I was wondering if anybody here would be willing to share their experience (if they have any) overcoming an eating disorder with the help of raw foods. I have struggled with anorexia since I was 10, I am now 19. I have had interest in living a raw lifestyle for a few years now, but I am still struggling with my problems with food. I'm hoping that making a transition to raw foods will help me have a healthier relationship with food. Has anybody else here been through this and have raw foods helped you in this way? Thanks

selenes512 -

Welcome!

I think the raw and living foods lifestyle would be perfect for you.

Due to the very nature of this diet, a person can ingest many fewer calories than the standard American diet, yet receive optimal nutrition from those calories. You could eat a variety of fruits, veggies, and sprouts (foods that naturally have few calories) and be well nourished.

I have overcome gluttony. Raw and living foods have helped me gain victory over this. The biggest problem I had with gluttony is that though I could eat tremendous amounts of junk food, it did not manifest on my body. I would remain healthfully slender on the outside, though physically, mentally, and emotionally ill on the inside. When I'd try and talk to people about my 'problem', no one would take me seriously because I wasn't fat and I wasn't skeletal.

I praise God for leading me to the raw/living foods lifestyle. It has allowed me a new lease on life.

The best to you,
- Smile



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2007 04:57AM by smilebig.

Sadly, on another board I frequent, many times young women with an anorexic tendency show up and I am worried about them practically abusing the raw food lifestyle to nurture their addiction. I have been a borderline bulimic in the past, however that was before knowing about the way of eating raw foods. I am not sure if one has to do with the other. What I know from myself and others is that raw foods and bulimic life don't do well with each other (bulimia usually results on excessive binging on fatty/comforting foods etc...) but there seems to be a thing about the restrictive diet that attracts anorexic people as well.

But to answer the question directly - there have been good and bad sides to the relationship with food.
The good side:
Being informed about food, about how things work for your body and living the experience. Everybody is different, so it is exciting to find your own way.
The down side:
The concept of eliminating certain foods as such might be a potential danger. Because if you do not think 100% health related but you do rather think about calories...it won't do much good. Thinking that certain (raw)foods are "bad foods" further supports the anorexic mindset imho.

The following is just my personal opinion:
Before fully embarking on the raw food lifestyle or while embarking, food issues should be worked on into for example one simple sentence like
"FOOD IS YOUR FRIEND"
...or something

I suppose whether raw foods will help disordered eating depends on why a person is eating in a disordered fashion. If the eating disorder arises out of malnutrition of one's current diet, then yes, the raw foods diet will help. However, if the disordered eating arises out of spiritual/emotional issues, then no, raw foods will not help.

Spiritual issues might be the unhealthy avoidance of pain or unhealthy pursuit of pleasure. An example of the avoidance of pain is to eat to anestitize onself, or to make it so that you can't feel anything because your body is so busy digesting. An example of the pursuit of pleasure might be eating for entertainment or out of boredom.

If one's disordered eating is based on control, eating raw foods will not help. The need to control one's eating comes from feeling "out of control" with regards to one's life, where a person doesn't feel that they can have autonomy over their life or their happiness. Again, raw foods will not help here.

I respectfully disagree! Selenes, I say, go for it. The raw food diet might just turn your whole life around. Or it might not. There's no way to know unless you give it a shot.

The worst that could happen is that you educate yourself about it, it doesn't work for you, and you go another route. The fact that you're aware of the problem and are actively looking for a solution is a good indication that you will eventually find what that works for you.

The best that could happen is that you learn about how to nourish your body in the healthiest way possible, and that eating raw food clears your mind so much that you are able to heal your psyche much more easily than had you continued on cooked food. Self-awareness is much easier after being on a raw food diet.

Be prepared: you may have some pressure from family. If they don't understand the diet, they may give you a lot of grief about it. Many people think raw food will starve you. So if you do decide to try it, be sure and arm yourself with lots of information. Read books and the Internet, watch raw food YouTube videos, do everything you can to counter the arguments of people who are concerned about you. Their resistance won't last forever. As soon as the diet brings you to your ideal weight, people will lay off the criticism and offer lots of compliments instead.

I'm so sorry that our society's obsession with thinness brought you to such a painful place. Almost all of us, women without anorexia included, have sufferered in some way from our culture's stupidity around body image. I feel for you, my friend.

By the way, I hope you aren't discouraged that we're not all a united front on what we think you should do. Really, it's a good thing. It's preparation for you to read a lot of different opinions on the best way to do this diet. Don't go into this like it's a religion, where this is a no-no and that is a must-do. Go into it like it's a smorgasbord, where you take what best serves you and makes you happiest, and leave what limits you and makes you feel like a self-depriving Nazi. Nobody has all the answers for you but you. So be the adult that you are and make the choices that will bring you to the next best you that you can imagine.

