1. Be Aware of what I call “three week wonders”
Definition of a three week wonder: someone who has taken a three week class in raw food (or anything) and is now dispensing information, classes, written a book etc. based on those three weeks, and not much more.
So much misinformation is being passed around by well meaning but inexperienced people who pass themselves off as experts with limited knowledge and little, if any, real life experience.
For example, one time I heard an explanation of why we soak nuts and seeds. It seems according to this “teacher” that the part you soak off is what keeps animals from eating them.
The real reason: with soaking you are washing off the growth inhibitors – which in quantity are toxic to us. These growth inhibitors keep the nut or seed from sprouting out of season if a few drops of rain fall on it. Soaking and sprouting also change the nut or seed to a more digestible food as the fats are being broken down into fatty acids, the proteins into amino acids.
Another less amusing example is a three week wonder becoming so enthusiastic about the wonderful results achieved from going raw (this may have been a bit more than three weeks, but not much experience, just a lot of enthusiasm); that they created educational materials and programs that many people purchased only to – after a few years – totally reverse their stand on raw food, now claiming that raw food is harmful.
What is wrong with this picture? First of all, they went into “business” with just a tiny amount of experience. They did not expand the variety of foods they ate, but ate the same things day after day, and when they began to feel ill from lack of variety, perhaps developing deficiencies, rather than take a good look at what they were eating, they blamed “raw food”.
No one type of food can make you healthy. Not carrot juice. Not green juice. Not wheat grass. Not algae. What contributes to your good health is giving your body the chance to cleanse and heal itself.
Raw Food can no sooner “make you sick” than fresh air can. One needs to exercise some common sense. You always need a large variety of foods to be healthy. Think of the rainbow and eat foods of each color. Don’t forget protein, don’t forget fat. Don’t forget carbohydrates. Don’t listen to any one person about anything, including me.
Whenever you hear a story (being widely passed around on the internet) about sick vegan babies, sick infants of vegan moms, deficiencies on a raw diet, etc. Ask yourself: What exactly were they eating? That part of the story never gets told.
There are many people who have been all raw or high raw for well over twenty years, including myself, Dr. Brian Clement, Dr. Anna Maria Gahns Clement, Dr. Doug Graham, Viktoras Kulvinskas, Reverend George Malkmus and Cherie Soria.
There are other “three week wonders” who have propelled themselves into thriving raw food related businesses and, while they do a lot of good, in their limited knowledge and experience also perpetuate misinformation that could turn out to be harmful.
For example one raw food proponent indicates that daily enemas are part of their ongoing daily routine. Enemas are useful, perhaps even lifesaving, while on the cleanse phase of a raw food program and for serious long-term programs such as the Gerson Therapy, which is closely monitored. But it is never a good idea to use enemas as part of a daily routine once the cleanse phase is over.
Lack of education and experience manifests itself all over the raw food movement. The very leaders you may be looking up to perhaps belong in this category. Know where your information is coming from and don’t put all your faith in just one source.
My last example of a “three week wonder” (I am being selective, there are many more examples of misinformation coming from supposed experts in the field) is a self-published food preparation book that tells the reader to dehydrate at 98 degrees. This is erroneous and potentially harmful advice.
Dehydrating at too low a temperature leaves the food open to developing mold. If you use common sense, you will realize that food does not become the temperature an oven is set at. Roasting a turkey (this is an example to illustrate my meaning only) at 350 degrees never results in the turkey being 350 degrees. Likewise, with the dehydrator. You want to dehydrate at the highest temperature possible while keeping the food itself below 115 or 110 degrees. When I dehydrate flax seed crackers, which are cold and very wet at first, I start the machine at 120 or 125, or if I will be home to monitor it, at 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
As the crackers become dryer and I can feel that they are getting warm to the touch (don’t forget how hot a 103 degree Jacuzzi feels), then I turn it down. Dehydrators work differently in different climates. You can expect your food to be done sooner in dry hot Arizona than you can in cool damp England. Please do not make the mistake of creating moldy food just because some “expert” who wrote a book tells you to set your dehydrator at 98 degrees. Three week wonder.
2. Be Aware of useless “certification”
On a related theme, I am noticing every Tom, Dick and Harry of raw food information (and misinformation) is now getting into the concept of offering “certification”. Well, who is certifying you? What are their credentials? One such “certification” is adding up to many, many thousands of dollars.
