Getting my feet wet - mom to 3 boys and a hubby who's suffering from chronic Lymes disease

Hoping that going raw will help my husband who's been suffering immensely from chronic Lyme's Disease.

We've been organic for almost 10 years and eat fairly healthy compared to a typical American diet. My husband has relied heavily upon naturopathic/homeopathic/alternative medicine to treat himself. After everything he's doing one would think he'd be better - but he's not. Its very straining on our family. We have 3 small boys - 4.5 year old and 20 month old twins. I have been acting as a single parent b/c my husband just doesn't have it in him to help after a full day of work. He's lost a lot of weight, has no energy and its just very difficult for us all. In an effort to help him - I figured there had to be something more I could do. His aunt went raw several years ago while battling cancer. She spent many weeks at Hippocrates in Florida - so raw is not something totally new to us. I've done tons of research and reading and feel that we need to do this for the survival of our family unit. I am not quite sure how do incorporate it into my kids diet b/c of the twins not really being able to chew very well yet. But I am experiementing and slowly replacing things. I am barely a week into it, so could use all the suggestions as far as meals and snacks for small kids.

Thanks for reading!

Comments

  • J AJ A

    Hi Mama Bear!

    Thanks for sharing your story! I really feel for you and your husband, I know of my own experience what an energy drain illnesses in parents are for the whole family (I've got two kids myself, 5 and 2 years).

    I haven't got any personal experience with chronic Lyme's - I did have Lyme's a couple of years ago (tickle bite) but got rid of it within two weeks with antibiotics. I did experiment with colloidal silver at first to avoid antibiotics and did a bit of reading on Lyme's, I didn't get rid of it with silver but think I read somewhere that colloidal silver had better effect on the chronic form of the disease. I know antibiotics don't help beyond the initial stage.

    I'm sure raw foods will help though. The human body is capable of incredible self healing, probably the only group of people not benefiting from raw food are those with transplanted inner organs (raw foods would cause their bodies to reject the transplanted organs). Hopefully someone with more experience on Lyme's and raw food will chime in.

    As to raw food and kids, I give my kids loads of organic fruit. They love it (who doesn't?)! I eat a lot of fruits myself and usually the kids will want to have the same I eat so most of the time we end up sitting together and feasting on whatever we got from our wholesaler that week, we had some superb organic gold kiwis two weeks ago and me and the kids finished between ourselves 19 of those in just one hour, lol! ;-) Ice cream is another strong contestant, especially now it's warm. We keep our ice creams real simple and the kids love them. Squeeze some organic orange juice and freeze it into ice cream. Peel mango & banana and freeze them, then blend into ice cream (doesn't really require anything in addition but some people add things like vanilla, honey, dates). I had a friend with children come by the other day and made som mango ice cream (frozen mango and a bit of water) with cashew cream (cashew nuts blended with water). Took me like 2 minutes. I've seen some cute raw ice cream videos on youtube, you might want to check out a couple.

    Green smoothies really are fantastic food for children and adults alike, tasty and easy to drink. Just don't put too much greens in in the beginning, most kids probably won't like it (since they become accustomed to sweet tastes at a young age in our society). I started off with a ratio of 90 % fruit, 10 % greens and now I'm myself around 50-50 which my son (2 years) loves and my daughter (5 years) will have occasionally. We also make green smoothie ice cream - simply freeze green smoothie into ice cream just like orange juice. That made my daughter (5 years) love green smoothie and now she drinks more of it - and of course she loves the ice creams!

    Green smoothies also could be a great boost for your husband. They contain great amounts of fantastic nutriens in an easily digestible form. Victoria Boutenko's Green for Life is the book to read. For whatever reason, many people don't like the greenishness and feel awkward drinking it, that's why I think it's important to keep the greens down in the beginning. If you love the green taste, great - use any amounts you enjoy! Most people don't, though, it's perfectly OK to start off with small amounts of greens and increase as your taste buds change (they will). I don't know anyone who doesn't like orange juice and 90 % orange juice + 10 % greens tastes just like orange juice, the greens don't affect the taste (unless you use very strong tasting greens like wild greens). Pak choy and orange juice make such a yummy smoothie, I just love it! I drink 1-4 quarts of green smoothie every day, averaging 1-2 pounds of greens a day. I've been drinking green smoothies for a year.

