rise above the notion of cooked food and what it stands for, and see it for what it really is. And yes, the smells may be very tempting, but just imagine the effects of the cooked food on a body running on raw vegan food only.

Well, after all we are living in a cooked food world...

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

Ela2013 Wrote:
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> Thank you so much, SueZ and Utopian Life, I'll do
> just that.
>
> I think the key is to rise above the notion of
> cooked food and what it stands for, and see it for
> what it really is. And yes, the smells may be very
> tempting, but just imagine the effects of the
> cooked food on a body running on raw vegan food
> only.
>
> Well, after all we are living in a cooked food
> world...
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Ela, another thing I have found of great benefit is to use raw vegan alternatives for cooking smells and flavors in my raw vegan food preparation. There are some very good organic ones now available which can mimic almost every cooked one with a drop or two's addition.

Oh, this is a wonderful idea, SueZ

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