Health & Reasons to go raw

[Guest guest]

Hi rookielynn,

I went raw because my health was failing, and nothing seemed to be helping. On a

raw diet my health is slowly getting better now. Several of the raw food books

were written because the writer was desperate for a health solution, and raw

worked so well they wanted to share it with others. Some of these authors who

focus on the health values of raw food are more pragmatic, and some are more

idealistic, and so I try to get a look at the book before I buy it, of if I

can't do that, find online reviews of the books before I buy them.

 

Probably the total email volume on this list is more heavily weighted towards

the people who have strong ethical beliefs about raw vegan because they are so

passionate about it. Many of the people who went raw for health reasons are

still working to get their lives back on track, don't spend as much time writing

email about raw food, and probably tend to from the list once their

raw diet is working okay.

 

I agree that over the long run being a shining success story of your beliefs and

practices has a valuable affect on those around you.

 

May your day be filled with clarity, grace, progress, and warm laughter,

Roger

 

-

<welltrainedmonkey

<RawSeattle >

Wednesday, November 01, 2006 7:28 AM

[RawSeattle] Reasons to go raw

 

 

> Hi,

>

> Am I the only one that is going raw for health reasons as opposed to

> animal rights issues? I ask because I bought a book then went on and

> on about the moral righteousness of veganism. It started to sound

> like religion.......................which doesn't suit :-) ...

>

> rookielynn

>

>

>

> Visit the Seattle Raw Foods Community: http://rawseattle.org

>

[Guest guest]

>Hi Roger,

 

Thanks so much for your post - most informative. Can you recommend

books focusing on the health benefits of raw vegan?

 

Thank you,

Rookielynn

 

>Hi rookielynn,

>I went raw because my health was failing, and nothing seemed to be

>helping. On a raw diet my health is slowly getting better now.

>Several of the raw food books were written because the writer was

>desperate for a health solution, and raw worked so well they wanted

>to share it with others. Some of these authors who focus on the

>health values of raw food are more pragmatic, and some are more

>idealistic, and so I try to get a look at the book before I buy it,

>of if I can't do that, find online reviews of the books before I buy them.

>

>Probably the total email volume on this list is more heavily

>weighted towards the people who have strong ethical beliefs about

>raw vegan because they are so passionate about it. Many of the

>people who went raw for health reasons are still working to get

>their lives back on track, don't spend as much time writing email

>about raw food, and probably tend to from the list once

>their raw diet is working okay.

>

>I agree that over the long run being a shining success story of your

>beliefs and practices has a valuable affect on those around you.

>

>May your day be filled with clarity, grace, progress, and warm laughter,

>Roger

>

>-

><<welltrainedmonkey%40xemaps.com>welltrainedmonkey

><<RawSeattle%40>RawSeattle >

>Wednesday, November 01, 2006 7:28 AM

>[RawSeattle] Reasons to go raw

>

> > Hi,

> >

> > Am I the only one that is going raw for health reasons as opposed to

> > animal rights issues? I ask because I bought a book then went on and

> > on about the moral righteousness of veganism. It started to sound

> > like religion.......................which doesn't suit :-) ...

> >

> > rookielynn

> >

> >

> >

> > Visit the Seattle Raw Foods Community:

> <http://rawseattle.org>http://rawseattle.org

> >

[Guest guest]

--- welltrainedmonkey wrote:

 

>

> >Hi Roger,

>

> Thanks so much for your post - most informative.

> Can you recommend

> books focusing on the health benefits of raw vegan?

 

I haven't looked at reviews for these, perhaps some

people who have read them have comments. A quick

search on Amazon using " raw food health " pulled up

these and more:

 

Achieving Great Health -- How Spirulina, Chlorella,

Raw Foods and Ionized Water Can Make You Healthier

than You Have Ever Imagined by Bob McCauley (Paperback

- May 25, 2005)

 

Dr. Gillian McKeith's Living Food for Health: 12

Natural Superfoods to Transform Your Health by Gillian

McKeith (Paperback - Jan 15, 2005)

 

In The Beginning, God Said: Eat Raw Food by William

D. Scott (Paperback - Jan 25, 2000)

 

The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-Step Plan for

Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss by Natalia Rose

(Hardcover - May 10, 2005)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

>Thanks for the book recommendations, Susan.......rookielynn

 

 

 

>I haven't looked at reviews for these, perhaps some

>people who have read them have comments. A quick

>search on Amazon using " raw food health " pulled up

>these and more:

>

>Achieving Great Health -- How Spirulina, Chlorella,

>Raw Foods and Ionized Water Can Make You Healthier

>than You Have Ever Imagined by Bob McCauley (Paperback

>- May 25, 2005)

>

>Dr. Gillian McKeith's Living Food for Health: 12

>Natural Superfoods to Transform Your Health by Gillian

>McKeith (Paperback - Jan 15, 2005)

>

>In The Beginning, God Said: Eat Raw Food by William

>D. Scott (Paperback - Jan 25, 2000)

>

>The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-Step Plan for

>Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss by Natalia Rose

>(Hardcover - May 10, 2005)

>

>

>

>

>________

>Sponsored Link

>

>Mortgage rates near historic lows:

>$150,000 loan as low as $579/mo. Intro-*Terms

><https://www2.nextag.com/>https://www2.nextag.com/

>

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi Rookielynn,

I've been thinking about your question and don't have a simple answer. Because

there is a wide range of body types, each with different metabolisms and

chemistries, no single diet works well for everybody. Many authors don't

acknowledge this, and assume that what made them healthy will make everybody

healthy. Other authors avoid this issue by saying raw food makes you healthier

(which is true in a general sense), provide an array of recipes, and then let

you figure out how to decide which food choices suit your body's current needs,

and which will reduce your health.

