I'm curious. Does your family eat raw too?

When my wife met me, she knew I was totally into rawfoodism. But, I began to accomodate her over the three years we dated before we married and eventually, I joined her in her SAD cuisine. But, as Timothy Leary said, once you've discovered a truth, you can never deny it again. And so, after six months of marriage, I decided I need to be who I am and so I returned to raw.

She gave me a very hard time and after a month of it, I asked her why since I never told her she needs to do it and since it makes me happy, what is it to her? She use to say, "oh you and your bullshit rawfood!" Then one day someone in an antique chinese furniture store asked for my email address and my wife came to me and quietly said, "put down your rawfoods email address, it's a lot cooler"! Bullshit rawfood huh?!!

So are you the only one or is the whole family in there with you?

Not fully raw.
My parents eat about 30/70.
30 being the raw.
I figure thats better than average.
I am about 70/30

My family eats about 7/50/43

7 being raw, 50 being cooked foods, 43 being nonfood laboratory concoctions.

I figure that's about average...

My partner will happily eat raw if I "cook" it for him, however if it is he who is cooking (which is more often the case) then he'll "cook" raw for me but something properly cooked for himself. Even in latter case he'd always have it with a raw salad though, and he eats fruits every day too. It's not bad at all, and maybe some time he will decide to transition to fully raw as well.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

Yep! I'd say 30/70 is better than average and 7/53/47 is about the norm.

My dad has been the one person in my family who has actually taken to raw and is totally supportive., But way back in the day,in 1997, when I first got hooked on raw I'd tell him all about the benefits I was discovering. You know, no fatigue, increased energy, work tirelessly, pump weights for 2-3 hours and still want more, no body odor, even a thing on my nose that I thought might be cancerous disappeared, less sleep, better disposition, etc. He thought I was over the top.

But then he saw Dr. Day and then George Malkmus both with cancer-curing stories and he began to listen. He jumped in. He's had colitis for much of his adult life but on raw, it's of little consequence. He's been nearly 100% raw at times but now is about 70 raw /30 cooked vegan.

He's 91 years old now. On Dec 27th, 2011, he had a car accident that cracked his pelvis and fractured his left fibula. He took a direct hit to the driver's door. They needed the Jaws of Life to extricate him from the car. He spent eight days in the hospital, ran a fever for two weeks.

He had been accustomed to walking 7 to 10 miles a day and said he planned to do it again. By the end of March, he was in his garden with the rototiller plowing things up again! Now, he's over the top too and tells everyone who complains of poor health that they need to go raw. Rock on dad!

Raw4ever,

That was one of the most amazing and inspiring things I've read in a long time--glad your dad is well, and thanks for sharing!

my husband will say every time when I cook something that it looks so delicious and colorful, yet he will not touch anything. when we first met, i found out that he had only eaten pears, bananas, and oranges and was astonished. his parents were separated and so his mother gave his brothers and him cash and they bought fast food for pretty much every meal. thought i would introduce him to strawberries and covered them in chocolate and the next time i dropped by, his work his co-workers were joking how he licked the chocolate off and threw the strawberries away!!. so i guess in a short, sweet answer, my husband eats 100% SAD. he will not touch fruit, veggies or anything that is organic because he is not used to that. unfortunately his diet has become such an issue that if he does not get it under control, he will get discharged from the military service--which would be appalling and shameful for him to admit to his family and friends. i honestly am lost on what else i can do besides encourage him. i know if his weight kept him from staying in the service, he would be at an all time low.

Volcomchick8797, I share your frustration. You can only wonder if there is anything that might make the difference. SAD food is an addiction in my estimation, and no less compelling, if not more so, than any other addictive substance!

My wife wants to lose weight and I think in the last four months, she may have dropped a pound. It frustrates her. She's a vegetarian, at least when she is with me though she eats meat when she is with her family. Last night I told her I would like her to join me and eat raw. It was funny because her eyes looked to the ceiling as though she was looking for an escape. I really feel as though I'm overstepping my boundaries to suggest she do what I do and yet her health is not what it should be. To her credit, she has introduced more raw food into her diet.

I've been listening to an audiobook called Switch by Chip and Dan Heath on how change is effectively implemented. At one point, it says that to change a situation, you need to change the environment. In other words, if I buy potato chips because I know she likes them, how can I expect her not to eat them? Guilty! I've decided I will keep the fridge full of fresh, beautiful fruits and vegetables.

