who saw the program on channel 4 about raw food

[fuggles]

It was a great programme on british TV about raw food.

Very enjoyable.

[*Claire*]

Enjoyable? Really? :eek:

I though it was awful and presented raw food in a really bad way. It's aim was clearly to make the raw foodists look like nutters, especially with the emphasis on enemas, urine therapy and saying how cooked food is the same as hard drugs. It tried to make it look like a cult with the "recruiting of members" thing too.

I was hoping it would be more scientific and explain the nutritional advantages of raw rather than showing this "extreme diet" in a way as to be as shocking as possible.

[fuggles]

I agree, they did try and show them as nutters !!

But the woman who compared it to heroin was a good metaphor.

I also remembered the person who was 54, and only looked in his mid thirties.

And he only started raw a few months befoe the programme.

[shooting star]

Yes the focus was definitely making people look bad, mad and sad.

I mean the title, "Health Food Junkies" gave it away really and how they kept going on how lonely it was. OK it isn't easy socially, but lonely - nowhere near.


Yes I found the 'recruiting people in church halls up and down the UK' line strange as well. Especially as I was at the talk they showed and I'm sure it was at an Arts Centre!

[subbacultcha]

When was it on?

[pollyana]

It was on this evening at 7.30pm.

I thought the part with the little boy saying how he found it difficult to make friends and stuff was horrible. It made it look like the child was deprived of a normal life due to the diet.


It's aim was clearly to make the raw foodists look like nutters
Let's be fair though....the woman did seem a bit.....weird.

[subbacultcha]

Damn, I wish I'd seen it. I hope none of my friends saw it in case they think I'm a nutter :(

[lore-ah]

Yes I found the 'recruiting people in church halls up and down the UK' line strange as well.

I'm supposed to be going to church and recruiting people? I missed that part of Alissa's book!

[lily]

I had very mixed feelings after seeing it. It was great to have a serious programme about raw food, but such a shame that they featured the wierdo end of the spectrum -- or made them appear like that. I don't know any raw vegans who drink their own urine.

I agree, I felt sorry for the little boy who said he hadn't got any friends -- that was poignant and a worry for parents embarking on this way of eating with their kids.

One thing that did come across though was the 'raw glow' that all the 'raw foodists' (as they called them -- nasty name, I think) had.

I would like to see something similar featuring more 'normal' raw vegans going about their lives in the everyday world, relating naturally with other people, living and let living, as many of us do. Oh, and eating yummy food -- I didn't think the programme did justice to the wonderful food, though I did notice after the dinner party that the plates looked very well-cleaned, as if the guests had eaten every scrap...

[fuggles]

He should still go to normal school, he was only 7.

A person only eats once in school anyway.

Anyway, here are some google searches of the programme I found.

http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/january-food-preview-07-11-22_p_1.html

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=727823

One may be able to watch the programme on channel 4's on demand feature.

[Antari]

Mixed feelings from me too. Another link.

http://www.karenknowler.typepad.com/

[EZ rider]

I would like to see something similar featuring more 'normal' raw vegans going about their lives in the everyday world, relating naturally with other people, living and let living, as many of us do. Oh, and eating yummy food -- I didn't think the programme did justice to the wonderful foodInterviewing raw food urine drinkers and nut cases is a lot more sensational then interviewing regular, everyday, normal people who like to eat garden foods.

[Azura Skye]

I thought it was pretty bad - but at least there weren't any doctors saying "NO!" to this way of eating.

I think the three people who were on the programme are all part of the same group in England who spend a lot of money on supplements and are a little bit away with the fairies.
I thought Suki didn't look really healthy and she was a bit of a nutter.

I think it gives raw foodists a bad name and deters other people from trying this way of eating.

The one part I did like though was the lovely Kate Wood - when she said "Well maybe you are dying out, what with all the obesity and cancer" I thought that was a great come back.

hated the = "ooh are they going to convert us next?!" take on the whole thing! Why couldn't they just be more positive?!

And that man who was proud that he could shove half a litre of coffee up his ass! So what? that's not normal - do you want a prize or something?

oh well!

