@Doug Graham @Nellie Nadeau Ok, then! I will try and recount my journey in summary. There's a lot here, so my attempts to be brief will likely be foiled. The entire time, I've remained vegan and gluten-free, even though that may not explicitly be mentioned in some of the descriptions. I have walked through Candida, histamine intolerance, food allergies/intolerances, and MCAS. These are the things that worked for me and this is purely for informational purposes. Nonetheless: From 2012 - 2016, I ate a high-raw 80/10/10 diet (80%+ raw) with little to no issue. There were periods of all and/or nearly all raw. My diet was based around green smoothies and salads. I did really well health-wise. In 2016, discovered I was electrosensitive (to RF waves, and I used an RF meter to learn that levels were high enough to merit moving to a new apartment, which I did) and had my first major run-in with candida, which I overcame in about a month of vegan candida diet + supplements. I also started to develop many food sensitivities. An elimination diet, which I did for 9 months, found many of them for me, and I did OK with just avoiding many foods and eating 811hrv, until about 2020. In late 2021, I began trying again to eat like I had before (811hrv). However, the more I leaned into the diet, the more my symptoms increased, and those included: *intensely* itchy skin in many areas (worse after eating), frequent fungal infections, joint pain, sleep issues, fatigue, brain fog, rashes, and more... And the worst of all, which started in 2023, was when I contracted a massive candida infection that affected my skin that wouldn't respond to anything topical I applied to it, and it took a long and miserable 8 months to finally clear. FWIW, I worked with an 811 coach for about 3 months before abandoning the diet, but it accomplished nothing for me. Clearing the infection, and the root candida problem, was accomplished with a vegan candida diet and a supplement regimen, which I will summarize as follows:

@Kelly Waechter It's always thrilling to gain back a food...and I can certainly relate. What are the antibodies that can be tested for? I've not done this type of testing (and have done so much healing at this point I don't know if I'd still test positive for anything in that regard) but would like to know :)

@Nellie Nadeau "for what it's worth"

@Nellie Nadeau Correct, 80-10-10 didn't help with candida, even with a coach. I wrote out pretty much my entire recent health history and what I did to address it in this post: https://www.skool.com/the-801010-community-7500/i-need-help?p=8c324ba4

No one's mentioned dates so far as a source of calories. They may not be a great *primary* source of calories, but as far as cost per calorie, I would venture to guess that they're worth including, even if they have to be mail-ordered. Do buy organic because the processing rules for organic versus non-organic do have some implications on processing which make them far more likely to actually be uncooked.

@Emma Fournier My favorite is the 11 lb boxes from https://www.sanmarcosdatefarm.com/shop (I should add these are FRESH dates, not dried.) When looking at price of dates, think of price per CALORIE rather than price per lb. Suddenly, they become a more accessible option, at least for me. Are bananas cheaper? Sure, but you're going to want some variety, and dates are more affordable than you think when calculated as price per calorie rather than price per pound. Lower quality dates may be available cheaper in your grocery store, but not quite raw. When I had no money in college, I calculated all the foods I wanted to eat in each food group with price per calorie, and the results were a bit surprising. But, I managed to get through on quite the budget by doing this. Start with using a tool like Cronometer.com to see how many calories are in a pound of whatever you are considering buying. If possible, consider the weight of the peels, etc. and subtract off a few calories. Then, note down the price of 1 lb of that food. Divide the $ price / # calories to get your price per calorie.

They did for me...but that's primarily because I developed allergies to most of the other fruits I was eating. I had to cut them up a lot and even chop them up with dates and/or greens, because I'm actually not a fan of biting straight into an apple.

What's your nickname? Miya Where you from? USA Biggest strength? I can get myself to do things I really don't like Biggest weakness? Feeling misunderstood, and the frustrations that follow Which content platform is your favorite? Podcasts. I don't have much time to stare at screens, and I prefer not to, so audio works best for me, as I can listen while doing other things. What do you want immediate help with inside of this community? Being able to participate in a raw vegan community, just like back in the day when there were a lot more people doing this diet. I have never met another person who has even *tried* raw vegan, so the emotional support angle a forum provides is promising to me.