I am new to the site. I have many health problem and am trying to turn my life around. How were you able to change your eating and retrain you tastebuds. It's been very hard for me. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

I just read an article in today's paper about a study done on mice that had been given a fast food diet heavy in fat and sugar. The mice would tolerate shocks to their feet to continue to eat that kind of food over their normal (healthier) diet! When deprived of the fast food, they wouldn't eat the normal mice food for two weeks. It goes to show how addictive bad foods can be. Breaking the addiction to fats and refined sugars can be really challenging for humans too!

To make the transition, it seems like most people suggest gradually increasing the amount of raw in your diet. I didn't do it that way. Instead, I jumped in with both feet. Sink or swim. I swam! (I am high 90-something percent raw, although I do use some apple cider vinegar and Braggs. I hope to stop eating those too, though.) For me to make the break from cooked food, it helped to stop thinking of cooked foods as "food" - as though it just wasn't a choice.

I also eat as much low fat raw food as I want. If I want a monstrously huge salad for dinner, that's fine. If I want to eat four mangoes at a sitting, that's okay too. If I feel hungry two hours after eating, I eat some more. Denial is a trigger for bingeing on bad stuff. Once my fears of starving subsided, the amount I eat also decreased.

Over time I have come to dislike the smell of many cooked foods that I previously loved, such as "baked goods." That just happened. I hope it's the same for you, eventually. (It also helped me to learn that baked breads, cakes, etc., have acrylamides in them. Breads had been my downfall in terms of losing weight.)

My comments are not to say that the gradual approach wouldn't be be best for you. Keep experimenting until you find what works for you. Best wishes!!!


My favorite raw vegan

Thanks Trive. I appreciate the advice.

I played around with raw food for about 3 months to get familiar with it. I was not a big veggie person before going raw vegan. I ate pounds and pounds of meat every week. Anyway, it all shifts in time. you have to have faith that what everyone who does it says. it DOES change you. your taste buds change. your body changes. your brain clears up. emotions that have been bottled up for years come out, sometimes painfully. but ultimately you are clean and clear. I have lost 125 pounds so far on my journey. I have been raw since sept 11th last year. I am strong as an ox now. i live on leaves, seeds, fruits,veggies. I used to eat kilotons of meat and lift weights. but my muscles have never responded so nicely as they have on the pure clean raw amino acid diet i am on now !!! have faith, any transition is painful. your brain has to reroute its neural pathways !!! that can feel discomforting in an unstable feeling way. have faith, like the mice, that after 2 weeks of hard core focus, you will come out in the light. and after months you love it. you wouldnt want to go back to cooked food. I think ultimately the perfect way for me to eat is 100% raw for some years. then after years of cleansing i may go 90% raw, 10 % really dank organic cooked food like rice and curry yams. Have faith in the process that so many of us are going through !!! keep your eye on the prize, and you will feel like a baywatch person in under 1 year !!!!!!!!!

The Raw Lion 440 pounds to 225 pounds!