Way to go in getting on this message board and looking for answers! You rock!

Betty

People with eating disorders still have to eat, right?

Then why not eat the best food available to you? This (eating live, raw plant food) is a powerful way to love and care for yourself and that alone can be quite healing.

And using food as medicine is a completely different paradigm from the suppress, repress, and control paradigm and can help to free you from using food as a weapon against yourself.

But as Bryan alluded to, you will have to confront and deal with feelings. It's much harder to hide behind a cucumber than it is a loaf of bread. And whether or not a person acknowledges having an eating disorder, ALL of us have used food to suppress emotions from time to time, or to tamp down our own fire.

Transitioning to a live, raw plant food diet WILL make you very aware, if you want it to, of just what feelings you are most afraid to feel and where the root of your own self-hatred is. But only is you want it to.


khale

Thank you so much for all of your input everybody! For a little more info, I have been educating myself on Raw Foods for quite some time, and have been successful sticking to the raw lifestyle for periods of about a month a couple times before. It has been the only way that I am able to not count calories and not panic. I also gained a little weight actually, but for some reason, this didnt bother me. It was when I broke my commitment to raw foods (ie, at a family function) that I slipped back into disordered thinking. So think that using this as a tool to help me be healthy will really work for me. Of course, it is not the whole picture, but I am hoping that it will help me ease the tension I have around food and allow me to focus on the real problems I need to deal with. I'll probably be on here with a lot of questions, and if any of you would be curious to see how it is working out for me I could let you know. Thank you for the support!

ok heres my thought on this .. although i think a raw food diet is certainly helped me through my years (im 38 now) of ED's (bulimia, anorexia, dismorphia) ..it wasnt untill i started to adress the other areas in my AS well as my diet

the way i see it is diet is one peice of the pie or puzzle or however you want to look at it


diet health - are you eating the best food for you at this moment

mental health - are you able to think clearly and judge for yourself what is good or bad , are you challenging your mind with educating yoursel with new material

physical health - are you moving , being active, making your body stronger and fitter and better able to utilize the fuel you put in to it

emotional health - are you calm and happy and able to deal with conflict in a positive way

social health - can you deal with people , friends , family , co-workers, lovers , are you setting boundaries that these people respect and that you respect enough yourself to stand up to those people that dont ..are you willing to let go of negative people that dont

spiritual health - are feeling blessed , to you give thanks , are you thankful, this doesnt mean you have to become a born again whatever .. bless allah ..bless jesus .. bless god .. bless budhha ..bless motherearth who or whatever it is take the time , the quiet time for yourself to give thanks even if its just to you , meditate, pray, or just lay quietly and give yourself a break

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

selenes512 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you so much for all of your input everybody!
> For a little more info, I have been educating
> myself on Raw Foods for quite some time, and have
> been successful sticking to the raw lifestyle for
> periods of about a month a couple times before. It
> has been the only way that I am able to not count
> calories and not panic. I also gained a little
> weight actually, but for some reason, this didnt
> bother me. It was when I broke my commitment to
> raw foods (ie, at a family function) that I
> slipped back into disordered thinking. So think
> that using this as a tool to help me be healthy
> will really work for me. Of course, it is not the
> whole picture, but I am hoping that it will help
> me ease the tension I have around food and allow
> me to focus on the real problems I need to deal
> with. I'll probably be on here with a lot of
> questions, and if any of you would be curious to
> see how it is working out for me I could let you
> know. Thank you for the support!


Yes, Selene, please keep us posted! And allow me to reiterate, the whole list of health aspects that Jody listed are a lot easier once the transition to raw has been completed. This transition takes many months, it can take a few years, but it does happen. Keep it up and you will have a life of much more ease down the road.

Betty

"Don't believe everything you think."

--Bumper Sticker

I was anorexic in high school and then more or less obsessed about food for the next 10 years after that... food was always on my mind. On the raw diet I feel COMPLETE FREEDOM. Food no longer calls out to me or has a hold on me like it once did. I can actually sit on the couch & watch TV now because I've become immune to the food commercials. I never could do that before, TV terrified me because the food commercials made me feel snacky and go eat, for 4 years I didnt even own a TV for that very reason, because I didnt want to get fat. Then in my new apartment the TV was unavoidable so I would go to the gym after work almost everyday so I wouldn't get sucked in to watching TV until THANK GOD I found the raw diet. Now I workout because it's fun, not because I have to run from the TV.

For me personally it wouldn't be possible to have an eating disorder on raw.... in fact the raw diet even cured my shopping addiction. Whatever emptiness I suppose I was trying to fill.... is gone now, I'm so happy I found this diet.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2007 04:14PM by sunshine79.

