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Help! Feeling light headed!

My son has been raw for about 50 days, now. He is feeling light headed when he stands up from a sitting position. His vision tunnels fro a moment. Is there something that he needs to help with this? Is this common? He says he is not hungry. I just reread a post from pianissima about greens and nuts helping with this problem. Would romain be classified as a green, or are greens only like spinich, kale, turnip greens, collards, ect? I am sorry to sound so stupid, but I am not sure about this.

Comments

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    Yes anything green is a green, even cucumbers and celery are greens because they contain chloryphll. Anything leafy and green is a leafy green.

    What does you son eat in a typical day? Let us know more details about what he is eating now and what he ate before he was raw, and we can help you more.

  • Thanks for clearing that up, Zoe! You are a dear! Before he went raw – pop tarts, eggs, bacon, frosted mini wheats, cow’s milk, all kinds of meat, bread, lots of cheese, peanut butter, sugar toast, fast food, ice cream. He rarely ate veggies, or fruit, but he did some, and we also usually have whole wheat bread, so some of his diet was kind of good! It has been a huge difference for him, I guess that is why he has lost 50 lbs. in 50 days!

    Now- grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange. He loves to juice them all together and drink it strait! smoothies with a few kelp leaves some times, almonds (raw from CA) raisins, peaches, banana, walnuts, pecans, salad w/ sunflower, or pumpkin seeds. carrot juice. He loves pineapple.

    I am thinking that I may have overreacted with my post because I am thinking that he got a lot of excersize today with walking around down town with his girl freind, and lifting weights in the gym. He was extemely sedentary before, so just a lot of changes for him! Any thing that you recomend is helpful. We are so new to this it is like a brave new world! Kind of a type of culture shock I guess!

  • i don’t see many sources of zinc in your list of foods. zinc is hugely important in all diets and often missing from raw diets. add some soaked pumpkin seeds and mushrooms and see if that helps. a lightheaded, spacy feeling is a common symptom of zinc deficiency.

  • bittbitt Raw Newbie

    ok dizziness and light-headedness can be a vitamin deficiency. chances are he’s getting lots of great vitamins now but just in case he could take an overall vegan multivitamin.

    i would up the dark leafy greens. make sure they are organic. and wheatgrass is great too.

  • cherie03- Yes, I was concerned when I saw him get up and start blinking and looking kind of strange. I do have a hard time getting my boys to tell me what is going on with them. It is frustrating as a mother, but I guess it is a boy thing! He is not happy with me when I try to give him a vitamin, or when I sneak something like nutritional yeast in to his diet. He has just gone from a couch potatoe cookie monster, to this ultra health concious raw foodist! I am happy for him, but rather overwhelmed at times. Especially since it is hard to get him to eat his salad, or any green food. He is doing better, but he still has a long list of things that he just won’t eat. Honey dew, cantaloupe, mushrooms, tomato to name a few. Recently he has started to accept celery, cucumber, cauliflower and the spaghetti recipe has helped him to eat zuchini, but the zuchinni was not labeled, so I do not know if they are gmo, or not. I am trying to grow a garden, so maybe he will like some of the vegitables that are garden fresh.

    earthmother-How important is it to soak the pumpkin seeds? I have soaked almonds and walnuts for a recipe, but I am not sure why or how long seeds and nuts need to be soaked. My family prefers them before they are soaked.

    bitt-I am not real sold on the wheat grass idea because I sprouted some winter wheat, and had a hard time digesting the sprouts. I let the grass grow, but just threw it away because I read that humans do not have the proper digestion for it, so I am a little confused. Also, I do not have the type of juicer that will juice grass.

    Anything that you all could say to help us would be much appriciated. I am just trying to do the best I can, but have not bought a book on raw yet. And my library could not order in any other than Eat smart, eat raw which was good, but only raised more questions in my mind, for some reason.

  • germin8germin8 Raw Master

    Wow, 50lbs in 50 days. That’s amazing… and it sounds like you are still going strong with the raw food diet! Maybe the light-headed-ness was sign of detox. Did you have detox symptoms at the start? I know there are a few phases of detoxing… (I think, 5 total). When my in-laws were 10-days raw, they both got dizzy and lightheaded. I now believe they were not eliminating toxins fast enough! The body was de-toxing, but the toxins weren’t being taken out of the body. Gotta get that waste out… it must come out… by hot-cold saunas, exercise, drinking water, flushes, etc.

  • He was 340 when he started, and on sunday he weighed in at 286, so more than 50 lbs. in 50 days. Yes, we have had lots of detox symptoms. In fact right now I am dizzy and nauseated! We did, however, find another problem. My husband is now trying the rave diet as I saw chriscarlton recomended it for someone else who may not be prone to go raw, so he was cooking potatos last night. Something must have been stuck on the oven because it stunk, and I turned the fan in that direction. (we don’t have airconditioning right now) Well, it blew all of the pilots out, and this morning we could really smell the gas! My husband does not seem to be affected by this sort of thing, but it can really do me in! Luckily all of the windows are open! I smelled it last night and took the garbage out because I thought that was what I was smelling. It kind of smells like broccoli, or kale that has gone bad.

