I was just wondering how much the promise of longevity motivates people to do raw food. Since I don't think that there is anyone over 70 on this board, and I don't know of any really old folks on any other board (maybe they are just not into computers or something) the only longlived raw fooders that I can point to are the ones who have written books.

So the question is:

If raw food didn't change your lifespan at all, would you still be doing it?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2009 07:44PM by Lillianswan.

I'm just trying to weigh which is more important to people, the promise of an extended life or the relief of symtpoms in the present. My theory is that, while people may point to long-lived raw fooders to convince sceptics, it's actually more important to feel better now that to live long.

I got thinking that maybe I should ask the question a different way. If raw foods SHORTENED your lifespan by, let's say, 1 year. Would you still be eating raw foods to get health benefits that you enjoy at the present?

Thanks!

Lillianswan, longevity isn't what motivates me. What motivates me is aging at a rate no faster than necessary. I don't really care if I die tomorrow, I just want to be in the best possible shape for as long as possible.

my motivation is feeling good today

i could get hit by a bus tommorrow

if i live to 120 i hope i am lucid enough to enjoy it

if it slows down the aging process then great !

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

One of the reasons that I eat raw food is to be healthy. That means not getting all the illnesses that most people accept as part of old age. I would like to just get old happily and healthily. I don't mind aging but I would like to do it as healthily as possible.

So many people accept getting fat, arthritis, blood pressure etc. etc as a natural part of aging - I don't.

There are many other reasons why I eat raw but they aren't in the OP question

Eating raw does not mean increasing lifespan. It means being fit to enjoy life. I love climbing the mountains, go nature hiking, having a long walk at the beach...you know, enjoying life. I don't think I can do all these if I'm sick, weak or lethargy.

.

The point isn't really how long, but in what kind of shape you'll be when you are 70, 80, 90, etc. If you eat cooked food, you'll just start to rust from the inside out from the lack of antioxidants.

I think being healthy is a precursor to longevity.

Thanks everyone. That's what I thought, people are more into the current problems than, thinking about years from now. I wonder what happens to the old raw foodists. My theory is that once the people that they grew up with start to pass over and they feel left alone, they just stop caring about diet. Or let's put it this way, Alissa Cohen has an "over 50" forum on her site but no "over 70" forum for the generation over 70.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2009 04:48AM by Lillianswan.

Here's my take on it: raw food diet alone is not going to create longevity. It only lays one of the foundation pieces for long life. I think true longevity can only be achieved by evolving into a being who is capable of assimilating cosmic energy, and that's a process well documented and proven by some yogis and Taoists, involving body, mind and spirit.

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

A good "snapshot" of the raw food community 30+ years ago is Eydie Mae Hunsberger's "How I Conquered Cancer Naturally". She describes going to Ann Wigmores 2 week course and my impression is that about 10-20 other people took the course as well. My impression is that the average age of those people would be about 40, Eydie Mae herself had two grown children at the time and seemed about 40-50. So that would mean that the raw foods community was rather large back then and if those people continued with raw foods, even if only one person in each two week course continued with raw foods, there would be a rather large population of elderly raw fooders now, since someone who was about 40 then would be about 70 now.

Instead, there is just a handfull (who post on message boards anyway) and they all seem to be recent converts to raw food.

I did get this inspiring story that I totally love off of Alissa's board from a post called "Anyone over 70?"
[www.rawfoodtalk.com]

I have something to share here. I just learned about eating Raw 3 1/2 months ago, so I never really paid attention to my mother in laws eating habits. We go for a visit once a year and I did notice though that her looks were changing.......lost all of her excess weight and her skin looked so smooth, standing so erect for 82, moving around like a much much much younger person. But I also noticed that her German (she is from Germany) aggressivness was gone........mellowed right out. She would make comments about how her Dr. said she was in perfect health and she was off from all of her "legal" drug's. She would sit and talk about her new eating habit's.........only fresh fruit in the morning.........a huge salad and broiled wild salmon in the afternoon and then in the evening just a big blender of raw greens, seaweed, broccoli, etc. Well 3 1/2 months ago when I learned about the raw lifestyle, it dawned on me that my dear mother inlaw is a raw foodist as well. There is no keeping her down! She even goes out dancing up a storm three nights a week at the senior dances! She still runs her antique business but has scaled it down a tad so that she can socialize more with her new boyfriend and lady friends. Dear father in law passed away 11 years ago from pancreatic cancer. They were eating the SAD diet and that led to his cancer It was her new boyfriend who is almost 86 that started her on her new lifestyle. he has been doing it for 40 year's and look's about 65 I would say.

QUALITY of life.
Not quantity.

V.

Quote

So the question is:

If raw food didn't change your lifespan at all, would you still be doing it?

There's no evidence it (100% raw) does change your lifespan.

Eating raw vegetables & some fruit can't be bad for you though. Well, unless you eat the whole apple of course...

Lillianswan - that is a lovely story - thank you for sharing it with us. It made me smile.

Hi Lillianswan

Sure, the increased chance of a longer life (and, most importantly, a healthier old age) is one of the many plusses of raw. But, yes, even if it didn't alter my life-span, I'd still be doing it because of the increased health every day that I'm alive.

You might be interested in an article I wrote on how long raw foodists live:

[debbietookrawforlife.blogspot.com] (see archive on the right - October articles)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2009 08:35AM by debbietook.

That was a very cool article Debbie, thanks for posting a link to it! So raw food might increase ones lifespan by about a decade! That's something to look forward to, even though, to answer my own question, I would still be into raw food even if it hypothetically shortened my lifespan by a year.

I learned a lot about the raw food leaders of previous generations too, that I didn't know before! But I really wonder how the size of the raw food community today compares the size years ago. That would be so hard to find out, probably the best way would be to look a the number of health books sold compared to today.

I was always under the impression that the early part of the 1900's were a time of health crusades. For example, here is a pic of Macfadden and Bragg with a thousand of their health students on a hike, so the interest in health (it might not have been 100% raw food but more like high raw) was sizable decades ago.
[books.google.com]

I think there are more people willing to look at changing their diet & lifestyle to include eating more fresh raw fruits and veggies from the garden as they realize that the SAD way leads to a futile effort of failing health and shorter life. I think a lot more people are looking at the wisdom of using natural raw foods as a road to better health & wellness as they come to understand that taking drugs to "cure" the body is nothing more then continuing to dig a deep hole deeper.
Hippocrates said it well when he said "let food be your medicine and your medicine be your food".