Someone on this board gave mr some very helpful advice (I think it was perbetty)...you have a certain "mindset" concerning food...associations that you've made through the years that are well-ingrained in your mind and only you can identify them and decide if they are right, wrong, irrational, skewed, etc. Someone with an ED thinks about food differently than other people, so first of all, identify what "thoughts" or beliefs you have about certain foods. Then part of the key for success is creating "New" experiences and thoughts that become associated with raw foods...pleasant and good ones.

I agree with many of the above posts that eating raw foods is freeing because whole food is natural, the way God created it, unaltered and for our good...beneficial. As you eat whole foods you can tell yourself how you are eating to live, literally putting life into your body. Processed foods are about calories and fat and feeling satisfied or deprived. Whole foods are about life and nutrition and giving your body exactly what it needs.

I really think you're on the right track...and we're all here for you.

Here, here! Yes we are!

Betty

"Don't believe everything you think."

--Bumper Sticker

my transition has taken me years (5) and many others here are in the same boat ..

had i not chosen to work on those other areas of my life i doubt i would be here now saying a raw food diet worked for me ..because honestly i think just worrying about the diet part is important part but its just ONLY a part a part of the big picture

had i waited to transition fully before dealing with the other parts im quite certain i would be a failed basket case

im saying this not to disagree BUT , everyone transitions differently and at different levels ... id hate to see anyone here with ED's lulled into a false sense of hope that diet ALONE can help cure them , without dealing with the other parts, im afraid its a bomb just waiting to blow up in their face

im saying that because ive seen it happen to so many people with ED's here already

Selene please make sure you address these other areas of your life while getting into this lifestyle and you im sure you wont be dissapointed.

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2007 09:03PM by Jgunn.

I think, as Khale and others have said, the raw diet can be a wonderful helpful curative tool for an eating disorder.

That's how it's been for me, after being very seriously afflicted with bulimia.

But what was also extremely crucial in my recovery was just to find the right strategy in confronting the bulimia, and that strategy was to place a priority on being able to stop the purging. In the past, I'd always aimed at stopping the overeating. I never could stop the overeating, or even stay raw, until I finally learned to focus on stopping the purging and accept the consequences for the overeating.

The classic anorexia is somewhat of a mystery to me, but perhaps there are strategies with classic anorexia that, when combined with a raw food diet, can be most effective.

In addition to a good strategy, support from others can be SO important.

Jgunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> im saying this not to disagree BUT , everyone
> transitions differently and at different levels
> ... id hate to see anyone here with ED's lulled
> into a false sense of hope that diet ALONE can
> help cure them , without dealing with the other
> parts, im afraid its a bomb just waiting to blow
> up in their face

> Selene please make sure you address these other
> areas of your life while getting into this
> lifestyle and you im sure you wont be
> dissapointed.

AMEN jodi
patty

I'm glad to read this thread...and if you ever want to chat, selenes, let me know. I'm not anorexic, but I've been struggling with EDNOS since I was 15 (8 years) and I've had a screwed up relationship with food for at least 3 years before that.

Like you, I'm really hoping that being raw can help "normalize" my food issues. I know that a lot more will have to go into it...but I'm really hopeful that eating raw will be a big component.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2007 09:36PM by LynieD.

Jgunn, nicely put, all of it! Too many people focus on the food part of EDs - and of the raw lifestyle in general - when really it's just like a cold or flu: the illness presents itself as symptoms, and too many people try to treat those rather than the underlying cause(s). Tylenol takes away the headache just as a different diet can ease the ED impulses, but it's only a temporary and surface solution. I firmly believe that when we work on resolving the underlying issues, the symptoms will, for the most part, heal themselves in time. Not that I don't still try to fool myself, however...

Selene, i too have had a long battle with an eating disorder and the raw diet changed my life. after being in a treatment center and outpatient programs, the raw diet is what really turned things around for me. i agree with what everyone is saying about focusing in the underlying cause, but sometimes your brain needs to be healthy enough to do so. i have been 100% raw for almost 4 months now and i am doing the best i have been in a long time. so many of my health problems due to the eating disorder have been turned around because of the raw diet. my doctor, family and therapist are all amazed by how they have seen me get healthier, mentally and physically since going raw. they all thought it was just another form of my eating disorder when i first started and were afraid they where going to have to send me away again...boy did i prove them wrong! so from experience i can say that yes the raw diet helps, along with facing the underlying cause, but you can get through this. i realize now how much of my life i missed out on and how much greatness it had to offer. stay strong!
~Ali
by the way, someone started a diary for ed support. it would be great if we could all support each other on it....

Hey Selene,

I just want you to know, I have a good feeling about you. I think you're going to make it.

Peace Pilgrim said,

"The body, mind and emotions are instruments which can be used by either the self-centered nature or the God-centered nature. The self-centered nature uses these instruments, yet it is never fully able to control them, so there is a constant struggle. They can only be fully controlled by the God-centered nature.

