Scott's Raw Journey

My story isn’t that compelling really. Others fall into this diet for various reasons, usually health and weight issues. In case you don’t know, a raw foods diet means you don’t eat any cooked food. Cooking food kills the enzymes, or life force, of the food, and destroys most of the nutrients, depending on the type of food and how it is cooked. There are certain foods that are more easily assimilated in their cooked form, such as potatoes, beans or certain squashes. But the nutritional tradeoff is hardly worth it. All the nutrients the body needs can be found in raw living foods. Not only does cooking food destroy the nutrients, the body has to work extra hard in order to digest the dead food. Why can you eat a ton of cooked food and still feel hungry? Because the body isn’t nourished by it. If the body is receiving all the nutrients it needs, it will feel satiated. That is why it is common for people to lose weight on a raw food diet. They are getting their nutrients in a state that is easily assimilated into the bloodstream and less taxing on the digestive system. And since the nutrient density of raw living foods is more condensed, less food is required. Higher quality food means you eat less.

Follow up:

Foods devoid of nutrients will cause you to want to eat more. It’s really simple. (I should mention here, that organic food is more nutrient dense than “conventional produce” because there are more minerals in the soil. So eating raw celery that’s not organic, for example, will be a vastly different experience than eating organic celery. I will also mention, that raw meat and sushi are not part of this diet. I’m sure I will address this at a later point, as there are some people who actually include raw meat in their raw food diet.)

When I first came across the raw foods diet, I was shocked. Perhaps you are shocked reading this. But at the same time, something intrigued me instantly. In fact, it was as if a light switch clicked on in my head. No that’s too subtle. It’s more like I was whacked in the head by a 2 x 4. I remember the moment most vividly. I don’t remember the month, but I believe it was November of 2001. I was sitting at my computer, searching on the web for organic farming opportunities in Costa Rica. I came across a website for an organic farm that used permaculture (a new concept to me), and the people who owned the farm and worked on it lived only on raw foods. At that moment, it totally resonated with me. And deep inside I knew I would someday be a raw foodist. I had no idea people could live without eating cooked food. That notion was so far off my personal radar. I wasn’t even a vegetarian at the time.

Fortunately, I had a lifestyle which allowed me to educate myself by having some time to read. I bought two books about raw foods, one was 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko, and the other was Living Foods Lifestyle by Brenda Cobb. I found both of these books to be inspiring, but I knew I wasn’t quite ready to be a raw foodist. I had no idea when I would be ready, but I definitely must have put out some prayer to the effect that I wanted to be ready soon.

About six months later, in April of 2002, I fasted on water for 10 days. I did what’s called a Master Cleanse (I’ll talk about fasting in a later blog) which includes lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup. This was the second time I had done this fast, the first time lasting only 3 days. During this fast, I read a book called The Food Revolution by John Robbins. The book is a somber look at the multinational agribusiness and how they manipulate public opinion, destroy our environment, exploit not only animals, but people, and use political clout to not only get their way, but deceive and brainwash the public. Other books I had been reading prepared me for all of this. But the presentation of this material was so powerful, that I knew I needed to not only change my diet, but COMMIT to the change with all my heart. I decided to adopt a vegan plant-based diet during that fast.

Funny thing, I broke that fast, and when I was ready to eat again, I walked down to the taco stand (I lived in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago) and ordered some sort of non-vegan taco. It may have even had chicken. I started to eat it, almost unconsciously, unaware of how habituated I was to my diet. After a few bites, things didn’t feel right. Not physically exactly, but more spiritually. I felt morally opposed to what I was doing. I stopped eating non-vegan food (continuing to eat the beans and rice) and realized if I was going to be vegan, I was going to have to teach myself how to prepare food.

How I went so long without expanding my cooking skills beyond pasta and sauce boggles the mind. I was 36 years old and felt really out of place in the kitchen. Fortunately, that was about to change! Fortunately, one of the bike messengers I worked with was vegan, and he gave me some ideas to get started. I began shopping for bulk grains like brown rice, quinoa, and spelt berries. I would make a pot full of each and put the leftovers in the fridge. For my meals, I would make stir fries, scooping some of the grains into a pan with a little oil, adding garlic, onions, veggies and some salsa or sauce. Most everything I would eat or buy was organic. I also would include tofu and/or seitan in my stirfries.