The more I make attractive, yummy raw food, the more my husband will eat it. We have a big salad every night for dinner. He loves it. Throughout the day if I cut up fruit and give it to him he'll eat it, although he almost never selects it on his own. His lunches are maybe half raw. He is an incredibly early riser and cooks his own breakfast with no meat. I prefer to wait until the sun is up to get up. So, he's on his own for brekkie. I think he does pretty well, though, compared to many SADers. No red meat. No junk food.


My favorite raw vegan

I'm going to steal a page from your book and take on the food prep duties, a job she'll gladly surrender.

Hey, I love the look of your favourite vegan. It looks like a good life!

Speaking of attractive, some years ago I was visiting a friend and since I was on the run, I was packing my food with me. Of course it was all raw, a quality my friends sometimes think of as just plain crazy. Anyway, I offered to share what I had but he said he was good, didn't need anything.

When I had finished preparing my meal it was laid out in very attractive fashion, if I say so myself. I noticed he was looking it over quite closely and then he said, "I think I will have some". Ah, the aesthetics of raw!

I'd say I'm 95% raw. (The other 5% would only be an extreme case if I could not get something I M-I-G-H-T eat a baked potato. . . .but only in an extreme rare case.)

My husband is not Raw but will eat it if I prepare it for him. I'll not prepare anything else. He goes out with friends and eats what he wants. . but it shows on him - - insofar as various illnesses and surgeries.

I'm vegan 30 years now; Raw about 7. I met him when I was just beginning almost 30 years ago, otherwise, I'd never hookup with a non-raw or non-vegan person. To me its too big a difference and too much to ask. The shift in consciousness is HUGE.

Songsparrow

To me, eating raw or cooked is to choose life or death. I've often thought that if I ever had it to do again, I wouldn't marry someone who is not committed to a raw diet. You are right; there is a HUGE shift in consciousness.

But my wife is essentially a vegetarian and only gives into the the influences of her family whom she lives to far away from to make a difference. People look at me sideways when they ask if my wife is a vegetarian and I say I would never marry someone who isn't a vegetarian.

You're probably familiar with Annette Larkins. The other day, I was surprised to learn that her husband has never joined her. He looks quite old and overfed and has many health problems. In fact, she looks like she could be his daughter. In the <a class="inlineAdmedialink" href="#">video</a> I was watching, he said he wishes he had joined her way back in the day.

The good news here is that my wife has eaten mostly raw today. Whoo hoo! I know she thinks it's the ultimate diet regime because when I went off raw and got run down and fatigued, she told me I need to get back to raw. Nothing would make me happier than that we do this thing together.

I don't know guys, maybe "eating raw or cooked is to choose life or death" is a little too strong or at least not all the time. I think personally I don't believe there is a HUGE shift of consciousness when one cones to the raw diet. Imo, in most cases it's just a healthier diet, that's all!

I'm also quite intolerant of compromises when it comes to raw or cooked, so that if there is a raw version of the product and it is more nutritious/healthy than the cooked one (which it very often would be), then I would never choose the cooked version. For me it's like taking a vitamin capsule and intentionally spilling some of the vitamins out before eating it, hey why would anyone want to do that?

But from the health point of view there are undoubtedly differences in the cooked foods. Many of the cooked foods are plain dangerous to health, such as baked and fried foods, highly processed foods, foods with dangerous additives etc. Other cooked foods, however, are akin to the half-emptied vitamin capsule - they are not dangerous to health and they still contain goodies, just less so.

In our family it was easy for both of us to stop eating the dangerous cooked foods, way before I even learned about raw foodism. My partner loves cooking and when I met him he would bake things left right and center, and was eating red meat, but it was easy for him to stop doing these things once he realised such foods actually harm his body. Now if he cooks he only steams or boils, there are simply no frying pans in our house By the time we met he had already stopped eating processed foods and foods with additives, and he followed me in eliminating actual salt and sugar from the diet completely. Plus the fact that raw salads and fruits has always been the norm in our family, not because of the raw etc but simply because they are tasty.

