Hi
I'm new to all of this and I have been a strict vegan for the past 2 and a half years and I think i'm ready to move on to Raw food diet as a vegan! I have kept on drinking as a vegan after finding out which drinks were vegan is any alcoholic drink raw or is that a no- no?

Seeing that alcohol is processed, I cannot see how it could be raw.

Right. Don't think 'raw'. Think fresh, unprocessed plant foods. There are no raw food police. If YOU think alcohol is a healthy food for you...you should consume it.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

I don't know why, if such things as "raw" chocolate
(and other fermented products), olive oil (and other
pressed oils), so-called "superfoods" (and other
processed/refined products), dried seaweed (and
other dried/dehydrated foodstuffs), blue-green algae
(and other bottled/processed products), and all
other boxed, packaged, processed supposedly "raw"
ingestants (i.e., things other than fruits,
vegetables, and nuts) can be called "raw," then
why not, to be consistent with the above examples,
alcohol?

Steve
[www.meetup.com]
[www.rawgosia.com]

sure thing steve .. i think raw is in the eye of the beholder i think lol i dont find any of your examples above really *raw*

to me raw is as David says .. fresh .. unprocessed .. as for all the other stuff .. well take it or leave it

im sure there is some *as close to raw* alchohol out there ..maybe a wine or something .. im not sure ..i do agree tho .. the above examples really blur the lines of raw and sometimes vegan

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

To me, "RAW" is foods of human biological adaptation:
fruits, vegetables, nuts. That's it.

Everything else (from above) is blurring the lines
to one degree or another. Whether that is uncooked
plants (onions, garlic, spices, etc.) down to heavily-
processed ingestants/stimulants/despreesants; the
kinds of junky pills, potions, elixirs, etc. you'll
find at most any "raw" food event or "raw" guru is
selling (or should I say "rationalizing" in the
name of "health."

So whether or not something is called "raw" does not
necessarily make it healthy or desirable. Alcohol,
for example, doesn't necessarily have to be cooked,
but would you call that (something which will kill
you if you consume enough of it) wholesome?

Steve
[www.meetup.com]
[www.rawgosia.com]

Hmm... well, anything will kill you in excess, including oxygen. We're designed to be creatures of moderation.

If you're looking for the most "raw" alcohol, I would suggest dry wine. Most beers are actually pasteurized these days and then artificially carbonated, as this increases the shelf life. Distilled liquor is obviously quite dead. As wine ferments, sugars are used up, so the wine is naturally far less sweet than the grapes were. Sweet wines have generally contain added sugars, and even the semi-sweet and some of the dry wines will have sugar added to some degree.

I don't know much about hard cider. It might offer natural sweetness since the apples are so sweet and it's not usually fermented as much as wine. It's probably made from pasteurized cider, though, and pasteurized again after fermentation.

None of these options seem that great to me, but there's one (sort-of) up side. If you do feel that you want to drink, you may find it easier to exercise moderation if you find that your capacity for alcohol has decreased on raw. If dinner was a great big salad, that will not slow the absorption of alcohol into your blood like a heavy cooked dinner. Also, as your body becomes cleaner, you'll find that it reacts more strongly to abuse. If you don't want to give up alcohol, then that's your choice, but I would suggest that you be careful and drink slowly.

Steve,

My argument against alcohol would be that, unlike the superfoods and alliums and seaweed that you mention above, booze definitely kills the liver. Which kinda defeats the purpose of detoxifying : )

I drank alcohol during my transition. I enjoyed a red glass of wine now and then. But at some point, I enjoyed wine less and less it it just fell away. If you are enjoying alcohol, then enjoy it now. My guess is your desire for it will fall away naturally.

If you're 100% raw then alcohol will make you, not 100%.
If you like to drink, then bottoms up.
Do what works for you.

My view on alcohol is that it is so far removed from any original ingredient it came from,as far as being alive.And whats left is toxic.Plus,a little too much (there is a FINE line on that issue) and you arent caring whether you are eating celery or pizza anymore.

i'm having the same experience as bryan described.

i used to have a glass of wine almost everyday for a while before i began transitioning to raw. now i'm at the stage where the occasional glass of red wine sounds good,and so i have one. but i am really beginning to dislike the feeling afterwards. i'm not so keen on the mind-numbing aspects anymore, nor do i particularly enjoy the bad breath / excessive thirst in the morning. for me, it's on it's way out of my diet.

Wine is nothing but rotten (fermented) grape juice.

If you want a REAL high, you could drink the REAL thing: fresh grape juice. It will give you a natural high and get you feeling happy and giggly with no adverse effects.

I am not kidding! Try it. . . it's wonderful!

: )

Love,
Julie

There IS no high.
The "high" is what we feel when there is NO misery from SAD.
AMEN.

I'll second that AMEN!

Steve
[www.meetup.com]
[www.rawgosia.com]