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Primrose
Raw Newbie
Hello Everyone,
I am trying so very hard to be as raw as I can be. I have been diagnosed by a conventional MD and a Naturopath that I have hypoglycemia. I have been a vegetarian (mostly vegan) for about 12 years and have had ups and downs when it comes to regulating my blood sugar. All the "obvious" stuff is covered: I take enzymes, a high-quality multi that my Naturopath prescribed to me, and probiotics. I exercise. I eat regularly. I avoid alcohol and caffeine for the most part. My body has a terrible time digesting and using food, therefore, I felt that raw would be a good direction for me to go. My body digests fruit on it's own beautifully, except that my blood sugar gets crazy and I get light-headed and shaky. If I add like some nut butter or hemp to the mix, it helps, but does not alleviate the nauseous, light-headedness. I wonder if raw can work for me. I seriously feel light-headed and slightly faint the majority of my waking hours. I eat lots and lots of greens in smoothies and in various dishes. All the conventional info. out there tells me to eat lots of lean protein to help regulate the blood sugar. I don't usually trust conventional info. for obvious reasons, but what I'm doing now is not working either. One last thing-when I eat something higher in carbs, it picks me up and I feel great for a few minutes and then my blood sugar comes crashing down and I feel exhausted (like fruits). Sorry for the long post. I don't know what to do and would love any help. Thanks so much.
Comments
Anyone?? Any suggestions?
Maybe take a look at Gabriel Cousens Rainbow Cuisine. All his recipes are lower in sugar, but packed with nutrition. The body ecology diet may be helpful to you too. Thats all about restoring balance to your body.
www.bodyecology.com/
The PH miracle may be good for you too- but i didnt like it so much...
hope to get other posts on here too!
I've read some stuff about electro-positive, and electro-negative foods. Greens are neutral. Alot of Fruits are electro-negative. Lean meats, fish eggs, dairy and nuts are electro-positive. I wonder if your body has an adversion to electro-negative foods.. How long have you been hypoglycemic for? The only things i've read as to restore the body to it's most natural state is through a fast. But i have no idea if this is recommended for hypoglycemic individuals. A water fast can be tough, and you can't do anything, the master cleanse you can function throughout it, but it uses maple syrup which i would be worried would be crazy with your blood sugar levels. I wish I could be of more help, I know it must be so difficult when you're living in such a healthy way and still have these issues.
I was also diagnosed with hypoglycemia years ago before discovering raw food. But no worries, you can heal yourself! :-)
One of the most important things you can do to overcome your hypoglycemia is to stop eating all hybrid food... bananas, pineapples, carrots, medjool dates, and beets are a few examples. Your liver doesn't recognize hybrid sugars and can't regulate them. They send the glycemic index of the blood shooting sky-high.
So if you are not fully raw already, the first things you want to stop eating are hybrid starchy foods like white or wheat bread, beer, cooked corn of all types, stewed carrots, refined sugar, baked potatoes, white rice, french fries, cookies, potato chips, etc. If you've already totally eliminated these things, next try experimenting with cutting out all hybrid fruit (namely, anything that does not still have seeds can be considered hybrid - seedless grapes, seedless watermelon, etc. Also fruits with non-viable seeds like kiwis.).
If you have any more questions or want more help overcoming your hypoglycemia, feel free to contact me!! anandi@sproutyourself.com
oh dear, this sounds like my story...
I had a very similar problem to yours, and I still have some (very rarely) days where my blood sugar just can't seem to right itself...I've found chromium to be helpful, but there's some research that says Chromium picolinate isn't a great idea for the human body...ask your naturopath about it.
I have found though that small doses often of fruit maintains my levels quite well. If i were to, for example, chug my morning fruit smoothie, then I would CRASH horribly in about half an hour...
keep it slow when you're eating...
I found that my body got used to the raw diet quite nicely in about 4 months, and since then my sugar levels haven't given me much trouble at all. Except rarely when I drink my smoothies to quickly, because they're delicious....it also helped me to lower my protein intake...
avocados helped as well, I'm not totally sure why that was though.
oh, like what shaydovgreen said, kiwis screw with my sugar levels in a wicked way, I avoid them like the plague...prunes too, they're strange little creatures.
Like wichten said, Gabriel Cousens' book "Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine" would be a great start. His Phase 1 diet only uses non-sweet fruit--no sweet fruit allowed (unless you have a green salad, then a small amount of Phase 1.5 fruit is allowed [this is an update in his new edition that will be coming out in the next year or two]). It also includes nuts and seeds, various oils, greens, sea vegetables, sprouts, stevia and xylitol as sweeteners, etc. Don't worry, once your biological terrain is reestablished, you can transition to the Phase 1.5 diet, with a moderate amount of low glycemic fruits like berries, cherries, grapefruit and pomegranate.
