Guest guest Posted April 25, 2004 Report Share Posted April 25, 2004 Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " . thanks ~Angela Christy <yogafreeze wrote: I read this on another site: http://b25.ezboard.com/fdepoproverafrm10.showMessage?topicID=427.topic In response to inquiries from Audrey and Patricia, here are some general comments on depression and anxiety. In considering depression and anxiety, its important to keep general, lest we end up over-analyzing and complicating what can be a straightforward issue. Depression at its simplest represents a lack of ability to formulate energy. Depression is commonly seen as referring to low mental outlook, and feelings of hopelessness. This indicates a overburdening of our brain cells, or nerves, whereby they've lost their ability to function optimally and efficiently to create and organize energy production throughout the body, the brain included. However, because the body is a whole, other parts of the body are necessarly involved, particularly the glandular organs, such as the adrenals, thyroid, hypothalamus, and pineal, which are important in prompting increased energy production throughout the entire body. The body by way of its various glands, produces hormones to regulate brain, glandular, and muscular activity. In our modern day lifestyles, and especially in our eating habits, we all abnormally drive our bodies beyond their normal capacities without realizing it. We have gotten ourselves into a habit of excessive stimulation in order to overcome prior feelings of tiredness, or enervation. The tiredness originates in previous excesses of activities, of which eating poor foods is the worst energy usurper. Since most people are unaware of and remain untaught of the harmful energy depleting ways of their unhealthy habits, they begin to fall victim to an endless search for ways to keep their energy high, such as eating when feeling down, entertaining themselves with t.v, movies, drugs, and other excessive activities when bored, lonely, or otherwise fatigued. This habitual pattern of stimulative behaviour, which is not respectful of the body's need for rest and recuperation after activity, leads to the excessive stimulation of those glands and tissues in our bodies that are responsible for creating energy. So for example, the adrenal glands, instead of being able to rest when a person is feeling down or tired, are forced to work overtime again as the person indulges in a slice of pizza. Not only do the adrenals tire out, but also the thyroid which creates hormones to stimulate the adrenals, and the hypothalamus which creates hormones to stimulate the thyroid. In this process, neurotransmitters are used by the brain to relay messages, and eventually the neurotransmitters themselves become short in supply as the glands and nerve cells that are forced to produce the various transmitters tire out and wear down. When our bodies lose their ability to produce normal levels of hormones, transmitters, and other important chemicals for bodily processes, we experience depression -- a lack of ability to function energetically. Concurrent with the development of depression throughout the body, and particularly in the brain, is anxiety. Anxiety is really an internal recognition by the body of a threat to its existence. It is a feeling of insecurity that is the result of excess burden put on the body, burden that is starting to go beyond the body's ability to resolve. People call this stress, but it is really over-stress. Stress is a good thing, overstress is a bad thing. Over-stress occurs when we eat foods not of our biological adaptations, when we over exercise, or overdo anything. In response to stress, our brain will activate itself and the entire body to correct the situation, but when the brain is continually forced to do this, its very ability to do this is lessened, since it can never rest enough to regenerate and restore its functions. We end up having feelings of stress build up due to following excessive habits, but after the brief stimulative period, we are not able to develop enough hormones, neuro- transmitters, and other chemicals to resolve within us the stressed state of our cells. So we continue to feel this tensive state for unusually extended periods of time. A person who is anxious has little ability in that moment to handle more tasks and will avoid situations that even only slightly stress them. To the extent that a person abuses their organs, brain cells, and body in general with excessive stimulation, and in conjunction with their predisposed various strengths in glands and organs, will the person experience the severity of anxiety and depression in their life. Depression and anxiety slowly build up over decades, even right from birth if energy usurping practices are followed. The individual who manages to overcome these problems by incorporating truly healthful practices into their life in the greatest degree will come to see how in their former lives their depressive and anxious symptoms slowly increased, as they remained oblivious and ignorant of the consequences of their harmful actions. A return to raw food eating provides the body with an immensely reduced digestive load while providing vast quantities of energy. It will take a period of time for the body to heal its glands, nerves, digestive faculties and other tissues, but as it does so, its strong function will return and symptoms of depression and anxiety will fade and disappear. It usually does not happen overnight, as a person who is depressed and anxious has much lessened ability to create energy, which is required for healing. However, depending on the person and the intensity of the depression, recovery can sometimes be very fast. Sometimes just simple little activities like eating too late are all that are preventing the body from being able to re-generate adequate nerve energy reserves over night and thus causing it to experience depression. It is important to note that, at their roots, all depression and anxiety are physiological problems and all physiological problems are chemical problems, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are said to be mental and emotional problems, but it must be noted that our mental and emotional processes are undertaken by our nerves that make up our brains and which extend everywhere throughout our bodies. Our nerves are supported by all other tissues in the body, including our glands, muscles, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and mucous membranes, even as our nerves serve these various tissues. It's a whole, interconnected, interdependant system, all for one, one for all. All of these organs, including nerve cells, are constructed of and are creating billions of interacting chemicals all of the time which we experience as the process of life. It is through our nervous system that we are consciously aware of this life process, due to the electrical currents thusly created in nerve cells. This infinitely complex system of chemical, then cellular, then glandular, and finally nerve reactions occuring in our bodies is always automatically striving to maintain that state of balance that we describe as total well being, or health. It is a system that is dependant upon wholeness of action. This means that it is also dependant on getting whole foods into it, foods which are also biologically and physiologically correct for it. When all its needs are met correctly, the body in its whole will function optimally. To the extent its whole needs are not met, it will suffer dis-comfort, or dis-ease, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are two of these symptoms of imbalance. So anyone who has regularly abused themselves in the past with unhealthy habits will undoubtedly have suffered some extent of anxiety or depression, no matter how light. Who suffers more or who suffers less is determined by the extent of the bad habits and the particular strengths and weaknesses of various organs (a person's diathesis, as is said, or their constitution, or tendencies, or inheritance, or genetic makeup, etc). Were a person not to indulge in bad habits, then their diathesis would be irrelevant. Some people will experience depression or anxiety since, say, their dopamine producing cells get overworked first, while others will experience asthma as their lung cells get overworked. Those who continually indulge in poor health practices all suffer various levels of the innumerable ailments of modern life, but its only when the ailments become severely aggravated that we tend to recognize them and call them particular dis-eases. So, are we anywhere with all the discussion? We aught to be by now. A person could go on for years describing all the various chemical, nerve, and organ reactions going on in the body in regards to depression and anxiety, but it would get us nowhere closer to understanding what to do to resolve the problem. We already know that depression means lack of energy production and that anxiety means inability to overcome threat to oneself. But now that we know what causes needless energy loss and what puts unnecessary threat upon the body, namely unhealthy energy depleting habits, we automatically know what to do to resolve the problem ---adopt healthy habits as they pertain to the situation we find ourselves in. So a person needs to eat whole healthy foods, refrain from excessis of behaviour, develop emotional calm, get fresh air and adequate sleep, enjoy sunshine, and so on. Rest is very important, and it may even be necessary to fast for a few days, a week, or more, before adopting more sensible active health habits, such as eating fruits and vegetables. Because diet is the number one major culprit of health destruction in our age, it is the one area, when improved, that gives the greatest results in depression and anxiety. It may take time for the body to resolve the healing required in our nerves and organs, but it will come so long as good habits are continually fostered and persevered in. Some notable poor dietary habits that lead to depression and anxiety are: overeating in general, eating too much at one meal, eating concentrated foods (particularly sugary foods like dried fruits, which drive our adrenals and dope our brains with excessive glucose), eating late (after say 6pm), eating haphazzard combinations of foods, eating spicy and stimulating foods, pursuing foods as a comforting or exciting activity in order to avoid low feelings(called emotional abuse), eating beyond needs dictated by activity level, eating for entertainment, eating foods that are supposedly healthy like sea salt, vinegar, wine, garlic, and others that only serve to stimulate cleansing but not actual healing, binging, purging, eating before noon, eating heavy foods early in the day instead of later, overeating particular types of foods, especially the heavy more concentrated foods such as avocados (excess fat), nuts and seeds (excess protein and fat), and dried fruits (excess sugars), eating unripe fruits that don't satisfy appetite, mixing foods to overstimulate appetite (eg: fruit bowls, large complex salads with tasty fatty dressings), prolonged and excessive starch or concentrated sugar consumption, and generally speaking, overeating, once again and again and again and..... Growing up, I was a specialist in the overeating department, unknowingly, and if there was one thing that was gonna kill me, that was it. I suffered immense amounts of anxiety and depression from overeating, and I only made the connection after I improved my diet. Then I realized what an extreme food alcoholic I had been all my life, particularly a starch and sugar addict. I tried all sorts of procedures and a few medications to get over my depression/anxiety, some of which seemed to work, but which I dropped once I discovered my main problem was food addiction. It takes time to develop sensible eating habits after a life time of abuse, but the good feelings that one remembers as a child slowly return and dominate ones mental/emotional/physical state as pure raw ripe fresh whole foods dominate the diet. If I hadn't experienced it, I wouldn't believe it possible, but its so obvious to me now. Other lifestyle factors are important to consider as well, such as fun exercise, sleep, rest, sun, social activities, intimacy or love expression, fasting if necessary, abstaining from excesses of all types, development of emotional calm, good water if necessary, bodily cleanliness and purity (I don't mean soaps, etc here), productive work, mental stimulation, enjoyable emotional expression, security of life and means, warmth, aesthetic environment, and others. Of course once a person resolves their habits that lead to depression and anxiety, that person must remain aware that depression and anxiety are where their body first demonstrates a breakdown when bad habits are indulged. Thus they can expect to feel poorly once they indulge badly. I note in myself when I sometimes overeat (still here and there, eh, can ya believe it!! --though I don't overeat anything near like I used to) that the next day I start to get the slightly down feeling slightly reminiscent of the past. It's a good reminder to keep towing the line. But of course, feeling great is an even greater reminder. A person needs to be patient with themselves, persevere, remain attentive to improvements, and thus develop a sense of control and admiration of oneself. Living healthfully automatically generates those feelings that we associate with confidence and comfort. Living unhealthfully removes us from those feelings because it creates imbalances within our bodies, and as our nerves sense and experience those imbalances, we experience feelings of non-conconfidence, worry and foreboding. It's sometimes a more challenging route to choose health improvement over drug therapy or other misapplied solutions to depression and anxiety, but the rewards run much deeper. Hopefully that didn't over-complicate the subject. Somewhere some general simple concepts were discussed, with logical solutions to problems. rawfood , bandbcollection <no_reply> wrote: > Is there anything you all would suggest for someone like myself > who's been working at going raw, but is seriously depressed. Not to > the point of hurting myself or my kids, but to the point where I'm > considering going to a doctor for it and I don't like doctors. > > What is the common approach to this with the raw lifestyle? Any > foods in particular that can help with this? > > Thanks, > Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 25, 2004 Report Share Posted April 25, 2004 hi! i think it took me about 6 months before i stopped thinking of cooked food. It's now been almost 3 years i'm raw, & just the smell of cooked food makes me sick & dizzy! nAthAlIE ~~ " There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life. " -Frederico Fellini -----Message d'origine----- De : Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " . thanks ~Angela Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 25, 2004 Report Share Posted April 25, 2004 That is wonderful to hear! There is a part of me that mourns the artistry and innovation that comes with cooked foods. I grew up watching my Italian grandmother making the most wonderful foods out of almost nothing with such love that it all got mixed up together, hence mothering myself with food. I am glad to hear that it will only take around 6 months, as opposed to being something you live with constantly. ~Angela wIld tOmAtO <strange_fruit wrote: hi! i think it took me about 6 months before i stopped thinking of cooked food. It's now been almost 3 years i'm raw, & just the smell of cooked food makes me sick & dizzy! nAthAlIE ~~ " There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life. " -Frederico Fellini -----Message d'origine----- De : Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " . thanks ~Angela Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Hey Angela, From my experience, my cravings for raw foods decreased drastically after I completed the MC fast. Once, I got off I craved salads and fruits. Hope this helps. Ariana Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Sun 4/25/2004 12:15 PM rawfood Cc: [Raw Food] question about cravings Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " . thanks ~Angela Christy <yogafreeze wrote: I read this on another site: http://b25.ezboard.com/fdepoproverafrm10.showMessage?topicID=427.topic In response to inquiries from Audrey and Patricia, here are some general comments on depression and anxiety. In considering depression and anxiety, its important to keep general, lest we end up over-analyzing and complicating what can be a straightforward issue. Depression at its simplest represents a lack of ability to formulate energy. Depression is commonly seen as referring to low mental outlook, and feelings of hopelessness. This indicates a overburdening of our brain cells, or nerves, whereby they've lost their ability to function optimally and efficiently to create and organize energy production throughout the body, the brain included. However, because the body is a whole, other parts of the body are necessarly involved, particularly the glandular organs, such as the adrenals, thyroid, hypothalamus, and pineal, which are important in prompting increased energy production throughout the entire body. The body by way of its various glands, produces hormones to regulate brain, glandular, and muscular activity. In our modern day lifestyles, and especially in our eating habits, we all abnormally drive our bodies beyond their normal capacities without realizing it. We have gotten ourselves into a habit of excessive stimulation in order to overcome prior feelings of tiredness, or enervation. The tiredness originates in previous excesses of activities, of which eating poor foods is the worst energy usurper. Since most people are unaware of and remain untaught of the harmful energy depleting ways of their unhealthy habits, they begin to fall victim to an endless search for ways to keep their energy high, such as eating when feeling down, entertaining themselves with t.v, movies, drugs, and other excessive activities when bored, lonely, or otherwise fatigued. This habitual pattern of stimulative behaviour, which is not respectful of the body's need for rest and recuperation after activity, leads to the excessive stimulation of those glands and tissues in our bodies that are responsible for creating energy. So for example, the adrenal glands, instead of being able to rest when a person is feeling down or tired, are forced to work overtime again as the person indulges in a slice of pizza. Not only do the adrenals tire out, but also the thyroid which creates hormones to stimulate the adrenals, and the hypothalamus which creates hormones to stimulate the thyroid. In