    Choose raw foods you enjoy. You can keep it easy which I do, I just eat fruits and drink green smoothies, never prepare any dishes. My wife does now & then and she enjoys the raw gourmet foods more than I do. Find your own way but remember, it doesn't need to be difficult or time consuming (but can be if you choose dishes that take time to prepare).

    As for the kids, let them choose. If you eat raw, they will eat raw as that is the natural behavior of children - they want to have whatever people around them are having. I am 100 % raw most of the time (I do eat some fish occasionally), my wife wants to be raw but has such a strong emotional connection to bread, pasta and cheese that she has not been able to give up them yet. Our kids eat whatever we eat, if I'm having fruits they'll have some, if my wife eats bread they will have some. For small kids pre-digesting in your mouth is the natural way to go, otherwise smoothies are a good idea since they don't require chewing (it's a good idea to chew them anyway though, that'll increase the enzymes in your mouth and pre-digest the smoothie for even faster absorption and better digestion). The few times our kids have requested food they cannot chew I'll usually chew it in my mouth (pre-digest) and then give to the kids. That is the natural way, if you don't feel comfortable with it you can just give them fruits and smoothies, all children regardless of age can have them. It's natural for humans to breastfeed for 3-5 years though.

    What a wonderful thing for your family to have found raw foods! Keep plenty of good quality fresh produce available at all times, let your children have whatever raw foods they want to and find a green smoothie that makes your taste buds sing out loud! We have heaps of organic fruit all over the apartment and the kids help themselves, they go for the freezer when they feel like having some ice cream (we have some ready most of the time) and we generally let them have what they feel like eating. If there is nothing unhealthy in our home, our kids can't have any unhealthy foods. We're not quite there yet since we do have bread, pasta and cheese but the fruit heaps help a lot, there's always something healthy and tasty to grab!

    Good luck!

  • zinfandelzinfandel Raw Newbie

    I would totally recommend getting 'The 80/10/10 Diet' book or post your question on http://www.vegsource.com/talk/raw/index.html and Dr. Graham who has been working with people to heal their health conditions for 30+ years will post a response in a day or two. Dr. G is the authority on healing health conditions on raw foods, and I typed Lyme Disease into the search function and he said "I have seen many successes, yes, using 811."

    p.s. I'm not sure why the above person is giving medical advice, but I doubt they're qualified.

  • J AJ A

    Zinfandel, I do agree that 80/10/10 would probably help but don't you agree that the site could be better? It's full of spam, pop-up windows and quite a number of Dr. G's answers are "Yes 80/10/10 is the way to go", no further explanations and, frankly, a way to make money (the book isn't cheap). Not critizing 80/10/10, just Dr. G's way of using it.

  • zinfandelzinfandel Raw Newbie

    I think Dr. G is making great use of a forum where people can ask basic questions, but I agree it is glaringly 90s looking. It also works to funnel the people who have real problems into consultations with him or a fasting clinic. I'm not a member of the "I think Dr. G is God and perfect" clan though. He's just a human like the rest of us. But I for one am grateful for him and his book and forum and I make use of them. I have cured IBS and am working on Chronic Fatigue under his guidance, all without paying a thing. I imagine any other raw food leader would be trying to siphon cash out of me.

    I totally agree 80/10/10 is the best diet for curing most ailments, but you've gotta let people find their own path, you kno? :) It's all a process.

    Do take care JA :)

  • zinfandelzinfandel Raw Newbie

    With regards to the price of the book, it can be gotten for free. Dr. G has dedicated his life to this and constantly travels and works really dang hard I am sure. I got mine for free though, from a stranger on a forum. If one posts "does anyone have a copy of 811 I can buy for cheaper or free" I think someone would do it. Also, the price has gone down as of late on Amazon. It's great having an authoritative book on why raw foods are best, with relevant and current sources. I don't need to spend any more money on raw food books to be successful.

