Raw Philosophy, Psychology and Theory

When people who don’t follow a raw diet find out I follow a 100% raw diet their mouths generally drop and I am either labeled as 1. health obsessive or 2. determined and disciplined. Reactions like this cause me to question where our drive to go RAW comes from and were our willpower to remain RAW comes from. For me it’s been an inner, uttermost, deep rooted feeling of truly wanted to heal and find balance in my life; nutritional, physical, mental and emotional healing and spirituality being a big part of that balance. I obtain these things from RAW, as well as many other wonders, I believe this is what keeps my drive to thrive on RAW so ALIVE. When you eat raw and alive you feel alive. When you eat superfoods you feel super good,

It’s a pity that so many people are uneducated on TRUE nutrition and unwilling to learn. It makes me question the levels of nutrition education and practices. Seriously, if you go into a hospital they most likely will follow American Diabetic Association type standards. They will tell you that this is NUTRITION, this is HEALTH. They will tell you that you need meat, dairy and specific amounts of servings of random food groups that contain a lot of processed, adulterated, cooked foods. I was kicked out of a eating disorder outpatient program after being diagnosed with orthorexia nervosa because I was unwillling to continue a SAD and non organic diet. They couldn’t help me at that point unless I ate all my meals at the hospital from their hospital’s cafeteria. I even offered to bring in all my food but they would not allow it. So I left and went RAW and never have done better in my entire life with food/nutrition/healing… So besides that – then there are those who almost live in an entirely different world and know about raw, live, superfoods and such – this is what I call true nutrition and health. Call me orthorexic for saying that but hell I look at it like this… our bodies are our foundations. We must build them up with strength through healthy eating and balance ourselves so we can hold up like strong buildings and live long. In my experience I have seen most people on RAW (get ready for one of my crazy analogies that I make up while typing) held up like 5 STAR HOTELS while othes who aren’t eating healthy to hold up like dirt cheap motels…Let them call me “healthy obsessive” but I’d much rather quest for optimal health then not give a flying fluke and just ingest a bunch of toxic trash from un-natural foods that are just going to clog my colon and contribute to dis-ease in every which way.

And I don’t consider RAW to be determined and disciplined… that mentality makes it seem like a challenge, a game or a test. The heart of raw, to me atleast, is about love, freedom, gratitude, healing, function, optimal health and balance… to brief it up.

This group seems like the perfect group of intellectuals to start a discusson on RAW philosophy, psychology and theories. Here are some questions I often ponder. I have listed a lot. Please feel free to answer any you’d like or just browse other’s answers for those who chose to contribute to this post.

What do you feel drives one to go raw? What do you feel drives one to remain raw? Why and what do you think happens and when one goes raw but decides to go back to a SAD lifestyle? What do you feel drives people to remain SAD and are not even be open to trying RAW? How much balance do you feel RAW can bring into someone’s life? How important do you feel eating organic RAW is? How important do you feel eating simple RAW is? Do any of you feel that the fancy-ONLY-raw and faux-junk-food-only-raw foodists have lost appreciation for whole foods/simple raw? Why or why not? How many of you support whole foods and herbs as the ultimate form of medicine and healing? How important is growing your own foods? foraging? farmers market shopping vs grocery stores? DO you think the food industry is going to improve in time or just get worse? They are banning transfats, what else should they ban? (food/chemical wise) How important is it to raise kids raw? feed your pets raw? How can we improve raw education in our society?

Okay okay I could write a novel of questions. I hope some other deep thinkers read this and contribute as they wish.

Comments

  • sorry guys… I tried to space out the questions and it chunked them together!

  • Blue_EyesBlue_Eyes Raw Master

    WOW that IS a lot of questions. For me I stumbled apon raw looking for alternatives to medicine. I wanted to learn to eat right. Having found out that I can’t eat gluten and then Milk. So after trying alternative health like herbs and suppliments and learning how the body actually works. I tried vegan for a while and although I liked it and felt better it was hard to stay on it with the family wanting meat. I first heard about eating raw looking at the intranet looking for vegan receipes and found Carol Alt. I went the the library and got both her books and read them several times. I could not believe the difference it had made in her life. Then I found out she actually had cancer and that eating raw had saved her life. That did it for me, I started searching for raw reciepes. and even tho I am no where near 100% I do have days that I am about 90% and some days when I get depressed and eat sad junk for several days my breathing gets all messed up and I remember what I had started eating raw for.

    It breaks my heart that so many people suffer from all sorts of ills because of the crap we have been told was GOOD for us all our lives. I cant understand why doctors as so blind to this. My Asthma doctor had the nerve to say to me”yeah I know many of my patients are gluten intolerant but I dont check them for it because they wont stay on the diet” I mean come on now who gave him the right to make that kind of decision for them? Isnt his job to find out what is wrong and let them know so they can make the decision for themselves? I was so outraged.

    I had to find it out for myself, reading everything I could trying to figure it out. and then the dairy thing, again he never told me, just that I was slightly lactose intolant. bull crapp

    A lot of the people I know think that doctors are GODS and that If they dont say it, it isnt true. My mother in law wont even ask questions because if the doctor did not bring it up then it was not important. I mean really are doctors not human?

