When I first started learning how to cure my eczema and heal it, I found out about the following people online: Karen Knowler, Shazzy and Jill Swyers. Jill is a nutritionist and raw food coach. Basically what this means is that she eats all of her food or raw whether it is protein carbs or fat. But she’s vegan also so her food is plant-based with vegan supplementation. As I wanted to rejuvenate my skin, I was keen to see how Jill did it.
The reason why Jill went raw vegan in the first place is that in her 40s she experienced fibromyalgia. This is a lot of pain in your muscles and joints. Since nothing worked to cure her, she had to quit her job as a top Chef. She realised that food or her diet was an important factor to regaining health.
Jill ended up at the Hippocrates Institute in the States and re-trained as a Raw Food Coach. And yes, the fibromyalgia has gone completely.
When I first visited this lady around 2002, she sat me down – didn’t mention anything about my skin even though it was in bandages (especially my legs). She advised “You need to have raw avocado soups and green juices. Jill also recommended wheatgrass and growing bean sprouts. She showed me around her place in Wandsworth Town in London. And let me see a variety of sprouted beans, lentils and seeds growing in her kitchen garden.
When I met Jill she was 55 and had the most bouncy thick brown hair. She just looked really vibrant and young. Her energy really inspired me to go raw. Later, I bought a juicer. blender and dehydrator. and about five books that had plenty of raw food recipes in them. For example some of the books were from such authors as:
Leslie Kenton
Nomi Shannon
Julian the Raw Uncook book
Raw Power by Thor Bazler.
Juicing Therapy by Bernard Jensen
The Wheatgrass book by Ann Wigmore and
Sprouting by Ann Wigmore
I also bought books about healthy fats, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, edible clay, edible mud, MSM… I bought books by Gillian McKeith – You are What You Eat, Bernard Jensen – Bowel Care and Tissue Management and liver flushing, and, that was the beginning. I did not buy these all at once but let’s say I bought one book every two months and this carried on for 5 years.
No, I have not got a university degree in nutrition, but I understand about using everything from herbs like aloe and parsley in my juices to edible clay in my psyllium and bentonite shakes. I also do liver flushing and use epsom salts. Plus natural skin care which contain only 1 or 2 ingredients, for example, olive oil, coconut oil or shea butter.
Exfoliative eczema basically means that your skin is so dry it flakes off every single day, does not seem to settle down, repair itself and change texture back to normal. It is extremely flaky and if you scratch your skin flakes, and falls off of your body. Basically I was like this from head to toe in the years between 2012 January and 2016 March.
Prior to this in my twenties, I had experienced 16 years of flawless skin so you can imagine my dismay when my skin flared up year after year! I also had cold sores covering the right side of my face. I had had shingles, I was experiencing arthritis in my knee joints, my hair thinned and the back of my neck looked like a lizard’s. I lost my eyebrows and sideburns.
But hey! Let’s get back to the main topic of raw veganism.
Why a High Raw Diet Is Good For You
In the Western hemisphere of the world where there are plenty of people and large cities, we are living in a land where the soils are depleted of essential macronutrients, minerals and enzymes for our bodies.So the plants that we grow, even organic ones, are not as nutritious as areas where there is no pollution such as toxic fumes from cars, trains and central heating…
Our farms are over-farmed to the point where the soils in which we grow crops are depleted of important nutrients and friendly bacteria that keep us healthy. So the vegetation we grow on this land is less nutritious than a 100 years ago where organic was normal.
One thing I do find is that I cannot go 100% vegan because I suffer from sickle cell trait rather than full-blown anaemia. This means I need higher than normal stores of Iron and B12 in my body as well as Vitamin B complex.
The iron mineral in plants is not one that is readily absorbed by the body compared to red meat. Therefore plant iron needs to be be complemented with animal products such as red meat, offal or eggs. I knew that if I was to be a person who had glowing skin I would have to have a high proportion of my food raw. So in 2016 at the height of the worst flare up in my life I went vegan. Being self-taught, and educating myself as to what nutrients are in what food, I make sure that I have at least 2 L of vegetable juice a day. I had two large 7-vegetable salad and I also supplemented with raw eggs ok so let’s say high raw.
I also sprouted beans, puy lentils, sunflower seeds, for their high protein and mineral content. I also ground almonds with water to make almond nut milk.