For that kind of money you can take the 9-week program at Hippocrates Health Institute which has been around for a long time and has a good history and track record. And there are several well-established raw food culinary schools. Certification from someone who has a recognizable name and has been around for some time; with something that gives them credibility about their area of expertise such as a published book, or someone who has been teaching for a long time might be worth your while, but don’t waste your time and money on a “three week wonder”.
3. Be Aware of people who tell you what to do
There is no one pill, no one herb, or collections of pills, supplements, herbs or foods that are right for all people. When you are being told “take this for that problem, eat this, drink that” and the person doesn’t know your personal history, how would they know what you need?
If there were one right way for us all life would be so simple, wouldn’t it?
If there were one right way to eat then I would be a very rich lady indeed. Do not ask your neighbor or me what they eat hoping to emulate and be just like them. What works for your neighbor or me may not work for you.
4. Be Aware that you need to do your own research
Sorry, I know it’s easier to seek out an expert and take their advice; but you are a unique person. You have strengths and weaknesses, and they are different than your neighbor, your sister, your cousin or your raw food guru. I am talking about physically here, but it is true about all aspects of YOU.
There is really no expert that can tell you about you. Wouldn’t it be so easy to just follow one way that you hear about from one person? If that worked, there would be far fewer “gurus” out there. You need to understand what it takes to keep you the healthy vibrant person you want to be.
Of course generalities like exercise, clean air, clean food, right livelihood and relationship – all factor into what makes you, you. But the fact is, you need to experiment, research, read, learn and try until you find the right specific combination that works for you.
For example, this week a friend made a smoothie out of nut milk, nuts, bananas, plus three other kinds of fruit. That would be digestive and caloric disaster for me. My smoothies are made out of water, lots of greens and 1-2 low glycemic fruits and sweetened if need be with green stevia.
We are very different from one another and what works for one does not work for the next person.
Stop looking for “the answer” from outside of yourself, it is a futile quest. Stop thinking that this one person, or book (or pill) is the one right answer for you. Do not be lazy about looking after your own health. No one can care as much about you, or know as much about you as you do!!
5. Be Aware of something called Bio-individuality
This fits in with #4. It means we are each different and unique. There is no one right way to eat raw food or anything else for that matter. Not only are you so unique that you have to figure out for yourself what works best for you, but once you do have it figured out and have the mechanics and emotional aspects of eating working well for you… you are still going to notice that each year that can change, and most certainly over the decades you will find you will probably need to be eating very differently than you used to. At age 70, and 25 years all or high raw, I can guarantee that this is my truth and most probably yours as well.
6. Be Aware that some people treat Raw Foodism as a religion
Avoid them. I hope that you understand this without a big long explanation.
7. Be Aware that there is more to life than the food you eat
I hope you understand this without another big long explanation.
8. Be Aware of Extremism
All or nothing at all isn’t necessarily a healthy or logical approach. If someone tells you that eating 95% of your food raw isn’t good enough, or that you are literally poisoning yourself if you eat some cooked food those are rather extreme attitudes.
My opinion is that those who take these philosophies to heart often feel like failures if they can’t be “perfect” and so slide back completely to a SAD diet.
I personally would rather see a person consume 50% raw food for the rest of their life than be 100% raw for three weeks. Don’t allow extreme attitudes, the all-or-nothing-approach to make you feel like you can’t cut it, that you are a failure or less-than in your raw food attempts.
Any amount of raw food that you eat daily is better than none at all. Perhaps you could shoot for never any less than 50% daily. Don’t allow yourself to feel a sense of failure if you do not follow some ideology perfectly. The greatest cause of depression is striving for perfection and feeling bad when it is not attained.
Please do not think that what I am saying is that it is OK (healthy) to eat a lot of cooked food and or junk. What I am saying is striving for perfection can create a lot of unhappiness and feelings of failure which almost always results in giving up on the goal so that you don’t have to feel those bad feelings.
When someone is telling you that 95% isn’t good enough, they are telling you that unless you are absolutely perfect you are not doing it right. This message boomerangs and results in many people giving up on raw food entirely.
Do your best!!
Choose happiness!!
Do not judge yourself (or others).
If you maintain your happy outlook, treat your food as just that – your food, not your religion – you will find that sticking to your goals is much easier.
If you can’t be all raw, all the time, you can still be high raw most of the time, all raw some of the time and happy with it all of the time.
