After trying pretty much most of the cooked up diets, I discovered Primal Diet in my mid 20's, by reading "We Wanna Live it Up" by Aajonus. At first i felt better, probably due to cutting out all grains and cooking, but gradually my health declined, which made me drop the diet and return back to sickness. Now I know that the reason I declined on raw, was from following AV advice to juice the greens, eat raw egg whites, drinking lots of raw milk, mixing honey and butter, preparing the "Nut Formula", and the rest of his ridiculous food combining. So it was another few years before I got back on track and adopted raw paleo, since I was pretty skeptical of raw diets after AV.

The cheese was raw and local and without a brand. Yes it was salted. I've yet to find unsalted version anywhere... Doesn't AV sell it? I really doubt the b12 had anything to do with it.  I think I get way too much b12 from raw grass-fed meats and organs anyway. And to follow up on my post, I was constipated for the next few days. The only dietary change I made was to include that cheese. So I guess, AV got that one right... I think I can live without constipation just fine. And the small euphoria I got from eating cheese faded by each bite anyway. Right now I am of the view that eating dairy is better than eating plants but not better that eating meats. And perhaps it's better to not mix the big 3 at all in one dietary regimen.

I am kind of naturally transitioning onto an all red meat diet anyway and have a question for Lex. Do you get bad breath from rotten meats?

Well I got some good news. I am finally digesting my raw meats and fat . It has been a long road for me indeed, and I am glad that I persevered. Special thanks to this intelligent and open minded community, otherwise I'd probably still be lost and continued to deteriorate. I can't believe I ate all that rancid cooked crap all my life. Well at least I get to find out now what it is like to eat like a human. And unfortunately the majority will live out their lives without that understanding. I still get horrible reaction if I eat plants, so I plan to stick to RZC for a while now, and then maybe play around with them later. Also I found that not all meats are good for me raw. Given a choice I would not choose to eat white meat with unsaturated fat (chicken, pork, fish, etc). I feel best on raw grass fed or wild red meat. And with the rest of the meats I either don't feel anything or feel worse. Same goes for grain fed red meats. Not only do I feel the difference when I eat clean red meats, but it also seems the most logical food choice. I figure that since my body runs mostly on saturated fats, and my flesh is red, then my fuel should be of the same nature. I also think that raw organs and plenty of fat are crucial to be a successful RZC long term. But I don't plan to make this woe a religion. I will still eat everything but very occasionally and not in large quantities. I actually look forward experimenting with cooked food and plants in the future to see how damaging they really were to me. I still have a lot of health issues that I hope will improve with raw paleo. Mainly I now wish that I can heal my kidneys from heavy metal damage. Time will tell and I would be trilled to report it here if that were to happen. Anyway add me to the list of successful RZC's!

klowcarb wrote:
What do you mean?

I really don't know. I think I was either high of a fruit or depressed of a starch and hence my thinking was out of whack.

djr_81 wrote:
I would have the same reaction as you and I've been eating RZC successfully for over a year.
I'm going to make some observations without quantities or photos so these might be wrong:
-You don't have to worry about protein poisoning unless you eat pounds and pounds of meat everyday. A couple pounds of meat isn't going to poison you.
-You will not get rabbit starvation if you get moderate amounts of fat with your meat; the fat on fatty cuts will be enough. You might not have a ton of energy if you don't get enough fat or carbs but you're not going to shut down.
-I'm not going to harp on you about the cooked fat but I will say that I personally cannot tolerate it and do not recommend it.
-There's not much evidence that ZC directly causes kidney stones. IMO a ZC diet is more demanding of water than say a raw omni diet so you should hydrate a bit more but it shouldn't scare you. Lex's experience do seem to correlate with ZC as at least a catalyst but it is one experience.
-You're having too much fat. Twice the weight in tallow (rendered fat so even more potent/concentrated) to ground beef is grossly excessive.