As for fats, avocado smoothies were the norm. I did this for 4 months and my skin quickly healed. But as I lost at least 1 stone – 14 lbs in weight, my skin developed fine wrinkles. As I was in my late 40s. and realised I did not have enough protein, chicken and oily fish were re-introduced to go alongside my dinners of avocado salads, sprouts and 2 Litres of juice for breakfast.
What Made The Biggest Difference To My Skin
Cleanse Smart by Renew Life to cleanse my bowels
The Purify Kit by Synergy Worldwide.
This includes a one-week supply of clinically formulated nutrition for the microbiome. Closely following the diet guidelines made a stronger impact.
2. Then a week later, I did a liver flush and can still remember the date; October 11th 2017. The following morning after drinking the oil- grapefruit mixture, I looked in the mirror and was surprised to see my wrinkles had disappeared, my skin texture was normal and it was smooth, toned, plump. Joint aches disappeared and did not return.
My eye bags disappeared, my energy increased, the whites of my eyes became very white and to top it off when acquaintances saw me in the street they did not recognise me.
So here I am fast forward 2019, my hair has grown back and because I did that deep cleansing in 2017 my skin is still clear 3 years later. I did have a small flare up of eczema between February and March this year but I took 2 months to clear it and my skin tone returned.
What Kind of Food Do You Eat on a Raw Food Diet?
You can use very simple food that comes from the ground or trees and this includes food like nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds. Brazil nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashew nuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and the list goes on.
I also make sure that I stock up at least £20 or $30 of vegetables a week. I buy plenty of green leafy vegetables as well. I found out that the greener the vegetables, the better for your skin and green vegetables have iron in them. The highest and richest vegetables that contain iron and vitamin C and eating are such green leafy vegetables as kale, cilantro, coriander, parsley.
I also eat root veg like carrots, swedes, beetroot. Plus tubers such as yam, sweet potato.. I use half-ripe raw plantain in avocado smoothies. Being vegan or high raw does not mean only eating salads. You can make bread, cakes, dressings, dips, sauces, puree, nut milk. Even nut butters. For breakfast, dinner and lunch dishes. You can even make a raw food cheesecake!
You can make whatever is out there even if it’s biscuits! In a natural form….
My confidence has come back and I’m a healthy weight of 11 stone which is about 70kg. I’m not fat or thin. What I could do more of is exercise everyday.
Wheat grass juice juice is the only plant that contains vitamin B12 and iron. In fact it’s so potent a person can only have up to 8 oz a day. It rejuvenates your skin, enhances your vision, returns your hair to its original colour and also enhances your fertility.
Wheatgrass can be grown at home but it takes a lot of effort so I would suggest that you buy it frozen or find a supplier who sells wheatgrass trays. Also make sure to have plenty of sprouted beans.
To start on your journey of being raw vegan I must say you have to take it easy. You have to make sure that you have enough protein in your diet. See what happens is that your body will break down first which means that you’ll lose weight, stabilize and then increase in weight if necessary.
As you eat more and more nutrient-dense raw food you’ll find that your weight should increase and then stabilize. But you will not become obese on this unless you have lots of avocado-based food. And also eat more calories than necessary.
It is also a good idea to supplement on things like coconut meat, matcha tea, spirulina, chlorella, evening primrose oil, Udo’s oil, avocado oil, etcetera. Basically you have to make up for all the time that you were eating junk food which is full of parasites and toxins, that go into your skin and body where they live, breathe and die in you. It’s called toxaemia…
What High Raw Means To You
This means that you have enough energy to take care of the children, grandchildren, play with them in the park instead of watching them. Take up active Sports and the vibrational energy of your body will increase and people will notice you are basically glowing.
I also eat edible mud and edible clay. Herbal bouquet is from Moor Spa based in Uckfield in Sussex. And what I find is that mud is moisturising while clay is drying. So if you have dry eczema it is better to drink mud. If you have wet eczema then you need to drink edible clay because it will dry your skin out from inside. You also need to apply Argiletz clay on your wet eczema patches to dry the blisters up.
Go on a high raw food diet and invest in 30 days to rejuvenate your body inside and out.
If you do this for 30 days you can do it for 90! How good you look and feel will be amazing and remember – makeup cannot make up for good wholesome natural skin care. God bless.
