Claire Short
24-09-2009, 07:07 PM
I have been 'doing' Type 1 Diabetes since age seven (22 years) and have vast Candida experience, which I am currently writing a book on - one that actually makes sense! My raw journey has lead me in all directions, but most recently I believe I have found and started on the right path for me. Maybe some of this will help you too, it is all my views and there are lots of different Raw Paths out there, but this is what has worked for me...
The Hippocrates Institute in Florida and The Tree of Life in Arizona, to my mind, provide the leading cutting edge nutritional information. I was fortunate enough to have met with Dr Brian Clement of Hippocrates in London this year and he is truly inspirational and hugely knowledgeable in his field. Here's some of the more interesting and controversial points I have learned to date...
Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes is totally reversible and is a lifestyle choice. Dr Gabriel Cousens and Dr Brian Clement both agree on this. Granted, you will probably need to cough up a few thousand to get the expertise of these guys and to be honest, it would be worth every penny. It is tough dealing with diabetes and I would not recommend anyone to try anything drastic on their own without expert supervision.
Type 1 is a little trickier and around 3 in 10 will be able to stop their insulin - although all will see improvements on an all Raw diet.
I guess the biggest hurdle is deciding if we want total health or if we are happy to bumble along with just average health and being able to eat some of what we want. I'm totally guilty of this, even now and still enjoy my raw treats, though I know they are not really helping me! At least they help break the addictions and are a step in the right direction.
Food & Emotions
Being raw is challenging because we each have such strong addictions to break; both emotional and physical. I have found it really tough and with Candida, it's like having a second head to contend with! Emotionally, we are connected to food in so many ways. It is all around us all the time, every 'special' event, birthdays, christmas, parties....the list goes on. We are also bound to the people that provided food for us as children and severing these emotional ties on our own can be tough. The chocolate cake Granny baked with all her love may not be healthy, but the emotional tie is still strong and shouldn't be underestimated.
Fruit - Friend or Foe?
For me personally, dealing with Diabetes and Candida, fruit is a big no-no, which baffled me for a long time. In the strange age we live in, fruit is not picked ripe and so the nutrients have not had time to pass from tree to fruit. How many fruits in the supermarket have you found that are really tree ripened? Consider the bullet pears and peaches or the green bananas that dry our mouths out. Ripening off the tree is not natural, fruits usually drop once ripe.
Fruit has also been hybridised beyond recognition and some cannot even reproduce themselves - seedless grapes and oranges are just two examples. We have started to value convenience over nourishment.
The sugar surge from fruit is huge; as someone with diabetes this is easy to assess because I can see it for myself on a blood sugar testing meter. This is the main reason I have to avoid it because of the huge amounts of insulin it requires. Fruit sugar does exactly the same in my body as a cake or biscuit. The fibre from the fruit is pretty much all it has to slow it down, but even this is not enough now they have been cross bred beyond recognition. The fruit of today is hundreds of times more sugar packed than 100 years ago.
Nuts about Nuts
I used to love nuts, but going raw sends us all a bit bonkers to begin with and we tend to go a little crazy over something; usually fruit or nuts! Nuts in moderation are okay, moderation being a couple of times a week and 5 or 6 at a time. With Candida I find I just don't need them. Seeds seem to be better. Nuts can also cause sugar surges in the body.
A Note on Supplements
Don't waste your money on chemically manufactured ones! Dr Brian Clement's book has just been released and Amazon have it discounted right now. I spent a fortune, literally, on supplements and they did nothing. The reason chemically manufactured ones are so bad is similar to our reasons for eating raw. The body cannot recognise cooked foods, nor can it recognise chemicals. It then goes on the attack. This takes it away from its job - to protect us from dis-ease. All the time it's dealing with our chemical supplements, we are open to infection. Please read Hippocrates books on this, it's vital. Please, please do not waste your money! Kiki and Hippocrates both do great soil based and food based supplements.
