Hi! I currently live in Scotland, i have been trying out the Raw lifestyle and have seen massive improvements to my health! I find it very hard to live a normal life here because of the lack of knowledge and availability on this subject in the UK.I was wondering is there any where that the Raw way of life is not frowned apon? I have heard California is really well equip for this way of living.

I am in my late twentys and know that the only way for me to live a healthy life is to go the Raw route. I am even thinking about moving.

Any advice would be great!

thanks!

Hi Dave!

I live in New York City and pretty much everything is excepted here! There are many raw restaurants and health food stores that cater to raw foodies.

There are also support groups that meet in Manhattan.
I live in Brooklyn but travel alot to Manhattan.

You will love it!

Love you,
Jamie

If you want to stay in the UK, Brighton seems to be the place to be for raw fooders. There is a raw shop/cafe [www.rawmagic.co.uk] (although it is currently closed as it is moving to new premesis) and lots of raw fooders around. The larger citys tend to have a concentration of raw fooders, I currently live in London and we have a raw food meet up about once a month and there is a resturant which has a raw menu [www.vitaorganic.co.uk]

Totnes in Devon also has a monthly raw meetup and there are 4 shops selling organic fruit and veg (which is a lot as it's only a small town).

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

Hey Dave,
Maybe you've seen my thread about moving to Spain? Well if not I'll fill ya in: I'm moving to the south of Spain soon, and I'd like to find someone, preferably a raw-foodist, to share accommodation with. Now, you're not going to find any raw restautants in Malaga (as far as I know) but if you live with a fellow raw fooder and can get a wide range of locally grown fresh fruit and veg, then that's a great start. Juice bars are not around every corner, but practically every bar/restaurant serves fresh orange juice.
I don't think the raw way would be "frowned upon", and frankly if anyone frowns upon me for the way I eat, F**k 'em! There are quite a lot of raw foodists in the south of Spain, in fact I heard a specific word in Spanish for a raw foodist - "crudivore", crudo meaning raw.

I think living with someone who doesn't have junk food lying round to tempt you with is more important than what the general public in the area think.

But more than the food - I find a lack of sunshine, and abundance of dark, cold and wet weather to be more of a problem. I am in Ireland, so our climates are pretty similar. South of Spain has the sunniest climate in Europe - 320 days of sunshine per year. Better weather also means you are likely to spend more time outside in the fresh air, and get more exercise.

Also in Spain, you are only a short and cheap flight away from home, so it's easy to get there if you need to.


So if you're interested in moving to the south of Spain, let me know and maybe we can find a place to share? I'm still not sure when I'm going. I'm torn between going asap, like a week, and waiting a couple of months 'til my driving test comes up and I can get a full license. If it's any bonus, I have a few raw books and a rebounder which you could read/use!

Whatever you decide, good luck with your raw lifestyle :-)

SystemOfADown

I think it is always difficult outside of a big city. I live about 2 hours outside of NYC..although there are plenty of health food stores locally there are no juice bars and no raw restaurnts and I don't have any raw friends. I have thought about doing what you are doing and moving to a place where there are more like-minded people. I may move to NYC, but ultimately I think the warmer climates attract more of the raw foods lifestyle. Santa Monica is very big on raw foods..I believe that is where the movement started. I am considering Miami as well, I hear they have a few raw places as well and plenty of juice bars...but I really like the idea of having plenty of fresh tropical fruits available to me. Ashevile, NC by the Smoky Mountains is also suppossed to be a good place for raw foodists.

Yeah, there is a good raw scene in southern Spain, in both Malaga province and in Orgiva in Granada province. No raw resturants (there are two veggie resturants in Malaga) but the availability of delicious fresh local fruit really makes up for that!

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

Canada is actually accepting to raw foodists as well. The toronto area has a couple of restaurants and a few places to shop. There's also a pretty decent size network of people there. Vancouver has a scene as well. I've talked with raw foodists in Calgary. There are groups in ever city there from what I've seen. I don't live there anymore but if you live in Scotland then it's easier to immigrate to Canada than the USA unless you are a US citizen.

But really you can make anything you want happen. Life's rather beautiful that way.

