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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookLately I’ve been re-thinking raw.
It’s easy to find something new and exciting and go crazily happy over it. I know this because I’m definitely the typical experimental 18-year-old. But when does food become a dogma? I’m just wondering what people think.
I go to an Environmental Liberal Arts College, so recognizing that you are the Earth and the Earth is you is key to my beliefs and what I study. It’s always been in the back of my mind, and I’ve recently allowed it to surface: being raw here in Northern Wisconsin is completely unsustainable! Almost all of the food I ate was from California or Washington or Mexico, etc. This is completely wrong to me.
The Native Americans here (mainly Ojibwa and some Sioux and Lakota) grow wild rice and have grown it for thousands of years. They hunt animals and cook roots and squashes for food. They have always been spiritual, healthy people. Very little of their food is or ever was raw, except for during the summer. They listened to what the Great Mother tells them, not what some scientific study does. Now, their culture has been almost completely diluted except for those few natives and non-natives who want to continue their traditions.
And I’ve been having horrible digestive problems for a while. I’ve also felt low in energy for many days at a time. I think that the Northwoods and I were very unbalanced! There is nothing wrong with raw food, except that it become’s a lifestyle, or even a dogma for some, in a place where it doesn’t fit. Raw food doesn’t fit well here. If I want to respect the Northwoods and take what it gives me, I should be eating what local farmers produce as best I can.
So lately, I’ve decided that I will integrate raw food that I can as best I can (since I can’t change the world with my idealistic, college student, tree hugger ethics!!) with local food. I’ve tried sprouting wild rice, but it fails often because of the traditional way it is prepared (Wild rice comes mostly from Natives and is prepared the traditional way, which involves some sort of high temperature or something. Basically wild rice isn’t raw ever). I eat some greens, but mainly my own sprouts and local sprouts, local roots for soups (which, other than carrots, can barely be digested raw without problems. It’s just historically cooked!), wild rice, and local kimchi (mmmmmmmm). Apples can be eaten here in the winter if stored properly, which I’m considering for next semester.
Next year, you can buy a box of local produce from farmers each month for a price. That’s the way to go. Doing what you can to be balanced with the environment, not worrying about whether something is raw or not. Worry and stress are HUGE causes of so many health problems in the first place! I believe very much in energy affecting one’s health, and that, contrary to many people’s beliefs, unbalanced energy is the basis for health problems. Emotions play a large role, as well as disrespect toward the Earth and one’s surrounding environment.
If I were still living in Northern California (I grew up there), or any place where more things grow, I could eat more raw food. I could eat mainly fruit in a tropical place, since that’s what the Earth provides there. But I don’t. So until I do (I dream of living in the highlands of a tropical area), I’m going to listen to my spirit, the Earth’s spirit, and not the raw food gurus who claim one must be raw to be healthy.
Sorry for the long essay-like speech. I hope I haven’t offended anyone!
Comments
I think you’ve analyzed your situation with a lot of good logic and great sensitivity. Just as I think it would be silly to advise someone living far up north to eat a raw vegan diet, it is fully possible that a raw diet is putting you out of balance with your environment. I hope you make the best decision for yourself, good luck!
This is a rad post. Thanks, Red.
A month or so ago in the NYTimes there was a review and interview with two vegan women who put out their version of the Vegan Mein Kampf. In the book, as well as the article, the two women rant and rave about how unethical, disgusting, and fascistic it is to eat anything but vegan food and then, halfway through the interview came the revelation:
One of the women admitted that a few years ago she was just as furiously pro-fast food.
Everyone’s got criticism about the United States and its citizens, and here the majority of that criticism comes in the form of their/our diet. But one of the most pointed criticisms is Americans have a very, very difficult time with moderation.
If it’s not one extreme, it’s the other, and when you dwell in extremes—(think about dating extremely emotional people) you can never trust when the pendulum is going to swing the other way again.
I’m trying this diet out, and enjoying it—though today I’m feeling a bit weak. And I may keep to it or I may not. Yesterday I broke it for some amazing sushi. But I’m not going to worry myself into the grave like Red is implying.
She’s right, we’re in the land of ‘choose your own dogma.’
And since she’s lecturing, I’m going to add one more bit. There’s a wonderful Swedish film called ‘Together’ by Lukas Moodyson that tells the story of a hippy commune that, against its members wishes, accepts a battered wife into the house. All hell ensues because the majority of zealots inside can’t handle diversity (the battered wife isn’t progressive) and by the end of the film, the only people left to take care of things are those people who were most capable of adaptability, and openness—not the one’s who could go longest without eating a bon-bon.
