Alcohol

[mermaidinphilly]

Is there any alcohol i can drink on the raw food diet? i have been raw for two weeks and I would just love a pint of Guiness or a glass of red wine! How about whisky or scotch? and if not, why is it not good (other than the obvious liver reason)?
thank you so much
jackie

[tracyinfo]

Jackie, wine is raw.

Sorry, the other alcohols are brewed or distilled.

Hope this helps.

[Revvell]

*tiptoes quietly out* :cool:

[swingbolder]

Some raw people like raw wine. Some don't drink at all.

You might find that the longer you're raw the less your body will tolerate alcohol. This is what happened to me. I was not a big drinker, but as I went along with raw I found that even half a glass of wine made me feel oogy the next day, so I don't drink at all now.

[Autumn]

*following Revvell* ;)

[VeganVixen]

hey !!! you guys -MAYBE you could tip-toe a BIT more quietly ;)....

as for your question -I think going for a high quality organic wine would be best ,also you might try some kombucha (a VERY small alchohol content -but VERY healthy), Ive heard that amaretto (almond)liquer has digestive advantages..........of course Im italian and its not a taboo to me -only overindulging and disrespecting alcohol is......

[RawTruth]

.... so I'm tiptoeing outta here, too. (I'll be at the juice bar with Revvell and Autumn.)

[VeganVixen]

then again,that MIGHT just be a good place for you to think about going!!!

[Autumn]

I'm Italian, too, and still tip-toeing! ;)

[VeganVixen]

hey kombuchas ok ,right?


lol ! my moms VERY italian grandmother gave her and my uncles anise liquer shots every cold morning she was there! -she used to say "drink up'a little ones ,youll'a be warm and'a strong'a".......

[rawpriestess]

I've heard what others have posted, that there is raw wine.

I've never liked alcohol, either the flavor, or the way I feel when I drink it, so I just don't.

Good luckin finding what you are looking for.

[Punky]

Hey Jackie,
Wine is raw.
Organic raw wine is best if you can find it in your area.
Many raw restaurants serve organic wines.

Whether you are raw or not, drinking is a very personal choice...
many on this board do not drink, but there are many others that do.
I think the answer to that question lies within yourself ;)
also keep in mind if you have been pure raw for awhile,
I have found the affects of alcohal
are somewhat stronger.

I still drink an occasional glass or so of wine and really enjoy it
and feel no guilt in it. I'm actually going with a girlfriend this weekend
to several wineries for wine tastings.
I am in no way toting wine as a healthy food though...I don't believe
it is, and hate how I feel the next day if I have had too much.
I am so unproductive...
I have also found it slows down weight loss, and inbalances blood sugar
levels which increases appetite and decreases will power to stay raw.
I think a lot of people are tiptoe-ing around this subject
because alcohal is such a personal and controversial subject.
It has destroyed lives and families.
I've seen a close friends mom
die of organ/liver failure related to alcoholism...I was very close to her mom,
and it was very tragic to have her die in her early 50's from
something preventable....but she drank heavily everyday.
Ok I am rambling, and giving too much information here :eek:

If you choose to have an occasional drink,
look into organic wines.
Cheers!

[Punky]

hey kombuchas ok ,right?


lol ! my moms VERY italian grandmother gave her and my uncles anise liquer shots every cold morning she was there! -she used to say "drink up'a little ones ,youll'a be warm and'a strong'a".......

i've never heard of Kombuchas...sounds interesting VV!
Let me know if you find out it's raw.

I understand what you mean by being italian VV and drinking isn't taboo.
My dads from Germany..he says
Europeans do not drink to get drunk, and it is frowned upon to be that drunk.
They drink more as part of the meal and just a couple of drinks.
As a teenager he was always welcome to have wine with his dinner..
(he was living in the states at this time)...he felt no desire to sneak out
with the rest of the teenagers to go drinking behind there parents back.
My dad is not a big drinker at all, and growing up, I only saw my parents
drink a glass of wine at holidays.
My mom's from Vietnam and it is frowned upon for women to drink.
She rarely has a drink, and when she does she doesn't even finish it.
The culteral differences related to alcohol is intriguing.

[VeganVixen]

oops ,I meant kombuca ,its a fermented tea -I

[VeganVixen]

oops ,I meant kombuca ,its a RAW fermented tea -I think there is a post about it here...http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2868&highlight=kombucha


they sell RAW kombucha at the whole foods in houston ,it has such a small amount of alchohol that I (under 21) can buy it ,but I can still taste the fermentation.....the gingerade type is the BEST :D

[sachis2112]

Alcohol is definately a personal choice as Punky says.

Me, I'm a lightweight. I haven't had a drop to drink since 2 weeks before going raw. I usually would have something every few months. But my body is so happy right now that, if I threw alcohol into the mix, I might very well be sick for days.

I might try it on vacation some day but, until then, I think I better go meet Rev, Autumn and RT at the juice bar.

