Hey Roy! Loved your progress report! Inspiring stuff... >The cassia works very predictably: after about an hour and 15 minutes >after I eat, my stomach starts feeling cramped. About an hour after that >the bowels move (rather dramatically.) And when you go, you really HAVE >TO GO! (So I arrange my schedule around this.) Yeah, it kinda plans your day a little bit, eh? ;) >Anyway, I'm approaching 6 FULL weeks of RAW, and by breath is still >normal! >The cassia also appears to have prevented the other symptoms I normally >get when I go raw, such as fatigue/lethargy and mild skin problems. It is as close to a wonder detoxer as one can get. >The stomach cramps when on 15 cassia disks can be rather severe, so I >have now cut back to about 5. I'll up the dosage if there are any >symptoms of mediciny breath. The disks are really tasty, and I fear that >if I kept eating till a taste change, I'd probably consume most of my >stash. As I mentioned to you privately there is no law that you must eat cassia to the stop, and if you find it best to eat 5 disks, then do 5 disks. Detoxing isn't a race. The idea is to get over the hump, where all-raw is pleasure instead of a drag. Cassia speeds it up is all, but that can be really important. Melisa has hardly ever used cassia--she hates any detoxing, and likes it slow and steady. I tested it daily for four years in Bangkok where it was free for the gathering. After a time I wouldn't have attraction for days, sometimes weeks even when I just didn't have a taste for it. And then all of a sudden it would be like chocalate mints again for a time. Occasionally I eat some cassia (as much as twenty disks and more an it "disappears", no darkened portion of feces, no nothing. Weird! I would always be coming up with "reasons" for the cassia attraction but there was really never a consistency to it. It reallys makes one consider that the body has its own agenda and our neo-cortex hasn't the slightest idea what is really going on in there. As for the cramping, it usually lessens after a time. I know it seems scary sometimes, and I think it is a good idea to respect cassia, but there is little to _fear_ in eating large amounts. While it may be inconvenient rushing to the bathroom at 2pm everyday, many hundreds (perhaps thousands over the years) of people have had cramping (sometimes severe) and have not had any permanent damage that I have ever heard of. (Perhaps some of the French subscribers have more news to share about cassia's safety or lack thereof.) When my supply was umlimited in Bangkok, and it was tasting good I have eaten as much as two big pods (perhaps four or five feet in total), and have eaten more than one whole pod dozens of times through out the years. My "average" (when I have a taste for it) is probably a half pod or so (how many disks is that--a couple dozen maybe?) But somtimes the taste falls away after a few disks. >I think >cassia is awesome! It really is, isn't it? People have _no_idea_ of its power to help one attain an all-raw diet, to get over the hump. I always considered that using cassia kept raw foods tasting better and better. I looked at it as the cassia detox was making way for all the new repair work, and the raw stuff tasted better and better because it was so useful in rebuilding and repair. I would even generalize that a day "cassia fasting" (eating only cassia and water in between as desired) is equivilent to a week on water alone. Further, I have been frustrated on water fasts, and had some cassia, BMed, and continued fasting with more ease. It seems to be what people are after with the herbal purges, enemas, colonics, etc. I feel it is far superior to any of those because your body is able to regulate the cassia "dosage" by taste, whereas the other measures are always more or less invasive and more "idea-driven". Some other cassia tidbits: The tree is absolutely beautiful, stunning in its multitude of yellow flowers and round black pods hanging among the "golden shower" of the blossoms (which is also the common name for the tree). It keeps well in its pods, and even when removed into jars (what more could one ask!). And I've heard of one story about a women who grew up eating it as a kid like candy in Viet Nam (with no detox effects) and as an adult when she went raw, the cassia had little effect on her. Strange and interesting. >I got my initial stash of cassia from a friend who smuggled them in from >Pangaia. (Apparently the US Agriculture Dept. frowns on imports of fruit >from Hawaii.) When I ran out, I got Manis to "de-pod" and bottle some. >It turns out that if you ship the disks in a bottle, then they don't >constitute fruit, hence don't risk getting confiscated. After the initial rush of interest which has started regarding cassia (several people have made orders in the last few months, I hear) I wouldn't be surprised if there comes a time of shortage. When people realize how useful cassia is the demand may outstrip the supply and/or the price may rise considerably (simple economics) until some commercial production (or serious importation) takes place. Still, I very much doubt if cassia should be used regularily in conjunction with anything less than an all-raw diet. Except possibly as a "fasting aid" I think anyone (even 90& raw) still eating cooked will find that they spend way too much time on the toilet if they have cassia. And, Roy, I can't resist asking you: do you smell "old" smells being detoxed along with the cassia BMs? Cheers, Kirt