A friend of mine recently became a raw foods fanatic and dropped a whopping 65 pounds in four months. That’s right: sixty-five pounds. That’s not even the biggest improvement she’s experienced since changing her diet.

No, the real benefit has been an improvement in her own allergies which are almost as bad as mine. Once she cut out gluten, sugar, dairy and soy, her congestion cleared up and she stopped getting sinus headaches. (She’s since slowly reintroduced wheat and soy products without problems, only to find that her allergies returned the instant she started on dairy products again.)

Back when my husband was out of town for a month, I eliminated a number of foods from my diet, too, although without intentionally doing so. I simply wasn’t preparing “man meals” in his absence and, instead, had beefed up my consumption of salads, fruits and vegetables. I felt wonderful, and even though it was the height of the summer allergy season, I didn’t have one single sinus infection or headache.

That tells me something.

Meanwhile, my diet’s slid back to “man eating” with a steady and shameful stream of red meat, processed foods and precious few fruits or vegetables. Just how few wasn’t obvious to me until I started keeping a food log last week to see if anything in particular was triggering my allergy symptoms.

Is it any wonder I feel like crap when my week’s intake of fruit and vegetables is less than what a person is supposed to eat in two days? I’m no rocket scientist, but even I can see there might be a connection.

So, I bought a juicer yesterday and a book on Raw Foods Made Easy for 1 or 2 People, then I announced to my husband that there are going to be some changes in the food around here.

Oh, I don’t intend to force him to slug down cucumber frappes or carrot-and-apple smoothies. He’d rather starve than consume something that — gasp! — actually grew from the ground. But if I continue to eat as he does until my ass will soon be as large as a stereo cabinet, and I’ll feel even worse than I already do.

But I did make it clear that if he wants to keep “man eating”, then he’s going to have to do some “man cooking”. I’m giving my oven — and my body — a break for a while. I’m getting juiced.