Diet Update (Blog)

[Steve Pavlina]

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

Diet Update

[standgale]

Steve, since you presumably got sick as well as any negative effects from having cooked food again, eating raw for another few days before trying cooked food again could be a good idea to see what happens when you come off it the second time. Also, as you say, to see what it's like eating the diet without constant documentation - maybe it doesn't take as long to prepare a meal as you had thought without all the weighing and mucking around and thus the diet could be more sustainable long term.
Your reflections after another couple of days would be interesting to read. Semi-regular updates on how the diet is going would be appreciated

[Wildside]

Glad you are feeling better Steve. Sounds like a good idea to stay raw for a while...you can't beat fresh, juicy fruits! maybe you should experiment with adding a bit more fat, nuts and seeds etc and see how it goes. looking forward to seeing how things workout for you.

[DragonLove]

Hi Steve,

I'm more then 2 weeks into 100% 80/10/10 & I just measured stuff for the first few days to get the hang of it! You of all people must have a good mental idea about that after 30 days, it only took me 3 or 4 days to feel comfortable that I'm getting more then enough calories. I bet you will find it funner with a little more freedom.

I've been really really really enjoying this diet, the quantity of food, & the accompanying lifestyle changes. My current challenge is to learn to chew my food more slowly instead of wooofing it down, I just get really into how good it all tastes & start shoveling.

I do think about how many calories I'm getting, but I don't eat any overt fats. Healing a very mild candida overgrowth which overt fats aggravate. And as indicated on Dr. Graham's forum & his book, not eating overt fats is a totally healthy & accepted practice within this diet & our bodies ideal parameters. So I don't have to calculate as fats never got anywhere near 10% on nurtidiary.com in the beggining, & lack of protein is definitely not an issue on this diet.

Now if I'm curious about how many calories something has, I just look it up in Graham's book really quick.

Steve, your skin condition (at least the dry peeling & itchy skin) indicates to me that your liver (probably finally) got a chance to start healing itself deeply. You skin does like it! So does your liver! It will pass & you'll be healthier then ever...it's called a healing crisis. These kinds of detox symptoms are an indication that the diet, and your body especially, are working, & your body is looking forward to getting to return itself to its ideal standard of health & energy levels (sounds like you're aware of this though).

It's funny though, I've been around 3 people with really bad colds. I was holding & kissing a lot on this one little girl (would have never done that before, but now I just don't care). Haven't got sick after 3 days (maybe it takes longer, not sure), but actually I would really look forward to it, if I noticed a symptom or two, as a way to speed up my body's detox process (if that's what my body wanted to do).

People often talk of having flue symptoms, that it's part of the initial detox especially! Damn, I'm pretty much elated if my nose gets a little runny...lol.

I also visit Dr. Graham's forum, I love hearing personal experiences from those that have gone before & Graham is there near daily & personally helping people: VegSource.com ~ raw food & sports

Good luck & thanks for sharing!

[openeyes]

"on my previous trials, I was including a lot more fat, dried fruits, dehydrated foods, onions, garlic, spices, hot peppers, oils, and other items I cut out for this recent trial"

That sounds much more like the kind of raw diet I'd be comfortable with, plus a bit of raw dairy and sashimi. My diet tends to be fairly high in fat, with at least one avocado per day, plenty of coconut, egg yolks, butter, high quality dark chocolate, wild salmon and so on.

When I tried a low fat raw fruit diet for a few weeks a decade ago, eating just enough until I was satisfied rather than stuffing myself, in three weeks I apparently went from weighing 155 pounds (my ideal weight) to 128. I was full of energy and enjoying myself, but I would have had to practically force feed myself to regularly get more than a few hundred calories per day into me without including lots of yummy fats.

My current style of eating is not all raw, but plenty of raw foods do find their way in, I have good energy, and I generally enjoy myself while remaining quite flexible in what I can eat.

[Keith]

Wouldn't it be appropriate to mention in the blog article that your family was ill and you probably contracted this thing from them? Diet may well have contributed, but the way it's written now makes it sound like a toxic reaction or something.