Canada is an awful place to be a raw foodist especially if you're bothered by cold and lack of sun or want fresh food

California! Lots of raw restaurants, fresh produce, sunshine, and living food aficionados.

awwwww ya that would really make it alot nicer

MIAMI

that sounds good too

California sure has an abundance of opportunities for the raw lifestyle. It's much easier to connect with others in the San Francisco Bay area and the Los Angeles area with all of it's raw restaurants. Cafe Gratitude in S.F. is my current favorite restaurant and I seem to do pretty well with their gourmet raw food occasionally, even though Natural Hygiene raw is where I'm playing in my regular diet.

I'm going to be checking out Costa Rica next month with several other raw and vegan friends. My roommate has been there before. It's the most politically stable country in Latin America, has preserved huge amounts of it's ecosystems in national parks and is very eco tourist friendly. There is a healthy organic agriculture movement there and of course, it's in the tropics, so there's all that tropical fruit we were designed by Nature to eat.

I was at Living Light's Raw Food Expo last fall and heard about Costa Rica from several people who either live there part of the year or hold events there. Doug Graham has been holding fasting retreats there for years. Cherie Soria and her Living Light organization is having another Raw World Festival next month. I won't be doing either one of those, I wanted to get more of an overall sense of the country on my first trip.
Uti

Check out www.rawcommunities.com for more information on various communities throughout the world that may strike you as a great vacation as well as enlightening experience.

Blissed be, Annie

Anne Kaspar
BodyByBliss.com
bodybybliss@gmail.com
505.690.0169

Yes, I spent 2 weeks in Costa Rica and the fruit was amazing, for sure. It was warm and sunny and beautiful.

I am curious about Belize. Has anyone spent any time there?

Thanks. . .

Love,
Julie

I'm always hearing Cali and NY in second.

I'm about 3hrs away from NYC. I wish I could just pick up and move there. Someday hopefully. What bothers me the most about here is the lack of good organic variety and anything I do find at WholeFoods is expensive. NY is expensive to live in I guess unless you want to live in the ghetto. So it wouldn't even solve my problem.

Dave6,

I got this list of raw communities from another forum.

singinraw... have you checked out the website, rawbc? Also I think Canada is a good place because it's accepting of such things and there are quite a few communities. I lived in Vancouver, had a couple mini greenhouse things which were really cheap and grew food all year. the only problem I had with the place was the amount of cloud cover. that was a big problem for me so I understand what you are getting at. But TRUST ME raw in Vancouver was a LOT better than raw in central Pennsylvania where you really can't get fresh food at all. There are days where I dream of being able to go to Capers or Choices to get longer lasting and actually fresher fruits. Canada has more forgiving fruit importation policies, by this I mean Canada gets fruits from more countries than the US with stricter policies. Also, here in central pennsylvania none of the farmers believe that growing organic peaches, plums, pears and apples is possible. the okanogan is a blessing of fresh fruitness. the farmers markets last a long time there too.

I'm just putting things in perspective is all. I'm grateful for the wonderful watermelon I get here ever summer and I'm glad to be a raw guy. My point is that the places I've been in Canada were pretty good. Now with that said, California would probably be easier!

Just to qualify what I meant about fruit importation policies in Canada... Canada gets fruit and vegetables from more countries than the US does. From what I understood, and this could be wrong, Canada is stricter about what countries use on their crops than the US.

SoUTHERN canada's cool...but anywere above the cities are no good.I was 100% in the Yukon and Noorthern BC...minus 55 outsite munchin mangoes (2"50$ each".)....haha.

I'd say anywere tropical or even subtropical is closer to ideal.


I'da done anything to go somewere south....anywere were there's more then 2.5 months of summer.Ohh riight!~!


See you at the top!!

Sounds good! Have to save up money first before i go anywhere. I really want to go somewhere which has a Raw community.

Thanks anyhow!

If you live in Canada, I would have to say that I LOVE Vancouver Island. We have the same nice climate as the city of Vancouver, but without all the pollution (and traffic!), yet the city is just a ferry ride away.

Lots of wonderful organic fruits and vegetables available, not only at the health food stores, but even in the big grocery chains these days. After having lived in several other cities in central and western Canada, I have to say, I really enjoy the people here too. Fewer smokers, lots of people outdoors, doing things. The only complaint is that we do get a lot of rain and gray skies in the winter (sometimes even SNOW!, LOL)

Dave6 - my husband's cousin visits us sometimes from Glasgow. He loves it here, even enjoys our rainy days. Says it makes him feel like home, haha!!

