By Dana Louise Stewart
Well we made a film about it but are we totally completely adamant ourselves about the 100% Raw Food Diet. I myself am not. There are periods in my life when as my lifestyle suits it is possible for me to be raw and those times are completely blissful. The way it makes me feel is like no other. I eat a balanced IMO diet during these times, with a lot of fruit but also a variety of nuts, vegetables and green leaves. I like to juice my lawn and my two young daughters love our green grass and fresh apple juices. There is certainly sense however in the absolute advocation of eating only whole foods, ones that are not processed. Sure there is the temptation to eat bread and other processed foods at times and I am level headed enough to share food when offered by others (although i will not eat animals) as I think it a lovely thing to do. Share a meal prepared by another. How cool is that.
But there is no mistaking the ability of the raw food diet to make one feel good again. I have seen it time and time again help so many people in so many different aspects of their lives.
One thing that makes me sad is when the raw food diet is seen as something fanatical. One could look at the fact that we are even prescribing under 5’s anit depressents and think that is ok, then we really need to look at our thoughts and what on earth is going on. There is a great article that can be found at the beyond veg website that describes for me perfectly some truths about idealism and being fanatical with raw food. There are many aspects to health and emotional happiness is one of them. You cant just eat raw food and be a grumpy git and think it is healthy for you! Stress plays a huge part on our ability to be healthy.
Finishing off today though something has been plaguing my mind and that is young women aged from around 9 to 18. It is such an important time in ones life (I know I have been there) and I can only now in hindsight say with truth that if I had been more nourished with whole foods such as fruit, vegetables and nuts then I would have felt so much better about myself. In search for so long of an answer to acne, dandruff and painful periods was simply an apple away. I personally do not think we can eat enough fruit. I eat now days when in season up to 7 apples a day. When I see such young girls and boys with acne, I also see that they probably are not putting two and two together and looking at the cause of this being fried, dead foods.
I actively encourage people to find out the simple truth about eating raw vegan foods and fasting for themselves. Try it for a month and see what all the fuss is about.