Yes, everything is a personal choice. Can someone be healthy and drink coffee? Sure. However, if you take an extremely healthy person and add coffee to their diet, will they become more healthy? Probably not. Actually it will probably take away from their health. I used to consume a lot of coffee, about a pot per day. Then I stopped drinking it one day. Then I became raw, and a while after being raw I drank a cup of coffee and became very sick.
I would say, give it up for a while. Maybe one or two months. Then, try it out again. If you don't feel that it takes away from how good you feel, then I suppose there's no reason to stop. But I think there is enough evidence out there to want to be sure.
Should you stop drinking coffee- depends who you ask:-) Seriously. I see stuff on the news about how bad it is, and then see studies how it may keep away alztimers? It gets confusing! Sounds to me like you have made a lot of changes in a short period of time. Don't make yourself miserable over it. If you really want that cup in the am, have it for now. Trying to change too many things at once can be overwhelming to some people.
The wholistic practicioner I'm going to for knee pains hates the idea of coffee. But, it's not the caffeine. He told me to drink tea with caffeine when I switched off of coffee if I feared caffeine withdrawl problems.
Go figure.
Anyways, he insists there is a link to it and bladder cancer? Since bladder cancer seems to pop up quite a bit where I work, I decided to hang up the coffee cup for a while and see how I felt.
We tend to drink a LOT of coffee where I work, so it did make me wonder? But, I also wonder if it might have more to do with excessive coffee drinking. (not just one or two cups a day)
I LOVE chickpeas and don't usually have a problem with them. But, I know lots of people do. If you are hitting the chickpeas really heavy, maybe that's the problem. Are you soaking them first for several hours (like overnight), draining, and then cooking in fresh water. That gets rid of the gas (or at least some). You could try sprouting them, and making humus from that (they'd be raw then). Lots of people seem to like sprouted chickpeas.
I support peoples' choice to eat ALL raw (this is a raw vegan site). But, imho, totally raw diet doesn't seem to work for everyone. There are a lot of people who have cooked brown rice, quinoa, and steamed veggies, etc, but incorporate lots of raw fruits and vegetables with it. High raw may suit you better than all raw? Just a thought.
You could also look into different "types" of raw diets:
There is the high fruit/ low fat/ and leafy green diet (80/10/10). There are people that don't do so well on so much fruit and eat more vegetables.
Maybe it is the "crunchy vegetables" you are eating most days. If I eat a lot of raw carrots, celery, and brocolli each day in large amounts, I get an upset stomach. I can eat them in a salad, with some olive or canola oil and vinegar and they don't bother me. But large amounts, yet.
Something that MAY help for the ickiness. I know with my daughter, I HAD to have saltine crackers (or some cracker type thing) to get out of bed in the morning, or I could barely walk from the nausea. A healthier substitute (in my opnion) may be rye crisp bread. It isn't raw, but it's made of only rye flour. You can find them in the cracker isle. They are more like a cracker than bread. I think that would be much healthier than the standard white flour saltine.
Might help you to think of the "chicken" you are eating as "chickenS," formerly living beings that are killed based on the demand of people who buy the flesh products.
I'm not surprised you didn't feel well. Guacamole and hummus are high in fat, number one, and then you're combining legumes with starchy vegetables.
Have you tried green smoothies?
Humans meant to eat raw? I certainly don't think cooked food is doing anything good for us.....are people assuming that because presently people eat cooked food that that is what we are "meant" to do? I'd argue we are not meant to have such severe joint pain and most people rid themselves of it when they rid themselves of cooked food.
(When vegans have artificially made B12 supplements, that, too, is cheating.)
As for B12, you don't seem to have read up on this issue. ALL foods that have B12 are supplemented, even animal based. Look at the feed that chickens, cows, pigs, and other tortured & killed animals are fed. It's supplemented with B12.
And if I'm "cheating" by not causing harm to nonhuman animals because our soil was eroded by the same exploiters of animals and thus has no B12 anymore, so be it. I'll cheat all the way through med school. Teehee!! :)
hey mikfizzle! i was bummed about them, too, but i don't really eat em anymore anyways. all their nuts are pastuerized so they are heated.
my favorite non raw foods for november are spaghetti squash and baked potatoes!!! the squash is just so delicious on top of a salad. it's mostly the warmth of the food after i get home being so cold all day. it just seems to hit the spot.
joannabanana - lara bars arent raw? i thought on the wrapper it said that they were, im confused.
I include a cup or two of soy milk in my diet each day, and maybe some lentils, humus, organic oats or tbsp or two of annies goddess dressing in my diet. All about balence, but it changes every week.