Thanks for your observation drj_81, and congrats on a full year! I can't eat a lot of meat raw yet; only about 1/3 of what I used to eat cooked. So yea currently protein poisoning doesn't worry me. I do make sure to finish off my meals with plenty of fat, but not vice versa, because then I would get too full too quick. On cooked grass fed fat vs raw grass fat I can't comment yet because I have no practice in that area. I have not yet noticed anything negative from cooked, but again I lack experience. Right now intuitively I feel like raw fat is much better, since raw meat is much better... I will test it all out and let you know how I fare on it. Do you have an explanation for why RZC's need more water? It seems counterintuitive since raw meats are mostly water already. I did notice an increase in thirst, so now I drink close to a 1/2 gallon. I want to drink even more but don't know how that would affect my kidneys. I do feel pain down there if I drink sometimes. Perhaps water quality is an issue. I am in search of quality water now, since that is all I drink. I feel that the taste and my bodily reaction would be the best indicators for its purity. Right now my approach is to drink more but less often and away from the rest of solid foods. This way seems more natural to me and saves the hassle of carrying water bottle around wherever you go. And speaking of fat I don't know if it is indeed a bad idea to eat it twice as much as protein, since Lex is a great example of such a possibility. I certainly can't eat that much at the moment, but that is because my body still prefers glucose and gets it out of it stored reserves, and that is evident to me through my drastic body fat loss.

miles wrote:
I don't know what you do... But start doing something that makes you care about how you feel/perform... Then you will eat by taste and how it makes you feel, and it will be important..

I agree as I just recently discovered that myself. But that's how most people change anyway, by embracing the truth through their own experience.

Yep, mine hurts too. Don't know what it is but no matter how much grain-fed, hormone laced, low quality, ground and COOKED meat I eat, I don't get any symptoms other than if it's beef then I feel alive and well. But if I consume even an ounce of best quality, fresh, grass-fed, organic beef, I get nothing but a stomachache. It pretty much sits in me undigested along with the raw fat. Go figure...

Wow it looks like a a great deal to me. Nice find Michael. Have you ordered from them before? My only concern is the taste and measurement of the powder. I tasted both ALA and Betaine without the filler and it was horrifically distasteful. ALA made me cough and Betaine burned my throat. Also how much of the powder to take is the question. For instance I have both 100mg and 250mg capsules of ALA at home, and they are of the same size, but differ in their concentration. So with powder how much should I  ingest to equal 250mg? You right Cutler said not to obsess over dosages, but the way I interpreted it was that one should spend less time worrying about the dosages and more time chelating. I remember a person asking him about the powdered form and Cutler answered that  he doesn't know since he never did it himself.

Thanks for encouraging me to get on with my RPD. I admit a slacked a bit and must get back in shape. I shall return to my journal and continue my journey there. My candida is out of control right now and I am currently sick with flu because of a recent heavy carb binge. I went on a rampage and ate lots and lots of starchy carby foods and got what I deserved. Candida was sure happy but my health degraded. I made a promise to myself to stop being so irrational with food. I don't understand what is it with with  these carb addicts defending carbs so much. I sufferer every time I eat them, but I am not going to lie to myself that they're good for me. A carb is a carb no matter where you're at. Anyway lets leave this thread to it's intent and talk some more about the evil carbs, RPD, and staff in my journal.

Michael,
Yea  I am too disappointed that the process of chelation is taking longer than I thought, and hence costing me more than I planned.  But there is no denying that I have gained  many positives as a result of chelation, now that I think about it. I take my words back for making it sound like it was all for nothing. Here's the physical benefits:

-Waking up is much easier. Before chelation waking up was a torture. Partly due to not getting enough sleep because of insomnia, but I also think it is due to the new leached out mercury over the night.

-Weird red rash on the forehead gone. Every morning right when I get up and rush to the mirror I would notice some red dots on my forehead, where hippopotamus is located. They would clear up as the day went on, but always made me wonder what they were. Oh doctors were clueless of course.

