What made YOU go raw?

[dreamrawalwz]

I'm just curious as to why people are going raw. What led you to this? How did you find out about raw? What health problems, if any, are you wanting to heal through raw?

[Angelic]

My main reasons for going raw is to stay young, and to lose a few pounds..these were my motivating factors in going raw..although I have gotten way more out of it than I had hoped for so far! hope this helps! :)

[juliebove]

I read a magazine article about Carol Alt and the raw food diet she was on. That's when I realized that most of what I was already eating was raw. I was simply eating what I liked of what I could eat. Diabetes and food allergies rather limited what I could eat. Now, I didn't follow her diet. Hers is not vegan.

[Im2Fruity]

I've been a vegetarian my whole life, and I decided to go all the way and become a vegan so I did a lot of research to find recipes, info about vitamins, etc...and I stumble upon Shazzie's website and read her journals...I've been fascinated by Raw ever since :) I attempted it last summer but bombed royally because I wasn't eating enough, eating the "oops-it's-not-raw" things, and having no support....this summer I lived on my own for a bit so it was easy, and now I have support from my dear mom (and all of you fabulous people!!) :)

[DavidZaneMason]

1) A desire to show love to myself.
2) I did research that showed that cooking food created a lot more problems and poisons than otherwise!
3) High blood pressure, obesity & various addictions.

-David Mason

[luvmyfruit]

My sister n law was fighting breast cancer and a dear friend of mine who is 100% raw and cured of cancer 5 years ago, which she attributes to her raw diet...Well I'm getting off track My dear friend came to help us in hopes that we might could save my SIL, sadly we couldn't, but I have no doubt in my mind if we had gotten to her sooner she would still be with us

[Coriander74]

I was turned on to this forum by Shmoopie. (Where are ya girl)
I was immediately intrigued by the possibility that going all raw could end my chronic pain and help my depression.

Plus, the articles on cooked food grossed me out!

* to heal my pain
* to relieve some of my mental issues
* to be healthier overall

[Tirza]

To cure/prevent recurrence of cancer (I already had a bout with it)
To cure/prevent pain in joints
To get healthier generally

[lissomllama]

Hmm, there is already a thread on this somewhere here. Anyway, I went raw to conquer my eating disorders, to be able to get in touch with my earth worshiping ancestors, to bring more beauty and love into my body, to be able to eat however I want within this lifestyle, to help our mother earth and conserve resources, to blossom both bodily, spiritually and mentally, to be clean and pure, to have control and meaning, to take preventative health measures so that I will never have to experience scary health issues and degenerative diseases, to stay forever young and flexible, To stay lean, curvy and strong all at the same time. To eat how my anatomy was built to eat, to stick it to the big, bad corporations that are tearing the world down with its advertising and horrible, poisoned food and to balance my chakras and be a healing machine!

[Helen Of Tennessee]

My health led me to raw. I have thyroid disease and I wanted to find out why and that is when I read the book by Rev. Maulkmus "Why Christians Get Sick". It was in that book that I first read anything about eating raw and how it related to our health.

[Veganforlife]

Hmm, there is already a thread on this somewhere here. Anyway, I went raw to conquer my eating disorders, to be able to get in touch with my earth worshiping ancestors, to bring more beauty and love into my body, to be able to eat however I want within this lifestyle, to help our mother earth and conserve resources, to blossom both bodily, spiritually and mentally, to be clean and pure, to have control and meaning, to take preventative health measures so that I will never have to experience scary health issues and degenerative diseases, to stay forever young and flexible, To stay lean, curvy and strong all at the same time. To eat how my anatomy was built to eat, to stick it to the big, bad corporations that are tearing the world down with its advertising and horrible, poisoned food and to balance my chakras and be a healing machine!

Right on! I agree with all you've said here. First for me - for my health and second to stick it to the big corporations! Even smelling cooked food now almost sickens me...not sure if I can change the world, but just this small part of it will be...and maybe others will follow.
Well said lissomllama!!! Very profound!
also wanted to add that I've been a Vegetarian for 28 years, then the last two became Vegan and this was just by a fluke that I found out about this. My health store gal told me about Alissa. I kind of blew her off, thinking I could NEVER go raw; bookmarked her website, but never gave it much thought. Then my son, son's girlfriend and my Mom, a couple weeks ago, were having a Vegan dinner I prepared and my son told me about an article in the Baltimore City Paper about Vegans going raw. I went online, started to read and my curiosity krept in. I truly believe this is HOW to properly eat. It all makes sense. Oh, and besides the face that Alissa is one of my Angels sent to me...

[lifelover]

my mother ate raw, my dad ate mostly raw and so that what I eat too.

[RawFoodieMom]

1) A desire to show love to myself.

I love that! :)

[RawFoodieMom]

1. Fed up with having no energy and brain "fog"
2. A desire to change my attitude towards myself that I'm not worth anything
3. Years and years of research on processed food and what goes into it (mostly garbage as we all know!)
4. Years and years of yo-yo dieting and still being very overweight and hating the way I look and feel
5. Wanting to be healthy, vibrant, and live long!

[RawFoodieMom]

my mother ate raw, my dad ate mostly raw and so that what I eat too.

That's so awesome! What amazing parents you must have. :)