Paleo Diet: Raw Paleo Diet and Lifestyle Forum
Raw Paleo Diet Forums => General Discussion => Important Info for Newbies => Topic started by: TylerDurden on May 08, 2008, 03:25:19 am
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Some RAFers(short for "Raw Animal Foodists"), like myself, prefer to go cold-turkey and start going rawpalaeo immediately, but others prefer taking it easy taking a few steps at a time. Here are a few suggestions for the latter:-
1) First get rid of all chemicals and additives in the diet. If you live in an urban environment where tapwater is chlorinated/fluoridated, then I would suggest that you avoid drinking the tapwater and, instead, get hold of 5-litre bottles of mineral-water from natural springs, as that's generally much cheaper per litre than buying several 1.5 litre bottles of mineral-water, each time. My own preference is for alkaline mineral-water with a PH value of 7.2 to 8.4, but everyone has different tastes.
It's also a good idea to avoid contact with chemicals other than those in foods. So avoid swimming in chlorinated swimming-pools, if possible, go in for aluminium-free deodorants, non-fluoridated toothpaste, more natural soaps etc.
2) Get hold of raw organic fruits/vegetables instead of the usual nonorganic varieties, get hold of organic or naturally-reared 100%-grassfed meats instead of intensively-farmed grainfed meats , and so on - if you can get hold of meats from wild animals, that's even better. (You can cook the meats at whatever temperature, at this stage). Make sure to include lots of fatty meats, as opposed to lean meats, so as to avoid rabbit-starvation (* this advice is only relevant to those who eat all-animal food diets, though*). If there's absolutely no way you can get hold of 100%-grassfed- or wild meats, then you should try to get the healthiest grainfed/grain-finished meats that are available and heavily supplement your diet with fermented cod-liver oil or krill oil(as raw and unprocessed as possible). Blue Ice has a raw, fermented cod-liver oil, for example.
*Tip:- Most commercially-raised/non-organic-raised lamb, worldwide, is fed on grass. It's in the US, mainly, where lamb is usually fed on grains.*
Raw palaeo permitted foods include:- raw fruit, raw veg, raw meats, raw organ-meats, raw mushrooms(some varieties), raw nuts(limited), raw honey/honeycomb.
3) Remove Non-Palaeo foods like dairy and grains(even sprouted grains) and legumes from the diet. Many RAFers who eat lots of non-palaeo foods like raw dairy end up with various side-effects such as copper- and magnesium-deficiency and hormonal issues(due to opioid hormones in raw dairy) - it should also be mentioned that the consumption of dairy and grains has been repeatedly linked to a number of auto-immune disorders -plus, allergies to non-Palaeo foods are very common.
4) Gradually reduce the average cooking-temperature of your foods by 1 degree, every so often, until after days/weeks/months you're eventually able to eat all the meats raw at room-temperature. You can start off with as many processed sauces as you like(Moutarde de Meaux is by far the best mustard for this by the way as it contains no artificial preservatives even though it's processed), but you should gradually replace those with raw sauces. Eventually, you will get used to the raw meat to the point where you can eat it by itself without any sauces or spices at all. Some RPD newbies like to use Vitamixes/blenders etc. in order to get used to the taste of raw foods, but this is up to the individual.
5) The main reason why people aren't easily accustomed to raw meats, at first, is due to past social conditioning and lifelong habits. One way to get rid of such conditioning is to go out to local restaurants and eat raw-animal-food dishes like beef carpaccio/steak-tartare/raw-meat kitfo/raw oysters etc - being able to eat raw-animal-food in a public place helps one get used to the whole idea . My personal favourite was to visit nearby Japanese Sashimi restaurants, and eat the raw-fish avilable there. I was already used to eating some types of raw shellfish, in pre-rawpaleo days, so the latter were easier to get used to than other raw-animal-foods.
