I found a blog one afternoon before I was serious about losing weight (I wanted to, just hadn't found the motivation to do it the proper way). This lady did the raw food diet and lost 20lbs in a month. She updated her blog everyday with the foods she ate, recipes she used, how she felt, etc. I decided that I needed to go raw and I would magically lose weight like this lady.

I went to the store like you did, bought a silly amount of vegetables, $100+. I followed the blog lady's first two days of recipes, had horrrreeeeendous stomach cramps. Once the cramps passed, I felt starved and deprived (even though I was eating a ton of fruits/veggies/nuts including protein and fat). My willpower lasted about two days until I caved and went and got the biggest juiciest meatiest most cooked burger I could find. My vegetables went bad in a few days and I threw $100+ in the trash.

I have taken organic chemistry, biochemistry, and several nutrition courses. I can confidently tell you that the useful nutrients in food will not be harmed by applying heat. Heat increases the vibration moment of molecules which will change the stereochemistry (the shape) of protein peptides, but it will not change the usefulness to the body. Your body is just as capable of extracting the nutrition from a raw protein as it is a denatured cooked protein.

It's fairly gimmicky and fad-ish, in my opinion.

It's absolutely delicious. Here's the recipe for you, pudding! My advice is to use some almond milk instead of water, it just makes it fantastically creamy. Ah. To die for. I made it for my ex-boyfriend, who thought raw foods were "gross" and he was licking the bowl. Literally.

I think that's the most important thing you said here. Your body wants you to.

I have read about raw diets that you should start slow. Incorporate one meal into your diet every day that's raw, and move up from there.

~BreathingSpace~

Thanks! I guess it's true that not everything works the same for everybody. Maybe some people's bodies react differently? I guess I could get just as much out of cooked frozen vegetables as I could with the expensive raw versions.

I'm still going to try this, because I don't want to waste all the pretty vegetables I got, and I've been eating so much bad stuff here lately that I think I just need to detox or something. Also, the salad I had the other night was AWESOME. I used collard greens, spinach, mustard greens, carrot greens, one whole carrot broken into pieces, and cilantro. Unfortunately, I messed it up by having a couple slices of pizza with it, but the salad still tasted good.

Here's some organic buying info:
The prime organic things you should buy
CELERY, leafy/salad greens, pears, and apples. Thos e are the major ones, and everything else comes second- money is a problem with us too, so I can't buy everything organic either



I have been really getting into the raw food diet- I don't think I'll ever go high-raw, nor will I do it until out of college (or at least half way through)
I do try to eat at least one raw meal a day though, and with raw snacks, probably eat about 40% raw
So many raw foodists say they have so much more enrgy, so I think it does do something good for you. And vitamin C is definitely destroyed when cooked, so is calcium (if kept on direct heat)

I guess I could look into getting spinach organic (I saw it in those prewashed bags), but I can't seem to find any of the other greens I like organic: cilantro, collard greens, mustard greens, kale ect.

I haven't been so good with being raw, because these last two days I've still eaten 'regular' food, but I have been eating WAY more veggies and fruit than usual. I have to say once I'm done with my salads I get kind of this euphoric, light feeling. Although I love pizza, chocolate, and pasta, they've never given me this kind of feeling. Hmmm... Now I wonder which is better: the feeling or the taste of my old 'favorite foods? lol. And it was just nice sitting in bed with my husband this morning, munching on a big bowl of raw veggies while he played video games. I felt very content, and had that nice euphoric feeling afterwards.

Does this happen to anyone else, or do I just sound totally crazy?

I know what you mean! They say that 'expansive' foods, or veggies that gorw outward, like leafy greens, give you energy, whereas others, like tubers and roots, make you feel more grounded- makes sense

Spinach is definitely good to buy organic, but it's tough to find other organic greens, like collard and kale, around here too, so I only get them on occasion. I'm hoping to grow my own next year

Ever since Ive been trying to eat some raw, Ive just felt soo happy, it's ridiculous!

I have been watching this and find it very helpful. I am planning on introducing some raw to my diet but I agree with the others that some food does need to be cooked if for nothing other than variety.

http://www.rawradianthealth.com/blog/

I've been eating mostly raw for the last 2 months. I say mostly because I sometimes I would have dry organic flaxseed toast, or a slice a cheese or 1 days out of the month I would have fish and Quinoa. I've lost 18 Lbs without much effort.
At first I felt deprived and that's when I would have a piece of toast but I never felt hungry. I drank smoothies, ate fruit, nibbled on nuts and had delicious salads. Sometimes the dressing on my salad wasn't raw because it was one those "feeling deprived" moments and lemon dressing didn't always cut it.
I felt light, never too full and I was happy. I'm still surprised that I lost so much weight without barely trying! I've been on many diets, low carb, high protein, and that never happened.

I'm about 80% raw. Ever since I started 2 years ago, I never felt better in my life. I'm 42 yrs. and my hair got so thick & wavy, nails and hair grow like crazy & I have not gotten sick at all since i started. I eat 10 servings of fruit w/ breakfast & lunch combined & 2 servings of veggies a day w/ dinner. The rest is 2 yogurts for lunch with my fruit and skinless chicken for dinner( not raw of course) those are the only items I eat that are not raw. I love to make my own peanut butter too. 65lbs. just dropped off in 10 mo. I enjoy the food so much that I know i will never go back to my old ways of eating. I'm a member of Rawfu, look the site up, great recipes on there. The only problem I have is, my weight just keeps dropping. So I have to eat alot more when that happens.

I have been about 5o% raw/vegan for the last week and a half and have lost 6lbs. I do still eat meat (fish and chicken) and dairy but have managed to cut way back.