(Ward wrote:)
<<One thing I find, though, is that for me trying to over-manipulate
amounts of fruits, starches, proteins, fats, etc., is like playing
that children's game where if you push a button down in one place,
another one pops up somewhere else and you just can't fool the
system. I've tried cutting WAY back on fruits, but then I go berserk
for starchy carbs. If I cut the starchy carbs too much, then my
craving for fruit goes back up. If I eat more dense,
lower-water-content protein foods, then my craving for starches may go
down but I feel the need for more juicy succulent fruits. Same for
fats to some degree. >>

I find this sort of thing also.  And I find some of what the previous
poster (Kirt?) said about the meat/fruit craving.  I find that in
those times when I try to cut down on my sugar/fruit/starch intake, I
begin to crave meat/dairy products in a way that bewilders me.  I'm
usually vegan, haven't bought meat in years.  When I eat meat in those
periods when I am eating fruits/starches, I find it tastes yucky, sits
like a lump in my stomach and occasionally makes me sick.  So it
surprises me that my body can crave it at other times - I was thinking
it was a calories issue.  Like Ward says about the children's game, it
seems impossible to fool my system into not eating meat, high-fat
products, starch, or high-protein, because that doesn't leave any
place to get any real calories from.

So now I am completely confused about what to eat.  One plan I came up
with was

(1) some fruit: (20%; example: 1 banana and 1 cup of berries (picked wild
this summer and frozen))

(2) veggie salad (with sprouts, but without nuts or avocado) with an
oil-based dressing (but is this really raw?) - large one, twice a day.

(3) essene-type bread (I haven't
eaten much of these yet; I'm still intimidated by the idea of
purposely leaving food out for 24 hours - has anyone successfully made
this stuff?)

(4) a small amount of nuts (rehydrated, of course), 1/2 an avocado, or
other "high-fat" item if needed

What do other people (both long-term all-raw people and transition
people like me) think of this plan?  It doesn't provide a lot of
"calories" but I'm trying not to think about food in terms of calories
anyway.  I'm not sure what I *should* be thinking in terms of, to make
sure I plan "enough" food.  (What I ended up doing was putting
together a plan with ~800 calories from raw foods, lots of bulk, not
much fruit.  On a cooked diet I would need about 2000 cal., maybe more
if I exercise as much as I want to.)  I'm worried that if I don't have
enough food planned, then I'll automatically eat the cooked food that
is so readily available.

On a related note, I'd like to hear stories, advice and general
support on how to deal with our food culture while transitioning (and
afterwards) into a more raw diet.  When I was switching to a
MacDougall (no-fat, whole grain, vegan, no-added sugar) way of eating,
I could convert a lot of my old recipes (bake instead of fry, soymilk)
so that I could continue to make the favorite and the festive foods.
But I can't think of a single Indian food that isn't cooked and spiced
to death, including veggies.  I also used to love brown rice (even
plain) and baked potatos, but those are totally dead, too.  It seems
really hard to avoid the cooked foods unless I find raw "substitutes".
Do long-term raw-fooders really look at all that food and think
"yuck"?  Or do you see it and think "it would taste good but I won't
eat it because it's not good for me".  Or is it "it would taste good
but it would make me feel awful"?  After years of MacDougall
brainwashing, I find it really hard to think of brown rice as "bad for
me".