i was wondering if anybody out there has a list or a website or nething on what certain cravings mean,, i just thought it would be interesting...

For some craving, they occur when your body is detoxing out a substance from the body. So if you are craving a cigarette after not smoking one for 24 hours, this is because the body is cleansing itself, and having the cigarette toxins in the blood make the desire arise.

On the other hand, a craving could come from a nutritional deficiency. In our over fed modern world, nutritional deficiencies are a rarer occurance than the detoxification style of cravings, though they can occur even with the abundance of foods most people have access to. This is because those foods are so deficient in basic nutrients like vitamins and minerals.

Eating a wide assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables will assure you of your nutrient needs.

Another kind of craving could come from emotional needs. In our society, we use foods to quell uncomfortable emotions and feelings. For this kind of craving, its best to address the source of the discomfort rather than to use food to make it go away (which is at best temporary).

I agree with Bryan's post and think this is really important knowledge. Cravings can be overwhelming and can lead us astray, when some basic understanding of them could keep us on our chosen course. I wish I'd known this years ago, it would have been so much easier to make good choices.

hey brian thankyou,, but i meant cravings for certain rawfoods like figs and avos supposedly help with asma in boutenkos book,, that is wat i meant

fuzzy,

I like Bryan's answer, too. Regarding your specific question, I don't know that Boutenko knows really what she is saying regarding asthma. It could be true but I've found that asthma is really caused by parasites. You can read Hulda Clark's "The Cure for All Diseases" and she addresses this.

As for craving something because you plain like it or maybe you're missing the nutrients that it provides: eat it if it is good for your body/mind/spirit; find a substitute that offers the same nutrients but is healthy for you.

I've been craving Cheramoya's ever since I tasted one. I really like them just like Rambutans and Passion fruit. However, I'm having difficulty finding them where I first found them since they only offer what is shipped. Anyhow, sometimes, I crave coconut water and it muscle tests strong and I know that I need the nutrients inside. (Yes, in this instance, I'm replacing blood loss so there is some truth in what Boutenko says.) Therefore, I buy them. Hope that helps.

Good luck.
Therese



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2007 10:06AM by life101.

Has anyone here experienced "cravings" a few years after managing to stay raw?

I was directed to a blog that led me to victoria boutenko's "green for life" interviews where she discussed actually hitting a "plateau" where the cravings got really bad and she started gaining weight again and feeling tired even though she was still doing the "raw" thing.

She said she'd written letters to everyone she knew about being an authority on raw and they'd all experienced the same thing and hadn't found a perfect solution yet.

Then she discussed her research into greens and how her resulting changes in diet (still raw) eliminated her cravings and started her back to losing weight she'd regained and also eliminated the new fatigue she was experiencing.

I just wonder if this is a common experience. Do fruitarians experience this as well as people using a combination of fruits, greens, seeds, etc.?

There is a very interesting chart here:

[www.naturopathyworks.com]

(Warning, it's not vegeterian, but there are parts of it which are relevant for a raw food diet.)

I think cravings have a very strong nutritional basis. From my own personal experience, I had been high raw about 2 1/2 years, but kept having cravings and would regularly indulge in random junk foods. I changed my raw diet, adding hemp milk every day, raw chocolate and superfoods (goji berries, maca, hemp leaf powder) and a very small amount of raw dairy and my cravings went away. 2 years later, I'm virtually 100% raw with no cravings.

I've had similar experiences to Therese when I've tried a new food and felt my body tell me that it really needed that. Young coconut water and mesquite meal being two recent examples of this.

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

Most SAD food is filled with synthetic "nutrients", which our bodies don't thrive on, so many people are very undernourished.

Organic nutrients are life force, that is what life force is made of...nutrients.

If something is dead, it has no life force or nutrients... it's the same thing.

Synthetic nutrients have no life force. Live nutrients do have life force.

Obesity & eating many calories = undernourished. Eating lots of calories does not mean overnourished. Most calories in the SAD have no live nutrients.

Thanks for the chart Funky Rob.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2007 04:10PM by Rawrrr!.

This is going to sound weird but one of the things I learned when starting with the MC is that most cravings had something to do with the colon. Since you're not "going" at night, I'd be getting cravings for pizza at night and after going in the morning they'd be gone. There's a bit about it on the MC site -
[www.therawfoodsite.com]

QUOTE: "Cravings — I have only known one or two people to be hungry on this cleanse. Drinking more lemonade or water handles that. I have, however, observed that people on the cleanse crave what they are detoxifying. Proof that this is true is that the cravings usually go away the next morning with bowel movements. You can crave anything when detoxifying, but most likely you will experience cravings for the most toxic foods, such as pizza, hamburgers, barbeque ribs, etc."

