At 21:23 15/06/1999 -0700, you wrote: >Axel, > >One possibility to consider is that when you eat cooked or junk food, you >stop the elimination or detoxification process which occurs during a raw >diet or fast. So naturally you will feel better when you return to junk >eating, because the toxins are no longer being released into your >bloodstream. Instead they remain in your body to give you more serious >problems down the road. This makes intuitive sense to me. mark, thanks for your input, really. but: i was all raw vegan one hundred percent for almost three years and my symptoms did not go away. more and more the last weeks i am feeling that my body is DESPERATELY trying to tell me to give up the raw vegan way. for example, when i eat heavy cooked food, i am less thirsty, i pee less. can you understand or explain this? i can not. if i eat say, avo with greens and dulse at night, usually i would be thirsty during the nigth. but check this out: if i eat super deadly you-name-it, pasta, cheese with honey, etc, i am LESS THIRSTY, and usually do not wake up during the night to pee and drink water. can you see this? do you think i have the slightest idea about this? no way!! i do not have a clue. and the vitality i have when i eat basically dairy i do not have it when all raw vegan, regardless of sunshine, exercise, etc. so there is simply something my body needs super desperately from either cooked plant food or animal food. >I cannot state >with absolute certainty this is what happening, however, >because I don't feel I have come close to detoxing sufficiently myself. >I've haven't been able to stay 100% raw for more than two months, and >I've never managed more than a three-day fast. > >But my limited experience with raw veganism has been positive. Shortly >after beginning this diet, my body spontaneously expelled a cancerous >bladder polyp (which I didn't even know I had). After a few more months >of raw eating I had conventional tests which showed me to be cancer free. > >Like you, I don't want to eat meat, and though I respect those who feel >they >need it, I am listening to my inner voice which tells me to take >another path. I've eaten raw cheese on occasion, but though it is >filling and satisfying, I can tell the next day that it is clogging up >my system. sure, i feel that way too, but at this point it seems that my body is almost ordering me to eat the stuff, because the energy and strenght benefits are simply needed. i can lift weight better, have TONS of energy just like that, and as soon as i go raw vegan again, this VANISHES mostly. do you think i like this at all? of course not. but you know, at my age, i just can not function if feeling weak and dizzy when people around me are just living life, and they do not even know anything about nutrition. >this time I feel that what is doing the most for my health and overall >well-being is raw fruits, vegetables, sprouts, nuts and seeds (with maybe >some raw grains) and at least one green juice a day. I also want to >start doing some longer (1-2 week) fasts when circumstances permit. thanks again, and be careful if you fast that long. i seriously, seriously hurt myself during a two-week fast.