Hi,

I have been about 80 percent raw since Feb 2007. I am raw all day and I have cooked dinner. I also follow food combining principles which helps in proper eliminations. But my problem is that I eliminate after every meal and what ends up to be the case is that by about 3 PM, my stomach is empty and I am hungry again. By this time I am starved and the hunger pangs are strong and make me wanna eat anything that will make it go. I even end up eating potato chips. Which I totally want to avoid bcoz normally even if I eat cooked I eat mainly cooked veggies, with some rice sometimes. But 3 PM is an odd time to eat cooked veggies so I end up eating wrong foods.

My daily food routine is

8 am - Juice 32 oz kale, celery, cucumber and ginger.
10 am - 32 oz filtered water with 1 scoop core greens
2 bananas

1 PM - Lunch is a salad, greens plus cucumber plus tomatoes and 1 avocado with some olive oil.

Well after this everything is off. I sometimes eat a fruit or sometimes I will end up eating chips.

For dinner I get extremely hungry and I eat till I feel a full feeling. Which could be 2 cups of cooked veggies with rice. Sometimes I eat Thai, which I feel is totally off because all my efforts get nullified but the starved feeling takes over and I can't think of what I could eat in raw that will make me feel better.

So any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I was having the same problem and some folks on this board suggested that I eat more fruit. So...I start my day (5am) with fresh orange juice and a fruit smoothie about 8am. Then I have a fruit snack about 11 and then fruit for lunch and an afternoon snack. I save my veggies for dinner. I also snack on nuts sometime. This has helped me to stay full and not lose my energy in the late afternoon. I have experimented a bit and if I don't load up on the fruit, I am dragging after lunch and by evening time, I'm not only starving, I am dragging.

origin72,

Yes, you are not eating enough fruits. By the time dinner rolls around, you've only eaten about 200 calories worth of carbohydrates, not enough calories to match your days energy expenditures. You are getting some significant fat calories during your lunch meal, however it is very difficult for the body to convert fat into energy. Thus you don't have a lot of energy at the end of the day, and you are very hungry.

Try eating 2 bananas at 8am, 2 bananas at 10pm, and then 2 bananas at 1 pm. If you are still hungry at any time in the day, eat more bananas. See if you can avoid eating fat until you've eaten all the fruit you are going to eat that day.

Well, if you are hungry at three o'clock, then why not plan a 3pm meal like you have one for 8am, 10am, and 1pm? I personally eat small meals throughout the day, and I don't think there is anything wrong with eating if you feel hungry.

I think you should go ahead and eat more fruits like Bryan suggested. It certainly can only help. But in my experience, unless I'm really busy doing some nonphysical work, and I'm not thinking about food anyway, I usually find that it helps me to stay satisfied if I have a FEW of some kind of raw nuts or possibly even sprouted grains in the late morning or early afternoon in addition to or instead of avocado.

Sprouted seeds like sprouted sesame and sunflower seeds are a bit heavier for me, so I usually save them for later in the day.

Maybe try both ways: (1) more fruit, and (2) more fruit plus a few nuts. Then see which way works best for you.

If you're like me, some days one way will work better for you than the other.

Any nuts or seeds you eat should be organic. The NONorganic ones can make you sick!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2007 09:47PM by suncloud.

I thought I was getting hunger pangs at certain times, too, but after heeding Bryan's advice to cut down on fats, I realized that it was the olive oil that was making my stomach growl - at least when I eliminated it, I didn't get the pangs. Then I occasionally started eating too much avocado in a meal and got a similar result - not the pangs, just made me hungry too soon after.

I've cut down drastically on fat and protein, though sometimes I binge a little on both. (usually due to pre-menstral cravings). I don't calculate how much of these I eat, I just choose fruit or vegs.

It's so hard to let go the old diet truisms and they just DON'T work on raw - for me and for many others. I'm so glad we have the long-timers here ..... Thanks guys!

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I was actually having 32 oz. of fresh orange juice everyday until I did live blood cell analysis and the person told me to cut down totally on fruit because the analysis showed traces of bacteria and candida.

I do recall that at times when I did have the orange juice or some fruits, the hunger pangs would be less.

So now my confusion is that since the blood cell analysis showed bacteria and candida should I be having more fruit?

Also, since fruits are simple carbohydrates wouldn't having more fruit spike the blood sugar levels?

Thanks.
Appreciate your replies.

I can't slug back 32 oz. of orange juice either - maybe you should just EAT the oranges instead, so your body digest them better.

What works for me is a large glass of orange juice (16 oz) for breakfast and a large fruit salad for lunch. Then fruit snacks if hungry. This totally eliminates the pangs and late afternoon hungries, and gives me plenty of energy.

feeling starved .... eat more

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Agreed with Bryan, more fruits for sure.

Also how big is the salad? Make tonnes and tonnes (few bunches of kale, 3-5 tomato, avacado.or raw olive), eat until you are satisfied- worth that happens is you take some home or eat it later on.

Dont go hungry when you are hungry at 3pm eat fruit, eat 12 banana's if you feel the need.

Hope you find the right eating rhythm soon! it comes!