I'm pretty much a raw vegan but I don't seek to condemn those who aren't. People will feel better on more raw food - wheverer they are right now - but if accosted by evangelical raw vegans (some with a book, website, course, superfood to flog) might be put off and continue with a standard western diet. They might not be ready. It's a huge paradigm shift to ditch the vast majority of what passes for food in a modern technocracy. It a huge paradigm shift to admit food as sold to us is mostly a huge hoax. And it is a hoax.
Some enthusiastic forum posters say that if the so much as touch a bit of steamed brown rice they 'get ill'. It's a bit like someone who avoids a certain meat for religious reasons, eats it, and then feels bad for having broken a law or let themselves or God down. Yes, someone who's a raw food devotee and then goes and eats a stodgy cheesy lasagne is likely to get a stark reminder of what that stodge can do you you but a light bit of cooked wholefood? Probably not.
The last thing raw and living foods should be is just another source of crippling neurosis, another source of meaningless guilt. That's not the idea.
Oh, and modest quantities steamed brown rice are a good slow-burn energy food whether you've found a 'raw' alternative or not.
Many of us lead busy lives and need fuel. Say a raw fooder had forgot to make a nutritious packed lunch that day and was faced with either eating a cooked veggie curry at the work canteen or starving themselves or eating an apple it's probably, on balance, better to eat the curry guilt-free. No food and a busy day could have you either feeling lethargic or, if the blood sugar drops low enough, passing out! That's not the idea!
Then there's the idea of 'detox'. It's a word that's lost all meaning as it's liberally applied to any old sickness experienced by a raw fooder. Anyone feeling bad on a largely raw foods diet often told that it's 'detox'. Quite often the solutions are reducing still further the diet and upping 'green juices' to cleanse further or somesuch. Certainly dicthing refined sugars, coffee, cheeses, etc. can produce extremely strong withdrawl symptoms (coffee's a killer!) but quite often what get's lightly called 'detox' could be a very valid call for a key nutrient that's gone missing somewhere. This is especially true for people moving from a standard western diet or lacto-veggie one to something much more vegan. It also applies to vegans those ditching all grains and yeast-based products. B12 is a key 'energy' and nervous system vitamin and getting low on this is nothing to do with detox. Another nutrient pertinent to the UK, with its grey weather, is Vitamin D.
Some people will always want to be strict vegans and that's their choice. They may prefer to take supplements, even 'synthetic' ones, for nutritional deficits and that's fine. Others will prefer to take natural Cod Liver oil for vitamin D and other benefits. Some might even eat a little dairy, or fish, or even meat. If their body feels better with that added more power to them! I'm not going to condemn anyone or be an armchair policeman if that's their choice. Science now admits huge meaty diets are bad for you on many levels, but someone who eats a little organic, farm-raised meat in a diet rich in raw veggies to target a cluster of nutrients difficult to find elsewhere on a daily basis, I don't condemn them at all.
Vegan eating creates a lighter feeling physically and mentally. Generally, when people adopt that diets it's a good thing as 'heaviness' is lifted. However, some people don't always want to feel 'lighter'. To some people 'lightness' is a short bus from lightheadedness and anxiety. Some want to feel more grounded. There are plenty of vegan grounding foods like fats, nuts, oils, etc. But some feel the need to add a little yogurt, a little dairy, maybe fish, or a little meat. There are many raw dairy enthusiasts now, hunting down the purest form of milk. Again, I don't condemn, even if I prefer to be almost entirely vegan and can't see why a human need eat meat.
Eat well, get healthy. Relax.
2 comments:
Hi David
I'm an 'extremist' myself, BUT I pretty much agree with you....it's a tricky one. If asked, I would say that a 100% raw food diet is better than a partly-raw diet, as that happens to be my opinion, based on what I know cooked food does to our bodies, and I'd be lying if I said otherwise. B Having said that, it is the worst thing to try to eat more raw than one feels like doing, as...that will be counterproductive. I was very happily '3/4 raw' for the first few months of raw, and only went higher because I wanted to do so, ie I'd got the point where it felt easy. No one should feel pressured to increase their raw and no one should increase their raw if they're going to feel 'deprived' - a half-raw diet is light years ahead of the average raw diet in terms of health, and...if the choice is between 50% raw and comfortable and....90% raw, miserable, fighting it, resenting it, and therefore constantly at the mercy of 'relief bingeing' I know what I'd recommend! On the other hand, whatever diet people are on, please don't assume that the 100%raws, the strict vegans, etc, are smuggies and judging...honestly, in most cases we're really not! And we're probably pathetic in a hundred non-food areas in which you are succeeding!
Hi Debbie,
Thanks for your comment. I'm a believer that once you've got the big addictive nasties eliminated (refined sugars, dairy, processed industrial food, caffeine) it's then a question of giving the body what it asks for.
When I become a veggie at 15 I thought I'd eat meat when invited to people's houses to not cause a fuss - very soon I could no more stomach eating meat than manure!
It's been a bit the same with raw. Eating fresh and simple means that when you eat a cheesy dish or drink a glass of wine you get a reminder of how those things make you feel. Dairy means I need to blow my nose a lot and blocks my ears. Wine makes me happy for all of an hour then lethargic and more tired than I need to be the day after.
I haven't done the reading on the science of why cooked food is bad but I noticed that when I made a lentil stew I'd often feel like I'd been kicked in the guts after a big portion. I can eat lentil sprouts with no problems whatsoever.
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