An Update

After eating only raw food for six days, I ate two meals of cooked food this past Sunday. Boy, the warmth and saltiness of that China Star garlic broccoli was delicious, but within a few minutes my nose started running and phlegm began collecting in the back of my throat. Gross but true.

That evening we also had dinner plans with my father and his lady-friend visiting from downtown Chicago. She'd been craving a Sonic burger (I don't know why), so they they picked up salty french fries and hamburgers for our fam. I ate it out of social niceness, but about a quarter of teh way through my Sonic burger I realized that there was absolutely nothign about it that appealed to me other than its temperature. I stopped eating, but my nose started running again.

Since Sunday I've eaten only raw food except for a cooked sweet potato, which is actually not wise to eat raw due to the enzymes it contains that work against digestion. I was pretty excited about it, pulled it hot from the microwave, drizzled olive oil and sprinkled salt on it. But with the first bite, somethign about it just didn't quite meet my expectations. I can't explain it other than it tasted dead, and by this point, I was so used to eating thigns that were alive, or at least not-dead, that I could tell a difference. It didn't call to me the way a sweet potato normally would. I never thought I'd get here, but I'm actually craving salads these days and can't wait for the farmer's market to open next month with fresh, local veggies.

The one downside to all of this is that I feel unusually tired, so tired I am inclined to nap in the middle of the day for hours at a time. I hope this changes soon, because my life can't sustain all this rest. I've read snippets here and there that this may be normal--that my body is "cleansing" itself of all is stored toxins, which results in us feeling exhausted. Nobody ever said cleaning house was easy, I guess.

Tonight is dinner with dad and lady-friend again. We're eating steak, and mine's going to be the rarest piece of meat I've ever put in my mouth. I've recently learned that some raw foodists (like Carol Alt) eat all sorts of meat and fish as long as its smoked or seared on the outside to kill bacteria. We'll see how that goes...

About Raw

In answer to Laura's question, let me give you the skinny on Raw Foodism. (If you do a Google search, you'll find more than you'll have time to read.) The theory behind raw foodism is that foods that are uncooked are healthier for us because of the enzymes found in them. These enzymes do all sorts of repair and maintenance work on our bodies that cooked food simply does not have the power to do. Apparently, our bodies are designed with a certain number of enzymes that help us break down cooked food, but I heard somewhere that by the age of 35 or 40, 75% of those enzymes have been used up by our bodies. That means we borrow enzymes from other metabolic processes in our bodies in order to digest our cooked food, or our pancreases work harder to produce enzymes to break down the food. When we get to this stage, other metabolic processes begin to suffer: think about breathing, organ maintenance and repair. Stuff like that. Some believe many diseases in our country are due to eating enzyme-deficient cooked food. By the way, enzymes are killed off at temperatures around 118 degrees, and some by temperatures as low as 105 degrees. This is why a lot of food can be warmed or "cooked" in a temperature-controlled food dehydrator and one can still benefit.

There's also a difference, apparently, between "raw" and "living" foods. Living foods would be things like sprouted seeds and nuts are actually in the process of growing. I"m not sure what the science is to show that these are more healthy than simply "raw" foods, but many raw foodists pledge allegiance to living things. In fact, simply soaking raw oat groats overnight will activate enzymes inside and make them more nutritious.

So by eating lots of raw food, not only does one avoid the damage done by eating lots of cooked food, but raw food helps to heal and restore organs and other places in the body that have been hurt by a diet of cooked food.

The Up-Side to Freedom

So, the whole no-rules thing is something I"m really digging about this new raw food way of life. Because of that, it's not a problem that my husband is currently buying me cheesecake at the Co-op (or that I ate a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner).

One thing I keep reading on raw food sites is that you shouldn't try to go completely raw until you know what you're doing. Otherwise, you're gonna wind up hungry and staring at the food dehydrator while you wait for your avocados to ripen. So, until I get the hang of things, I'm gonna give myself some slack.

The sad truth about my body is that it was actually craving McDonald's tonight. Now, normally, I HATE McDonalds--even in my non-raw state the idea of a meal there grosses me out. But tonight, I could almost taste the saltiness of a hot Filet-O-Fish. I've also been craving the cheesecake all day. I'm curious to know why this is happening now, after a few days of being mostly raw, that I'm craving junk. Some web sites call this "detox"--you feel tired, fatigued, craving cooked foods. It has felt a little like I've been fasting lately, even though I eat when I'm hungry. I've been more tired than usual, cranky, listless. But I'm told all this is supposed to go away eventually, that I will at some magical point in time, cross over into a realm of physiological bliss, vamped up on carrot juice and parsley.

Sprouted Lentils Taste like Mud and Weeds

It's true. I gave them my best shot: three rinsings a day, a warm cool place, then sunlight, and sprouted lentils taste like crap. At least to my mouth. The other bad news is that I think I'm allergic to sprouted wheatberries. The first time I ate them I began sneezing within half an hour. And two days ago, after my kickin' hummus-filled nori roll (with wheatberry sprouts), my mouth started itching.

So far the only sprouts that are edible are the quinoa. And not only edible, but delicious and fluffy. One out of three isn't bad.

I've been eating about 99% raw for the last two days now. The bad news about it is that I feel hungry a lot, and if I want, say, a cracker, I'd have to wait two days for it to dehydrate. Yeah. That's a long time to wait for something to dip into my guacamole.

I did see a cool demonstration of a raw apple pie the other day. If it tastes good, I'm gonna make some for our staff meeting at church next week. Those guys were just squirming last night with all the talk about sprouts and green smoothies.