Why wouldn't you want to live to be even older than 120???

it's quality, not quantity my friend. more is not always more.

1. I would lose weight. (believe it or not I don't want to lose any)

Can you really know that? With the right combination that is best for YOU, your weight should be stabilized at optimum.


2. Fruit is expensive and you have to eat like a laundry basket full a day.

Yes. Here in Sweden the price in our local store is not 3.45 for 12-15 bananas. The lowest I've seen is 3,45 for 7 organic bananas! That's 1 kg. I would do the best I can with the money I have. As a student it's a long way left to be able to buy and eat only organic fruit.


3. That much fiber seems like it would give you diarrea

Increase the volume gradually. You shouldn't have any problems after a while. After you've done some weightlifting your sofa won't look so heavy for you anymore


4. If raw food is the right way to go then where are the people that lived to be one hundred and fifty. If it's really the natural diet people should live longer.


In this environment? I don't think so. With the minds people have? I don't think so. For every thought there's a consequence in the body. There are many stories about people who've lived beyond 150. Just as people are careful about screaming out that raw food lifestyle ends diseases, people are careful about going out with people's ages until they're absolutely sure. Can you know that you're doomed to live a certain time? Nothing is certain.


5. If it's the natural diet what were you supposed to eat in the winter? When fruit isn't available off the land.

The fruit is available were they grow. Why did we leave Africa? Maybe we couldn't grow enough food for our growing population and we compromised our health by travelling north so we could survive and grow grains and save them for winter.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2006 01:11AM by rrraw.

I want both quality and quantity

Rob & Arugula,
Those were both excellent responses, thank you for caring & sharing. There is one point which people in Traditional Chinese medicine point out. They believe that cooked food is necessary for cold environments, winter time etc. Alot of people live within some zone where its cold enough to need clothing during some part of the year. They think its warming, and helps people adapt.

Another point which I often find annoying that TCM thinks that lightly cooked foods assist digestion. That if you eat too many raw foods, especially fruits and veggies, it will create some type of digestion problem in the long term. They say there is some difference between humans and other animals. I am not aware of any animal that needs cooked foods, but some people actually think we need some cooked food. I used to think it was because people didn't want to try the diet, which may be true for some, but there are a few people who have tried it and found it created problems. They point to smaller jaw size and tooth size than what humans had in previous ages. They think that has a bit to do with the influence of cooking. It would be interesting to know if people raised on raw foods end up with larger jaws and teeth compared to the general population. I wonder which caused which!

I may never find a satisfactory answer on this point, as to why TCM practitioners are generally uneasy about advising a 100% raw food diet. There have been a few people who found some TCM practitioners who have done a reversal of their ideas. But I haven't found any.

I have gone long enough on a 100% raw food diet to get 'detox' symptoms. But I found these a little bit scary. Some of the symptoms are described in TCM as symptoms of over consumption of cold raw food.

I do appreciate your response, or hearing from anyone else about these matters. Perhaps there is something that TCM is overlooking?

tcm practitioners generally have very little knowledge of the raw food diet. how a food heats or cools the body depends on which mineral is predominant. someone else here can undoubtably give you a more technical rundown of this or you might be able to find something by gabriel cousins somewhere. i believe it was him who i discussed this with originally. suffice it to say that his explanation was more coherent and understandable than anything i've ever gotten from a tcm practitioner. i can hardly ever understand what they are talking about anyhow, it's a bit too "mysterious" of a healing mode for me. i prefer to trust my intuition and take an active role in my own health. and no deer antler either!

Coco,
Thats true, the few TCM practitioners I have spoken to don't generally have the same understanding of a raw food diet as presented on this forum. What is generally discussed is an over consumption of salads, fruit etc. Usually seeds and nuts are not discussed, or things like spirulina or hemp protein etc... I also don't recall any discussion of raw animal products either. These aren't generally recommended on these boards, but they are on some types of RVAF diets.

Gabriel Cousens is more into Indian medicine, as that is more in alignment with the Essene religion which he follows. Indian medicine has a number of similiarities with TCM, even I could see that after taking an introductory class on TCM and reading some from an introductory book to Indian medicine. I would agree with you that TCM can seem very mysterious, especially if you are not versed in basic terminology. Taking a class can help if you are interested. To fully understand all the treatments would probably require a full study in TCM, or if you have been recieving treatments for years and do alot of reading.

Indian medicine is different in a number of ways. I think its more open to raw foods, however, especially the fruit and milk diet. An all raw diet traditionally is not recommeded for certain body types. All the ways it differs from TCM, I don't really know. But, the body constitutions, the three classifications of foods, and that they don't examine the tounge that is what I can think of at the moment. The oil treatment on the head, I don't think thats in TCM. I don't think Indians do needling.

that's funny, i did study tcm. it was part of the shiatsu course i took but even after months of it i still found it overly mysterious and vague. purposefully so too. my neighbour and her partner are both in their final years of tcm study and neither of them can explain Anything to me which is just... i don't know, disconcerting.
i'm a big believer in a person who is seeking health being actively involved in their healing. for me that means understanding the treatment and being able to visualize the healing, that just isn't possible with tcm in my experience.
even though gabriel is into ayurveda he does have a coherent understanding of other healing modalities. with tcm, even having that is impressive!

yes there will be teething problems transitioning to raw. do it slowly, starting off with 50%.see for yourself the benefits, and yes it is expensive ( cooked brown rice and lentils are alot cheaper!) but you are saving on cigarettes, alcohol, cappacinos, dining out, and perhaps long term health costs!