[oakspringer]

I have been on this raw kick as well for about 5 weeks.

I was inspired by Steve to do it, but more importantly I was urged by my inner guidance to take this diet up.

I had been happily eating fruits and veggies and all sorts of raw food, however I was still yearning for some cooked food.

So I decided to add in 1 meal a week of cooked food.

Let me tell you, it was a disaster!

I chose to eat burritos for a favorite Mexican place, and I felt so clogged and stuffy and I gained a cold from the experience. I also had coffee with soy, so the two shocked my system; I am still recovering.

So I know how you feel. I wanted to go with a blend or add some more cooked foods back into my diet, but if this is how I am going to feel each time, forget it!

It certainly is nice to get perspective, but not at the cost of being constantly sick.

Makes you wonder how your body ever survived on cooked food after going raw.

[openeyes]

Originally Posted by Keith

Diet may well have contributed, but the way it's written now makes it sound like a toxic reaction or something.

It actually reminded me of what's thought to happen when one goes off a fast too quickly. Steve went from all raw fruit to lots of dense, cooked foods (toast, tofu and such) in one day rather than having a raw breakfast and lunch followed by a small to medium sized plate of steamed veggies with butter for dinner. Grains or anything heavily cooked could have waited a week or more before reintroduction (if he actually wanted to add them back in at all), and even then in smaller than usual proportions at first. He likely started off eating larger portions than optimal since he was used to eating foods with high water content.

[helga]

I must say it’s been quite fascinating to watch your personal experience, to have an intimate window into someone else’s life that isn’t often available. I suspect that food has somewhat less effect on our health than we think. The body is incredibly adaptable, and has varied biochemistry to maintain equilibrium. Someone with a healthy pancreas will have normal blood sugar levels no matter what they are eating. It’s the job of insulin, to keep the blood sugar as level as possible.

I haven’t had so much as a sniffle, sore throat or sick day in three years. I’m not altogether sure what I am doing right, but eating “properly” likely isn’t it. While I make a point of eating fruits and vegetables, I also eat meat, baked goods, and drink wine and way too much coffee. I’ll eat donuts when they come to the office. Before Christmas every day brought a new batch of chocolate and cookies to the office where I worked and I didn’t even try to summon will power. Weird thing is, I didn’t gain any weight.

I would caution anyone on an extreme diet to not assume that feelings of euphoria are a sign of health. Sometimes that is the body’s response to extreme distress. Remember that people who are freezing to death experience feelings of euphoria.

Something I never hear mentioned in discussions of diet is how our bodies evolved linked the land in which we lived. I don’t know if anyone has studied whether the optimal diet for a northern European would be different than for someone of Hawaiian or African ancestry. I do know that the Inuit have evolved metabolic differences that enable their bodies to be healthy on a diet that is almost exclusively meat and fat, almost the only food sources that were available to them in their natural ecosystem. In the world of cities, travel and manufactured foods we can eat anything we want. This was not the case, even a few hundred years ago. I don’t think our bodies have changed much in that short a period of time.

Last week we had temperatures of minus 35 with a howling wind.[ no it’s not always like that, most of the winter is quite tolerable] This wouldn’t be a good time to try a fruit diet and I’m not even sure a vegan diet is such a good idea. Craving bacon may just be my body’s survival instinct talking.

Interesting experiment. I hope you’re able to return to excellent health quickly.

[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by Keith

Wouldn't it be appropriate to mention in the blog article that your family was ill and you probably contracted this thing from them? Diet may well have contributed, but the way it's written now makes it sound like a toxic reaction or something.

"A toxic reaction" is a good definition of disease. It's simply the body's process of cleansing itself.

[Steve Pavlina]

If you want to shave 12-15 years off your lifespan, I suppose the Inuit are a good role model.

From a recent article:

"The Inuit in Canada's far north have lifespans 12 to 15 years shorter than the average Canadian's, government data showed on Wednesday, putting the aboriginal people on a par with developing countries such as Guatemala and Mongolia."

