Why did I Drop the Raw Foods Thing?

Raw foods! Ahhhhhh raw foods. Delicious, healthy, light and easy recipes for a busy lifestyle. So why, oh why, dearest reader, did I drop the raw foods thing?

Because, in a nutshell, it was very bad for me.

Not the raw foods themselves. The lifestyle.

Okay,

A) Hunny wasn't buying 100% raw. So essentially, though we could survive through breakfast and lunch together, I always had to make separate dinners. Which meant I spent 1/2 of my day in the kitchen. 3/4 for a really gourmet 'uncooked' food.

B) It was too easy to slide into my old eating disorder. Maybe this isn't true for anyone else, or everyone else, or...whatever. But for me, the push to 'go 100% raw' was really too obsessive. I found myself counting percentages instead of calories, and worrying about every little thing I put into my mouth. I started getting aversions to foods that I know scientifically are healthier for you if cooked. I... it wasn't good, and it wasn't going to be healthy if I kept on keeping on.

C) It was hard to get certain vitamins and minerals (like the B vitamins) into my diet. And I feel vitamin deficiency terribly fast -- keep in mind, I've had to be dairy free for a while now, so with no animal based form of nutrition at all, I slid into deficiency hard-core. This is, I suppose, why so many people choose to do a little dairy or eggs with their veggie lifestyle. "Why not take a supplement?"... because the supplements are animal-based (see B above). "why not try masive quantities of sea vegetables?"... I did. It didn't help -- the B vitamins in seas veggies didn't absorb well. ugh. ANd yes, we do eat sea veggies all the time, so there was no aversion.

D) Did I mention that it's getting cold where I live? Really cold. Like dark, dark days of autumn, sliding into the eternal night of winter cold... The only fresh, local, organic, raw produce available here right now is kole veggies (which are fine fermented) and squashes (which get a little rough to take raw). I'm really into local, sustainable Community supported agriculture. (Isn't everybody). So we've got a war of philosophies going. And even if I give in and buy the imported organic-goods (and admitedly I do every so often, especially come winter when my garden's not producing and neither is my local farm), I'm not a Hollywood celebrity,and there's no eternal summer here in the mountains, so unless I want to mortgage my house, 100% raw was not going to happen. Period.

E) One last thing. I'm a research gal. There's a lot of misinformation going on in the Raw community right now. A lot of good, but a lot of missed. For instance, the whole nuts thing. For a while, the only truly RAW nut you could find was almonds, if you wanted to split hairs, and now, even that's hard to find unless you live in CA. Did I mention I can get a tad obsessive?


Anwhoodles.... point being:

I eat a lot of Raw anyway. I'm not going to worry about exactly HOW raw I am. I'm going to enjoy cooked foods and supplement heavily with fresh seasonal veggies, raw or gently cooked, and loads of fresh seasonal fruits (my strawberries and raspberries are just coming on heavily!). I eat well. I eat sustainably. I like to bake. I don't want to make myself starve again.

I'll still use raw recipes. I'll still eat raw. But it's a part of my lifestyle... not my identity.

Cool? Cool.