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Could I still consider myself a raw vegan if I'm not 100%?

I was thinking about how much I truly love cooked food... lol and although I wouldn't eat meat I wanted to treat myself to one cooked vegetarian meal a month. Does anyone do this? If you have done it, have you ever experienced having to readjust to hot food? I'd love any insight on this subject. Thanks!

I'm on my 4th day! Wooohoo!! lol

Comments

  • eechoeecho Raw Newbie

    IMO, eating cooked food isn't a treat, rather a compromise. You'll probably adopt this mindset over time.

    However, also in my opinion I would call you a "raw vegan" as long as you were 75% raw, and 100% vegan (minus honey), and 100% whole/natural (i.e., you're not sneaking donuts and cookies)

  • Thank you so much for your advice!!

  • eechoeecho Raw Newbie

    You are welcome, although some more advice: don't make any decisions according to a label you would like to have, do whatever is best for yourself according to research, reason, and honest thinking : )

  • superfood2superfood2 Raw Newbie

    If by "vegetarian meal" you mean vegan meal with no animal products whatsoever (and no made-up exceptions based on your own criteria), I would call you a raw foodist vegan, yes.

  • I would second Eecho's advice on not making decisions based on what label you fall under. I eat high raw, but do not consider myself a "raw foodist." Some days I eat probably 100% raw, other days much lower. (For me, not trying to be "strict" about following a label seems to help with binging issues.) As far as health wise, I would just encourage you to not go the junk food route on your cooked day (stick to something healthy). Of course, if being 100% raw vegan is important to you, then stick with it. Otherwise, enjoy your monthly cooked meal.

  • Slosh-uhSlosh-uh Raw Newbie

    I think its better to think of raw veganism as being an inclusive diet, not an exclusive one. Everyone is a raw vegan, just some people are a higher percentage of raw than others. I know a lot of people are going to disagree with this, but I find that its easier to stay at a higher percentage of raw when you view the diet this way. Instead of saying "I don't (or I can't) eat cooked food" think of it as choosing to eat predominantly raw food. Its easier to stay on the wagon that way, and you feel much less guilty if you fall off sometimes.

    So yeah, I think you are definitely raw vegan if you have one vegetarian meal a month.

  • M42M42

    Hello Carla,

    My personal experience is that a high raw diet (and actually pretty much any diet) is easier to follow if you stick with it 100% as compared to 95%. Eating something that's 'not allowed' (in the 5%) makes me want to eat more of it. But there also seem to be people who find it easier to maintain a high raw diet than a 100% one, so see in which group you fit. Other than making it harder, I expect the health effects of the exception to be minimal.

    As for the definition, as mentioned it shouldn't matter much. From my experience people call themselves raw foodists when they eat more than 70 or 80% raw food (no idea if that's based on calories or mass or cost or eating time). So one exception a month would be considered raw by most (raw) people.

    Greetings,

    Mark

  • Carla,

    If you prefer to be "labeled" a Raw Vegan, then I gess you would have to follow the somewhat fanatic obsession of making sure everything you eat falls within the "raw" definition. I personally find this type of practice to be exhaustive and stressful. Personally, I almost always buy organic, eat only some types of seafood, and try to eat raw food everyday. Of course eating raw perserves the enzymes and vitamins which is always good, but there are some benefits to cooking some foods. For example, researchers at the Cornell University found that "cooking tomatoes increased the lycopene by 54, 171, and 164 percent respectively", although "it did decrease the vitamin C content by 10, 15, and 29 percent respectively." " Levels of cis-lycopene(which the body easily absorbs), rose by 6, 13, and 45 percent respectively. " "Antioxitant levels ot the heated tomatoes increased by 28, 34, and 62 percent respectively". "Lycopene is the most efficient single oxybgen quencher, and devoures more than 10 times more oxygenated free radials than vitamin E, Cornell reasearchers said." So you see, although there is somewhat of a tradeoff, but it seems the benefits outweigh the detriments. In addition, as many here also know, a Macrobiotic diet is not a raw diet and yet is has been used by many to heal several types of chronic diseases. We must all make our own diet decisions based on what we know and how our body feels. I would'nt get too worried about what anyone else thinks.

