Raw food and fad diets

[Nichola]

Can someone please tell me what the difference is between raw food diet and other diets.

Over the years I have dabbled in the salmon diet (pericone) and the low carb thing and various detox diets (cooked) in search of improved health (I know there has always been something not quite right with how I feel)

Having found this now, I need to know why this is so diff from the other things I have tried and the books will not end up at the back of my bookshelf in a year or so.......

[Nenyath]

Hi Nichola,

When I first started out raw I had a bit of the same concerns but here is a couple of things to consider- there is so much information and so many recipes floating around on the net you won't have to buy anything ever to do this diet except fresh fruit and veggies. Thus there is noone behind it with a concept and a book you have to buy or specific products you absolutely need to be raw successfully, only products to make it easier and more fun.

How about giving it 30 days and see how you feel? This board it a goldmine of information, support and advice. There is many awesome and easy recipes floating around here too you can experiment with.

I can't guarantee you anything but I can tell you this, raw is no longer a diet for me, it is a lifestyle which has changed my perception and helped me grow!

I hope this helps you somewhat and I really hope you will give this a try!

Fly forever free,
Nenyath

[ferg]

Hi!

I don't consider this as much a diet as a way of life, a journey, something to bring me optimum health, but hey, if I loose a few pounds on the way, I'm happy... I've been doing this a year now, had a couple of set backs but feel wonderful, confident, full of health, and I know I'm doing the right thing for my body.

I have tried 'diets' in the past and they didn't really do anything for me.

If you do raw food for health alone, anything else will be a bonus... you will see changes, amazing changes... I have eliminated a few health problems on this diet. Although you will go through a few detoxes, if you stick it out the rewards will be so worth it.

Good luck on your journey.

Ferg.

[dreamrawalwz]

Those other fad diets you can't live off for the rest of your life. Well, I'm sure you could but either you wouldn't be healthy or you'd die prematurely. Unlike all the other "diets" the raw food lifestyle is the way humans are supposed to eat. You can get all your nutrients and not have to count calories, carbs, or fat grams. Once you trust the lifestyle and your body I believe you will feel differently. Does eating all meat (Atkins) and no carbohydrates (waht your brain mainly uses to function!) healthy? Not saying you did atkins, just an example. Most of these fad diets are not written by or supported by doctors. Usually doctors tell you to eat healthy, cut out junk, and exercise. Not to buy xyz products, pills, specific food, etc. Most people on these fad diets eventually come off of them and gain the weight back anyway. Most are focused on weightloss rather than health. The raw food "diet" is the most health conscience "diet" out there. I hate to say it, but sometimes it's about money. Someone has a crazy idea like the grapefuit diet, writes a book, and people are hooked! I think you need to sit back and take a logical in depth look at every single fad diet out there.

I was thinking about mentioning something about this topic in another thread. I've gotten comments as people see my food "you're on a diet?" and stuff like that. The word diet has lost it's meaning for the way you eat. Instead people always associate it with weight loss. This is a lifestyle change, not just for weight loss :) I would suggest to you to just do it for a while and if you go through detox please don't assume that it's the "diet" itself causing you to feel bad. It's just allowing those toxins to be released.

Sorry if this was extremely long!

[lovenmama]

I completely agree..it's just a complete lifestye change for me...not a diet...I've been trying to drill that into my friends/family for the past 6 months..I'm not on a diet..it's just about being healthy!!

[Nichola]

[I]The word diet has lost it's meaning for the way you eat. Instead people always associate it with weight loss. This is a lifestyle change, not just for weight loss :)

I have had the same reaction. I am not trying to lose weight (maybe a bit of baby weight) but I am not over weight, I just want to be healthy. But as you said, people assume I am on a diet and I go along with it to keep them quiet as I cannot be bothered explaining all the time.

[Conscious Midwife]

:D RAW VEGAN FOOD CONSUMPTION HAS EVERY
NUTRIENT YOU NEED FOR A
:D THRIVING LIFE!:D

there's no immitation all other options and conmbinations leave you merely surviving:(

[Revvell]

We ARE on a diet... just not using the word the way it has de-volved.

