QUESTION
Just wondering if a person should experience anything when switching to this type of lifestyle? I recently started incorporating more raw food eating on top of a clean low gi diet. I’ve been feeling great but noticed when I eat certain foods I have sharp stomach pains. Wondering if you can provide any feedback. Thanks.
- Claudia
ANSWER
Hi Claudia,
Thanks so much for your question. It’s great that a few small tweaks in your daily meals have helped you to feel great! When it comes to raw foods, it is not uncommon to feel stomach upsets. Although raw fruits or vegetables are highly nutritious and contain natural (un-heated) enzymes that are supposed to help with digestion, they also contain cellulose which is a fiber that is hard for humans to digest.
Here are few tips to aid with digestion:
- Try lightly cooking those veggies. A quick sauté, steam, or even a blanched veggie would work well, especially on those cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, or cauliflower.
- Add fermented foods to your diet, like raw sauerkraut, kim chee, a glass of kombucha. If these sounds weird or funky, do a quick google search and you will be able to find these things in a local natural foods store or Whole Foods.
- Enjoy blended veggies and fruit (like smoothies or juices).
- Be sure that you are chewing at least 20x before you swallow.
- And lastly, a good rule of thumb is, if it hurts, don’t eat it. We’re all built differently, so what works for someone else may not work for you. Springer and I differ when it comes to food choices. Letting go of all of the “food facts” about what the most “nutritious way of eating is” took some time, and quite often changes with the season.
Great advise! No one diet works for everyone but there are pieces from each diet that can be pieced together to create a diet that works for you. Really listening to your own body is the way to go. I suggest to keep a food log for a week so that you can pin point exactly what is hurting your belly.