Raw Food Diet - Day 31 (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Raw Food Diet - Day 31

[Erin Pavlina]

I think there's a good chance that Steve is catching the cold that me and the kids have had for the past week. I think it might be a coincidence that he's catching it now and I think that he would have got it even if he was totally raw today. But who knows...

Steve is usually the last in the house to catch whatever illness the kids bring home from school. I deal more directly with the kids when they're sick so I usually catch what they've got early on. Sometimes Steve is able to avoid the illness altogether. Lucky dog.

Anyway, maybe the 30 days raw will help his illness pass more quickly than it is passing for me.

[Dan.Linehan]

I thought you might have a tough adjustment back to cooked foods...

Sorry you are feeling poorly Steve. I'm sure your amped up immune system will blow through this illness right quickly though!

[gettingskinny]

Very interesting read. It's interesting how sensitive your taste buds are and how cooked foods taste good, but don't make you feel good. I'm interested to see how you decide to continue eating. A high raw diet sounds great! It'll be fun to read what you decide is best for you. You still had green smoothies and fruit today! Awesome!

[Michelle]

I only made it to day 11 on this diet, but my reaction coming off it was the same - fever, sore throat, blahness, heightened sensitivity - for a couple of days. My body also felt (and still feels) like never before as though it literally craves the goodness of fruits and veggies. My body absorbs the goodness from them so differently now. At least it feels that way anyway. It is interesting to me that this feeling remains even while eating cooked food again.

[Bruce Achterberg]

An interesting post, Steve. Hope you're feeling better soon, though.

Some info you may find useful:

Originally Posted by Steve, Raw Food Diet - day 31

I drank a lot more water today, but I still felt thirsty throughout the
day. Less than a minute after gulping some water, I feel like I’m dying of thirst again. I didn’t seem to get thirsty much at all during the trial. Aside from the water I added to smoothies, I was only drinking one or two glasses of water each day in the final week, sometimes as little as 12 oz. [...]

I’m not really hungry, but my thirst just isn’t quenched by water. I actually feel thirsty for some juicy fruit. Even the thought of eating fruit makes me feel a little better… so sweet and juicy.

I experience the exact same thing.

Some backstory: Before and throughout primary school I exclusively drank fruit juice or tea (the tea had milk and sugar in it, but not much milk; I didn't like it). I was not vegan.

In high school I drank cordial diluted with water, and dropped the tea and fruit juice. Halfway through high school I started drinking fruit juice again, but continued to drink cordial. I didn't drink water; I disliked the taste and it never quenched my thirst.

Recently (I'm 21 now) I stopped drinking cordial and now exclusively drink fruit juice, usually with a bit of store bought vegetable juice mixed in, and occasionally diluted with some water. The fruit juice is the clear, store bought kind that doesn't have any pulp (or if it does, not very much), but the ingredients list say it has no preservatives, added colour, or added sugar.

In 2007 I attempted to drink less fruit juice and more water (either plain water or water flavored with some herbal tea). I started to feel thirsty all the time, and whenever I was doing anything physically taxing, I felt a strong urge to drink something other then water. It just didn't quench my thirst, and I experienced the same thirsty feelings you describe in your article. I ate more concentrated, low GI carbs, but the energy boost was only a +2 instead of the +5 juice was.

I held off juice for weeks, but became increasingly sluggish during physical exertion, as if I was thirsty not for hydration but for energy. I started drinking fruit juice at those times and I no longer felt lethargic. I've been vegan since Oct 2006.

I discovered that, for whatever reason, my body literally needs whatever sugar/energy I get from fruit juice. Perhaps this is just an addiction, but since I didn't want to feel lethargic all the time and I experienced no ill effects from drinking the juice, I still drink it to this day.

Perhaps this is what you're experiencing -- you're just not getting the same sort of energy from the foods you're currently eating. Perhaps, like me, after you get used to a certain amount of sugar/energy, you don't want to go back. Time will tell in your case.

FYI, I'm an energetic person and usually have more energy then those around me. It's not that I have excessive stamina, I just don't tire as easily. Not sure if that's related to juice consumption.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

Steve is usually the last in the house to catch whatever illness the kids bring home from school. I deal more directly with the kids when they're sick so I usually catch what they've got early on. Sometimes Steve is able to avoid the illness altogether. Lucky dog.

I question whether avoiding sickness is a matter of luck. What you exposed to will surely influence to some degree (or perhaps we just believe it will?), but like Steve, I rarely get sick. Usually when I do it's caused by me not getting enough sleep (which lowers my immune system) or by being out in strong weather conditions (ie. being out in dry, strong wind usually makes my throat dry which can lead to a minor infection, aka a sore throat).

