Seems awfully quiet on the Over 50 thread!

[cara4art]

Are there really THAT few of us in the raw food lifestyle, or is it all much younger people who are adopting a raw food lifestyle? I know in real life for many years I was the only one I knew pretty much who was even interested in improving one's eating habits, let alone progressing to raw! Aside from one gentleman I run into sometimes around in the city, and my one female friend who is 3000 miles away, I'm the only raw person I know, and I'm 61. I see so few older people who are genuinely interested in real health, aside from going on about their indigestion, cholesterol, etc. but they don't really do anything about those except take very questionable drugs - you know, the pill mentality so they can continue with their lousy eating habits that got them into trouble in the first place. At the same time, I get comments about how energetic and young-looking I look. But if I told these same folks they could do similarly through this lifestyle, they'd say "what discipline you have" or "I could never do that", or "it's too late to change my diet", etc.
On the other hand, it seems that much younger people who are health-conscious are picking up on this in a big way!
I'd love to hear from positive-minded, over-50s here, who either are just starting out, or have benefited. Time to get the dialog started again. One last thing, it seems to be women who are more interested in raw than men too.

[Ilse W.]

I'm 58, but I don't think of myself in terms of chronologic age. Most of the issues that people in general bring up apply to me as well. I don't want to limit myself to a particular age group.

[rawlight]

As for this site, I usually click on 'New Posts' instead of going to individual boards. I get a lot out of reading about everyone's experience, so I don't limit myself to 'age appropriate' threads However, I do think a board like this is important, because for one reason, it speaks to people who have life long habits that may have negatively affected their health rather than someone young whose body hasn't been so adversely affected. If you're over 50 and are just discovering raw foods with a body that has been on various medications for ages, it is so good to get help, support and advice from others who have 'been there.'

In this day and age, with all the medical knowledge we have, most of us just get used to accepting that as we grow older, pill popping will become one of our daily routines. Most of our doctors support that, so it's easy to fall into that belief. It astonishes me to no end to hear of yet another friend, diagnosed with something who just blindly accepts that this is their fate. They don't even try to change their lifestyle habits. They are content with whatever medication the doctor has ordered. And this is in Southern California, where we must have the most abundance of alternative practitioners and outlets for this knowledge in the world!

I don't know why I am different, but when I was diagnosed with high blood pressure last April, my first response to the doctor was that I was not going on medication, let's look at diet and lifestyle habits. I cut out salt, changed many of my other eating habits, including going more raw and started walking 40 minutes to an hour everyday. It worked for me! But I have other friends in their late forties and throughout their 50's, who prefer to pop pills. They don't want to change their eating or exercise habits. Argh...but all I can do is live my life and be an example to them. But hey, until they see that taking pills is NOT the easy way.....

[EternityRider]

..it seems that much younger people who are health-conscious are picking up on this in a big way!
I'd love to hear from positive-minded, over-50s here, who either are just starting out, or have benefited. Time to get the dialog started again. One last thing, it seems to be women who are more interested in raw than men too.

"What's that ya say, honey?"
Could you speak a little louder?

LOL

Hey cara - I'm 55 in 3 days and i feel like I'm still in my 30s in some ways.
I'm a nature boy from way back.

Yes, the raw movement has appealed mainly to younger people (30s and younger) because the raw impulse hadn't caught on in the 60s & 70s. Back then we had the back-to-nature movement, which was post drug revolution/hippie era. Vegetarianism took wing and carried off a goodly segment of our culture. Like hippies-turned-businessmen (some very successful at that, embracing the very establishment they once despised), I'm sure we had quite a few veggies-turned-sad too. And then there was Arnold Ehret from the 20s with his crazy ideas (but was an absolute genius in his own right) and was a kind of forerunner to the raw movement. I don't think you'll find to many Ehretists around today. We had several other health giants too. A lot of them encouraged veganism, while some also encouraged limited animal products (meat & dairy) with a preponderance of fruits & vegetables (i.e. Paul Bragg, Adelle Davis, Harvey Diamond - great student of nat hygiene who popularized it in a succinct, well-marketed style..)

The raw movement progressed from veganism, which progressed from vegetarianism, which progressed from very S.A.D. - gradually derived from convoluted agricultural & earlier paleolithic. And probably not in such neat fashion as I just made it sound.