-Dizziness is less frequent. Whenever I would suddenly get up from sitting or laying down I would get really dizzy. After a shower too. I also would get a feeling like my head is spinning while laying down all the while feeling nauseous.  I still get them but much rarer now, maybe like once every few months. I think it is due to the irreversible brain damage.

-Less tired. I would be so tired always that I could not accomplish anything in a day and frequently took naps. I think this has also something to do with bad sleep at night. Now I am much more energetic and nap only occasionally, after a large meal or something.

And now mental:

-Brain fog/difficulty concentrating/memory is much better. I  remember that in high school I thought that I was a retard since I could not comprehend a paragraph. It got progressively worse until amalgam removal. It gotten progressively better after chelation. Now I am college grad from top school and I am going back for more this fall, although not for the education but for the professional training. You mentioned that those symptoms are still an issue for you, so I think that you need to chelate more with ALA, otherwise they will not clear up.

-OCD diminished. I would always get these thoughts, basically to do the most inappropriate thing for each situation. Like if I met someone, I would think about making out with them right away. If I saw anyone cross the street, to run them over. If I was getting helped with anything to tell them to buzz off instead of thanking them, etc. I barely think like that now and can't believe I was like that most of the time.

-Anxiety and fear reduced. This has been a big problem for me and although I had not seen too much improvement in this area yet, a reduction is still noticeable.


As for DMSA, yea it is partly for financial reasons but also because I believe that at the moment there is no need for me to go any higher than 25mg. When I chelated without DMSA, my rounds were tough and I could not tolerate them for very long. With DMSA they're much smoother and I've noticed no difference with each increment of ALA. However, I will increase DMSA dosage if I notice any redistribution symptoms as I go higher with ALA. I really don't think that a low dose of DMSA is a factor in my slow recovery. Cutler is clear that DMSA is not necessary for mercury, in other words ALA will chelate all mercury from the body and the brain. But I found in my experience similar to his that DMSA made my chelation rounds much more tolerable. Also in my experience it was really hard measuring powdered DMSA or ALA into exact dosages and I suffered redistribution problems because of that. I learned that when it comes to heavy metal removal I do not want to play around with measurements. If you're looking to afford DMSA, I would wait or call in and ask guys at Vitamin Research Product for sale of DMSA. Their 25mg DMSA bottle comes with 120 capsules and that usually lasts me 2 weeks of ON rounds. Some people only do 12.5 mg or less of DMSA on their rounds, so I would assumethat they save even more.

P.S. I don't know if you read the silly AV comment on chelation in his “We want to live” book, then that's how I know his full of it. He even recommends eating most mercury laden fish like sword fish to chelate old mercury. That nonsense actually hurts people who blindly follow him. He obviously tried every cure, done every supplement, ate every diet and knows everything. The raw diet GURU AV

Lex,

Great journal! I've been following it with much interest. I just did the math and was surprised to find out that you eat so little raw protein each day - just under 4 ounces!? I've been struggling with eating raw steaks for a while now, and wonder whether I was gobbling just too much for me, like a pound at a time, and not getting enough fat. I would get severe stomach pains from raw and hence had to resort to cooking. I think I have no or very little stomach acid as I get no burn feeling in my chest irregardless of the amount of intake of HCI pills. On the other hand, I react horribly to carbs: fruit - toothache and hunger, vegetables and grains - tired and sleepy. So zeroing in on carbs seems like an appropriate undertaking for me. But cooking meat is effort, requires spices, gives off odor, and is unappreciated by this community due to toxins - AGEs, PAH's, amines, etc. Anyway I gonna give it a try and eat less raw protein and twice as much fat. How do you add rendered fat to mix? Do you melt it first or something? Cause it is hard and not very tasty. Also you seem to have upped your fat intake all the way to 85% by calories. Any future plans to go any higher or lower?