I was like this before I went vegan, but now I'm vegan, it's even more extreme. In 2007 I think I was "sick" once with a sore throat, but that passed by itself in about a week. I never take any medication.

I have this natural belief that "I don't get sick", which has certainly been my experience, but I wonder how much that belief influences my experience. Interesting stuff to consider.

[Jake Birkett]

Yeah just sounds like a cold Steve, it'll pass. Thing is with kids is they are always bringing colds back from school and it's inevitable that a few of them will pass over to the parents. When I get colds I "program" my immune system at night before falling asleep by imagining myself breathing clearly and having a clear head and a healthy feeling body (and lungs). This seems to work pretty well. The other thing about having a cold is that as you gradually get better, you can REALLY appreciate each day how good it is to feel better :-)

[11althea11]

The most likely reason that you were experiencing such dry itchy skin was because you'd almost eliminated raw fats. Do you still have dry skin? The best thing to do is buy some flax seeds and then grind them down to a meal. You can use the oil, but it's far better to make your own fresh oil. About 6 tablespoons of flax meal, or 2 tablespoons of flax oil, everyday, should fix the dry skin quickly. Then, once your skin has settled, I suggest consuming about 2 tablespoons of hemp seed (raw) daily. I've been raw for a while and experienced more or less the exact same problem with my skin when I went raw. I found flax helps solve the problem, and hemp maintains it (hemp's also one of the most nutritionally perfect foods on the planet). I hope that's of some help

[Rosie]

It sounds like you just have a cold. I doubt that your reaction is due to the cooked food you're eating. And of course it's going to take some time to get used to. It took you many days to get used to eating fruit, and now it's probably going to take you quite a while to get used to eating cooked again.

[wulph]

@steve: I'm sure you were injecting some humor into your post, but your descriptions last night sound much more like an addiction to fruit sugar than an actual need for more fruit. In contrast, your cravings for cooked food seemed more like a need for balanced nutrients (fats and proteins and the micronutrients they carry?)

Some of your grogginess yesterday may have been due to low blood sugar, as you adjust back to fewer simple sugars. The skin conditions would likely take more than a day to clear up, though, and the cold symptoms should be addressed separately.

I hope you feel better soon.

[Stormhierta]

Wouldn't it be a possible "detox" reaction, not unlike what you (Steve) were suffering through at the beginning of the raw diet? In my experience ANY major change in diet will lead the body into a detox period where it feels kinda harsh. I've seen it with vegetarians going back to eating meat, as well as meateaters going vegetarian in my immediate vicinity.

My guess is that since other people have posted this, that it is a natural phenomenon attached to major dietary upheaval, but one of the good things I notice is a greater appreciation BOTH for cooked and raw foods.

[ericabiz]

Hey Steve,

I've had the same reaction to food that you have...where it feels pure and godly and completely awesome. Here's my back story:

I was at Burning Man in 2005. I came with basically nothing but a huge pile of clothes, an arrangement for a borrowed tent, and some durable food like crackers. I figured I'd eat whatever other people cooked.

This turned out to be a huge problem because I could never get enough food. Portions are small on the playa since the desert makes a lot of people eat less. Unfortunately, it didn't make me eat much less, and since people love to cook totally strange food on the playa (often vegan...you'd love it, but I didn't!) I was hungry all the time.

I stayed out there for a week. On the way back, we stopped at this hamburger place. Now normally I'm not a huge fan of hamburgers and really don't eat them often. I had been eating playa food for a week, mostly bland stuff like crackers and pretzels since fresh food is hard to keep fresh. My taste buds were so sensitive that the hamburger tasted AMAZING! It was probably, to this day, one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I had no idea that taste buds could change like that...and my change happened in just one week.

It's worth noting that I've gone back to Burning Man twice since then, but both times I've been in an RV and stocked it full of yogurt, carrots, tuna, and other things I love. Neither time have I had the same experience when I got home. Food tasted good, and it was awesome to have others cook instead of me cooking the whole thing myself, but it didn't taste "godly."

So...I know what you mean about that. If your experience is anything like mine, it will only last a day or two. Enjoy it while you can. I sure did!

[Erin Pavlina]

Well, I just dropped the kids off at school and went to check on Steve. He's still in bed and has a fever of 101 and he's nauseous. He's got an apple next to his bed and says in his fevered delirium that he'll only be eating fruit today. These symptoms are very typical of Steve's illnesses. Whereas the kids and I usually just get the nasal and chest congestion with a cough, Steve tends to get the fever and nausea combo.