Sapphire

Hi morrison,
I've been looking into what its like in BC for nearly a decade now actually. I thought of moving there even before I was raw cause of the milder winters on the coast. The more I've researched the more dissappointed I've become though. I really like hot hot summers since I was a kid I've longed for hotter summers than we get here in southwestern ontario and BC's are cooler I've also since I was little longed for warmer longer sunnier winter days. The sun is so weak in the winter up here and its really depressing to me I get very depressed near suicidal every winter even mild ones though not quite as bad. I'm at 43 latitude BC is 49 at the bottom 48 on vancouver island its alot darker than hear with even less sun for winter

I know they have alot better produce there than we do here in ontario still its all imported in winter and I find most imported fruits give me acid problems probably cause they picked before they're really ripe. I've always felt really sick and unhealthy in the winter the cold really bothers me alot it backs up my digestion my skin cracks and everything and yes I've tried all kinds of things too like different lighting and all that and keeping my skin covered well and putting oil on it alot of those things made me feel worse though. I mean were we really meant to live in an artificial environment for half of our lifetimes?

We depend on man made things to live up here you cannot live a raw food life up here without imported food I mean I've been depressed about canada I just long to be able to go out in the sun its so depressing being deprived of it so much

I just have to put my hand up for Australia here!!!
In my part of the world, the big areas for raw food are in Byron Bay (funky, alternative, peace loving, therapeutic and anything goes) whilst having some of the most amazing volcanic soil suitable to grow almost anything in...and the Gold Coast - where among the tourists, beaches, tacky shop fronts and towering buildings, you have a very healthy growth of farmers markets, organics and raw food groups springing up everywhere.
In fact, near Byron Bay is a tourist destination called Tropical Fruit World...might start another thread on this topic, it is so exciting...anyway, they have the world's largest variety of fruit growing at this plantation..it is completely mindblowing. We visited the other day (for about the third time) and I KNOW that you guys would collapse with the excitement of tasting the different fruits available!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hear Australia's got the worlds best beaches too, And its got cleaner air and stuff less population so less fossil fuels and all that stuff down that way

That is right, singinraw.
I imagine that there musn't be too many Aussies lurking here, or else they would have jumped right in with this question!!
Australia (in particular Queensland) has the most fabulous beaches. Some completely uninhabited...you could stip off and walk for days and see NO one!!!
At the top of Queensland is very tropical - and yes, the air is clean (except when you go into the cities) - and it is an extremely pleasant place to live.

We are very fortunate, we live in a rural area, that is only 30 minutes to the city, and an hour from some of the best beaches in the world.....

Brisbane - capital city of Queensland is called Australia's most liveable city, because people are friendlier than other cities (although that is starting to change), and there is sun 360 days a year, great beaches and heaps of fresh produce!!!

You really can't beat some Australian areas for liveability.

Wow that really does sound amazing!!! I do have to say I'm kinda nervous of the snakes and crocodiles though!!! Are they in all spots or are there areas without them?

God love Steve Irwin....he is a champ, God rest his beautiful soul...
No crocs are not everywhere..they are concentrated in the northern areas of Queensland and on Steve Irwin's Croc Zoo. People get taken by them when they are completely stupid..ie:
swimming, canoeing splashing in water (right next to huge enormous signs that say "Saltwater Crocs/Freshwater Crocs inhabit this water"
I am not joking - you would have to be a bit stupid to get taken..because the signs are EVERYWHERE. Occasionally, there is one or two spotted on beaches near Port Douglas (far north Queensland) - but most Aussies would never be anywhere near where they live.
Snakes, on the other hand..yes, they are around. I have seen 2 snakes in my life, though..and both of them were carpet pythons, and we were living 5 mins from the centre of a major city...so they CAN be anywhere.
Right now though, we are rural, so I am expecting to see some, at some point. Believe me, they are around - however they don't want to see you more than you don't want to see them!!
I expect in winter we shall be seeing them sunning themselves, but at the moment, they would be hiding under a log or something. They really aren't an issue!!
There really wouldn't be any place without them, as the carpet snakes I know have been removed from 22 storey buildings and things like that..But, carpet snakes are sweet, passive things that would slide over the top of you...and keep on going. You could easily come to live in Australia and never see one.

Hi deemel,

I certainly share your enthusiasm for Oz, I've been there a couple of times.

But don't whet our appetite too much - it seems to be next to impossible to emigrate to Australia, unless, of course, one is a "super-professional", or one has $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to invest.

For the rest of us, places like Costa Rica seem to be more realistic.

Cheer up singinraw, with global warming the tropics can come to you.