QuestionI am currently waiting to see an m.e. specialist, seen him once already but he was useless telling me standard things like eat often and keep a routine. Basically I used to be very active training lots in the gym etc then suddenly I got really tired, suffering fatigue, at first I thought it was overtraining but it carried on, also around the same time I started to get lymph pain in my inguinal area, my joints hurt etc.
The standard doctors tests in the UK which are very general say I am fine but I know I抦 not and if nothing changes it抯 looking like they抣l just give me some painkillers, antidepressants and tell me to try graded exercise.
I am 22 and have been like this for 2 years and am unable to work and it抯 very frustrating, I抦 researching into this subject.
The doctors won抰 even tell me why I have lymph pain, they say my blood tests are fine, I did one private test for free testosterone and found out that was low, yet the doctors who only check total testosterone etc said I抦 fine. I don抰 trust these dotors for many reasons.
One last point is on top of fatigue, sleep troubles, concentration problems, lymph, joint and muscle pain etc I have had very low libido post puberty even when I did feel better but the doctors again said I was fine, I抦 22 and since the inital surge at puberty it抯 like I have no natural healthy urges and I thought perhaps a raw diet aswell as getting my health better would get me functioning like a young man should.
Long story short since I am not well enough to work the amount of money I have available to work with weekly is around ?0, I am also 198cm tall so assume I would need many more calories than the average person.
My question is what sources (websites) can you reccommend that would fit in this price range, I Will happily eat raw brains tommorrow if it helps me get well enough so I can work and be able to afford more food? I live in West Yorkshire and other than a free range organic farm in (Yorkshire Farmhouse)
Given what limited amount of money I have please could you let me know what sources and possible diet to eat, if this means raw brains and kidneys etc then that's fine, I know this is a big ask and it's just an inquiry. If the idea of being as raw paleo as possible on ?0 seems crazy then I apologise.
I used to be 17.5 stone, I am now 13, I have enquired on similar primal sites but the simple fact of sources here in the UK are the main problem.
If you have any idea I would be grateful, if this way of eating is simply not possible given my current circumstances then fair enough.
Thanks, Martin
AnswerIf you're having financial problems, you might consider applying for some sort of disability benefit. You'd need to get hold of a sympathetic doctor, I suppose. Obviously, if you can find other sources of cash, a rawpalaeodiet will be much easier for you.
Now, in theory, it would be possible to do a rawpalaeodiet within the budget but it means making rather a lot of sacrifices, but it'll be worth it. First of all, I'm not sure if ordering via farm-shop websites is a good idea. It costs a minimum 9 pounds sterling for delivery-charges, which is already just under 10% of your currrent budget. I've found farmers' markets to be very useful in the UK. Unfortunately, not all of them are as good as the (quasi-organic) London Farmers' Markets, but I know at least some are on the same level.
Under normal circumstances, I spend c.150 pounds on all my food which lasts me a full 2 week period. That can go down to 120 pounds or as high as 190 pounds depending on whether I want to eat lots more fruit or have some particularly expensive food available such as raw lobster or whatever. I visit 1 of the London Farmers' Markets for that once a fortnight. What I find amusing is that the wild game I buy(wild mallard duck/wild hare carcasses) is often a third of the price of organic,100% grassfed meats, yet raw wild game is superior to 100% grassfed meats, in terms of nutrients/taste etc.
I can't give you specific details re farms in West Yorkshire and am not familiar with the area. You could either just google online for farms providing 10)% grassfed meats, get their contact details and phone them up re details or join rawpaleoforum and the rawpaleodiet yahoo group and ask the British members there if they know of any such farms. There are a lot more British members than there used to be, so I'm sure you'll find some useful answers, there.
When I was doing Intermittent Fasting(eating only 1 large meal a day, and having (nonconsecutive) whole-day fasts c.1 to 4 times a fortnight), I was, of course, able to reduce my food-budget even further than the above, though that was not my original intention. (IF) Intermittent Fasting has been shown to increase the lifespan of some animals without the negative side-effects assoicated with caloric-restriction diets. Here's some limited info re this:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_fasting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction#Intermittent_fasting_as_an_alte...
The catch is that a very few people in serious ill-health do not do well on IF and, instead, require frequent daily meals. You'd have to experiment to see how it works for you.
I never got a proper diagnosis for my own health-issues pre-rawpalaeodiet, but when I checked some symptoms-lists for chronic fatigue syndrome, practically every symptom there was 1 that I had. This rawpalaeodiet worked very well for me once I cut out ALL raw dairy from my diet. It also helped that I included raw organ-meats as well as raw muscle-meats. Raw organ-meats are higher in nutrients than raw muscle-meats and, happily, are frowned on by the British public so are usually cheaper than raw muscle-meats by comparison. I highly recommend raw tongue, if 100% grassfed etc. Raw ground (organic/grassfed) meats are the cheapest of course, and worth considering. I should point out, though, that some RPDers' digestive systems are so fouled up from decades on junk-food/SAD diets that they can't handle any processing in food at all, even the grinding of raw meats, so then it would be best to just buy the cheapest cuts of raw muscle-meats and any raw organ-meats.
