RAW Day Five

It's late and I'm tired so I will make this brief.

I'm so bloated! I woke up this morning and couldn't even get my rings off. My pants went on like my legs were two balloons. After dinner this evening I did a Google search on raw and bloated and found tons of sites. It turns out to be related to dried fruits. I have been eating a lot of dried fruits, which is common to those new to the raw diet. Listen to this:

From www.rawfoodinfo.com:

If you cut out the dried fruits and the bloat abated - that might be the answer to your problem right there. Many dried fruits are not really raw because they have been dried at high temperatures, and it's hard to get a straight answer from the suppliers as to what temperature their fruit was dried. The exception would be sun-dried fruits. But I would just cut out the dried fruits altogether and go with fresh fruit instead. Dried fruit is difficult to digest unless it has been soaked for a while in filtered water. Remember it is dehydrated, which means it has no water content in it. The body has to supply the missing water if you do not rehydrate the fruit and supplying the missing water is hard on the body.

In the beginning of changing to a raw diet a person may unconsciously look for the foods which are heavier and more filling. This is only natural since the previous processed and cooked diet was very heavy and stuck with the body longer. Raw foods are very light and so, many times you don't feel like you've eaten because you don't feel the heaviness or satiety in your stomach that you may be used to. Eventually you will become accustomed to the new feeling of lightness after eating. You may be using dried fruit and nuts to compensate for not feeling the usual feeling of fullness.

No more dried figs for me! This morning I had a green smoothie with bananas and chard. I had some raw granola and an apple late morning and a small bowl of the leftover gazpacho with flax crackers mid afternoon and another apple. About an hour before dinner I ate a raw cookie. Dinner was incredible: guacamole (avocado, tomato, garlic, onion, red bell pepper and lime, which I ate with cherry tomatoes, carrots, celery and jicama, Simply Yum Salad and an amazing coconut-goji (soaked) berry-strawberry smoothie. I ate a banana around 11pm and now at midnight I am going to bed.

Tomorrow, no dried fruit!