this process, neurotransmitters are used by the brain to relay messages, and eventually the neurotransmitters themselves become short in supply as the glands and nerve cells that are forced to produce the various transmitters tire out and wear down. When our bodies lose their ability to produce normal levels of hormones, transmitters, and other important chemicals for bodily processes, we experience depression -- a lack of ability to function energetically. Concurrent with the development of depression throughout the body, and particularly in the brain, is anxiety. Anxiety is really an internal recognition by the body of a threat to its existence. It is a feeling of insecurity that is the result of excess burden put on the body, burden that is starting to go beyond the body's ability to resolve. People call this stress, but it is really over-stress. Stress is a good thing, overstress is a bad thing. Over-stress occurs when we eat foods not of our biological adaptations, when we over exercise, or overdo anything. In response to stress, our brain will activate itself and the entire body to correct the situation, but when the brain is continually forced to do this, its very ability to do this is lessened, since it can never rest enough to regenerate and restore its functions. We end up having feelings of stress build up due to following excessive habits, but after the brief stimulative period, we are not able to develop enough hormones, neuro- transmitters, and other chemicals to resolve within us the stressed state of our cells. So we continue to feel this tensive state for unusually extended periods of time. A person who is anxious has little ability in that moment to handle more tasks and will avoid situations that even only slightly stress them. To the extent that a person abuses their organs, brain cells, and body in general with excessive stimulation, and in conjunction with their predisposed various strengths in glands and organs, will the person experience the severity of anxiety and depression in their life. Depression and anxiety slowly build up over decades, even right from birth if energy usurping practices are followed. The individual who manages to overcome these problems by incorporating truly healthful practices into their life in the greatest degree will come to see how in their former lives their depressive and anxious symptoms slowly increased, as they remained oblivious and ignorant of the consequences of their harmful actions. A return to raw food eating provides the body with an immensely reduced digestive load while providing vast quantities of energy. It will take a period of time for the body to heal its glands, nerves, digestive faculties and other tissues, but as it does so, its strong function will return and symptoms of depression and anxiety will fade and disappear. It usually does not happen overnight, as a person who is depressed and anxious has much lessened ability to create energy, which is required for healing. However, depending on the person and the intensity of the depression, recovery can sometimes be very fast. Sometimes just simple little activities like eating too late are all that are preventing the body from being able to re-generate adequate nerve energy reserves over night and thus causing it to experience depression. It is important to note that, at their roots, all depression and anxiety are physiological problems and all physiological problems are chemical problems, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are said to be mental and emotional problems, but it must be noted that our mental and emotional processes are undertaken by our nerves that make up our brains and which extend everywhere throughout our bodies. Our nerves are supported by all other tissues in the body, including our glands, muscles, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and mucous membranes, even as our nerves serve these various tissues. It's a whole, interconnected, interdependant system, all for one, one for all. All of these organs, including nerve cells, are constructed of and are creating billions of interacting chemicals all of the time which we experience as the process of life. It is through our nervous system that we are consciously aware of this life process, due to the electrical currents thusly created in nerve cells. This infinitely complex system of chemical, then cellular, then glandular, and finally nerve reactions occuring in our bodies is always automatically striving to maintain that state of balance that we describe as total well being, or health. It is a system that is dependant upon wholeness of action. This means that it is also dependant on getting whole foods into it, foods which are also biologically and physiologically correct for it. When all its needs are met correctly, the body in its whole will function optimally. To the extent its whole needs are not met, it will suffer dis-comfort, or dis-ease, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are two of these symptoms of imbalance. So anyone who has regularly abused themselves in the past with unhealthy habits will undoubtedly have suffered some extent of anxiety or depression, no matter how light. Who suffers more or who suffers less is determined by the extent of the bad habits and the particular strengths and weaknesses of various organs (a person's diathesis, as is said, or their constitution, or tendencies, or inheritance, or genetic makeup, etc). Were a person not to indulge in bad habits, then their diathesis would be irrelevant. Some people will experience depression or anxiety since, say, their dopamine producing cells get overworked first, while others will experience asthma as their lung cells get overworked. Those who continually indulge in poor health practices all suffer various levels of the innumerable ailments of modern life, but its only when the ailments become severely aggravated that we tend to recognize them and call them particular dis-eases. So, are we anywhere with all the discussion? We aught to be by now. A person could go on for years describing all the various chemical, nerve, and organ reactions going on in the body in regards to depression and anxiety, but it would get us nowhere closer to understanding what to do to resolve the problem. We already know that depression means lack of energy production and that anxiety means inability to overcome threat to oneself. But now that we know what causes needless energy loss and what puts unnecessary threat upon the body, namely unhealthy energy depleting habits, we automatically know what to do to resolve the problem ---adopt healthy habits as they pertain to the situation we find ourselves in. So a person needs to eat whole healthy foods, refrain from excessis of behaviour, develop emotional calm, get fresh air and adequate sleep, enjoy sunshine, and so on. Rest is very important, and it may even be necessary to fast for a few days, a week, or more, before adopting more sensible active health habits, such as eating fruits and vegetables. Because diet is the number one major culprit of health destruction in our age, it is the one area, when improved, that gives the greatest results in depression and anxiety. It may take time for the body to resolve the healing required in our nerves and organs, but it will come so long as good habits are continually fostered and persevered in. Some notable poor dietary habits that lead to depression and anxiety are: overeating in general, eating too much at one meal, eating concentrated foods (particularly sugary foods like dried fruits, which drive our adrenals and dope our brains with excessive glucose), eating late (after say 6pm), eating haphazzard combinations of foods, eating spicy and stimulating foods, pursuing foods as a comforting or exciting activity in order to avoid low feelings(called emotional abuse), eating beyond needs dictated by activity level, eating for entertainment, eating foods that are supposedly healthy like sea salt, vinegar, wine, garlic, and others that only serve to stimulate cleansing but not actual healing, binging, purging, eating before noon, eating heavy foods early in the day instead of later, overeating particular types of foods, especially the heavy more concentrated foods such as avocados (excess fat), nuts and seeds (excess protein and fat), and dried fruits (excess sugars), eating unripe fruits that don't satisfy appetite, mixing foods to overstimulate appetite (eg: fruit bowls, large complex salads with tasty fatty dressings), prolonged and excessive starch or concentrated sugar consumption, and generally speaking, overeating, once again and again and again and..... Growing up, I was a specialist in the overeating department, unknowingly, and if there was one thing that was gonna kill me, that was it. I suffered immense amounts of anxiety and depression from overeating, and I only made the connection after I improved my diet. Then I realized what an extreme food alcoholic I had been all my life, particularly a starch and sugar addict. I tried all sorts of procedures and a few medications to get over my depression/anxiety, some of which seemed to work, but which I dropped once I discovered my main problem was food addiction. It takes time to develop sensible eating habits after a life time of abuse, but the good feelings that one remembers as a child slowly return and dominate ones mental/emotional/physical state as pure raw ripe fresh whole foods dominate the diet. If I hadn't experienced it, I wouldn't believe it possible, but its so obvious to me now. Other lifestyle factors are important to consider as well, such as fun exercise, sleep, rest, sun, social activities, intimacy or love expression, fasting if necessary, abstaining from excesses of all types, development of emotional calm, good water if necessary, bodily cleanliness and purity (I don't mean soaps, etc here), productive work, mental stimulation, enjoyable emotional expression, security of life and means, warmth, aesthetic environment, and others. Of course once a person resolves their habits that lead to depression and anxiety, that person must remain aware that depression and anxiety are where their body first demonstrates a breakdown when bad habits are indulged. Thus they can expect to feel poorly once they indulge badly. I note in myself when I sometimes overeat (still here and there, eh, can ya believe it!! --though I don't overeat anything near like I used to) that the next day I start to get the slightly down feeling slightly reminiscent of the past. It's a good reminder to keep towing the line. But of course, feeling great is an even greater reminder. A person needs to be patient with themselves, persevere, remain attentive to improvements, and thus develop a sense of control and admiration of oneself. Living healthfully automatically generates those feelings that we associate with confidence and comfort. Living unhealthfully removes us from those feelings because it creates imbalances within our bodies, and as our nerves sense and experience those imbalances, we experience feelings of non-conconfidence, worry and foreboding. It's sometimes a more challenging route to choose health improvement over drug therapy or other misapplied solutions to depression and anxiety, but the rewards run much deeper. Hopefully that didn't over-complicate the subject. Somewhere some general simple concepts were discussed, with logical solutions to problems. rawfood , bandbcollection <no_reply> wrote: > Is there anything you all would suggest for someone like myself > who's been working at going raw, but is seriously depressed. Not to > the point of hurting myself or my kids, but to the point where I'm > considering going to a doctor for it and I don't like doctors. > > What is the common approach to this with the raw lifestyle? Any > foods in particular that can help with this? > > Thanks, > Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Thanks Ariana, What is an MC fast? I am willing to do it. Today was my " day off " of raw foods. I do Monday - Saturday raw and then Sunday whatever cooked food I want. I feel yucky. Already feeling like I cant cope with anything. Though I am hesitant to " say " it because I am not committing to giving up the cooked food day just yet. I am hoping that I will learn, through this feeling. Thanks again for the feedback ~Angela " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez wrote: Hey Angela, From my experience, my cravings for raw foods decreased drastically after I completed the MC fast. Once, I got off I craved salads and fruits. Hope this helps. Ariana Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Sun 4/25/2004 12:15 PM rawfood Cc: [Raw Food] question about cravings Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " .. thanks ~Angela Christy wrote: I read this on another site: http://b25.ezboard.com/fdepoproverafrm10.showMessage?topicID=427.topic In response to inquiries from Audrey and Patricia, here are some general comments on depression and anxiety. In considering depression and anxiety, its important to keep general, lest we end up over-analyzing and complicating what can be a straightforward issue. Depression at its simplest represents a lack of ability to formulate energy. Depression is commonly seen as referring to low mental outlook, and feelings of hopelessness. This indicates a overburdening of our brain cells, or nerves, whereby they've lost their ability to function optimally and efficiently to create and organize energy production throughout the body, the brain included. However, because the body is a whole, other parts of the body are necessarly involved, particularly the glandular organs, such as the adrenals, thyroid, hypothalamus, and pineal, which are important in prompting increased energy production throughout the entire body. The body by way of its various glands, produces hormones to regulate brain, glandular, and muscular activity. In our modern day lifestyles, and especially in our eating habits, we all abnormally drive our bodies beyond their normal capacities without realizing it. We have gotten ourselves into a habit of excessive stimulation in order to overcome prior feelings of tiredness, or enervation. The tiredness originates in previous excesses of activities, of which eating poor foods is the worst energy usurper. Since most people are unaware of and remain untaught of the harmful energy depleting ways of their unhealthy habits, they begin to fall victim to an endless search for ways to keep their energy high, such as eating when feeling down, entertaining themselves with t.v, movies, drugs, and other excessive activities when bored, lonely, or otherwise fatigued. This habitual pattern of stimulative behaviour, which is not respectful of the body's need for rest and recuperation after activity, leads to the excessive stimulation of those glands and tissues in our bodies that are responsible for creating energy. So for example, the adrenal glands, instead of being able to rest when a person is feeling down or tired, are forced to work overtime again as the person indulges in a slice of pizza. Not only do the adrenals tire out, but also the thyroid which creates hormones to stimulate the adrenals, and the hypothalamus which creates hormones to stimulate the thyroid. In this process, neurotransmitters are used by the brain to relay messages, and eventually the neurotransmitters themselves become short in supply as the glands and nerve cells that are forced to produce the various transmitters tire out and wear down. When our bodies lose their ability to produce normal levels of hormones, transmitters, and other important chemicals for bodily processes, we experience depression -- a lack of ability to function energetically. Concurrent with the development of depression throughout the body, and particularly in the brain, is anxiety. Anxiety is really an internal recognition by the body of a threat to its existence. It is a feeling of insecurity that is the result of excess burden put on the body, burden that is starting to go beyond the body's ability to resolve. People call this stress, but it is really over-stress. Stress is a good thing, overstress is a bad thing. Over-stress occurs when we eat foods not of our biological adaptations, when we over exercise, or overdo anything. In response to stress, our brain will activate itself and the entire body to correct the situation, but when the brain is continually forced to do this, its very ability to do this is lessened, since it can never rest enough to regenerate and restore its functions. We end up having feelings of stress build up due to following excessive habits, but after the brief stimulative period, we are not able to develop enough hormones, neuro- transmitters, and other chemicals to resolve within us the stressed state of our cells. So we continue to feel this tensive state for unusually extended periods of time. A person who is anxious has little ability in that moment to handle more tasks and will avoid situations that even only slightly stress them. To the extent that a person abuses their organs, brain cells, and body in general with excessive stimulation, and in conjunction with their predisposed various strengths in glands and organs, will the person experience the severity of anxiety and depression in their life. Depression and anxiety slowly build up over decades, even right from birth if energy usurping practices are followed. The individual who manages to overcome these problems by incorporating truly healthful practices into their life in the greatest degree will come to see how in their former lives their depressive and anxious symptoms slowly increased, as they remained oblivious and ignorant of the consequences of their harmful actions. A return to raw food eating provides the body with an immensely reduced digestive load while providing vast quantities of energy. It will take a period of time for the body to heal its glands, nerves, digestive faculties and other tissues, but as it does so, its strong function will return and symptoms of depression and anxiety will fade and disappear. It usually does not happen overnight, as a person who is depressed and anxious has much lessened ability to create energy, which is required for healing. However, depending on the person and the intensity of the depression, recovery can sometimes be very fast. Sometimes just simple little activities like eating too late are all that are preventing the body from being able to re-generate adequate nerve energy reserves over night and thus causing it to experience depression. It is important to note that, at their roots, all depression and anxiety are physiological problems and all physiological problems are chemical problems, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are said to be mental and emotional problems, but it must be noted