When I started this I imagined I would have many horrible cravings for cooked food. I thought beans and rice (my favorite cooked food) would be floating around in my head taunting me with what I can't have. Instead, I have no desire for the heavy feeling of cooked food and my tastes have shifted to raw. My cravings are for tomatoes of every variety, and delicious salads filled with red and yellow bell peppers.

So what is the problem? Nuts. I love them. I could eat my weight in them. I'm afraid I could be the only person in the world who could manage to gain weight eating raw food due to my addiction. Almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts, peanuts (though technically not a nut, but a legume), I love them all.   I have learned than most nuts we buy in the United States are actually not raw because they have been pasteurized. During pasteurization the nuts are heated above the acceptable temperature of 118 degrees, therefore killing any living enzymes that the nut had to offer us. Because of this I have sought out raw nuts at my local health food store.  Cashews and Almonds specifically are currently required to be pasteurized and may take a bit of a search to find truly raw. While raw nuts do not taste the same as cooked nuts, in the case of almonds, I have discovered I like them even more than before, adding fuel to my desire for nuts.

 Nuts are easy, nuts are fast, they do not need to be cut up or peeled. Sometimes I believe I reach for nuts so often because of this reason. Even though I do believe that nuts are a healthy part of a raw diet, I think I need to watch my nut intake as to not let it get out of control.  I think that nuts should be a small part of a raw diet and that it would be best to reach most often for a fruit or vegetable. If I over do it with nuts they seem to irritate my stomach which is one thing that raw food has otherwise allowed me to avoid. After all nearly every raw food article I have read says that we should limit nuts and seeds to a small part of the diet.

If you are like me and experience fibromyalgia pain on a nearly daily basis then you are probably to a point where you will try nearly anything. Today is day 10 on my raw food journey, and while I am still experiencing pain I have been impressed with what has changed. I feel more alert and my senses are heightened. I have experienced very little stomach issues compared with my usual diet. For these reasons I believe this diet can do something, and I have read the stories of many others who claim their pain dissipated on a raw food diet. Follow me on my journey through the raw food diet with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis pain.