It doesn't surprise me they get higher rates of diabetes than average Canadians, since diabetes and excess dietary fat go hand-in-hand.

Given their location they may not have many good food choices, but they aren't exactly a thriving people (in many ways).

[Joeschmoe]

I agree Steve. I would say that the fact that we can survive on sub-optimal diets does not mean that should eat those diets. Just because we've figured out how to make various non-edible foods edible doesn't mean we should eat them, it just means we can for survival if necessary. We are talking about thriving, not survival.

[helga]

All I'm saying is that they survived on that diet for thousands of years. Very few aboriginals in North America eat a traditional diet today. They are eating the same wheat and sugar and often, alcohol, based diet of other North Americans. For thousands of years they had never eaten wheat, now they are eating Kraft dinner. Higher infant mortality, and a host of complex social problems all lower the life expectancy.

[kat]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

If you want to shave 12-15 years off your lifespan, I suppose the Inuit are a good role model.

From a recent article:

"The Inuit in Canada's far north have lifespans 12 to 15 years shorter than the average Canadian's, government data showed on Wednesday, putting the aboriginal people on a par with developing countries such as Guatemala and Mongolia."

It doesn't surprise me they get higher rates of diabetes than average Canadians, since diabetes and excess dietary fat go hand-in-hand.

Given their location they may not have many good food choices, but they aren't exactly a thriving people (in many ways).

The aboriginals of North America who have drastically changed their diets in the last few hundred years tend to have high rates of diabetes, etc. To the best of my knowledge, this is not the case for the ones still eating traditional diets (sample source of data, from a few seconds of googling: Tundra Medicine Dreams: Yupik Eskimo Diet and Obesity - but there are innumerable others).

Eating highly processed high-fat, high-sugar food tends to lead to diabetes. Eating high-fat diets which are not highly processed and high in sugar does not seem to have the same effect. I'm sure you've heard of 'Mediterranean' diets, with up to 40% fat -- but the French and Italians aren't keeling over particularly young.

In communities with poor-quality SAD diets, with high rates of alcoholism and drug addiction, life expectancies are low. Many aboriginal communities, having had their land and way of life taken from them in the recent past, have these problems.

Attributing the Inuit life expectancy to the amount of fat eaten is crass, a gross oversimplification, and not supported by the evidence. You can do better than that, Steve.

PS: Misc Tall Ones -- check out "The Final Word on Nutrition and Health". It's about equally well-founded, but at least is vaguely amusing.

[KTCastman]

Hello to Steve and everyone on the forum!

I have been following your blog for nearly a year and have gotten some superb advice. I love your "experimental" style no fear attitude toward living and growing. I have been closely following your raw food trial as I have taken an interest in veganism and raw diets for myself in the last few months. Since I am in the nutrition field and do outpatient counseling, I like to make sure I am not biased one way or another on how to counsel a patient. There are pros and cons to any diet...it is all what and how you want to compromise.

The reason I am writing now is that I am a bit concerned about you. I see nothing wrong with trying a raw fruit and veggie diet for a month - the body especially when healthy overall is quiet flexible. The concern I have is the raw fruit/veggie diet is very, very restrictive and quite frankly too low in protein, fat, many minerals such as zinc (which is needed for healing and skin integrity...huhm the dry skin issue?) magnesium, calcium, sodium (yes you can be too low!). Since you were already vegan before, you MAY have had some underlying low mineral stores before the trial (?zinc) that may have been thrown into deficiency with the raw trial.
I am also concerned as you now appear to be psychologically addicted to the diet - and a very high carb diet (especially simple suger diet) is very addictive. Raw diets with very high carb/simple sugar content can also contribute to diabetes-like symptoms (such as complaints of thirst).
If you were my patient, I would really advise caution on staying on this very restrictive raw vegan diet for much longer. It just seemed like you were giving such great sound advice on all sorts of subjects and now you seem to be becoming obsessed with this diet and it would be a shame to lose your insight over what you are having for lunch

KT

[beel]

steve, i think you were in my dream last night. i don't remember the details, just that you were going to eat raw for another two weeks being more relaxed about what you ate and not reporting like you previously did. this morning, i wasn't sure if it was a dream at all, just something i "knew" so i went searching your posts to see if you might have mentioned that. i don't actually remember the dream at all. weird! i wish you all the best!

