My exposure to the world of health and nutrition began in 1987
when I read "Fit for Life" by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond.
It made an impression on me, but coming from the standard American
way of eating I felt that the recommendations were too radical
of a change. I chose instead to adopt a cooked, starch-based
vegan "McDougall-style" diet, which I followed for
the next 13 years.
A
few years later, I came across a very old, tattered book called
"Toxemia Explained" by John Tilden. In it, the author
contradicted everything I had been taught about healing and
disease. It claimed that there are no "cures", and
that medicine and remedies of any sort only make sickness worse.
Further, it also identified one single, mostly self-inflicted
cause for all disease: "toxemia". This astounded me.
In my work as an academics assistant at a naturopathic college,
I was surrounded everyday by very educated people who believed
otherwise. I couldn't see how they could all be wrong, so I
didn't abandon my keen interest in "alternative medicine"
or my cooked vegan diet. But I was fascinated and I never forgot
the lessons that book attempted to teach me.
Over
the next decade, I occasionally heard stories about people who
were using a raw diet to "heal" disease. I also had
long-term vegan friends who were being diagnosed with diseases
that I believed my animal-product-free diet would protect me
from. This worried me; I began to wonder if a cooked vegan diet
could keep me healthy over the long term. All of this culminated
in October of 2000 with my decision to adopt a living foods
diet after reading "Nature's First Law". Although
some of the claims in the book seemed exaggerated, I just knew
somehow that they were based on truth. It all made so much sense
to me.
My
own "transition" was very short - within two weeks
of reading Nature's First Law, I had gone from a cooked vegan
diet to 100% raw. During those first two weeks, I decided that
I would eat all raw except for two foods -- baked potatoes and
popcorn. I wanted to keep these foods in reserve in case I needed
them, and I did need them in the first two weeks. By the beginning
of the third week I stopped eating all cooked food. During the
first few months of being raw, I gave myself permission to eat
as much as I wanted, as long as it was RAW and vegan. After
dieting for weight management my entire adult life, it was liberating
to be able to eat with abandon. I experimented with different
raw recipes until I found 7 or 8 that I really loved. I rotated
these, adding new ones along the way. I bought tons of food,
which was tough on my budget. But, I reasoned, this was money
I wouldn't have to spend on doctors, health insurance, prescriptions,
herbs or vitamins! I also ate staples that had been in my vegan
diet for a long time, like sweet, frozen banana smoothies with
almond milk base and big salads. When I ate these things, I
felt satisfied and "normal," and I could forget about
the radical change I was making to my life.
I
discovered things like macadamia/strawberry "yogurt"
that I dipped apple slices in. I made spicy sunflower seed dip
for celery and carrot sticks. I made thick, delicious salad
dressings with seeds and nuts. I always had dates, raisins and
nuts with me, and snacked almost continually. In the beginning,
no matter how much food I ate, I still felt "hungry".
Although the fattier, denser, more concentrated foods and complex
recipes helped a bit, nothing really took away that gnawing
feeling of hunger and I felt an almost constant desire to eat.
I was later to learn that these feelings weren't hunger at all,
but the symptoms of cleansing that my diet change had initiated.
When your stomach aches, I found out, it's like a sprained ankle
that only needs rest. Real hunger is quite a different sensation,
not an unpleasant one, similar to mild thirst. When one first
adopts a raw food diet, however, the feelings of weakness, irritation,
lightheadedness and growly stomach are very powerful. Intuitively,
I knew if I tried to ignore these feelings, or not eat in response
to them, it would be difficult for me to stay raw.
When
my body began to regain its vitality and lose its tolerance
for dietary mistakes, I began to learn a bit more about food
combining principles and applied them to my diet. I had to start
eating fruit and nuts separately, which meant I couldn't make
my beloved smoothies with almond milk anymore. I just started
making them with the water of young coconuts instead. Eventually
I didn't even like the way this combination made me feel either,
so I stopped having smoothies altogether. I was amazed that
when I made this decision, I didn't feel deprived. I just went
without one day, then two, and then the next time I wanted one
I thought about how they made me feel, and had something else
instead. I went through a phase of continuing to drink smoothies,
but limited the ingredients to whole, raw, unfrozen fruit. Now,
after nearly four years, I don't mix fruits at all, and this
feels right to me.
Initially
when I experimented with eating one food at a time, I didn't
like it. I'd have trouble deciding which ONE food I wanted to
eat and no matter what I chose, I'd end up wanting the other
thing, and was usually unable to resist having both in the end.