If you went straight raw and never colon cleansed and have years of that stuff in you, that could be why you'd crave things. I've gotten addicted to colon cleansing/Oxypowder since because even after going back to eating I noticed when I didn't have enough bms that day I'd be craving stuff and hungry. Also agree with Bryan about the sweets and the 811 approach. I'm on day 8 of 811 and for the first time with food I don't have the urge to binge eat. Usually I only felt like this during fasting.

Yesterday I was actually craving chocolate and had one of those weird diet "cheat" dreams where you eat something you shouldn't be eating. I drank OJ and ate 2 banannas and it went away. Yesterday was also the first day all week I hadn't had any juice. I've been drinking 16 -32oz of carrot + beets or spinach everyday.

If I crave Pizza, I realized it's usually the tang-ness of the sauce I crave. I've been able to kill it with grapefruit every time. Go figure.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2007 04:18PM by LikeItOrNot.

I agree LikeItOrNOt

being internally clean and getting enough carbs from fruits goes along way to curbing (or even non-existant) cravings

most cravings will be a sure sign of detox from those foods, just because someone is 'eating' raw for years doesn't mean they are necessarily cleansing on that level.

of course another factor is the emotional memory which could be considered another type of detox. I too get the 'detox dreams' I think they are kinda fun, certainly don't bother me. I live in an urban area and walk around a virtual shopping mall of smells every day. they even cook the worst of foods in the dam street! The only thing I crave is a quite place indoors to rest and eat from my bag when its raining!


As for Boutenko..anyone who thinks the type of problems she was experiencing were somehow due to a defficiency of greens alone has no credibility IMO, or that humans somehow need X ammount of greens from some kind of fruit soup or whatever is also a bold/(false) statement. If you heard her inteview on Raw Vegan Radio it sounded like she was the one having a dam asthma attack. but of course that is just my opinion/observation

Anaken, I wasn't impressed by Boutenko's children's raw book so I made the link that Boutenko, herself, wasn't fully informed. Also, when you look at her photo, she doesn't have that raw glow.

FUD, Considering looking at Dr. Douglas Graham's work 80/10/10 as Bryan mentioned. Of the popular raw theories, his is very logical. (I've looked at many theories including Alyssa Cohen (Too much raw gourmet, i.e. dehydrated food. Also, her eyes are still brown. In true raw, all eyes are either greenish or bluish. My eyes are brown but are turning blue and I'm not Caucasian.), Shazzie (Her system is decent (except the raw chocolate) but it is not developed enough. Her eyes are a brillant blue. She does have the raw glow.), Dr. Joel Fuhrman (He is vegetarian but his book "Eat to Live" makes a lot of sense regarding vegetables. Ignore the part that allows meat in his transition diet.), Aajonus Vonderplatz (He is a raw meat eater in addition to raw veggies/fruits. I looked at the followers of his diet and they were not vibrantly healthy. They did not have the raw glow and many were overweight. They were super friendly, though. Good theory about raw dairy if you body doesn't function without it.), Frederic Patenaude (Super enthusiastic and willing to help. His websites gave alot of good info for free. He has joined forces with Dr. Graham), The Essene Gospel of Peace (This is raw but does allow raw dairy. I think this is logical, too, but not vegan.), David Wolfe (He plagurized R.C. Dini.), Gabriel Cousens (He advocates expensive supplements which only he sells.), Boutenko's children's theory (in essence, Boutenko's theory. Too many odd mixtures of fruit with non-fruit.), and others.) Arnold Ehret is excellent, too but he is not one of our contemporaries. Also, there is a website that is helpful: [rawgetarian.com] (I believe that the website or an offshoot of it will be more coaching oriented in the near future.) No matter what the theory, I suggest finding something that works for your body. Theories are great but if your body is falling apart, it's not applicable to you.

When I was 100% raw vegan, I was craving protein. That was because I wasn't eating enough protein and not getting enough nutrients because I simply couldn't eat the quantities that were necessary. Also, I would smell something like Fried Chicken and had a sense of longing. I am not at the point where I abhor the smell of cooked meat/fish. However, I do dislike the smell of raw meat/fish, go figure. Also, I don't like the perspiration odor from meat eaters. Sometimes, their breath is enough to turn my stomach.

FunkyRob, Interesting chart. Thanks.

LikeItOrNot: How funny, I had one of those wake up in cold sweat nightmares in the beginning, too. It was such a relief when I woke up and realized it was only a dream.

