Don’t Hate Me Because of My Raw Food Diet!
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Cool girls in the cool clique
The flame wars are in record
breaking forest fire conditions
right now in the raw food world.
I have noticed some passive aggressive comments within the various websites in the raw food community regarding the people who eat different types of raw food diets out there, or who are undergoing some sort of raw food challenge such as liver cleansing or juice feasting.
Here is just an example of what I mean:
I have learned through trial and error that I can not eat massive quantities of fruit. And I am starting to figure out that there are certain foods that do not agree with my system, like carrots. And although I eat bee pollen and bee products, there are some people out there who are violently against any bee products.
Just because all fruit doesn’t work for me does not mean that I do not like fruitarians. And just because I am not living on prana alone does not mean that I hate breatharians. Although I do not personally eat the same things that other raw foodists eat, I never would think to publically say negative things about specific people or about particular raw food diets.
Or worse yet - to say to other people that some raw food diet is wrong.
When I first found out about the raw food diet, I only thought there was one official “raw food diet”. I have since learned that there are nearly infinite raw food diets out there! There are many styles of raw food diets that JS and I have tried over the years. Eventually I have found out what works for me. It’s “the Heidi diet”. Maybe I’ll write a book about it someday.
Infinite raw food diets for infinite people
= unique diet just for you!
Earlier this year I juice feasted for 35 days. I researched juice feasting for one year before I decided it was the right time for me. I did not “jump on any bandwagon”…in fact the bandwagon really kicked into high gear after I started. Some people jumped into juice feasting during the successful Global Juice Feast just because it was the hip trendy thing to do. Everyone was doing it! And then, other people were criticizing juice feasting and saying how bad it was. Had they juice feasted themselves? No. They just made a judgment without experiencing it themselves.
Pretty silly, if you ask me.
It is up to every individual to decide what is right for their individual self. What might be right for you may not be right for me.
Cue Diff’rent Strokes’ theme song here…
Note: JS chimed in on this one and wanted to include the video to the 80’s TV show Diff’rent Strokes. Then I thought about the lyrics, and I realized how they really fit into what I am saying. Here, take a look at the lyrics:
Now, the world don’t move to the beat of just one drum,
What might be right for you, may not be right for some.
A man is born, he’s a man of means.
Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans.But they got, Diff’rent Strokes.
It takes, Diff’rent Strokes.
It takes, Diff’rent Strokes to move the world.Everybody’s got a special kind of story
Everybody finds a way to shine,
It don’t matter that you got not alot
So what,
They’ll have theirs, and you’ll have yours, and I’ll have mine.
And together we’ll be fine….Because it takes, Diff’rent Strokes to move the world.
Yes it does.
It takes, Diff’rent Strokes to move the world.
After my juice feast I found many flame wars going on different raw websites about feasting and fasting and green smoothies. And I continue to see people yelling on their blogs and posting on forums on how agave nectar is not raw and cacao is evil and on and on. And now people are even attacking other people about raising raw children, and some of them don’t even have children of their own.
This is insanity people. We are fighting each other?!
If you are one of the people out there who don’t like the fact that I eat raw oils, or that I consume agave nectar and raw cacao and green powders and who knows what else might offend you, I don’t know what to say. I have found what works for me. I’ve learned to not settle on any dogma. I keep my options open. And Raw Food Right Now is here to share our unique knowledge and viewpoint with others.
I hope this doesn’t change our friendship…but in some cases I am sure it will.
And keep in mind that here at Raw Food Right Now we strive to welcome all sorts of raw foodists, with many different types of raw food diets. My own particular diet is right for me, but I am always open to other philosophies and ways of eating. Here at Raw Food Right Now, we want to say: all are welcome here.
We don’t think your diet is “wrong”, even if it’s different than ours.
Since starting this blog, I have witnessed the power that people feel when connected to their food.
Birds of a feather flock together…and the raw food community is no different. The low fat people want to hang out with other low fat people, and the gourmet people will hang out with the gourmet people. And the green smoothie people secretly have issues with the juice feasting people. And the people who love to strive to be perfect want to tell other people how they need to be perfect too.
It seems that we vibe with certain raw friends, and there are people we don’t concern ourselves with. There are some raw authors and experts we really agree with, and there are others that we feel are not the best ever. We’re human. Because we’re human we try to focus on the positive, and highlight the people, products, services, and other raw things that we really, really like and have worked for us.
We want you to be a part of our raw group, even if we disagree with you. We’re all here to learn and grow together, as cheesy as that sounds.
It’s still hard for me to admit, but it is true:
Raw foodists are just as
cliquish as the rest of the world.
Damn. And all this time I thought we were friends. 
~ Heidi
Photo by Udo Herzog