I now realize that the desire to mix foods together in complex
combinations has nothing to do with hunger and everything to
do with an inappropriate and unnatural need to stimulate or
entertain ourselves with food. These very strong emotional connections
we have with food are one reason why it takes time to become
comfortable with eating one food at a time. The more I did this,
the more natural it felt. It wasn't until my third year of being
raw that I started eating mostly "mono". I purposely
made these changes slowly, so they weren't difficult or painful.
Everyone
has a different experience when transitioning to a living foods
diet. That's because each of our bodies has its own way of healing,
adjusting and regaining balance, and each of us starts out in
a different condition. It is helpful for people wanting to make
changes to their diet to know what others have experienced,
in order to prepare themselves for the possibilities. I felt
pretty sick during the first few weeks. I was lethargic, weak,
lightheaded, drowsy (especially in the evening), mildly depressed
and irritable. I had many ups and downs during this period but
by the end of the second month I was having many days when I
felt good. After 5 months of being 100% raw, I had my first
of 3 major cleansing events, which felt like the "flu".
I was nauseous, had diarrhea and was extremely weak and faint
if I attempted to stand up for more than a couple minutes. The
worst of it lasted about a week. I understood enough about what
was happening to know that I should not attempt to stop the
symptoms with remedies of any sort, but I didn't realize that
I should not have continued eating. I had no appetite, so I
ate very little, but I was still laboring under the idea that
food gives us "strength" and was afraid that doing
without it would make me feel even weaker. If I had fasted on
water only, the "crisis" would have been over in a
couple days at most.
Two
weeks after that cleansing episode ended, I started noticing
weight loss. Up until that point, I hadn't lost an ounce of
weight. Although it was a source of bitter disappointment for
me, I had been forced to accept that weight loss might not happen
at all because I had noted a few other female raw fooders who
carried extra weight (which I now feel is attributable to mistakes
they are making with their diets). I wanted to be slim, but
it was more important to me to be healthy, so I resolved to
stay raw even if I didn't lose weight. By month 8, I had lost
all of the extra 30 pounds I had gained since my teens. I got
down to 126 pounds (I'm 5'8") and stayed there for about
a year.
Since
then I've experienced steady and gradual weight loss. I'm now
down to 110, which will probably be my low point. It feels good.
People who carry around excess weight their entire lives don't
realize how much more difficult it is to work, move around,
get up from a sitting position, and exercise with even as few
as 10 or 20 extra pounds. When I lost that initial 30 pounds,
I couldn't believe how lithe and agile I felt. I now know that
the rounded, puffy look that we see even in people who are considered
"normal" weight is unnatural and unhealthy. The musculature
should be visible through the skin not only in people who deliberately
"sculpt" or build their muscles, but in all healthy
humans. Raw fooders typically take a lot of flak about their
relative skinniness, but the fact is that this is how humans
are supposed to look. That they appear skinny to the rest of
the world is only a testament to how universal it is in our
culture for people to carry excess weight.
I
had some very difficult and trying times during my first year
of being raw. I learned that our bodies use the same habituated
mechanisms to heal and find balance when we are getting healthier
as they do when we are sick and getting sicker. That is, if
you've had menstrual cramps your whole life, or headaches, acne
or cold sores, etc., you'll most likely experience more of the
same while you are healing as old stored wastes re-enter the
bloodstream on their way out of your body. These symptoms we
experience are sometimes called "retracing". Even
beyond my first year, I had extremely painful menstrual cramps,
recurring 'yeast infections', and a constant crop of cold sores
appearing on my lips and nose. It wasn't until late in my second
year of being raw that my periods got easier and I stopped getting
cold sores altogether. For about a year, my periods continued
but were light and cramps were mild or nonexistent. In the last
6 months I've had only two light periods. I am continuing to
ovulate, even when I don't have flow, because I monitor my temperature
and it spikes once a month during my fertile time just as it
always did.
I
had the second of my "healing crises" at about 18
months. This one wasn't as severe as the first, and brought
different symptoms. I had the sorest, rawest throat I've ever
experienced, and felt too weak to even get out of bed. It only
lasted a few days, because while I didn't fast completely I
only had citrus and juices. Six months later, just a month before
my 2-year raw anniversary, I had the most acute cleansing event
to date: High fever, body aches, chills, cough, weakness, sinus
and chest congestion. I ate very lightly, again only citrus
and juices, and it took two weeks to pass. About 3 weeks after
the beginning of my symptoms, however, I felt the best I've
ever felt in my life! To me, this was evidence that my body
had been doing some serious housecleaning. For a full six weeks
after that point, I continued to feel like I was walking on
air. Words can't describe the joy I felt just from being alive.
Realizing
that our bodies heal in cycles or plateaus, I knew that with
the last cleansing event I had moved to a new level of health.