that our mental and emotional processes are undertaken by our nerves that make up our brains and which extend everywhere throughout our bodies. Our nerves are supported by all other tissues in the body, including our glands, muscles, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and mucous membranes, even as our nerves serve these various tissues. It's a whole, interconnected, interdependant system, all for one, one for all. All of these organs, including nerve cells, are constructed of and are creating billions of interacting chemicals all of the time which we experience as the process of life. It is through our nervous system that we are consciously aware of this life process, due to the electrical currents thusly created in nerve cells. This infinitely complex system of chemical, then cellular, then glandular, and finally nerve reactions occuring in our bodies is always automatically striving to maintain that state of balance that we describe as total well being, or health. It is a system that is dependant upon wholeness of action. This means that it is also dependant on getting whole foods into it, foods which are also biologically and physiologically correct for it. When all its needs are met correctly, the body in its whole will function optimally. To the extent its whole needs are not met, it will suffer dis-comfort, or dis-ease, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are two of these symptoms of imbalance. So anyone who has regularly abused themselves in the past with unhealthy habits will undoubtedly have suffered some extent of anxiety or depression, no matter how light. Who suffers more or who suffers less is determined by the extent of the bad habits and the particular strengths and weaknesses of various organs (a person's diathesis, as is said, or their constitution, or tendencies, or inheritance, or genetic makeup, etc). Were a person not to indulge in bad habits, then their diathesis would be irrelevant. Some people will experience depression or anxiety since, say, their dopamine producing cells get overworked first, while others will experience asthma as their lung cells get overworked. Those who continually indulge in poor health practices all suffer various levels of the innumerable ailments of modern life, but its only when the ailments become severely aggravated that we tend to recognize them and call them particular dis-eases. So, are we anywhere with all the discussion? We aught to be by now. A person could go on for years describing all the various chemical, nerve, and organ reactions going on in the body in regards to depression and anxiety, but it would get us nowhere closer to understanding what to do to resolve the problem. We already know that depression means lack of energy production and that anxiety means inability to overcome threat to oneself. But now that we know what causes needless energy loss and what puts unnecessary threat upon the body, namely unhealthy energy depleting habits, we automatically know what to do to resolve the problem ---adopt healthy habits as they pertain to the situation we find ourselves in. So a person needs to eat whole healthy foods, refrain from excessis of behaviour, develop emotional calm, get fresh air and adequate sleep, enjoy sunshine, and so on. Rest is very important, and it may even be necessary to fast for a few days, a week, or more, before adopting more sensible active health habits, such as eating fruits and vegetables. Because diet is the number one major culprit of health destruction in our age, it is the one area, when improved, that gives the greatest results in depression and anxiety. It may take time for the body to resolve the healing required in our nerves and organs, but it will come so long as good habits are continually fostered and persevered in. Some notable poor dietary habits that lead to depression and anxiety are: overeating in general, eating too much at one meal, eating concentrated foods (particularly sugary foods like dried fruits, which drive our adrenals and dope our brains with excessive glucose), eating late (after say 6pm), eating haphazzard combinations of foods, eating spicy and stimulating foods, pursuing foods as a comforting or exciting activity in order to avoid low feelings(called emotional abuse), eating beyond needs dictated by activity level, eating for entertainment, eating foods that are supposedly healthy like sea salt, vinegar, wine, garlic, and others that only serve to stimulate cleansing but not actual healing, binging, purging, eating before noon, eating heavy foods early in the day instead of later, overeating particular types of foods, especially the heavy more concentrated foods such as avocados (excess fat), nuts and seeds (excess protein and fat), and dried fruits (excess sugars), eating unripe fruits that don't satisfy appetite, mixing foods to overstimulate appetite (eg: fruit bowls, large complex salads with tasty fatty dressings), prolonged and excessive starch or concentrated sugar consumption, and generally speaking, overeating, once again and again and again and..... Growing up, I was a specialist in the overeating department, unknowingly, and if there was one thing that was gonna kill me, that was it. I suffered immense amounts of anxiety and depression from overeating, and I only made the connection after I improved my diet. Then I realized what an extreme food alcoholic I had been all my life, particularly a starch and sugar addict. I tried all sorts of procedures and a few medications to get over my depression/anxiety, some of which seemed to work, but which I dropped once I discovered my main problem was food addiction. It takes time to develop sensible eating habits after a life time of abuse, but the good feelings that one remembers as a child slowly return and dominate ones mental/emotional/physical state as pure raw ripe fresh whole foods dominate the diet. If I hadn't experienced it, I wouldn't believe it possible, but its so obvious to me now. Other lifestyle factors are important to consider as well, such as fun exercise, sleep, rest, sun, social activities, intimacy or love expression, fasting if necessary, abstaining from excesses of all types, development of emotional calm, good water if necessary, bodily cleanliness and purity (I don't mean soaps, etc here), productive work, mental stimulation, enjoyable emotional expression, security of life and means, warmth, aesthetic environment, and others. Of course once a person resolves their habits that lead to depression and anxiety, that person must remain aware that depression and anxiety are where their body first demonstrates a breakdown when bad habits are indulged. Thus they can expect to feel poorly once they indulge badly. I note in myself when I sometimes overeat (still here and there, eh, can ya believe it!! --though I don't overeat anything near like I used to) that the next day I start to get the slightly down feeling slightly reminiscent of the past. It's a good reminder to keep towing the line. But of course, feeling great is an even greater reminder. A person needs to be patient with themselves, persevere, remain attentive to improvements, and thus develop a sense of control and admiration of oneself. Living healthfully automatically generates those feelings that we associate with confidence and comfort. Living unhealthfully removes us from those feelings because it creates imbalances within our bodies, and as our nerves sense and experience those imbalances, we experience feelings of non-conconfidence, worry and foreboding. It's sometimes a more challenging route to choose health improvement over drug therapy or other misapplied solutions to depression and anxiety, but the rewards run much deeper. Hopefully that didn't over-complicate the subject. Somewhere some general simple concepts were discussed, with logical solutions to problems. rawfood , bandbcollection wrote: > Is there anything you all would suggest for someone like myself > who's been working at going raw, but is seriously depressed. Not to > the point of hurting myself or my kids, but to the point where I'm > considering going to a doctor for it and I don't like doctors. > > What is the common approach to this with the raw lifestyle? Any > foods in particular that can help with this? > > Thanks, > Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Angela, MC stands for Master Cleanse which is a structure to help people to detoxify. If you can go 2 weeks without cooked food the then the physical dependence causing the " craving will depart " Why not reduce the Sunday binge to a tasting? Peter Angela LaMonte [amadera656] 26 April 2004 07:42 rawfood RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings Thanks Ariana, What is an MC fast? I am willing to do it. Today was my " day off " of raw foods. I do Monday - Saturday raw and then Sunday whatever cooked food I want. I feel yucky. Already feeling like I cant cope with anything. Though I am hesitant to " say " it because I am not committing to giving up the cooked food day just yet. I am hoping that I will learn, through this feeling. Thanks again for the feedback ~Angela " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez wrote: Hey Angela, From my experience, my cravings for raw foods decreased drastically after I completed the MC fast. Once, I got off I craved salads and fruits. Hope this helps. Ariana Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Sun 4/25/2004 12:15 PM rawfood Cc: [Raw Food] question about cravings Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " . thanks ~Angela Christy wrote: I read this on another site: http://b25.ezboard.com/fdepoproverafrm10.showMessage?topicID=427.topic In response to inquiries from Audrey and Patricia, here are some general comments on depression and anxiety. In considering depression and anxiety, its important to keep general, lest we end up over-analyzing and complicating what can be a straightforward issue. Depression at its simplest represents a lack of ability to formulate energy. Depression is commonly seen as referring to low mental outlook, and feelings of hopelessness. This indicates a overburdening of our brain cells, or nerves, whereby they've lost their ability to function optimally and efficiently to create and organize energy production throughout the body, the brain included. However, because the body is a whole, other parts of the body are necessarly involved, particularly the glandular organs, such as the adrenals, thyroid, hypothalamus, and pineal, which are important in prompting increased energy production throughout the entire body. The body by way of its various glands, produces hormones to regulate brain, glandular, and muscular activity. In our modern day lifestyles, and especially in our eating habits, we all abnormally drive our bodies beyond their normal capacities without realizing it. We have gotten ourselves into a habit of excessive stimulation in order to overcome prior feelings of tiredness, or enervation. The tiredness originates in previous excesses of activities, of which eating poor foods is the worst energy usurper. Since most people are unaware of and remain untaught of the harmful energy depleting ways of their unhealthy habits, they begin to fall victim to an endless search for ways to keep their energy high, such as eating when feeling down, entertaining themselves with t.v, movies, drugs, and other excessive activities when bored, lonely, or otherwise fatigued. This habitual pattern of stimulative behaviour, which is not respectful of the body's need for rest and recuperation after activity, leads to the excessive stimulation of those glands and tissues in our bodies that are responsible for creating energy. So for example, the adrenal glands, instead of being able to rest when a person is feeling down or tired, are forced to work overtime again as the person indulges in a slice of pizza. Not only do the adrenals tire out, but also the thyroid which creates hormones to stimulate the adrenals, and the hypothalamus which creates hormones to stimulate the thyroid. In this process, neurotransmitters are used by the brain to relay messages, and eventually the neurotransmitters themselves become short in supply as the glands and nerve cells that are forced to produce the various transmitters tire out and wear down. When our bodies lose their ability to produce normal levels of hormones, transmitters, and other important chemicals for bodily processes, we experience depression -- a lack of ability to function energetically. Concurrent with the development of depression throughout the body, and particularly in the brain, is anxiety. Anxiety is really an internal recognition by the body of a threat to its existence. It is a feeling of insecurity that is the result of excess burden put on the body, burden that is starting to go beyond the body's ability to resolve. People call this stress, but it is really over-stress. Stress is a good thing, overstress is a bad thing. Over-stress occurs when we eat foods not of our biological adaptations, when we over exercise, or overdo anything. In response to stress, our brain will activate itself and the entire body to correct the situation, but when the brain is continually forced to do this, its very ability to do this is lessened, since it can never rest enough to regenerate and restore its functions. We end up having feelings of stress build up due to following excessive habits, but after the brief stimulative period, we are not able to develop enough hormones, neuro- transmitters, and other chemicals to resolve within us the stressed state of our cells. So we continue to feel this tensive state for unusually extended periods of time. A person who is anxious has little ability in that moment to handle more tasks and will avoid situations that even only slightly stress them. To the extent that a person abuses their organs, brain cells, and body in general with excessive stimulation, and in conjunction with their predisposed various strengths in glands and organs, will the person experience the severity of anxiety and depression in their life. Depression and anxiety slowly build up over decades, even right from birth if energy usurping practices are followed. The individual who manages to overcome these problems by incorporating truly healthful practices into their life in the greatest degree will come to see how in their former lives their depressive and anxious symptoms slowly increased, as they remained oblivious and ignorant of the consequences of their harmful actions. A return to raw food eating provides the body with an immensely reduced digestive load while providing vast quantities of energy. It will take a period of time for the body to heal its glands, nerves, digestive faculties and other tissues, but as it does so, its strong function will return and symptoms of depression and anxiety will fade and disappear. It usually does not happen overnight, as a person who is depressed and anxious has much lessened ability to create energy, which is required for healing. However, depending on the person and the intensity of the depression, recovery can sometimes be very fast. Sometimes just simple little activities like eating too late are all that are preventing the body from being able to re-generate adequate nerve energy reserves over night and thus causing it to experience depression. It is important to note that, at their roots, all depression and anxiety are physiological problems and all physiological problems are chemical problems, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are said to be mental and emotional problems, but it must be noted that our mental and emotional processes are undertaken by our nerves that make up our brains and which extend everywhere throughout our bodies. Our nerves are supported by all other tissues in the body, including our glands, muscles, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and mucous membranes, even as our nerves serve these various tissues. It's a whole, interconnected, interdependant system, all for one, one for all. All of these organs, including nerve cells, are constructed of and are creating billions of interacting chemicals all of the time which we experience as the process of life. It is through our nervous system that we are consciously aware of this life process, due to the electrical currents thusly created in nerve cells. This infinitely complex system of chemical, then cellular, then glandular, and finally nerve reactions occuring in our bodies is always automatically striving to maintain that state of balance that we describe as total well being, or health. It is a system that is dependant upon wholeness of action. This means that it is also dependant on getting whole foods into it, foods which are also biologically and physiologically correct for it. When all its needs are met correctly, the body in its whole will function optimally. To the extent its whole needs are not met, it will suffer dis-comfort, or dis-ease, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are two of these symptoms of imbalance. So anyone who has regularly abused themselves in the past with unhealthy habits will undoubtedly have suffered some extent of anxiety or depression, no matter how light. Who suffers more or who suffers less is determined by the extent of the bad habits and the particular strengths and weaknesses of various organs (a person's diathesis, as is said, or their constitution, or tendencies, or inheritance, or genetic makeup, etc). Were a person not to indulge in bad habits, then their diathesis would be irrelevant. Some people will experience depression or anxiety since, say, their dopamine producing cells get overworked first, while others will experience asthma as their lung cells get overworked. Those who continually indulge in poor health practices all suffer various levels of the innumerable ailments of modern life, but its only when the ailments become severely aggravated that we tend to recognize them and call them particular dis-eases. So, are we anywhere with all the discussion? We aught to be by now. A person could go on for years describing all the various chemical, nerve, and organ reactions going on in the body in regards to depression and anxiety, but it would get us nowhere closer to understanding what to do to resolve the problem. We already know that depression means lack of energy production and that anxiety means inability to overcome threat to oneself. But now that we know what causes needless energy loss and what puts unnecessary threat upon the body, namely unhealthy energy depleting habits, we automatically know what to do to resolve the problem ---adopt healthy habits as they pertain to the situation we find ourselves in. So a person needs to eat whole healthy foods, refrain from excessis of behaviour, develop emotional calm, get