_{How should I go about that rawpaleo... Could you briefly tell me what that means? I don't take dairy in any shape or form now... I do drink vegetable juices (one glass in the morning), eat like 3-4 large tomatoes, eat raw meat twice a day, 6-8 eggs over the day, eating two at a time, a little fruit at times, and raw lamb fat and raw honey with every meal. Sometimes nuts. I eat potatoes or rice when I feel the need for starchy food.}
Everything on your menu besides raw lamb could be causing your problems. Don't blindly follow Aajonus and try elimination technique instead. I agree with him on not using salt on raw though. But that's because I just can't stand salt on raw while the opposite is true on cooked.

I just don't like the taste, look, and texture of cooked fat. However, cooking fat at high temps. is necessary for good pemmican. There are miraculous stories about people thriving on pemmican alone.

Nuts are high in phosphorous, anti-nutrients (phytic acid) and often have high PUFAs, although macadamia nuts are the exception with low-PUFA, high MUFA, so they're the best choice. Long soaking (24 hours) makes the nut easier on the body, but there's still plenty of anti-nutrients to tax the system!

Yea I am aware about the nut trouble. The fact that you have to soak them is a proof right there that they're unfit for human consumption. A peleo human certainly would not have had a clue about soaking, hence taxing the system to its limit, which is no good. In fact she would probably be better off without finding that tree since she might of found nuts tasty and indulged in them until there was none left. It is common sense that nuts are highly allergic for some people. I however, never had a problem, which does not exclude me from the possibility that I was negatively affected. As for the taste, macs are my favorite, followed by pistachios and almonds. Lately I observed that I can overeat them and still feel unsatisfied. I think it's unnatural to eat so much anyway. And my stool sample showed undigested particles, thus confirming bad digestion.

If you overdo the meat, best to eat more fat instead of plant source stuff.

You're probably right, but for now I going to continue to experiment with plants to see which ones (if any) to include in my diet. O carb I think cleaned me up and now I am more sensitive to everything that comes my way.

being  a raw vegan for sometimes of my life, i consumed tons of best quality nuts and didn't get any benefit out of that.

A wrap up, nuts are on my survival menu. 

Some thoughts on my eating patterns thus far. Yesterday's raw salad did not sit well with me. I initially felt good but found that I was hungry again only a couple of hours later. I became obsessive about food looking forward to my next meal, thinking how I was gonna make it better this time, eat more, add new ingredients etc. While on o carb and after a meal however, I remember I cared less about my next meal and in fact it seemed repulsive to me for at least good 6 - 8 hours. I also would wake up refreshed and without hunger. But this morning I woke in agony and hungry looking forward to my breakfast. So I ate the same salad mix but without onions and this time added a dozen of raw egg yolks. To my surprise that did not fill me up and so I stopped to grab some pistachios nuts on the way to work. I ate the bag and still was unfulfilled. I noticed later in the day that I would want to itch all over. I suspected avocado, so I got home and googled avocado and allergies and bingo came across a blog that was revealing on the issue. http://jonskifarms.wordpress.com/2006/04/08/avocado-allergy/ I guess an allergy to avocado is real and just like any allergy in some cases could be deadly. I learned by reading through the blog that basically anyone could be allergic to anything at anytime. Tests are commonly erroneous, and the only sure way to know is to abstain from the suspected food for a while and then have a lot of it. But there was something else that I found interesting. You could develop an allergy to the food in question after a very long exposure. So while some get an immediate reaction from eating avocado, banana, shrimp etc, it could take others decades before such reaction would occur. Afterward both groups can't have any more of their allergens or it could cost them their life. Also I noticed that people there complained about being allergic to almost everything except for meat. As for me I am going to continue experimenting with raw fruits paying closer attention...

I just felt run down, lots of congestion coming out of me etc...sounded like I had been smoking for 50 years. It passed and I felt like I had been reborn! It was amazing. If a detox gets too bad, you can always stop it by eating something cooked.

Your experience shows just how toxic cooked food really is for us. It's like smoking cigs and then stopping.