Got myself sick?

[rawmakessense]

I've been drawn to and practiced paleo diets (non-raw) for quite some time now. I hadn't been that diligent over the last couple of years, but in an effort regain some general health and hopefully heal some disc issues, I "discovered" raw eating and it made tons of sense to me.

Long story short, I switched to about 75% raw around a month ago. At first, I would eat lunch consisting of around 1/3 lb grass fed ground beef, 1/2 avocado, some olives, and a few raw eggs. For dinner I would have a little bit of cooked food (what the wife made) along with a "smoothie" made of power greens, a few more raw eggs, carrots, and half a banana. Things were going well. After reading some of Vonderplanitz's stuff, I decided to incorporate some raw milk, butter, and raw honey. Things continued to go well for about the next 1.5 weeks. I felt energized and even over the short period of time seemingly noticed slight decreases in body fat with a slight increase in muscle mass (I'm naturally lean).

Last Thursday, around mid-day, I started getting bad intestinal cramps. I had to race to bathroom with explosive bowel movements. It's been hell since. I've been having to go multiple times a day, with bad cramps, and movements that are extremely loose (not quite diarrhea, but close). Seems to be a mucous quality in it too. I stopped eating raw over the weekend as problems persisted. On Monday, I seemed to be doing better, so for dinner I squeezed in a little bit of raw butter and 3 raw eggs. Today ended up being horrible...5 trips to the bathroom by noon. On the last one, I am pretty sure there was blood in my stool. I may be forced to go to the doctor, but I'm hesitant to do so because I'm almost certain he'll just throw me on some antibiotics.

I know no one here is a doctor and can't diagnose me. But you guys do have lots of experience/knowledge. Any ideas as to what could be happening? I am forced to stop eating raw to try to recover. I've never had lactose issues before, but then again I hadn't had milk in 15 years. I've been buying quality ingredients: grass fed beef, vital farms eggs, unheated raw honey, and raw milk/butter from Organic Pastures (I live in CA). Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated...I'm at a loss and hurting.

[sabertooth]

Stop all dairy immediately! These are tell tale signs of dairy intolerance, likely exacerbated by other factors such as honey, smoothies, and too many eggs.

Try a three day water fast, that should rid the bowls of any aberrations and reset the microbiome baseline to begin proper nourishment with raw meats, organs and fats.

Too many eggs can cause diarrhea, and I wont eat them all the time. I usually wont eat more than two in a day. Vital Farm Eggs are not the worst, but its not the paleo ideal source.

After fasting try to avoid eating any eggs, honey, dairy, smoothies or any other supplemental foods which could be an issue. Start out with small meals of just meat and fat, then very slowly begin to add very small amounts of other foods, one at a time, while paying close attention to any signs of adverse reaction.

[goodsamaritan]

You may want to try overdosing on probiotics.

Say 5 caps of OMX 3x a day for 3 days.

[PaganGoy]

Carrot is very alkaline and will prevent milk from digesting for one, also the greens will too.

[rawmakessense]

Thanks, Sabertooth. I went on a 36 hour water fast. Last night I had a bit of food and the peristalsis caused a couple of immediate trips to the bathroom with the same conditions as before (maybe with a bit less cramping). I'm hoping it was just trying to clear out whatever was left, but I'm obviously still concerned.

I am just having trouble wrapping my head around dairy intolerance. Before I switched to raw, I would eat pasteurized cheese often and pasteurized butter and sour cream occasionally. Those gave me zero issues. And even though I hadn't consumed any (pasteurized) milk in nearly 15 years, it hadn't given me any issues when I did. So, I figured I would have no problems with raw dairy. Even reading into raw dairy some, I found several sources that indicated people who have dairy issues often find that raw dairy does not cause them problems.

I also didn't realize eggs could be such an issue. Prior to raw, I would eat 3-4 cooked eggs about 5-6 days a week. Never any problems. If Vital Farms is only ok, what's a better source? I know local is always preferred, but I am concerned local farmers would give grain feed to their hens and, even if they said they didn't, there'd be no way easy way to verify.

[rawmakessense]

You may want to try overdosing on probiotics.

Say 5 caps of OMX 3x a day for 3 days.

Ironically, I had been taking probiotic supplements (along with other vitamins) before I switched to raw. After I switched, I figured I didn't need unnatural supplements anymore, so I stopped taking them.

[rawmakessense]

Carrot is very alkaline and will prevent milk from digesting for one, also the greens will too.

I wasn't aware of that. I thought it made sense to use the raw milk as a base in the smoothie. At this point, even if that was the culprit, I think I've got to stay away from raw dairy for quite some time.