[beel]

Originally Posted by KTCastman

I am also concerned as you now appear to be psychologically addicted to the diet - and a very high carb diet (especially simple suger diet) is very addictive. Raw diets with very high carb/simple sugar content can also contribute to diabetes-like symptoms (such as complaints of thirst).
If you were my patient, I would really advise caution on staying on this very restrictive raw vegan diet for much longer. It just seemed like you were giving such great sound advice on all sorts of subjects and now you seem to be becoming obsessed with this diet and it would be a shame to lose your insight over what you are having for lunch

KT

how exactly is he psychologically addicted to the diet if he is now experimenting with cooked foods? do you have experience eating a raw vegan diet? a raw diet can include plenty of low fat protein in the form of hemp, spirulina, and other superfoods. being an RD does not mean you are all knowing. so sick of people preaching their beliefs and passing judgement while never having first hand experience eating raw. i wonder what your diet consists of?

[DragonLove]

Originally Posted by KTCastman

I have been closely following your raw food trial as I have taken an interest in veganism and raw diets for myself in the last few months. Since I am in the nutrition field and do outpatient counseling, I like to make sure I am not biased one way or another on how to counsel a patient. There are pros and cons to any diet...it is all what and how you want to compromise.

Hey There KT,

I know you're addressing Steve with your concerns, but if I may jump in!?

Since you are into nutritional counseling, I would really recommend reading the book that inspired Steve to do this trial. The 80/10/10 Diet by Dr. Douglas Graham. Just to inform yourself completely (& I can tell you haven't read it yet ).

I asked a concerned friend the other day to at least read the book, thoroughly. She doesn't even have to agree with me afterwards! But it's like I told her too, "you know your side, I know your side, but you don't really know my side & I don't feel like typing a books worth of info into this screen. "

I've been eating mostly cooked foods my whole life, minus a few raw transition attempt. I never had found it to be a practical healthy lifestyle, although my intuition kept, very gently, telling me that it was possible, & so I kept reading and after another year finally read Graham's book last year, & started stalking long term raw foodist online. All of which showed me that it is practical, cheaper, easier, healthier and all that, even long term.

I've also been studying the raw food diet, for the last 10 years (at the rate of about 3 or 4 books a year, 1 or 2 additional food prep books a year, & various online reading). And for at least 4 years before that (in high school & on my own just out of high school) I was very interested in becoming a nutritionist myself, plus playing sports extensively, so I already had a solid foundation of knowledge about conventional information as well.

Which not having actually switched to a raw food diet in those 10 years since (I don't stress things like that, I don't restrict or deprive myself either, it has to come naturally) and being so interested in nutrition I also kept up with conventional knowledge as well. With all of that under my belt I am still jumping into this whole heartedly as a great way to go & I feel surprisingly satisfied (although I was expecting initial detox symptoms, but this whole thing has been comfortable & fun).

I understand it's not best for everyone, but I just wanted to remind you of what you said, which I quoted above, & if you do really care about such things.... then I ask you to research this diet, truly unbiased.

I also like to see how people are living their lives long term with this! That is the first thing I looked for after putting down Graham's book. The blogs of 100% raw foodists really help in that. I tend to go for info from people doing this for 5 years or longer...the longest seems to be 35 years (the man is now 60 years old & still looks like he's 27) that I have seen so far (which that link is above).

These are just a few links to give you an idea of what kind of info is out there:


rawschool:My Raw Story and Photos (not really mine)

Janie's Photo History

You can read Storm's blog post: 'The downside of a raw vegan diet' (although I look forward to the experiences he is talking of here, learning how to manage all the extra energy & still look like I'm in my 20's while doing it!) in the link I gave above labeled: 'long term'

This is another great post from Storm: Raw Vegan Forever - Storm's Blog: Anti-Aging

There are more out there, but this is enough reading for awhile already....lol.