 

Matching your diet to your body's needs is more important on a raw diet than on

a cooked diet because the characteristics of raw food are more potent than

cooked food. What is a nutrient for one person can be a toxin for another

person, so I tend to think of them as plant chemicals and energies that need to

be matched to your current needs. A lot of these chemicals and energies are

reduced or eliminated by cooking, so when you start eating more raw food, you

are getting more of these chemicals and energies than before, and so it is more

important to be matching these to your current needs.

 

The 2 food books I still use for reference, when I have questions about raw

vegan food and health, are:

" Conscious Eating " by Gabriel Cousins

" Healing with Whole Foods " by Paul Pitchford

 

Both of these books help me to understand the different effects of different

foods, why this is or isn't good, the different needs of different bodies and

states of health, and how to make decisions as I choose food from day to day.

More so than most other authors these authors try to back up their opinions with

research. Both authors provide support for people transitioning to a healthier

diet, and they are pragmatic enough to provide advice for people who aren't at

the ideal diet yet. While Paul Pitchford recommends some raw food, he still

strongly believes in cooked food for certain conditions. Some of what Gabriel

Cousins recommends is very pragmatic and some other things he believes seem very

far fetched to me. Still, these are the most useful books I've found when I have

questions about the nature of food and its affects on health, and each book

contains essential information not in the other book.

 

Its pretty complex (especially " Conscious Eating " ) and this can get

discouraging. Mostly I used these books to learn basics about food and health I

wasn't aware of before, and improve my ability to read my own body's reaction to

foods.

 

Now I mostly do a kind of mediation in the produce department, and then pick

what I will be eating. I work at getting calm, still, and quiet, and listen for

my reactions as I walk past different foods. Sometimes I will even smell the

foods so there is more for my body to react to. Sometimes I have an idea of a

recipe that would be really fun to try, but it turns out that isn't what my body

is really asking for, and I've had to work to learn to sense and accept this.

This also helps clarify the difference between a craving for a missing nutrient,

and a food addiction craving.

 

An example of all this is I love the flavor of peaches. Eventually I realized

that I tended to be really dragging and slightly depressed after a peach binge.

So I looked at my books, found out that peaches are extremely cooling, and

eventually I realized that much of the time I need warming foods, not cooling

foods.

 

I was so disconnected from health, and from listening to my body's messages

about food needs, in a way I used these books as a crutch to help me move along

while I healed enough so I could start intuitively sensing what I needed to eat

and needed to avoid. Though I'm past the hump in this transition, occasionally I

still need the books to help keep me on track.

 

Having a pretty consistent simple diet helps sort all this out. For instance, if

you haven't had cauliflower for a long time, and then try some without making

any other diet changes, then any difference you feel is likely due to the

cauliflower. Most of the time the clues are pretty faint, so it takes time and

repetitions to learn to recognize them. Its like learning to tune a musical

instrument by hearing somebody lightly tapping a tuning fork in the next room.

 

For all kinds of reasons, the best balance of nutrients for our bodies changes

over time, and even day to day, so learning to read your body's messages about

its food needs is essential to having really great health.

 

The book " Guided Imagery for Self-Healing " by Martin L Rossman has been very

helpful for me in establishing a healthy internal dialog about my food needs.

 

Hearing Martin Rossman read his guided meditations was just as important for me

as reading about it in his book. The compassion and kindness he projects helped

me get past the ideas about health to an understanding of the experience of

health in a personal context. This has been very helpful in learning to hear and

correctly interpret messages from my body about my food needs.

 

There is a symbiotic relationship between emotional health and physical health.

There are many aspects to our personalities and I refer to these as " me, myself,

and I " . The better the relationship is between " me, myself, and I " , the easier

it is to recognize the true messages from our bodies about their food needs.

 

With enough dedication, a spiral can be started towards steadily improving

health. The better your health, the better you can recognize your food needs.

The better your health, the better your body can utilize what you do eat. As

your health gets better, the range of foods which will improve your health

broadens, and this broadens the range of nutrients available to your body, which

again improves your health.

 

The hardest thing for me to learn is that the worse your health, the slower you

have to go to avoid overwhelming your body. It is very like a campfire which has

burned down to a few small coals. If you dump some big logs on them, they well

be crushed and suffocated. You have to start small with a few dry twigs, and

gradually build up the fire again. Once you have a roaring fire, you can even

toss wet logs on it, and it works just fine. If your health has been run down,

switching to raw vegan to build up your health requires much the same patience

and dedication. The result is worth it because even ordinary days are so much

more rewarding with better health.

 

I hope all this helps.

 

May your day be filled with clarity, grace, progress, and warm laughter,

Roger

 

-

<welltrainedmonkey

<RawSeattle >

Thursday, November 02, 2006 6:49 AM

Re: [RawSeattle] Health & Reasons to go raw

 

 

>

> >Hi Roger,

>

> Thanks so much for your post - most informative. Can you recommend

> books focusing on the health benefits of raw vegan?

>

> Thank you,

> Rookielynn