6) Add in some raw organ-meats, especially the high-fat ones. These take a bit longer to get used to than the muscle-meats, but they are more nutrient-dense than the latter, so are very useful indeed for greater health - also, raw organ-meats do tend to be much easier to digest than raw muscle-meats, which is an important point to consider for those with digestive systems already wrecked by years of being on cooked-diets. You should start off with the standard organ-meats(ie liver, kidney, heart, tongue). More experienced RAFers/RPDers eventually opt for other organ-meats like raw adrenals, brains, marrow, suet, thyroid etc. Also, bear in mind that organ-meats are much cheaper than muscle-meats in price. Raw glands like adrenals/thyroid etc. are also often needed as a cooked diet can often lead to deterioration of one's glandular system over time. Farms like NorthStar Bison http://www.northstarbison.com/ (http://www.northstarbison.com/) and Slanker's http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/ (http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/) supply these. If you can't find a relevant farm which can offer such glands, then try websites offering raw glandulars from grassfed cattle such as http://www.drrons.com/ (http://www.drrons.com/) .
*I had a bit of difficulty eating raw organic, grassfed liver in the first couple of weeks or so of trying it. My own solution was to bolt down tiny slivers of it without chewing(you don't need to chew much on a RAF diet, anyway), and then chase each tiny sliver with a big gulp of mineral-water. I then got used to the taste and started to enjoy raw liver, so it wasn't necessary any more to gulp the mineral-water afterwards. Funnily enough, after a while, I started getting a gag-reflex to more and more cooked-foods. I guess that is partly because one's dietary habits, to a large extent, dictate what our taste-buds experience.
7) One good reason why I was able to start enjoying the taste of my raw-animal-foods relatively quickly was that I was always keen on getting as much variety as possible in my diet. So I would visit every nearby farmers' market(or ethnic-oriented market) until I found such exotic things as raw wild boar meat, goat meat, wild hare, mutton(which is far better than lamb and cheaper as well) - inevitably, I would find that a few of the muscle-meats tasted great the first time I tried them(eg:- raw goatmeat) while others(eg:- raw chicken) I couldn't stand the taste of(indeed raw chicken is one of the few raw meats I still don't like the taste of). I would also switch to quite different farms for the same type of meats, if those meats weren't to my liking. Too many RAFers stick to just a few foods like pork or beef from just one food-source/farm, and then, unsurprisingly, complain of the lack of taste, which is really just a lack of variety.
I should add that, according to anecdotal reports, most RAFers get used to(and start enjoying) the taste of raw animal foods, in general, within c.8 to 12 months. This is, of course, complicated by other factors - for example, the more cooked-food you eat, the less likely it is/the longer it is that you develop a taste for Raw Animal Foods(60%+ is recommended, with most RAFers sticking to 85%+ raw).
8 ) While it's very important to experiment with raw foods in a variety of ways so as to ensure your particular needs are met, I should point out that there can be a danger that one becomes too much obsessed with one's diet, to the exclusion of other matters. For example, when I first started, I'd assumed(wrongly) that if raw animal food was good that the more I ate of it each day , the faster my health-recovery would be -but I found, that, actually, the body needs some rest from digestion from time to time in order to concentrate on healing, and that Intermittent Fasting also helped to aid my health-recovery, along with my RVAF diet("RVAF Diet " is short for " Raw Animal and Vegetable Diet"). It should be noted, also, that as raw food contains far more useful nutrients than cooked-food, that it's not necessary or a good idea to eat the same amounts of food as you did on a cooked-diet.
9) Type of diet:- Some people prefer doing a raw diet with only small amounts of raw animal foods and lots of raw plant-foods(eg:- Instincto), while others prefer a raw diet with lots of raw animal-foods and some raw plant-foods(the majority), and still others prefer raw zero-carb where no one eats any raw plant-food.
