Should I go back to 100% raw?

[rawgirl]

I was 100% raw for a year and a half then I started to eat some cooked food becasue I was feeling kind of restricted and in prison and cooked food was looking really good. I'm kind of wondering if I should go back to eating all raw. I guess there are pros and cons. The benefits of all raw: it's easier to keep off weight, the food is easier to digest, my complexion is nicer, it's probably healtier. The benefits of eating some cooked food: I feel more socially acceptable, I feel like I have more food choices, I am in a better mood, I feel more satisfied. Do you guys think I'm just addicted to cooked food and could get over it? When I was all raw, I was eating a lot of nuts and I was eating dried fruit that might not have been raw. And I was eating prepared raw foods (too many). In some ways I like the idea of eating all raw and fresh fruits and veggies with a minimum of fats. I just can't decide what I really want to do.

[Quincy]

well, weigh out the pros and cons of each side and decide what's best for you. the best thing to keep in mind is, don't rush to a final conclusion! good luck and keep us up to date with how everything goes!

[Cairidh]

if you feel better on raw - yes
if you don't - no

If you stay on 100% raw long enough, then you stop wanting cooked food, and it doesnt look like food anymore, it looks like plastic. and if you stay longer you start to prefer whole foods to prepared food.

1 and 1/2 years should have been long enough for your body to reach stage 1.
it was only 7 months before mine reached stage 2 -

maybe the dried fruit was stopping your body adapting - you have to be 100% raw for your body to make those changes......which dried fruit? raisins are definately not raw....I only use organic dates (non organic are not raw and have additives) and brown apricots (orange ones have additives), I think they're ok.

Everyone is addicted to cooked food. It is possible to break that addiction but only by being 100% raw for long enough.

For the first 4 months of raw I ate very unhealthily, lots of nuts and sundried tomatoes, lots of prepared food every day. Every day I ate either half a raw cake (half all to my self!) or pasta sauce (with sundried tomatoes and salt) or a rich sauce made of pine nuts and sundried tomatoes.

This helped me stay 100% raw long enough for my body to stop being addicted to cooked food. Once the addiction was broken, I could start eating more healthily, with lots of fruit and veg. After 7 months I found - without thinking, it wasn't deliberate - I was choosing to eat whole foods. To my astonishment I preferred them to prepared food. I bought an expensive bag of sundried olives to make a chocolate cake recipe, and ended up eating them all whole. I couldn't bring myself to "waste" them in a recipe.

If you're going to go 100% raw, it's easier to eat whatever you want for the first months, until you no longer craved food. Concentrate on eating the yummiest food until you're no longer addicted, then you can concentrate on eating the healthiest food. And if you stay 100% long enough, you'll automatically stop eating so much prepared food and eat whole foods instead. So don't worry about doing that straight away - wait til it happens naturally.

But the key is to be 100% - if you take one bite of cooked food, your body will start craving cooked food again and it will spoil the whole thing, and you'll have to start from scratch. You have to stay 100% for at least 3 months, sometimes more. No cheating at all, otherwise the 3 months starts again.

Dehydrated food makes me feel ill, as if I've eaten cooked food, and it gives me cravings for cooked food, so I didn't eat that in my first 4 months. I don't think my body would have stopped craving cooked food/seeing cooked food as food if I'd been eating dehydrated.....but maybe thats just me....
Some people don't seem to have any problem with dehydrated.

Having said all that, if you're happier eating some cooked food, then why not? A lot of people live to be 100 on junky cooked diets, and are perfectly happy on it. If cooked food isn't causing you any major problems, and you're perfectly healthy, then there's no need to change.

If you do want to change I recommend the book "12 steps to raw food" by Victoria Bountenko. It's a masterpiece. Also her book "Green for Life".

[SamuelWilson]

Go 100% raw.

Right now, I am fruitarian and let me tell you, I feel much better. However, I do miss my cuisine. Raw food cuisine became such a major part of my culture.