And so even though he now still eats cooked foods (steamed or boiled), the above makes me happy enough to tolerate and understand it. Yeh he is throwing some of the goodies out, but at least he is not harming his health! And maybe there is truth to this when he says that the comfort feeling he gets from eating a bowl of warm soup makes up for the vitamins lost to the cooking. Who knows! It is true that one's mental state is just as important for health as one's diet - it might be that it is healthier to eat cooked foods but have a calm and happy disposition, than be a 100% raw and constantly obsess about it, having a crisis whenever there is a suspicion the cashew one has just eaten may not have been raw.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2012 06:58AM by chat.

You are likely quite right, chat; "life or death" may be too strong. Perhaps health or disease might be closer to reality though there is a certain correlation between "life and death" and "health and disease". I agree that mental state is a large component in one's healthiness. We have all met people who don't necessarily eat according to best standards but live happy and healthy lives.

Ever since my teens,I have been intrigued with a wholistic lifestyle and how a natural diet benefits health and then I met a woman who spent ALL of her time obsessing over her "health food". She certainly ate good things but she was almost anxious about it and all day long, everyday, this is all she did. I saw that I had the potential to become just like this. I decided it would be better to just enjoy my food, whatever it is, and move on for the day.

Only one myself. But, it's all good--sometimes it means I'm not 100%, but my sanity is worth way more than the "label" of 100% raw. Lots of stress saved!

[fresherthanlife.com]

I am 100% raw, as are my 3 kids. One 6 year old daughter, 2 3 year old twins. Then I have a new born who is on breast milk by my love who is also 100% raw with me.
I have to agree that to choose cooked is a form of death acceptance. Its not super clear cut, but research shows that if we eat less than 51% raw our body will attack itself and start a self composting in the blood, which ages us WAY prematurely.
I look at cooked food as poison, as it makes billions of people miserable everyday, as they have no idea that they are stuck in a subtle, horrible addiction cycle masked in the disguise of "normalness". FIGHT THE NORM!!!! LETS RECREATE NORMAL !!!!

Wow! I am impressed RAWLION! You're are laying the groundwork in your children for healthy lives. I have made an interesting observation that often, children under the age of six PREFER raw food. I remember one five-year old boy who attached to me because I had all this raw food to eat. He once said to me with all the excitement that only a child can muster, "I love this stuff!" Considering that he was fairly new to the world and still untainted by all of the garbage, I felt I was definitely on the right track in eating raw.

fresherthanlife, I give you credit for being able to eat some cooked food and remain focused on raw. The reason I am 100% raw is because I can't seem to do that. Years ago, I began to add a little cooked food to my raw and I mentioned it on this discussion board. Someone responded and told me I was on a slippery slope. Once I completely slid off the path, those words reverberated in my ears.

Raw4ever



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2012 10:06PM by Raw4ever.

I'm new to raw - about 2 months in and only about 80-90% on most days. My husband has always been keen on eating a healthier diet and we've been looking for ways to incorporate more veggies for a couple of years, but he'd never even considered going vegan. The 1st couple of weeks I ate raw he thought it was wierd quackery, but he'd eat the food I prepared for myself - especially if it looked pretty. He kept asking questions & I kept trying to answer his questions the best I could. After 3 or 4 weeks he jumped on board too! Yippee! He's feeling great & loosing weight & loving the whole lifestyle right along with me.

My 3 kids, however, are missing SAD chicken nuggets. I haven't imposed full on raw or even totally vegan on their diets yet - I felt that would be too much of a rapid change. But I have cut out all the processed crap out of their diet. They are about 40-50% raw right now.

Raw4ever - I think you are on the right track encouraging your wife by doing the food prep! You've probably seen this documentary years ago, but my husband was shocked when he recently watched "Forks Over Knives." It really helped convince him to switch to whole foods. I wish you the best of luck!

You know raw_curious, it's rubbing off on my wife! I make the food and put it in the fridge. I asked her the other day how much raw she's eating. She says about 50%.

Rawk on!

Tonight, she cut a young zucchini in half and ate it with some salt while I ran some brocolli and cabbage and cauliflower and carrots through my food processor for quick and easy access. (Then I juiced some parsley and went crazy!) There's a real raw air 'round here.

I'm sure I'm a little too much at times because I get sooooooo excited when I talk about this stuff. It's like discovering the fountain of youth! How can you keep it to yourself?

It sounds like your husband is catching the wave! That's exciting.