I've used my vitamix to grind fresh grains and then make dough
It is very easy
You'll want/need a dry container probably because they push the grain UP away from the blade instead of pulling it DOWN like the wet ones do so the grain won't get stuck up in the blades.
After you make the flour making dough is really easy too.
I'd be happy to tell you more.
(my sites are listed in a couple of posts above this one, or on my home page if you want to email me or want to buy a vitamix)
Do you have a dry container? You could prob. get away with doing it in a wet container but i'm guessing better results in the dry.
i've owned both vitamix and blendtec
and much prefer the vitamix
sure it's taller...but i like to be able to adapt the speed and force of what i'm blending to get it to come out the consistency and texture that i want and need it to be.
additionally the tamper CAN be useful
if you need it like for making nut butters when you don't want to add a lot of oil (or any additional oil) you NEED to use a tamper to get everything down in to the blade and properly mixed/blended/smooth.
i'm also sharing a coupon code (someone mentioned above too) for free ground shipping in the usa or canada (worth $25 usa or $35 canada)
and you can also enter various promotions (the 2009 holiday promotion is a great gift basket giveaway with your purchase of a new vitamix)
you can see them on my websties (it'll link you right to vitamix)
use the code either on the tele directly with viatmix (i'll be glad to help you place the order if you like)
or make sure this promo code is in the box @ checkout 06-004658 (please note the NEW code # my old one is invalid now :( ) (thanks)
I think it is a personal choice with coffee. Being as close to 100% is ideal but I know a lot of people include caffeine in their diets and still lose weight and have glowing health.
Avocados are also goo hearth healthy fats, but all things in moderation. Ill usually eat 1/2 an avocado at a time, but thats just me
Ive decided on my menu.
Im going to have marinated portabello caps, cauliflower mashed potatoes, a huge salad and a soup. Ill be making some kind of dessert too. YUM! Im so glad I got it figured out.
i love quinoa!! i always put some raw kimchee in it to help with the digestion.... plus it just tastes yummy!! also i to have a weakness for beans. however i only have quinoa once or twice a month and beans probably once a month or even every other month.
Hi...from my personal experience, about within 2 weeks of being 100% raw, I too looked PREGO's , like majorly. I was actually getting worried. I experimented...it was all the dried fruit I was munching on. I said goodbye to that , and the bloat went away. Also, salt has the same effect on me. Make sure you are going poo too!!
I can totally relate...in my first pregnancy, I wasn't liking raw foods at all. I had a few cravings for cooked food, but I was actually turned off of food in general. It was strange, since I wasn't feeling morning sickness.
I just tried to eat things that were really palatable to me, like fresh-squeezed orange juice, grapefruit, fresh salads with lots of olives and tomatoes... In general, I stayed away from nuts and avocados, they just seemed gross at the time. I also took things I was craving (pasta, falafel, beans and rice) and made raw versions of them that were ALMOST as satisfying as the cooked version.
I definitely agree with the others who say listen to your body, because eating raw food that makes you feel sick and depressed is probably worse than feeling satisfied and happy on cooked food.
Hi Sara. Obviously your husband cares about you and is worried about you. Try talking to him, tell him you do want to gain weight but by eating the foods YOU want to. Show him a list of dinners you could make that include healthy fats and higher calorie foods so he sees you are serious about gaining weight. My husband is not too supportive of RAW either and often makes comments about my weight and eating habits. They just dont understand. But I dont let him get me down. I stick to my eating regimen. You know your body and know it well. My body cannot handle dairy at all. I wouldn't let someone MAKE me eat it. Try to just be calm about everything and really enforce the fact to your hubby you do realize you need to gain weight and want to, but then show him how you plan to do that.
sharing raw, vegan recipes and advice
Yes, everything is a personal choice. Can someone be healthy and drink coffee? Sure. However, if you take an extremely healthy person and add coffee to their diet, will they become more healthy? Probably not. Actually it will probably take away from their health. I used to consume a lot of coffee, about a pot per day. Then I stopped drinking it one day. Then I became raw, and a while after being raw I drank a cup of coffee and became very sick.
I would say, give it up for a while. Maybe one or two months. Then, try it out again. If you don't feel that it takes away from how good you feel, then I suppose there's no reason to stop. But I think there is enough evidence out there to want to be sure.
Should you stop drinking coffee- depends who you ask:-) Seriously. I see stuff on the news about how bad it is, and then see studies how it may keep away alztimers? It gets confusing! Sounds to me like you have made a lot of changes in a short period of time. Don't make yourself miserable over it. If you really want that cup in the am, have it for now. Trying to change too many things at once can be overwhelming to some people.