Right now in SoCal everyone in the liberal communities are going nutzo over Obama. I love it; it’s cool, but I have more faith in my younger students who don’t froth at the mouth over issues of racial equality—all they do is thoughtlessly go out at night, and no matter what color of their dance partner—just groove with them to the music.
It’s gotta come naturally.
This is not a critique but just a few more cents, and I toss these cents with love,
Hi-ho
Awesome, Cherie.
Emma Goldman (great U.S. anarchist shipped off to Russia) famously said “I don’t go for any revolution that won’t let me dance.”
It seems to me that the most successful revolution is the one that tries to make space for everyone on the dance floor.
Oh, Zooey, you’re awesome. I’m glad people are kind of getting my point. It’s all about trying things and learning, not adhering to one dogma and becoming self-righteous. I love raw food, but is it the only way?
Cherie, I read this long list of myths from steven bratman (that’s his name, right?), but that link is also very interesting and I haven’t read before, thanks!!
Zooey, you’re right about people in the U.S. having a hard time with moderation. It’s so hard to find balance it seems! One person is pulling you one way while other pull you in different directions. And in the meantime, I’m not feeling up to shape and I also feel guilty about my environmental impact. Ugh.
zooey glass where where you when i was in college? may you be one of the memorable ones… . I had three stand out profs in school one was a sociology teacher( the only gay black man at WKU…and probobly all of bowling green, Ky. come to think of it), one was european history( a long, tall, texas cowboy who never cracked a book, just related history to us verbally as if he’d actually been there! the anecdotal stuff was astoundingly good at helping me remember the whole lecture!) and the last was one of my animal science teachers, he was a pig farmer from kentucky who couldnt have been more my polar opposite, but the guy had some interesting takes on how the world went round and ive never forgotten him!
kudos to you my friend… love the emma goldman quote!
Thanks, Om. Yes, Emma is rad. If anyone wants to learn more about her, they can do so here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_goldman#Russia
And they’ll discover that no one can find where she put down the aforementioned quote.
Still, she was one heck of a gal.
I like female radical revolutionaries
Red sunflower,(one of my favorite sun flowers) have you read barbara kingsolvers book on eating locally and seasonally, it may resonate with you…i appreciated it but since i live in socal i am blessed with lots of food choices. An interesting experiment would be for me to eat within a 30 mile radius of my home though….hmm ill giv that some thought.
thanks for the link zooey glass….
Mmmmm-hmmmm. REALLY enjoying this topic. And the links. You guys are great. :o)
I’m really surprised this topic isn’t getting more traffic. It seems very central to this whole site and the diet that it’s based on.
And is it just me, or is everyone changing their photo to a pet? I feel like I just woke up in a kennel.
yes, socal, great place to live, huh? We ave so much great fresh stuff here. I am personally not anywhere near 100%, but I do my best. I don’t stress over it, though. If it doesn’t work out for that time, it doesn’t. I beleive in moderation. Raw food is awesome, though. Yeah, zooey g. Lots of cute little puppies and cats. lol
rwow rrrrow roo pant pant, i guess the pet thread is getting more traffic than this totally cool one…. we are all just proud mommys( and daddys) at heart..sadly i could rotate pics of my pets for the next several weeks and not post a duplicate pet….its a sickness im sure hahahahah;)
maybe if we could edit the name of the thread, dogma will either be viewed as a religous discussion no one wants to touch or for some, a really good movie with matt damon and ben asscrack,er , afleck..grin!
Zooey Glass.
Yes, yes, and more yes.
The open mindedness in this post gives me so much hope, fills me with love, and reminds me to relax.
Omshanti,
I will change the name.
Namaste ( I felt like saying that)
Great article Cherie. I sometimes wonder if I’m going down the same path as the author. I have a new nutritionist with extremely different views than mine have been and I wonder if I should give these views a chance before discounting them. This article was a Godwink!
Thanks for posting this, redsunflower. We thought quite a bit about these issues when creating Gone Raw. In fact, we created the site just as we were learning about raw foods in order to learn more and meet fellow raw foodists. While I believe that 100% vegan, raw foodism is a healthy way to eat and live, the site and community are here to support everyone on the spectrum! And, there shouldn’t be any guilt or pressure to be 100% if that’s not your thing. Eating local, listening to your body, etc. are all important for each of us.
RED- after reading your profile, I couldn’t agree more. I thought a lot about some of the posts in “Easter Hell” earlier this week. It really bothers me that food has taken over happiness and comfort for some. Any time you can’t enjoy a holiday or season or others, I think you need to take a look at balance. I would rather occasionally eat a veggie burger (or dare I say organic beef burger) on a cooked bun and be happy giggling with friends then feel so different that I can’t enjoy being around others. This is not to suggest that you need to always go with the flow, but rather find a balance that makes you feel comfortable. This is just my opinion :)
cherie, great link. nice discussion. Thanks to all for posting.