Thanks for reading all that & sharing as well!

The newly resident, Long Winded Dragon (although she's been following Steve's blog for well over a year now too)

[Zombie]

My concern is that your toxic shock reaction may have more to do with the raw food diet than it does with the quality of cooked food. What does it say about your true health when a bite of anything other than fruit could put you out of commission for days?

I'd never defend the SAD lifestyle but at the same time there's something to be said about not being so fragile that a piece of fried tofu can wipe you out. Heaven forbid you accidentally bite into a bug in one of your apples - how would your fragile digestive system survive?

As for the psychological fixation on the icky garlic smell. Did your wife actually smell strong garlic on you, or was it entirely your perception? Food affects psychology, you gotta be careful! There are other explanations for the "euphoric" feelings you experienced on raw foods and they don't all point to your health being a-ok.

Regardless, it was a successful experiment. It may take some time to digest (if you'll forgive the pun) the data and figure out what it all means.

[Erin Pavlina]

Yeah he smelled like garlic. It was quite pervasive.

My personal opinion is that he would have gotten sick whether he was raw or on cooked food. But we can't know empirically because there's no control situation.

Let's all just wait and see what happens after he's past the illness.

[bjuettner]

Hi Steve,

I've been following your blog with interest over the past week (before that I was a here and there reader of your blog) because, coincidentally, I went raw around the same time that you did. And, I've been having an itchy skin reaction too. I thought at first that it was the fruit, which I normally (previously, like you, I was a cooked-food vegan) don't eat that much of. At one point in my life an acupuncturist told me that I tend to have too much heat, and that when I get inflammatory reactions (eg rashes and acne) I should cut out sugar, even avoiding fruit. And mostly I have...until now. So now that I'm eating fruit and am itchy, I tend to wonder if so much fruit is really okay for me. So...I started eating some cooked food again over the last few days too (about one meal a day), replacing the meal that would have been fruit. Well...so far I'm still itchy!

Looking for more information, I turned to Healing With Whole Foods, a book on Asian medicine and nutrition. I looked up each fruit and vegetable I've been eating. And discovered that the fruits I was eating are classified as cooling, while several of the vegetables I was eating (kale, parsley, garlic, zucchini, yellow squash) are classified as warming. Maybe I should have replaced some of my vegetables with fruit? As you seem to have done...and now you say that your itchiness is subsiding.

Anyway. I'll be interested to hear how your skin is doing over the next few days...I'm, at the moment, craving fruit, very thirsty, but temporarily avoiding fruit (and other forms of sugar) to see what happens.

Bonnie

P.S. Like you, I'm also finding spices that I loved before are too much for me now. Tonight I had some cooked beans on my salad, and the beans contained jalapeno peppers...ouch. This is something I used to enjoy, but they were actually painful to consume this evening.

[patrickq]

Originally Posted by KTCastman

The reason I am writing now is that I am a bit concerned about you. I see nothing wrong with trying a raw fruit and veggie diet for a month - the body especially when healthy overall is quiet flexible. The concern I have is the raw fruit/veggie diet is very, very restrictive and quite frankly too low in protein, fat, many minerals such as zinc (which is needed for healing and skin integrity...huhm the dry skin issue?) magnesium, calcium, sodium (yes you can be too low!).KT

Hi KT,

To follow on a bit from replies to your post, it is great that you are looking at nutrition from a vegan aspect. I think it is a bit daunting to start with, when coming from the more accepted mainstream view of nutrition ... things like we need plenty of protein, or these minerals/vitamins and are only available from meat/dairy sources. A total re-evaluation is needed and being prepared to question all the nutrition experts, no matter how obvious the points they make seem to be.

