healing diet or cleansing diet. It consists of those very same watery fruits
and non-starchy vegetables one juices or makes into vegetable broths, but
eaten whole and raw. Heating food does two harmful things: it destroys
many vitamins, enzymes and other nutritional elements and it makes many
foods much harder to digest. So no cooked vegetables or fruits are allowed
because to maintain health on this limited regimen it is essential that every
possible vitamin and enzyme present in the food be available for digestion.
Even though still raw, no starchy or fatty vegetables or fruits are allowed
that contain concentrated calories like potatoes, winter squash, avocados,
sweet potatoes, fresh raw corn, dates, figs, raisins, or bananas. And
naturally, no salad dressings containing vegetable oils or (raw) ground
seeds are allowed. Nor are raw grains or other raw concentrated energy
sources.
When a person starts this diet they will at first experience considerable
weight loss because it is difficult to extract a large number of calories from
these foods (though I have seen people actually gain weight on a pure
melon diet, so much sugar do these fruits have, and well-chewed
watermelon seeds are very nourishing). Eating even large quantities of only
raw fruit and raw non-starchy vegetables results in a slow but steady
healing process about 10 to 20 percent as rapid as water fasting.
A raw food cleansing diet has several huge advantages. It is possible to
maintain this regimen and regularly do non-strenuous work for many
months, even a year or more without experiencing massive weight loss
and, more important to some people, without suffering the extremes of low
blood sugar, weakness and loss of ability to concentrate that happen when
water fasting. Someone on a raw food cleanse will have periods of lowered
energy and strong cravings for more concentrated foods, but if they have
the self-discipline to not break their cleansing process they can accomplish
a great deal of healing while still maintaining more or less normal (though
slower paced) life activities. However, almost no one on this diet is able to
sustain an extremely active life-style involving hard physical labor or
competitive sports. And from the very beginning someone on a raw food
cleanse must be willing and able to lie down and rest any time they feel
tired or unable to face their responsibilities. Otherwise they will inevitably
succumb to the mental certainty that their feelings of exhaustion or
overwhelm can be immediately solved by eating some concentrated food to
"give them energy." Such low-energy states will, however, pass quickly
after a brief nap or rest.
Something else gradually happens to a body when on such a diet. Do you
recall that I mentioned that after my own long fast I began to get more
"mileage" out of my food. A cleansed, healed body becomes far more
efficient at digestion and assimilation; a body that is kept on a raw food
cleansing diet will initially lose weight rapidly, but eventually weight loss
slows to virtually nothing and then stabilizes. However, long-term raw
fooders are usually thin as toothpicks.
Once starchy vegetables like potatoes or winter squash, raw or cooked, or
any cereals, raw or cooked, are added to a cleansing diet, the detoxification
and healing virtually ceases and it becomes very easy to maintain or even
gain weight, particularly if larger quantities of more concentrated foods like
seeds and nuts are eaten. Though this diet has ceased to be cleansing,
few if any toxins from misdigestion will be produced and health is easy to
maintain.
"Raw fooders" are usually people who have healed themselves of a serious
diseases and ever after continue to maintain themselves on unfired food,
almost as a matter of religious belief. They have become convinced that
eating only raw, unfired food is the key to extraordinarily long life and
supreme good health. When raw fooders wish to perform hard physical
work or strenuous exercise, they"ll consume raw nuts and some raw grains
such as finely-ground oats soaked overnight in warm water or deliciously
sweet "Essene bread," made from slightly sprouted wheat that is then
ground wet, made into cakes, and sun baked at temperatures below about
115 degrees Fahrenheit. Essene bread can be purchased in some health
food stores. However, little or no healing or detoxification can happen once
concentrated energy sources are added to the diet, even raw ones.
During my days at Great Oaks School I was a raw fooder for some years,
though I found it very difficult to maintain body heat on raw food during
chilly, rainy Oregon winters and eventually struck a personal compromise
where I ate about half my diet raw and the rest fired.
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