FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Hi Jinjee, I just saw Michael Moore's new movie Sicko about the healthcare industry crisis. I think the movie focused too much on the problems with people not being able to get healthcare instead of the real problem which is the healthcare system itself.What do you think?

A: The real revolution is the personal revolution!

Until we take responsibility for our own health and stop putting our own power in the hands of the medical industry nothing will change much.

Unfortunately we are usually just too lazy and fearful to do that.

So we have the medical system we deserve.

But, good news! Things are changing! People are seeking a better way of life en masse. It is still challenging to find the truth out there with all the peddlers of supplements and superfoods just waiting to take advantage of people who are waking up to the medical/pharmaceutical industry rackets. But if you are sincerely seeking a better way, if you are willing to listen to your own body and mind and spirit above any outside influence, if you are willing to value your own experiences and thoughts, then it is possible to live a healthy life!

When I first heard about the raw vegan diet - eating just the foods that grow in their natural unheated state - it was an "aha!" moment. It just made such logical sense that I wondered why I'd never thought of it myself.

My family and I eat a 100% raw-vegan diet and we are thriving on a level that seems to be a sort of phenomena, strangely. I'm really grateful to have found this truth in the midst of so much confusion, chaos, and corruption in our food/diet/health industries. The people who we pay to be our watchdogs have sold us down the river. But that is partly because we are in such denial ourselves!

We'd rather pop a pill than move our butts! We'd rather cut an organ out than eat in a way that sustains and repairs it! We'd rather spend our children's inheritance on medical bills than make a change in our lifestyle!

But we are all just human, and I believe we are all on a journey together towards a perfect world - but we are where we are! And it is a heck of a journey! I'm loving it! Let's be good to ourselves and each-other!

Envisioning a world of health and happiness, free of unnecessary pain and suffering!

Jinjee

Q: Hi Storm & Jinjee,
I have been on the raw food diet now for three weeks and feel I might have to stop being 100% raw. I have NO energy and feel weak from this diet. Am I not getting enough protein? I have been eating good quantities of nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, filberts) and vegetables and fruits and manna bread. I cannot eat but a small quantity of grains because my system cannot tolerate grains very well. Please help as I would like to stay on this diet. I am not overweight and the only health issue I have had over the past 15 years is chronic fatigue immune deficiency. Thank you
Lynn

A: Hi Lynn,

Here’s what I would try. Every day juice some kale, celery, and cucumbers in a vegetable juicer and drink right away and/or make green smoothies made from a handful of greens, any two fruits, and a blender full of water. The vegetables have all the protein, vitamins and minerals you need in perfect quantities. Cut back on the nuts to one cup max a day, - germinated nuts only. To germinate soak the nuts for four hours before eating or making a nut-milk from them. To make a nut-milk blend a cup of soaked almonds with a blender full of water. Strain through a strainer, nut-milk bag or cheesecloth. Leave out manna bread and grains completely as you don’t do well with them. Try to eat a big salad every day.

I hope this helps!
Jinjee

Q: Why do so many raw foodist and vegans look so unhealthy (drawn and shallow) and their skin lacks luster. I live in Ohio and maybe its because of the winter months but I swear it appears that the ones who eat the healthiest look the worst and many are overweight!

A: Maybe it is the weather, I'm not sure. I've heard people say this about veggies, but I haven't noticed it. I wonder if we see what we want to, or what we expect to, or what we believe. Because I've heard many people also say that raw vegans have a real vital glow about them.

I used to think the greyness people described was maybe because a lot of these people have health problems and that's why they got into the alternative diets to start with. And maybe they would be dead otherwise, so they look pretty good in comparison!

Another thing is a lot of vegetarians and vegans don't actually eat a lot of fresh foods. There are a lot of processed vegetarian and vegan foods and these are not vital or enlivening. Some of these people even live on synthetic supplements. I think there's also a personality type that is sort of obsessed with health in a really paranoid way to the point of being unhealthy.

Best,
Jinjee

Q: Hi Jinjee,

I found your website about a year ago and went completely raw, lost a ton of weight and felt amazing. Then, started slacking because my family was not enjoying it as I was and they wanted something different. Before I knew it I had added back all my weight plus some. Now, I am 23 weeks pregnant. I have gained 23 lbs., now standing at 183 lbs. and feel plain awful! I am sick a lot, terrible heartburn and indigestion, struggling with constipation and gas again, sluggish, and just plain lazy. I don't go outside, I don't clean my house, I don't play with my two children, I don't take care of myself...I just don't feel like doing anything. I am having a terrible time bonding with my baby in this pregnancy. I am almost resentful because of how big I am and how terrible I feel. I don't like the way I look or the way I feel. We are planning another home-birth with a mid-wife and right now I have such negative feelings on it all. I am scared about the entire process.