  • Thank you for the warm welcome and advice. I have ordered a bunch of books - many from the Boutenko family's books. They seem to have a good grasp of raw and many good reviews on their books. I am looking forward to when the books arrive. I am going to be making the green smoothies. I am grateful that I already have many great appliances (VitaMix, juicers, food processor) so I don't need to buy much to transition to raw foods. My husband is really on board with it and went to Whole Foods tonight and bought a bunch of fruits, veggies, raw nuts and seeds - LOL

    JA - where can I find recipes for the ice creams? Do I need to get an ice cream churn to make them?

    Also - my husband has lose significant weight due to his illness and other 'tagalong' illnesses, such as candida (he's just under 6 feet tall and barely over 120 pounds). What are good resources for gaining weight with raw foods?

  • J AJ A

    You'll probably find ice cream recipes in the books you've ordered, most recipe books have at least one ice cream recipe. I keep things simple and just blend frozen mango and banana, makes a simple yet tasty ice cream. You could search youtube for "raw ice cream", I've seen a couple of pretty decent videos there.

    I'm 6 feet tall and was around 132 lbs at thinnest this January. I had appendicitis last November and underwent emergency surgery, was probably near death though I didn't realize it at the time. I lost all my body fat and a lot of muscle, too. I'm around 143 lbs now, the extra 11 lbs are mainly muscle (a bit of fat especially in the face, I looked like a skeleton half a year ago).

    I believe that once your body has been purified (detoxed) beyond a certain point, it will begin to regenerate and you will recover. If you need more muscle (and maybe a bit of fat), your body will create it. It will tell you which food it needs and so you will crave the right kind of food. However, parasites and fungi in your body will make you crave things you don't really need, especially lots of sugar. All you need to do is to remove the cause of your illness. In most cases, the main cause of an illness in today's society is food. Other causes include lack of excercise, pollution in food and air, parasites/fungi, stress and other mental factors. Often these are interconnected and influence each other.

    I don't think your husband needs to eat any specific raw foods. He needs to remove the cause of his illness and then he will have the weight which is appropriate for his taste and level of excercise. I eat mainly along the lines of 80/10/10 (Dr. Doug Graham) which means loads of sweet fruits and a pound or two of greens a day. I drink my greens (green smoothies) since I currently don't feel like having salads. I occasionally have some nuts. I am gaining weight (muscle) although I don't excercise other than walk around and play with the kids.

    It is not impossible that your husband may even lose some weight initially, since he is sick he probably has waste stored in his body and that will come out as he begins to detox. If he has parasites/fungi, he may lose quite a bit of weight. On the other hand, the clean, natural foods he will eat will provide his body with ample nutrition to build up whatever his body is in need of - muscle, fat, you name it. As long as he eats and drinks decent amounts of food, I shouldn't think initial weight loss is anything to be worried about.

    Good luck! Remember to enjoy your food! Happiness and gratefulness are a big part of any meal.

  • J AJ A

    "I think Dr. G is making great use of a forum where people can ask basic questions, but I agree it is glaringly 90s looking. It also works to funnel the people who have real problems into consultations with him or a fasting clinic. I'm not a member of the "I think Dr. G is God and perfect" clan though. He's just a human like the rest of us. But I for one am grateful for him and his book and forum and I make use of them. I have cured IBS and am working on Chronic Fatigue under his guidance, all without paying a thing. I imagine any other raw food leader would be trying to siphon cash out of me.

    I totally agree 80/10/10 is the best diet for curing most ailments, but you've gotta let people find their own path, you kno? :) It's all a process.

    Do take care JA :)"

    Yeah, I agree, I had a closer look at the website and I do agree he does give some sound advice without any charge. I'm currently researching 80/10/10 from an archaeological/evolutionary point of view as some of the serious Darwinian archaeologists I've read point at totally different percentages during our evolution, and even for close relatives like the chimps. Not 80/10/10 but rather something like 40/35/25. I haven't got enough data yet so I keep reading. What I'm trying to find out is what the percentages are in populations that are proven to be extremely healthy, and what the percentages likely have been during human evolution.

    On a side note, I believe I have parasites and will go to my doctor to get checked. Quite a few raw gurus are proponents of regular parasite cleansing and even regular colonics. I for one can't see that humans evolved to need parasite cleansing and colonics, I'm sure evolution solved the problem in a natural way. Maybe our ancestors ate a lot of herbs which kept parasites and fungi at bay. I don't know yet, I'm still researching this.

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