Therese

im curious where you saw/read this

In true raw, all eyes are either greenish or bluish

??? do you have alink ..thats kinda interesting

heh, one other way to look at it is when someone is cooking something, lets say for the sake of keeping it on forum..a tomato...and all the aromas entice you... these are mainly comprised of all the oxygen and water cooking OUT of the thing.

so instead of repulsion or self judgement...enjoy the vital energy that everyone else is missing and keep on doing what your doing.

Guys,
If any of you are raw and still have brown eyes, rest assured it's okay. I know plenty of 'rawsters' whose brown eyes didn't turn green or blue.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

Still, it would be interesting to read the source as to the eyes changing color and what specifically it's based on, etc.

I forget the Doctor's name. He went around the world and found that in each instance where the person was eating completely raw vegan, the eyes changed color. My friend's sister's eyes were brown and after eating raw for I think 18 months (I think this was the time frame), her eyes turned blue. Of course, your eyes can turn back when you change your diet.

Therese

hehe thats cool ..mine are blue anyways .. but i thought that was interesting

Hey anaken...i don't like to talk about others or choices or say anything about someone...but i totally agree with you on the whole victoria thing...i have been thinking this for months since i went raw...I at first started to think wow raw didn't really work for her what if it doesn't work for me..since i have only been raw since January 24...i got really nervous and scared...because yes she has lost weight...but she is starting to gain a lot of it back..i watched a video of her recently from san diego here at one of the produce places and you would NEVER know she was a raw vegan from her non glow or healthy look...it scared me to think that this women who has made her fortune on good health and preaching all these good things doesn't look like they say...then i found most of you on here look glowing and really do look different and feel different..and i realised yeah she did make a fortune..maybe that fortune was made on something she may not follow so much?? i don't know but i am glad i am not CRAZY in my being nervous and thinking she doesn't look very healthy.....that scares me because i didn't want to end up like that and i started to feel weird cuz i didn't want to tell anyone since i am still overweight but doing better you know??? sorry i just left this big blog but i had so many mixed emotions on the whole botenka family and their raw choices whether it is right or not....
oh and at first i read the green for life and did the smoothies everyday but didn't feel any different or look any different so i went to my own thoughts and did more fruits and greens when i wanted them and did them in whole form and feel better...so i am glad i didn't stick with her theory...i just didn't know where to turn being a newbie...

hmm okay i am done ranting...just wanted to say this haha
love earthangel
xoxoxoxox

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo

Hey Earth Angel,

I wasn't insinuating that she doesn't practice what she preaches/profits. I think the idea that one could turn around the type of problems she was running into simply by adding greens is dubious at best, so one can add their own theories there. To me its more of an issue of neglected cleansing, hense the 'continuing lack of vitality' you observe. the proof being that I think peoplce can, and are, functioning fine without greens if they are in touch with the cleansing of their bodies.

I'm glad you've found people HERE that inspire you. Listen to what people who have to say based on their experiences and unltimately making your own raw choices is probably whats best.

It sounds like you are doing pretty great to me if you can already evaluate what is/ is not working for you

oh, btw, personally for me I think greens are great/needed, I just can't wrap my head around someone saying ALL humans need X ammount of greens like its some kind of missing link...

cheers

btw, I also think the eyes thing is a bit silly eyes will most likely get 'clearer', why would blue/ green be some kind of ultimate in purity?. I know some long term raw foodists with beautiful almond eyes.

My understanding from the boutenko interview videos was that she had gained the weight back while on a high fruit version of raw after hitting the "plateau" she spoke of. And when she had just started to lose the weight back and get back on track with the greens she'd done the interview and was still in the process of losing the weight back. She did mention that she was losing it more slowly than before but felt better without the cravings.

My guess is, without having read all of her books, or knowing her entire trip, that she fell into the "too much gourmet" mentioned before. Her children have come up with some fantastic looking dishes it seems. While I'd probably love to try the gourmet foods I'm afraid it will keep me into the cravings. I feel guilty about using salt on my tomatoes and am already finding myself weening myself from the salt so I'm not adding unaturally occuring minerals.

Just from what I've read these past few days I'd have to accept the comments made that "dead food is nutrient deprived, whether raw or processed" and I can't see how fermenting blended nuts for 8 to 12 hours to make a cheese base, or using a nori wrap provides the enzymes we get from freshly picked foods. I can't remember which post I read it on but it said that within hours of being picked the plants begin the process of decay.

This is why I want to find a place where I can have some type of year round gardening going. While raw foods are still better than the processed foods, living is the ultimate from what everyone seems to be posting.

How can a smoothie maintain it's nutrients and enzymes for 3 days or a raw gourmet dish "keep" in the fridge for a week? This is what confuses me.

Sorry to ramble. I guess this has brought up questions I never thought about before.

As far as they eyes go, what happens when your eyes are already equally blue/green and change appearance of color based on what you wear?