Other Quick Notes: We all need a soil based source of Vitamin B12 - Hippocrates are the only supplier of these in the World right now. Even meat eaters need B12. Others that they usually prescribe at Hippocrates are Food Enzymes, Probiotics, Chlorella, Spirulina and the rest are specifically tailored to you. I haven't been there - I have just been studying Hippocrates for the past 4 months...non stop!
Transitioning
Transitioning is vital and boy, did I give myself a hard time. The more I tried to be 100% raw and super dooper healthy, the more I yo-yo'ed! I know that now my 'bad days' are better than most SUKD people's healthy days. My sister confirmed this when I felt really bad about eating a raw chocolate bar and a slice of spelt bread! So what if we are not 100% and so what if we still have the odd blip. 100% raw is not the be-all and end-all, finding the right raw path is what's important. We are all human and I figure as long as we are on the path and going in the right direction, we'll get to where we need to be in the end. Give yourself a break, because guilt fuels addiction.
I intend to do my best to reverse diabetes and the candida I had is already under significantly better control. I know that I have extrme conditions that require an extreme approach, but I also understand the speed at which I am able to transition emotionally, physically and spiritually. If I try to go beyond that, I get a swift reminder when I land on my ass!
Ok, cards on the table - if we had thousands of pounds at our disposal (maybe some of us do?!) we would all be on the plane to Florida or Arizona to get the expert guidance of the Hippocrates Institute or the Tree of Life, but hey, most of us have to do affordable. I am lucky enough to know Rian who as many of you know, is setting up a truly affordable and amazing (in my opinion - hope this is okay to say here) Centre in Winchester. This means we now have access to something amazing right here in the UK and wow if you see it, you will be stunned. Rian is Hippocrates trained and she really knows her stuff. I trust her advice implicitly.
I think the most important thing for us all to do is get a community going and support each other. We are all on our own individual journey's and we are all different. There is no true right or wrong way, but there are people who can share their knowledge and save some of us from making the same old mistakes.
I for one hope I can be one of those people. I've made a lot of mistakes so I guess that stands me in good stead!
If I can give any guidance to anyone please post me. I am a qualified nutritional advisor, but above and beyond that - I know that Living Foods are better than anything because I know how they feel in my body.
Thanks Jax for this great Forum x:)
The Hippocrates Institute in Florida and The Tree of Life in Arizona, to my mind, provide the leading cutting edge nutritional information. I was fortunate enough to have met with Dr Brian Clement of Hippocrates in London this year and he is truly inspirational and hugely knowledgeable in his field. Here's some of the more interesting and controversial points I have learned to date...
Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes is totally reversible and is a lifestyle choice. Dr Gabriel Cousens and Dr Brian Clement both agree on this. Granted, you will probably need to cough up a few thousand to get the expertise of these guys and to be honest, it would be worth every penny. It is tough dealing with diabetes and I would not recommend anyone to try anything drastic on their own without expert supervision.
Type 1 is a little trickier and around 3 in 10 will be able to stop their insulin - although all will see improvements on an all Raw diet.
I guess the biggest hurdle is deciding if we want total health or if we are happy to bumble along with just average health and being able to eat some of what we want. I'm totally guilty of this, even now and still enjoy my raw treats, though I know they are not really helping me! At least they help break the addictions and are a step in the right direction.
Food & Emotions
Being raw is challenging because we each have such strong addictions to break; both emotional and physical. I have found it really tough and with Candida, it's like having a second head to contend with! Emotionally, we are connected to food in so many ways. It is all around us all the time, every 'special' event, birthdays, christmas, parties....the list goes on. We are also bound to the people that provided food for us as children and severing these emotional ties on our own can be tough. The chocolate cake Granny baked with all her love may not be healthy, but the emotional tie is still strong and shouldn't be underestimated.
Fruit - Friend or Foe?
For me personally, dealing with Diabetes and Candida, fruit is a big no-no, which baffled me for a long time. In the strange age we live in, fruit is not picked ripe and so the nutrients have not had time to pass from tree to fruit. How many fruits in the supermarket have you found that are really tree ripened? Consider the bullet pears and peaches or the green bananas that dry our mouths out. Ripening off the tree is not natural, fruits usually drop once ripe.
