So I Went Raw Vegan for a Month... Here Are My Results

a reply to: Nyiah

Sure can! In fact, it's only been my second day of eating "dirty" foods and I already got a pimple like blemish forming on my face... no more perfect, radiant skin . I think for the experience itself, it's worth trying, not to mention the detox benefits. Good luck if you give it a shot.

originally posted by: sekerofknowlege
a reply to: Nyiah

Sure can! In fact, it's only been my second day of eating "dirty" foods and I already got a pimple like blemish forming on my face... no more perfect, radiant skin

. I think for the experience itself, it's worth trying, not to mention the detox benefits. Good luck if you give it a shot.

Uh, no thanks, I think I'll personally pass on that one. That kind of food restriction is simply torturous IMO. Well, the voluntary Elimination Diet is for sadists as far as I'm concerned, but raw comes close.
I'm a big proponent of eat what you love & love what you eat (within a sensible balance) but raw foods is simply a bit too OCD-restrictive for me.

Just eat whatever floats your boat, and mind the nutrients. ALWAYS mind those levels.

a reply to: sekerofknowlege

Oh my gosh, how wonderful!! Are you still there in Nicaragua?


You know what's funny? I used to be vegan, organic vegan in the u.s. Slowly I returned to vegetarianism and later when I had these obtuse paranormal experiences that were actually physically debilitating, I actually returned to eating red meat for the protein and physical power it offered. In contrast to your (current?, ongoing?) experience, I began travelling in Europe, and for the sake of learning their culinary practices a bit, I chose to begin to live by their menu to some degree and I began having, yes you guessed it: PORK. (I really do believe it's a Christian thing; pork that is ) Sausage and ham is so incredibly popular and important here throughout Europe. (See Iberian ham: number one like no other in Europe and worldwide).

In any case, When I was young, my family generally never really even had pork since a member of our family had allergies to it, and so for the most part, I was generally raised on poultry, fortunately; Eventually when local organic grocery stores were easily accessible, I went to vegetariasm and veganism as stated earlier, all with a seafood option.

Later I started following Judaic Kosher laws (that was before the paranormal attacks) and pork was entirely out of the question at that time also, and so for me it's sort of interesting to find myself entertaining things like French boudin, or Iberian murcilla for the sake of learning about southern european cooking and foods, very fun and tasty also, but I feel still a bit wrong about over entertaining animal meat consumption, since I know it's not necessary, and I also know it's cruel to the animals. But being in the Pyrennes mountains where the winter snow strikes, warm foods are an absolute must, and frequently those warm foods are meat based, although they do not have to be.

For me, it is incredibly refreshing to read that someone is in an entire other part of the world, and living comfortably with the water from fruits virtually only-- that is fantastic!! The tomatoes are great over there too aren't they: tomatoes likewise as we all know, are fruit as well.

I wish I were with all of that fruit in the tropics though. Fortunately there is a huge amount of fruit eating in Iberia though, even as supper especially in the summer (for the wise), so perhaps I should say that my nutritional suffering is benign. I do plan on returning to vegetarianism though, but for now I'm learning about the importance of certain meats in European culture. I keep telling myself or nudging myself into thinking that the relevance of pork in Europe may have something to do with Islam..hmm, I have to look into that though.

Legumes are plentiful here though: all types of beans, fortunately. Many vegetables are readily available as well: cucumber is very popular as are eggplant and zuchinni. My favorite legumes are the lentils and cigrons..

I will be off of the pork again soon though, I think I have tasted most of the things I was curious about. What's quite expensive over here though would be things like almonds, or nuts for trail mix-- peanuts are well priced (they actually have imported peanuts from California, packaged by Trader Joe's!) Merely 70 us cents for a bag of 250g. And that little bag can take you a very long way, believe you me.

Bottled water is great here, and it is actually totally inexpensive, 20cents for 1.5L and I remember paying almost 3 times(!!) that in the U.S. at Trader Joe's for comparable bottled water- I'll leave you with this: a neat statistic about water is that the greatest amount of water consumption and water drinking is in Italy. There's alot of water drinking there: so kudos!

originally posted by: Rikku
woah, too much text, i just wondered wth a pescatarian is.
as for what happens when you go vegan, we know,
you smell like a roman legionare with dysentry, and you bore all you friends with fascinating facts abouts veganism.

Hey, don't knock it until you've tried it..it's not boring and if I'm not mistaken, a pescatarian would be someone who consumes fish. In the end though, we all know that the most important thing is not what goes into one's mouth, but rather what comes out of it. I believe that's written somewhere in Levantine literature..

a reply to: tony9802

Oh! And one other thing: I have discovered one thing about the importance of meat or the reason why human beings insist on eating meat.


a. It literally gives you this brash amount of physical power: it builds the upper body and causes one's physical energy to be drawn up into the chest and shoulder area..that is my experience with it at least. It gives you sort of like this bold forward walking contained, confrontational body power- very manly.

b. Along with that power, the downside might be the levels of hubris and pride asscociated with that type of physical strength. Fish and poultry create greater levels of moderate mindedness, in my experiences of course.


