What I Learned On a 28-Day Raw Food Diet

I did this experiment with 3 others; my boyfriend, aunt, and best friend. My aunt felt amazing the whole way through and lost 10 pounds. I felt great in certain ways (zero brain fog, more energy) but I was also freezing cold and had super low libido (which means kidney yang deficiency in Chinese medicine due to too much ‘cooling’, yin food).

I had a huge detox happen through my skin, and I lost a few pounds, especially in my face. My best friend, who has had more gut issues than I have (such as h pylori, which would make her more suited for soft, easily digested food like sweet potato which is why they give steamed purées to sensitive babies) had gas for 3 out of the 4 weeks and didn’t lose any weight.

My boyfriend on the other hand lost a lot of muscle and even more weight than he should despite eating over 3500 calories a day (lots of bananas, moringa, spirulina and dates too!) He was literally spending all of his time eating, which isn’t quite sustainable. And I think he was going to kill me if I didn’t feed him rice, LOL. The point is, everyone is different.

I hear many people talking about only eating “high vibration” food. Everyone has a different view of what exactly these are (including the two charts below) but this would generally mean clean water, herbs + high-energy, high-water and mineral/electricity rich fruits and vegetables. These are a crucial part of everyone’s diet, but in order to reach our highest state of being, do we need to eat only these foods? What about the lower chakras and “lower” (in comparison) vibration foods? Should we just neglect those?

If you know about the chakras, you’ll know the symptoms of not being “grounded” in your lower chakras: the root or sacral. Spaciness, distraction, and low libido (since your root is the seat of sexuality) are some. I felt all 3; despite having less brain fog, I was all over the place!

I had an especially interesting tool for this experiment, which is my voice. I am an opera singer (with a strong lower register or ‘belting voice’ as my teacher called it, from singing show music and in plays). If you’ve done a chakra meditation that uses sound, you’ll hear the range of notes your teacher will tell you to mirror back in order to charge each energy center. You move from deep/low belly notes (root, sacral chakras) to high, falsetto notes (third eye & crown chakra).

Before the cleanse, my lower notes were booming and strong, and my higher notes were weak when I would sing my favorite opera songs – I was clearly not eating enough raw, high vibrational food to charge my higher range and chakras. During the cleanse, my opera singing was better than EVER, and I hit higher notes than I could in a very long time! I even made my boyfriend cry, haha! But I could not, for the life of me, sing strong ballads. I needed grounding, badly!

I was always told that sugar of ANY kind feeds candida and messes with your body. This is not true at all. Fruit is a miracle food that heals! Fruit was *my* personal missing key to perfect balance. The sugar in fruit is bound to minerals, antioxidants, and bitter fiber/seeds that annihilate parasites and candida. I passed plenty of parasites without even trying. Fruit is also highly antiviral and cleansing to the body. I had zero candida symptoms and I had a wart (caused by a virus) fall off my thumb completely. It had previously been there for 7 years and no dermatologist could freeze, burn, or cut it off. I will be keeping the habit of a 100% fruit breakfast and possibly lunch as well, depending on the temperature outside and time of year.

I can’t imagine the damage I did to my body when I first tried to be “healthy” many years ago and let GNC sell me protein shakes. We are not suffering from a protein deficiency, however many people are deficient in amino acids because we don’t have enough stomach acid to break down our proteins into amino acids. Amino acids are most readily found in greens and plants (thanks Popeye!)

Because of the toxicity I’ll mention in #8, it’s getting harder and harder for our bodies to break down heavy foods and animal protein. Our stomach acid is lower than ever thanks to stress + zinc and mineral deficiency. I know our ancestors lived far past 90 eating meat and potatoes – heck, my grandparents used to eat liver all the time and they were stronger than most elders I see today. But we’re living in a different world where our kidneys are burdened with heavy metals and can be damaged by the amount of protein our country considers ‘normal’ and healthy. Eating a wide variety of plants/nuts/seeds will provide you with all the the amino acid building blocks your body needs. Animal protein is more acidic than plant protein (which I’ll explain next is not an inherently evil thing, but rather should be balanced with alkaline food), so you should definitely be mindful of your intake since our bodies are already so acidic from our modern polluted lifestyle. I felt great lowering my protein intake, however I never felt satiated after meals because it was a bit TOO low for my particular body’s needs. I’ve added in cooked sweet potato/cooked greens, some nuts/seeds/legumes and wild fish 2x a week. This is definitely my sweet spot!