Fruit has also been hybridised beyond recognition and some cannot even reproduce themselves - seedless grapes and oranges are just two examples. We have started to value convenience over nourishment.
The sugar surge from fruit is huge; as someone with diabetes this is easy to assess because I can see it for myself on a blood sugar testing meter. This is the main reason I have to avoid it because of the huge amounts of insulin it requires. Fruit sugar does exactly the same in my body as a cake or biscuit. The fibre from the fruit is pretty much all it has to slow it down, but even this is not enough now they have been cross bred beyond recognition. The fruit of today is hundreds of times more sugar packed than 100 years ago.
Nuts about Nuts
I used to love nuts, but going raw sends us all a bit bonkers to begin with and we tend to go a little crazy over something; usually fruit or nuts! Nuts in moderation are okay, moderation being a couple of times a week and 5 or 6 at a time. With Candida I find I just don't need them. Seeds seem to be better. Nuts can also cause sugar surges in the body.
A Note on Supplements
Don't waste your money on chemically manufactured ones! Dr Brian Clement's book has just been released and Amazon have it discounted right now. I spent a fortune, literally, on supplements and they did nothing. The reason chemically manufactured ones are so bad is similar to our reasons for eating raw. The body cannot recognise cooked foods, nor can it recognise chemicals. It then goes on the attack. This takes it away from its job - to protect us from dis-ease. All the time it's dealing with our chemical supplements, we are open to infection. Please read Hippocrates books on this, it's vital. Please, please do not waste your money! Kiki and Hippocrates both do great soil based and food based supplements.
Other Quick Notes: We all need a soil based source of Vitamin B12 - Hippocrates are the only supplier of these in the World right now. Even meat eaters need B12. Others that they usually prescribe at Hippocrates are Food Enzymes, Probiotics, Chlorella, Spirulina and the rest are specifically tailored to you. I haven't been there - I have just been studying Hippocrates for the past 4 months...non stop!
Transitioning
Transitioning is vital and boy, did I give myself a hard time. The more I tried to be 100% raw and super dooper healthy, the more I yo-yo'ed! I know that now my 'bad days' are better than most SUKD people's healthy days. My sister confirmed this when I felt really bad about eating a raw chocolate bar and a slice of spelt bread! So what if we are not 100% and so what if we still have the odd blip. 100% raw is not the be-all and end-all, finding the right raw path is what's important. We are all human and I figure as long as we are on the path and going in the right direction, we'll get to where we need to be in the end. Give yourself a break, because guilt fuels addiction.
I intend to do my best to reverse diabetes and the candida I had is already under significantly better control. I know that I have extrme conditions that require an extreme approach, but I also understand the speed at which I am able to transition emotionally, physically and spiritually. If I try to go beyond that, I get a swift reminder when I land on my ass!
Ok, cards on the table - if we had thousands of pounds at our disposal (maybe some of us do?!) we would all be on the plane to Florida or Arizona to get the expert guidance of the Hippocrates Institute or the Tree of Life, but hey, most of us have to do affordable. I am lucky enough to know Rian who as many of you know, is setting up a truly affordable and amazing (in my opinion - hope this is okay to say here) Centre in Winchester. This means we now have access to something amazing right here in the UK and wow if you see it, you will be stunned. Rian is Hippocrates trained and she really knows her stuff. I trust her advice implicitly.
I think the most important thing for us all to do is get a community going and support each other. We are all on our own individual journey's and we are all different. There is no true right or wrong way, but there are people who can share their knowledge and save some of us from making the same old mistakes.
I for one hope I can be one of those people. I've made a lot of mistakes so I guess that stands me in good stead!
If I can give any guidance to anyone please post me. I am a qualified nutritional advisor, but above and beyond that - I know that Living Foods are better than anything because I know how they feel in my body.
Thanks Jax for this great Forum x:)