I have periods of time when I crave protein rich food. I don't ever really crave sweets or any kind of junk food but when I get these protein cravings I want to eat beans and tofu. Does anyone else experience this and, if so, how do you handle them?

Perhaps its more the texture you are craving might be something to consider??

You might be craving the fifth taste - umami. Try mushrooms & tomatoes.

From [www.umamiinfo.com]:

What exactly is umami?

The flavour of food is determined by a number of different factors including taste, smell, colour, temperature and overall appearance, as well as by physiological or psychological conditions. Some of the most important factors are the basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.
It was Japanese scientist Dr. Kikunae Ikeda who first discovered that glutamic acid, an amino acid, was responsible for the umami taste of Konbu.
Although there is no English word for it, umami is a savoury taste imparted by glutamate and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many foods including meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products.
The taste of umami itself is subtle. It blends well with other tastes to expand and round out flavours. Most people don’t recognise umami when they encounter it, but it can be detected when eating ripe tomatoes, parmesan cheese, cured ham, mushrooms, meat and fish. Umami plays an important role making food taste delicious.

That could possibly be it. i do usually feel better after a large greens salad with ample amounts of tomato. I have also been meaning to experiment with marinated mushrooms. I think I shall check out that website. I am glad that I have been reading the thread about organic vs conventional produce. Makes me more comfortable, for some reason, to consider buying more of the nonorganics. Mushrooms are much less in cost as conventional.

Walnuts have umami, too.

i had similiar STRONG urges for tofu/beans/protein for quite some time after going raw. in fact, these were the toughest foods for me to eliminate.

however, the longer i stayed away from these foods, the less frequent these "protein" cravings arose.

looking back, i don't think it was a craving for protein per se....but instead for *cooked food*.

i hope this helps!

love,
*m*

Trying to keep strong through the whole process. Just this morning I started a pot of daal and shut it off and ate a salad instead.

Don't expect perfection of yourself, just improvement. Look at where you are over where you were in your diet and applaud your improvements.