Dea:
> Hi everyone,
>Does anyone here take prescribed medications ontop of their raw food diet?

I indeed takd prescribed medications: Xanax (anti-anxiety) 3.5 mg/day +
Tophranyl (sp?) (anti-depressant) 50 mg/day.

However, I'm not totally 100% raw food vegan (yet far from it). I started last
July to change my diet from a traditional one towards a raw food vegan one. I
can say I'm over 95% vegetarian, 50% vegan, 10% raw food vegan, considering
meals as a whole (e.g. 10% of my meals are 100% raw food vegan).

> If so, does it seem to work O.K.?

It works so well that I reduced my Xanax by half and totally gave up my
Tophranyl. Note that Xanax has also a mild anti-depressant effect. I must say I
also take Super Blue Green (tm) Algae.

> I've been trying for some time now to work through depression on a raw food
> diet alone. Though I've noticed improvement, depression still remains a
> problem. I used to take anti-depressants on my old standard diet and they
> seemed to help. But I fear they might seem too foreign to my body now that
> it's much more purified.

It's true that detoxification has removed most of your anti-depressant (I
guess). Note you don't mention how long you took it, since when you are a raw
food vegan, the kind of anti-depressant, and the reasons for your depression. I
understand these details are not easy to mention on a public mailing system.

If the reasons that caused your depression are still there, it may be harder to
get rid of it.

> Anyone have experience with this sort of thing? Or at least some ideas?

IMO, your diet is not balanced, I'm not an expert about food composition but I
think your diet contains too much free glucose, maybe too much fruits, and not
enough minerals, especially trace minerals.

One hint may be to have a look at the Glycemic Index website, URL is:

   http://www.cruzio.com/~mendosa/gi.html

You sould focus on raw vegetables rather than fruits. They contain more
minerals and glucose is mostly in form of complex carbohydrates that are
assimilated more slowly. I hope someone else in this list will be able to send
you a good table of veggies that contain high amounts of minerals.

Don't use sea vegetables such as Kelp and Dulse. IMO, they contain too much
sodium (Na).

Also, I would suggest you eat large amounts of alfalfa sprouts, from
organically grown seeds. Sprout them 2-3 days approx. Alfalfa is known to
contain many trace minerals that are helpful in brain chemestry.

I hope this helped.

Pierre.