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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookHello all. For the past month I have been feeling so overly thirsty it is begininning to worry me! Although I had been eating some cooked foods on occasion, I have swayed back over to the raw side lately and I can't seem to get past the feeling of dehydration. I drink water all day long..not sure exactly how much, but I have at least 3 bottles full throughout my morning workouts (which are 3 hours of swimming and 1 hour of weightlifting/cardio 6 days a week). I seem to have to use the restroom twice an hour and can't even get through class sometimes without needing to go. It's like the water is going straight through me instead of into me!
I definitely have both a sweet tooth and a salty tooth. For sweet I usally eat bananas with agave and cocoa and raisins or other sweet fruits. When I want salty I usually have nori rolls with a nut pate. Maybe I am overdoing the salt, I will try to cut back. What else am I doing wrong?
Comments
On the highly medical side, you may have diabetes melitus (what we know of as diabetes) or diabetes insipidus, which is where your kidneys can't tell your body to filter the water back into yoru body and you wind up urinating it out. Both have that same type of thirst you are talking about. Diabetes melitus has a whole lot of other side effects, like fatigue and weight loss. I'm not a doctor, but you should definately consult one. Kidneys are not organs I would want to mess with!
There are very easy tests for these, I would seek a physcian and get bloodwork as soon as yesterday. Three bottles of water is even too much for a marathon runner in the heart of a race.
Just fyi, the three bottles I am referrring to are the 16 ounce bottles. And my exercise is quite intense so I am definitely replacing sweat and the such.
Court4short: Now that I think of it, my most recent bloodwork did suggest something with my kidneys. The results themselves showed that there was some sort of activity above the normal range in my kidneys..not sure exactly what was present and showing this type of result as my paperwork is not with me...could be BUN (blood urea nitrogen). My chiropractor who actually ordered the tests for me told me I should think about getting more protein, but my physician assured me was just fine (even good).
I also had high levels of inflammation..which does not point to anything specifically, except that I am not crazy and actually am in pain pretty much all the time. (all other tests results were excellent).
still confused...
Good advice... Also...
Are you drinking slowly or gulping quickly your water??? I have read that if you drink fast, your body doesn't have the opportunity to know how to handle the water so it gets rid of it... Don't know if this is a fact, but it is something to consider...
Having gone a yr and 5 months without consuming cooked food I never get thirsty, even when eating garlic in my nut pate's... Something else to consider...
Good luck with solving this problem and hopefully it is what you are doing rather than a metabolic condition... But if it is, that can be solved with proper food selection... smile
Inflamation could mean you also have some sort of infection- I had really bad bouts of thirst (and thus, urinating super frequently) and it was due to some sort of system infection- my body fought it off before they could pinpoint what it was. Mine only lasted for 48 hours though. Your working out may be infringing on the healing process.
If you work out 6 days a week for several hours, I am wondering if you are overtrained. I would take a week off to see if that may be the case.
But again, your kidneys aren't something to mess with! I would definately get back in touch with your primary care provider.
Another thing you should really consider is taking true data- write down what you drink, how much of it you drink, how you feel when drinking water, etc. I always, every day, take my oral temp and resting heart rate and write down my mood upon rising just to have a baseline for my doc, no matter how I am feeling. I also record everything I eat, about what time I eat it, and if I'm at home I measure it on my food scale to be precise. The more information you have, the easier it will be to figure out what is going on.
It sounds like you are not getting enough water from what you are eating. Bananas, agave, cacao, nori, and nut pate are not water filled foods. Yes you are eating "raw" foods but this is not the kind of raw eating that if going to help your health or your thirst problems. No amount of water you drink is going to make up for not getting natural water from your food.
If you have a juicer or a high speed blender I would recommend making 2 juices for yourself every day with lots of celery since you sweat so much. Then on top of that increase your green smoothie intake, either making drinks with juicy fruits and greens or making like a energy soup, heres an example:
1/2 cucumber
2 sticks celery
2 tomatoes
1 carrot
garlic
cumin
little salt
little water
1 avocado (optional)
Green smoothies, soups and juices are the best way to get lots of water from fruits and vegetables. For snacks you could try eating 1/2 a watermelon, 10 tangerines, 2 grapefruits. These fruits are full of water and nutrients. Try to limit the amount of oils, salt and nuts you are eating right now until you get this under control.
And don't get me wrong you should still keep drinking water right now but I think you feel thirsty because that water is not the kind of water that your body needs right now.
Thanks for your comments. I checked into the BUN results and it was actually lower than the normal range. This bloodwork was done after 2 months of being 95% raw. My chiropractor's suggestion of adding protein seems to make sense..since the Nitrogen is a waste product of protein metabolism detected by BUN. But I feel conflicted about protein...I thought I get all my essential amino acids from my variety of veggies, greens, fruits, nuts and seeds?
Court4short: The inflammation is not infection..I have had joint pain particularly with my knees, hips, and shoulders...likely due to overuse for years. The pain is manageable but the inflammation is not due to a 48 hour issue, its a long term build up.
leahceleste: you are right. the foods I listed in my initial comment are just want I eat to satisfy my cravings for salty or sweet foods. I certainly eat plenty of greens, fruits and veggies throughout the day. When I first started eating very high raw this past summer I was barely ever thirsty (water from my foods was plenty). Now something has changed..that is what I am trying to figure out.