I completely can hear where you are coming from. I think there are a lot of people on this website who are high raw and feel great doing that. I went from eating a fairly SAD diet (not McDonald’s type food but plenty of junk for sure) to eating maybe 70% raw. Of course I feel better. I’ve always thought it’s as much what I’m not eating as what I am eating though. I get a weekly farm delivery and if I want to cook some of those veggies, I’d feel better doing that than eating raw veggies from 1/2 way around the globe. Now that I feel I am eating cleaner, I can tell what makes me feel good and what doesn’t. Raw food makes me feel good but so do other cooked foods. Sugars and white flour foods make me feel the worst. I think you have to listen to your body and do what feels right. I would still say raw food has changed my life but I’ll probably never be 100% nor do I necessarily want to be.
i’m glad to have stumbled into this conversation. i’m new here and i feel a little more comfortable now with a few more like-minded people. i’ve been doing raw for a couple of weeks as a cleanse and it has been interesting. thanks kandace for “opening the dancefloor”. it’s refreshing to be in a place where there the full spectrum is being discussed and it seems there is enough common ground to hold it together. i think it is easy to get fanatical about something new or what holds our passion, i’ve done it many times myself and still am challenged sometimes with tempering it. it’s amazing though what can happen when it is given up. my draw is also to the local/traditional ways…my own roots in europe and locally with native american practices. another issue i think is a social one, this isn’t a cheap way to eat and anyone who is low income not be able to implement it to the ideal. in that respect, i’ve come to the conclusion that appreciation and gratitude can undo any flaw in food and turn it into something nourishing…also another way to combat the stress of doing it all “by the book”. most people can probably agree that fanaticism isn’t healthy, but really it is just not sexy, not to mention—limiting.
Hippie chick, I agree with you 100%. Couldn’t have said it better!
Great posts. I agree with Zooey—Americans have an extremely difficult time with moderation. There tends to be an all-or-nothing mindset about many things, not just food. It saddens me to see people beating themselves up over every morsel they put into their mouths. My whole reason for investigating raw food was that I wanted to eat more healthfully and I really, really liked the food … but that doesn’t mean that I think cooked food is poison, evil, dangerous, and what have you. My husband and I went out on Saturday for our anniversary, to a very nice restaurant. I simply refuse to go to a high-end restaurant and have salad, so I ordered the (cooked) vegetarian option on the menu and it was absolutely delicious and I ate and enjoyed it without a scintilla of guilt. When I travel, I do my best to eat as nutritiously as I do at home, but that isn’t always possible. I refuse to tie myself up in knots because I can’t find raw food in a restaurant in Germany, for example. Nor do I expect my friends to cater to my diet when they invite me over to their homes for meals. I can be as strict as I want when I’m at home; when I’m not at home, I relax and enjoy what is put in front of me.
Anything that someone does to improve his or her diet is commendable. One absolutely does not have to be a “100 percent-er” to reap lots of benefits from living foods.
Just my opinion.
This reminds me of something I read recently that said something like, if you have to work hard at it, you’re on the wrong path. Now that it’s clicked for me it works for relationships, work, and food. I’m starting to shop more with my senses and instincts which has led me to foods I would never try and also to this website.
Sorry, OP, but I don’t think that because something doesn’t suit you, you should call it “dogma”. I’m not sure you understand what the word means.
Dogma – the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization, thought to be authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted or diverged from.
I didn’t get the impression that anyone was saying a raw food lifestyle was per se a dogma. However, I would say that any belief system that was so regimented you either felt oppressed or that you could not speak up and question it would be a dogma for that person. It could vary from person to person. It all depends on what motivates you to participate.
You gotta admit, it is a dogma for some raw foodist and others don’t want it to be that way for them. They don’t want to feel constrained by strict rules or made to feel inferior in some way for expressing their honest opinions. Right on.
SUE - Thanks!
I agree with all who have stated (in one way or another) they feel being completely inflexable toward keeping an open mind- therefor dogmatic – is not a very admirable quality to have.
I try to accept and respect others’ beliefs and recognize we are all on our own journey and paths to elightenment, even if enlightenment is not what one/all would call it.
I must admit I do struggle with comprehending how others can condone the continuous killing… murdering, of animals to consume their flesh when they seem to be intelligent enough to know better by having been educated in so many other expansive, complicated, and conscious-expanding ways. (*This is not an attack on anyone. I am asking for clarification so I can possibly understand a bit better, if anyone would care to help me out by sharing their thoughts on it.)