Finally, I just need to add this, and that is that I would absolutely love to go Asia and explore food and spirituality there as well, drinking tea throughout the day sounds like such a purifying and cleansing experience..

a reply to: tony9802

I am still in Nicaragua, and the way things are looking, don't plan to leave anytime soon! I'm glad you found interest in the post; and yes, we are living quite the different experiences haha. Thanks for your feedback, and enjoy your time in Europe.

a reply to: sekerofknowlege

Thank you, I will be off of the pork soon enough though, I'm thinking of it as a spiritual journey as well, much like yourself, but the idea of being surrounded by all of that scrumptuous fruit, leaves me speechless, how is the guava? Also, have you had a chance yet to taste yucca? That's a wonderful vegetable also, and I am sure you have run into it on a couple of occasion..
Give it a shot if you have yet to taste it..

Enjoy the gallo pinto..

There was a guy named 'Mango' on the internet who lived only off of fruit. He believed we were not meant to eat vegetables because they tasted bad, and we were meant to only eat things that tasted good like fruit.

Anyway 'Mango' eventually lost all his teeth, prob from tooth decay. True story.. I think.

a reply to: sekerofknowlege

So what is "cooked food"? Rice, legumes/beans, corn, potatoes/tubers, pumpkin, etc.?

I don't really see the point of cutting those out..

Also cooking food in most cases (including fruit) makes it easier to digest and can be more gentle on the body. It can reduce chemicals that cause allergic reactions as well as other potentially detrimental bodily effects.

An example with potatoes or cassava being toxic unless you boil them. Another example with apples - I was allergic to raw apple but not stewed.

Some effects of raw foods are subtle. You might not get sick, but it may effect you detrimentally in subtle ways.. or they can be beneficial as well.

Its probably not a good idea to make too broad of generalizations regarding cooked/raw foods, but should be considered case by case.

a reply to: tony9802

All the fruits here are incredible, including the Guavas which I've never had nor even heard of prior to coming here. In fact, there's a ton of fruit I've never had or heard of which are delicious here like passion fruits, nance, noni's among several other fruits I don't even know the name of (in English at least). I've heard of yucca as well and have had it growing up.

Anyways, maybe your next trip should be somewhere tropical, as you would literally feel like a kid in a candy shop like I have the past month! Lol

a reply to: nOraKat

Yes all those would be considered cooked foods. The idea behind fruitarianism is that we should only eat foods that are in in their natural state. Eating beans, for example, in its natural state would be toxic to us, so as fruitarianians, we would avoid it. Same with rice as it's extremely difficult to digest In its raw form. Another aspect is the spiritual aspect of it; fruitarians believe fruits to be considered "live foods" filled with prana energy that fuels our being in the best possible way. This is true as fruits are literally alive and bioactive. Once you cook them, however, they "die off" and, while still contain some nutrients, many of them are lost in the cooking process. Also, the prana energy is lost in the cooking process. To quote "The Essene Gospel of Peace", which I just did a thread on titled "Was Jesus A Vegan?"

"But eat nothing to which only the fire of death gives savor, for such is of Satan."

Basically, the fire of death is to cook food. Again, these are just some of the arguments for fruitarianians and of course if you continue to eat cooked foods, by all means.

As far that guy losing his teeth, as long as you're getting adequate sunlight, this shouldn't be an issue as sunlight as antibacterial and prevents tooth decay. Here in the tropics, that's not an issue.

Thanks for commenting!

a reply to: sekerofknowlege

Thank you for sharing. Very educational for me. I will not go as extreme as you but will eat more fruits and veggies in my diet. Because I so used to watching portion sizes I can't imagine eating 10 bananas. Eliminating coffee is a hard one. I liked what you said about spiritual adantages which is where I am now.

I'm off to rethink and shop for vegan foods for my diet.

Nita

I'm Vegetarian, but eat junk food like pizza, Chinese and Mexican.

originally posted by: nita808
a reply to: sekerofknowlege

Thank you for sharing. Very educational for me. I will not go as extreme as you but will eat more fruits and veggies in my diet. Because I so used to watching portion sizes I can't imagine eating 10 bananas. Eliminating coffee is a hard one. I liked what you said about spiritual adantages which is where I am now.

I'm off to rethink and shop for vegan foods for my diet.

Nita

The best way for a newbie to start is to do what's known as raw till 4 style of eating, lots ripe sweet fruit in the day (bananas/mangos/dates), then a high carb meal for diner (potatoes/pasta/rice/etc!).