Oh, and the fermented tea stuff.... Yes, it's raw. It contains VERY little alcohol and it didn't bother me a bit. It certainly gives you that nice liquor flavor though. I was actually VERY surprised at the flavor when I had it.

[Ginger]

OMG I KNEW it! Everytime I have kombucha I feel like I drank some alcohol! I can only drink a little bit at a time!

[sachis2112]

OMG I KNEW it! Everytime I have kombucha I feel like I drank some alcohol! I can only drink a little bit at a time!
LOL!!! Yes... I'm afraid there is a warning on the label saying it can contain as much as .05%.

[mermaidinphilly]

thanks for everyone's help. i am quite into 12 year scotches and i guess i will have to give them up (atleast i will save money). it is good to know that i can still enjoy a glass of wine here and there. i will see how it makes me feel. i have felt so great being 100% raw so i wouldnt want to make that feeling go away...even temporarily.

[theresaann]

Hey all, I have found that drinking wine after going raw is a HUGE mistake for me. Many of my friends partake, and I was regularly drinking a glass of wine or an imported beer with a meal at least once a week before going raw. I thought because wine is raw it would be ok after going raw, but it makes me feel really ill now. I have to stop drinking it. My body is like, "what the hell are you doing that to me for?!?" It feels REALLY bad. I can't believe it, when I was eating cooked it made me feel GOOD. My body does not want it at all. Whew. I guess that settles it then-no more alcohol. Kinda makes parties unappealing for me now, unless they are with really conscious people celebrating in a spiritual way. Haven't seen many of those lately though, unfortunately......:-(

[texy]

Hi all. I'm not much of a drinker but I used to have a drink or a glass of wine once in a while at a special occasion. Every couple of months or so and I found that the problem with drinking once in a while when eating raw is,

1. If you've been pretty pure raw for a while (for me a few months) your body will react pretty strongly to the alcohol. Not just tipsy-wise but almost as if you've ingested some type of toxin. This shocked me when it happened to me, my father passed away this month and we had a nice toast after the funeral. I bought a good organic red wine but still had a bad reaction, my face swelled up like I was allergic.

2. A worse problem for me I discovered was because I was more affected by such a small amount, even after one glass I was more suceptible or maybe vulnerable to "just one bite" of something that wasn't raw. That can be quite a slippery slope! :eek:

This is probably more information that you asked for! :o and I don't tell myself never and forever but I do think twice when considering it.

[Revvell]

One problem with wine is it creates "naturally occuring" sulfites which affect many folk negatively. For me, it would, if I drank it, exasperate asthma which is why I'm thinking, folk who've gone raw, then had a drink are experiencing the toxicity of it.

Alcohol in and of itself is toxic and, for many (obviously), addicting.

Revvell

[deedub]

This thread had me laughing on more than one occasion. I agree with whovever said that drinking is a personal choice and will add to that whether it is destructive to the person or not. I'm glad for this thread because being the recovering alcoholic that I am my addict voice was jumping on the, "well wine is raw so maybe you can drink it," bandwagon. And some of the post have helped to bring reason to that nagging voice. Also before going raw I would occasionally drink non-acolcholic beer or wine so I was glad to hear about the tea thang.
Cheers :cool: :p

[Punky]

I bought a good organic red wine but still had a bad reaction, my face swelled up like I was allergic.

2. A worse problem for me I discovered was because I was more affected by such a small amount, even after one glass I was more suceptible or maybe vulnerable to "just one bite" of something that wasn't raw. That can be quite a slippery slope! :eek:

these are wonderful points to bring up!
I was comparing 2 pics of me at about the same weight within the last
few months. One was me rawing it for 40 days and the other on that
winery trip with my friend last weekend. My face look so puffy from drinking!
of course I was eating cooked too! I looked much heavier
even though my weight was the same. Ok it was PMS too, but
i really looked puffy and 10lbs. heavier. So here I am climbing
up that slippery slope to find more level ground again ;)

[Sitani]

Interesting thread...... I posted on the same topic on another site......
Only my dilema goes a bit deeper. Six + yrs ago I was a in a car accident that left me in much pain. After 5+ yrs I gave up on natural remedies as my life was not nice.....and gave into prescription pain killers, not narcotics....but did find that red wine helped with the pain, as the pain killers only work so well......so I do drink red wine. My post was whether red wine or pain killers is the preffered choice.......you know.....the worse of two evils....lol
Well it turns out I still need both.......hate that fact, but it became a matter of quality of life for me and my family. A really nice girl on the other post is trying to put me in touch with vegan wine maker in southern Ontario.....hurray...at least it's a healthier alternative.
If anyone is out west, there is an organic winery in Kelowna, British Columbia, I've been there.
We all have different circumstances don't we........can't really judge one another......never works.

