Reader's Digest Article

[Otis]

Wonder if anyone has seen the article on page 62 of the new Reader's Digest. "Severe diets are making headlines, claiming to reverse diabetes and cut heart disease risk. In the upcoming documentary RAW FOR 30 DAYS, six diabetics eat a vegan, organic diet of uncooked nuts, seeds and veggies. By the end, all have gone off insulin and most have lost about 25 pounds." Andrea Giancoli of the American Dietetic Association says it's hard-core and leaves out a lot of foods, but I say the proof that you don't need cooked food is obvious!

[RaWonderWoman5]

For sure it proves that you do not need cooked foods. Additionally, raw may 'leave out a lot of foods' but it also introduced me to foods I never dreamed of eating...coconut butter, cacao, green smoothies. Plus, it encourages me to pick up a piece of fruit when I get the munchies rather than a '100 calorie pack of (insert name)' that is full of sugar and the like.

[Cabosun]

Wonder if anyone has seen the article on page 62 of the new Reader's Digest. "Severe diets are making headlines, claiming to reverse diabetes and cut heart disease risk. In the upcoming documentary RAW FOR 30 DAYS, six diabetics eat a vegan, organic diet of uncooked nuts, seeds and veggies. By the end, all have gone off insulin and most have lost about 25 pounds." Andrea Giancoli of the American Dietetic Association says it's hard-core and leaves out a lot of foods, but I say the proof that you don't need cooked food is obvious!


Hard Core? Not for me! I love the way I feel with my new lifestyle. I no longer suffer from depression, fatigue, brain fog, mood swings, PMS, aches and pains upon rising, procastination........oh how the list goes on and on, but I think you get the general idea. As for variety........Oh my goodness! I am eating SO much better than before! I have discovered so many wonderful RAWSOME recipes! And I can actually taste my food now too. If I were asked to describe my new lifestyle....I would have to say that it is as close as one can get to Heaven On Earth:p Now what is so Hard Core about that?

[Frugal Raw]

People who eschew this lifestyle do so out of fear. They fear that their creature comforts will be taken away, and will look for any grappling hold they can to try to make it go away. RAW is here to stay!!!! :D

[Eveleaf]

"Severe diets are making headlines, claiming to reverse diabetes and cut heart disease risk. In the upcoming documentary RAW FOR 30 DAYS, six diabetics eat a vegan, organic diet of uncooked nuts, seeds and veggies. By the end, all have gone off insulin and most have lost about 25 pounds." Andrea Giancoli of the American Dietetic Association says it's hard-core and leaves out a lot of foods...

This from an organisation that encourages people to have a glass or two of pastuerised, sugar-loaded "juice" a day to meet their body's requirement for fruit, and by the way, did you know ketchup counts as a veggie? Don't even get me started on your body's very basic and well-known NEED for several large glasses of hormone-laden cow lactation every day and MEAT, oh my stars MEAT.

I will never understand how modern medicine can see us taking OUT these extremely harmful and toxic "food products" and then wrinkle their noses in concern because instead, we're feasting on vibrant, living foods straight from nature's kitchen, sprouts, dark green salads and green smoothies, sun-kissed juicy fruits and berries, seaweeds, cacao, soaked nuts and seeds...

Wait, what!? Slap that big ol' warning label on the raw foods diet! After all, we gotta give Mom something interesting to read while she carts her toddlers over to McDinners for yet another soda, french fries, and chicken fingers meal.

(maybe the soda will be orange-flavoured? Oh, then it's not so bad, I suppose)

End rant. End, end, end rant.

[subbacultcha]

What a joke. This has helped people get over diabetes and people are still skeptical.

[SedonaSun]

Well, of course it leaves out a lot of foods...

... it leaves out all the foods that lead to diabetes and other illness.

What she really means is "it's too simple and it doesn't require doctors or prescriptions, therefor it cannot work" :rolleyes:

[Eveleaf]

Kelly, I like the way you think. :)

Though, of course, Type 1 Diabetes isn't caused by diet. But I know what you mean. I can see the wheels turning in her head...

"Hmm, if this catches on, I'll be out of a job. Now, how to discredit it?"

[iamacranberry]

What did the rest of the article say? I was listening earlier today to some doctor who is supposedly famous for discrediting alternative and complimentary medicine, but despite his claims that the alternative medicine world can't support its claims, he didn't seem to be ready with even a single statistic to support his own views, and when he tried to give examples, they were all really vague.

[amyambro1]

eve leaf, I want to print out your long reply and hand it out to all the people who give me a hard time about raw foods. What a great way to summarize it all! I LOVE it!!

[EZ rider]

A person has to try raw to understand raw and once they do that no further explanation is necessary. If a person hasn't done the raw food lifestyle then they are operating from a perspective of ignorance. I think the article must have been done in ignorance.

[maui_butterfly]

A person has to try raw to understand raw and once they do that no further explanation is necessary.