fresh air and adequate sleep, enjoy sunshine, and so on. Rest is very important, and it may even be necessary to fast for a few days, a week, or more, before adopting more sensible active health habits, such as eating fruits and vegetables. Because diet is the number one major culprit of health destruction in our age, it is the one area, when improved, that gives the greatest results in depression and anxiety. It may take time for the body to resolve the healing required in our nerves and organs, but it will come so long as good habits are continually fostered and persevered in. Some notable poor dietary habits that lead to depression and anxiety are: overeating in general, eating too much at one meal, eating concentrated foods (particularly sugary foods like dried fruits, which drive our adrenals and dope our brains with excessive glucose), eating late (after say 6pm), eating haphazzard combinations of foods, eating spicy and stimulating foods, pursuing foods as a comforting or exciting activity in order to avoid low feelings(called emotional abuse), eating beyond needs dictated by activity level, eating for entertainment, eating foods that are supposedly healthy like sea salt, vinegar, wine, garlic, and others that only serve to stimulate cleansing but not actual healing, binging, purging, eating before noon, eating heavy foods early in the day instead of later, overeating particular types of foods, especially the heavy more concentrated foods such as avocados (excess fat), nuts and seeds (excess protein and fat), and dried fruits (excess sugars), eating unripe fruits that don't satisfy appetite, mixing foods to overstimulate appetite (eg: fruit bowls, large complex salads with tasty fatty dressings), prolonged and excessive starch or concentrated sugar consumption, and generally speaking, overeating, once again and again and again and..... Growing up, I was a specialist in the overeating department, unknowingly, and if there was one thing that was gonna kill me, that was it. I suffered immense amounts of anxiety and depression from overeating, and I only made the connection after I improved my diet. Then I realized what an extreme food alcoholic I had been all my life, particularly a starch and sugar addict. I tried all sorts of procedures and a few medications to get over my depression/anxiety, some of which seemed to work, but which I dropped once I discovered my main problem was food addiction. It takes time to develop sensible eating habits after a life time of abuse, but the good feelings that one remembers as a child slowly return and dominate ones mental/emotional/physical state as pure raw ripe fresh whole foods dominate the diet. If I hadn't experienced it, I wouldn't believe it possible, but its so obvious to me now. Other lifestyle factors are important to consider as well, such as fun exercise, sleep, rest, sun, social activities, intimacy or love expression, fasting if necessary, abstaining from excesses of all types, development of emotional calm, good water if necessary, bodily cleanliness and purity (I don't mean soaps, etc here), productive work, mental stimulation, enjoyable emotional expression, security of life and means, warmth, aesthetic environment, and others. Of course once a person resolves their habits that lead to depression and anxiety, that person must remain aware that depression and anxiety are where their body first demonstrates a breakdown when bad habits are indulged. Thus they can expect to feel poorly once they indulge badly. I note in myself when I sometimes overeat (still here and there, eh, can ya believe it!! --though I don't overeat anything near like I used to) that the next day I start to get the slightly down feeling slightly reminiscent of the past. It's a good reminder to keep towing the line. But of course, feeling great is an even greater reminder. A person needs to be patient with themselves, persevere, remain attentive to improvements, and thus develop a sense of control and admiration of oneself. Living healthfully automatically generates those feelings that we associate with confidence and comfort. Living unhealthfully removes us from those feelings because it creates imbalances within our bodies, and as our nerves sense and experience those imbalances, we experience feelings of non-conconfidence, worry and foreboding. It's sometimes a more challenging route to choose health improvement over drug therapy or other misapplied solutions to depression and anxiety, but the rewards run much deeper. Hopefully that didn't over-complicate the subject. Somewhere some general simple concepts were discussed, with logical solutions to problems. rawfood , bandbcollection wrote: > Is there anything you all would suggest for someone like myself > who's been working at going raw, but is seriously depressed. Not to > the point of hurting myself or my kids, but to the point where I'm > considering going to a doctor for it and I don't like doctors. > > What is the common approach to this with the raw lifestyle? Any > foods in particular that can help with this? > > Thanks, > Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Thanks Peter, That doesnt sound bad. I think at the end of the day I am afraid of cooked foods and its power over me. But I am curious though about the cravings because during the 40 days of 100% raw the cravings would come and go even up to the end. It was worse on days when I would try to get elaborate and eat raw food crackers and raw food cookies made from coconut/almonds/dates, and it was better when I was eating salad and apples. Maybe it just takes longer for some people. Maybe I can reduce my cooked food day to every two weeks, and then go to once a month, and then once every two months and so on till I no longer want it. Thanks for the feedback~~ ~Angela Peter Gardiner <petergardiner wrote: Angela, MC stands for Master Cleanse which is a structure to help people to detoxify. If you can go 2 weeks without cooked food the then the physical dependence causing the " craving will depart " Why not reduce the Sunday binge to a tasting? Peter Angela LaMonte [amadera656] 26 April 2004 07:42 rawfood RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings Thanks Ariana, What is an MC fast? I am willing to do it. Today was my " day off " of raw foods. I do Monday - Saturday raw and then Sunday whatever cooked food I want. I feel yucky. Already feeling like I cant cope with anything. Though I am hesitant to " say " it because I am not committing to giving up the cooked food day just yet. I am hoping that I will learn, through this feeling. Thanks again for the feedback ~Angela " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez wrote: Hey Angela, From my experience, my cravings for raw foods decreased drastically after I completed the MC fast. Once, I got off I craved salads and fruits. Hope this helps. Ariana Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Sun 4/25/2004 12:15 PM rawfood Cc: [Raw Food] question about cravings Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " . thanks ~Angela Christy wrote: I read this on another site: http://b25.ezboard.com/fdepoproverafrm10.showMessage?topicID=427.topic In response to inquiries from Audrey and Patricia, here are some general comments on depression and anxiety. In considering depression and anxiety, its important to keep general, lest we end up over-analyzing and complicating what can be a straightforward issue. Depression at its simplest represents a lack of ability to formulate energy. Depression is commonly seen as referring to low mental outlook, and feelings of hopelessness. This indicates a overburdening of our brain cells, or nerves, whereby they've lost their ability to function optimally and efficiently to create and organize energy production throughout the body, the brain included. However, because the body is a whole, other parts of the body are necessarly involved, particularly the glandular organs, such as the adrenals, thyroid, hypothalamus, and pineal, which are important in prompting increased energy production throughout the entire body. The body by way of its various glands, produces hormones to regulate brain, glandular, and muscular activity. In our modern day lifestyles, and especially in our eating habits, we all abnormally drive our bodies beyond their normal capacities without realizing it. We have gotten ourselves into a habit of excessive stimulation in order to overcome prior feelings of tiredness, or enervation. The tiredness originates in previous excesses of activities, of which eating poor foods is the worst energy usurper. Since most people are unaware of and remain untaught of the harmful energy depleting ways of their unhealthy habits, they begin to fall victim to an endless search for ways to keep their energy high, such as eating when feeling down, entertaining themselves with t.v, movies, drugs, and other excessive activities when bored, lonely, or otherwise fatigued. This habitual pattern of stimulative behaviour, which is not respectful of the body's need for rest and recuperation after activity, leads to the excessive stimulation of those glands and tissues in our bodies that are responsible for creating energy. So for example, the adrenal glands, instead of being able to rest when a person is feeling down or tired, are forced to work overtime again as the person indulges in a slice of pizza. Not only do the adrenals tire out, but also the thyroid which creates hormones to stimulate the adrenals, and the hypothalamus which creates hormones to stimulate the thyroid. In this process, neurotransmitters are used by the brain to relay messages, and eventually the neurotransmitters themselves become short in supply as the glands and nerve cells that are forced to produce the various transmitters tire out and wear down. When our bodies lose their ability to produce normal levels of hormones, transmitters, and other important chemicals for bodily processes, we experience depression -- a lack of ability to function energetically. Concurrent with the development of depression throughout the body, and particularly in the brain, is anxiety. Anxiety is really an internal recognition by the body of a threat to its existence. It is a feeling of insecurity that is the result of excess burden put on the body, burden that is starting to go beyond the body's ability to resolve. People call this stress, but it is really over-stress. Stress is a good thing, overstress is a bad thing. Over-stress occurs when we eat foods not of our biological adaptations, when we over exercise, or overdo anything. In response to stress, our brain will activate itself and the entire body to correct the situation, but when the brain is continually forced to do this, its very ability to do this is lessened, since it can never rest enough to regenerate and restore its functions. We end up having feelings of stress build up due to following excessive habits, but after the brief stimulative period, we are not able to develop enough hormones, neuro- transmitters, and other chemicals to resolve within us the stressed state of our cells. So we continue to feel this tensive state for unusually extended periods of time. A person who is anxious has little ability in that moment to handle more tasks and will avoid situations that even only slightly stress them. To the extent that a person abuses their organs, brain cells, and body in general with excessive stimulation, and in conjunction with their predisposed various strengths in glands and organs, will the person experience the severity of anxiety and depression in their life. Depression and anxiety slowly build up over decades, even right from birth if energy usurping practices are followed. The individual who manages to overcome these problems by incorporating truly healthful practices into their life in the greatest degree will come to see how in their former lives their depressive and anxious symptoms slowly increased, as they remained oblivious and ignorant of the consequences of their harmful actions. A return to raw food eating provides the body with an immensely reduced digestive load while providing vast quantities of energy. It will take a period of time for the body to heal its glands, nerves, digestive faculties and other tissues, but as it does so, its strong function will return and symptoms of depression and anxiety will fade and disappear. It usually does not happen overnight, as a person who is depressed and anxious has much lessened ability to create energy, which is required for healing. However, depending on the person and the intensity of the depression, recovery can sometimes be very fast. Sometimes just simple little activities like eating too late are all that are preventing the body from being able to re-generate adequate nerve energy reserves over night and thus causing it to experience depression. It is important to note that, at their roots, all depression and anxiety are physiological problems and all physiological problems are chemical problems, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are said to be mental and emotional problems, but it must be noted that our mental and emotional processes are undertaken by our nerves that make up our brains and which extend everywhere throughout our bodies. Our nerves are supported by all other tissues in the body, including our glands, muscles, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and mucous membranes, even as our nerves serve these various tissues. It's a whole, interconnected, interdependant system, all for one, one for all. All of these organs, including nerve cells, are constructed of and are creating billions of interacting chemicals all of the time which we experience as the process of life. It is through our nervous system that we are consciously aware of this life process, due to the electrical currents thusly created in nerve cells. This infinitely complex system of chemical, then cellular, then glandular, and finally nerve reactions occuring in our bodies is always automatically striving to maintain that state of balance that we describe as total well being, or health. It is a system that is dependant upon wholeness of action. This means that it is also dependant on getting whole foods into it, foods which are also biologically and physiologically correct for it. When all its needs are met correctly, the body in its whole will function optimally. To the extent its whole needs are not met, it will suffer dis-comfort, or dis-ease, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are two of these symptoms of imbalance. So anyone who has regularly abused themselves in the past with unhealthy habits will undoubtedly have suffered some extent of anxiety or depression, no matter how light. Who suffers more or who suffers less is determined by the extent of the bad habits and the particular strengths and weaknesses of various organs (a person's diathesis, as is said, or their constitution, or tendencies, or inheritance, or genetic makeup, etc). Were a person not to indulge in bad habits, then their diathesis would be irrelevant. Some people will experience depression or anxiety since, say, their dopamine producing cells get overworked first, while others will experience asthma as their lung cells get overworked. Those who continually indulge in poor health practices all suffer various levels of the innumerable ailments of modern life, but its only when the ailments become severely aggravated that we tend to recognize them and call them particular dis-eases. So, are we anywhere with all the discussion? We aught to be by now. A person could go on for years describing all the various chemical, nerve, and organ reactions going on in the body in regards to depression and anxiety, but it would get us nowhere closer to understanding what to do to resolve the problem. We already know that depression means lack of energy production and that anxiety means inability to overcome threat to oneself. But now that we know what causes needless energy loss and what puts unnecessary threat upon the body, namely unhealthy energy depleting habits, we automatically know what to do to resolve the problem ---adopt healthy habits as they pertain to the situation we find ourselves in. So a person needs to eat whole healthy foods, refrain from excessis of behaviour, develop emotional calm, get fresh air and adequate sleep, enjoy sunshine, and so on. Rest is very important, and it may even be necessary to fast for a few days, a week, or more, before adopting more sensible active health habits, such as eating fruits and vegetables. Because diet is the number one major culprit of health destruction in our age, it is the one area, when improved, that gives the greatest results in depression and anxiety. It may take time for the body to resolve the healing required in our nerves and organs, but it will come so long as good habits are continually fostered and persevered in. Some notable poor dietary habits that lead to depression and anxiety are: overeating in general, eating too much at one meal, eating concentrated foods (particularly sugary foods like dried fruits, which drive our adrenals and dope our brains with excessive glucose), eating late (after say 6pm), eating haphazzard combinations of foods, eating spicy and stimulating foods, pursuing foods as a comforting or exciting activity in order to avoid low feelings(called emotional abuse), eating beyond needs dictated by activity level, eating for entertainment, eating foods that are supposedly healthy like sea salt, vinegar, wine, garlic, and others that only serve to stimulate cleansing but not actual healing, binging, purging, eating before noon, eating heavy foods early in the day instead of later, overeating particular types of foods, especially the heavy more concentrated foods such as avocados (excess fat), nuts and seeds (excess protein and fat), and dried fruits (excess sugars), eating unripe fruits that don't satisfy appetite, mixing foods to overstimulate appetite (eg: fruit bowls, large complex salads with tasty fatty dressings), prolonged and excessive starch or concentrated sugar consumption, and generally speaking, overeating, once again and again and again and..... Growing up, I was a specialist in the overeating department, unknowingly, and if there was one thing that was gonna kill me, that was it. I suffered immense amounts of anxiety and depression from overeating, and I only made the connection after I improved my diet. Then I realized what an extreme food alcoholic I had been all my life, particularly a starch and sugar addict. I tried all sorts of procedures and a few medications to get over my depression/anxiety, some of which seemed to work, but which I dropped once I discovered my main problem was food addiction. It takes time to develop sensible eating habits after a life time of abuse, but the good