I decided to see what I could do with combining the B/GTD and the raw diet.  So I've been eating breakfast, lunch and snacks raw, and cooking dinner so we can eat at least part of one meal the same.

The first thing I noticed is that I have more energy.  In fact, I had so much energy it didn't even occur to me to take a nap yesterday, and usually I drag around all day.  Yesterday I felt great until after dinner, at which time I nearly fell asleep at the table.  I was extremely tired just after eating a cooked meal.  I know this sounds awful to us BTDers who are supposed to have energy after any compliant meal.

The other thing I've noticed is that I'm visiting the bathroom (quickly) sometimes multiple times a day instead of my usual one solid contribution.  No complaints on that end.

My only complaint is that I wake up during the night ravenously hungry.  

I've been making "soup" with my vita-mix and putting 5 Tbsp of hemp hearts in the mix for protein.  I need other suggestions for raw protein other than nuts, which are extremely expensive.  Anybody have ideas?

be careful about your iron and b12 levels if you continue this

Well, I'm eating a lot of leafy greens as well as black-strap molasses (I know, it's cooked).  I don't know what to do about B vitamins except supplement, but I can't ever tell that vitamin supps do me any good.  What can I do about B12?  Where is it normally found?

nutritional yeast could be added to that juice mix. Its full of B vitamins. Also sprouts. I used to sprout buckwheat ...it was so easy and I liked the flavor of the sprouts.

Quoted from Ribbit

Well, I'm eating a lot of leafy greens as well as black-strap molasses (I know, it's cooked).  I don't know what to do about B vitamins except supplement, but I can't ever tell that vitamin supps do me any good.  What can I do about B12?  Where is it normally found?

if you're postmenopausal the iron is not as important

Chicken, liver,  |Vitamin B12: 16.58 mcg.|A NS Neutral: Y
Duck liver, 1 liver |Vitamin B12: 54.00 mcg.|Iron: 30.53 mg.
Goose liver, 1 liver |Vitamin B12: 54.00 mcg.|Iron: 30.53 mg.
Herring, 1 fillet |Vitamin B12: 13.14 mcg.|A NS Neutral:
Mackerel, atlantic, 1 fillet |Vitamin B12: 19.00 mcg.|[1]
Mussels, 1 cup |Vitamin B12: 12.00 mcg.|A NS Neutral: Yes |[2]
Octopus, 3 oz |Vitamin B12: 20.00 mcg.|A NS Neutral: Yes |[2]
Smelt, |Vitamin B12: 19.10 mcg.|A NS Neutral: Yes |[2]
Tuna, bluefin, 3 oz |Vitamin B12: 10.88 mcg.|A NS Neutral:
Pumpkin seed, 1 cup |Iron: 14.97 mg.|A NS Beneficial: Yes |[2]
Sesame seed, 1 cup |Iron: 14.55 mg.|A NS Neutral: Yes |[1]
Sesame flour, 1 oz |Iron: 15.17 mg.|A NS Neutral: Yes |[1]
Soybean meal, 1 cup |Iron: 13.70 mg.|A NS Neutral: Yes |[1]
Yeast, bakers, 1 tbsp |Iron: 16.60 mg.|A NS Beneficial: Yes |[2
Rice bran, 1 cup |Iron: 18.54 mg.|A NS Neutral: Yes |[1]

what's with this baker's yeast? I have to think there is a mistake on the list you gave, Mike.....I can't believe baker''s yeast is any good for anyone except bread. I think it must mean brewer's yeast.

I like being partial raw especially during the hot months here  
but I can´t do it during winter months...it is simply tooo cold here and my body craves cooked food.
I always add some cooked fish and meat - but I eat the meat fairly medium - and often use raw fish as dinner- as well as softboiled egg.
I agree that you get so much energy... I have tried the vegan version and it simply does ot work for me... ( must be my B ness )

I know some raw pages says that you can get b12 from vegetarian products .... but that is not so ...
some people produced enough b12  for a few months/years if they have been eating eggs /cheese or meat earlier... but eventual you´ll need a supplement - especially if you want more kids.

My vegan friends ( women) all take supplements.

You may consider egg whites for protein in your soup base, also is a thickener.

Check for calories for pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds if using by the cupful.

baker s, brewer s, nutritional....all the same thing....
down here, I can t get the nutritional one, but the only yeast available is called 'levadura' which means yeast and it comes in a powdered form.....the yeast used for baking I have seen in a cake like form......and then there s also the powdered quick baking rise yeast which is not the powdered yeast I buy down here.

you could also do the complete protein combos.....
Legumes + seeds
Legumes + nuts
Legumes + dairy
Grains + legumes
Grains + dairy
and don t forget the soy if it s permissible in the system you are following presently.