Anyway, obviously I have some big issues. This weekend I was describing how I was feeling to my husband. He reminded me of last summer when I discovered the raw diet and how good I felt when I went on it. Well, now I am 23 weeks pregnant and completely out of shape and sick in body, mind and spirit. I am not sure where to start or if it is safe at this point. I know that when you begin the raw diet your body basically detoxes and I am not sure if that is safe during pregnancy.

If you have any suggestions, advice or can point me in a direction to get help in this...I would be extremely grateful. I am tired of being sick and tired. I have loaded up my body with toxins and junk. I want to be free of this, I want to feel good, I want to bond with my baby, I want to enjoy my children, I want to play, I want have the energy to clean my house and do things that are healthy for my body.

Please help...Thanks

A: It is such a difficult question and I have to say upfront that I honestly don't know the answer.

But if it was me, I would go for it! I would go 100% raw right away for myself and my baby! However you might want to take it a little slower, to avoid detox. Other things that can help avoid detox symptoms are to drink lots of water, exercise (especially aerobic), and to do enemas.

I hope this helps!!
Jinjee

Q: I'm a grandmother with a three week baby. I don't have access to breast milk and all the store bought formulas I've found have some kind of cow's milk or soy milk. Any suggestions as to what I can make for her to feed her from a bottle with all the nutrients in it that she needs and can be easily digested by a baby.

Any suggestions or directions would be greatly appreciated!

Phyllis

A: Dear Phyllis,

Wow! That is such a difficult question. Of course nothing can compare with human mother’s milk for a human baby! Is there any chance of acquiring a raw-vegan wet-nurse? That would be a great business/network to start if not! Maybe some traveling raw-vegan young mother would do it in exchange for room and board, and could also be a help to you. Perhaps a vegan or vegetarian wet-nurse would be second best.

If not possible, you might try the water of young coconuts. It tastes a lot like mother’s milk. It has a similar consistency, sweetness, and just a hint of mineral-flavor. It has a similar fat-level too. The main problem is that the ones they ship over here are not organic. My family eats them anyway because of the nutrients, the flavor, and all the things you can do with them! It is one of the few foods we’ll eat un-organic. You may be able to find an organic source if you really hunt online or locally through your Asian Markets and Health Food Stores. Maybe you could convince one of them to order organic ones. Or perhaps that is another great business idea you could start. If someone were to import organic young coconuts to the U.S. I know the raw vegans over here would eat them up!!!

You might also try soaked almond milk or juicing apples or pears with a romaine lettuce leaf in a vegetable juicer, then perhaps strain it. Perhaps the variety of doing all three of these things (you could also vary the fruits and types of greens) would provide adequate nutrition. You’ll have to watch and see how the baby reacts to these foods and monitor the growth charts online to see that the baby is growing well. This is new territory as there are no studies done on this type of real nutrition for infants (do I see another business opportunity?) because of course there is far more money in selling artificial patent-able foods such as infant formula.

This must be a huge challenge for you! My Mom fed my little brother cooked oatmeal from his second day of life because he wouldn’t stop crying and the doctor said he was just hungry. He slept most of the time after that for the first two years of his life but still grew into a strapping young man and a wonderful human being!

All the best of luck to you and the new little one!
Jinjee

Peer Pressure

Q: Hi Jinjee, Just discovered your family's website - so inspiring. I'm a single mum from Sydney Australia with a 13 year old son. I'm 100% raw and my son is also, but is feeling peer pressure at school to be 'normal'.

Unfortunately in Australia, the raw food movement is growing slowly and probably as in the US mainstream just doesn't get it.

A: One raw mom I know sends extra fruits for her son to give to friends in school – and so instead of being teased he is quite popular! :)

Cravings

Q: Dear Jinjee, I want to thank you for your daily raw inspiration. I was raw for 2 1/2 weeks (bodily changes were amazing), then I started my period. It seems that food cravings are getting the best of me at this time of the month. Does this happen to you? Any tips on what I'm REALLY craving? I had cooked eggs yesterday, and some chocolate covered brazil nuts. I'm still craving chocolate today, and gave in to some chocolate chip cookies, but I'm determined to juice when I get home from work. Must break these cravings, must. J.M.

A: Yes, I do sometimes have these cravings! I’m pregnant and I'm having some unusual cravings for different favorite foods from my childhood. What I did this morning was write down a list of cooked things I wanted to eat. And then I told myself that I will eat one of them tomorrow. So now I just have to get through today. This happened a few hours ago and I’ve actually forgotten about my cravings now anyway. Tomorrow if I’m having cravings I’ll just tell myself the same thing again. That way I can calm the childish part of my mind from having any tantrums about not getting what it thinks I want. Hope this helps! Jinjee

Mother's Milk Replacements

Q: I ordered the 12-E-books. I read raising vegan children.... twice but did not see anything about breast-milk replacement for infants. Not sure If i should go to commercial rice milk or make my own nut milks???? I've read that nuts are not to be introduced to infants due to possible allergies and other reasons.

