QuestionHi Raw Paleo Guy, like you I have experimented with raw veganism and am now moving towards a raw paleo diet. I still take a metric ton of supplements and am weaning myself off of them. How long did it take you to completely get rid of everything? (this would totally be a dream come true for me as I spend nearly $250 a month in supplementation)
AnswerWhen I switched over to a raw, palaeolithic diet, I had several months' supply of processed supplements left over(pre-raw diet, my supplement-regime cost me about the same as yours does now). I had endless bottles of astragalus, ginseng, heated royal jelly capsules, cod-liver oil capsules etc. I had so many that I, at first,felt I had to finish them off, despite knowing they were bad for me. As it happened though, once I'd been eating raw animal food for only two to three weeks, I started quickly developing stomach-aches whenever I took any supplement so that was a wonderful incentive to give them up, immediately after that. This kind of reaction to cooked/processed foods seems to be relatively common among those RPDers who eat very little cooked food(less than 10%?), but it can sometimes take time to develop.
Strictly speaking, if you're eating a (rawpalaeo) diet that's varied enough, you shouldn't need any supplements at all. If you're concerned about missing nutrients, given your former raw vegan phase, I would suggest looking up online those (preferably animal-)foods which are rich in the minerals/vitamins you specifically need and eating those instead of the mineral/vitamin pills. Also, herbal pills are largely useless as they've been preheated and processed so are just a burden on the body.
One word of warning:- While most RPDers are sensible and either reduce raw dairy-intake to a minimum (or cut it out altogether), there are others who really overindulge in the stuff. It turns out that an excessive amount of calcium in one's diet blocks the uptake of magnesium in the human body, leading to magnesium deficiency, which can be quite serious - the result is that a LOT of people who strictly follow the dairy-rich Primal Diet tend to have to take magnesium supplements to offset the effects of the overly calcium-rich raw dairy. So, if you are planning on consuming some raw dairy products, I would suggest taking magnesium supplements, just in case. Also, you may well have been a lot longer on the raw vegan diet than I was, in which case it's possible you might be suffering from severe deficiencies and may still need some supplements, in that case, as an emergency. Vitamins/minerals from raw food would still be far better absorbed than via processed supplements, but it might be better, in that case, to gradually get rid of all your supplements over, say, a 2 or 3-month period, instead of in one go, like I did.
RPG
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