10) Enzymes and bacteria:- Many people, if they continue to eat a little cooked-food find it beneficial to supplement with enzymes before such a cooked dinner, so as to make up for the deficiency of enzymes in such cooked-meals. Others like to take probiotics like EM products("Effective Microorganisms"
http://www.eminfo.info/ (http://www.eminfo.info/)
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or bacteria-rich "high-meat" before such a meal, in order to reduce any detox-effects from eating any cooked-food. People whose digestive systems have been heavily wrecked after years of being on cooked-diets might find it beneficial to add in enzyme-supplements or EM-probiotics in order to speed up the repair of their digestive systems. "High-Meat" is a fermented food frequently consumed by the Inuit in their traditional diets and is quite often used by Raw-Animal-Foodists nowadays, though it is generally recommended for people to only try "High-Meat" once they've gotten used to fresh, raw animal foods in general, purely for reasons of taste. A"High-Meat" Recipe-Preparation Section is included in the Recipes forum:-
http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/?topic=316.0 (http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/?topic=316.0)
*Re chewing:- AV says that the ptyalin in your saliva retards the action of protein digesting enzymes so you should expose the least amount of surface area of your food to saliva in your mouth for optimum digestion, which translates to minimal chewing.In other words, unlike with cooked-foods which need to be chewed due to a lack of enzymes in them, raw foods can and should be bolted down with minimal chewing. * I mention this as some newbies claim that some raw meats can be too tough to chew.*
*It should also be noted that some RVAF diet newbies, such as myself when I first started, can be highly sensitive to any kind of processing of raw foods, even raw ground meats. I mention this as most rawpalaeo newbies start off with raw ground meats as they are more used to the idea of eating them(perhaps from eating steak tartare in former cooked-diet days). So those are best advised to stick to non ground meats instead.
Detox:- It's quite common to experience a detox for a certain period if you switch suddenly cold-turkey to raw. This is due to the body finally being able to get rid of toxins from years of being on a toxic cooked-food diet.
*It should be noted that genuine detoxes tend to be relatively mild and short-term in duration(and they should get gradually reduced in terms of frequency, duration and severity until you don't have them any more). At least, in my own case, I would have a mild detox(warm forehead, fatigue and slightly runny nose) lasting from 2 to 7 days, every 2 to 4 months, and these detoxes stopped completely after a couple of years on the diet. (I still experience detox after the very occasional cooked-meal but this is simply the body's efforts to get rid of the toxins from that meal, not anything else).
*It should be noted that if a detox goes on and on ,increasing in severity, and coincides with the consumption of a particular food, then you can be sure that this is due to a food-intolerance or whatever, rather than a genuine detox. In my own case, I consumed raw dairy in the first few months of going raw and I became very ill - it took 6 months before I realised that I wasn't experiencing detox but merely a food-intolerance towards raw dairy.*
Important info:- It's a really good idea to gradually read through all the sticky topics at the top of the general discussions forum as well as the entire archives of the rawpaleodiet Yahoo Group as well, as that should provide answers to many of the questions you haven't even thought of yet(to read the links etc., you'll have to join the rawpaleodiet group):-
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawpaleodiet/ (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawpaleodiet/)
Also useful, is this Q&A archive from allexperts.com:-
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Special-Diets-768/indexExp_42111.htm (http://en.allexperts.com/q/Special-Diets-768/indexExp_42111.htm)
French-language speakers may be interested in this site as well:-
http://nutritionpaleocrue.net/forum/ (http://nutritionpaleocrue.net/forum/)
*While many RAFers go all-raw, there are always people who can't, for various lifestyle reasons/work/family etc., leave off unhealthy foods entirely 100% of the time. Here are some suggestions as to how to compromise:-
1) If you're a smoker, get rid of the pipes, cigars and cigarettes, and replace them with snuff(raw tobacco powder).Sniffing snuff means that you still get a nicotine rush, but you don't get the usual smoking problems re smoke-ash in the lungs etc.
