hi all. I'm new to this forum. here's the deal. my body is sick. I am overweight, my knees and ankles hurt, I have chronic low back pain, i am weak, I get frequent heartburn, I'm addicted to sugar, I have a serious candida problem, I'm addicted to caffeine,i'm tired, and with all of this I'm a stay at home mom to a 4 year old and a breastfed 9 month old.

I have been vegan before (almost a year) and it was the healthiest I've ever been and i could feel it. this time i've made a commitment to myself to go raw for 1 year (god that sounds like a long time)....Actually I am really excited and although I'm not expecting my family to go raw, I know that they will be eating healthier just because better food will be in the house.

I will need help and support especially as I turn this into habbit over the next couple weeks. Most of the people around me think I'm crazy or that I won't actually do it. (how supporive is that?)

Is there anything I should do to make sure my breastmilk stays healthy? Is there a basic foundation of daily foods for most raw foodists? How can I simplify this?

also, I have a ton of brown rice, do you sprout it or am I saying goodbye to brown rice? If you can sprout it, what is something EASY with FEW ingrediants I can add.

looking forward to getting to know you all!
Sarah, in Michigan

Do check out the 30 Day Challenge on this other board, I think you'll love it.

[www.rawfoodtalk.com]

There is also a 2007 Challenge on that same board, if you want to set a year-long goal.

[www.rawfoodtalk.com]



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2007 07:53PM by tropical.

Hi Sarah,

Welcome to the raw food journey. Raw foods, in addition to healthful living habits, can help you heal the various afflictions you mentioned.

Before going all raw, there are some things that can help some of your conditions. For the heartburn, learning how to eat food combinations that are easy to digest will help. There is a great book called "Food Combining Make Easy" by Herbert Shelton. These principles will help you on both a cooked food diet and a raw food diet. The other thing that can help your candida problem is eating a low fat (under 10% fat) diet. Whether you are eating cooked or raw, the candida will go away if you can keep your total fat intake under 10%. You can use a nutritional calculator like fitday or nutridiary to enter in your daily menu and see what your fat intake looks like.

To keep healthy breast milk, its a matter of getting plenty of nutrients. Eat enough calories, but not empty calories. Greens have the highest nutrient per calorie of the raw foods. Then comes fruit. So make sure you are eating plenty of whole ripe raw organic whole fruits and vegetables. Again, you can use the nutritional calculators to see how your raw diet compares to your cooked diet in terms of the various nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Also, with raw foods, you will need to spend some time in the sun, as raw vegans don't get dietary vitamin-D. However, vitamin-D can be created in the body as sunshine is absorbed through the skin.

Rice cannot be sprouted and eaten. Best to give it away to a friend who can use it. In the raw diet, the cooked starches are replaced by fresh fruit. It takes a lot of fruit to equal a bowl of rice. You can use the nutritional calculators to see how many pieces of fruit equals a bowl of rice.

thank you both! I think it all fell into a perfect reminder today when I thought I'd bid farewell to my beloved healthy vegan soup (cooked brown rice, lentils, veggies, broth, herbs) and about 20minutes later I felt like crap and I was so tired. You would think that any way they were served up these healthy foods would make you feel great and give you lots of energy....you would think.

I think I'm gonna like it here.

sarah