[cactus]

I havn't posted for ages, but when I read this thread I just had to say how disapointed I was, I was glad they made a program on raw foodists , but I didnt feel it was balanced,
It was good to see that it is a growing movement here in the uk, and I enjoyed seeing some of the people, but I to felt they tried to make them look like nutters, and my mother, who I told to watch the show, ended up worrying that if my child was to be raw (he isnt totaly as hubby wont have it but thats another story) that he would be deprived, because they made those children seem deprived, but on the good side, they all looked so healthy, especaily the kids, and it did inspire me to maybe sneak even more raw into my childs diet :)

[RaWonderWoman5]

I'm going to second EZ Rider.

I'm in the media relations field. After a really bad year of my company in the news (and it wasn't good news, either), I look at the media in a whole different light. Sensationalism is the gold ticket...whether it's balanced news or not. I'm not sure what happened to journalistic intergrity. :confused:

[subbacultcha]

And yeah, it does try to make raw foodists seem like nutters. It makes better TV! I thought Suki was a bit too obsessed, and the other couple seemed a bit like they were trying to enforce their views on everyone. Their friends were quite rude though, they'd invited them round and they were turning their nose up. People would never do that at a cooked dinner party. I thought the lovely Kate Wood came across great, very down to earth. I loved her comeback to 'why aren't all the meat eaters dying out then' too! Her kids looked really healthy, and I think they took the bit about him not being able to make friends out of context, he was talking about being homeschooled not eating raw. I saw Karen Knowler in the audience of a talk they were doing and I wish they'd interviewed her. She seems very level-headed and would probably balanced out the 'nutter' image.

[subbacultcha]

Health Food Junkies is also the title of a book about orthorexia - clearly what they are trying to imply!

[cactus]

I agree that the people who came to the dinner party were quite rude and some of them looked very uncomfortable, I was wondering if they had told them before hand it was going to be raw, or just sprung it on them, I can remember many years ago and I do mean many, before I became raw or before that a vege, I was married to this bloke (exhusband now) and we went to a friends for dinner, they were vege's ( quite rare in those days where I lived)and at they served up lovely food, but obviously meatless, my then husband was shocked (and I felt quite rude) and to be honest I hadn't ever eaten such a meal and felt odd about it, of course now Ive come along way (almost 30 years later)and I understand that everyone else is on different levels, and to some people who dont understand, raw food is weird, I guess its up to us to gentley let people know, and let them see the benifits, thats how Ive got into converations about it because my freinds can see that I am no longer sick day in day out, and suddenly I love life a lot more, but I'm not sure Id invite them to a raw dinner party unless I'd let them know first what it was.
but as was previously mentioned the media will do any thing to make a story look good, its just a shame they couldnt of put it across as more positive.

[lily]

I think they filmed it to make the people at the dinner party look bored/disgruntled etc -- later when they showed the plates being cleared away, it looked as though they'd eaten most of it!

Yep, 'spose it's true: 'normal' people -- like us! -- being raw would not be as controversial as 'nutters'!

[missvitreous]

I just watched it thought it was interesting. Perhaps not the best portrayl of raw, but there were some good parts in there. Like one of Kate Wood's kids asking the guy selling ice cream at the beach if he had any apples for sale!:D Someone posted it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTecK6odDoc

[fuggles]

yep

is the rest on youtbue

[missvitreous]

The rest of it is all posted under the same user. So if you just click on the other videos from this user, they should be there. :) I'm glad someone posted it as I live in the U.S. and probably would have had no other way to see it!

[sport]

I missed it when it was shown so I just watched it on Youtube.
I was happy with the portrayal. It was not the usual media "trying to show how weird we are" type of thing and they picked nice sensable people to highlight.
All in all I thought that it did not give a bad impression and think that the point will have got through to some people.

[shooting star]

Just for info - this is Suki's blog post about the programme. She makes some really interesting points about it. I'm so impressed by point 7 about the improvements in her health.



http://qito.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/and-afterwards/

[sport]

Just for info - this is Suki's blog post about the programme. She makes some really interesting points about it. I'm so impressed by point 7 about the improvements in her health.



http://qito.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/and-afterwards/

I left a positive comment so maybe a few more would be good.

[Cinammon]

Shooting Star - thanks for posting the link. I saw that programme on TV, and was v disappointed in it. I was eating dinner, and had to keep changing channels when the urine drinking, colonic irrigation parts came on!

But I was impressed by Suki's response - and, like you, esp. by the list of ailments she had which are now cured.

Love

Cinammon x