[rawgirl]

I never really felt like I craved cooked foods when I was on all raw, but looking back, I did crave cooked foods and I filled the void with tons of nuts, raw crackers, raw cookies, dried fruit (like by the pound), and heavy rich recipes. I think these things kept me kind of addicted to the feeling of eating cooked foods. Now I really know how to do a healthy raw diet, but I haven't decided yet whether or not I want to do it. Toward the end of my all raw time, I really started craving really junky foods that I hadn't eaten in years, like Jiff Peanut Butter, French toast, muffins, bread, etc, but I think I was craving all these sugary starchy things because I went completely off all sugar including fruit because I had some parasites. I was off fruit for three months and I absolutely went nuts. I was eating all kinds of nut butters with stevia to try to get something sweet and I drove myself crazy. I'm going to weigh it all out though.

[*AHIMSA*]

Working where you do, it should be quite easy to be 100% raw if that's what you choose to do. I tend to side with Brian Clement's views on the raw diet and support eating minimal fruits and basing the diet on mostly green leafies and sprouts myself as opposed to other schools of though on raw foods.

[rawgirl]

Working where you do, it should be quite easy to be 100% raw if that's what you choose to do. I tend to side with Brian Clement's views on the raw diet and support eating minimal fruits and basing the diet on mostly green leafies and sprouts myself as opposed to other schools of though on raw foods.
Yes, it really would be easy for me to be all raw because I already eat all raw Monday through Friday. I do agree that the healthiest raw diet is high in sprouts and not too heavy on the sugar, but I think it's extreme for me to cut out all fruit (now people with cancer should). The only hard thing is that if you don't eat a lot of fruit, and you really don't want to eat a ton of fat either (e.i. too many oils, nuts, avocados, etc.) then it's hard to get sufficient calories. Is it better to go with fruit for calories or fat? Or both in moderation?

What made you decide to go back to eating some cooked foods?

[rawgirl]

Oh, by the way Ahimsa, do you know Michael Bergonzi? He used to work at Optimum Health and he now works at Hippocrates.

[rawgirl]

Just an update: I'm still considering and in the mean time eating a lot less cooked food. My mom had bean and rice cassarole for lunch today and I just had salad -- 2 huge plates full. My dressing was cooked, but I'm eating less cooked. I'm thinking I may go all raw. I'm doing the Ejuva cleanse with some friends from work and after that I might stay all raw. Has anyone else done the Ejuva intestinal cleanse?

[Ivee]

Has anyone done the Master cleanse?? I am on day 4 and I am tired and weak. I am also hungry. From day one I had diarrhea. A friend told me it is because I am vegetarian.

[rawgirl]

I haven't done the MC.

Just for an update, I am going back to 100% raw for the time being. I'm not saying forever, but the plan right now at this stage of my life is to be all raw. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SamuelWilson]

Glad to hear that rawgirl. You are doing the right thing.

[CarlaVeg]

you don't have to restrict yourself that much... what about being raw at home and being vegan socially?? so you could eat cooked food when you are out... I don't see any problems with doing this.... I can never restrict myself. At the moment i restrict myself I fail.... maybe you are being to harsh on you? remember in life there is not black and white only... there are some nice shades of gray!!!!! :love:

Good luck!!!!!!

[rawgirl]

Thanks. I'm doing all raw right now because if I eat some cooked food, I'll go overboard. I'm an all or nothing person. I feel so much better physically on all raw and I can maintain a healthy weight. As soon as I introduce cooked food, I gain weight like crazy. I'm not saying I'll never eat cooked food again, but this is what is best for me at this point in my life.

[CarlaVeg]

Thanks. I'm doing all raw right now because if I eat some cooked food, I'll go overboard. I'm an all or nothing person. I feel so much better physically on all raw and I can maintain a healthy weight. As soon as I introduce cooked food, I gain weight like crazy. I'm not saying I'll never eat cooked food again, but this is what is best for me at this point in my life.

What do you eat in a raw diet???? can you tell what a day of yours look like?
It's interesting to me... thanks :)

[jenna]

Glad you're doing well with it, rawgirl! :)

[RawVeganMom]

Rawgirl you sound just like me!