Hello from England!

greenwoodgreenwood Raw Newbie

Hello folks. I'm from England and just joined. I'm a vegan but not a raw one.I hope it is ok to join not being a raw vegan? I have been interested in raw veganism/raw food/wholefoods for awhile now. My inspiration has come from two raw vegans in Iceland- Jonsi from Sigur Ros and his American partner Alex. Their recipes are simply divine! I haven't an electric blender so unable to make most of their recipes but me and a friend made their coconut strawberry pie with a hand one and it was gorgeous- like a vegan cheesecake! Even my mother loved it! I could tell by how quick she ate it lol.

I am suffering from chronic eczema and have been researching into wholefood and raw food diets and seen many testimonies online that it clears up eczema for life! I have been feeling for awhile now that this is the diet I need to adopt. I don't know if I'll go 100% raw but certainly wholefood (I will start this next week). I cannot afford an electric blender as yet as sadly I am unemployed.I do have a smoothie maker so will be making lots of fresh fruit smoothies. I will do my next grocery shopping next week and will be going wholefood (with a good proportion raw) thereon.

I made a divine fruit smoothie earlier with organic banana and cherries with pineapple juice. That is my starter. For dinner I'm having (organic)lentils and steamed broccoli, carrots, cabbage, onion, potato (all organic) with some V8 vegetable juice as stock. Not raw but at least wholefood!

For the time being I will have as much raw as I can- in the form of salads and fruit smoothies.

I will be getting a blender and juicer when I can afford them.

Comments

  • powerliferpowerlifer Raw Newbie

    Hey i just thought id chime in on the eczema.

    Eczema is largely caused by a dysfunction of the adrenal glands aswell as liver toxicity/stagnation.

    Building up your adrenal glands is a good start, with natural sources of vitamin C(the nutrient most used by the adrenals), if you need a herbal source of vitamin C then amla berry powder is great.

    Vitamin b5 is the next most needed nutrient good sources are bee pollen, rice bran, oat bran, seaweeds and nettle leaf.

    Adaptogenic herbs such as ashwagandha, jiaogulan, siberian ginseng, maca root etc all help restore normal adrenal gland function. Although not adaptogenic amla berry and nettle leaf are good herbs for the adrenal glands also.

    To take care of the liver the best tool is bitter herbs/digestive bitters, they must come in contact with the back of your tongue(bitter receptors), this stimulates the vagus nerve to release stomach acid, pancreatic enzymes, bile secreation whilst providing a cleansing action to the liver. Be sure to up your water intake as they detox your liver well.

    Being that your in England, im from Scotland:), you can get most of the adrenal supportive herbs which have secondary functions on the liver, blood pressure, immune system and more from the store below. You should be able to get some form of digestive bitters in your local health food store.

    Hope that helps abit.

     

  • Raw PassionRaw Passion Raw Newbie

    Hello, I'm from England too. You sound like me, good raw intake but some cooked dinners too. I think even if you just do raw desserts first thats a major break.

    Glad to meet another Englander.

  • greenwoodgreenwood Raw Newbie

    Thanks powerlifer! I had read some earlier posts on adrenals and funnily enough...I was drinking organic nettle tea (until I ran out of it- will get some more next week). I did feel it was doing me some good- I did have a little improvement on it.Nettles are awesome- they have so much nutrition! I am loathe to pick leaves from the park as they may have been sprayed.(I haven't a garden alas!) I do get lots of vit C in my diet as I drink lots of fruit juice and eat fruit and lots of vegetables. Today I have only had a fruit smoothie for brunch. I have left overs from last night's lentil stew so will have that later.I worked out I had 12 different fruits/vegetables yesterday!

    I can get Bee pollen from the organic shop I get my fruit and vegetables from. I found it did help the eczema a bit when I took it before. I find it is pleasant to eat.A local Bee keeper sells it to the shop- I have met her- she gives her Bees homeopathy and no nasties! I'll have a look into herbal bitters- many thanks!

    I went to the doctor today to ask for stronger anti- histimines (I don't want to take them but I need to get this itching under control) and when I took the box home from the chemist and read the ingredients- yuck! Full of e- numbers. I am not going to take them. I will just have to stick to the ones I get from Asda which are not full of e-numbers. The doctor is a nice young Russian lady but she kept asking me to try steriods again and I politely refused- many times! I told her my plans to go on a wholefood/raw diet and that I am having an allergy test from the health shop next week. I'm convinced this change in my diet will cure me! The lady in the health shop who does the testing is a very knowledgeable holictic therapist and I have faith that she will find out any intolerances and /or deficiencies I may have.

  • greenwoodgreenwood Raw Newbie

    Hello raw passion! Well, I plan to eat cooked foods that need to be cooked- that cannot be eaten raw- such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, aubergines and legumes. I really want to keep eating legumes because I love them and they are full of calcium, iron and B vitamins. I won't be eating tinned ones in sauce, but the dried ones (e.g lentils) and the tinned organic ones (Suma) in water- they have absolutely nothing added to them.

    And the rest raw. Oh raw deserts- mmmm yes! I shall be doing more of them when I get an electric blender- Jonsi and Alex's desserts are divine! But smoothies are good for now! I am getting mangoes and passionfruits next week. My smoothie maker is great- zaps up the fruit in seconds! It isn't an expensive one either.

    I'm working on an idea for raw ice cream...(or sorbet)

  • Raw PassionRaw Passion Raw Newbie

    See I'm strange but I love Raw potatoes, with a bit of sea salt YUM. What make is your blender, mines cheap but rubbish.

    So where in England are you from, Im Yorkshire born and bread...and I like Ice Cream ;)

  • powerliferpowerlifer Raw Newbie

    yeah nice one:), do try work on building the adrenals up like i say it will help in the long run and you were wise to decline steroids as they hurt the adrenals long term. They are just prescribing what your adrenal glands arent putting out in sufficient quantities.

    the bitters will help also like i say your health food store should have them, most likely swedish bitters which im not too keen on long term as they contain stimulant laxative herbs i prefer chinese or grape bitters or any bitter formula which doesnt contain these.

     

  • greenwoodgreenwood Raw Newbie

    Well I must be careful about anything laxative as bowel problems I do not have! I go usually 2- 3 times a day so all of that is working well lol.

    It's really hard for me to go to the doc re eczema as they are OBSESSED with steroids! I try to tell them that I'm a holistic therapist and used to be a nurse so I know a fair bit on diet. I am so going to love walking into that surgey and showing them I beat eczema by diet alone ha ha. I KNOW going raw/wholefood is going to beat the eczema.

    P.S. The fruit smoothie I had at 1pm kept me full until 7pm when I had my dinner. The fruit smoothie only had 1 banana, about 6 cherries and some pineapple juice. I had the rest of the lentil stew (all organic) an organic salad of lettuce, 1 tomato and a big spring onion. I didn't bother washing the lettuce- left the traces of soil on it ( maybe some B12 there...) and dressed it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I had a nut burger and bean burger with it ( not much stew left).Ok they were frozen ready made veggie burgers ( but as processed foods go not that bad...).

    I'm fully satisfied with all that- the last of my bread is going to the magpies outside! I don't even want to finish it, which is good for me as I was a big bread fan.

    Next Wed is when I get my giro and I go completely wholefood ( with a big proportion raw).

    Here's a question- do chutneys count as raw/wholefood? (I mean quality organic ones).

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