When I was younger, diet meant what one eats. To me, it still does. I'm always amazed when people "ass-ume" that it means ONLY to lose weight. I think I mention this in one of our shows (Numba 2?) how I use to sell bird diet and one woman told me she didn't want her bird to lose weight. Sheesh!!!

Now, instead of calling it a diet (people are SO easily confused) I call it a food program for one thing.

Revvell

[Carol K]

LOL! I tell people that my husband has to check every morning to find out what I am eating that day!!! Seriously, since being on this new lifestyle, he has stopped checking and totally supports me, because I am doing so well. No more moods or aggitation. I think you will find this one is different and well worth the change. Suggestion: I have stopped buying books and get them from the library. Then, if I really think it's worth it, I buy it.

[Stina]

One thing: any other diet winds me up like a tightly-coiled spring until I explode out of control. Raw eating is the only thing ever that slowly dissolves my unhealthy cravings and miraculously replaces them with cravings for healthy food. That tells me something important.

[Gwena]

Ooooh, that word diet just doesn't work well with me. It has way too much baggage attached to it. I guess eating raw foods is a diet of sorts, but it's so much more than a thing folks do to lose weight.

I started incorporating raw expecting greater physical wellbeing. I had just come through a few health scares and the foods I was eating were making me sick. I have a background in healthcare, and when I first learned about raw, it nutritionally made sense. I knew I had to try it. That was 6 years ago.

Eating raw is all about putting the most nutritious food into your body, and healing from the inside out. At least, this is what is means to me. Yes, it results in weight loss for most people, and it can be seen as a fad diet, but for those of us who live raw, it's so much more.:p

[romanticsnet]

I think the reason that this is NOT just another fad diet, is because when you try raw, you immediately know it is the right thing to do. This is because you feel FABULOUS! You glow, and there is just something to that feeling that makes you instinctively know that this is the way we were meant to eat! :D

[Solace]

I am sure these beautiful friends gave you your answer already so I will only add= besides the fact that RAW saved my life.............GOD created your body to be raw period. hehe enjoy:p :D :D

[lavendarJ]

There have been so many great responses to your questions - I just had to jump on this bandwagon also. Raw living is just that for me... it is a lifestyle change, a lifestyle journey. It is all about living. It is not about a quick fix - eating a certain way only to return to a former pattern of unhealthy eating.

I started this raw journey last August. I literally dropped the first forty pounds within a two month span (20 plus in the first month, over 10 in the first week). The weight continues to disappear and I simply eat without any restrictions. What I would say is the most significant thing about living a raw lifestyle is that it is NATURAL. It is about the intake of healthy, live nutrient-filled foods.

When I look back now on all the "diets" I used to dabble with it is utterly amazing. I never had the results I found with raw living in the first month. Prior to last August, I would have never have thought that in order to lose weight, feel good, and maintain health -- the answer would have been as simple as eating naturally.

I eat what I want with raw. I do not measure anything - my common sense is my only guide. I do not fret over fat or calorie intake as I know that I am eating delicious live foods and not a sodium ladden frozen dinner or some other type of SAD food that his ridden with MSG and all other kinds of unnatural preservatives.

My last little tidbit addressing what I believe the big difference is with raw is that this way of living is about accepting internally. Hmmm? How do I make that make sense??? I firmly believe that there has to be an internal change and not just external meaning buying fruits and veggies and preparing meals. With internal, I mean mental acceptance and understanding of raw living. It's about realizing the great benefits and blessings that await when your journey to live naturally.

Living raw is a continuous learning experience about what is best for our bodies, for our lives. I am so grateful to myself for embracing this journey. It's has brought about a total cleanse of body, mind, and spirit. This journey will change the way you think about food; it will open your mind up to a wealth of knowledge about what is healthy; it will pave the way for you to cleanse and purge yourself of emotional toxins and to release baggage.

Okay, Okay, I will shut up now, but I just had to respond to this question. This journey has been absolutely AMAZING.

[Nichola]

Wow.

Thank you very much for such wonderful replies. I have lots to think about here.

Even just in 5 days I can feel a diff and so can therefore imagine, in a way, the things that the raw diet have impacted your lives.

Uff, I want that so much! :)

[spicyfull]

Changing your Mind and your LifeStyle...........