A: Young coconut water tastes a lot like breast-milk, so I think this would be the most natural replacement. It is full of nutrients, fats, etc.. similar to breast-milk.

I would also make a milk from soaked almonds. See our almond milk recipes in our eBooks but leave out the honey etc... Just use almonds and water.

Also green smoothies. You blend up a few fruits, a handful of romaine lettuce or chard or kale and fill the blender up with water and blend. You can also sometimes use celery or other veggies. You can also make a green smoothie that is like a V8 by using celery, tomatoes, parsley, cucumber and water.

I would alternate between these three types of drinks and see what your baby likes and does best with!

Hi Jinjee,
If a person starts to eat an all raw-vegan diet does it also reverse the aging process? Can it help to regenerate the hormones that are lost. Just wondering because I have been all raw for 10 months and I am 48. I am on no medication and people say I am looking much younger. I have a whole new outlook on life.
Kim

Hi Kim,
Wow, that’s great to hear! Yes, the raw-vegan diet absolutely does reverse the aging process and regenerates the glands that produce the anti-aging hormones, which are usually tired out by middle age when a cooked food diet is eaten. On the raw diet the skin becomes more elastic and everything in the body functions better. People have reported and shown wrinkles disappear, grey hair turn back to its original color, and bald men have even experienced new hair growth! The raw vegan diet is nothing short of a miracle! It is the true natural fountain of youth!
Jinjee

Q: Greetings! I have an interesting question and would love to know your thoughts. I first started pursuing the raw foods diet last year in an attempt to help heal an allergy/asthma situation that I have been suffering with for the last 5 years (I'm 38). I have been on and off the diet, and at the very least, have made a successfully transition to vegan from vegetarian and have added a lot more raw foods to my diet and lifestyle. Also, when not feeling particularly well, I will often go a week raw to clean house. The question I have came up at a visit to a doctor of oriental medicine that I have recently started seeing. We address diet as an active treatment component. I shared with the doc that I had gone a week to ten days raw and he expressed concern regarding the consistently cool temperature of the food. Apparently, one of the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine is a balance of hot and cold in the body. He further shared with me that the body needs to heat food to approx. 100 degrees for proper digestion to occur. He felt that a strictly raw foods diet would promote a state a damp cold in the body which could create a breeding ground for many potential problems to arise. Also, I know from reading up on Ayurveda that a strong digestive fire is directly responsible for health and a disease free life. What are your thoughts on this philosophy?

A: Although the overall Oriental health seems to be a step up from the American Diet I believe that the raw food philosophy will yield dramatically better results. And although Ayurveda makes sense and some people do apply its principles to the raw vegan diet, again I think that the raw vegan diet is an improvement on this philosophy.

Ayurveda and The Chinese Medicine diet are based on the study of human health when these humans are eating a high percentage of cooked foods. When the human body consumes only unheated foods for longer than a few months the resulting physical body systems actually change and of course this changes the entire picture from a scientific stand-point.

Hundreds of years of scientific study would have to be performed on countless raw vegans and raw vegan foods as well as comparisons performed in order to validate and optimize the raw vegan diet. Unfortunately we’re decades away from this happening so we have to operate on our own beliefs, intuition, and experiences. It is my hope that more and more young people will enter into nutritional sciences and that this type of honest research can at least begin in earnest in the near future.

Best,
Jinjee

Hello Jinjee,

Let me take the opportunity to say that it seems to me that everyone who
goes raw has someone to thank. I have you! I was shocked to see how healthy
you looked 10 days after having your last baby, and it really got through
to me. I mean, I was already thinking about it; after reading The China
Study it clicked, finally, that it doesn't make sense that we try to immitate
the low-fat diet of of those who are healthy by processing our food and
removing the fat! The low fat diet of those people is low fat because it
is also low protein. It goes hand-in-hand. After that book I became confident
that I don't need animal protein, in fact it is detrimental to our health.

Anyway, if I needed a push... here's the story: I have a 6 months old daughter.
I was in good shape, but I gained 45 lbs in my pregnancy. I lived off of
granola and milk, brown rice and grass fed beef, some cooked veggies, and
cheese; basically. And lots of granola and milk, and cheese. I cut out the
dairy after she was born because I sensed it was giving her colic. I thought:
if it isn't good for her, it can't be good for me, so I never re-started
consuming those.