The wholistic practicioner I'm going to for knee pains hates the idea of coffee. But, it's not the caffeine. He told me to drink tea with caffeine when I switched off of coffee if I feared caffeine withdrawl problems.
Go figure.
Anyways, he insists there is a link to it and bladder cancer? Since bladder cancer seems to pop up quite a bit where I work, I decided to hang up the coffee cup for a while and see how I felt.
We tend to drink a LOT of coffee where I work, so it did make me wonder? But, I also wonder if it might have more to do with excessive coffee drinking. (not just one or two cups a day)
I LOVE chickpeas and don't usually have a problem with them. But, I know lots of people do. If you are hitting the chickpeas really heavy, maybe that's the problem. Are you soaking them first for several hours (like overnight), draining, and then cooking in fresh water. That gets rid of the gas (or at least some). You could try sprouting them, and making humus from that (they'd be raw then). Lots of people seem to like sprouted chickpeas.
I support peoples' choice to eat ALL raw (this is a raw vegan site). But, imho, totally raw diet doesn't seem to work for everyone. There are a lot of people who have cooked brown rice, quinoa, and steamed veggies, etc, but incorporate lots of raw fruits and vegetables with it. High raw may suit you better than all raw? Just a thought.
You could also look into different "types" of raw diets:
There is the high fruit/ low fat/ and leafy green diet (80/10/10). There are people that don't do so well on so much fruit and eat more vegetables.
Maybe it is the "crunchy vegetables" you are eating most days. If I eat a lot of raw carrots, celery, and brocolli each day in large amounts, I get an upset stomach. I can eat them in a salad, with some olive or canola oil and vinegar and they don't bother me. But large amounts, yet.
Just some things to think about....
Something that MAY help for the ickiness. I know with my daughter, I HAD to have saltine crackers (or some cracker type thing) to get out of bed in the morning, or I could barely walk from the nausea. A healthier substitute (in my opnion) may be rye crisp bread. It isn't raw, but it's made of only rye flour. You can find them in the cracker isle. They are more like a cracker than bread. I think that would be much healthier than the standard white flour saltine.
Good job.
Might help you to think of the "chicken" you are eating as "chickenS," formerly living beings that are killed based on the demand of people who buy the flesh products.
I'm not surprised you didn't feel well. Guacamole and hummus are high in fat, number one, and then you're combining legumes with starchy vegetables.
Have you tried green smoothies?
Humans meant to eat raw? I certainly don't think cooked food is doing anything good for us.....are people assuming that because presently people eat cooked food that that is what we are "meant" to do? I'd argue we are not meant to have such severe joint pain and most people rid themselves of it when they rid themselves of cooked food.
HA!!! Thanks for that clip! something to watch while I'm eating the chowder! :)
(When vegans have artificially made B12 supplements, that, too, is cheating.)
As for B12, you don't seem to have read up on this issue. ALL foods that have B12 are supplemented, even animal based. Look at the feed that chickens, cows, pigs, and other tortured & killed animals are fed. It's supplemented with B12.
And if I'm "cheating" by not causing harm to nonhuman animals because our soil was eroded by the same exploiters of animals and thus has no B12 anymore, so be it. I'll cheat all the way through med school. Teehee!! :)
Just hate the taste of them raw. toasted is okay... thanks for this!
Awesome, i have experimented with all sorts of cranberry recipes this season. Add a persimmon or two, and you have something that is sooooo good.
hey mikfizzle! i was bummed about them, too, but i don't really eat em anymore anyways. all their nuts are pastuerized so they are heated.
my favorite non raw foods for november are spaghetti squash and baked potatoes!!! the squash is just so delicious on top of a salad. it's mostly the warmth of the food after i get home being so cold all day. it just seems to hit the spot.
joannabanana - lara bars arent raw? i thought on the wrapper it said that they were, im confused.
I include a cup or two of soy milk in my diet each day, and maybe some lentils, humus, organic oats or tbsp or two of annies goddess dressing in my diet. All about balence, but it changes every week.
http://lilearthmuffin.wordpress.com/
Hi Mike,
I've used my vitamix to grind fresh grains and then make dough
It is very easy
You'll want/need a dry container probably because they push the grain UP away from the blade instead of pulling it DOWN like the wet ones do so the grain won't get stuck up in the blades.
After you make the flour making dough is really easy too.
I'd be happy to tell you more.
(my sites are listed in a couple of posts above this one, or on my home page if you want to email me or want to buy a vitamix)
Do you have a dry container? You could prob. get away with doing it in a wet container but i'm guessing better results in the dry.