Hi Ribbit..
I wouldn't have mentioned it had you not brought it up, but I have gone completely raw.  I just decided that that is really the way I like to eat.  I have been doing so for about a month now and I feel so marvelous!  I was just out in San Francisco this weekend, too , and went to Cafe Gratitude.. a marvelous all raw restaurant!!  so inspiring!  so I thought you might like to  check out my two  favorite sites just for reading.. let me know what you think!

http://www.giveittomeraw.com

http://www.welikeitraw.com/rawfood/sarma_melngailis/

Let me know if you want to join Give It To Me Raw.. we would love to have  you there !  you don't have to be 100% raw to feel at home there.. it's just a great discussion board!

Ribbit, I have a couple of raw books and I like being raw in the summer. It's so refreshing. I don't know if I can do it in the winter. It's really cold.

Sheri, If you  decided to go raw, you're not in any way following the BTD or the GTD, especially since you're an O.

Thanks, everybody, for the input.  I do use nutritional yeast on my salads.  Can't do eggs right now because the baby gets terrible gas cramps when I eat them and then she sleeps even less.

I would like to join the raw food discussion group.  I'll go check it out.  My family is going   at everything I've made.  I like it though.  It makes me feel clean.

I'll post more tomorrow.

I have about 4 raw cookbooks that I'm using at the moment, so let me know if you  would like to try something.... my favorite one is from Cafe Gratitude

http://www.Cafegratitude.com


also, here is my profile on  Give It To Me Raw if you want to join

in...            http://www.giveittomeraw.com/profile/sheri

Ribbit, do you know the books by Ann Wigmore? One is called "The Hippocrates Diet and Health Program" and it talkes about why raw food is good, the other one is called "Recipes for Longer Life" and it is full of great receipes.

David Wolfe is also a great author... check out

http://www.TheBestDayEver.com

http://www.Sunfoods.com

http://www.DavidWolfe.com

Why would this be a good idea?
I am curious. Wouldn't the body have a hard time breaking down some of the food and accessing the nutrients?
Over the long term does this work.
I know Vegans have a hard time with B12 over the long term.

I eat a lot of raw food, especially in the summer (as Mayflowers said, it's too cold in the winter for my digestion), and I love the way I feel. I did a stint a couple of years ago, going full raw, but found that I was spending even more time preparing my foods to get variety than I do normally. Sprouting, dehydrating, etc, takes a lot of planning and time.

I'm glad you've found something to aid in your energy levels, Ribbit!

Raw food= lots of enzymes - something most modern people don´t get enough of...
In the summer I aim for 75 % raw food - in the winter it is more like 25-50 % of my total food
I´m quite certain that most of the real vegan rawfoodist /gurus come from hotter climates like California and Hawai - no one with a common sense would advocate ONLY raw food if they lived in Scandinavia  

Drea, we can look forward to preparing raw foods on a regular basis when we retire.   It does get involved. All the prepping, sprouting, drying..There is a raw chef school in California I wanted to go to, and  I always wanted to go to the vegetarian chef school in Manhattan.

Lola, I am going to challenge the idea that baker's yeast is good to sprinkle on your food....it doesn't sound right. I am thinking there is a misprint in the GTD book....accidentally spelled baker's when it meant brewer's.....sure I could be wrong, but meanwhile there is a challenge out there folks! And actually nutritional yeast is the more balanced food, the one that is preferable to the best of my knowledge.

I'll tell you  what has been so great... I bought a Vita Mix blender to whip up some raw soups and smoothies... so  yummie!!  
Yep...   cooking  "raw"..  does take some preparation .. and several new utensils....  it's a new way of  handling food...

I have a Vita mix. I love it. It's worth the price.

So, Sheri, does this mean you won't be following the BTD or GTD anymore?

Hi Mayflowers...

Umm.. good question...I'm not sure myself.  I have the BTD book, the arthritis book and the GTD book and the menopause book....  and there  are foods  for me in each book that are contradictory ...  so I really don't know which one to follow.... and I just got  to the point that I couldn't get definitive answers on which one to do...
I always liked the taste of vegetarian foods better.. but that wasn't so good for me...  I was having way too many wheat products...my acne and arthritis  got worse the more wheat I had.. and the dairy was bad... I had yogert some... the  BTD taught me to avoid wheat and starches, for which I am grateful....
I find a lot of the types of animal protein on the Gatherer diet to be difficult to come by.  I thought I would do fine with the fish on the GTD, but I read in the forums that frozen fish isn't acceptable ( that came from someone who had heard Dr. D speak live)  I also find  the limits on how many times per week to have certain things hard to follow.  So for right now I am following SOME of the principles  of all of these diets.. but mostly just enjoying  this new way of eating and  food preparation..  I probably have had some avoids.. like cashews... and some fresh coconut... maybe some  black pepper....
I've been doing a lot of reading... especially David Wolfe's book Eating For Beauty...and I just think  it's fascinating.    So right now the GTD is so new and there are so many people who are on the fence as to which one to follow... and I can't get definitive answers.  Anyway,  no, I"m not giving up on the  BTD or the GTD... but I don't know which one to follow .... If this answer seems confused, it's because I AM confused about which  way to go and which foods are on what list... but in any event, I will be eating raw, but it may be from one of the book lists.....  wheeeww... long answer!  and yet, no real answer.