We don't need protein!!! Actually, I've deliberately phrased that to be controversial but it is true in many ways. What we need are the amino acids that build protein in our body. When we eat protein our body has to waste energy breaking down that protein into constituent aminos and then using to build our body protein. This fact is obviously of no use to the meat industry and rarely mentioned by nutritionists. The adult body needs very little in the way of protein, even when building 'usable' muscle. We can get all of our needs from eating a mixed raw vegan diet ... forever. All the amino acids are available by eating a variety of greens etc.

There are many potential problems in consuming dairy products, again the nutritional myth that we need milk for calcium, totally false and quite probably detrimental to absorption. We need calcium in an organic form from greens etc, the same with all vitamins and minerals, not secondhand in often unusable ways from animal sources. There is absolutely no chance of being deficient in zinc etc if you eat a balanced (organic where possible) diet, pumpkin seeds for example are a high source.

Off the top of my head, diabetes is a refined/cooked/processed problem, not something that is any risk from the type of diet that Steve has been eating ... my only reservation to check would be the high consumption of bananas - I don't enjoy eating so many myself.

Cooking kills ... our food and hence our bodies. There really is no dispute about that, there is the odd report where someone may find a benefit in heating a foodstuff (for example lightly steamed broccoli), but personally I do not hold any credibility to needing any cooked foods.

Cooked and processed foods are also very dehydrating to the body and as Steve has noticed the best source of hydration for the body is via water-rich raw foods, rather than water itself.

It all comes down to choice and most of us are reluctant to give up the pleasures/addictions of meat/fish/vegetarian/cooked foods, so can quite successfully kid ourselves that we need them for our health, or that life is too short to worry about it.

The thing that I find most fascinating is that those who eat truly simple raw food (not gourmet style) appear to eventually completely lose any attraction for cooked or complex foods. They have abundant energy and clarity of mind. Maybe this is where Steve is headed, breaking the addiction is the most difficult thing, maybe he is close to doing so.

A couple of super healthy/athletic people, both aged about 40, who are flourishing on raw foods and are truly inspiring: http://www.runningraw.com and http://www.rogerhaeske.com

Anyway, a longer post than intended, hope it is helpful

Patrick

[nownow]

People often get sick when they run out of adrenaline. Adrenaline is often used by the body to hold off a cold or to get through a 30 day trial. I suspect Steve's adrenaline was rising throughout the trial (not good). As the trial neared its end the adrenaline spiked. And then when Steve did indulge in cooked food his repressed desire for cooked food and his drive to successfully complete the 30 day trial, both of which were causing his high adrenaline, meant that his adrenaline disappeared all at once. The real short term fuel, adrenaline not carbs, was gone. The body shuts down and germs which were always there take over. Maintaining a balanced hormonal system is what keeps people from getting sick not food directly.

[Joeschmoe]

Originally Posted by nownow

People often get sick when they run out of adrenaline. Adrenaline is often used by the body to hold off a cold or to get through a 30 day trial. I suspect Steve's adrenaline was rising throughout the trial (not good). As the trial neared its end the adrenaline spiked. And then when Steve did indulge in cooked food his repressed desire for cooked food and his drive to successfully complete the 30 day trial, both of which were causing his high adrenaline, meant that his adrenaline disappeared all at once. The real short term fuel, adrenaline not carbs, was gone. The body shuts down and germs which were always there take over. Maintaining a balanced hormonal system is what keeps people from getting sick not food directly.

Are you joking? Where do you get any evidence for your claims? Why not just try to entertain a different interpretation than your current beliefs of health and food allow? If you are right as you seem to think you are you'll still be right, and more informed if you actually look into the opposing view.

With more information you might not have to draw straws to come up with explanations for contradictory evidence.

[Roger Haeske]

I'm glad Steve's starting to feel better.

One of the great advantages of eating a simple 100% raw food diet is that you're body immediately tells you when it doesn't like something. You often get instant reactions to foods which are less than ideal. And so it's simple to know what to eat and what not to eat.

And it's also very easy to get sick if you're doing such a diet. Because if you stray too far, your body will have so much vitality that it will want to remove the invading toxins immediately.