I'll check back in soon,
Cheers,
Rona
Congratulations on week 9! I am so happy that you are still going strong on your raw journey :)
Happy vibes going your way!
http://lilearthmuffin.wordpress.com/
hi
thought i'd post this here in case anyone is interested.
i am selling a blendtec icb 3 smoother
it's the type you drop in the counter or can use above the counter.
i don't have the base stand or sound enclosure
just the hugely powerful motor and a new container and lid (it's just been washed)
if anyone is interested, it is 375. (it's SOLD) thanks. 11/17/09
you can email me from here or from my sites:
http://www.DrRonaThau.com/contact.html
or
http://www.BlendEverything.com/contact.html
thanks.
rona
hi
i've owned both vitamix and blendtec
and much prefer the vitamix
sure it's taller...but i like to be able to adapt the speed and force of what i'm blending to get it to come out the consistency and texture that i want and need it to be.
additionally the tamper CAN be useful
if you need it like for making nut butters when you don't want to add a lot of oil (or any additional oil) you NEED to use a tamper to get everything down in to the blade and properly mixed/blended/smooth.
i'm also sharing a coupon code (someone mentioned above too) for free ground shipping in the usa or canada (worth $25 usa or $35 canada)
and you can also enter various promotions (the 2009 holiday promotion is a great gift basket giveaway with your purchase of a new vitamix)
you can see them on my websties (it'll link you right to vitamix)
use the code either on the tele directly with viatmix (i'll be glad to help you place the order if you like)
or make sure this promo code is in the box @ checkout 06-004658 (please note the NEW code # my old one is invalid now :( ) (thanks)
check out my sites:
http://www.DrRonaThau.com (vitamix is on the products page...look @ the beautiful ltd. ed. platinum model~ very pretty)
http://www.BlendEverything.com
happy yummy delicious raw food...mmmmm.
sincerely,
doc
I think it is a personal choice with coffee. Being as close to 100% is ideal but I know a lot of people include caffeine in their diets and still lose weight and have glowing health.
Avocados are also goo hearth healthy fats, but all things in moderation. Ill usually eat 1/2 an avocado at a time, but thats just me
http://lilearthmuffin.wordpress.com/
Ive decided on my menu.
Im going to have marinated portabello caps, cauliflower mashed potatoes, a huge salad and a soup. Ill be making some kind of dessert too. YUM! Im so glad I got it figured out.
http://lilearthmuffin.wordpress.com/
Here is a thread with good info relating to your questions:
http://goneraw.com/forum/abdominal-distention-enemas-and-beyond
i love quinoa!! i always put some raw kimchee in it to help with the digestion.... plus it just tastes yummy!! also i to have a weakness for beans. however i only have quinoa once or twice a month and beans probably once a month or even every other month.
Hi...from my personal experience, about within 2 weeks of being 100% raw, I too looked PREGO's , like majorly. I was actually getting worried. I experimented...it was all the dried fruit I was munching on. I said goodbye to that , and the bloat went away. Also, salt has the same effect on me. Make sure you are going poo too!!
Oh yeah,
I also started craving raw foods again in my 2nd trimester. So give it time and you may just come back to it naturally!
I can totally relate...in my first pregnancy, I wasn't liking raw foods at all. I had a few cravings for cooked food, but I was actually turned off of food in general. It was strange, since I wasn't feeling morning sickness.
I just tried to eat things that were really palatable to me, like fresh-squeezed orange juice, grapefruit, fresh salads with lots of olives and tomatoes... In general, I stayed away from nuts and avocados, they just seemed gross at the time. I also took things I was craving (pasta, falafel, beans and rice) and made raw versions of them that were ALMOST as satisfying as the cooked version.
I definitely agree with the others who say listen to your body, because eating raw food that makes you feel sick and depressed is probably worse than feeling satisfied and happy on cooked food.
Hi Sara. Obviously your husband cares about you and is worried about you. Try talking to him, tell him you do want to gain weight but by eating the foods YOU want to. Show him a list of dinners you could make that include healthy fats and higher calorie foods so he sees you are serious about gaining weight. My husband is not too supportive of RAW either and often makes comments about my weight and eating habits. They just dont understand. But I dont let him get me down. I stick to my eating regimen. You know your body and know it well. My body cannot handle dairy at all. I wouldn't let someone MAKE me eat it. Try to just be calm about everything and really enforce the fact to your hubby you do realize you need to gain weight and want to, but then show him how you plan to do that.
I have my green smoothie immediately after making it. Leaving it impairs the flavour for me.
I usually have:
1 head of romaine or 200g spinach
1-2 ripe bananas
1tbsp sprouted flax powder
Nutty green yummy.