2) If you can't bear cutting out alcohol, then only go in for transparent, non-coloured spirits or real ale. The main things in coloured alcohol that cause hangovers are the congeners, artificial chemicals which are most present in such alcohols. So that means vodka, clear gin, white rum, non-flavoured grappa and the like. Real Ale is the best option as it's raw, unheated, and is full of live, fermenting bacteria. Real Ale is called "cask-conditioned-ale" or "cask-brewed ale" in the USA. Fewer pubs than ever serve genuine real ale - so it's best to look in on upmarket supermarkets and look for the phrase "bottle-conditioned" or "secondary fermentation" on the labels of beer-bottles - if the beer-bottle is one of the very unusual bottles with a thin metal wire circling round the bottle a few inches from the cap/cork, then it's always genuine real ale.
3) When eating a cooked-food meal with non-RAF-eating friends, it's a good idea to take some enzyme supplements and some "high-meat" before going out to the meal. That way, you'll experience fewer issues re poor digestion of the cooked-foods, and the hangover-effect that happens when one consumes junk-food and the body then detoxes it out of one's system.
(Oh, and here's a quick resume, off the top of my head re what I, personally, eat - obviously everyone will have widely different sources, depending on their locality:-
(just a quick review, foods listed are eaten raw, organic/grassfed/wildcaught or free-range/grassfed etc.):-
wild hare carcasses-plus organs/ leg of lamb/mutton plus lamb organs, venison organs, goose-/quail-/duck-/chicken-eggs, sea-urchin-eggs, swordfish, giant tiger prawns, lobster, crab,mussels, kingfish, shark, beef organs, free-range turkey breast-fillets(whole goose and whole turkey at Christmas), wild boar muscle-meats/organs, horse-muscle-meat, heather honeycomb, samphire, blueberries, cherries, raspberries, bananas, wild mallard duck and organs, limpets, goat muscle-meat.
Organs would usually include tongue, liver, kidney, heart, plus, in some of the above cases, brains(rarely), suet and marrow. Some items are only eaten by me rarely or seasonally(eg:- eggs or sea-urchin-eggs))
*Addendum*:- It's generally a bad idea to mix cooked and raw foods together. The 2 require different digestive processes(cooked-food requires the stomach to produce much more stomach-acid etc.), so, if one is suffering from digestive problems, it's really best to stick to raw foods. If one is forced to eat partially-raw for social reasons, then the best thing to do is separate the consumption of cooked-food and the consumption of raw foods into separate meals, leaving several hours inbetween.
*Further addendum*:- While the following article has nothing to do with diet, it may be of interest to some as it involves palaeo-style practices:-
http://www.beautifulonraw.com/raw-food-blog/raw-food-lifestyle/raw-food-lifestyle-sleeping-on-the-floor/ (http://www.beautifulonraw.com/raw-food-blog/raw-food-lifestyle/raw-food-lifestyle-sleeping-on-the-floor/)
And this palaeo habit may also be of interest:-
http://www.aisthetica.org/embracing-the-chill/ (http://www.aisthetica.org/embracing-the-chill/)
*1 other thing:- Raw Vegans often have problems adjusting to raw animal foods because their whole digestive system has been so attuned to eating raw plants(requiring different enzymes and bacteria), that they at first have problems digesting raw animal foods. So, if you're an ex-raw vegan, take things slowly and up the amounts of raw meat a little at a time.
HTH,
TD
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You say that raw meat does not need much chewing. May you please clarify this for me, I do not understand how one can possibly eat raw meat.
I tried some raw lamb, but failed to even cut it to pieces with a knife. I just felt like a lion trying to devour its prey and it put me off completely. I ended up putting it all in the blender.
Do you grind it up first? Do you swallow whole pieces?
Diana
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I tried some raw lamb, but failed to even cut it to pieces with a knife. I just felt like a lion trying to devour its prey and it put me off completely. I ended up putting it all in the blender.
Do you grind it up first? Do you swallow whole pieces?
I ground lamb at first. You can do that. It was still good for me that way. I now swallow somewhat large pieces. Baby steps. You don't have to jump in full force. Do what nourishes you.