But, by and large, it is the young people who are being exposed to the "new" excitement - certainly new in terms of modern marketing, which, thank God, has found notable success.

As for your statement - "It seems to be women who are more interested in raw than men" - that is certainly true, especially on this forum. I think Alissa has done a wonderful job and a huge favor to the raw community in promoting raw foods. And naturally, ladies tend to feel drawn to such a successful role model in another lady. Nothing wrong with that. But, it is also my opinion - only my opinion here - that ladies, generally speaking, are more in touch with certain things. While rejecting gender stereotypes here, men tend to think more external, long term, left-brained and the like. Thus the term, "husband" (for those married) which derives from "house-band". "Wife" derives from the word "weave" which pertains more to the emotional, inner, and short term need. As such, women tend to be more in touch with the inner needs of themselves, their children, others. This may be a stretch, but I think this tends to include finer sensibilities like what we're eating and how it's affecting our insides. It may include matters of conscience. I think men generally tend to go more roughshod, in the short term, and pick up the pieces later.

Obviously, women can think most brilliantly, and men can be a whole lot more sensitive and in touch with feelings. It's just that men & women are made differently, each with their own strong attributes which compliment the whole.

That's the long-winded way of saying, ladies may tend to be more in tune with their health a little better than the average macho, meat & potatoes guy.

Well, I'm sure someone could have said it better, and I'm open to fine tuning here.
What ya think?

[EternityRider]

...but all I can do is live my life and be an example to them...

And you keep shinin' that light by way of example. :)

Their heads may deny it, but their hearts will sense the truth. ;)

[oceanluv]

I also go to new posts, when I come here.
I am female, 65 in Jan. vegetarian for more than 30 years. this is my second try at raw. I did great about 2 yrs ago, for about 6 months, but slowly, slowy, back to sad.
now, here I am again, mostly 90% sometimes 100%. yea ! I love reading the posts, and getting new ideas for meals.

[Ilse W.]

I have always known about raw. "Rohkost" has always been a way of eating for health in Germany. I ate a fairly healthy diet most of my life, but still managed to get Hodgkins Lymphoma. Since then I have read a lot about disease and staying disease free. I came to raw through Natural Hygiene. To me it's very simple: our body developed into it's current state (the healthy one) on raw fruits, leaves, nuts, and possibly some seeds. To have a healthy body, eat that. I would have come to the same conclusion had I been 18 or 80.

[Eva]

My mom's raw and over 50--but she missed the computer savvy-ness that some younger folks got by default. Finding her on a forum would be a surprise indeed! And I just met a lovely woman a couple days ago who is raw in Ireland and in her mid 50s. Forums and the internet came into conversation, and I got the impression there was no way she'd bother.

To each their own. I guess I'm just saying it may be the way over 50-s folks were raised in terms of how likely they are to get on a forum... but I know ya'll are out there!!!

:)

[rawlight]

My mom's raw and over 50--but she missed the computer savvy-ness that some younger folks got by default.

This is a good point. There is a belief that people of a certain age are computer phobic or don't have the desire to read something on a screen and would rather read the newspaper or watch tv.

My parents are spit down the middle with my mom (mid 70's) quite the computer nerd. My dad, on the other hand for the longest time would give out my mom's email address if anyone asked him for one, because he doesn't have one. Then if he got an email, my mom would tell him and he'd call the person on the phone!! He has slowly come around and sometimes surfs the net on his own

[Blazin'Jane]

I am 67. I don moderately well on the computer, with relativily simple tasks, anyway, and have been raw since dec. 227, 2006. Where has the time gone? In that 2 years I've lost 37 lbs., gained all sorts of energy and balance and strenth. I've also been able to lose 2 of my 3 bp medications. I did plenty of exercising a a vegetarian, but was generally unsuccessful at losing any weight until I got raw. Then it jus tfell off, and gradually, so did the bp high readings. I wouldn't change now for anything.

