This topic seems to be red hot at the moment and I have to say, I prefer not to get involved as I don't believe there is a 'right' diet - not for the masses anyway. But for you my dear? Well yes. As to what that 'right' diet is, I'm afraid I can only help you, educate you with knowledge and support you in your choices and decisions. Only YOU know your 'right' diet.
However there seems to be plenty of people on the web that love telling us all exactly what we should be eating, how much of it, what times of day, and god forbid if we choose to differ from these individuals and groups. We get verbally abused. I know this sounds harsh but I've witnessed it first-hand and yep, it's harsh all right. So when I saw this post written by
Robyn from Girl On Raw, I loved every word, read with full attention and respect, and couldn't agree with her more. So here it is --
There seems to be a little bit of a trend going on. Some people who
are/were considered leaders in the modern vegan and raw vegan movements
have made some dietary changes. Changes that if they were not so
prominent in our little online communities wouldn’t really create much
of a stir. But because we feel like we know them through their blog
posts and social media presence it can come as quite a shock when
something like this is revealed as we not only feel we know them, but
we’ve also gained so much insight from them in the past.
Raw food, for the unaquainted, is generally coupled with veganism and
for me this was true for a period of time however when I first ventured
into raw food I was neither vegan nor vegetarian. That came 2 years
later and was a gradual nondeliberate process.
My veganism lasted 2 years, until I fell pregnant with my first baby,
not for any other reasons over than cheese just tasted good and
absolutely nothing else for my first trimester.
It was never a conscious or deliberate decision, and even when I was
vegan I never really made a song and dance about it, in fact people just
assumed I was vegan because i was into raw food and a formally trained
raw chef. I even wrote a blog post on labels
here when I was vegan but never did I identify myself as vegan nor encourage others to.
When a friend and previous fellow blogger Natasha of the now defunct
blog Voracious Vegan came out after months of dealing with her change
to an omnivore diet due to health issues, I couldn’t believe the outrage
over the nets. Honestly? I know many people become vegan for animal
activism and sustainability and that I applaud. However
I make no
apology for choosing a human’s health over an animal especially if it’s
your child’s health. Motherhood brings something tribal out in you. And
you will never know it until you are one. On a side note, Natasha’s
never looked better since changing to an omnivore diet.
Kevin Gianni from Renegade Health also wrote about why his baby will
not be a raw nor vegan baby and neither was his wife during their
pregnancy on his post here
5 Reasons We Do Not Have a Raw Baby and their
Follow Up Thoughts here.
So what sparked this post? Last night my
dear friend, mentor and the girl that got me into this raw thing,
Kristen Suzanne blogged last night
that she is no longer vegan. My first reaction was cool and ambivalent,
but who cares – in a nice way, really girl. I guess because Kristen is
perceived as an expert in raw vegan circles she felt the need to explain
and I get that.
Sayward Rebhal of popular vegan blog Bonzai Aphrodite recently blogged about her
failing health as a vegan but refusal to veer away from her vegan diet.
Heathy from Sweetly Raw also blogged about her problems on a vegan diet in 2010
here, and Joanna Stevens from rawdivas.com mentions in her eBook, Well Rounded Pregnancy
“an unsupplemented raw vegan and vegetarian diet is difficult to follow for many reasons.” She notes soil depletion, over-pasteurisation of some foods, lack of availability year round of local produce etc.
And it’s not just about leaving veganism, but Penni Shelton, head of
biggest raw food space in the place Raw Food Rehab made a video post
about full disclosure on her starting to eat cooked foods again
here.
In a twitter conversation last year Dhru Purohit of Clean Program but
former mastermind behind premier but now defunct raw food hub
We Like it Raw, we talked about how it’s not about raw food anymore it’s about being ‘healthy’.
So all this got me thinking that
what is it about eating a certain
way for a period of time that works, but one day just does not. Well
Kristen touched on it in her post, that perhaps it’s a cleaning up of a
previously poor diet or placebo. Honestly I think it’s more of the
former. Also I think that our bodies are amazing and can cope with so
much that we throw at it even if it’s not in it’s best interest. Eating a
poor meal choice one or twice may not result in an overall calamity but
denying your body of variety and sticking to a militant regime over
time can possibly cause havoc.