Right. A famous yogi is quoted as saying "yoga is 1% theory and 99% practice. so do your practice and all is coming!"

the same could be said for raw foods!

[EZ rider]

1% theory and 99% practice.That fits raw foods perfectly. The practice of eating raw foods and the results of eating the raw food is my motivation for my next bite :)

[RaWonderWoman5]

I just googled the gal from the American Dietetic Association and she's a Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Consultant. Makes you wonder...

[NoGMO!]

there are easily more fruits and vegetables to choose from than meats & dairy.

[iluvcacao]

I just read the article, her whole response is strange...it leaves out a lot of foods...yes, foods that aren't very good for you! The article is short and I'm sure they only pulled one of her comments, or summarized it up, but just saying a diet is only balanced with both cooked and raw food without saying anything else is unconvincing! The proof is in the result of the study...all of the diabetics had gone off insulin!

[iamacranberry]

Even public organizations such as the American Heart Association admit that the vegan diet is suitable for all people in all stages in life, even infants. I wonder what it is about cooking such foods that magically appears when you cook them...besides heat.

[buffalogal]

Is there a "response" section in the reader's digest? Maybe they should be bombarded with lots of letters from raw foodists!!! Hint! Hint! Hint!:)

[iamacranberry]

A good idea, since most of the readers are likely that there exist many people who actually do live this way....such as ourselves. Vegetarianism was seen as equally strange 50 years or so ago.

[KatK]

Reader's Digest seems like it's owned by the medical profession now - it's all about pushing pills/doctors/surgeries. I can't stand to read it anymore.

[tvillemom]

My sister (who I think sums up the rest of the world's view on the raw vegan diet) asked me, "When are you going to start eating REAL food again?" I told her, "I AM eating REAL food, name one thing I'm eating that's NOT real??!!" She didn't know what to say, except, "well, I mean, like burritos, and you know, real food":rolleyes:

I have been someone who has struggled with staying on the 100% raw path, but I have seen that I HAVE TO STICK TO IT, BECAUSE of the way I FEEL and how it effects my health. I can definitely see the difference when I'm eating cooked junk, my mood is terrible, I gain wait constantly, I'm depressed....but when I eat fresh foods, I'm happy...and I start to loose the weight that is "HANGING" (and I do mean hanging;) ) around! For me, I know there is no going back. Even though I don't have diabetes, it might have been something that I could have developed, it runs in my family.

[tvillemom]

OH yeah, and let's talk about the energy I have eating fresh, raw foods! More like a teenager than a 36 year old.....and I was feeling more like a 50 year old....I was feeling terrible!

[iamacranberry]

Good for you for sticking with it, though....it is amazing how social norms and nothing else cause people to question a diet which is obviously healthy. Sure, there are plenty of unhealthy raw foodists out there, but if a person doing any diet seems to be benefitting from it and there's nothing to counter that apparent fact, then why try to change them?

[Eva]

I told my husband about this article and the recent movie where the 6 individuals were diabetic... and even he (a sometimes meat-eater that is NOT a raw foodist) thought it was crazy.

Since when has the "norm" not been normal, and how is it that so many people are soooo blind to that?!

[iamacranberry]

Did he think it was crazy as in he didn't believe it, or did he believe it but just think that the notion was absurd?

[sfdreams]

OH yeah, and let's talk about the energy I have eating fresh, raw foods! More like a teenager than a 36 year old.....and I was feeling more like a 50 year old....I was feeling terrible!

Hey, I resemble that remark!;)
I am 51...but I know what you mean...I said I felt like 80! (Any 80+ yr olds out there offended by MY remark???;) )

[tanishamarshall]

I can't understand why most of the news I hear about raw has some type of negative message, it is really sad. I saw on Yahoo not to long ago, the guy that started Hallelujah acres was talking about the raw diet and the nutritionist was saying the diet was extreme and that it doesn't have enough protein. The reason why she would think that is because she was not trained to advocate un-cooked food, she was trained to coach people on a cooked food diet..

[Eva]

iamacranberry... he thought the notion was absurd. :)

[Pking]

The vast majority of American food industries who promote S.A.D is simply about making a buck. There are tons of scientific studies along with actual testimonies of people actually being heal from diabetes, and other aliments simply by eating a raw diet. But those type studies aren't usually brought to main stream America because if they did, more people would do RAW and therefore those food industries that give Americans diabetes, high blood pressure/cholesterol....errrr...I mean those "tasty" animal products...would definitely loose big time revenue. That why they vehemently try to dissimilate any info that shows the RAW diet can also be a healing diet as well.

[iamacranberry]

iamacranberry... he thought the notion was absurd. :)

That's too bad...Reader's Digest criticized it but couldn't deny that it worked. And people still doubt...I suppose that's to be expected.

[Bananna]

Well I guess all we can do look amazing then. They'll get it sooner or later.