  • eechoeecho Raw Newbie

    please don't talk about lycopene in this thread, lol... that tangent will just go way too far

  • superfood2superfood2 Raw Newbie

    LOL. I like how feeling great and choosing a certain way of life is a "fanatical obsession....." to one person but an awesome way of life for another.

    Some of us find it easy to care for animals and not exploit them. Some of us find it easy to be raw. Just because you have issues doesn't mean other people do.

  • jakkrabbitjakkrabbit Raw Newbie

    I think the key here like was said by eecho is to be 100% vegan and whatever percentage of raw that you wish. While veganism is an ethical issue, and consuing/using animal products affects the lives of animals, humans, ecosystems, and the environment, in vast and detrimental ways, raw is simply a health choice for your personal wellness. How much raw you want to eat is up to you, and it should bring you peace, not anxiety. Anxiety is bad for your health! Although there are hardliners, generally 'raw' by definition simply means 75% or over. There is no raw police checking up on you. Here's a really good response to a post on the raw debates at Curezone to bring some balance:

    Even though I'm working to go a much higher percent raw, I think lots of raw foodist who think they need to be 100% raw are missing the forest for the trees. So many people define themselves on what they DON'T eat. Our bodies were made to extract as much nutrition as possible from ANY food source. Otherwise mankind wouldnt flourish in so many varied environments.

    With soil depletion, and a generally increasingly inferior world wide food supply, maximizing nutrition intake with raw foods makes a lot of sense. However the truth is, there are lots of vegetables, grains etc that are actually unusable by the body unless they're cooked. As long as food's made with good ingredients, variety is key to hedging your nutritional bets.

    I see people all the time bragging that they want to get down to eating just this one food item as some kind of pure diet. I can never understand how people think limiting variety in their diet is a positive (as long as the usual poisons of refined sugar, salts, starches and other zero nutritional scourges are eliminated). The more varied good food sources are, the more nutritional bases you're covering.

    In your case, your body is obviously not well and you should be getting as much nutrition from as many sources as possible. Lightly cooked foods, superfoods, even more animal sources like dairy, high quality meats etc. Try it all to find what you're missing and give your body something to work with to heal itself.

    Being a lacto-vegetarian I understand the lack of desire for meats and don't think you need to go that far if you're firmly against it. But my suggestion would be to forget about 100% raw food or any other narrow nutritional dogma and help your body with as many nutritional sources as you can find. Pump your body full of nutrients and you'll be surprised how well it can heal itself.

    I'd also recommend some adaptagen food sources such as Goji berries, Korean Ginseng extract, etc. Adaptagen's by definition work by nutritionally adapting to the body to give it whatever it's lacking, and put things back in balance. It sounds too good to be true, but I can tell you in the case of high quality Ginseng extract and high quality Goji berries they absolutely work as advertised. When I'm feeling out of whack and don't know what's wrong with me, a cup of pure Korean Ginseng extract tea, always seems to fix whatever it is. And even as a preventative, it's one of the best blood tonics anywhere.

    Overall, to repeat, I'd say forget about ANY kind of restrictive diet and go for any kind of nutrtional food source you can find. It's not about Brownie points or bragging rights, it should be all about maximum maximum nutrition to heal yourself.

  • M42M42

    Hello Cherie,

    In reply to your "I like how feeling great and choosing a certain way of life is a "fanatical obsession....." to one person but an awesome way of life for another." It's not that weird - what you said perfectly fits religion, as well as other symptoms of society.

    I suppose everyone should choose for him of herself what works best. As long as you're not bothering anyone else, the choice is all yours.