    I asked Kevlar about his picture he is using and he said he was looking for a movie about aliens but we could not see them without the special glasses because of some signal they were putting out and that once the signal was distroyed everyone could see them for what they were. Cant remember the name of the movie right now. but I guess the point I am trying to get across is that I wish it was as simple as destroying a signal. I would love to got shake everyone and wake them up and say look this is what they are trying to do to us and here is the truth. and it is not just our food and medicine. there is so much more wrong with this world and it just makes me sick thinking about it.

  • I have been a vegetarian for 12 years. Then this past june, my boyfriend who ate like crap (the more butter and southern-fried style the better, well he started a raw diet after seeing someone eat raw at his job (he is raw PALEO though). He totally changed. His mood, his energy, no more gut problems. Depression gone. It was amazing. I started juicing again with him, then I decided to try raw too just seeing what it did to him (not paleo!) Like TheRawDance, and many others it seems,I also had some long standing “issues.” We decided to throw out the scale, to make sure this was a diet to feel better, and not a diet-diet. And the change is amazing. I can live a life I never thought I would. And once you start feeling great, you want to kep feeling great and improve other parts of your life. It’s exciting.

    You asked why you think someone would go back to sad? I think if they aren’t embracing how this feels, and eating to lose weight, just like any diet- it will end. When it changes your life, heals you – you have a lifer!

    BTW – I work in a hospital. You only get a diabetic diet if you are diabetic. It would make you sick to see what the regular diet is. Meatloaf and gravy, stroganoff, chicken covered in so much cheese you can’t see it, cake and turnovers. And their idea of a salad – icebreg with a pale tomato wedge and ranch dressing or a big iceburg chef with cold cuts and cheese (and ranch dressing). I worked at another hospital that had a menu style system – they had pizza. I don’t think any of the doctors I work with would eat that food. Yeah, I don’t know who comes up with the food there, but I think a lot of what they serve comes down to making a buck. Definately not to heal people.

  • Sid – I love that you two through out your scale. Okay so you are right about the hospital. I meant in eating disorder treatment I’ve seen a lot of those exchanges and such used. I should have personalized that sentence more. I’ve been in different hospitals/clinics and some of the food was better than others but I have seen my share of the ultimate crap and what really sucks in eating disorder treatment, especially anorexia nervosa, if you don’t eat it’s replaced with either ensure, promax bars, (insert other meal replacement/supplements here) or the dreaed TUBE, let’s talk major nutritional trauma here!!! I got sick of refeeding my body with hospital sludge and took a different route. In all honesty, the idea of being stuck in a hospital again with that food encourages me to NOT get myself back into one and continue to fight. Hey, whatever works right? I wouldn’t survive nutritonally there, I guess the orthorexia I deal with is too strong. Last inpatient I went into I ended up restricting so severely because I had already transitioned to raw and was about 90% or so (I basically ate this sprouted hemp seed bread and occassionally a tad bit of cooked whole breakfast grains… organic mix of different grains – otherwise about everything else was raw) and unwilling to eat.all the crap they pile on your plate… It was like a buffet on your plate each meal, I kid you not.I would love to see change in treatment centers in regard to nutritional philosopy and natural healing.

    All the treatment centers I’ve been to try to teach you “healthy nutrition” – they break down a cheeseburger or slice of greasy ass pizza and tell you why it’s important… example – pizza, this one always bothered me “the crust is your carb! the cheese is your dairy! the tomato sauce is your vegetable (um, it;s a fruit LOLOLOLOL), the oil is your fat, the meat is your protein and there is your pizza! now go eat your nutrition…” same ordeal with the cheeseburge, except the vegetables are iceburge lettuce and a slice of tomato, what the hell, that’s not even a serving… sorry, this really bothers me and then all these innocent people trying to GET BETTER leave with WARPED education on “nutrition” How pathetic is this? I understand every food serves a purpose but crap like that does not serve a healthy purpose in my opinion.

    We are lucky to have these wonderful raw food healing centers that you go to for a week or a few weeks to a month, etc. but they are SO expensive.

  • troublesjustabubbletroublesjustabubble Raw Newbie

    I agree with you rawdance. It’s not that we’re super focused and disciplined but rather that we are coming to raw as a last resort to feel good. Once we feel good it’s easy! On high raw I never felt better. I came across it on accident and didn’t know that a community existed. I made the commitment before I knew I would have support like I do here. Once I found this site my life was changed because instead of the constant “Diana, you’re not getting enough nutrients”, “where are you getting your protein?”, “I don’t think that’s healthy” I actually can find people I relate with. Not only that but when I’m having a problem and am tempted to eat something bad I can go on here and people will help me stay on track. It’s wonderful and it’s team work and I hope I can help people to the way they help me.

    I totally never understood that whole ‘every food group’ in pizza thing. EVERYONE knows pizza is junk food. It’s even labeled that in the SAD world!

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