ok i just started transitioning from eating cooked foods for 36 years to finally waking up and learning that raw is the very best for optimal health. although i would love to jump in and go 100% raw i haven't been able to yet. two days ago, i ate my usual- cup of coffee and cheese croissant (i know sounds yuck to me know too! anyway many hours later i had an apple and 2 dates for lunch... later for dinner my husband ordered pizza and i had 2 sm pieces of cheese pizza-- it was not even 20 minutes later that my stomach felt like it was on fire! so i'm thinking ok, pizza was bad or either after eating clean my body was very upset with me for eating crappy... then yesturday i had cup of coffee and 1/2 cheese croissant for breakfast, then later i had an apple for a snack-- then for a late lunch i had romaine lettuce, 1 lg carrot, 1 tomato, with newman's ranch dressing- oh and water of course... then later my husband brought home arby's roast beef sandwich and i gave in. same thing happened-- after about 20 minutes my stomach was on fire again... so after this long rant (sorry!) my questions is--- is it possible that my body - once getting the great raw stuff is now responding harsher than before??? i normally don't have stomach issues too much- unfortunately my body has gotten used to all those years of cooked food--- so i'm curious as to my stomach reaction.
i really need some help on this and i would really appreciate any advice anyone can give!! thank you sooo much,
Goin Raw,
joanna

Of course. The healthier you are...the more sensitive your body will be to crap. Is that a bad thing? In any event, if you transition at a pace that is right for you...to your detox will be small and daily...rather than a back and forth crisis. Just my experience/opinions.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

hi joanna

yeah i've read and heard a lot of stuff about how after being raw people go back to eating non raw stuff and their body reacts violently


because once u make an intent to put good stuff in and cleanse
its like your body gets "programmed" and its on a singular path
trying its best to do " be goood "

its like the body is running on one track and seeing the finish line

and all of a sudden a mack truck ( cooked food) swings in front of the lane


and of course there is going to be a whole lot of honking and a collision

well that is just my point of view

some people dont have a problem either

and some do

but its not necessarily a bad thing

just a signal that a mack truck is in your running lane

that's all

and some people like mack trucks ( heh)

but if u can't leap over them

might as well try and avoid them



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2007 04:02PM by la_veronique.

On my way here, I did a few things like that. Once time, after leaving a restaurant, I had to stop my car because I thought I was going to vomit. The food tasted good. But my stomach was very unhappy.

Another time, at work, I ate half a bagel. I felt like I had a lump of cement in my stomach for hours afterward. Again, my taste buds were happy but my stomach was very unhappy.

I'm a slow learner.

Hopefully, I won't have to have any more experiments with suboptimal foods.


Lee

The way I look at it is like when a person who drinks daily in moderation stops for a few days or a week or so, then goes back and has his normal number of brews, the body will react more strongly after being pure for awhile... I've noticed what you said happens to me as well!

Since you are transitioning, it sounds like a ulcer to me.

The reason you are "on fire" after eating traditional cooked food after raw is this: eating raw foods requires less acid production by your stomach to digest. Your body is now producing less acid since it doesn't need it. You eat the cooked food and since your body is getting used to the lowered acid production, it produces the lesser amount as though it had raw food. That cooked food cannot be processed for digestion properly so it sits in your stomach and ferments. When food ferments in us it produces acids as a byproduct of fermentation. It is these acids produced in fermentation that cause the heartburn and acid refluxing. Most people have acid reflux due to acid underproduction NOT acid overproduction. Conventional medicine treats acid reflux with "acid blockers." This is actually counter to what is needed. So, in the end people on these meds often don't get better and are worse off because they cannot digest food properly.

Okay, now that I wrote that, you also mention that you ate fruit before you ate the cooked foods. If you have not learned about proper food combining, you might be much more sensitive then others. I know that I am. When you miscombine foods, the same scenario occurs as I wrote about in the first paragraph leading to heartburn and gas.

Here is the basic premise of food combining (there are a number of exceptions and I will not go into them here). All foods are divided into the following 5 categories: 1) vegetables/greens, 2) fruits, 3) nuts/dried fruits, 4) flesh proteins (including dairy), 5) "starches" (breads, pastas, cooked potato, etc).

*Items from group 2 (fruits) should NEVER EVER be combined in the same stomach meal with an item from any other category. If you eat some fruit wait at least 1 hour (various sources will differ on times). If you have eaten from the other categories, wait at least 3 hours before ingesting fruits.

*Items from groups 3, 4, and 5 should NEVER EVER be combined with each other in the same stomach meal - wait 3-4 hours in between.

*Items from group 1 (vegies/greens) are considered "free" and can be combined with items from any other group EXCEPT fruits in the same stomach meal.

So what does this mean for the traditional American diet? The idea of having a lean turkey sandwich for lunch on whole-grain bread and an apple for dessert is a complete contradiction to our bodies ability to process and digest these food groups.

So why no fruit with other groups? Here is the quick explanation. For the most part, fruits require very little processing time in the stomach (usually 30-90 min max). Let's say you eat fruit mixed with cottage cheese (yuck I know but I can't think of a better example). The cottage cheese takes 3 hours of stomach processing time. While the cheese is processing, the fruit waits and is fermenting, hence digestive trauma. The same holds true for your Arby's sandwich. The beef needs acid to process. The bun needs alkaline to be processed. If you know some basic chemistry, you mix an acid with a base (that's the alkaline) and they are neutralized. Now you have nothing to process your food with and it sits in your stomach and ferments.

One final comment about nutrient absorption...obviously, if you can't process food in your stomach to make it ready for the true digestion/absorption that occurs in the intestines, you can't extract nutrients from it.

I was a poster child for all of this as I went raw. If I eat cooked food now, I take high quality digestive aides - HCl, etc.- to prevent problems.

Sorry for the length. I hope you are feeling better and I hope this helped.

Patty

Wow, thanks to all of you for your advice and information.... i feel so much better now knowing that it is "normal" Sure makes me think twice before eating cooked meals! thanks again everyone!!