feelings that one remembers as a child slowly return and dominate ones mental/emotional/physical state as pure raw ripe fresh whole foods dominate the diet. If I hadn't experienced it, I wouldn't believe it possible, but its so obvious to me now. Other lifestyle factors are important to consider as well, such as fun exercise, sleep, rest, sun, social activities, intimacy or love expression, fasting if necessary, abstaining from excesses of all types, development of emotional calm, good water if necessary, bodily cleanliness and purity (I don't mean soaps, etc here), productive work, mental stimulation, enjoyable emotional expression, security of life and means, warmth, aesthetic environment, and others. Of course once a person resolves their habits that lead to depression and anxiety, that person must remain aware that depression and anxiety are where their body first demonstrates a breakdown when bad habits are indulged. Thus they can expect to feel poorly once they indulge badly. I note in myself when I sometimes overeat (still here and there, eh, can ya believe it!! --though I don't overeat anything near like I used to) that the next day I start to get the slightly down feeling slightly reminiscent of the past. It's a good reminder to keep towing the line. But of course, feeling great is an even greater reminder. A person needs to be patient with themselves, persevere, remain attentive to improvements, and thus develop a sense of control and admiration of oneself. Living healthfully automatically generates those feelings that we associate with confidence and comfort. Living unhealthfully removes us from those feelings because it creates imbalances within our bodies, and as our nerves sense and experience those imbalances, we experience feelings of non-conconfidence, worry and foreboding. It's sometimes a more challenging route to choose health improvement over drug therapy or other misapplied solutions to depression and anxiety, but the rewards run much deeper. Hopefully that didn't over-complicate the subject. Somewhere some general simple concepts were discussed, with logical solutions to problems. rawfood , bandbcollection wrote: > Is there anything you all would suggest for someone like myself > who's been working at going raw, but is seriously depressed. Not to > the point of hurting myself or my kids, but to the point where I'm > considering going to a doctor for it and I don't like doctors. > > What is the common approach to this with the raw lifestyle? Any > foods in particular that can help with this? > > Thanks, > Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Angela, My best advice is to eat green leaves when craving attacks. The science is that then the system turns acid, the craving goes up. The solution is to provide the alkaline to correct the balance. Green leaves are important in transition. As the body adapts there is a lingering hunger sensation which can also be alleviated by green leaves. Peter Angela LaMonte [amadera656] 26 April 2004 10:06 rawfood RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings Thanks Peter, That doesnt sound bad. I think at the end of the day I am afraid of cooked foods and its power over me. But I am curious though about the cravings because during the 40 days of 100% raw the cravings would come and go even up to the end. It was worse on days when I would try to get elaborate and eat raw food crackers and raw food cookies made from coconut/almonds/dates, and it was better when I was eating salad and apples. Maybe it just takes longer for some people. Maybe I can reduce my cooked food day to every two weeks, and then go to once a month, and then once every two months and so on till I no longer want it. Thanks for the feedback~~ ~Angela Peter Gardiner <petergardiner wrote: Angela, MC stands for Master Cleanse which is a structure to help people to detoxify. If you can go 2 weeks without cooked food the then the physical dependence causing the " craving will depart " Why not reduce the Sunday binge to a tasting? Peter Angela LaMonte [amadera656] 26 April 2004 07:42 rawfood RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings Thanks Ariana, What is an MC fast? I am willing to do it. Today was my " day off " of raw foods. I do Monday - Saturday raw and then Sunday whatever cooked food I want. I feel yucky. Already feeling like I cant cope with anything. Though I am hesitant to " say " it because I am not committing to giving up the cooked food day just yet. I am hoping that I will learn, through this feeling. Thanks again for the feedback ~Angela " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez wrote: Hey Angela, From my experience, my cravings for raw foods decreased drastically after I completed the MC fast. Once, I got off I craved salads and fruits. Hope this helps. Ariana Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Sun 4/25/2004 12:15 PM rawfood Cc: [Raw Food] question about cravings Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " . thanks ~Angela Christy wrote: I read this on another site: http://b25.ezboard.com/fdepoproverafrm10.showMessage?topicID=427.topic In response to inquiries from Audrey and Patricia, here are some general comments on depression and anxiety. In considering depression and anxiety, its important to keep general, lest we end up over-analyzing and complicating what can be a straightforward issue. Depression at its simplest represents a lack of ability to formulate energy. Depression is commonly seen as referring to low mental outlook, and feelings of hopelessness. This indicates a overburdening of our brain cells, or nerves, whereby they've lost their ability to function optimally and efficiently to create and organize energy production throughout the body, the brain included. However, because the body is a whole, other parts of the body are necessarly involved, particularly the glandular organs, such as the adrenals, thyroid, hypothalamus, and pineal, which are important in prompting increased energy production throughout the entire body. The body by way of its various glands, produces hormones to regulate brain, glandular, and muscular activity. In our modern day lifestyles, and especially in our eating habits, we all abnormally drive our bodies beyond their normal capacities without realizing it. We have gotten ourselves into a habit of excessive stimulation in order to overcome prior feelings of tiredness, or enervation. The tiredness originates in previous excesses of activities, of which eating poor foods is the worst energy usurper. Since most people are unaware of and remain untaught of the harmful energy depleting ways of their unhealthy habits, they begin to fall victim to an endless search for ways to keep their energy high, such as eating when feeling down, entertaining themselves with t.v, movies, drugs, and other excessive activities when bored, lonely, or otherwise fatigued. This habitual pattern of stimulative behaviour, which is not respectful of the body's need for rest and recuperation after activity, leads to the excessive stimulation of those glands and tissues in our bodies that are responsible for creating energy. So for example, the adrenal glands, instead of being able to rest when a person is feeling down or tired, are forced to work overtime again as the person indulges in a slice of pizza. Not only do the adrenals tire out, but also the thyroid which creates hormones to stimulate the adrenals, and the hypothalamus which creates hormones to stimulate the thyroid. In this process, neurotransmitters are used by the brain to relay messages, and eventually the neurotransmitters themselves become short in supply as the glands and nerve cells that are forced to produce the various transmitters tire out and wear down. When our bodies lose their ability to produce normal levels of hormones, transmitters, and other important chemicals for bodily processes, we experience depression -- a lack of ability to function energetically. Concurrent with the development of depression throughout the body, and particularly in the brain, is anxiety. Anxiety is really an internal recognition by the body of a threat to its existence. It is a feeling of insecurity that is the result of excess burden put on the body, burden that is starting to go beyond the body's ability to resolve. People call this stress, but it is really over-stress. Stress is a good thing, overstress is a bad thing. Over-stress occurs when we eat foods not of our biological adaptations, when we over exercise, or overdo anything. In response to stress, our brain will activate itself and the entire body to correct the situation, but when the brain is continually forced to do this, its very ability to do this is lessened, since it can never rest enough to regenerate and restore its functions. We end up having feelings of stress build up due to following excessive habits, but after the brief stimulative period, we are not able to develop enough hormones, neuro- transmitters, and other chemicals to resolve within us the stressed state of our cells. So we continue to feel this tensive state for unusually extended periods of time. A person who is anxious has little ability in that moment to handle more tasks and will avoid situations that even only slightly stress them. To the extent that a person abuses their organs, brain cells, and body in general with excessive stimulation, and in conjunction with their predisposed various strengths in glands and organs, will the person experience the severity of anxiety and depression in their life. Depression and anxiety slowly build up over decades, even right from birth if energy usurping practices are followed. The individual who manages to overcome these problems by incorporating truly healthful practices into their life in the greatest degree will come to see how in their former lives their depressive and anxious symptoms slowly increased, as they remained oblivious and ignorant of the consequences of their harmful actions. A return to raw food eating provides the body with an immensely reduced digestive load while providing vast quantities of energy. It will take a period of time for the body to heal its glands, nerves, digestive faculties and other tissues, but as it does so, its strong function will return and symptoms of depression and anxiety will fade and disappear. It usually does not happen overnight, as a person who is depressed and anxious has much lessened ability to create energy, which is required for healing. However, depending on the person and the intensity of the depression, recovery can sometimes be very fast. Sometimes just simple little activities like eating too late are all that are preventing the body from being able to re-generate adequate nerve energy reserves over night and thus causing it to experience depression. It is important to note that, at their roots, all depression and anxiety are physiological problems and all physiological problems are chemical problems, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are said to be mental and emotional problems, but it must be noted that our mental and emotional processes are undertaken by our nerves that make up our brains and which extend everywhere throughout our bodies. Our nerves are supported by all other tissues in the body, including our glands, muscles, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and mucous membranes, even as our nerves serve these various tissues. It's a whole, interconnected, interdependant system, all for one, one for all. All of these organs, including nerve cells, are constructed of and are creating billions of interacting chemicals all of the time which we experience as the process of life. It is through our nervous system that we are consciously aware of this life process, due to the electrical currents thusly created in nerve cells. This infinitely complex system of chemical, then cellular, then glandular, and finally nerve reactions occuring in our bodies is always automatically striving to maintain that state of balance that we describe as total well being, or health. It is a system that is dependant upon wholeness of action. This means that it is also dependant on getting whole foods into it, foods which are also biologically and physiologically correct for it. When all its needs are met correctly, the body in its whole will function optimally. To the extent its whole needs are not met, it will suffer dis-comfort, or dis-ease, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are two of these symptoms of imbalance. So anyone who has regularly abused themselves in the past with unhealthy habits will undoubtedly have suffered some extent of anxiety or depression, no matter how light. Who suffers more or who suffers less is determined by the extent of the bad habits and the particular strengths and weaknesses of various organs (a person's diathesis, as is said, or their constitution, or tendencies, or inheritance, or genetic makeup, etc). Were a person not to indulge in bad habits, then their diathesis would be irrelevant. Some people will experience depression or anxiety since, say, their dopamine producing cells get overworked first, while others will experience asthma as their lung cells get overworked. Those who continually indulge in poor health practices all suffer various levels of the innumerable ailments of modern life, but its only when the ailments become severely aggravated that we tend to recognize them and call them particular dis-eases. So, are we anywhere with all the discussion? We aught to be by now. A person could go on for years describing all the various chemical, nerve, and organ reactions going on in the body in regards to depression and anxiety, but it would get us nowhere closer to understanding what to do to resolve the problem. We already know that depression means lack of energy production and that anxiety means inability to overcome threat to oneself. But now that we know what causes needless energy loss and what puts unnecessary threat upon the body, namely unhealthy energy depleting habits, we automatically know what to do to resolve the problem ---adopt healthy habits as they pertain to the situation we find ourselves in. So a person needs to eat whole healthy foods, refrain from excessis of behaviour, develop emotional calm, get fresh air and adequate sleep, enjoy sunshine, and so on. Rest is very important, and it may even be necessary to fast for a few days, a week, or more, before adopting more sensible active health habits, such as eating fruits and vegetables. Because diet is the number one major culprit of health destruction in our age, it is the one area, when improved, that gives the greatest results in depression and anxiety. It may take time for the body to resolve the healing required in our nerves and organs, but it will come so long as good habits are continually fostered and persevered in. Some notable poor dietary habits that lead to depression and anxiety are: overeating in general, eating too much at one meal, eating concentrated foods (particularly sugary foods like dried fruits, which drive our adrenals and dope our brains with excessive glucose), eating late (after say 6pm), eating haphazzard combinations of foods, eating spicy and stimulating foods, pursuing foods as a comforting or exciting activity in order to avoid low feelings(called emotional abuse), eating beyond needs dictated by activity level, eating for entertainment, eating foods that are supposedly healthy like sea salt, vinegar, wine, garlic, and others that only serve to stimulate cleansing but not actual healing, binging, purging, eating before noon, eating heavy foods early in the day instead of later, overeating particular types of foods, especially the heavy more concentrated foods such as avocados (excess fat), nuts and seeds (excess protein and fat), and dried fruits (excess sugars), eating unripe fruits that don't satisfy appetite, mixing foods to overstimulate appetite (eg: fruit bowls, large complex salads with tasty fatty dressings), prolonged and excessive starch or concentrated sugar consumption, and generally speaking, overeating, once again and again and again and..... Growing up, I was a specialist in the overeating department, unknowingly, and if there was one thing that was gonna kill me, that was it. I suffered immense amounts of anxiety and depression from overeating, and I only made the connection after I improved my diet. Then I realized what an extreme food alcoholic I had been all my life, particularly a starch and sugar addict. I tried all sorts of procedures and a few medications to get over my depression/anxiety, some of which seemed to work, but which I dropped once I discovered my main problem was food addiction. It takes time to develop sensible eating habits after a life time of abuse, but the good feelings that one remembers as a child slowly return and dominate ones mental/emotional/physical state as pure raw ripe fresh whole foods dominate the diet. If I hadn't experienced it, I wouldn't believe it possible, but its so obvious to me now. Other lifestyle factors are important to consider as well, such as fun exercise, sleep, rest, sun, social activities, intimacy or love expression, fasting if necessary, abstaining from excesses of all types, development of emotional calm, good water if necessary, bodily cleanliness and purity (I don't mean soaps, etc here), productive work, mental stimulation, enjoyable emotional expression, security of life and means, warmth, aesthetic environment, and others. Of course once a person resolves their habits that lead to depression and anxiety, that person must remain aware that depression and anxiety are where their body first demonstrates a breakdown when bad habits are indulged. Thus they can expect to feel poorly once they indulge badly. I note in myself when I sometimes overeat (still here and there, eh, can ya believe it!! --though I don't overeat anything near like I used to) that the next day I start to get the slightly down feeling slightly reminiscent of the past. It's a good reminder to keep towing the line. But of course, feeling great is an even greater reminder. A person needs to be patient with themselves, persevere, remain attentive to improvements, and thus develop a sense of control and admiration of oneself. Living healthfully automatically generates those feelings that we associate with confidence and comfort. Living unhealthfully removes us from those feelings because it creates imbalances within our bodies, and as our nerves sense and experience those imbalances, we experience feelings of non-conconfidence, worry and foreboding. It's sometimes a more challenging route to choose health improvement over drug therapy or other misapplied solutions to depression and anxiety, but the rewards run much deeper. Hopefully that didn't over-complicate the subject. Somewhere