Also, as Ribbit said.. I'm  never tired anymore!  no more sleepy time while my body takes all that time to digest the cooked food....  I need so much less sleep.. and  when I DO sleep, I  sleep MUCH better and deeper.... if any of you recall,  I posted some on the afternoon slump.. so now  never have that.... gone...  

Same here.  No afternoon slump.  I don't think about caffeine anymore.  When I get up in the morning I'm really tired, but as soon as I start moving around I'm okay.  I have to eat a snack in the afternoon, and sometimes after supper, but I don't feel like I'm going to fall over constantly.

When I've got a little more time I'll go check out everybody's links.  Thanks for including them.

Sheri, I eat frozen or canned fish because that's the best I can do.  I don't avoid fish just because I can't get it fresh.  I just do what I can.  That's my new motto lately:  "I'm doing the best I can."  Every time somebody says to me, "You're late" or "We're eating that again?" instead of saying, "I'm sorry," now I say, "I'm doing the best I can."  We can only do so much.

As far as your diet goes, I think a wise man we all know has said, "Try all things, hold fast to what works," or something like that.  Figure out what works and do it.  Don't feel bad about not fitting into a particular category.  Do what your body needs you to do.

Great.  I had the first bit of meat in several days (some turkey) amid all this raw stuff, and now I have   very   stinky gas.

I have been doing more raw veggies lately, and I to am feeling better for adding the rawness.  I seem to have more energy when I do.  During the winter months is so hard for me...low sun, low raw veggies and lots of carbs...not a good combo.  Now that spring is on the way I am making myself eat more raw foods, and am slowly feeling the goodness from them.  The cooked veggies just seem like they are to limp nutritiously.

Hi Ribbit..
What a healthy attitude you have...!  And yes,  doing the best that you can  is  GREAT!  I think   you sound very mindful of what you are doing ..  none of us are perfect, and  there are things that come up, obstacles, etc. to be taken into account.  
I have found that  I am feeling MUCH more energized  eating raw... I am trying to follow the BTD and/or the GTD doing the raw foods from this list... but I'm not die hard about it.. just trying to make   better choices when possible...
I am loving the results!  I have lost the 2 lbs. that I toy back and  forth with
The  puffiness under my eyes has totally subsided
No skin breakouts.. my skin is perfect!  Even  eating fruits!
I have "the glow"  of a raw foodie...
So, when you  have a chance to check out the sites, let me know what you think!

This sounds really good.  But I don't suppose it's wise to eat beef or lamb raw.  I'd want to continue eating that.

I've been wondering why raw foods seem to provide more energy.  I've been thinking a lot about energy lately (as an engineer).  One idea is that the heat energy applied to foods in order to cook them causes some of the caloric content to be used up.

My understanding of how the calorie content of food is determined is that the food is burned in a special chamber in order to release the energy that's stored in the food.  So I think of cooking as a controlled burn.

I'd be interested in Dr. D's feedback on this.

Quoted from Lola

baker s, brewer s, nutritional....all the same thing....
down here, I can t get the nutritional one, but the only yeast available is called 'levadura' which means yeast and it comes in a powdered form.....the yeast used for baking I have seen in a cake like form......and then there s also the powdered quick baking rise yeast which is not the powdered yeast I buy down here.

Lola, I bow to your superior food knowledge, but have to say that (even if it is an urban legend) the belief that baker's yeast should not be eaten raw is absolutely widespread.

Ribbit's update:  I've lost 5 lbs. and my skin is clearing up.  Yes, I said it----my skin is clearing up!  After all this time of wondering what was causing all my skin breakouts, maybe this is the answer.  What's the answer?  I don't know, but maybe this.  If that makes any sense.  

The little acne-like breakouts are going away, but then, they sort of cycle through anyway.  It's the great big oozy ones that hang around for months that are going away.  I still have the knots down under my skin (maybe those will go away too eventually), but at least the surface is healing up.

