Question
I抦 less than 6 months on eating raw/fresh organ/muscle meats, fats and seafoods and I抦 finally at the point where I actually crave my raw food and I don抰 think twice about eating it when I抦 hungry. In other words, it feels natural and nourishing which I know is good sign. I抦 also seeing health benefits so that keeps me on this diet as well. However, I抦 still struggling with breaking down every three weeks or so and eating cooked foods mainly carbs and sweets. I usually over do it and end up feeling like crap. It抯 not that I expect never to eat cooked foods again but it抯 one thing to do it once every 3-6 months for special social occasions but every 3 weeks and indulging at that sets me back.
I抦 aware there are withdrawal symptoms from cutting out sugar but I feel like I抦 past the sugar withdrawals within 5-7 days so I抦 抔uessing these are psychological cravings? I don抰 have strong social pressure situation, so I know it抯 not that.
I would like to know your experience with psychological cravings for cooked foods if any at all in the beginning or even now. Is what I抦 going through 憂ormal?given that I抦 having been eating the wrong foods all my life so I just need more time to fully adjust to raw. Do you think adding high meat to my diet might help? I抦 at the point where I think I抦 ready to try it.
Thanks,
Michel
P.S.
I thought you might be interested in a new documentary on corn and it抯 usages in the American diet梟amely use of corn to feed cattle and high fructose corn syrup in processed foods. The documentary moves a little slow but good to see discourse about health consequences of feeding livestock and humans corn products. Go to http://kingcorn.net
AnswerMost of us have a tough time adjusting to eating raw. Some RPDers follow a method where they gradually reduce the cooking-temperature over a period of months until they get used to eating raw, for example. Trouble with that is that it then takes longer to heal.
In my own case, I went c.95% raw, right at the very start. It was a lot easier for me than most RPDers, as I'd, by then, got to the stage where I couldn't eat any cooked animal food whatsoever without shortly afterwards getting intense stomach-pains(among several other symptoms), and besides I'd gradually lost all taste for cooked meats by then, finding them bland. So, it was either a question of sticking to a 100% raw, Fruitarian diet which had resulted in constant fatigue and excessive hunger-pangs etc., or getting used to a raw-animal-food diet.
I did actually try a small cooked-meal every 3 weeks, for the first nine weeks of the RPD diet.I deliberately chose tasteless junk-food as I wanted to see if I was still getting those stomach-aches from cooked-animal-food after switching to raw meats - but this had nothing to do with cravings, it was just an experiment - since I found I was still getting stomach-aches from the stuff, I proceeded to eat 100% raw for the next couple of years or so.
During this two-year period, I found it difficult to walk past restaurants because of the smell of cooked-food wafting out, but, otherwise, I was fine, as regards the taste, as I wanted to avoid the pain I got from eating such foods - and the actual taste of cooked-foods did nothing for me. I did occasionally have sugar-cravings but I solved that easily by eating raw, organic fruits such as strawberries, blueberries etc.
There was also a point, early on in this period, where I got put off eating my foods, and lost appetite. This was because I'd, up till then, had this absurd idea that if raw food was good for me, then the more I ate, the faster my health would recover -so I became a glutton. After doing whole-day (mineral-) water-fasts, here and there, and cutting down on food-intake in general, I had no further problems re this. I also made sure to greatly expand the variety of raw food in my diet - I made a real effort to get hold of meats/organ-meats from wild animals, wild-caught fish/shellfish etc., as I wanted to get to the point where I didn't just tolerate the taste of raw animal food, but also actually liked the taste.
Once I got my full health back, after that two-year period, I went in for a few further experiments with cooked-foods, eating little bites every few weeks, for a short period. I found, that by this time, my stomach-aches(and other symptoms) were less severe than at the start of this diet, but I found it more difficult to get down certain cooked/processed foods, especially if they had very low water-content. For example, if I ate a croissant, it would feel as dry as sawdust in terms of texture, and I would have to drink some water in order to get it properly down my throat - which I never had to do pre-raw diet. I can only assume that this was because my body had got used to eating foods with a much higher water-content.
Since that time, I've adopted a policy whereby I eat a large cooked-meal no more often than every 4-6 months, for social reasons - these days, I can't avoid grand Christmas Dinner-type celebrations and the like, and since my health has recovered, it's less of a problem. As regards eating out with others, I nearly always opt for Japanese restaurants offering sashimi)raw fish) dishes, and, perhaps once or twice a month, I'll have a couple of small sushi pieces, as cooked-rice doesn't affect me as badly as other cooked-foods. There are 100s of such Japanese restaurants where I live, given the popularity of ethnic cuisine, so I'm very lucky in this regard. I would heavily recommend visiting any restaurant offering raw-animal-food(there are Ethiopian restaurants, for example, offering raw-meat kitfo, others will offer beef carpaccio or steak-tartare and there's always (raw)oyster bars ). Much of our distaste for raw animal food comes from prior social conditioning, so being able to eat raw animal food in a public setting like a restaurant will make things much easier for you - it certainly worked for me, at the start of going rawpalaeo.
On those social occasions when I do have to eat cooked-food, it's usually heavily-processed junk-food of some kind. Therefore I generally make sure to eat c.6 raw, organic, free-range chicken/duck eggs(or 2 goose eggs, when in season), either an hour before or an hour after the meal - the raw fat in the eggs bind with the toxins from the cooked-food, to some extent -plus I sometimes get a vomiting reflex if the cooked-food is particularly highly processed. I also eat some high-meat on the next day in order to make up for the lack of bacteria in the cooked-meal.
Lastly, I don't think you should worry , at this stage, re needing to be 100% raw. Reaching a level of 95% raw is a major achievement, in and of itself. You could perhaps look around for healthier alternatives, in the meantime. Some RPDers go in for raw carob powder as an alternative to (processed) chocolate, for example. Early on in this diet, I myself would opt for raw heather honeycomb as an alternative to sweets etc.
Hope This Helps
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