Part of my site is devoted to being a raw food blog. I am an advocate of being a raw vegan, especially in the circumstance that you need to lose weight or heal your body.
While being a raw vegan may seem extreme to people eating the normal standard American diet, I actually consider obesity and illness to be an extreme.
You see, our bodies are magnificently resilient. Illness and excess weight set in when the abuse of the body becomes too much for the body to combat. The body is wearing down and the natural mechanisms that keep your body running in perfect order are impaired. So I say if you think being a raw vegan is extreme, then extreme times call for extreme measures.
It was once known that food was a medicine. In fact, Hippocrates, father of modern medicine once stated, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. In today’s modern world of convenience and technology, food is now more commonly known as a poison.
It took years before I understood what being a healthy vegan or healthy raw vegan actually was. I went through periods of being an unhealthy vegan and had no idea what was going on. I dismissed that way of eating as unhealthy and unsatisfying, which it was. Fast forward 10+ years later and I wish I knew then what I know now.
Back then I was into healthy junk food. My vegan diet was high in vegetables but heavy in grains and fats. I also used vegan alternatives to meat and dairy. At look at those ingredients will uncover the fact that while these are all vegan, they are not healthy or good for you. When I became a raw vegan, my diet became heavy in nuts, fats, and gourmet raw. I felt great at first and quickly felt sluggish. Being a gourmet raw vegan actually took more time to prepare than a standard American diet. I also craved sweets and carbs so my diet also consisted of “healthy” desserts.
It wasn’t until I stumbled on the fruitarian diet 2 years after my stint in gourmet raw veganism that it all came together. The fruitarian diet is made up of high carb (fruits and vegetables with seeds) and low fat. I started on this and felt great! I was no longer hungry like I was eating mostly vegetables. Vegetables do not have enough calories to power your body, but fruit does. My cravings disappeared and my taste buds completely changed. I no longer wanted regular food that everyone else ate; I actually wanted the raw vegan diet.
Over the years, I learned that the grains of today are not even close the grains that used to be healthy. Grains have been altered so much that they cause allergic reactions in people that range from unnoticeable to extreme. The majority of people that eat grains feel fine, but truly have no idea what is happening inside their body. Reading the book Wheat Belly is a good introduction into what is actually going on in your body when you consume grains.
While eliminating grains and eating a high fruitarian diet with a smaller amount of fat, I quickly shed excess weight and became healthier than I probably had been since my teens. I had some major health problems that just faded away. My kids also follow a raw vegan diet and they quickly grew several inches and became physically buff. Teenage moodiness also disappeared from our life. They do eat other foods but the majority of their diet throughout the week is as a raw vegan and fruitarian.
I even had two pregnancies where my diet was raw vegan and mostly fruitarian. The end result? Zero problems in my pregnancies, and two amazing, healthy, well adjusted children who love raw fruits and vegetables.
There will be more posts to come in my raw food blog series. In later posts, I will outline what I have learned, the pitfalls of a raw vegan diet and how to avoid them and what my daily diet looks like.