"When the God-centered nature takes over, you have found inner peace. Until that time comes, a partial control can be gained through discipline. It can be discipline imposed from without through early training which has become a part of the subconsious side of the self-centered nature. It can be discipline undertaken volunarily: self-discipline. Now, if you are doing things you know you shouldn't do and don't really want to do, you certainly lack discipline. I recommend spiritual growing--and in the meantime self-discipline."

To Selene, and anyone else who has found these words as useful as I have: As you embark on your raw journey, may your need for discipline give way to spiritual growth as soon as possible!

Betty

hey selenes..
i'm 19 too and got over an ED with the help of raw foods. power to you...life is so much better!

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to update you all on how I'm doing, because you have all been so caring and supportive. Unfortunately, I havent been doing so well. I have slipped right back into my anorexia. If anything, I feel like its a bit worse. But I think that I feel that way because after starting to confront the problems behind my ED (when trying to get back on Raw) I became more aware of them, and brought them to light. So although right now I am feeling very depressed and my negative feelings about myself are very acute, I am actually much more hopeful. Because I'm not comfortable. For so long, anorexia has felt very comfortable and safe for me, but its not anymore. I really want, and need, to get healthy. I don't want to commit to raw foods yet because I dont feel ready to stick to it, and 'failing' again will only lower my self esteem more. When I do it, I want to stick to it. I want to be ready to accept myself, my body, and then give it what it needs. I'm not there yet, but I will be. Hopefully I will be soon. Honestly, I'm really pushing my body to the end of its tether these days, I feel like a change is coming for me. So I look forward to being a positive and healthy part of this community some time in the near future, when I am ready and able to be that!

and we will be here for you when you are ready! for what it`s worth i am so proud of you for facing the demons that are causing this debilitating condition. it takes much courage and you deserve a huuugggge hug!! you get yourself better and i`ll "see" you in awhile when you are ready...just please keep pushing forward and get healthy.((((((((hugs)))))))))
patty

Hi Selenes,

My prayer partner and I pray together once a week. We'll be lifting you up in prayer.

Smile

Hi Everyone!

I'm doing great on Raw! I have been eating to my hearts content (maybe even a little too much) and I feel amazing. I'm still eating a few transitional food that I hope to phase out at some point (nuts mainly raw and cooked, and some dried fruit). I have actually already put on around 5 pounds, but I feel really good about it. I have faith that my body will figure out where it wants to be as long as I keep taking good care of it. I'm feeling very positive. Of course, I'm still a work in progress, but I think I'm on a good road! Looking forward to getting to know all of you better on here, and I hope you dont mind me asking lots of questions.

I'm so glad to hear you're feeling better - despite the ups and downs, you'll wind up better than ever before.

I didn't realize so many people here have had EDs. I used to be an emotional eater and was lucky I didn't fare worse than I did, but I can remember how terrible it is to have those compulsions.

selenes~ thats so great to hear!! i really believe that the raw diet is a great way to overcome eating disorders. i agree with you that the body will figure out where it wants to be. i remember trying to gain weight on a cooked vegetarian diet in the begining of recovery and it was awfull! i was so bloated all time and hated how i felt. when i tried it again with the raw diet it worked. still hard emotionally but i have so much less bloating. its like my body new exactly where to put all the extra fats and i feel great. im so glad to hear that its working for you too!! keep it up!!!
~Ali

I know what you mean with the bloating. My digestive system is so screwed up (7 years anorexia with constant laxative abuse...sheesh) that eating just makes me very uncomfortable. With Raw, I dont have any of that. Food feels great. Even though I'm eating a bunch of calories, I dont feel at all weighed down or 'feel fat'. Its nice. I'm glad to hear I'm not alone, it makes a lot of sense to me that so many people have used Raw Foods to aid them in recovery. I mean, really, I guess thats what everybody uses raw foods for, recovery from a previous unhealthy lifestyle, whatever it may have been.

selenes512 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Everyone!
>
> I'm doing great on Raw! I have been eating to my
> hearts content (maybe even a little too much) and
> I feel amazing. I'm still eating a few
> transitional food that I hope to phase out at some
> point (nuts mainly raw and cooked, and some dried
> fruit). I have actually already put on around 5
> pounds, but I feel really good about it. I have
> faith that my body will figure out where it wants
> to be as long as I keep taking good care of it.
> I'm feeling very positive. Of course, I'm still a
> work in progress, but I think I'm on a good road!
> Looking forward to getting to know all of you
> better on here, and I hope you dont mind me asking
> lots of questions.

I was reading this post about nuts and sun-dried fruits being "transitional foods" and wanted to say I disagree. I believe they are raw. I make a point of this because transitional foods are often seen in a negative light and akin to cooked foods. Nuts and sun-dried fruits are whole, healthy foods and can be included in a 100% raw foods diet without any concern or self-judgment.