Sincerely
Debra

[theresaann]

well, I was on the "organic wine is fine-I'm a 'type A' afterall" bandwagon too... as I said in an earlier post, being raw has clarified all of that for me. I can not drink alcohol-period. just like someone else said, it feels like poison in my body. Takes me 2 days to recover from just a few glasses. I WAS out of control with alcohol at one point in my life, about 12 years ago. I righted myself, and didn't have anymore "behavioral" problems, but now my body just doesn't want any of it. Psychologically, it's another story. I have lived my entire teenage and adult life thinking that I need alcohol to "have fun". It's amazing, but I am actually going through every aspect of my life now and "reframing" it in a raw and alcohol free context. It's happening automatically, out of my real committment to stay raw. It's like I look at something, like going to parties for example, and see it through raw, non-alcoholic eyes, and find that I am actually reinventing who I am in every area of my life. IT's pretty amazing, and it's all coming out of my committment to be 100% raw-its' like a new found power to recreate myself. Pretty cool! I never thought I"d be like this. And now I see it's just been about choosing it all along-sort of like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, when she finds out at the end that with the Ruby slippers she could've gone home anytime. Neat-o.

[sport]

I know that this is an old tread that I have discovered (checking to see if I can drink beer) but I am surprised that nobody discussed the fact that very few wines are vegan and Guinness (mentioned in original post) is definatly not vegan (or even suitable for vegetarians)

[RawTruth]

What animal products are in them?

[sport]

Guinness and all the stout makers use a substance called Issinglass which comes from fish. My local health food shop carries a small selection of wines that are suitable for vegetarians and one suitable for vegans so I assume that all the rest are not suitable. They are clarified using animal products. There is a list that I have downloaded which lists the beers that are vegan and a lot of them are not. I guess that I will soon be trowing that list away

[VeganVixen]

actually , some wines are not Vegetarian , they use various farm animal intestines to filter the juices.......but there ARE some vegan wine makers out there .....

[Punky]

I know that this is an old tread that I have discovered (checking to see if I can drink beer) but I am surprised that nobody discussed the fact that very few wines are vegan and Guinness (mentioned in original post) is definatly not vegan (or even suitable for vegetarians)


there is actually a wine thread older than this one that discusses this very subject if you search for it. I believe they said they used some fish part to filter the wine and suggested some vegan companies.
cheers!

[zvy1980]

Friends I in shock from seen here phentermine (http://www.medandpharm.info/P.html), but here this in general limit to effrontery O-Gl (http://www.medandpharm.info/og.html)...

[honeybee joy]

Why does everyone tiptoe out? I myself have been curious to the answer to this question. I mean, I know it is bad for you, but why? I try to tell many that it is not good for your body, and they ask why and I don't really have a clear cut answer. When you get a clear cut answer it will help educate others on why giving them a logical reason not to. I think the original poster did ask why it is bad. Why not answer if you know why?

[Dimond]

It's very simple. Alcohol destroys your immune system & causes illness just as much as SAD food, if not more when consumed often or in large quantity.

[honeybee joy]

Originally Posted By GilmoreGirl
It's very simple. Alcohol destroys your immune system & causes illness just as much as SAD food, if not more when consumed often or in large quantity.

Well thanks for the reply. I was talking to someone about it a few days back and they said that it (alcohol) kills the bad bacteria in your body. I thought, couldn't it kill the good bacteria as well. You meantioned that it kills your immune system. Not sure if I am right on this or not, but don't you need the good bacteria to have a strong immune system?

I really would love to know why, because it is so hard to tell others when you don't have the answers! :p

Thanks

[Dimond]

Just doing a google search all sorts of things come up about the damage alcohol does to your skin, eyesight, immune system. Just like antibiotics, it's killing the good & bad bacteria. If one wanted to get rid of bad bacteria, that's what probiotics are good for.

[Punky]

Just doing a google search all sorts of things come up about the damage alcohol does to your skin, eyesight, immune system. Just like antibiotics, it's killing the good & bad bacteria. If one wanted to get rid of bad bacteria, that's what probiotics are good for.


I have no scientific facts, but personally I have noticed when I drink regularly (almost every evening-wine)that after awhile I am prone to yeast issues and need probiotics to balance back out. So I definately think this is true.
And YES I am aware that alcohal isn't the best for my health when drinking regularly; it is an issue for me.

[Lay-Lay]

***looking around the room as I eat my peanuts***, hmmm.....I think it all boils down to what works for some folks. My hubby and I were celebrating each other a couple of weeks ago. He had 2 glasses of wine and I had 2 sips, literally. I enjoyes and savored those 2 sips. I had no ill effect.

In any case whether you have ill effects or don't moderation is "key" unless you are an addict or could be, then abstaining is 100% the best possible method.

[sam]

I believe in balance. I eat raw all day until dinner. For dinner I eat whatever I want as long as it is vegetarian. I also drink beer. This allows me to get most of the benefits of raw foods and still have a life. All or nothing does not work for most people.