[jaurequi]

I agree with most of the responses.

I recall reading that Alissa went back and forth with raw, but it wasn't until she made the decision to make it her way of eating for the rest of her life that it stuck.
I think that's what it has to be as well; otherwise you will be forever swinging back and forth and never getting the full benefits.

As simple as it sounds, it really is just a simple decision one makes. The question is, "Can you stand by it?"

Best,

[RawVegan4Health]

I think it is not so much a diet as it is an awakening or a realization that you have been eating wrong. Cooked food has lost most or all of it's nutritional value and has been transformed into something loaded with known carcinogens. I do not know why people think everything should be cooked. I used to think that way too. Some food needs to be cooked to become edible. In that case, why are you wanting to eat it in the first place? Even after cooking it, all you did was make it easier to digest, but your body still has to work overtime to disgest it. It is not something you should probably eat. Yet people eat these kinds of things at every meal. Why would a species evolve to eat a diet based on having fire available at every moment to prepare its food? It just makes no sense at all. If you are abhorrent to the thought of evolution, then the Bible tends to be fairly clear that man was created to eat fruits, then vegetables and greens. It was after all that when people started being "allowed" to eat other crud. Seems interesting how people were purported to live 800 years or longer early on in the New Testament, and then after that the life expectancy dropped so sharply. Could just be coincidence, right? What do you really feel? What feels right, what seems natural?

[hypnocmt]

A fad diet is about losing weight, deprivation, and sacrificing vitality for appearance. It is about quick, but usually temporary gratification.

Raw food is about improving life quality and perhaps even extending life through optimal health. It is about creating absence of dis-ease and defense agains pathogens, as opposed to treating disease symptoms. It is also about living in harmony with our environment, thereby extending the life and health of the planet. It is about living responsibly, simply, and richly. The greater health we experience as a result allows our body to find it's unique, ideal form- usually lean, strong and beautiful.

[Solace]

A fad diet is about losing weight, deprivation, and sacrificing vitality for appearance. It is about quick, but usually temporary gratification.

Raw food is about improving life quality and perhaps even extending life through optimal health. It is about creating absence of dis-ease and defense agains pathogens, as opposed to treating disease symptoms. It is also about living in harmony with our environment, thereby extending the life and health of the planet. It is about living responsibly, simply, and richly. The greater health we experience as a result allows our body to find it's unique, ideal form- usually lean, strong and beautiful.
AMEN ! What she said..........

[neen273]

I think it is not so much a diet as it is an awakening or a realization that you have been eating wrong. Cooked food has lost most or all of it's nutritional value and has been transformed into something loaded with known carcinogens. I do not know why people think everything should be cooked. I used to think that way too. Some food needs to be cooked to become edible. In that case, why are you wanting to eat it in the first place? Even after cooking it, all you did was make it easier to digest, but your body still has to work overtime to disgest it. It is not something you should probably eat. Yet people eat these kinds of things at every meal. Why would a species evolve to eat a diet based on having fire available at every moment to prepare its food? It just makes no sense at all. If you are abhorrent to the thought of evolution, then the Bible tends to be fairly clear that man was created to eat fruits, then vegetables and greens. It was after all that when people started being "allowed" to eat other crud. Seems interesting how people were purported to live 800 years or longer early on in the New Testament, and then after that the life expectancy dropped so sharply. Could just be coincidence, right? What do you really feel? What feels right, what seems natural?

I'm totally with you. I believe in the Bible wholeheartedly, and it occurred to me one day that everything was perfect in the beginning. Eden was a garden, not a BBQ, and the notion of God telling Adam and Eve that they needed to drink from cow's udders lest their bones disintegrate from lack of calcium.....well obviously that's silly. :D

I absolutely love fruit....perhaps because I was designed that way. :p

[Pennypower]

One thing: any other diet winds me up like a tightly-coiled spring until I explode out of control. Raw eating is the only thing ever that slowly dissolves my unhealthy cravings and miraculously replaces them with cravings for healthy food. That tells me something important.

Amen. Before going raw I was addicted to refined sugar and processed foods. I was in total bondage. Now I am addicted to oranges and green smoothies. Halleluiah!:p :p