Thoughts on Raw

For a couple of months now, I've been following a 75-80% raw diet. Morning and lunch I try to have green smoothies or a bowl of fruit and dinner is either another green smoothie or a salad with homemade dressing. Recently I've been whipping up some nori rolls and am going to experiment with some other raw dishes.

The second month was difficult because I began another semester at school. Being raw at home during spring break was much easier in that there was more time for food preparation and it was much more relaxing overall. Three weeks into my semester, I could tell that something was wrong. I was extremely fatigued and grew sleepy during classes even after a full night's sleep. I feared B12 deficiency and after reading Victoria Boutenko's "Green for Life," discovered that my fatigue was probably due to eating conventionally grown produce. Organic produce has much more vitamins and minerals including cobalmin, the basis of cobalt, which is the foundation of B12. I started eating more organic produce and felt much better after a few weeks.

Last week gave me another challenge. I bought some naan, an Indian bread, to make veggie sandwiches for Jonathon. At home, I used to enjoy dipping this bread in hummus. The next day after enjoying the naan I woke up with a terrible cramp in my lower abdomen. I had to lie down on the floor for a couple of minutes until the pain subsided. I forgot to mention that Jonathon also bought some cinnamon raisin bagels which I hadn't had for a long while. I'm not sure what's going on chemically in my body, but I'm thinking that it has something to do with sticking with raw and steering clear or breads.

Cheers and celery sticks,

Siham