"The raw food diet is completely radical and bizarre!! Cooked food is poison??!! People have been cooking food for centuries, so how can you say it's wrong or harmful??"
Haven't you heard this response, at least once?! Don't you sometimes wonder why everyone doesn't immediately grasp the significance and truth of the raw food message?? What gets in the way? Several factors commonly interfere with reason, logic, and common sense in such instances.
People confuse the norm with the truth. Just because something is popularly accepted doesn't make it right or true. People apparently believed the earth was flat, but it wasn't. Witch hunts used to be more common, based upon the belief that they caused diseases and other problems. State of the art medicine at one time involved leeches and blood-letting, though that seems ludicrous now. Popular delusions are prevalent in every culture. Like cooked food, cancer, heart disease and other diseases are the norm in this time and place, but that doesn't make them desirable or even necessary.
Every aspect of popular culture is based on a degree of false information. Very often these untruths are deliberately introduced and maintained by some group who stands to benefit from them. For example, the AMA and the pharmaceutical industry have vested interests in allopathic medicine. The ADA must protect its interests by insisting that mercury amalgam fillings are safe. The beef and dairy industry would have you believe in the safety of their products and your need for great amounts of them in your daily diet. The processed foods and supermarket industries want you to pursue a cooked food diet. This list could go on for a very long time!! Disinformation from these groups worms its way into your consciousness through advertising, "education" campaigns, and influencing legislative bodies.
People tend to believe what they hear and are told, rather than to think things through for themselves. This process leads us to distrust our own instincts and understanding and to look to "experts" for answers. Soon the experts' dogmas are accepted without question. Unfortunately, the so-called experts come from the vested interest groups!
It's difficult for most people to question their beliefs because if they changed their perceptions, it would be tantamount to admitting that they were wrong or misguided on some issue. No one likes to admit to error. Even though we tend not to come to our own conclusions, we hate it when it becomes obvious that they are incorrect, so we protect our ignorance!
As humans, we like to maintain easy access to our comfort zone, defined by what's familiar to us. Anything outside that range makes us uneasy and distrustful! Cooked food is very familiar. Since birth, food has been a powerful source of emotional nurturance, in addition to its nutritional value. These are the (cooked) food items we refer to as our "comfort foods" and they are almost always nurturingly warm. How could something that feels so good be wrong??!
We have already listed several compelling reasons why mankind may have come to erroneous conclusions about its cooked food diet Now for the most important factor: cooked food is highly addictive!! Have you ever tried to discuss the dangers of smoking with a tobacco addict?? The effect of alcohol on the liver with an alcoholic?? The information does not easily penetrate the addicted brain. This is possibly an unconscious self-preservation tactic. The person knows, on some level, that he is addicted and therefore not likely to change, and evidence of the negative consequences of his behavior only adds insult to injury, so he flips into denial mode. The eyes glaze over, the mind is not in gear, even though he may voice a fair amount of agreement, "I see what you're saying; it makes sense, but, uh, um."
So before you say, "The raw food diet is completely radical and bizarre!!" ask yourself if its possible that your views could be colored by any or all of these factors. If so, now you are in a better position to move beyond dietary dogma and to learn the health-enhancing attributes of a raw and living foods diet!
What other factors contribute to popular delusions regarding food??
http://www.homestead.com/raweugene/rawarticles.html
