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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookOkay so I’m having a huge problem sticking with raw. I’m great all day—sometimes I’ll juice in the morning, then eat fruit and/or green smoothies during the day. The trouble comes at dinner time: it’s like once I start, I can’t stop. My normal dinners include salads or veggie nori wraps or zuchini “pasta”... all good stuff. But then I want to keep eating. And after reading Natalia Rose’s Raw Food Detox Diet, I am super-paranoid about food combining. I am afraid I will gain weight if I don’t eat the “quick exit” way… I thought that fruit or a smoothie would make a good desert or “midnight snack”... but I know this is not proper food combining. So if I eat fruit after dinner, I feel like I already screwed up and will turn to my boyfriend’s non-raw junk food. I eat food I would normally never touch, thinking “Oh well.. I’ll just start again tomorrow.” This has been going on for some time now, and it just makes me feel awful emotionally and physically. I love the way I feel when I eat raw, but this whole food combining thing is just so overwhelming! How bad is it to eat fruit after a veggie meal? Will it keep extra weight on my body? I mean, it would obviously be better than eating the way I have been the past month or so, but I just want to know why eating fruit after veggies is so bad. I was doing so well for awhile, but now I feel like I have to think about food too much, which triggers disordered eating (I do have a history). I am confused and in need of some good advice. Thanks for your help!!
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i think everyone’s digestion is different. i have lost weight and i honestly have no clue about the combining rules. i eat fruit after meals because otherwise it would be lots of other sweet stuff. i have a sweet tooth what can i say? my body does not seem to react funny, so it’s fine. but some people are more sensitive to it. throw caution to the wind! eat raw! bad raw combining is still WAY better than cooked junk food. by far!
Thank you bitt - that’s exactly what I needed to hear!!!!! By the way - I read a lot of the posts here on Goneraw to try to learn as much as I can, and so I’ve happened to read a lot of your posts. I checked out your blog the other night and your New England vaca. caught my attention… then I saw a pic of you in Portsmouth and nearly died!! That’s where I am from and have spent all summer!! Point being—seeing that was such an inspiration.. if you were able to stay raw while on vacation, there really is no excuse I can make up not to stick with it. At the risk of sounding like a creepy stalker (haha I’m really not!), I did want to share that with you. Thanks again!
It is a transition. You don’t have to go head first into food combining. Eventually, I saw that I felt a lot better when I combined properly, and that my bod performed better on it, but that was from personal experience. Don’t worry about what people say about food combining, and if you want to start combining right, start, but it is better not to think about eating junk food because you “screwed up” – it’s definitely not screwing up compared to anything cooked. What I started to do was to write down the times that I eat and what I eat so that I can evaluate my food combination afterwards and see how I feel when eating a certain way. This way, even when I don’t combine right for a meal or two, I can see my overall progress with food combining day by day and put things into perspective. Just an idea. Peace of mind comes with owning what you do and writing a list – you don’t have to keep all of your thoughts about what you ate in your head since it’s on paper.
O yeah and like bitt, I felt the benefits of raw without worrying much about food combination at first. Just see how you feel.
My first worry was eating disorder related issues, then I read the bottom of your entry. HUGS. I have a LIFELONG HISTORY, been in and out of recovery/treatment for 12 years. Let me tell you, the transition to RAW will be different for everyone. It is best not to push it or hold expectations for yourself as that will develop into additional eating disorders or trigger past thoughts and behaviors. Nutrition should be about NOURISHMENT and healing NOT obsession. Ask yourself, are you eating for emotional OR physical hunger? maybe sometimes both? If your meals aren’t balance you won’t have satiety. If your mind is not sound then you won’t have mental satiety and stability either. Listen to your body, too many people deprive themselves of listening to themselves… and continue to get support, we all need it. Guidance is good doing a transition but the best one to ask is your own body, it will tell you more than anyone here can… honestly.
Hey ejowett :)
I’ve been eating 95-100% raw for 8 months now and I’ve experienced the same freakouts…when I learned about food combining and did thourough research on it I began to criticize everything I ate. Here’s the deal…when I first went raw, I could miscombine and I still felt great. I was losing weight, having energy and what not. But as time passes for me and my body cleans itself out…I am starting to feel SICK combining things. The simplification of your meals will happen naturally. Enjoy your food now! Just enjoy all the flavors together…eventually your body will start to want to transition to a simpler way of eating!! Eating raw is already doing a great service to your body and spirit!!!
I realize this post was started a while ago, but I would just like to say everyone in here all have great information on this topic. I would listen to them.
It’s way better to do bad combo’s wrather than bad combo and cooked junk food. Don’t let something that wrong get to you. You’ve bad combo’d your WHOLE LIFE (i’m assuming) with BAD FOODS. It’s okay to bad combo with great foods. As other people said, in the beginning it’s not that big of deal. When you’re body becomes not so numb it will feel the effects of bad combining. That is when you can change what you are doing.
It also sounds like you are not eating enough to satiate you. Eat your fruits right when you start dinner. That way they can get out first, before they ferment. Also, this will help fill you up and satisfy your needs. Salads are great, but they do not have the proper calories your body is probably burning worrying about combining! (or other energy consuming activities you do ;-] )
I would like for you not to become overwhelmed by thoughts of food combining. =) It is easy to become completely obsessed with it. If you eat live food with some degree of awareness of food combining, eating the appropriate combination will no longer be an issue!
The general principle behind food combining is that different food types require different enzymes and digestive pH’s for their assimilation. Not only this, but different types of food have different rates of digestion. A good example of this is comparing the digestion rates of Fruits and Protiens. Fruits have a faster digestion rate as compared to protiens – slow.
It is important to note, as others have brought up; we all have different and unique constitutional types, and therefore different digestive processes. Though really, if you can keep the basic principle behind food combining in mind, you shall not have any problems.
warmth and love to all
I am new to raw and dont know much about food combining, but I know exactly what you mean about overeating at night. I had struggled with overeating for years until I realized that my problem was breakfast and low blood sugar. I really think you should have more for breakfast than just juice. I have a big green smoothie with 2 bananas, greens, and hemp protein powder. I also have 1/2 cup soaked buckwheat with nut milk, raisins and pumpkin seed. Then I have a normal lunch and by nighttime I am not at all hungry like I used to be. I can just have a salad and a glass of wine and Im good. Its really amazing, I’ve come a long way. So, like I said, the food combining is probably all wrong but at this point I’m not too worried because I’m doing what works.