Old Post: My Discovery of Raw Foods

I was considering writing an introduction to raw foods post, but when I looked back at an old blog of mine, I found that I had posted a nice, basic intro to raw foods back then, from the point of a newbie.  I thought you might find it interesting to see what the discovery of raw foods was like, through my eyes.  

 So I will be posting several posts from my old blog, dated three years ago, back when I was pregnant with my fifth child and had just discovered raw foods.

Raw Foods - first posted May 20, 2007  

I recently came across a website while looking up natural diets. It was about a woman who had lost 136 pounds in NINE months! I was impressed. Check her out at I Beat Obesity . She did it by going on a 100% raw food diet.

I know what you're thinking...exactly what I thought: "ugh, all raw fruits and vegetables?"..."I could never give up meat, dairy, etc."..."raw diets are for tree-hugging new-age hippies." But I was intrigued. Anything that helps you lose that much weight, that fast gets my attention. What interested me more, was the number of other stories I found, particularly from people who had radical improvement in health, got rid of many diseases, and felt fantastic and had fabulous hair and skin after going raw.

Surprisingly, on one board I found a bunch of pregnant women, many of whom had four or more children. Now THAT surprised me. I figured they'd all be women with one, maybe two kids. I know that healthy eating is becoming big with quiver-full, serious Christians, but I didn't expect to find out that some are going vegan/raw. Interesting to know.
 
I have come across websites of raw foodists who continue to eat raw when pregnant or nursing, and had very healthy babies. A lot of women weren't able to stay 100% raw while pregnant, because they either didn't feel satisfied or got major morning sickness. They added in a little cooked food, meat, etc., but they returned to all raw afterwards.

It was recommended to me on a raw food board that I not try to go all raw while pregnant. As with any diet that is healthier than the SAD (Standard American Diet), you will "detox" as your body gets rid of the unnatural poisons you have filled it with. For some people, it can go on for several days of feeling cruddy...not something you want when you're already pregnant, lol.

I'm researching it more, but I think I will definitely go at least 50% raw. Really, we all should get at least that many fruits and vegetables. I'm a little concerned what all the fruit with do to me, with my g. diabetes. But I've heard people actually kick their diabetic symptoms on raw diets, despite the large amount of fruits and juices.

Fruits and veggies are a no-brainer, but it's the other weird stuff that I'm hesitant about...nut "cheeses" and "cakes" (quite frankly, if it's not really going to taste anything like cheese or cake, you shouldn't call it that...you're just asking for folks to be disappointed) and other odd things. Odd to me, anyway. It's hard for me to see eating NOTHING cooked. But I'm definitely willing to give it a shot, and go 50% raw, then see how I feel. If I could avoid much more weight gain (the way I'm going, I'll be over 300 *sob*) for my last 13 weeks of pregnancy, and end up slimming down and feeling healthy afterwards, I'll be thrilled. I might be up for anything at that point!

I'll let you know what I find out, and how it goes.