I agree that it is awesome and most desirable to be thankful and gracious towards any food we are able to put in our bodies to sustain our experience here. I agree it is, very possibly, even more important than WHAT we put in our bodies—in other words our attitude, our emotions, and our inner beliefs towards our selves and our world play a huge, huge role in our health both physically and spiritually which both interconnect at some point to affect us as a whole. I just intuitively KNOW that is not the end-all, eating animals yet even being graciously thankful to them for their sacrafice. Being raw vegan may not even be the end-all either, but in my knowing of my truth so far it is, beyond a doubt, better – spiritually, physically, vibrationally, and intellectually – than killing animals now that we know we do not need animal protein and fat to thrive, not to mention it can and does cause physical (possibly emotional and vibrational when looked at esoterically and spiritually) damage to us.
I hope that made sense! And again, I repsect everyone who has replied here. I think the people here at GoneRaw are, generally, exceptional-minded people- more so than the average person! :)
Amen..Hallelujah, I hear you, I second that..Power to the People..Lay it on me and so on and so on and so on! This is a beautiful thread filled with love, wisdom, compassion and my personal FAV HONESTY!! SO being over half Native American I can totally relate to what Redsunflower is saying (also add here environmentally concerned, spiritually striving, an idealist looking for a sustainable solution for EVERYONE that is the most healthy, practical and peaceful option…and so on and again). I would like to comment on meat eating as it it central to the customs and spiritual beliefs of my ancestors (and chances are folks yours too, some scientist believe that when our primitive anscetors began eating meat the protien is what made our brains grow enough to evolve to where we are now..interesting THEORY!). Eating of animals was necessary for survival and was a sacred act with much love, beauty, dignity and prayer. Dying and death are natural parts of the life cycle and not something to be feared, ignored or avoided (I think that for some the lure of youth and beauty that raw foods gives is like the search for the fountain of youth..perhaps motivated by fear of death). There is a religious sect of Hindu’s …the Jains and they are so intent on not taking any life…to minimize their Karma and accelerate their spiritual growth and therefore oneness with the all, that they go to the extremes of wearing a face mask so as not to breathe in and therefore kill microorganisms, they dont bathe for the same reason and are known to gently sweep the ground in front of them before taking each step to insure that they dont inadvertently kill any insects..it is also not uncommon for very devout Jains to starve to death because they are aware that even eat LIVING FOODS means that you are KILLING something!! (Horton Hears a WHO) Apparently Americans aren’t the only ones who go to extremes ;) So do I think that we all should/need to eat meat…no I dont think it is necessary, environmentally sustainable or even the highest and “best” (I hate putting any judgment out there and am only speaking for myself and my limited perception and reality …much love) spiritual option for us all…. Science up to date have shown us that vegan is the best for our health, the planet and so forth..there is a study to prove whatever it is we want to believe..(also a proven problem of perception and expectation affecting the outcome of the study…we see hear what it is we want to see and hear). So to sum up Im not going to tell an Inuit Native that they need to truck?ship in nothing but raw foods and that they are wrong to eat whales/seals etc nor am I going to tell the blessed raw vegan living on the permaculture paradise that they need to eat meat..its not my place and not my life…I dont live in a Back to the Earth society I live in this one..But I believe in keeping the wisdom of the ancients and the newly and constantly updated truths of science and technolgy and using them both to the benefit of myself/earth. I am going to listen to my spirit, body and mind above all “scientific evidence”..I am going to love “my neighbor” and share all the positive things in my life with whoever is interested…and I love Raw foods!! Who wants to have a potluck…CHICO CA.. drop me a line! Much Peace LOVE and Light to US ALL!
Thank goodness someone finally approached this topic! Personally I’m looking for balance and the issue of raw vs cooked, organic vs conventional has been on my mind. I read an article recently that suggested we live in a time that is more complicated, on these matters. The “carbon footprint” we make with our decisions. As a result I cannot, in good conscience, purchase items that come from 3000 miles away over local produce. I try to focus on making ethical decisions that not only contribute to my health but to the health of the environment as well. Thank you for putting this topic out there!
This is honestly so strange. I eat cooked food but I do try to incorporate as much raw food into my diet as possible. the most important thing is to keep oneself as educated as possible. Though I do not feel the need to make a post about it. Though I’m not surprised that others may feel that need. Perhpas there is a certain kind of peer pressure to be 100% raw all the time in this website? Probably so. But I’m confident enough with my choices not to make a post. Tsk.