Another point:- You don't have to buy organic. A few farmers are so impoverished that they simply cannot afford to convert to official organic status, yet these farmers maintain the sam standards as organic farmers re not using vaccines/growth-hormones etc. to raise their animals, feed them on grass/herbs not grains, and so on. Of course, it requires multiple enquiries to find such farmers.
One very useful food for you, given your condition, would be "high-meat". This is aged raw meats and is usually only recommended for people who've been at least a year on this diet and who've grown fully used to the taste of fresh raw meats, but because your situation is desperate, I think you might be able to tolerate it."High-Meat" is excellent at improving concentration/mood/alertness due to the excess bacteria boosting the levels of serotonin in the brain. Here's a thread re this:-
http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/display-your-culinary-creations/high-meat-recipe-pr...
I was squeamish re the high-meat issue, at first. But because I was able to handle slightly-aged raw meats, I eventually took the plunge and tried "high-meat" 3 years into this diet. The incredible boost I got from it made me deeply, deeply regret that I hadn't tried it when I first started the raw, palaeolithic diet. There is another catch:- when I tried "high-meat" I found that I simply couldn't tolerate "high-meat" made from raw muscle-meat, raw fish , raw eggs and the like. The only "high-meat" I really liked was aged raw tongues and aged raw hearts. Even then, I had to, at first, resort to gimmicks such as bolting down tiny slivers of the "high-meat" without chewing, and chasing each sliver with a big gulp of alkaline mineral water to get rid of the taste.Eventually, I got used to it and view it much like SAD-eater would view an aged raw cheese, say.
When you are fit enough to work, you might consider more expensive supplements as extras. I'm thinking of Dr Mercola's Krill Oil(cold-extracted and very rich in omega-3s and makes up for whole decades on omega-3 deficient diets). Also there are some sites such as Dr Ron's which supply freeze-dried adrenals/thyroid. These aren't 100% essential but I view them as helpful. It's just that they are awfully expensive.
I wouldn't recommend going in for a raw zero-carb diet at this stage, because it's a difficult transition and quite a number of people fail with it anyway as they can't adapt to such an extreme diet. It's best to go raw omnivore(ie mostly raw animal foods(muscle-meats/organ-meats from 100% grassfed or wild sources) and some raw plant foods. Given your budgetary concerns, it would be wise to eat only a small amount of raw plant foods, as the more plant-foods one eats the bigger one's appetite becomes, and the more one eats. Also, make sure to eat plenty of raw animal fat, such as raw tongue, raw marrow, fatty muscle-meats like raw mutton(astonishingly cheaper than raw lamb!), raw suet as raw animal fat will delay hunger for longer periods, saving you money. Raw marrow and suet are astonishingly cheap even when taking into account the weight of the bone being part of the price.
Here's a vague sample of what I eat. Some of it is expensive , some of it , such as raw mussels, raw wild mallard duck, raw wild hare, is very cheap:-
"wild hare carcass, complete with most organs(my favourite), wild mallard duck with organs, leg of mutton, leg of lamb, wildcaught oysters/mussels/live lobster, live crab, scallops, prawns/giant tiger prawns,samphire, fruits(mostly blueberries/raspberries/strawberries(my least favourite of the 3), and cherries- sometimes, rarely, apples, pears). Organs(heart, liver, tongue, kidney, suet, marrow) from beef, lamb, deer. Rarely, some minced muscle-meat from the 3 aforementioned animals. Horsemeat/goatmeat(just the muscle-meat, can't get organs for those), swordfish, kingfish, tuna, herring-shark(?), limpets, sea-urchin eggs,clams(very rarely as they're a major hassle to open), carrots(once a year or so). Eggs(goose, duck, quail eggs preferred, when in season, otherwise chicken eggs - I frown on egg-consumption, though, unless no other fats are available). Heather or borage honeycomb only eaten in the summer months, generally, in moderate or tiny amounts, Very rarely eaten during non-summer months(heather honeycomb tastes the best of all honey, IMO"
Hope this is useful. if you have any further questions please ask them. I should warn you that recovery from something like CFS can take some time, maybe even 2-3 years for a full recovery(well, that is the average time it takes for RPD newbies to regain 100% vibrant health, if they've been suffering from some very severe crippling illness.Of course, initial health-problems can be solved quite quickly. For example, in my own case, while it took c.2-3 years for me to recover fully, something like 70-80% of my former symptoms disappeared within 4 months of my cutting out all raw dairy.
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