some general simple concepts were discussed, with logical solutions to problems. rawfood , bandbcollection wrote: > Is there anything you all would suggest for someone like myself who's > been working at going raw, but is seriously depressed. Not to > the point of hurting myself or my kids, but to the point where I'm > considering going to a doctor for it and I don't like doctors. > > What is the common approach to this with the raw lifestyle? Any foods > in particular that can help with this? > > Thanks, > Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 >What is an MC fast? - Details at: http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/7244/master_cleanse.html rusty - " Angela LaMonte " <amadera656 <rawfood > Sunday, April 25, 2004 10:42 PM RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings Thanks Ariana, What is an MC fast? I am willing to do it. Today was my " day off " of raw foods. I do Monday - Saturday raw and then Sunday whatever cooked food I want. I feel yucky. Already feeling like I cant cope with anything. Though I am hesitant to " say " it because I am not committing to giving up the cooked food day just yet. I am hoping that I will learn, through this feeling. Thanks again for the feedback ~Angela " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez wrote: Hey Angela, >From my experience, my cravings for raw foods decreased drastically after I completed the MC fast. Once, I got off I craved salads and fruits. Hope this helps. Ariana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Hey Angela, The Master Cleanse is a detox fast. It helps your body to eliminate mucus and different toxins. You pretty much drink lemonade (1/2 lemon for every 8oz of water) with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup (Grade B) and some cayenne pepper. I drank about 6-12 cups of it a day. Every morning you should do a Salt Water Flush (consists of 1 quart of water with 2 teaspoons of sea salt). At night, you drink a laxative tea. There's a called Master_Cleanse. You might want to check it out. Also, under the files section of that group is a pdf file of about 30 pages that will explain the cleanse a little better. The fast is usually done for 10-40 days depending on how long is good for you. It helped me like you wouldn't imagine. Check it out! Hope this helps! If you have any other questions, do not hesitate! Ariana Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Monday, April 26, 2004 1:42 AM rawfood RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings Thanks Ariana, What is an MC fast? I am willing to do it. Today was my " day off " of raw foods. I do Monday - Saturday raw and then Sunday whatever cooked food I want. I feel yucky. Already feeling like I cant cope with anything. Though I am hesitant to " say " it because I am not committing to giving up the cooked food day just yet. I am hoping that I will learn, through this feeling. Thanks again for the feedback ~Angela " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez wrote: Hey Angela, From my experience, my cravings for raw foods decreased drastically after I completed the MC fast. Once, I got off I craved salads and fruits. Hope this helps. Ariana Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Sun 4/25/2004 12:15 PM rawfood Cc: [Raw Food] question about cravings Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " .. thanks ~Angela Christy wrote: I read this on another site: http://b25.ezboard.com/fdepoproverafrm10.showMessage?topicID=427.topic In response to inquiries from Audrey and Patricia, here are some general comments on depression and anxiety. In considering depression and anxiety, its important to keep general, lest we end up over-analyzing and complicating what can be a straightforward issue. Depression at its simplest represents a lack of ability to formulate energy. Depression is commonly seen as referring to low mental outlook, and feelings of hopelessness. This indicates a overburdening of our brain cells, or nerves, whereby they've lost their ability to function optimally and efficiently to create and organize energy production throughout the body, the brain included. However, because the body is a whole, other parts of the body are necessarly involved, particularly the glandular organs, such as the adrenals, thyroid, hypothalamus, and pineal, which are important in prompting increased energy production throughout the entire body. The body by way of its various glands, produces hormones to regulate brain, glandular, and muscular activity. In our modern day lifestyles, and especially in our eating habits, we all abnormally drive our bodies beyond their normal capacities without realizing it. We have gotten ourselves into a habit of excessive stimulation in order to overcome prior feelings of tiredness, or enervation. The tiredness originates in previous excesses of activities, of which eating poor foods is the worst energy usurper. Since most people are unaware of and remain untaught of the harmful energy depleting ways of their unhealthy habits, they begin to fall victim to an endless search for ways to keep their energy high, such as eating when feeling down, entertaining themselves with t.v, movies, drugs, and other excessive activities when bored, lonely, or otherwise fatigued. This habitual pattern of stimulative behaviour, which is not respectful of the body's need for rest and recuperation after activity, leads to the excessive stimulation of those glands and tissues in our bodies that are responsible for creating energy. So for example, the adrenal glands, instead of being able to rest when a person is feeling down or tired, are forced to work overtime again as the person indulges in a slice of pizza. Not only do the adrenals tire out, but also the thyroid which creates hormones to stimulate the adrenals, and the hypothalamus which creates hormones to stimulate the thyroid. In this process, neurotransmitters are used by the brain to relay messages, and eventually the neurotransmitters themselves become short in supply as the glands and nerve cells that are forced to produce the various transmitters tire out and wear down. When our bodies lose their ability to produce normal levels of hormones, transmitters, and other important chemicals for bodily processes, we experience depression -- a lack of ability to function energetically. Concurrent with the development of depression throughout the body, and particularly in the brain, is anxiety. Anxiety is really an internal recognition by the body of a threat to its existence. It is a feeling of insecurity that is the result of excess burden put on the body, burden that is starting to go beyond the body's ability to resolve. People call this stress, but it is really over-stress. Stress is a good thing, overstress is a bad thing. Over-stress occurs when we eat foods not of our biological adaptations, when we over exercise, or overdo anything. In response to stress, our brain will activate itself and the entire body to correct the situation, but when the brain is continually forced to do this, its very ability to do this is lessened, since it can never rest enough to regenerate and restore its functions. We end up having feelings of stress build up due to following excessive habits, but after the brief stimulative period, we are not able to develop enough hormones, neuro- transmitters, and other chemicals to resolve within us the stressed state of our cells. So we continue to feel this tensive state for unusually extended periods of time. A person who is anxious has little ability in that moment to handle more tasks and will avoid situations that even only slightly stress them. To the extent that a person abuses their organs, brain cells, and body in general with excessive stimulation, and in conjunction with their predisposed various strengths in glands and organs, will the person experience the severity of anxiety and depression in their life. Depression and anxiety slowly build up over decades, even right from birth if energy usurping practices are followed. The individual who manages to overcome these problems by incorporating truly healthful practices into their life in the greatest degree will come to see how in their former lives their depressive and anxious symptoms slowly increased, as they remained oblivious and ignorant of the consequences of their harmful actions. A return to raw food eating provides the body with an immensely reduced digestive load while providing vast quantities of energy. It will take a period of time for the body to heal its glands, nerves, digestive faculties and other tissues, but as it does so, its strong function will return and symptoms of depression and anxiety will fade and disappear. It usually does not happen overnight, as a person who is depressed and anxious has much lessened ability to create energy, which is required for healing. However, depending on the person and the intensity of the depression, recovery can sometimes be very fast. Sometimes just simple little activities like eating too late are all that are preventing the body from being able to re-generate adequate nerve energy reserves over night and thus causing it to experience depression. It is important to note that, at their roots, all depression and anxiety are physiological problems and all physiological problems are chemical problems, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are said to be mental and emotional problems, but it must be noted that our mental and emotional processes are undertaken by our nerves that make up our brains and which extend everywhere throughout our bodies. Our nerves are supported by all other tissues in the body, including our glands, muscles, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and mucous membranes, even as our nerves serve these various tissues. It's a whole, interconnected, interdependant system, all for one, one for all. All of these organs, including nerve cells, are constructed of and are creating billions of interacting chemicals all of the time which we experience as the process of life. It is through our nervous system that we are consciously aware of this life process, due to the electrical currents thusly created in nerve cells. This infinitely complex system of chemical, then cellular, then glandular, and finally nerve reactions occuring in our bodies is always automatically striving to maintain that state of balance that we describe as total well being, or health. It is a system that is dependant upon wholeness of action. This means that it is also dependant on getting whole foods into it, foods which are also biologically and physiologically correct for it. When all its needs are met correctly, the body in its whole will function optimally. To the extent its whole needs are not met, it will suffer dis-comfort, or dis-ease, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are two of these symptoms of imbalance. So anyone who has regularly abused themselves in the past with unhealthy habits will undoubtedly have suffered some extent of anxiety or depression, no matter how light. Who suffers more or who suffers less is determined by the extent of the bad habits and the particular strengths and weaknesses of various organs (a person's diathesis, as is said, or their constitution, or tendencies, or inheritance, or genetic makeup, etc). Were a person not to indulge in bad habits, then their diathesis would be irrelevant. Some people will experience depression or anxiety since, say, their dopamine producing cells get overworked first, while others will experience asthma as their lung cells get overworked. Those who continually indulge in poor health practices all suffer various levels of the innumerable ailments of modern life, but its only when the ailments become severely aggravated that we tend to recognize them and call them particular dis-eases. So, are we anywhere with all the discussion? We aught to be by now. A person could go on for years describing all the various chemical, nerve, and organ reactions going on in the body in regards to depression and anxiety, but it would get us nowhere closer to understanding what to do to resolve the problem. We already know that depression means lack of energy production and that anxiety means inability to overcome threat to oneself. But now that we know what causes needless energy loss and what puts unnecessary threat upon the body, namely unhealthy energy depleting habits, we automatically know what to do to resolve the problem ---adopt healthy habits as they pertain to the situation we find ourselves in. So a person needs to eat whole healthy foods, refrain from excessis of behaviour, develop emotional calm, get fresh air and adequate sleep, enjoy sunshine, and so on. Rest is very important, and it may even be necessary to fast for a few days, a week, or more, before adopting more sensible active health habits, such as eating fruits and vegetables. Because diet is the number one major culprit of health destruction in our age, it is the one area, when improved, that gives the greatest results in depression and anxiety. It may take time for the body to resolve the healing required in our nerves and organs, but it will come so long as good habits are continually fostered and persevered in. Some notable poor dietary habits that lead to depression and anxiety are: overeating in general, eating too much at one meal, eating concentrated foods (particularly sugary foods like dried fruits, which drive our adrenals and dope our brains with excessive glucose), eating late (after say 6pm), eating haphazzard combinations of foods, eating spicy and stimulating foods, pursuing foods as a comforting or exciting activity in order to avoid low feelings(called emotional abuse), eating beyond needs dictated by activity level, eating for entertainment, eating foods that are supposedly healthy like sea salt, vinegar, wine, garlic, and others that only serve to stimulate cleansing but not actual healing, binging, purging, eating before noon, eating heavy foods early in the day instead of later, overeating particular types of foods, especially the heavy more concentrated foods such as avocados (excess fat), nuts and seeds (excess protein and fat), and dried fruits (excess sugars), eating unripe fruits that don't satisfy appetite, mixing foods to overstimulate appetite (eg: fruit bowls, large complex salads with tasty fatty dressings), prolonged and excessive starch or concentrated sugar consumption, and generally speaking, overeating, once again and again and again and..... Growing up, I was a specialist in the overeating department, unknowingly, and if there was one thing that was gonna kill me, that was it. I suffered immense amounts of anxiety and depression from overeating, and I only made the connection after I improved my diet. Then I realized what an extreme food alcoholic I had been all my life, particularly a starch and sugar addict. I tried all sorts of procedures and a few medications to get over my depression/anxiety, some of which seemed to work, but which I dropped once I discovered my main problem was food addiction. It takes time to develop sensible eating habits after a life time of abuse, but the good feelings that one remembers as a child slowly return and dominate ones mental/emotional/physical state as pure raw ripe fresh whole foods dominate the diet. If I hadn't experienced it, I wouldn't believe it possible, but its so obvious to me now. Other lifestyle factors are important to consider as well, such as fun exercise, sleep, rest, sun, social activities, intimacy or love expression, fasting if necessary, abstaining from excesses of all types, development of emotional calm, good water if necessary, bodily cleanliness and purity (I don't mean soaps, etc here), productive work, mental stimulation, enjoyable emotional expression, security of life and means, warmth, aesthetic environment, and others. Of course once a person resolves their habits that lead to depression and anxiety, that person must remain aware that depression and anxiety are where their body first demonstrates a breakdown when bad habits are indulged. Thus they can expect to feel poorly once they indulge badly. I note in myself when I sometimes overeat (still here and there, eh, can ya believe it!! --though I don't overeat anything near like I used to) that the next day I start to get the slightly down feeling slightly reminiscent of the past. It's a good reminder to keep towing the line. But of course, feeling great is an even greater reminder. A person needs to be patient with themselves, persevere, remain attentive to improvements, and thus develop a sense of control and admiration of oneself. Living healthfully automatically generates those feelings that we associate with confidence and comfort. Living unhealthfully removes us from those feelings because it creates imbalances within our bodies, and as our nerves sense and experience those imbalances, we experience feelings of non-conconfidence, worry and foreboding. It's sometimes a more challenging route to choose health improvement over drug therapy or other misapplied solutions to depression and anxiety, but the rewards run much deeper. Hopefully that didn't over-complicate the subject. Somewhere some general simple concepts were discussed, with logical solutions to problems. rawfood , bandbcollection wrote: > Is there anything you all would suggest for someone like myself > who's been working at going raw, but is seriously depressed. Not to > the point of hurting myself or my kids, but to the point where I'm > considering going to a doctor for it and I don't like doctors. > > What is the common approach to this with the raw lifestyle? Any > foods in particular that can help with this? > > Thanks, > Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Hey Angela, This is the best price I've found on the maple syrup: <http://pennsylvaniamaplesyrup.com/> http://pennsylvaniamaplesyrup.