Raw Food Healing Diets

Categories: Fasting
Sources: How And When To Be Your Own Doctor

Next in declining order of healing effectiveness is what I call a

raw food healing diet or cleansing diet. It consists of those very

same watery fruits and nonstarchy vegetables one juices or makes

into vegetable broths, but eaten whole and raw. Heating food does

two harmful things: it destroys many vitamins, enzymes and other

nutritional elements and it makes many foods much harder to digest.

So no cooked vegetables o fruits are allowed because to maintain

health on this limited regimen it is essential that every possible

vitamin and enzyme present in the food be available for digestion.

Even though still raw, no starchy or fatty vegetables or fruits are

allowed that contain concentrated calories like potatoes, winter

squash, avocados, sweet potatoes, fresh raw corn, dates, figs,

raisins, or bananas. And naturally, no salad dressings containing

vegetable oils or (raw) ground seeds are allowed. Nor are raw grains

or other raw concentrated energy sources.



When a person starts this diet they will at first experience

considerable weight loss because it is difficult to extract a large

number of calories from these foods (though I have seen people

actually gain weight on a pure melon diet, so much sugar do these

fruits have, and well-chewed watermelon seeds are very nourishing).

Eating even large quantities of only raw fruit and raw non-starchy

vegetables results in a slow but steady healing process about 10 to

20 percent as rapid as water fasting.



A raw food cleansing diet has several huge advantages. It is

possible to maintain this regimen and regularly do non-strenuous

work for many months, even a year or more without experiencing

massive weight loss and, more important to some people, without

suffering the extremes of low blood sugar, weakness and loss of

ability to concentrate that happen when water fasting. Someone on a

raw food cleanse will have periods of lowered energy and strong

cravings for more concentrated foods, but if they have the

self-discipline to not break their cleansing process they can

accomplish a great deal of healing while still maintaining more or

less normal (though slower paced) life activities. However, almost

no one on this diet is able to sustain an extremely active

life-style involving hard physical labor or competitive sports. And

from the very beginning someone on a raw food cleanse must be

willing and able to lie down and rest any time they feel tired or

unable to face their responsibilities. Otherwise they will

inevitably succumb to the mental certainty that their feelings of

exhaustion or overwhelm can be immediately solved by eating some

concentrated food to "give them energy." Such low-energy states

will, however, pass quickly after a brief nap or rest.



Something else gradually happens to a body when on such a diet. Do

you recall that I mentioned that after my own long fast I began to

get more "mileage" out of my food. A cleansed, healed body becomes

far more efficient at digestion and assimilation; a body that is

kept on a raw food cleansing diet will initially lose weight

rapidly, but eventually weight loss slows to virtually nothing and

then stabilizes. However, long-term raw fooders are usually thin as

toothpicks.



Once starchy vegetables like potatoes or winter squash, raw or

cooked, or any cereals, raw or cooked, are added to a cleansing

diet, the detoxification and healing virtually ceases and it becomes

very easy to maintain or even gain weight, particularly if larger

quantities of more concentrated foods like seeds and nuts are eaten.

Though this diet has ceased to be cleansing, few if any toxins from

misdigestion will be produced and health is easy to maintain.



"Raw fooders" are usually people who have healed themselves of a

serious diseases and ever after continue to maintain themselves on

unfired food, almost as a matter of religious belief. They have

become convinced that eating only raw, unfired food is the key to

extraordinarily long life and supreme good health. When raw fooders

wish to perform hard physical work or strenuous exercise, they'll

consume raw nuts and some raw grains such as finely-ground oats

soaked overnight in warm water or deliciously sweet "Essene bread,"

made from slightly sprouted wheat that is then ground wet, made into

cakes, and sun baked at temperatures below about 115 degrees

Fahrenheit. Essene bread can be purchased in some health food

stores. However, little or no healing or detoxification can happen

once concentrated energy sources are added to the diet, even raw

ones.



During my days at Great Oaks School I was a raw fooder for some

years, though I found it very difficult to maintain body heat on raw

food during chilly, rainy Oregon winters and eventually struck a

personal compromise where I ate about half my diet raw and the rest

fired. I have listed some books by raw fooders in the Bibliography.

Joe Alexander's is the most fun.