At 11:19 16/02/1999 -0800, you wrote:
>Thank you for your story, Axel (posted February 14).  Please don't lose
>hope.  It's touching to hear how your early eagerness and quick healing
>turned into scary new symptoms, discouragement, and panic.
>
>I know how scary it is to have this acute edema (disabling water retention)
>that no one can explain -- because I had it, too!  In my early days of a
>cleansing diet, it came on me in much the same way.  So I can suggest how
>it happens, what may help you ... and above all, how to avoid it in the future.
>
>Unfortunately, I suspect experiences like ours are more common than we know
>among well-intentioned newcomers to health-conscious eating.  Toxic from a
>life-long junk diet, people get miraculous results on a cleansing program
>-- as you did:
>        << i read fit for life and adopted the program overnight. my digestion
>healed, at least everything seemed normal again. >>
>
>Alas, problems can come later.  When the time comes to shift from cleansing
>to an on-going maintenance program, it's difficult to eat and digest enough
>food on a diet so much bulkier than your guts are used to.  Because raw
>fruits and vegetables are very low in calories and other necessary
>nutrients, you need to eat many pounds every day.  It's hard to do this,
>and what's worse, beginners are misled by noble ideals of eating an
>unnaturally restricted diet.
>
>Deeply rooted in our cells, the body's demand for nourishment cannot be
>denied forever.  So there's a powerful, instinctive impulse to escape from
>the restricted diet and eat some hearty food.  Undernourished on just raw
>fruits, a few vegetables, and perhaps some sprouts, many well-intentioned
>beginners end up bingeing incontinently. 

i think that it can be like that for many, but in my case, eating junk is
like doing any other drug. they are very addictive, and being addicted to
crap is so socially accepted, nobody notices it if somebody is on junk, you
can just buy some chocolate and eat it, then walk to the next store and buy
some pastry, etc, they are ubiquitous (sp?), the stuff is so alien to our
bodies, it is so artificial, so plastic, so dead, so man-made, it tastes
good, etc. after all this, you can very well ask "how could you possibly eat
junk for a year?". i see it just as a drug. addictions have an emotional
component. it brings comfort, it is emotionally easy, it is self
destructive. destroying yourself consciously is very inmature in my humble
opinion. there is really no excuse for it.
 i am very idealistic, and i think that with emotional well-being and
information, there is simply _no_ reason to eat any crap ever. 


>Your story sounds sadly familiar:
>        << from 1996 till the mid of 1997, i stayed all raw, basically was
fruit,
>seeds, juices, avos, greens. in 1997, i started eating cooked food again,
>more and less clean stuff at the beggining but very soon, for emotional
>reasons, i was eating all the crap, chocolate, cheese, pastry, etc i
>wanted, everyday. in a few weeks, i gained like 50 pounds of water. i was
>all puffed. very horrible. >>
>
>Please do not blame yourself, Axel.  I don't think you ate this way "for
>emotional reasons."  The simple truth is, you were chronically
>undernourished on your restrictive diet.  Your body was crying out to be fed.
>
>The edema (water retention) that you describe is not surprising, after
>bouncing back to a heavy, crappy diet.  Following months of simple food,
>the body is not accustomed to heavy foods of any kind; junk foods are even
>worse.  The edema seems to be the body's way of sequestering this sudden
>influx of unaccustomed, unwelcome material.
>
>The edema, once it comes, is hard to get rid of -- as you know:
>        << i am clueless about what causes water retention beyond the food
>factors. i mean, if i eat well and the water stays there. >>
>
>Yes, it did for me too.  Doctors, as you say, are useless here; they have
>never seen people like us.  Even "alternative" healers, I found, had no
>help for me.
>
>What finally cleared the edema for me was wonderfully simple:  three days
>of fasting on water only.  But fasting, as you discovered in 1994, is a
>powerful tool, and the changes in your body can be scary if you aren't sure
>what to expect.
>
>Here are my thoughts for you:
>
>- If you feel ready to fast again, I think the effect on your water
>retention will amaze you.  But please, take it easy this time -- maybe just
>three days at first.  Get advice about how to eat in the days before and
>after fasting.  Rest during the fast, and be gentle with yourself
>afterward.  Read books like Herbert Shelton's classic, _Fasting Can Save
>Your Life_, and Joel Fuhrmann's _Fasting and Eating for Health_.


i read shelthon´s back in 1994 and i thought i new what i was doing! i was
loosing my muscles and reading the physiology of fasting at the same time!
it sounds unbeliavable even to me! 
as for fasting, not even in my dreams i would fast for a day.  you see, i
know i screwed up big time with all this food madness. i do not know if it
is really candida, and i do not know what it exactly does to the body to
have a candida overgrowth, but i do know that after that fast five years
ago, i have not gained any fat or muscle at all, and i have very little of
both. i remember a few times when i did not eat because of circumstances and
believe me, i did loose weight because my face looked different. 

- Above all, Axel, don't restrict yourself to an idealistic diet.  Trying
>to be _both_ all-raw and all-vegan is probably a mistake.  It's very
>difficult to be well nourished on a diet so out of keeping with our
>ancestral heritage.  The natural human diet is rich, varied, and abundant.

theory wise i do not know much, but i trust myself. what i would like to do
and what i will probably do at some point, is get myself info some peaceful
situation, establish myself in peace, and get on a very light diet, mostly
juice, for a while, to give my body a rest. it would be varied, organic,
raw, a lot of green juices.


>Good luck, Axel.  Please write again in a week or two to let us know how
>you are doing.
>
>C.
>
>thanks sincerely for your interest and good advice. 

axel