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So is the stomach able to break down lumps of meat? Will those pieces 'dissolve' completely in the stomach? -\
Excuse my ignorance!
Diana
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I assume it dissolves, as I've been swallowing chunks of meat for three years, and no chunks ever came out in the toilet. Also I am well when I eat raw meat, and not as well if at all without it.
Right as I posted my response to you, my toothless cat came over and started eating chunks of raw liver I have here. She must have known I was thinking of chunks of meat. I did not call her over and the meat has been here two hours. She makes normal poo too.
She became toothless on grain based commercial cat food. Chewing on it broke her teeth.
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Thanks RawZi for your clarifications!
Diana
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You say that raw meat does not need much chewing. May you please clarify this for me, I do not understand how one can possibly eat raw meat.
I tried some raw lamb, but failed to even cut it to pieces with a knife. I just felt like a lion trying to devour its prey and it put me off completely. I ended up putting it all in the blender.
Do you grind it up first? Do you swallow whole pieces?
Diana
It's been pointed out that wild carnivores don't chew their raw meat much, just bolting it down in chunks. Apparently, this makes the raw meat actually easier to digest. And rawists have noticed the same. Conversely, because of the lack of enzymes in cooked foods, one should make sure to chew all cooked foods thoroughly before swallowing them.
After literally ages on a RVAF diet, I have no problems with stuffing a raw wild hare carcass into my mouth and tearing raw chunks off it bit by bit, it's a lot easier than using a knife as one can get at pieces unaccessible by a standard meat-knife. That said, many newbies to these diets are squeamish about this sort of thing, so prefer using blenders or buying ground raw meat, which is fine. Oh, and get hold of a knife-sharpener for cutting raw muscle-meats and sharpen the knife before every usage, it's essential as cutting raw meat dulls the knife quite quickly.
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I've always found its alot easier for newbies to swallow, as it allows them to adjust to eating raw meat, much quicker, as theyre taste buds are generally still damaged from & conditioned to low nutrition foods
Theyre tastebuds basically overload easily when chewing high nutritive foods, creating an instinctive response to dislike a substance it cant identify
I use curried spices to overload a persons damaged tastebuds with something it can recognise & tolerate, it also masks extreme flavours like raw liver & kidneys really well
If you're a newbie & want to eat organs as well as meat, try some curried spices, chaat massala is great, or a more basic blend with a high chilli powder ratio content to a low ratio of turmeric & curcumin
Lightly dip the curried meat into a cream & eat, no need to marinate
The cream prevents the spices from dying out the throat
I've found after a couple of days, most peoples tastebuds heal & adjust
Some people stop coating the meat in spices & swallow, others start chewing the meat easily
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I will try this advice with my brother. He is hard at work learning how to eat a raw animal foods diet.
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I have large dogs. They pull on large pieces of meat and with their canines shred it and puncture it many times. It's pretty hard for a dog or animal to simply swallow a large piece of meat without having put a lot of teeth made holes in it first. The digestive juices flow into these 'holes' and get at the middle of large 'chunks' as described. their digestive juices can also completely dissolve bones. Pretty strong stuff.
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I have large dogs. They pull on large pieces of meat and with their canines shred it and puncture it many times. It's pretty hard for a dog or animal to simply swallow a large piece of meat without having put a lot of teeth made holes in it first. The digestive juices flow into these 'holes' and get at the middle of large 'chunks' as described. their digestive juices can also completely dissolve bones. Pretty strong stuff.
Thanks for pointing that out, remember to cut the meat up into small slices or easy to swallow chunks, so your digestive juices can dissolve the meat, without having to chew the meat.
lol in no way should you try & swallow large chunks of meat, slice it up into easy to swallow chunks, obviously.
Also remember to tap the meat gently over the cream, avoid dipping directly into the cream, otherwise the curry powder gets dissolved into the cream.
