Raw Vegan Alcoholic & blood sugar and cravings

[Guest guest]

Hi Ron,

When I don't get enough living food and too many of my calories are coming from

dry food, my sense of satisfaction goes down and cravings go up. I mix my greens

in with the soaked nuts/seeds which I crème in the blender so I'll get more

benefit out of them with less strain on my digestive tract.

 

For me, meat cravings indicate I'm not getting enough protein and/or not enough

fish oil pills, and so I experiment with increasing my soaked nuts and seeds

until I reach a balance. Once I started taking a daily fish oil pill, that

seemed to be adequate (as long as I take them), so usually I just need to

increase the protein. Taking enzymes with my meal and resting after the meal

helps me better digest and absorb the protein I do eat. Right now my digestion

is so messed up I need to blend the seeds or nuts into a smooth crème (which I

pour over other stuff) so I can successfully get the protein into my

bloodstream. Whole dry nuts are really hard to digest, even if you try to chew

real well.

 

A lot of raw food doesn't have the flavor intensity of cooked and especially

fried food. Those naturally cured Botilla olives which are sour, salty, and rich

tasting are a real help for me, and eating a few after a meal goes a long ways

to curbing my cravings for less healthy food. Generally the raw fermented foods

have more flavor than they started with, and are also easier to digest after the

fermentation, so if you can eat them, they are a great addition to your diet.

 

There is a whole lot of controversy about salt. I started doing better and

having less cravings when I started putting about an eighth teaspoon of sea salt

into each smoothie, and have about 2 of them a day.

 

Just drinking a smoothie isn't very satisfying for me and resulted in cravings.

Now I peel some fruit, put the peelings into the smoothie, dice the peeled

fruit, and pour the smoothie over the fruit. Now I don't gulp my meal, work more

saliva in with the chewing, and have much more of a sense of a satisfying meal.

 

I've read before that alcoholism tends to deplete the minerals, vitamins, and

enzymes, and so while you are restarting your body, and it is going through the

stress of detoxification, some booster supplements along these lines might be

helpful. A lot of cravings come from being short of one nutrient or another.

 

I've also read that there is a tendency for alcoholism to be associated with

sugar sensitivity conditions like hypoglycemia and other pre-diabetic

conditions.

 

Being raw seems to have reduced my hypoglycemia a lot, but it was hard surviving

until this happened. Now I am more stable on 2 meals a day than I was before on

4. I still can't eat dates unless they are mixed into the smoothie, and then

only a few. I almost always have soaked almonds in my smoothie, and the oil,

protein, and dietary fiber from them helps slow the absorption of sugar.

 

A significant portion of our calorie intake needs to be in the form of sugars,

but some bodies like mine can't manage a sudden burst of sugar, so anything that

slows the absorption of sugar makes it easier for the body to maintain a stable

blood sugar level while digesting the meal. The added water in a smoothie also

helps slow the absorption of sugar.

 

At first I had to put flaxseed into the smoothie because its extremely high

fiber content was needed to reduce sugar absorption. Even though figs have a

high sugar content, the also have a high fiber content, so I can eat them along

with a smoothie which has protein and oil in it. I still have a problem with

high sugar/low fiber fruits like melons.

 

Its not so much the absolute level of sugar, its the ratio by weight of the

dietary fiber to sugar in the combined meal that is the critical factor in

limiting the sugar surge in the blood. Here are the dietary fiber/sugar ratios

of some common foods that illustrate the different contributions to this

balance:

Watermelon 0.06

Medjool dates 0.10

Sweet cherries 0.16

Figs 0.20

Apples with skin 0.23

Blueberries 0.24

Mulberries 0.28

Pears 0.32

Kiwifruit 0.33

Cashews 0.56

Almonds 2.46

Flaxseed 26.57

Though I'm doing better blood sugar wise, its in part because most of my

calories come from meals which are high in apples and almonds. Most fruit has a

dietary fiber/sugar ratio of less than 0.21, and most nuts and seeds have a

ratio of 1.0-4.0.

 

Eating very large amounts of flaxseed and lettuce for a prolonged period can

destabilize your male/female hormone balance so be cautious about this. At one

point my breasts and nipples started swelling and getting tender, and after a

lot of research figured out reducing the flaxseed and lettuce in my diet would

solve this problem. Lots of raw lettuce is recommended for nursing mothers, and

raw flaxseed is sometimes used as a supplement for older women to help balance

their hormones. Generally eating a wide variety of foods in moderation allows

foods to balance each other out. Unfortunately for me lettuce was one of the few

greens I could eat, and I needed a very high fiber diet when I first went raw.

Now I'm doing okay without any flaxseed fiber and a moderate amount of lettuce

in my smoothie several times a week.

 

Since I was extremely hypoglycemic when I first went raw, I probably wouldn't

have made the transition to raw without flaxseed fiber supplements. There are a

lot of useful healing treatments with mild side effects, which are used for a

limited period of time which also limits the period of the side effects. Knowing

all this, I'd probably still would have used the flaxseed fiber, but have made

more effort to use other high fiber foods and reduce the amount of flaxseed

fiber I needed.

 

Avoiding destabilizing my blood sugar level (avoiding both highs and lows) helps

me avoid cravings which is why my diet has a higher fat and dietary fiber and

lower sugar content than most.

 

Coconut oil particularly helps stabilize blood sugar because of several of its

unusual characteristics, but it is too irritating for my digestive tract to eat

it more than a couple meals a week. Because of its rich sweet flavor, it really

helps make meals more satisfying for me when its mixed into the nut crème or

smoothie.

 

Generally at least one meal a day I have either coconut oil, fermented olives,

or dried figs as part of the meal, and this is essential for me to avoid the

cravings that tend to result in eating junk food. Besides the strong flavor of

these which I enjoy, I suspect I specifically need those foods, so I'm glad that

some food which is so good for me is so fun to eat.

 

May your day be filled with clarity, grace, progress, and warm laughter,

Roger

 

-

" dukkadon " <dukkadon

<RawSeattle >

Monday, February 26, 2007 2:10 PM

[RawSeattle] Raw Vegan Alcoholic

 

 

.... I did well for a couple of days and today I'm

> having cravings for junk and animal products. ...

> Ron

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Specifically, papaya and pineapple have enzymes that help with digestion.

I've read that bee pollen also helps with digestion. You can just sprinkle

some on your food. Most bee pollen is dried out, so hopefully not at high

temperatures, which would destroy the enzymes.

Ron

 

RawSeattle , " Tanya G " <tanya.gunby wrote:

>

> What raw foods aid in digestion?

>

> Thanks,

>

> Tanya