Our whole family is sick at the moment. I had to cancel a bunch of readings which always pains me, but I'm sure no one wants to hear me barking into the phone for 30 minutes. All you Reiki people out there... send us some healing energy. We will gratefully receive it.

[Andreas]

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS Steve for completing this most difficult 30 day trail. Even with 36 hours to go, you stayed on course. You didn't give into temptation. What a good role model you are!

This post is a good example of how Steve's honesty benefits the greater community. Many bloggers I know of would perhaps not have been so honest, rather choosing to minimize the downsides to protect their ego, especially concerning their feelings at any one moment in time. They would be afraid that they would seem incongruitious if they held an opinion and then changed it a week later. But Steve's not so afraid. Steve's brutal honesty about his predicament and his feelings does him great credit, and is an inspiration for all writers.

Get well soon! I'm sick too... gosh is everyone sick right now or what?
We win, in time...

[Joeschmoe]

I got a fever when i ate a cooked meal too. It lasted all night but the whole time I had the most vivid dreams of eating fruits, sweet juicy and colorful. Good luck Steve, I hope you feel better. It sounds like you might have a but more than just the switch back to cooked food going on.

[Rose of Cairo]

Hey Steve, first of all congratulations! You did it!

One thing's funny:

Originally Posted by you

I drank a lot more water today, but I still felt thirsty throughout the day. Less than a minute after gulping some water, I feel like I’m dying of thirst again. I didn’t seem to get thirsty much at all during the trial. Aside from the water I added to smoothies, I was only drinking one or two glasses of water each day in the final week, sometimes as little as 12 oz.

I wrote a post for my blog last night to explain why I broke off the experiment and how I feel now. And that's one of the things I wrote:

Originally Posted by me

What I also noticed is that cooked foods now seem extremely dry to me. I almost die of thirst when I eat some bread, it’s so dry, no water in there! Not like fruits and veggies. I drink much more water now, but oddly enough I’m thirsty all the time. Fruits and veggies still are my favorite foods.

And that's after two weeks back to cooked. Not that I want to scare you

edit: oh, I'm sorry to hear you are all sick. I'll send all four of you some energy

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Good health vibes coming y'all's way (yeah, that's a word here in Texas!).

[Andrew Brunelle]

When you go a whole month eating nothing but raw, uncooked fruits, veggies, and occasional nuts, it really does not surprise me that one would get sick after an entire day of cooked food. My advice is to gradually reintroduce the cooked food, starting with part of one meal and then moving from there up to 50% or wherever your ultimate goal is.

[Angela]

I'm sending lots of good green healthy energy across the airwaves to the whole family. Congratulations on successfully completing your commitment!

(Maybe you gave yourself this cold to keep yourself from jumping into another 30-day trial right away! )

[Wildside]

Well, since most of us have an opinion on why you felt the way you did after eating cooked food, I will throw mine in the ring to. I think you probably succumbed to the cold/flu virus in your house after eating cooked food because your system wasn't used to having to digest the cooked food. Before when you were all raw your digestive system was having a nice easy time of things, what with all the added enzymes in the raw food, it hardly had to break a sweat to digest and use the nutrients from the raw food. So your body could use most of its energy to boost your immune system to stave of the cold/flu virus which was running rampid in your house. But as soon as that cooked (enzyme/phytonutrient depleted) food hit your system your body had to divert a lot of energy from the immune system to help digest the food. Thus leaving you open to the cold/flu virus that was just waiting to get in.

It is too bad that there was a cold/flu virus in your house at the same time as you came off raw food. I would have liked to see what would have happened if we could rule out you getting a cold/flu. I would bet you would still feel worse than usual due to the extra energy you body would have to divert to the digestion of the cooked food.

I would think the quickest way for you to beat the cold/flu would be to stay raw; this would give your body a lot more energy to pump up your immune system to fight it as opposed to having to divert its energy to deal with the digestion of all the cooked food. I would wait to make the move to cooked food until you feel better and the cold/flu virus was out of your house.
And if you do stay raw for a while longer to fight this cold you should probably incorporate 2 or 3 tablespoons of flax or hemp oil to get your fat intake up.

But great 30 day trial, I really enjoyed it (and still am, please keep us posted on the next few days )...thanks Steve!!

[sebzzz]

I decided to stay raw and plan to keep it that way. So far I'm loving it.

Steve, maybe the reason your 30 days trial wasn't very successful is because the only fat you got was from avocados. I read that they contain a high ratio of Omega-6 versus Omega-3. Your body prefers a 1 / 1 balance ratio. suggest, like others, that you include flaxseeds and hempseeds in your diet. That doesn't mean going high fat raw, still low fat but with a variety of fats.

