Were you in touch with the 811 community and ask for their counsel on what's going on, what to do, etc?
The interesting thing is that there are some in that community (e.g. 30 bananas a day ning community) who seem to thrive on the long-term. I'm wondering if this is a question of the diet being 'wrong' altogether or that it only works for a certain subset of people. "Different strokes for different blokes", etc.
Lies, lies, lies, from lying liars. LOL No, seriously, you can't survive for more than a few years eating that way 100%. If you're cheating with animal foods, and higher-fat other foods, you can last a lot longer. I most definitely was in contact with the 8/1/1 community. I was a regular contributor to Doug's vegsource forum, which has been going strong from at least 2002, I think.
Fortunately for me, my willpower is so incredibly strong that I was able to do the 8/1/1 diet with no cheating for quite a few months, and witness what it does in all its full power and glory on my body and mind firsthand. As well, I have a quite a few raw foodist friends who also have similar levels of dedication, and they too experienced what I did. The watery fruits will destroy you fast, the drier ones more slowly. In the end, you're dead. I don't give a damn what people
say, I have seen it in the real world. I was hanging out at Cascada Verde, the raw foods retreat, near Doug's land in Uvita, Costa Rica, back in 2003 and 2004, and was able to really talk deeply with a lot of raw foodists who had come there to be his caretaker and/or hang out at Cascada Verde. They all had similar stories to mine.
It doesn't work long term.I was full 811 for about two months. I felt really good when I kept the greens intake high, particularly dark greens like spinach. However, with doubts creeping in I added significant amounts of raw fish (about 200-500grams per day) and some raw eggs. I've also been experimenting with adding steamed vegetables (10-25% of my daily diet right now) which may have caused me to catch the cold I'm recovering with right now.
You don't need the steamed veggies. If you've got to to eat some, make it dark leafy greens, don't steam them too much, and don't eat more than a couple of ounces a day, max. But you can experiment, if you want.
Eating the raw fish and eggs definitely doesn't seem to have any adverse effects. In fact, my body really seems to enjoy it. However I'm keeping up a high intake of fruits and greens and I'm not sure if that's a bad thing. The issue of bloog sugar, from the 811 point of view, isn't on sugar itself (at least not natural sugar) but rather high sugar in combination with high fat. Overconsumption of fats, from their perspective, interferes with insulin efficacy and therefore strains the pancreas, adrenals and inevitably the entire system.
I don't think large amounts of raw sweet fruit really cause diabetes, but I could be wrong. That's not the point, anyway. The diet will screw up your brain
badly. You need fats to make and transport hormones and neurotransmitters. No fats=fat soluble vitamins cannot be transported in the body.
I had to go extremely high-fat/low-carb for over 2 years before I could eat significant amounts of fruit again without having panic attacks. Even now, I eat a lot of bone meal and healing clays to keep the fruit from destroying my teeth, and I always either brush my teeth or swish with bone meal right after eating fruit, or any carbs, really. Even so, I do have a little gum bleeding, although that's probably partly from the large amounts of Omega-3-rich smelt roe that I eat.
In any case, I'm feeling fairly well with this diet right now. I need to see about whether I'll be keeping the steamed vegetables in the diet or not, though. The jury is still out as I read up and learn more and test it on my body firsthand.
Feel free to test. I have outlined the correct parameters above. Stray from that carefully, if at all. You will either follow my path before testing, or you will follow it after, I promise. LOL
