i am thinking of getting my family started on a raw food lifestyle, my question is how hard it it to start and i have a 16month old, is it safe to start her out on a raw food diet? how did u mothers out there get your children into eating raw foods. what do u sub for milk and things like that? thanks for any info and help you can give me
-katie

post this on the main forum you will probably get more response there

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

My husband and I started our family on raw almost a year ago. We have three kids that are 11, 6 and 2 now. We started by going 100% the first month and then only eating one to three meals a week non raw (to wean ourselves from the addictive cravings) after the first month.

We make nutmilk to replace milk and it is the best milk I have ever had. We make some nut and seed cheeses but rarely. We sprout buckwheat and dehydrate it to make a crispy cereal. We pour the buckwheat crispies over cut up fruit and add honey and nutmilk and enjoy the best cereal ever. If you have only the 16 month old the transition will be much easier. We heve had the hardest time with our 6 year old. She is old enough to know she wants mac n cheese but not old enough to fully understand how it affects her body. She loves raw though and wanted to eat all the things she likes. The two year old is very satisfied on the raw diet. He loves so many foods. He ate 17 bowls (I kid you not) of spiral sliced zuccini with flax oil and sprinkled salt one evening. All my kids eat constantly. They grab fruit all day long. It is the easiest way to eat. I spend probably a fourth of the time I used to preparing food. I think the best books I bought for recipes and information on feeding the family were Storm and Jinjee's. They are cheap e-books you get right away. [www.thegardendiet.com] I feel homeschooling and a raw diet are the best two choices we ever made for our family. My husband is 46 and I am 38 and we feel and look like we have turned back the clock. I have been told by my longtime friends that I look like I did twenty years ago. More importantly my six year old and I are healing from illness through raw and both feel so great.

I hope this helps.

thank you pakd4fun. this has really helped me, when you told your kids doctor about the change did he give you a hard time about it or did he give you the green go ahead (so to speak)?

When my daughter had some health issues I took her to a naturopath. She has been thrilled with our diet and the success we have had. My doctor had wanted to continue testing for cancer after initial testing came out negative. I thought I was wasting time and money with her and researched on my own and discovered I had candida. My candida is much better now. If I can answer any other questions I would be happy to try. I am very pleased with our transition and VERY pleased with the our increased health.

hi pakd4fun,
how did you discover you had candida? i have been reading up about it because i suspect i might have it. i've read two theories to help with the symptoms...to cut out sugar or to cut out fats. so i'm a bit confused as to what to do. what has worked for you?

I just started adding fresh juice to my husbands diet and he changed all on his own. We cut out dairy because my son was having tons of ear infections and they stopped after cutting out the dairy.

But I tell people to just add the fresh juice. Or Green Smoothies. I put fresh juice in water bottles that he would take to work. And he wasn't even hungry all day. He would come home and eat his steak at the end of the day. He lost 70 pounds in 4 months doing this. He started putting avocado on his steak. Then after awhile he decided he didn't want to eat meat anymore.

Then one day ..he tells me..."You know one day we are going to go Raw"...I was like " Yeah Right!!" Cause I wasn't going to survive on just carrots and apple slices.

We tried some food that someone brought back from a raw class and realized it wasn't just carrots and apple slices..and then we decided to go raw.

Our 7 year old son loves it. He asks for Green Smoothies every day. He is the healthiest kid in school. Probably this whole town.

lotusblossom9, so sorry I took so long to reply. I have been very busy and hadn't even been in this room in weeks.

I had all these symptoms: yeast infections, thrush, heavy periods, abdominal pain, athletes foot and the worst was chronic fatigue. My doc wasn't helping and my niece told me to look into raw. I researched and loved raw so I bought Allisa Cohen's book. I read she had candida and when she went into some details of the symptoms she had, a lightbulb went on so I researched candida and there was no doubt in my mind I had it. My candida is much better but I am still fighting it and I need to do more. I believe if I cut out fats it works best but I haven't been able to accomplish that. Supplements and staying high raw is what is helping me. I take caprylic acid, black walnut hulls, digestive enzymes and probiotics.

[www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com]