    Greetings,

    Mark

  • eechoeecho Raw Newbie

    Hmm, but if you choose to eat meat, which collectively has a negative effect on the planet, you would be "bothering" other people, wouldn't you? (just playing devil's advocate)

  • Oooops, sorry, maybe I used to harsh of a term. Its probably just I that finds a 100% raw vegan organic diet to be so expensive and difficult to maintain. Kudos to you and keep up your awesomeness. And yes, I also find it easy to care for animals and not exploit them.

  • Chef ShuannaChef Shuanna Raw Newbie

    "You are welcome, although some more advice: don't make any decisions according to a label you would like to have, do whatever is best for yourself according to research, reason, and honest thinking : )"

    I had to comment on eecho's comment first. I would just like to say that I found that to be VERY refreshing to hear. I have grown tired of the MANY comments made by people explaining that they feel they know what is best for everyone else. I have spent significantly less lime here because of it (I cant even do 30 bad anymore). I am a raw foodist and believe the raw diet to be superior than other lifestyles.... especially for my body. I don't however pretend like I know everyones life circumstances and preach on what they should be doing. I coach others on this lifestyle and come up with solutions for their body and lifestyle. Anyways... I could keep going on and I have had to erase too many sentences because I can rant about this.

    Galaxy- I would say it is a 'treat' to eat cooked foods if it is a 'treat' for you! If it feels like a treat then by all means it is a treat. Hell....especially if it allows you to maybe spend some quality time with some friends while having a dinner party or something. Being able to spend that kind of time with people you love is priceless and if it lets you just 'not worry' for an evening then so be it. I would still say your a raw foodist. But then again dont worry about the labels.

    I have been vegan for a bit over 8 years and when I first went vegan I was PROUD to label myself so I can see where maybe you might want to have that label hang over you. As long as it is for the right reasons I suppose. Shit.. I have a huge 'VEGAN' tattoo across my back because that is the label I have given myself and want others to see that. Since being Raw I dont really care about the label. People can clearly see that I dont eat flesh..... they dont need to know I dont cook my veggies.

    Hope this helps you in the least bit!

     

  • superfood2superfood2 Raw Newbie

    I'd be hard-pressed to understand how someone can call "veganism" a "fanatical obsession" considering I didn't have a hand in and wasn't a part of society's decision to harm animals and my decision to not partake is only considered "unique" due to and in comparison to another's choices. Not partaking in something, an obsession? Mmm, kay. Sounds like an insecure person using adjectives to describe another to try to make themselves feel better.

  • Slosh-uhSlosh-uh Raw Newbie

    I don't think he meant that veganism is a "fanatical obsession." I think he meant that some people become fanatically obsessed with being vegan, raw, or whatever else. And no one can deny that, because some people DO get obsessed with it. It seems like he was speaking more from personal experience than he was making a blanket statement about vegans. So chill out on the personal attacks, Superfood, I don't think he was trying to offend you personally, and he did correct himself in a later post.

  • superfood2superfood2 Raw Newbie

    Where exactly is a personal attack? Is there some phantom post somewhere that went missing by another person?

  • I'm guessing she meant post #16 when you wrote " Sounds like an insecure person using adjectives to describe another to try to make themselves feel better." Whether you meant it that way or not, it did sound rather confrontational.

  • superfood2superfood2 Raw Newbie

    If someone else called another person a name, yes, they sound like an insecure person. I stand by that, and that's not a personal attack.

  • Exactly ! I'm afraid its a personality flaw I have that leads me to this fanatical side. I tend to always want to go all or nothing. And if anyone here thinks its easy to eat 100% raw, 100% organic, get 100% of the nutrients the body needs 100% of the time, then they must live on another planet . Thank you for your understanding.

  • Slosh-uhSlosh-uh Raw Newbie

    Yes, sisterbecky, that was what I was referring to.

    It came across to me as not only very confrontational, but also as a pretty presumptuous thing to say about a person you know only through one post on a forum. No one was calling names until the comment about being an "insecure person." I think superfood needs a hug.

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