[danman7]

Hey Steve. Great job on the trial! It's not that easy to make a change like that to your diet. I did 30 days caffeine free and I feel great.

So I have a few thoughts on the effects of your diet. I think you should call this diet the banana diet, or high sugar diet instead of the raw diet. Many of the sypmtoms you exhibit may be related to the amount of sugar you have been consuming.

In the beginning of the diet your body had several highs and lows as it may have been reacting to the amount of sugar you were eating in the fruit. Eventually your body may have compensated and leveled out as seen with your blood sugar readings later on. This may be good or bad. Now that you have removed the sugar from your diet your body is readjusting. Besides the cold you have, you may feel lousy from a huge sugar low.

I tried a diet similar to yours a while back. I too had highs and lows, occasional mental fogginess, and dry skin. My diet also had quite a bit of fruit in it. I readjusted the diet to include only vegetables and cooked pasta/rice. After that change I never felt better in my life. It was amazing! The dry skin went away almost immediately too without adding any additional fat to the diet.

Next time you may want to experiment with a raw, low sugar diet to see if that's any better. That's just my $.02. Again, great job!

Dan

[Joeschmoe]

We've heard it before. He's been taking his blood sugar the whole time and he said it never got over 91. There has been a ton of blood sugar discussion.

He's also discussed his high fat raw diet.

[Roger Haeske]

Originally Posted by Rosie

It sounds like you just have a cold. I doubt that your reaction is due to the cooked food you're eating. And of course it's going to take some time to get used to. It took you many days to get used to eating fruit, and now it's probably going to take you quite a while to get used to eating cooked again.

I don't think you guys understand the nature of why people get sick. It's not germs that cause colds or what we like to call a "healing crisis" in the Natural Hygiene arena of study.

You get sick when there is dirt, junk or toxins in your body that the germs are attracted to. It's like flies attracted to garbage.

As long as I've been raw and doing it properly I never get sick. Even when I was a tennis instructor around a bunch of sick kids. I never got sick. And I've seen this repeatedly with other raw foodists I know. One guy I know did specific experiments in this area. And nothing would make him sick anymore.

I doubt Steve would have gotten his healing crisis if he hadn't eaten the mucous forming cooked food. There's a great old book on this idea. It's called "The Mucusless Diet Healing System by Arnold Ehret.

He thoroughly understood the issue. Though there are some scientific inaccuracies but it's a great read and highly motivating.

If you go 100% raw and do it properly you'll likely hardly ever get sick and if you do get sick it will be mild in comparison to any such colds you had in the past.

Roger

[silverquick]

Hey Steve & all. Just joined up to add my congratulations, thanks for being so thorough and honest, and to say I found this series of posts really thought-provoking and eye-opening. I was really suprised to see that your first cooked meal was a bunch of tofu with hot sauce. Talk about a fast & painful change. Hope you felt better today.

Good night from Toronto, Canada.
-silverquick

[siparker]

I am happy to be part of this. The only negative is that I am tired of reading about how an individual is failing at achieving their goals!

I am not being negative! I am simply stating the truth. I may have missed something. Where is the exercise? I can't find it. If I missed it, I am sorry. Prior to the most recent posts, your blog was entertaining. Now, I read whining.

Please don't take this as a negative critism, it is as posted. I know that you are a straight forward individual. You have a goal, admirable as it must be, it will not be met! Do not take this in the wrong context.

I am simply trying to let you know that I feel that you are adopting an extreme way of allowing something to occur; however, with basic proper nutrition and exercise, better results would occur. What you are attempting is admirable, but where is the rest of the program?

I am a physician and find a portion of your program disconcerting. If I am wrong, let me know.

After all is said and done, your blog is a great blog!

Scott Parker

[beel]

steve exercises every morning

[Adelina]

do raw breakfast and lunch, and cooked dinner!
at least in transition, possibly settle at that for a while.

I also second the adding a green meal to your diet (I LOVE ultimate meal!! it calls for adding banana or apple to it, though I generally have it with a fruit powder bc prefer no sugar)

whatever you do, definitely DON'T come off a raw fast going right back into cooked foods! you must transition, at least for a few weeks, adding one meal at a time.
though you may likely love raw so much, just do a couple cooked meals per week, at 80 or 90% raw standard, is a good balance (also allows a bit more social flexibility)


GOOD LUCK and feel better soon!!!

[Jake Birkett]

Thanks for the update Erin. Get well soon Steve, lots of people are sending you good energy. Perhaps your mind or spirit had to get rid of some junk and do some fevered processing too and so you are laid up in bed getting a chance to do that? Enjoy getting better, I look forward to your next post.