Dr. Cousens' book "Conscious Eating" will help you to determine your constitutional type. In order to optimize your energy production, you need the right mix of protein, carbs and fat. For example, if you find that a meal of only fruit does not sustain your energy levels, or if you feel awful when you skip meals, you might be the type of person who needs more protein and fat, and fewer carbs. However, if you find that a meal that is higher in protein and fat tends to make you sluggish, you might be the type of person who does well on a diet higher in carbs, and lower in protein and fat.
A couple other ideas: Most people who are hypoglycemic are mineral deficient. An unheated, unprocessed salt like Celtic salt or Himalayan salt would be a great addition. Celtic salt would be the #1 choice, since it has about 12 minerals that Himalayan salt doesn't have, and it's 4 times as concentrated in its mineral content. A good quality ionic multi mineral like Premier Research Labs' Polarmins, and/or Oceans Alive Marine Phytoplankton would help to remineralize the body.
Also, please keep in mind that protein, minerals, healthy fats and fiber all help to balance the blood sugar (as I'm sure you already know).
Good luck and LOL! :)
Thanks for the helpful advice Achin. Do you know how much of the unprocessed salt is needed per day?
rawflower: You're welcome!
Everyone is biochemically unique. There is such a thing as consuming too much salt, even the unheated, unprocessed salts. If you overdo salt, it seems to have somewhat of a dehydrating effect (at least for me it does). Generally, about a teaspoon a day is about right. See what works for you, and go with it. LOL. :)
I'm definately no expert on this and have wondered myself how realistic a raw food diet is for hypoglycemics and diabetics! With the smoothies, there seems to be alot of simple sugars that jack your sugar up sky high and don't seem to satisfy hunger for long (most diabetics are advised against alot of fruit, at least at one time). When I worked with an Endocrinologist, he said that a mix of protein and carbs keep the sugar up and stabalize it for longer periods of time (for hypoglycemics, like me). I definately need to research it more, but surely there are carbs and proteins in a well-balanced mix that will keep your blood sugar up and sustain your energy on the raw food diet?
I was diabetic too (diagnosed at the age of 22) and against the advice of my doctor, I did a 92 day modified juice fast because I was beginning to have all kinds of problems. They had no idea why I was diabetic...I wasn't over-weight, by their standards my dietary practices were excellent, I was a vegan, not raw at that time but no animal products or by-products....lol, actually they tried blaming it on the fact that I was vegan and "maybe it had something to do with not getting enough protein from animal sources". Doah!! I was fed up with the constant ups and downs of diabetes, and then one day I accidentally mixed my insulins up and took more than double the amount of insulin I needed and had to fight for my life the next 5 hours in the ER. After that, I was done with conventional medicine and set out to get my body back to its perfect state. It was a very long, hard road and I'm still in the process but I no longer have diabetes, in fact my last hA1c was 5.9 and my C-peptide (the hormome level they test to see if you are producing any insulin) went from nothing to normal range. Actually, the last juice fast I went on I had a blood sugar drop!! It was amazing!! Lol, well not at the time cus I thought I was having a panic attack or something, til I got my old meter out of my drawer and I was a 69! This may not seem big to other people, but I was so happy that I cried. My body is producing insulin again!! I think I may fall in the guidelines of hypoglycemic now. If I eat too many high-glycemic foods without properly combining my food then my sugar still goes a bit too high, but nothing close to what I used to be and then now, I'll have drops. If you juice or eat higher-glycemic foods, eat a banana or half an avocado with it...the reason is they are slow to digest and they help slow down the rate of sugar absorption.
I, also, think I was starting to deal with some thyroid issues, which go hand-in-hand with blood sugar problems. All those hormones are very intertwined and inter-dependant on each other. If one is thrown off for too long, it doesn't take too much longer for it to start affecting the other ones. I had all the classic symptoms of hyperthyroidism...the intolerance to heat, the shakes, tremors, racing heartbeat, beyond rapid weight loss (and I really don't have any extra to lose), and digestive upsets.
My "program" or whatever you want to call it consisted of a series of juice fasts/feasts (whatever you prefer to call them), with 100% raw eating in-between. I, also, did a candida cleanse cus there are many reports out about candida junkin' up your pancreas and causing problems with your thyroid. After the cleanse I started taking pro- and pre-biotics with a Green Powder that also has digestive enzymes in it.I 've eliminated as many household toxins as I possibly can. Granted, its taken me 7 years to get to this point, but I just do what I can as I can do it. And, today, I feel better than ever. My weight has normalized, I no longer look like a walking skeleton, all thyroid symptoms are gone, my blood sugars haven't hit over 130 in over a year and I have supermom energy again!
It was hell on earth though while I was detoxing and making all these changes but it has been SO worth it! just keep your goals in mind, and do as much research from reliable sources as you can. I probably logged over 1,000 hours at my college library reading as much as I possibly could. And, don't let fear stop you from getting healthy! I wish you the best of luck!