[vegan-victoria]

I get the basics (well at least I think I do!) you eat raw food?

Is it for health benefits or something deeper?

I really am intrigued to know - please share your stories with me

 

[stitches96]

some people do it for health benefits, some for moral beliefs, some are crazy about nutrition, but some people just really want to be skinny.

 

[Fatman]

I am eating more and more raw. I like the taste and texture better.

think salad and go from there.

 

[mollycakes]

I'm getting pretty interested here- just a couple questions myself if you don't mind?

Is it more time consuming/ challenging to prepare a raw meal verses a cooked meal? (I get that cooking takes time but there are often more processed pre-made items in a cooked diet making it easier and faster- not healthier but easier)

Do you find that a raw diet forces you to eat more frequently throughout the day? Or are there meals that fill you up and give you lasting energy?

What do you make for grains/ carbs that isn't cooked? (this may sound like a dumb question, I really don't know)

Thank you for any input!

 

[penny79]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mollycakes

I'm getting pretty interested here- just a couple questions myself if you don't mind? !

Not at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mollycakes

Is it more time consuming/ challenging to prepare a raw meal verses a cooked meal? (I get that cooking takes time but there are often more processed pre-made items in a cooked diet making it easier and faster- not healthier but easier)

No, I think unless you're making dehydrated and "gourmet" raw stuff, it is less time-consuming.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mollycakes

Do you find that a raw diet forces you to eat more frequently throughout the day? Or are there meals that fill you up and give you lasting energy?

I think the lasting energy is enhanced by the very fact that the foods I'm eating take less time to digest and I'm not weighed down by them. I eat every few hours. There are fatty meals that could fill you up more, but fat isn't a great source of everyday energy. (think nuts, seeds, oils, avocado)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mollycakes

What do you make for grains/ carbs that isn't cooked? (this may sound like a dumb question, I really don't know)

sweet fruits are high in carbohydrates; vegetables and nonsweet fruits have carbs as well.

 

[clarita osita]

^^Just to clarify, mollycakes, the "gourmet" raw stuff that Penny is talking about is the raw cakes, breads, burgers, all that sort of stuff. The only tool you really need to be raw is a knife to cut your fruits and veggies - and even that you could get by without if you just used your fingers to peel fruits and ate your veggies whole.

You could also make salads, raw soups (blender), that sort of thing. So raw can be done really quickly if you want - Cut some veggies and lettuce, stick it in a bowl, mash some avocado on it, squeeze a lemon, boom, salad, done.

Grab a few bananas, peel, eat, done. Or, it could be much more complicated. Soak raw nuts, puree with dates, form into cookies, dehydrate overnight.

As for grains, some can be sprouted and eaten that way, and many raw foodists do that. But you'll also find people who simply don't eat them. Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, voila.

 

[Clueless Git]

Quote:

Originally Posted by penny79

I think the lasting energy is enhanced by the very fact that the foods I'm eating take less time to digest and I'm not weighed down by them.

I read something about this somewhere.

Jist was that plant foods contain enzymes that naturaly break them down in a way that releases the goodness from them quickly and 'cleanly'. That cooking and freezing both kill those enzymes with the effects that the body has to work harder to digest AND that the breakdown is not so 'clean' leaving some toxicity.

I didn't pay much attention to that untill I got my first composter. The instructions are, loosely, RAW plant matter only. Apparently the way cooked fruit'n'veg (and meat in any form) break down means a smallish amount of either can basicaly 'poison' an entire compost bin.

Further tid-bits on that ...

1. Rumours abound that many extreme athletes, like the Ironman triathletes, favour a raw food vegan diet (and I am not arguing with any of those nutters - lol!)

2. The Essenne Gospel of Peace (One of the Dead Sea Scrolls, said, by some, to be the ony true record of the teachings of Jesus) describes an extreme holistic lifestyle including a diet which is strictly raw food (allows milk though) and strictly local grown seasonal foods. This is said to have been the diet and lifestyle of Methusala(sp?) and the ancients who's lifespans were thousands of years long.

The EGP's lambasting of meat-eating ("in thine eyes their eye to scales and in thine ears their ears to waxy issue" which I suspect is allegorical of the deafness and blindness of meat eaters to compassionate living that we all see daily) makes the book, it is not a big book, worth a read just for that alone, btw.

 

[Bekka]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vegan-victoria

Is it for health benefits or something deeper?

