Excessive Nighttime Urination On A Raw Food Diet

by David Rice
(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

David's Question: I love the raw food philosophy. I've had many 100% raw food days and I feel good doing it, but they are usually followed by a night of interrupted sleep (4 or 5 trips to pee). Is this what I should expect?

Andrew's Answer: Generally, the healthy range is to urinate eight to twelve times per 24 hours. Less than this and you're dehydrated.

But if many of those urinations happen during the night, it can certainly be disruptive to sleep.

For most of the year I find myself getting up once during the night to go to the bathroom. I don't find this to be very disruptive. I barely wake up while it's happening, and fall right back to sleep afterwards.

However, during the summer it's watermelon season, and because they're among my favorite fruit, I eat tons of them.

This greatly increases my water intake, and, consequently, I urinate more, including at night. Also, increasing total food volume will increase urination. When I have a big running day and burn off 4,500 calories, I urinate more than when I'm eating 2,800 calories and being sedentary.

Cause and effect.

Some things you might want to experiment with if you're having problems:

Stop eating four to five hours before you go to sleep. The closer your food intake comes to bed time, the more you'll urinate during the night.
Stop blending your fruit with water, as this increases your water intake.
Eat juicier fruits before noon.

I'm not sure how long you've been on a raw diet, but people also urinate out a lot of excess water weight when they first eliminate salt and other toxins.