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Ariana- What is the purpose of the maple syrup? Can Stevia be used for sweetening instead? Thank you, -Linda - " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez <rawfood > Monday, April 26, 2004 8:59 AM RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings > Hey Angela, > This is the best price I've found on the maple syrup: > <http://pennsylvaniamaplesyrup.com/> http://pennsylvaniamaplesyrup.com/ > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 That is so great to know. Thanks Peter ~Angela Peter Gardiner <petergardiner wrote: Angela, My best advice is to eat green leaves when craving attacks. The science is that then the system turns acid, the craving goes up. The solution is to provide the alkaline to correct the balance. Green leaves are important in transition. As the body adapts there is a lingering hunger sensation which can also be alleviated by green leaves. Peter Angela LaMonte [amadera656] 26 April 2004 10:06 rawfood RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings Thanks Peter, That doesnt sound bad. I think at the end of the day I am afraid of cooked foods and its power over me. But I am curious though about the cravings because during the 40 days of 100% raw the cravings would come and go even up to the end. It was worse on days when I would try to get elaborate and eat raw food crackers and raw food cookies made from coconut/almonds/dates, and it was better when I was eating salad and apples. Maybe it just takes longer for some people. Maybe I can reduce my cooked food day to every two weeks, and then go to once a month, and then once every two months and so on till I no longer want it. Thanks for the feedback~~ ~Angela Peter Gardiner <petergardiner wrote: Angela, MC stands for Master Cleanse which is a structure to help people to detoxify. If you can go 2 weeks without cooked food the then the physical dependence causing the " craving will depart " Why not reduce the Sunday binge to a tasting? Peter Angela LaMonte [amadera656] 26 April 2004 07:42 rawfood RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings Thanks Ariana, What is an MC fast? I am willing to do it. Today was my " day off " of raw foods. I do Monday - Saturday raw and then Sunday whatever cooked food I want. I feel yucky. Already feeling like I cant cope with anything. Though I am hesitant to " say " it because I am not committing to giving up the cooked food day just yet. I am hoping that I will learn, through this feeling. Thanks again for the feedback ~Angela " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez wrote: Hey Angela, From my experience, my cravings for raw foods decreased drastically after I completed the MC fast. Once, I got off I craved salads and fruits. Hope this helps. Ariana Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Sun 4/25/2004 12:15 PM rawfood Cc: [Raw Food] question about cravings Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " . thanks ~Angela Christy wrote: I read this on another site: http://b25.ezboard.com/fdepoproverafrm10.showMessage?topicID=427.topic In response to inquiries from Audrey and Patricia, here are some general comments on depression and anxiety. In considering depression and anxiety, its important to keep general, lest we end up over-analyzing and complicating what can be a straightforward issue. Depression at its simplest represents a lack of ability to formulate energy. Depression is commonly seen as referring to low mental outlook, and feelings of hopelessness. This indicates a overburdening of our brain cells, or nerves, whereby they've lost their ability to function optimally and efficiently to create and organize energy production throughout the body, the brain included. However, because the body is a whole, other parts of the body are necessarly involved, particularly the glandular organs, such as the adrenals, thyroid, hypothalamus, and pineal, which are important in prompting increased energy production throughout the entire body. The body by way of its various glands, produces hormones to regulate brain, glandular, and muscular activity. In our modern day lifestyles, and especially in our eating habits, we all abnormally drive our bodies beyond their normal capacities without realizing it. We have gotten ourselves into a habit of excessive stimulation in order to overcome prior feelings of tiredness, or enervation. The tiredness originates in previous excesses of activities, of which eating poor foods is the worst energy usurper. Since most people are unaware of and remain untaught of the harmful energy depleting ways of their unhealthy habits, they begin to fall victim to an endless search for ways to keep their energy high, such as eating when feeling down, entertaining themselves with t.v, movies, drugs, and other excessive activities when bored, lonely, or otherwise fatigued. This habitual pattern of stimulative behaviour, which is not respectful of the body's need for rest and recuperation after activity, leads to the excessive stimulation of those glands and tissues in our bodies that are responsible for creating energy. So for example, the adrenal glands, instead of being able to rest when a person is feeling down or tired, are forced to work overtime again as the person indulges in a slice of pizza. Not only do the adrenals tire out, but also the thyroid which creates hormones to stimulate the adrenals, and the hypothalamus which creates hormones to stimulate the thyroid. In this process, neurotransmitters are used by the brain to relay messages, and eventually the neurotransmitters themselves become short in supply as the glands and nerve cells that are forced to produce the various transmitters tire out and wear down. When our bodies lose their ability to produce normal levels of hormones, transmitters, and other important chemicals for bodily processes, we experience depression -- a lack of ability to function energetically. Concurrent with the development of depression throughout the body, and particularly in the brain, is anxiety. Anxiety is really an internal recognition by the body of a threat to its existence. It is a feeling of insecurity that is the result of excess burden put on the body, burden that is starting to go beyond the body's ability to resolve. People call this stress, but it is really over-stress. Stress is a good thing, overstress is a bad thing. Over-stress occurs when we eat foods not of our biological adaptations, when we over exercise, or overdo anything. In response to stress, our brain will activate itself and the entire body to correct the situation, but when the brain is continually forced to do this, its very ability to do this is lessened, since it can never rest enough to regenerate and restore its functions. We end up having feelings of stress build up due to following excessive habits, but after the brief stimulative period, we are not able to develop enough hormones, neuro- transmitters, and other chemicals to resolve within us the stressed state of our cells. So we continue to feel this tensive state for unusually extended periods of time. A person who is anxious has little ability in that moment to handle more tasks and will avoid situations that even only slightly stress them. To the extent that a person abuses their organs, brain cells, and body in general with excessive stimulation, and in conjunction with their predisposed various strengths in glands and organs, will the person experience the severity of anxiety and depression in their life. Depression and anxiety slowly build up over decades, even right from birth if energy usurping practices are followed. The individual who manages to overcome these problems by incorporating truly healthful practices into their life in the greatest degree will come to see how in their former lives their depressive and anxious symptoms slowly increased, as they remained oblivious and ignorant of the consequences of their harmful actions. A return to raw food eating provides the body with an immensely reduced digestive load while providing vast quantities of energy. It will take a period of time for the body to heal its glands, nerves, digestive faculties and other tissues, but as it does so, its strong function will return and symptoms of depression and anxiety will fade and disappear. It usually does not happen overnight, as a person who is depressed and anxious has much lessened ability to create energy, which is required for healing. However, depending on the person and the intensity of the depression, recovery can sometimes be very fast. Sometimes just simple little activities like eating too late are all that are preventing the body from being able to re-generate adequate nerve energy reserves over night and thus causing it to experience depression. It is important to note that, at their roots, all depression and anxiety are physiological problems and all physiological problems are chemical problems, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are said to be mental and emotional problems, but it must be noted that our mental and emotional processes are undertaken by our nerves that make up our brains and which extend everywhere throughout our bodies. Our nerves are supported by all other tissues in the body, including our glands, muscles, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and mucous membranes, even as our nerves serve these various tissues. It's a whole, interconnected, interdependant system, all for one, one for all. All of these organs, including nerve cells, are constructed of and are creating billions of interacting chemicals all of the time which we experience as the process of life. It is through our nervous system that we are consciously aware of this life process, due to the electrical currents thusly created in nerve cells. This infinitely complex system of chemical, then cellular, then glandular, and finally nerve reactions occuring in our bodies is always automatically striving to maintain that state of balance that we describe as total well being, or health. It is a system that is dependant upon wholeness of action. This means that it is also dependant on getting whole foods into it, foods which are also biologically and physiologically correct for it. When all its needs are met correctly, the body in its whole will function optimally. To the extent its whole needs are not met, it will suffer dis-comfort, or dis-ease, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are two of these symptoms of imbalance. So anyone who has regularly abused themselves in the past with unhealthy habits will undoubtedly have suffered some extent of anxiety or depression, no matter how light. Who suffers more or who suffers less is determined by the extent of the bad habits and the particular strengths and weaknesses of various organs (a person's diathesis, as is said, or their constitution, or tendencies, or inheritance, or genetic makeup, etc). Were a person not to indulge in bad habits, then their diathesis would be irrelevant. Some people will experience depression or anxiety since, say, their dopamine producing cells get overworked first, while others will experience asthma as their lung cells get overworked. Those who continually indulge in poor health practices all suffer various levels of the innumerable ailments of modern life, but its only when the ailments become severely aggravated that we tend to recognize them and call them particular dis-eases. So, are we anywhere with all the discussion? We aught to be by now. A person could go on for years describing all the various chemical, nerve, and organ reactions going on in the body in regards to depression and anxiety, but it would get us nowhere closer to understanding what to do to resolve the problem. We already know that depression means lack of energy production and that anxiety means inability to overcome threat to oneself. But now that we know what causes needless energy loss and what puts unnecessary threat upon the body, namely unhealthy energy depleting habits, we automatically know what to do to resolve the problem ---adopt healthy habits as they pertain to the situation we find ourselves in. So a person needs to eat whole healthy foods, refrain from excessis of behaviour, develop emotional calm, get fresh air and adequate sleep, enjoy sunshine, and so on. Rest is very important, and it may even be necessary to fast for a few days, a week, or more, before adopting more sensible active health habits, such as eating fruits and vegetables. Because diet is the number one major culprit of health destruction in our age, it is the one area, when improved, that gives the greatest results in depression and anxiety. It may take time for the body to resolve the healing required in our nerves and organs, but it will come so long as good habits are continually fostered and persevered in. Some notable poor dietary habits that lead to depression and anxiety are: overeating in general, eating too much at one meal, eating concentrated foods (particularly sugary foods like dried fruits, which drive our adrenals and dope our brains with excessive glucose), eating late (after say 6pm), eating haphazzard combinations of foods, eating spicy and stimulating foods, pursuing foods as a comforting or exciting activity in order to avoid low feelings(called emotional abuse), eating beyond needs dictated by activity level, eating for entertainment, eating foods that are supposedly healthy like sea salt, vinegar, wine, garlic, and others that only serve to stimulate cleansing but not actual healing, binging, purging, eating before noon, eating heavy foods early in the day instead of later, overeating particular types of foods, especially the heavy more concentrated foods such as avocados (excess fat), nuts and seeds (excess protein and fat), and dried fruits (excess sugars), eating unripe fruits that don't satisfy appetite, mixing foods to overstimulate appetite (eg: fruit bowls, large complex salads with tasty fatty dressings), prolonged and excessive starch or concentrated sugar consumption, and generally speaking, overeating, once again and again and again and..... Growing up, I was a specialist in the overeating department, unknowingly, and if there was one thing that was gonna kill me, that was it. I suffered immense amounts of anxiety and depression from overeating, and I only made the connection after I improved my diet. Then I realized what an extreme food alcoholic I had been all my life, particularly a starch and sugar addict. I tried all sorts of procedures and a few medications to get over my depression/anxiety, some of which seemed to work, but which I dropped once I discovered my main problem was food addiction. It takes time to develop sensible eating habits after a life time of abuse, but the good feelings that one remembers as a child slowly return and dominate ones mental/emotional/physical state as pure raw ripe fresh whole foods dominate the diet. If I hadn't experienced it, I wouldn't believe it possible, but its so obvious to me now. Other lifestyle factors are important to consider as well, such as fun exercise, sleep, rest, sun, social activities, intimacy or love expression, fasting if necessary, abstaining from excesses of all types, development of emotional calm, good water if necessary, bodily cleanliness and purity (I don't mean soaps, etc here), productive work, mental stimulation, enjoyable emotional expression, security of life and means, warmth, aesthetic environment, and others. Of course once a person resolves their habits that lead to depression and anxiety, that person must remain aware that depression and anxiety are where their body first demonstrates a breakdown when bad habits are indulged. Thus they can expect to feel poorly once they indulge badly. I note in myself when I sometimes overeat (still here and there, eh, can ya believe it!! --though I don't overeat anything near like I used to) that the next day I start to get the slightly down feeling slightly reminiscent of the past. It's a good reminder to keep towing the line. But of course, feeling great is an even greater reminder. A person needs to be patient with themselves, persevere, remain attentive to improvements, and thus develop a sense of control and admiration of oneself. Living healthfully automatically generates those feelings that we associate with confidence and comfort. Living unhealthfully removes us from those feelings because it creates imbalances within our bodies, and as our nerves sense and experience those imbalances, we experience feelings of non-conconfidence, worry and foreboding. It's sometimes a more challenging route to choose health improvement over drug therapy or other misapplied solutions to depression and anxiety, but the rewards run much deeper. Hopefully that didn't over-complicate the subject. Somewhere some general simple concepts were discussed, with logical solutions to problems. rawfood , bandbcollection wrote: > Is there anything you all would suggest for someone like myself who's > been working at going raw, but is seriously depressed. Not to > the point of hurting myself or my kids, but to the point where I'm > considering going to a doctor for it and I don't like doctors. > > What is the common approach to this with the raw lifestyle? Any foods > in particular that can help with this? > > Thanks, > Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Thanks, I've bookmarked it for tonights reading. ~Angela " L.Win " <rustym wrote: >What is an MC fast? - Details at: http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/7244/master_cleanse.html rusty - " Angela LaMonte " <amadera656 <rawfood > Sunday, April 25, 2004 10:42 PM RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings Thanks Ariana, What is an MC fast? I am willing to do it. Today was my " day off " of raw foods. I do Monday - Saturday raw and then Sunday whatever cooked food I want. I feel yucky. Already feeling like I cant cope with anything. Though I am hesitant to " say " it because I am not committing to giving up the cooked food day just yet. I am hoping that I will learn, through this feeling. Thanks again for the feedback ~Angela " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez wrote: Hey Angela, >From my experience, my cravings for raw foods decreased drastically after I completed the MC fast. Once, I got off I craved salads and fruits. Hope this helps. Ariana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 Can Stevia be used for sweetening > instead? - MS is not for sweetening but for the minerals the body needs in a form it can use. Stevia is useless for this purpose. Are you diabetic, and if so type 1 or type 2? There are alternatives for diabetics but not recomended unless absolutely necessary. The MC recipe is carefully formulated so don't tweak it unless you have a legitmate reason. Keeping in mind that the MS is not raw but neither is the diabetic's alternative, 1/4 the dose using blackstrap molasses instead of the MS. rusty - " Linda Hatton " <lghatton <rawfood > Monday, April 26, 2004 10:32 AM Re: [Raw Food] question about cravings > Ariana- > > What is the purpose of the maple syrup? Can Stevia be used for sweetening > instead? > > Thank you, > -Linda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 Hi Ariana~ This was such a very helpful post, and one that I am hanging on to. It actually sounds really good. Thank you ~Angela " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez wrote: Hey Angela, The Master Cleanse is a detox fast. It helps your body to eliminate mucus and different toxins. You pretty much drink lemonade (1/2 lemon for every 8oz of water) with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup (Grade B) and some cayenne pepper. I drank about 6-12 cups of it a