Of course you are going to feel great after a juice fast, because you
have cleansed of years of poor choices, but ongoing you might start to
deplete of certain nutrients and vitamins. Same with going vegan after
years of a highly processed diet. Yep you’ve cleaned up your act but
long term you may suffer deficiencies. These are just examples to give
you an idea and not necessarily anecdotal.
Like a friend said to me, some people can thrive on a vegan diet just
like some people thrive on an all junk food diet, I just think we are
all different.
Do you think our ancestors had to give as much thought to what they
ate? How about third world countries? It’s all about survival. And one
could argue that we have a longer life expectancy than our ancestors and
some of our poorer cousins however we do seem to have an abundance of
diseases of affluence.
It’s amazing how much emotion one’s dietary choices bring up in
others, good and bad. Again I appreciate the activism and as an animal
lover I get it. But again when one’s health is in question would you
sake you or your children’s health or life to save an animal. Honestly I
really don’t want this becoming an activism speech there are many other
forums for it.
In
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead,
Dr Joel Fuhrman, author of Eat to Live says eating meat once or twice a
week can still form part of a healthy diet, despite generally promoting
a vegan diet. I admit this is still less than most omnivore household’s
current consumption.
The purpose of this post is not to dictate a militant diet regime and
honestly I’ve never been about that anyway, plus who am I to talk. I am
a chef, I make food taste delicious I don’t prescribe diets, I merely
offer educatied guidance. Plenty of my readers and clients are not even
vegetarian but are just wanting to eat healthily (whatever that means to
you) and I’m all about encouraging more consumption of fruits and
vegetables in a society that is either too busy or too unaware to eat
their veggies. But I really encourage you to find your own way, and I’ve
always been about that.
If you want to add more raw meals into your diet then you’ve come to
the right place. I’m all about that too, sometimes even a yummy
vegetarian/vegan cooked dish. And for those living in a family like mine
where you want to just eat a smoothie for dinner but your meat eating
husband and sometimes son wants some salmon and steamed veggies or even a
roast chook and your role is to provide then I can relate. I’m not a
chemist (i just like making vegetables taste delicious) and if eating a
certain way requires supplementation to sustain my health then I’d
rather not, but if it floats your boat go ahead.
Whenever anyone asks what kind of diet I adhere to, I am reticent to
put a label on it for fear of it backfiring on me when as a human, I
change my mind, but I will say this,
I am committed to learning and
practicing the healthiest diet I can based on the information I have,
what intuitively feels right and what works for me and my family. I feel
the closer I stick to nature the better off we will be and am everyday
grateful for having the luxury of choice. Especially when I live in a
cross section of cultures and backgrounds here and have daily reminders
of the adversity and struggle many of us will never experience, every
day I step outside my door and am greeted by the company labourers on my
compound. Many of which send most of their money home to their families
in Bangladesh or Pakistan, and only get to go home every 2-4 years to
see them.
I honestly feel there are different reasons and stages in life where
different dietary choices are required. For eg a cancer patient can
thrive on a juicing regime (Gerson Therapy) whereas juicing and
cleansing is not advisable for pregnancy and nursing, weight
loss/maintenance, diabetes etc. Seasons and reasons and lifestyle and
climate. And so many more.
I believe in moderation in all
aspects in life. You will forever find a for and against for any
argument you wish to have in life. The thing is, health ‘facts’ and
science appear to change all the time.
I’ll leave you with this awesome quote from Josh Rosenthal (founder of Institute of Intergrative Nutriton) --
"Nutrition is a funny science. It's the only field where people can scientifically prove opposing theories and still be right"
I love this post written by Robyn from Girl on Raw as I too have noticed a lot going on in and around the 'raw food world', and have to say I have seen first hand how nasty some people can be towards others that are listening to their bodies and making dietary changes to support their health and it upsets me. I love raw food. I love cooked food. I loved how I felt when I was eating a raw vegan diet, but I began noticing changes in my health that were'nt for the better. So I decided to change things up, and have to say, I'm feeling a lot better, and physically look a lot healthier also. Having said that, there are people that thrive following raw vegan eating habits and I'm happy for them. We should be encourgaing and supporting one another to be the healithiest and happiest we all can be, regardless of whether our dinner plate is cooked food or raw food, fish or lentils.
I would LOVE to hear your thoughts. How do you eat? What feels good in your body? What doesn't? Let's continue this conversation in the comments below and on Facebook :)
