The Journey into RAW (an introduction to raw food)
When Neil Armstrong was a little boy he used to have the dreamlike sensation that he was floating. When I was young I used to feel that I could be happy, healthy, radiant, eat whatever I enjoyed, and not have to think about my weight.
Now 20 years later, like Neil Armstrong, I have achieved my goal. I am able to eat by the bushel things I previously had believed were fattening no-no's in large amounts - nuts, avocados, dates, along with lots of fruit and salads with oily dressings. The one stipulation of my diet however, is this - that the food is RAW.
I am part of what is being called the 'raw food revolution'. It seems bizarre to me now that we spend so much time protesting about what goes into the soil, what sprays and chemicals go onto plants, how it has affected the environment etc. So much time and passion has been expended debating these issues that we have overlooked the damage that might be done to our food by cooking - that by frying, steaming & grilling we may be killing all the enzymes which are key factors for all biological functions in the body, and depleting or burning off the delicate nutrient soaked water contained within food.
Of course I'm not comparing myself to Mr Armstrong (to those of you musing on the pretentiousness), I just wanted to make the point that deep down we all have a feeling of how things truly can be, and are, and that we should never let outside influence deflect us from this.
Like so many other women I have spent the last 2 decades battling my weight even though I considered myself to have an ideal wholesome diet. Yet I always felt hungry, as though something were missing, and had digestive, sleep and breathing problems. I felt emotionally low much of the time, often drained and debilitated as if energy was leaking out and wasn't being replaced.
Sure I had lessons to learn from all this on a metaphysical level and have been down a long road of learning to take responsibility for myself, which has included many energy raising techniques, detox processes, paradigm shifts, and affirmations of perfect energy, health and vitality (and a large dose of humour and patience) attempting to reshape myself towards being a balanced spiritual being. And so as I have become lighter in spirit I have taken on a new direction in eating.
Now I am speaking as somebody who never thought that they could get so excited about raw food, thinking it all a bit radical, and not really something that could make so much difference. We've managed all this time haven't we? Must have adapted by now, surely. But it seems to me that so many of us are getting weaker and sicker, physically, mentally and emotionally, and it was a revelation to me that one of the main reasons for this could be that the body was engineered for raw food - not for cooked food. When we eat cooked foods the body raises its production of white blood cells and it doesn't do that with raw food. This immune system reaction to cooked food could be because it sees it as an invader and reacts to it as it would any other unwelcome organism. Therefore if you are eating a constant diet of cooked food the immune system is permanently compromised and in a much weaker state to fight off other invaders. Added to this is the fact that because a lot of natural enzymes are cooked out of the food we eat the body has to produce all its own enzymes to digest such denatured food and gets worn out in doing so.
But what about protein, I hear you ask? How do these fruitarians and raw food people get their protein I used to wonder. Must be freaks of nature, able to exist without, on some higher evolutionary scale. One of the biggest misconceptions of all time must be the belief that we need some protein specific food or combination of foods. Raw fruit, leafy greens and other raw food matter, especially nuts, seeds and sprouted beans are all complete foods in themselves, capable of providing the body with everything it needs.
To me and like many, the thought of going raw seemed dull and abstemious and not one that I had been particularly drawn to in the past. Who needs all that chewing, how limited and indigestible! I'd feel faint if I didn't eat 'proper' food. But I am now experiencing the sense of aliveness, connectedness, creativity and peace, that I had always felt existed somewhere but couldn't quite reach. Extended balanced energy and strength, excess weight melting away without trying, and a profound illumination in all perceptions that connects me to my most innate understandings on life.
The benefits of going raw (or at least substantially increasing your intake of raw foods), are endless, from removing depression and drastically reducing the effects of ageing to releasing addictions and all the environmental benefits.
I no longer doubt it. Living food is more tasty, subtle and interesting than trying to produce ever tastier cooked food all the time (and a lot less time, effort and elbow grease is required). I am not saying you should take my particular word for it, but it is repeated many times over (give or take a few details on the life tour) by those who have found living food. "I never thought I could feel so different" is a common statement.
Awareness of living food seems ready to take off as in 100th monkey syndrome. We have moved through many centuries, and generations of emotional turmoil and dense energy, two thousand years of the Piscean Age. Now as we want to begin to experience a lighter, brighter, more conscious and acceptable way of living, a door has been opened. So if you are "sick and tired of feeling sick and tired," try going raw in the new millennium!
'Feel Good Food - A Guide to Intuitive Eating' by Susie Miller & Karen Knowler
The Women's Press. £8.99
This is a sincere and comforting handbook, for those new or wanting further inspiration, guidance, handy tips and several great recipes. It aims to lead the reader to their own intuitive conclusions introducing more raw food into the diet and seeing how good it feels. As the senses become more pronounced, the intuition can further be used to decide when and what to eat, is the general message. It also includes basic scientific observations such as Ann Wigmore the famous living foods pioneer who confounded the Hippocrates Health Institute in America: "The most thrilling experience I can recall was seeing cancer cells taken from a human body thriving on cooked food, but unable to survive when it was uncooked. Such an experience taught me something that textbooks and teachers can never erase from my mind. For the human body, an uncooked vegetarian diet is the only type of nutrition." There are also the observations of subsequent generations of cats, half of whom when kept on a raw food diet, were good tempered and healthy, while the other half kept on cooked food developed impaired reproductive capabilities and degenerative illnesses and were crabby natured to boot. This observation does make one reflect further on the designs of Nature - after all, when did you last see an animal cook a fry up for tea!
This is the book the two authoresses, the founder and current guardian of the FRESH network, would like to have had when they started out on the raw path. Both of them intuitively discovered for themselves that raw food was preferable and describe some of their own personal experiences such as a painless childbirth. It has all the basic principles you would like to know, what to expect both physically and emotionally, and commendably is very open about the detoxifying process and withdrawal symptoms (similar to other addictions), so you won't be left in the dark if you do experience these. The book really encourages the reader to try on raw for size and see how it fits, and to do as you feel comfortable rather than having it thrust upon you. Interspersed with testimonial quotes from adoptive live fooders, there are helpful pointers on dealing with self esteem, transition, tactfully dealing with family, social situations and the real world.
"Simplifying your life can be one of the most refreshing, freeing things you ever did. Simplifying your diet brings similar rewards. You feel cleaner, fresher, new. You have a sense of possibility, the fog begins to lift, you can see things more clearly and objectively." It's definitely a book that will be on many shelves because of its simple and understanding approach.
http://www.greenevents.fsnet.co.uk/features/art002.html