[rawlight]

I am 67. I don moderately well on the computer, with relativily simple tasks, anyway, and have been raw since dec. 227, 2006. Where has the time gone? In that 2 years I've lost 37 lbs., gained all sorts of energy and balance and strenth. I've also been able to lose 2 of my 3 bp medications. I did plenty of exercising a a vegetarian, but was generally unsuccessful at losing any weight until I got raw. Then it jus tfell off, and gradually, so did the bp high readings. I wouldn't change now for anything.

This is a great testimony for raw, Jane. And the fact that you've kept the weight *off* is very telling about the way you continue to live your life.

[Lady Green Jeans]

Interesting thread. There are quite a few over 50 in the healthier eating arena--not sure if so many of them are here, though. I know my mother (early 70's) and my father (just hit 80) had little interest in online activities. The over 50 population has seen computers go from models occupying massive amounts of square footage to where we are today. Most have (if they've worked at all with computers--and in my experience) have done very well keeping up with the technology.

As baby boomers (yes, this age group is so named), the sheer number of people are seeking and thankfully finding a much more natural way of life through raw food and health over pill popping standard medicine. My hope is that many many more find the way here. It has been written and said that it is often easier to get someone to change their religion that to change their diet.

Thanks for the great thread.

[RawLibrarian]

Like many others who have posted, I tend to check the Intro thread rather than coming to the age-specific threads.

I'm 52 and grew up in a totally 1950s convenience food household where fresh vegetables were unknown. Thanks to the influence of my oldest brother--the family hippie--I became vegetarian 30+ years ago, and started eating raw almost a year ago. A friend of mine started eating raw to try to help her fibromyalgia, and I started reading up on it and decided to give it a shot just for overall well-being--fortunately I don't have major medical problems or problems with my weight. To be perfectly honest, I also got into it because the food sounded absolutely delicious.

Well, I feel great, and the food is delicious! :)

I'm pretty computer-savvy--in my profession I have to be--but I'm not real interested in stuff like cell phones and video games and TiVo and the like. I use the computer for research, e-mail, and downloading songs. My boss at work is my age and she is by far the most technically proficient person on our staff, which includes newly-minted library science graduates who are younger than 30. In other words, I don't think age is a factor, but interest and aptitude are.

[cara4art]

I guess I should have clarified that usually I hang out on the other threads rather than on this one but was just curious!
About computer use, my husband and I behave more like people decades younger - we're heavy Internet users. But we don't use our cell phones much(I've never been much of a telephone user anyway, life-long) - but I LOVE e-mail to death - LOL! But you know, we have found that it seems that so many of the people in our age group have the "deer in the headlights" stance when it comes to using a computer for anything. But for us, they will have to pry our high-speed Internet access out of our cold little hands - LOL!
In the years even before I went raw, I would have many people who were older than we were think that I was being needlessly strict with my diet as I was slim already. They couldn't believe that my eating habits then weren't a weight-loss diet, just my normal everyday eating habits! They'd say "Oh honey, you don't need to do that or work out - you're skinny already!" Plus, it seems that they are very fatalistic about their chronic conditions, not realizing that many things could at least be improved by drastically healthier eating habits like I mentioned in my original post.
Increasingly, when I am around people of my age, I feel so much "younger". Even my husband comments on this too.
With all that said, in my daily life I don't really think about age very much, because there is entirely too much negative programming already going on in our culture about it. Back slowly away from that TV(personally we haven't had one since 1985) and most womens' magazines - LOL!
EternityRider - you're right on! Love your profile pic too! Go check out my pix too...

[GlimR]

Hello~*s*
I usually read the new posts as well. I'll be 52 this spring and have been here on and off for a couple of years. I run a family child care program and have a SAD eating husband though he is making changes toward a healthier way of eating just not too much raw...it's all progress I think. I've made lots of permanent changes over the years and am trying to lead him by example and see how it goes. It's a challenge for me dealing with all the "regular" food, cooking for everyone etc, and still eating the way I know is best for me...so I am still plugging along and hoping to keep getting closer to my goal of eating 100% raw.
When I was in college in the 70's I had a copy of Victor Kulvinskas, Survival Into the 21st Century. I loved that book! I did a juice fast/cleansing diet with a friend of mine at that time...loved it.....met a meat eater, fell away, had a family, they grew up, remarried,blah, blah, blah....getting back to those hippy ways......yup.........*smiling*