That usually results in a cold. What people don't realize is that in a certain way getting a cold or a healing crisis is a good thing. It shows at least that your body has the vitality and energy needed to clean itself out.

Some of the unhealthiest people are the ones who don't get colds for years and yet continue to eat an unhealthy Standard American Diet. They think they're healthy because they don't get colds.

But later on in life they get shocked when they're diagnosed with cancer or some other serious disease. They say, I've been perfectly healthy, I never get colds, why did this happen to me?

The fact is they were so unhealthy they didn't have the vitality to express a cold. Victoria Boutenko heard many such stories when she worked for one of those Anne Wigmore style healing places in Michigan (at least I think that's where it was).

I've heard this from other people as well. And remember a dead body can't have a cold. You have to be alive and have lots of vitality and strength to have cold symptoms.

That's why children get so many colds. They have a higher level of vitality than most adults. But nothing compared to a clean raw foodist.

So that's the benefit of a 30 day trial. After 30 days, you're mind might want cooked food, but your body will crave raw food. This then makes it easier to stay raw because your body wants it.

Cheers, Roger

[Designer M]

I'd just like to say thanks. I appreciate all the effort you've gone to with making this information available to us.

[nownow]

Originally Posted by Joeschmoe

Are you joking? Where do you get any evidence for your claims? Why not just try to entertain a different interpretation than your current beliefs of health and food allow? If you are right as you seem to think you are you'll still be right, and more informed if you actually look into the opposing view.

With more information you might not have to draw straws to come up with explanations for contradictory evidence.

I am not sure what it is that I said that you disagree with. I know I don't get my evidence for my views from one book or point of view. If your suggesting that adrenaline and cortisol are not important in relation to catching a cold then do a search. If you disagree with their importance in this case that's fine.
By Steve's own account he was determined to finish this trial. It was a struggle. He was ramping up his endocrine system to achieve his goal. When the trial was over the tap was turned off all at once. He should have transitioned slowly. Instead he indulged in large cooked meals. Of course this sudden change is going to mess things up on many levels and not just hormonal. It was the change that caused the illness not the cooked food.

[wulph]

Originally Posted by Joeschmoe

Are you joking? Where do you get any evidence for your claims? Why not just try to entertain a different interpretation than your current beliefs of health and food allow? If you are right as you seem to think you are you'll still be right, and more informed if you actually look into the opposing view.

With more information you might not have to draw straws to come up with explanations for contradictory evidence.

So let me get this straight. Hormonal imbalance playing a role in illness is far-fetched, but boiling your cabbage causing disease is logical and well-founded?

Oh wait, I never strictly ate raw food so I guess my opinion doesn't count either.

Sheesh.

[Joeschmoe]

Wow! I didn't say that hormonal imbalance being involved in disease was far fetched. I also didn't say boiling cabbage was going to cause disease. I am saying that nownow has no evidence that Steve had high levels of adrenalin.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by standgale

Steve, since you presumably got sick as well as any negative effects from having cooked food again

The timing certainly is suggestive but far from conclusive. Like Erin said, it could've been that he would've gotten sick anyway. His immune system may even have been depressed because of the raw food diet.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

If you want to shave 12-15 years off your lifespan, I suppose the Inuit are a good role model.

Huh. Smug close-mindedness from Steve. I guess you're human after all.

Steve, it's awesome that you've found a path that works so exceptionally well for you but it seems like a mistake to assume that's the only viable path, especially given individual variation.

As others have pointed out, the Inuit lifestyle is not what it traditionally was. The article you cited attributes their poor lifespan to the crowded poverty in which they live and poor access to medical services. It's a similar story to other displaced indigenous people such as Australian Aborigines. Indications are that Inuit who live a traditional lifestyle have lower levels of diabetes etc.

You said that a raw fruit diet is valid, but not in conjunction with even a moderate fat intake. Even amongst those comparatively few Inuit with a traditional diet, lets not assume that adding chips and soda pop to it makes no difference.