I'm interested too-what is the "something deeper"-is there a moral reason to go raw? (Sorry I'm so clueless :S)

 

[Ira]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stitches96

some people do it for health benefits, some for moral beliefs, some are crazy about nutrition, but some people just really want to be skinny.

moral? i always thought it was just for health. i wonder whats moral about it? is it because its somehow better fopr the environment if we don't use ovens and such?

 

[Doktormartini]

Technically yes since ovens use energy.

 

[Bekka]

So is that a main reason for going raw then? Or is it mostly about health benefits?

 

[azerea_02]

I can't speak for everybody, but I think health is pretty much the biggest factor. Also, some might say it is more natural to eat this way. Check out Michael Barnstein's youtube video Steak vs apple. He talks about the spreading of seeds, the counter-soil erosion effect that trees (consequently fruit trees) have, etc. I also really like Freelee's videos. She explains in a very matter-of-fact way that really gets to you! One of her videos talks about her reasons for going raw. But all of her videos are really informative. I think her channel is spelled with an "a" though : Freelea.

 

[falconbrother]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clueless Git

2. The Essenne Gospel of Peace (One of the Dead Sea Scrolls, said, by some, to be the ony true record of the teachings of Jesus) describes an extreme holistic lifestyle including a diet which is strictly raw food (allows milk though) and strictly local grown seasonal foods. This is said to have been the diet and lifestyle of Methusala(sp?) and the ancients who's lifespans were thousands of years long.

The EGP's lambasting of meat-eating ("in thine eyes their eye to scales and in thine ears their ears to waxy issue" which I suspect is allegorical of the deafness and blindness of meat eaters to compassionate living that we all see daily) makes the book, it is not a big book, worth a read just for that alone, btw.

This is good stuff. I studied philosophy and religion in college. Emphasis on religion. I came to the conclusion pretty early on that philosophers were full of crap and not worth reading. Just frikkin opinions.

Anyway, self-denial, vision quest, fasting, etc.., have always been great tools for spiritual growth and exploration. Different cultures did it different ways. The Sioux's methods were pretty harsh. The Cherokee's were more user friendly, for example. I would think that if you needed to make a spiritual life change going raw food could be very helpful in that endeavor. For one thing it promotes compassion for the earth. It causes little distraction to the body and promotes health.

I probably wont ever go permanently raw food. But, I would surely do it for specific periods of time.

 

[Undaria]

Another question for you guys, what do you wish people (especially health professionals) knew about raw food diets? I'm asking because I'm studying nutrition and am particularly interested in alternative eating disciplines. If you went to a nutritionist, what would be the major things you would want them to keep in mind when helping you plan a diet?

 

[Kumo]

As someone fairly new to the diet - I learned about it maybe five or six months ago, and have only recently really tried to go raw - I would say that my motivation is health. Cooking really takes a lot of the nutrition out of vegetables, and a lot of documentaries I watch say that the body doesn't really react well at all to cooked food, or meat or dairy at all.

But I'm only 23 years old, over 50 pounds overweight, tired all the time, and feel sick a lot. That's not the life I want to live.

 

[raw gaia mom]

I have done it for health reasons, i have non hodgkins lymphoma, which is a blood cancer. I had been vegan or vegetarian most of the time. I was diagnosed more than 3 years ago, so the doctors were starting to talk about treating me, I decided to try raw vegan almost 100% three weeks before my last scan. Wow the results were amazing, one spot above my adrenial gland was gone, and all the other lymph nodes are all going down in size , I feel amazing and I am not going back to a regular cooked diet. the tastes are so much cleaner. I feel clean and clear, my skin looks better, and I will get rid of this cancer and loose a little weight while I am enjoying my food. I never count anything I am eating which is the best part about it. My family still eats cooked foods, but I always try to incorporate more raw foods into their diet. Moral not really, but I always do think of the animals I am not harming and feel great about that. I hope that was not too much

 

[raw gaia mom]

yes I have seen freelea, I think she is a fruitarian, Not sure if she eats vegetables or nuts, she is so thin, no fat on her body. I lost 8 lbs and the weight has stopped coming off, but it is still winter so I am sure the last 10 lbs will come off this spring and summer. I have been eating a raw vegan diet almost 100% for 3 months and I don't thinck I would ever go back to eating a cooked food diet, I jst feel too good to reverse what I have done, plus it seems that it is getting rid of my cancer so I do believe it is the reason. love watching great videos on health, Robert Ceasar ( Earth Shift Food products) has some great you tube videos as well