You hear it everywhere in the alternative health world: eat an alkaline diet. Cancer can’t survive in an alkaline environment. It’s very true that our bodies are far too acidic, and this is certainly contributing to modern disease. A lot of this acidity comes from diet (overeating meat, grains, and even many nuts/seeds/legumes) but a lot of it also comes from our polluted environment (plastics, pesticides, pharmaceutical drugs, heavy metals, viruses, etc). I saw a huge improvement in my body eating this highly alkaline diet… But I also felt even better some nights when I would throw a few pecans and walnuts into my salad, which are considered acidic.

Anything in extreme is not healthy. There is no need to eat 100% alkaline unless you have a serious illness, and even then, the key is balance. Alkaline foods are almost always cooling (yin), and many foods on the ‘acidic’ chart are quite warming, which I explained is important in a cold climate. 80/20 is a wonderful balance for me!

I was cold, guys. Super cold. The enzymes in raw fruits and vegetables are imperative for pancreatic health, cancer prevention, and breaking down waste in the body. And if you don’t usually eat raw food, you definitely need to balance that out with some fresh live enzymes. But like I always thought thanks to Chinese medicine, TOO much of anything causes an imbalance on the other end of the spectrum. Raw food can definitely lower ‘digestive fire’ in a cold climate and drain your energy since your body is trying its hardest to keep you warm in the presence of all this yin (cooling) food. If you’re trying out a raw food diet in a cold climate, listen to your body and don’t be afraid to have some vegetable soup in the evening. You will still get a ton of benefits from the raw food and also have balance and grounding.

When I ate raw salad greens, no matter how much I chewed and chewed, the plant matter would still come “out” the other way undigested. In Chinese medicine, raw greens are the most yin, cooling foods in the world, so they deplete digestive fire and can be hard to break down. This was certainly my experience. Raw fruit digested quite well for me but I was dying for warm salads and cooked spinach. It makes sense of course, because humans are not herbivores and cannot break down cellulose (we’re much closer to the anatomy of frugivores, in my opinion). Cooking makes the cell walls of cellulose-rich green plants much easier to digest. The past few days I’ve had cooked greens instead and they’ve digested wonderfully. There is a reason greens get even brighter when you lightly steam or sautée them; because the nutrients become more bio-available and the human eye is trained to instinctively associate brighter color with denser nutrition. Also, the earth wouldn’t make sweet potato, potato, grains, etc. if we weren’t meant to cook food. Ever tried to eat a raw potato?!

As I explained in my recent YouTube video, detox happens in absence and emptiness. Yin (cooling) foods are considered “depleting” in Traditional Chinese Medicine and are a very useful tool for detox (which was not really covered or needed in the time of TCM unlike our modern toxic world).

Yin/raw food’s live enzymes and detoxifying fiber allow your body to digest and remove waste, tumors, etc. If I had cancer I would definitely do a predominately raw diet with fruit/vegetable juices and chlorophyll rich plants to pack in as much oxygen as possible and kill cancer cells (but I might have to move to a warmer climate first!) Our modern world is VERY polluted and our bodies are bombarded with toxins. Adding more raw food into your diet (even if you balance it with warming food in the evening to keep you grounded and warm) gives your body the yin, detoxing foods it needs to get rid of the poisons before it rebuilds itself with the yang dishes.

When Traditional Chinese Medicine first began, people weren’t living in a toxic world and could handle way more yang, building foods. Nowadays that’s not as practical since our bodies are too toxic to break down heavier, richer foods. We need to get the waste out first and we need more help/enzymes from food to do so. My personal ‘balance’ (which as I said will include a lot more fruit, and a little bit of fish) is very different from the balance taught in the time of TCM, and that’s OK – because again, we are all different! Nick definitely needs way more warming, heavy foods than I do since he loses weight far too quickly.

Eat more raw food, especially in the morning such as fruit for breakfast…. but don’t go crazy with it if it doesn’t feel right! Don’t be afraid of fruit because it’s one of the most healing, anti-viral, anti-parasitic foods known to man. No, the sugar will not hurt you! Don’t put yourself in a box or try to stick to a diet that works for someone else – YOUR body is your guide. We are all VERY different. Base your diet around whole plants foods (whether cooked or raw), make sure to get in a good amount of live enzyme foods, eat abundant fresh fruit whenever you can, and you’ll have WAY less room for the “acidic” stuff – which you need in moderation, anyway. By doing this you will naturally find YOUR balance and live your healthiest life. Above all, do not stress. Stress will kill you way faster than any diet will. Love you all! x