Hi all! I'm new to this website, but have been raw since November 7, 2007. I've only ever heard about the benefits of being raw and there came a time when I just got so disgusted with eating meat and cooked food that I made the leap to raw cold turkey and haven't "cheated" even once since.

That being said, I have been having increasing health issues and wonder if they are in any way related to my current diet. My doctor is in the process of diagnosing me with gallstones; a painfully recent development that only allows me to eat fruit without hurting. I also had my first ever abnormal pap and recently noticed a small cyst on my lower eyelid. All total I've lost close to 65 pounds being raw (good!) but 10 of those in the last two weeks (bad!).

Can somebody encourage me? Are these symptoms a "healing crisis" or is something missing from my diet? I try to place the largest portion of my food in the greens category, but it hurts to eat and unless I want to end up in the hospital again, I have to be completely fat free. It was a handful of nuts that landed me there in the first place. Now I live mainly on watermelon and am slowly becoming malnourished because my entire digestive system is not working properly.

Please Help... i hurt

Hey hiddenfang,

Stories such as yours, of those who have "made the leap" to raw always inspire me.. my journey still in the making.

I have little experience with stones other than being with loved ones who have gone through it. Your choices of greens and watermelon sound possibly sustaining, to me, if you are able to eat enough of them and, as you say, digest them.... do you or are you able or interested in eating the seeds and rind?.. for the nutrients in them.. just a thought.. I like to juice them. Omega 3's might be in the greens.. things like that you've probably checked.. It sounds like you are eating little because of pain..

The "small cyst" on your lower eyelid may be a stye or chalazion [www.intelihealth.com] .. I've got two small eyelid chalazions that my doctor told me how to treat and to give them time.. they come and go depending on how well I take care of myself. Early treatment is best of course. It could be related to fat metabolism, which you are obviously doing a lot of right now.. the vitamin C in the the watermelon is good for that [lpi.oregonstate.edu] .

"...my entire digestive system is not working properly", hmmm, I know pain, bloating, and toxicity except surely not as you are experiencing it.. raw has been the solution for me, btw I ate ONLY watermelon today.. Can you tell us more?

blessings, loeve

Hi Hiddenfang! My opinion / speculation is that if you had 65 pounds to lose.....you were probably not in the best of health before choosing to eat healthier (just my surmise). The more abrupt your change in relation to how bad your diet/lifestyle was previously....the more likely you might have some sort of 'acute detox' or illness. My advice is to make changes slowly...and at a pace that's right for YOU. It sounds like you might have had/have some outstanding health problems before changing your diet. Concentrate on just making small changes until your outstanding health problems resolve themselves.

-Remember that one does not eat one's way into heaven. Heh...heh. Health is a holistic lifestyle and attitude that involves exercise, conscious eating, joyful living, fresh air, simpling lifestyles, and pursuing one's dreams/goals. Raw food is only one of the tools to make your dreams possible.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

So you want to know a little more, Loeve?

Well, the doctor sent me for a first round of testing - bloodwork and an ultrasound - and nothing turned up. She's sending me for a barium swallow next. Not entirely sure I want her to find something (just more medical intervention for me to loathe). I've also been avoiding taking the prescription of Prevacid that she told me to "try." I really do think that my fiance is going to start forcing me to take the drugs, soon. He hates seeing me in pain and unable to eat. (BTW, the wedding is July 26.)

And that's about it! I try to be more active every day; we inline skate, walk, bike, and now Peter (my s.o.) is teaching me how to fence. Blueberries and cherries are not causing pain so far. As for my lifestyle before raw... maybe you don't wanna know. I'm pretty sure that the day I went raw started off with some kind of dead animal for breakfast. I've been vegan off and on for years, but during pregnancy I craved meat and childhood comfort foods so badly that I gave in and ate pretty indiscriminately. I gained 80 pounds and it's only coming off now; my daughter, Precious, is three. She was raised vegan until she was almost two. I had to start feeding her meat because my parents gave me the whole song and dance about how they were worried for her health and they didn't want to bother making "special" meals for her at their place. She's lactose intolerant, anyways.

That's where we sit. Health has usually been a major factor in diet and lifestyle for us. I've been refining and tweaking my diet for years, as fast as I could get my brain to digest the information. Or as fast as I found it. The first raw book I ever encountered was "Raw" by Juliano, and I thought he was nuts. Then during the course of my journey I came across "Your Right To Be Beautiful" by Tonya Zavasta (www.beautifulonraw.com), and it all started to make sense. I knew raw veganism would creep up on me, but I didn't realize how fast my mindset would make the change. Now I sometimes struggle with wanting to eat a lot of stuff that I know would land me in the hospital, and my diet is more restricted that most raw vegans'. No nuts, seeds, or oil of any kind.

However, I got to be so hungry after three weeks of just fruit (and my weight dropping that fast is not a dieter's dream) that I invented a recipie that's fat-free and flavour-full. I'll post it in the recipie section.

Thanks for listening!...Or reading, as the case may be.

hiddenfang

I do know the extreme pain that gallstones causes. I did have them at one time. Everything I ate caused such pain, it was hard to function. I am not one to go to doctors, so I looked up herbal remedies. I found that milk thistle and dandelion root were good to take. So I started taking them. In a couple of days the pain started to subside and withing a week I was pain free. I was vegetarian at the time. I had a very tender stomach and a lot of food bothered it. But now that I am raw, I find that my stomach rarely ever bothers me anymore.
I hope this helps a little bit.
btw...I don't even need herbal remedies anymore. I just stay away from the things that I know will bother me. there is so much more to choose from too that agrees with me.
Debbie

Wow hiddenfang, you have a lot going on in your life.. thank you for taking the time to fill us in a little bit.

That's good news, I think, the tests showed nothing. Your body is maybe just telling you no dietary fat at the moment because it is busy metabolising body fat.. possibly? Your food elections sound like a "garden fast" which is healthy, no?.. and timely considering the season..

I didn't realize Tonya Zavasta was the one who wrote "Quantum Eating" [beautifulonraw.com] ! "...the quantum body we occupy…raw foods as concentrated sun energy…the circadian rhythms of vital organs…should we sun-block the sunlight?…".. love it!.. and sunsets.. There is a scene in "King Kong" where after a great battle he meditates on the sunset [www.filmblather.com] .. it's his connection with eternity, a time to relax and heal his tired body and mind.

Samhein, yes!.. foods like dandelion help liver function and help it to supply healthy bile to the gallbladder.... what's good for the liver is good for the gall bladder, no? I still use dandelion occasionally and have long used whole leaf aloe vera for digestive help.. seems to be working.. i'm at my lean high school weight and have no major complaints.