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Hi all,
I am new to this discussion. Well I never tried for this. Want to know whether this raw meat contains bacteria? M feeling like puking -v
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Hi all,
I am new to this discussion. Well I never tried for this. Want to know whether this raw meat contains bacteria? M feeling like puking -v
None that will harm you if its good quality meat.
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Bacteria are ubiquitous. There is nothing to worry about.
But it's really important to choose the wild and pasture raised animals.
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i'm one of the newbies and ive learned a lot and will try your advice sir thank you......
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Excellent thread!
Looking forward to incorporating some of these principles into my diet, a bit at a time : )
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Hi everyone and thanks for all the tips.
I come from a high carb raw vegan diet and I'm in a really bad shape.
I like the taste of raw meat and have no problems eating it.
My biggest concern is the parasites, bacterias...
Can I seriously eat anything raw as long as it's fresh?
Even chicken, turkey and fish (have heard only grown salmon and tuna are safe)?
Should I freeze fish for example pike, perch, whitefish so I could eat it?
Does the meat always have to be fresh or could it sometimes be okay to eat prepacked meat?
My doctors said this is stupid for me because I'm really weak but it feels like the right way to go.
I will never go back to eating cooked food because it makes me really sick but I need the raw meat to feel better!
Hopefully someone can give me some more answers :)
/Cece
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Long-termers routinely eat aged, rotting raw meats without any issues re bacteria. The chance of getting parasites is microscopic, and the tiny few that do generally find that any symptoms are of a minor, harmless nature and just buy anti-parasite drugs from their local doctor which solves the problem.
Only thing is that you should not keep your raw meats sealed without access to oxygen for more than a few days. Keeping the meat vacuum-packed for more than a week is NOT recommended. Plus make sure to eat high quality raw meats such as raw, grassfed meats or raw wild game or raw wildcaught seafood. Buying unhealthy grainfed meats from intensively-run farms are unhealthy whether they are raw or cooked.
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I prefer using anti-parasite herbs and beam rays or zappers rather than drugs for parasites.
Parasites don't scare me. I'm armed to the teeth in case they cause trouble.
Cooked diets are just as or may be more vulnerable to parasites.
When we had deadly amoeba and pseudomonas polluting our home drinking water, 10 people cooked dieters all came down. Only the 2 raw paleo dieters were unscathed and had to take care of the 10 sick people.
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Hello, Thank you, you inspired me to go RVAF with your practical plan to transition. I registered with this site because I am an extreme eater/faster, and it appealed to me. After reading advice on dairy, and your post I'm going for it, slowly. Why do I choose to be a RVAF instead of a raw vegan? I'll share my story. I was a raw vegan for 3 months but I quite because of a serious onset of DEPRESSION, like nothing I've ever experienced. Plus, horrible mood swings and violent temper. I cussed someone out in public even (I have never been insensitive before). Serious, horrible, horrible effects on the energy and mental stability. Then my body broke down, it just stopped working. First I started to get sick all the time. It's like my ammune system stopped working. Everyone around me would get a cold for a few days, but I had a cold the whole time I was on this diet, with flu spells, body and joint aches. I loved eating raw, I loved the slim figure, but then one night I just could not really move. I was frightened. It's like my body said, "ok, I think I'll just stay here forever until I stop working and die." I called my husband who was back in the United States (I did not tell him about my crazy diet thing though, he would have freaked). Anyway, my husband started a serious Adkins very low car diet (now you can consider it his lifestyle) about that time. Knowing me, he figured I was not eating enough and advised me to eat more meat and fat. I peeled myself up and went and got some lunch meat with mayo (it was yucky) and I felt the severe depression lift within the hour. A few days later I was physically better, and I'm almost about fully recovered emotionally/hormonally. I instantly became LC still without grains in following my husband who is VLC. I did this for another 3.5 months. My body fat % was very low and I looked great. I returned to the USA about three months ago and ate anything I wanted (except for processed sugar) and bloated up like nothing else. I've been getting back to normal now that I am VLC, but still don't look as good as I did while oversees.