day. Every morning you should do a Salt Water Flush (consists of 1 quart of water with 2 teaspoons of sea salt). At night, you drink a laxative tea. There's a called Master_Cleanse. You might want to check it out. Also, under the files section of that group is a pdf file of about 30 pages that will explain the cleanse a little better. The fast is usually done for 10-40 days depending on how long is good for you. It helped me like you wouldn't imagine. Check it out! Hope this helps! If you have any other questions, do not hesitate! Ariana Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Monday, April 26, 2004 1:42 AM rawfood RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings Thanks Ariana, What is an MC fast? I am willing to do it. Today was my " day off " of raw foods. I do Monday - Saturday raw and then Sunday whatever cooked food I want. I feel yucky. Already feeling like I cant cope with anything. Though I am hesitant to " say " it because I am not committing to giving up the cooked food day just yet. I am hoping that I will learn, through this feeling. Thanks again for the feedback ~Angela " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez wrote: Hey Angela, From my experience, my cravings for raw foods decreased drastically after I completed the MC fast. Once, I got off I craved salads and fruits. Hope this helps. Ariana Angela LaMonte [amadera656] Sun 4/25/2004 12:15 PM rawfood Cc: [Raw Food] question about cravings Hello to all~ I was just wondering if some of you have gotten to a place where you dont crave cooked foods anymore, and how long that took. I try to work with myself and keep myself cognizant of the fact that I am *not* depriving myself of anything, but rather am giving and giving and giving to myself abundantly with raw foods. But sometimes I do feel deprived. I mentioned this in my previous post, but after the 40 days and nights of raw foods, I decided I would do 6 days of raw, then one day of cooked " to be balanced " ( I realize that one day of cooked food doesnt in fact make me balanced at all, but the opposite) and right now, in this moment, I am continuing this...but every bite of cooked *does* taste like " lack " .. thanks ~Angela Christy wrote: I read this on another site: http://b25.ezboard.com/fdepoproverafrm10.showMessage?topicID=427.topic In response to inquiries from Audrey and Patricia, here are some general comments on depression and anxiety. In considering depression and anxiety, its important to keep general, lest we end up over-analyzing and complicating what can be a straightforward issue. Depression at its simplest represents a lack of ability to formulate energy. Depression is commonly seen as referring to low mental outlook, and feelings of hopelessness. This indicates a overburdening of our brain cells, or nerves, whereby they've lost their ability to function optimally and efficiently to create and organize energy production throughout the body, the brain included. However, because the body is a whole, other parts of the body are necessarly involved, particularly the glandular organs, such as the adrenals, thyroid, hypothalamus, and pineal, which are important in prompting increased energy production throughout the entire body. The body by way of its various glands, produces hormones to regulate brain, glandular, and muscular activity. In our modern day lifestyles, and especially in our eating habits, we all abnormally drive our bodies beyond their normal capacities without realizing it. We have gotten ourselves into a habit of excessive stimulation in order to overcome prior feelings of tiredness, or enervation. The tiredness originates in previous excesses of activities, of which eating poor foods is the worst energy usurper. Since most people are unaware of and remain untaught of the harmful energy depleting ways of their unhealthy habits, they begin to fall victim to an endless search for ways to keep their energy high, such as eating when feeling down, entertaining themselves with t.v, movies, drugs, and other excessive activities when bored, lonely, or otherwise fatigued. This habitual pattern of stimulative behaviour, which is not respectful of the body's need for rest and recuperation after activity, leads to the excessive stimulation of those glands and tissues in our bodies that are responsible for creating energy. So for example, the adrenal glands, instead of being able to rest when a person is feeling down or tired, are forced to work overtime again as the person indulges in a slice of pizza. Not only do the adrenals tire out, but also the thyroid which creates hormones to stimulate the adrenals, and the hypothalamus which creates hormones to stimulate the thyroid. In this process, neurotransmitters are used by the brain to relay messages, and eventually the neurotransmitters themselves become short in supply as the glands and nerve cells that are forced to produce the various transmitters tire out and wear down. When our bodies lose their ability to produce normal levels of hormones, transmitters, and other important chemicals for bodily processes, we experience depression -- a lack of ability to function energetically. Concurrent with the development of depression throughout the body, and particularly in the brain, is anxiety. Anxiety is really an internal recognition by the body of a threat to its existence. It is a feeling of insecurity that is the result of excess burden put on the body, burden that is starting to go beyond the body's ability to resolve. People call this stress, but it is really over-stress. Stress is a good thing, overstress is a bad thing. Over-stress occurs when we eat foods not of our biological adaptations, when we over exercise, or overdo anything. In response to stress, our brain will activate itself and the entire body to correct the situation, but when the brain is continually forced to do this, its very ability to do this is lessened, since it can never rest enough to regenerate and restore its functions. We end up having feelings of stress build up due to following excessive habits, but after the brief stimulative period, we are not able to develop enough hormones, neuro- transmitters, and other chemicals to resolve within us the stressed state of our cells. So we continue to feel this tensive state for unusually extended periods of time. A person who is anxious has little ability in that moment to handle more tasks and will avoid situations that even only slightly stress them. To the extent that a person abuses their organs, brain cells, and body in general with excessive stimulation, and in conjunction with their predisposed various strengths in glands and organs, will the person experience the severity of anxiety and depression in their life. Depression and anxiety slowly build up over decades, even right from birth if energy usurping practices are followed. The individual who manages to overcome these problems by incorporating truly healthful practices into their life in the greatest degree will come to see how in their former lives their depressive and anxious symptoms slowly increased, as they remained oblivious and ignorant of the consequences of their harmful actions. A return to raw food eating provides the body with an immensely reduced digestive load while providing vast quantities of energy. It will take a period of time for the body to heal its glands, nerves, digestive faculties and other tissues, but as it does so, its strong function will return and symptoms of depression and anxiety will fade and disappear. It usually does not happen overnight, as a person who is depressed and anxious has much lessened ability to create energy, which is required for healing. However, depending on the person and the intensity of the depression, recovery can sometimes be very fast. Sometimes just simple little activities like eating too late are all that are preventing the body from being able to re-generate adequate nerve energy reserves over night and thus causing it to experience depression. It is important to note that, at their roots, all depression and anxiety are physiological problems and all physiological problems are chemical problems, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are said to be mental and emotional problems, but it must be noted that our mental and emotional processes are undertaken by our nerves that make up our brains and which extend everywhere throughout our bodies. Our nerves are supported by all other tissues in the body, including our glands, muscles, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and mucous membranes, even as our nerves serve these various tissues. It's a whole, interconnected, interdependant system, all for one, one for all. All of these organs, including nerve cells, are constructed of and are creating billions of interacting chemicals all of the time which we experience as the process of life. It is through our nervous system that we are consciously aware of this life process, due to the electrical currents thusly created in nerve cells. This infinitely complex system of chemical, then cellular, then glandular, and finally nerve reactions occuring in our bodies is always automatically striving to maintain that state of balance that we describe as total well being, or health. It is a system that is dependant upon wholeness of action. This means that it is also dependant on getting whole foods into it, foods which are also biologically and physiologically correct for it. When all its needs are met correctly, the body in its whole will function optimally. To the extent its whole needs are not met, it will suffer dis-comfort, or dis-ease, or chemical imbalance. Depression and anxiety are two of these symptoms of imbalance. So anyone who has regularly abused themselves in the past with unhealthy habits will undoubtedly have suffered some extent of anxiety or depression, no matter how light. Who suffers more or who suffers less is determined by the extent of the bad habits and the particular strengths and weaknesses of various organs (a person's diathesis, as is said, or their constitution, or tendencies, or inheritance, or genetic makeup, etc). Were a person not to indulge in bad habits, then their diathesis would be irrelevant. Some people will experience depression or anxiety since, say, their dopamine producing cells get overworked first, while others will experience asthma as their lung cells get overworked. Those who continually indulge in poor health practices all suffer various levels of the innumerable ailments of modern life, but its only when the ailments become severely aggravated that we tend to recognize them and call them particular dis-eases. So, are we anywhere with all the discussion? We aught to be by now. A person could go on for years describing all the various chemical, nerve, and organ reactions going on in the body in regards to depression and anxiety, but it would get us nowhere closer to understanding what to do to resolve the problem. We already know that depression means lack of energy production and that anxiety means inability to overcome threat to oneself. But now that we know what causes needless energy loss and what puts unnecessary threat upon the body, namely unhealthy energy depleting habits, we automatically know what to do to resolve the problem ---adopt healthy habits as they pertain to the situation we find ourselves in. So a person needs to eat whole healthy foods, refrain from excessis of behaviour, develop emotional calm, get fresh air and adequate sleep, enjoy sunshine, and so on. Rest is very important, and it may even be necessary to fast for a few days, a week, or more, before adopting more sensible active health habits, such as eating fruits and vegetables. Because diet is the number one major culprit of health destruction in our age, it is the one area, when improved, that gives the greatest results in depression and anxiety. It may take time for the body to resolve the healing required in our nerves and organs, but it will come so long as good habits are continually fostered and persevered in. Some notable poor dietary habits that lead to depression and anxiety are: overeating in general, eating too much at one meal, eating concentrated foods (particularly sugary foods like dried fruits, which drive our adrenals and dope our brains with excessive glucose), eating late (after say 6pm), eating haphazzard combinations of foods, eating spicy and stimulating foods, pursuing foods as a comforting or exciting activity in order to avoid low feelings(called emotional abuse), eating beyond needs dictated by activity level, eating for entertainment, eating foods that are supposedly healthy like sea salt, vinegar, wine, garlic, and others that only serve to stimulate cleansing but not actual healing, binging, purging, eating before noon, eating heavy foods early in the day instead of later, overeating particular types of foods, especially the heavy more concentrated foods such as avocados (excess fat), nuts and seeds (excess protein and fat), and dried fruits (excess sugars), eating unripe fruits that don't satisfy appetite, mixing foods to overstimulate appetite (eg: fruit bowls, large complex salads with tasty fatty dressings), prolonged and excessive starch or concentrated sugar consumption, and generally speaking, overeating, once again and again and again and..... Growing up, I was a specialist in the overeating department, unknowingly, and if there was one thing that was gonna kill me, that was it. I suffered immense amounts of anxiety and depression from overeating, and I only made the connection after I improved my diet. Then I realized what an extreme food alcoholic I had been all my life, particularly a starch and sugar addict. I tried all sorts of procedures and a few medications to get over my depression/anxiety, some of which seemed to work, but which I dropped once I discovered my main problem was food addiction. It takes time to develop sensible eating habits after a life time of abuse, but the good feelings that one remembers as a child slowly return and dominate ones mental/emotional/physical state as pure raw ripe fresh whole foods dominate the diet. If I hadn't experienced it, I wouldn't believe it possible, but its so obvious to me now. Other lifestyle factors are important to consider as well, such as fun exercise, sleep, rest, sun, social activities, intimacy or love expression, fasting if necessary, abstaining from excesses of all types, development of emotional calm, good water if necessary, bodily cleanliness and purity (I don't mean soaps, etc here), productive work, mental stimulation, enjoyable emotional expression, security of life and means, warmth, aesthetic environment, and others. Of course once a person resolves their habits that lead to depression and anxiety, that person must remain aware that depression and anxiety are where their body first demonstrates a breakdown when bad habits are indulged. Thus they can expect to feel poorly once they indulge badly. I note in myself when I sometimes overeat (still here and there, eh, can ya believe it!! --though I don't overeat anything near like I used to) that the next day I start to get the slightly down feeling slightly reminiscent of the past. It's a good reminder to keep towing the line. But of course, feeling great is an even greater reminder. A person needs to be patient with themselves, persevere, remain attentive to improvements, and thus develop a sense of control and admiration of oneself. Living healthfully automatically generates those feelings that we associate with confidence and comfort. Living unhealthfully removes us from those feelings because it creates imbalances within our bodies, and as our nerves sense and experience those imbalances, we experience feelings of non-conconfidence, worry and foreboding. It's sometimes a more challenging route to choose health improvement over drug therapy or other misapplied solutions to depression and anxiety, but the rewards run much deeper. Hopefully that didn't over-complicate the subject. Somewhere some general simple concepts were discussed, with logical solutions to problems. rawfood , bandbcollection wrote: > Is there anything you all would suggest for someone like myself > who's been working at going raw, but is seriously depressed. Not to > the point of hurting myself or my kids, but to the point where I'm > considering going to a doctor for it and I don't like doctors. > > What is the common approach to this with the raw lifestyle? Any > foods in particular that can help with this? > > Thanks, > Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 Linda, I attached the pdf file that I have so you can review it in more detail. You shouldn't use stevia or honey or sugar. If you are diabetic, you can use molasses. But the maple syrup is really good. Get the grade B. I didn't expect it to be so good. Read the file and it talks about why to use maple syrup. Ariana Linda Hatton [lghatton] Mon 4/26/2004 1:32 PM rawfood Cc: Re: [Raw Food] question about cravings Ariana- What is the purpose of the maple syrup? Can Stevia be used for sweetening instead? Thank you, -Linda - " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez <rawfood > Monday, April 26, 2004 8:59 AM RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings > Hey Angela, > This is the best price I've found on the maple syrup: > <http://pennsylvaniamaplesyrup.com/> http://pennsylvaniamaplesyrup.com/ > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 28, 2004 Report Share Posted April 28, 2004 Thanks, Ariana. I actually have a book that talks about the Cleanse, but not in detail - and I'm also a member of the MC newsgroup. I appreciate the info. from you and everyone else regarding using Maple Syrup. -Linda :-) - " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez <rawfood > Monday, April 26, 2004 7:27 PM RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings > Linda, > I attached the pdf file that I have so you can review it in more detail. You shouldn't use stevia or honey or sugar. If you are diabetic, you can use molasses. But the maple syrup is really good. Get the grade B. I didn't expect it to be so good. Read the file and it talks about why to use maple syrup. > Ariana > > > > Linda Hatton [lghatton] > Mon 4/26/2004 1:32 PM > rawfood > Cc: > Re: [Raw Food] question about cravings > > Ariana- > > What is the purpose of the maple syrup? Can Stevia be used for sweetening > instead? > > Thank you, > -Linda > > - > " Lopez, Ariana " <alopez > <rawfood > > Monday, April 26, 2004 8:59 AM > RE: [Raw Food] question about cravings > > > > Hey Angela, > > This is the best price I've found on the maple syrup: > > <http://pennsylvaniamaplesyrup.com/> http://pennsylvaniamaplesyrup.com/ > > > > > > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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