Then I read the book I mentioned; then I went to take a second look at raw...
it was when I saw your picture that I said to myself: that's it! I went
raw 100% the next day, and that was four weeks ago. I'm doing great, I don't
crave anything. My husband it's also doing it, and we are loving it. I'm
drinking a 1 liter of green smoothie as I type this, just before I go to
bed. These have completely made my want of coffee be history, even when
I get very little sleep (I never get enough these days). So the green smoothies
became the drink that I can't live without! And we bought a super orange
juicer (from Breville) inspired by your love of fresh oj, my husband thinks
it's the best investment we've made in a while.

I have read most of the material that comes in your package. The text you
have for children is so thorough.

Jinjee, thank you for sharing the experience your family had with the diet.
It gave me the confidence that I would know what to do, and it's been working.
I haven't had a cooked meal for this whole time, and I really don't miss
it.

If I can ask you something, it is this: my baby can eat solids now if I
want (I breastfeed). I do give her organic fruits, but not much, just for
fun. I am concerned about the iron issue though. I know she should be fine
with just breast milk since the absorption is greater but... if I wanted
to be safe, do you think I could give her some green juice? Or do you have
any other suggestion for a raw source of iron for a baby? Thank you.

With all the best to all of you,
--Carlisia

Note From Jinjee: Thank you for sharing your story! I agree that breastmilk is enough for a 6 month old to get all their nutrients. I also think it is fine to give your baby some green juice if she likes it. My babies always did, especially if it had carrot or apples in it too. Green smoothies are fine too, which are made from two pieces of fruit, a few cups of water, and a handful of greens usually.

Q: Over the last couple of days I watched some of the shows on the "Natural Paradigms" channel and they are sooooooooooooooooo good!!! It is also wonderful to see the whole family enjoying the beautiful food together. A lot of books and info seems to be geared towards adults and it is great that you cover all the aspects of family & children.We are in our first year of being raw fooders and it has been challenging at times, epecially with relatives who feel very strongly that what we are doing is wrong and harmful. (a certain person even went to her doctors and told them, who then said that our children need more -like meat etc - than just raw fruits, veggies & nuts to grow properly) How do you deal - if you have that problem- with relatives/ friends like that?

A: Fortunately we are slowly winning the medical community over! We have more and more people tell us they found our site because their doctors told them to research the raw vegan diet. A panel of doctors on medicalnewstoday.com recommended the raw vegan diet as one of only three popular diets that have no adverse side effects! But it was for so long believed that we need meat and dairy that these ideas are almost a part of all of us. It helps give us and our relatives peace of mind to have the whole family examined regularly by a family doctor to ensure we are all healthy and fully nourished.

Q: I am three months pregnant and I want to go raw but I am afraid that the detox might harm my baby. What are your thoughts on this?

A: That is a very personal decision. Switching to a raw vegan diet might be the best thing you can do for you and your baby giving you a pleasant pregnancy and an easy birthing with a very healthy and happy baby and Mom. However there may be a risk of harming the baby if you switch to a raw diet during pregnancy. When you transition to a raw vegan diet your body can start to expel toxins at a rapid rate. If there is any blockage in the colon the toxins may be reabsorbed into the blood stream and affect the system at large possibly including the fetus. If you are already fairly healthy and eating a pretty clean diet i.e. no junk food, dairy, meat, chemicals, etc... then it is safer. The risk can also be minimized if you get plenty of exercise and drink lots of water to help detox through the breath, the skin, and the elimination organs thereby preventing any reabsorbing of toxins into the system at large.

Q: Which should we use as sweetener: honey or maple syrup? I've heard that honey is not really a vegan food since it comes from bees. We love what you're doing. You have shown us what is possible and what we as humans can and should achieve. Keep going!!!

A: Thank you! We use honey. Some people feel it is not a vegan product because it is made by bees. However it is never actually a part off the bee’s body. Honey is flower nectar transported by the bees in a special sack just for that purpose. You can read how bees make honey on Ask Science Theatre. The health benefits of honey are well documented. It was used medicinally by Native Americans. Only buy honey that is labeled “Raw, Unfiltered”. Most honey is heated to make it easier to bottle. Raw honey is very thick and quite opaque. Agave (cactus) nectar may be a good sweetener too but it is questionable whether it is really raw even when marked raw. If you find a brand of raw Agave nectar contact the company to find out if they heat it at all. Maple syrup is always heated to make it runny enough to bottle it so we don’t use maple syrup at all, although many raw chefs use it.

Q: I simply enjoy your newsletter. I am a vegetarian for 4 years now. Trying to become raw and slipping everytime, but everytime I get back on the horse I seem to ride further and further....I have read about colonics. I was wondering if the OJ diet would have the same affect in cleansing the colon? PS- My husband and I LOVE the Breakthrough DVD!!!

A: Thanks for the feedback! We think that the OJ Diet or the raw vegan diet are even more beneficial than colonics and not as invasive. However when I had a blockage in my colon causing a detox headache during transitioning to the raw diet I got instant relief by doing an enema ~ jinjee