History: Vegan since 1997, HCRV since 2008
Short story long: I stopped eating overts of any kind, bananas, melons, greens and any conventional produce at about the same time, April/May of 2013. I lost a bunch of body fat. Lost about 42lbs., 4" off my waist, and 10% body fat in a couple of months and have never felt better. I also had a great romantic affair during that time and spent more time outdoors than I can remember. I basically subsisted on dates, oranges, peaches, plums, nectarines and an occasional honeydew or cantaloupe. I normally suffer from melon belly often but had no incidences in memory all summer. I felt I had finally found my way on this HCRV lifestyle. Finally I felt fine not wearing a shirt in public, no body odor, I could run a 5k at the drop of a hat and so on.
Flash forward to a week ago. I started feeling depressed (a symptom of fructose malabsorbtion) and eating a lot of my food intake late at night. When I get depressed I will often gravitate to gourmet raw. So I had a kale salad with avocados, a small amount of salt, onions and flax oil and had a couple bags of kale chips and a few bites of kim chi. Whoa, bad idea. I hadn't had any of that stuff in months if not years. I figured it might be a little rough for a day or two. I have been feeling crappy for the past week and get melon belly (like heart attack pain followed by vomiting) EVERY time I eat anything but oranges (which suppress my appetite unless I juice them). I feel lethargic and bloated. I'm retaining water. I ate a salad a few days ago (just spring mix, celery, lemon and cucumber), thinking that may help and now my BO is back. I guess my question is: What should I do to get rid of these candida/fructose malabsorbtion symptoms and get back to feeling great like this summer? Should I try to only eat low fructose fruits? Fast? Avocado island? Obviously, I have to stop eating at night and I work a different schedule now so that will stop. I greatly appreciate any light you could shed on this subject.
Note: Please refrain from gathering the torches and pitchforks for a witch hunt, I know we're not made to eat that crap but even Harley admits to having eaten gourmet on occasion, I don't need the lecture. If you have something positive or constructive to suggest I'm all ears but if you want to use this forum to disparage me so you can feel superior in your raw vegan-ness you'd be best off taking your holier than thou attitude and cramming in your banana hole. I need HELP not a reason to feel worse, I have plenty already.
Replies
Hi. There's a lot going on in your post, so I'm not entirely sure what you're asking. So I'll just add some thoughts.
*Avocado island is a bad idea. Way too much fat. This wouldn't be helpful.
*It would do no harm to fast for 1-3 days to empty your stomach, & clear out some of the stuff you've been eating, especially things like salt and onions.
*If your BO came back after the salad you ate- to me this is a symptom of detox. This some of the toxic stuff you've been eating coming out.
*It's possible your digestive problems could be medical. It might serve you to see a doctor if problems persist, to get a diagnosis. (Or some other trusted medical professional. If you can see someone who understands Natural Hygiene, so much the better). But to be honest, it sounds like your problems stem from eating non-ideal food due to feelings of depression. Therefore what I would do in your position, would be to cut out or greatly minimise those foods, and then take steps to examine the depressed feelings that give rise to this craving.
what is your daily calorie and fat intake according to cronometer?
what is your daily urine output, how many times a day do you pee with vigor?
Check out Eli's daily schedule and how he manages his time to get everything in...
http://www.30bananasaday.com/profiles/blogs/80-10-10-athlete-s-dail...
Oh sorry I didn't notice your reply seems melons give you digestive issues. Sorry. But again what type of greens were you eating prior to cutting them out?
Were you having other symptoms of malabsorption? Dr. Doug says this condition is very rare. Depression is also a classic symptom of under eating, something very easy to do when we are not paying attention and are very active and busy or preoccupied. We can still feel good for a while under eating as we live off of adrenaline but eventually it catches up with us. There have been a few people here who under ate on 811rv for 6 months or so and then ran into trouble. So I might try increasing my caloric intake by at least a thousand a day for a few days and see if this helps. And of course check all your other lifestyle factors: 32 Elements of Health: How Round is Your Wheel?
Interesting talk on similar symptoms here: Chest pains from sugary fruit on a raw vegan diet
I appreciate your advice. I literally can't eat any more than I already do. When I do I get melon belly and all the other symptoms of candida and frutmal. My digestive system is already overwhelmed as it is. I used to eat 4-5k calories a day and had a horrible time with it. I have literally all symptoms of fructmal. If I eat watermelon or nightshades I get swollen feet and a condition similar to jock itch as well as red bumps on my hands and feet if I persist in eating these foods. Upon investigating this condition I have determined that its most likely due to my intestinal wall becoming more permeable by these foods and the waste created by the bacteria digesting undigested sugar in my gut is creating a condition of toxemia. On a side note the reason why watermelon is considered a diuretic, [by definition a diuretic makes your body use more water than the diuretic provides] apparently is because it causes an increase of urea in the blood and your body dehydrates your cells to flush out this biological toxin, I suppose dehydration is the cause of that empty headed feeling after eating watermelon. I think my internal flora have become unbalanced due to eating gourmet raw or my digestive enzymes are depleted. This past summer I started eating only when hungry and felt amazing but I recently started getting depressed after the symptoms started to appear again and the cycle started up with me eating because I'm depressed and progressively feeling worse. The problem seems to be: if I eat in the a.m. I can't exercise so I don't eat in the a.m. There's not enough hours in the day to drink as much water as this site recommends and eat 4k calories before 8 at night without drinking on a full stomach or improperly combining foods. When I eat a lot at a time I often get incapacitating kidney pain which I suspect is from either my adrenal glands and a blood sugar problem or the kidneys themselves getting overload with the bacterial waste from fermentation in my intestine due to my not absorbing the sugar. Often my urine has a "bready" odor and is very cloudy. This has been happening a lot more lately. Greens only make things worse for me. Causing runny nose, gas, slow digestion and headaches. I am currently back to no overts or greens but unless I make OJ my staple food (not optimal) I will have to start eating melons or bananas again.
Do you think a short fast followed by a mono island would work better than trying to reduce fructose rich foods for an extended period?
your symptoms sound like leaky gut, have you considered this as a possible cause?
if I were you I'd skip the low cal melons and such and stick with the high cal foods to get in more calorie to fuel your healing.
Dr. Doug says it's no problem to skip the greens for a while, we have plenty of minerals stored to get us through 6 months on one food. So I would skip them if they caused me problems.
OJ island might be what I would do if I had access to ripe oranges. See Anne's OJ island journey here: (scroll down to orange juice diaries) http://www.fruitgod.com/