Anyway, raw veganism was a nightmare for me, a true absolute hell. If you've ever come close to watching your body and mind shut down, that's how it was. I dig adding the meat to raw food diet.
I have a pretty good start I think. Here's the plan/breakdown:
-Subtle change to cooking meat like you recommend
-Stop eating dairy, especially since I consume very little anyway.
-I just need to add more variety of raw veggies, since most the veggies I eat are raw anyway (as found in salad and bun-less burgers)
-I stopped eating fruit after my breakdown, along with all really sweet stuff, I might eventually add raw berries, depending on the insulin response.
-Oh, um, one thing...coffee and hot teas will remain for now.
So, that's the plan.
Best,
Eva
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Are hearts something normal to a diet like this? Do we need to eat the livers and such to glean the full value out of this diet, and is it ok if we stick to one internal organ? For some reason i feel like consciously and unconsciously i will be able to eat hearts easier than things like livers.
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for what its worth, start with the heart and take things from there.
Who knows what you may find appealing down the track! ;)
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A tip for any newbies (or even long term RPDers). Don't leave your meat in a vacuum sealed package!
I've been buying beef, organs and fat from a farm that vacuum seals their products, freezes and ships them. I was originally defrosting it while still in the vacuum sealed plastic, and I noticed my food never smelled that great. To remedy it smelling bad, I started taking it out of the plastic when I put it to defrost. The smell completely disappeared, the food tasted better, and it lasts longer in the fridge before looking "less fresh." Also I noticed that my body seems to "want" the food more. I think since the bacteria on the meat are more aerobic (air using) from being exposed to the air, my body wants it more. When I was letting it defrost in the plastic, I'd eat (especially the fat) very slowly, even though the texture was soft, buttery and creamy. But after I started removing the vacuum sealed plastic to defrost, I tear it up (eat quickly).
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This is a great thread. I've read it a few times, haha. But every time I take away something different. Ditto Eva_R on the hell of raw veganism. I will try the curry powder tip in order to stomach liver (but my body smells the day after eating curry spices!)
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Very informative thread, thanks
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I appreciate all of this information. I’ve been lurking and poring over the archives for the last several days and became intrigued enough to make an account and begin my tentative journey into RVAF. F, 28 years old.
This seems like a natural progression for me. I first tried a low carb (keto) diet a few years ago and gained relief from mild neurological issues and spinal pain. Other issues developed, though, like a persistant rash that I couldn’t shake for 9 solid months (until I started adding more carbs back), and painful bloating. Eventually I lost my drive (seems crazy considering the chronic ailments that returned) and reverted to SAD with processed crap for over a year, with half-hearted attempts to return to a cleaner diet: a week or two of low carb, whole foods adherence every month or two.
For the past several months, I’ve seen my health improve again with the discovery of a majority animal product diet, specifically high fat. I feel the best I have in a long time. I’ve been eating (cooked) fatty beef, heritage breed pork, lamb, including organs from all of those, and dairy products. I have some fruit, honey, or vegetables more sparingly (2-3 times a week).
I’m really intrigued by the experiments and testimonies of those on this board with raw foods including raw and even high meat.
A couple points in this particular thread that are helping me dip my toe into transition:
Slowly reduce cooking temperature
Avoid mixing cooked and raw foods
I also appreciate mention of gaining a taste for raw meat. I’ve discovered that I’ve learned to prefer rare beef over medium or well-done. I had my first rare steak at a steakhouse about 8 years ago and only pretended to really love it LMAO. It seemed weird at the time. I kept trying rare beef and developed a strong preference/craving for it within weeks after that My preference for rare/bleu rare has only increased over the last several months I’ve been doing mostly animal products. So, I believe that I can move towards developing the desire for raw.
Glad to be here and again, I appreciate all the information.
Edited for grammar