After a while, I was making very satisfying and tasty meals. I felt proud that I was able to do this and enjoyed the satisfaction of eating more healthfully. Little did I know it, but this was a transition diet for me. I was on my way to becoming a raw foodist! It wasn’t long before I started to be able to pinpoint certain foods that would cause me intestinal discomfort. So I experimented by removing certain things from my diet, then re-introducing them. The first offender was tofu. Knowing what I know now about tofu and soy (more on this subject later), I can understand why my body was rejecting this. Gradually I began eating more and more raw foods. At this time, I had moved into an apartment by myself, so I was able to enjoy my own kitchen space. It is here that I experimented making my own sprouts. I also purchased a dehydrator and blender, with the intent of teaching myself how to prepare more raw foods dishes.

With the help of some raw foods books, I had some successes, and quite a few culinary disasters that I wouldn’t even give to Mingus, my faithful dog friend.

It took plenty of practice and getting my hands into it, but eventually I got the groove of it.

My diet has evolved so much since then. One thing I’ve noticed, is that the body and the mind start to work together, to commune in an intuitive way. It becomes easier to know what the body is craving, and what it doesn’t want anything to do with. For example, I can no longer eat certain things without having digestive problems, even if they are raw and organic. I no longer tolerate dehydrated food unless I prepare it a certain way myself. I eat less and less solid food and more and more liquid food (smoothies). I also eat hardly any fruit! Even living in the desert, my body has no craving for fruit. Go figure!

So I will go into more details about my current diet in future blogs and write about more specific things, and along the way include anecdotes and whatnot of my personal history, filling in some of the gaps. I would like to close this blog entry with a few more observations that have shaped my understanding of diet and health.

First off, people who eat a raw foods diet can experience a dramatic increase in energy, joy, mental clarity, health, peace of mind, spiritual connectedness, etc. But it is important to realize that these benefits aren’t noticeable right away, at least not for everyone. It is very important to remember that everybody, EVERY BODY, is different. Just because one person thrives on a raw foods diet, doesn’t mean everyone will. There are other factors at play that are well beyond our cognizant capabilities. However, for those who are compelled by and drawn to a raw foods diet, it is important to learn how to feel your own body, and not compare yours to anyone else’s. It's true that some people don't transition at all and can adopt a 100% raw diet and stick to it no problem. There's no right way to do it for everyone.

Secondly, people who adopt a new diet, often try it for a while, then become discouraged. Some people try to eat a 100% raw food diet without transitioning slowly, like I did. What happens is the body starts to detox. As this happens, toxins are released into the bloodstream causing symptoms like colds or headaches. Most people have poor liver function and bowels full of undesirable things that I’ll talk more about later. So what often happens, is people fear that the diet is the direct cause of the discomfort, and start eating cooked foods, which of course causes the detox to stop. The subsiding symptoms are then interpreted as having to do with diet. So there is a period of transition that will result, for most people, in a period of detoxification. The amount of time this period last depends on the person, how toxic they are, how much they have abused their body prior to committing to a healthier lifestyle, and how they go about the cleansing process. For me, I did several fasts and herbal colon cleanses while transitioning. I also did a liver cleanse and two 13 week parasite cleanses. Now that a lot of that stuff has been removed, deep-seated toxins are able to come out from cellular tissue. In our society we are exposed to so many combinations of toxins, in the food and water supply, in the air, in our dental fillings, and even in the invisible realms of the psyche. These toxins, if not properly eliminated, will accumulate, and guess what that leads to? So a conscious effort to clean the inside of our body, is an important part of realizing the benefits of a raw foods diet.

Also, it’s not just about diet. It’s lifestyle, of which diet is a big part. What I found for myself, was that as I focused on my diet, other lifestyle changes happened naturally, without effort. And this I think is the key to any attempt to alter behavioral habits. If you try to change everything at once, all your ingrained bad habits, you will set yourself up for a big failure. When I became vegan, I continued smoking cigarettes and drinking. But as I nourished my body, and gave it more love, it eventually started to affect my mind, my insecurities, and my bad habits. So eventually, I quit smoking when I was ready. And I noticed that I would drink less and less, even though I was a gigging musician and was able to drink copious amounts of alcohol for free almost every night of the week. It eventually became not a temptation at all.

So if you are being drawn to make changes in your diet or lifestyle, for whatever reason, do yourself a favor, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself. But focus on diet and nourishing your body, and all the other things will fall into place when you are ready. And you’ll look back on your transition in disbelief and say “Wow, life is amazing!”