  • Gorawmom wow how impressive that your son is taking on the raw lifestyle and your are there to guide him in the right direction. Good job and kudos to you! I agree that you shoud consider every nuiance in his journey. You are not overreacting. I did noticed also that he wasn’t doing too many greens. That will help and also you did list his water intake. Water is really important for him now because he has only been eating raw like this for 50 days. He is detoxing and will be doing so for another 3-4 years. The initial detox is when everything starts to break loose and needs to escape every avenue it can…lol if you know what I mean. Saying that you may want to ask him how he is eliminating. I feel that before detoxing the body one should first make sure that the digestive tract is clear without obstructions. This will help with the detox process before it starts fully. If he is not going 2-3 times a day. There my dear may be the crux of his problem. LOL…it’s gotta come out. The situation may be other things but this is one of the best starting points to correcting alot of ills.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Wheatgrass fiber can’t be broken down by our chewing/digestive system; that’s why people juice it. If you want to get the juice, you might try buying it at a health food store or juice bar. Don’t try to push the cantaloupe, etc. that your son doesn’t like – his body may not be ready for it. Greens – why doesn’t he like them? I never liked much salad until I started making dressings that tasted like more than lemon, garlic & oil and started putting all kinds of “hefty” veggies in my salads – I love Spring Mix with cauliflower, zucchini, fresh peas, fresh corn, avocado, etc. – and I still don’t like “cold” salads: romaine, cucumber, tomato, etc. that are watery. It took me a LONG time to figure out that’s why I thought I didn’t like salad very much – I just had preconceived ideas about what salad was, & those aren’t the salads I like. I love kale salads, too – look at jenergy’s “Rock & Roll Kale Salad” – I make it savory, leaving out the agave & raisins, and I’ve varied the spices & mix-ins sometimes for variety, but it’s the bomb for eating greens! If that doesn’t work, maybe just start with lots of fresh parsley in an Italian flavored dish, or spinach thrown into a smoothie (spinach has a mild flavor & hides in the fruit flavors easier than most other greens). Don’t worry too much – it will all work out. Get his blood sugar tested if you’re worried about it :)

  • angie-Our only health food anything is a dusty little shop with sparsely stocked shelves. They have recently gotten a cooler with some sandwiches, and drinks, but nothing like what most people on gone raw seem to be used to. I have never seen a juice bar, but I have heard of them. I will check out that kale salad. Sounds like something I can work with. I did try a kale salad recipe with bok choi instead of kale. I liked it, and the boys were able to eat it.

    Ntombi-elimination is definately going betternow that it is summer vacation time. I found out that he had trained himself not to “go” at school because of the stupid pranks the kids do in the bathrooms. Not good!

  • gorawmom – what an accomplishment for your son! 50 pounds! That’s incredible! Congrats to him and to you and your family for making such positive changes.

    I have had some light-headed moments during my transition to raw. When that happens, I just eat some denser foods – dates, avocado, stuff like that. It seems to help. I hope he’s feeling better. My youngest son, 11, won’t “go” at school, either! I’m glad it’s summer!

    I don’t have much of a health store, either, here. We have a small health food store, but they don’t stock much produce. It’s mostly vitamins, herbs, and boxed food products. It’s hard living in the boonies.

  • WinonaWinona Raw Newbie

    gorawmom – if ntombi is right, and he’s not cleaning out the old pipes enough, i highly recommend flax. these flax crackers can be purchased here

    they come in four flavors, i LOVE them, and they clean the system right away. they’re TASTY crunchy snacks for when i crave salty chips. i tried to make them, but i haven’t perfected the recipe yet. anyway, just order some, and give it as a gift to your son maybe?

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Ooh, I feel for you guys – I love my health food stores here :)

  • Gorawmom here’s a simple green juice you can whip up 2 apples, 2 bunches of kale or spinach, baby carrots and water (I usually don’t add the water. Flax seeds are good Winona and putting them in a green drink or smoothie is good for the system. Plus it taste good!

  • bittbitt Raw Newbie

    oh those crackers are so good especially the mexican harvest ones. yumm. with avocado.

  • gorawmom to answer your question about why nuts and seeds need to be soaked, is because they are packed whith nutrients, but they are in a kind of sleeping state and when you soak then the germination process will start and does nutrients will be more easily absorb in our digestive system. Hope this can help:

    “Soaking nuts and seeds increasing the vitamin C content, but also increasing Vitamin B content and carotenes (pre-vitamin A). Most importantly, this soaking neutralizes phytic acid, a substance present in the bran of all grains and seeds that inhibits absorption of calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc. Soaking also neutralizes enzyme inhibitors present in all seeds. These inhibitors can neutralize our own precious enzymes in the digestive tract. Complex sugars responsible for intestinal gas are broken down from soaking and a portion of the starch in the seed is transformed into simpler sugars. Aflotoxins (potent carcinogens found in grains) are inactivated. Finally, numerous enzymes that help digestion are produced during the germination process.”

    Also check out this website http://www.allorganic.net/sproutseeds.html

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