Inevitably, when we get to the end of a healing cycle, the body
sometimes takes the opportunity to do some deeper cleansing
with the vitality it as regained, which means we might not feel
very well. Sometimes this means acute symptoms, and sometimes
just mild discomfort or low energy. These low periods should
be celebrated, embraced and cooperated with, because it means
wonderful healing processes are taking place in our bodies.
Through
the law of vital adjustment, our bodies can tolerate a great
deal of abuse. Most people don't realize how they've made their
own bodies tolerant of their lifestyle mistakes -- mistakes
that ultimately make them sick and threaten their lives. I wanted
to do the opposite - to increase my body's sensitivity. I wanted
my body to tell me when I had done something that was harmful
to it. In this way, I could learn to cooperate with my body.
If I listen to my body and continue to refine and simplify my
diet and improve my lifestyle practices, I can be assured of
moving to the next level of health. Eventually, I will reach
a place of optimal health where I will feel great all the time
and cleansing will not occasion symptoms. I'm still learning
how to listen to my body and respond appropriately. It is a
long, slow process which requires great patience and trust in
nature.
Now,
after 3½ years of being 100% raw, I have experienced
such radical changes in my physical and emotional health that
I'm beginning to understand what it must be like to have the
level of health that all beings on earth are supposed to enjoy,
but that few humans can even conceive of. What I'm experiencing
right now is not perfect health. It is almost as far from perfection
as it is from "normal" health. But I've seen enough
to know what perfection IS, and to know that it is worth striving
for, no matter how much I have to segregate myself from a culture
that seeks comfort and entertainment from eating. I have to
smile when someone tells me that the sacrifices I'm making for
my health are too great. It's true that being raw and vegan
is socially challenging, and I'd be lying if I said there's
nothing about the cooked life that I'll miss. But when I think
about that, and compare it to what I'd have to give up if I
went back to my old way of life, it only deepens my resolve
to stay raw forever.
The
symptoms I previously experienced that I had come to believe
were a natural part of aging -- like back ache, indigestion,
angina, joint pain and middle-age spread -- are gone. And although
I wasn't afflicted with any diseases before I went raw, I now
realize the fear of it pervaded my life on a daily basis. I
thought about breast cancer
especially, fearing that it would take me as it had my grandmother
when she was the age I'm at now. Now when I think about cancer,
it's to lament all the ignorance and unnecessary fear that surrounds
it. It is not mysterious, nor is it the vicious and vile killer
we are brainwashed to believe it is. Its causes are simple and
can be understood by anyone. This knowledge alone has brought
me a freedom I hadn't expected. No more breast self-exams, nor
the guilt I felt for not performing them with the recommended
frequency, not to mention uncomfortable pap smears and other
so-called "preventative" medical procedures.
The
notion that disease is an unavoidable part of life is so universally
accepted in our culture that people don't even realize what
THEY are sacrificing in order to eat "normally". As
a result, all of the physical and emotional dysfunction that
we experience individually and as a culture has come to be thought
of as normal and natural. There are many, many health issues
that would signal distress to any human living a truly natural
life, but that we accept as "normal": Monthly female
bleeding, painful childbirth, baldness, tooth decay, depression,
deteriorating vision/hearing, death being preceded by 10 years
of "assisted living", and many more. Learning about
natural life can lead to some truly amazing revelations about
the unnatural and mutated nature of modern civilized life.
Finding
raw food and Natural Hygiene can signal the end of your health
troubles and the beginning of a glorious new joy-filled life.
However, there is a great need for health-seekers to think critically
and independently as they approach new ideas. Just because a
book advocates raw food, doesn't mean everything the author
has to say should be taken to heart. The raw food movement,
like the rest of the world, is awash in confusion and misconception
regarding health. When one decides to seek REAL health, there
is as much to UN-learn as there is to learn. Deeply-held myths
die hard, even among raw foodists. What has helped me the most
in being able to discern truth from nonsense is learning the
unchanging, nature-based principles of Natural Hygiene. Natural
Hygiene is the idea that all living things are self-regenerating,
self-repairing, self-sustaining, and are designed through millions
of years of infinite wisdom that resides in their every cell
to attain and maintain optimum health. All we need to do is
avoid the habits that destroy health and provide the requisites
that build it. Natural Hygiene also teaches us what's going
on in our bodies when we might otherwise be confused and confounded
by ongoing symptoms. It is a lot easier to be patient with your
body if you understand what's happening inside it.
Regaining
the vitality and vigor you once knew as a young person is not
only possible, it is inevitable with the right conditions. But,
healing and recovery from a lifetime of abusive living is a
process of experimentation, listening to your body, learning
from others and abandoning old habits and ideas. The patience
and trust that will be required of you will eventually be rewarded
with optimal health.
Nora
Lenz
June, 2004