But even better than that, I have energy.  I should not be vertical right now.  I've gotten to bed past 11 pm every night this week, and I've been up by 7, and woken up every single hour during the night (although last night the baby woke up every 15 minutes on the dot, the whole night).  Now this is sort of typical anyway because the baby doesn't sleep, but the amazing thing is that I'm not tired during the day!  I may or may  not take a catnap during the day, but I don't feel like I'm going to die if I don't get one.  I did have some pretty terrible dreams last night, but I attribute that to sleep deprivation, not my new diet.

Here's the other thing.  I had thought that our food bill would go up because you have to eat a lot more veggies to fill yourself up when you're not eating meat....or so I thought.  When I eat cooked veggies, that's the case.  But when I eat raw veggies, I don't get hungry.

Here's what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast
~~~~~~~~~

"Soup" in my Vita-Mix
1 apple
1 carrot
2 handfulls almonds
3 leaves kale
handful fresh cilantro
juice of 1 lime
1/2 in. fresh ginger

Now I can't say it was delicious.  But it was okay.  The absolutely amazing thing is....you would think something like that would hold you a couple of hours tops.  I ate that at 8 a.m. and didn't even think about eating again till noon.  No snack.  No hunger.

Lunch
~~~~~

Heaping, huge plate of lettuce (green leaf)
cucumber slices
green olives (no vinegar)
4 Tbsp. hemp hearts
pumpkin seeds
handful cashews (yeah, I know, but they sure were good)
a whole lot of nutritional yeast
hemp oil
lime juice
sea salt

I ate this at 1:00 and had a handful of pecans at 3:00.  Didn't eat dinner till 8:00 (our company was late coming in), at which time I had the Salmon Salad from Longhorn Steaks, which was a slab of salmon on top of a salad.  I did eat a slice of really great bread with that.  Unfortunately for the first few hours of the night I had my typical MSG reaction (sweating a whole lot and feeling a little light-headed).

I just can't get over the fact that raw food lasts my body so long.  I read a book several years ago about a family of 4 who went completely raw.  They told about how they went on a days-long hiking trip and all they carried with them was some oats and olive oil.  The rest of their food they foraged for in the forest.  I was thinking, "There is no way I could survive on some berries and nuts and oats and oil."  But now, I'm wondering if I could do very well (if I wasn't nursing a 25 lb. baby), because my body doesn't need nearly as much fuel to keep it going as it does when I eat it cooked.  When I eat cooked vegetarian, which I do most of the time, I have to eat huge amounts of food and still snack a lot between meals.  I don't have to do that now.  I'm satisfied and I don't even think about food, or if I do, a handful of pecans or walnuts makes me happy again.  No sugar cravings either.

Why is my skin clearing up, even though I'm eating fruit?  I don't know.  If my skin issues are caused by Candida, I shouldn't be able to eat the fruit.  In the past, on cooked diet, if I ate too much fruit it would get a little worse.  But on a (mostly) raw diet, I seem to be able to eat all the fruit I want with no Candida consequences or blood sugar crashes.  It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen.  My husband just sits there wide-eyed as I rave about my new modified-BTD diet, and says, "Well, your legs look good."

Ribbit, you've already changed my way of looking at raw food, but this is totally amazing!! One thing for sure, it is a simple way of living if there ever was one. My daughter-in-law is addicted to sushi because she feels so wonderful after eating it. I have already gotten to where I dislike the taste of most roasted nuts.    I especially love raw walnuts and pecans. Now, I have to try to get used to eating raw string beans and peas. I see these produce guys at the small local farmers' market doing this all the time. Without even washing them!

I have a pretty neat recipe for a few different raw veggies and fruits mixed together to make a salad.  I will have to get it out and try some subs for some of the ingredients. Maybe some of the beans could be replaced with peas. I don't think this would work as well as using your Vitamix because most people don't chew their food that well. Probably more like nobody! But it would be a start anyway.

When I went on the WW points diet (of course, this was in conjunction with the BTD) I ate a tremendous amount of raw food. After I got off the diet, though, I quit eating as much raw stuff. Bad mistake. I didn't gain a lot of weight because of it, but looking back I can see that I gradually didn't feel as well.

It is truly amazing what you have done with the load that is on you right now! Maybe your baby will get better after a year passes. My youngest child nearly killed us that first year. I think Candida was his problem, though, because I had it so bad when he was born. (I had no clue at the time how bad it really was!) His little immune system finally overcame it, though, and after that first birthday he was the happiest child alive.

Ribbit I also eat approx 50 % of my caloric intake raw.. But I do take sublingual B12 I find it necc. for me being vegan. Funny you talked about skin...mine is amazing too...so clear , line free...hard not to think of a connection