9. Be Aware of some Strangers
Be aware of people you don’t know who want you to pay them large sums of money to teach you how to set up a raw food restaurant, home or health retreat. Contact three or four well-known people, such as myself, to be sure that this unknown person has a good reputation. The raw food community is growing quickly but it’s still a small one. Unfortunately, I have become aware of some people with talent who have turned out to be very angry menacing people. Check the credentials and most of all the reputation and history of anyone you are thinking of working with, or of allowing to live in your home that you don’t know well. Ask for references. Demand them.
10. Be Aware that variety is the spice of life, literally
You can not be healthy if you eat the same foods every day, the same greens (very important to switch them out), the same proteins, the same morning smoothie… you are inviting deficiencies by eating a limited amount of foods over and over. Develop at least a three week sequence of change if you can’t just naturally day-by-day automatically do it.
11. Be Aware of people who are expert in one arena, trying to be expert in an unrelated arena
Just because a person or group has expertise in one area, does not necessarily mean they are expert in other areas. If you become involved with a person/group/website/author/teacher/guru who has taught you a lot about raw food and or has helpful information about raw food – that does not necessarily mean that they are capable in other areas.
Be Aware of entering into any type of business/adventure/course/lifestyle/real estate deal with someone you know from another category.
If a person/entity/business/website/author/teacher/guru has proven expertise in one aspect of life; it does not necessarily follow that they also have proven expertise in any other aspect of life.
Unfortunately there have been instances of over-enthusiastic, but under-educated people transferring the trust people have in them about one category into another with catastrophic results.
Just because I can teach you all you ever need to know about raw food does not mean that I can teach you how to manage your finances (I can’t), or how to build a sail boat (I can’t).
Be Aware that you do not transfer the love, affection, faith in their knowledge that you have for any entity over to another topic/area of life/situation without vetting them all over again.
12. Be Aware that there are people with eating disorders
Be aware that there are people with eating disorders (Anorexia and Bulemia) using raw foodism to mask their problems. Being a raw fooder is not going to cure an eating disorder. Anorexics and Bulemics have serious psychological and physical health issues that need to be addressed by trained personnel.
13. Be Aware that in everyday life, preaching to others is unwelcome and an ineffective way to introduce the concept of raw foodism to anyone
Wait to be asked. Create ways that invite people to ask.
The best way to ‘convert’ those you care about to a healthier diet is to be such a beacon of vitality, health and good cheer that they will notice it and want to have some of that health, happiness and energy so that they can follow their dreams too.
14. Be Aware that it’s probably simpler than you think it is
Really it isn’t difficult at all to be a raw fooder. You do need to have the food in your house. You do not need to make recipes. Eat fruit and veggies just the way they are. You can shred, cut, grate, puree, liquefy, julienne, mash, juice, pulverize, combine and blend for different tastes and textures, but you don’t have to.
Fat is good for you. It must be Raw. Cooked fat is bad for you. You get plenty of protein from nuts, seeds, nut butters and lots of greens. If you are afraid, and want to eat more protein, then make sunflower pate, nut loaves, nut milks, eat nut butters, and tons of greens in smoothies and soups. There is also lots of protein in green powders and raw protein powders made from sprouted rice and other foods.
If you are afraid, for whatever reason, whether because you think Dr. Atkins was a nutritional genius, or are afraid from all the ‘raw food is bad for you’ hype – that doesn’t mean that you should stop eating a high proportion of raw food! No one thinks that!
Everyone agrees that lots of fresh fruits and veggies are good for you! If you feel that you must have a bit of wild caught salmon or an egg or some clean-sourced other type of flesh – you will still greatly benefit from a diet very high in raw food. It’s not all or nothing.
If you are afraid because there are people out there saying you will get e-coli unless you cook everything (the most ridiculous notion I have ever encountered) – always wash your food well. I do. A strong immune system does not get sick from the various germs that are out there. A diet without enzymes can not contribute to a strong immune system.
As individual as you are, that is how unique your diet will be too. If you are not thriving, then something needs to change. Use your noggin. It’s all about common sense. Don’t be a “three-week wonder”. Educate yourself.
About Nomi Shannon
Raw for over 25 years and still going strong at age 70, Nomi Shannon is an award winning author and world renowned coach. Her best- selling book, The Raw Gourmet, has sold over 250,000 copies, making it one of the best-selling raw food books of all time. Nomi is known for teaching people proven steps to keeping — or regaining — vibrant health. Find out more about Nomi’s raw food programs at rawgourmet.com and check out her latest book “You’re Raw; They’re Cooked” – How to Keep Your Sanity in the Kitchen When Your Diets Have Nothing in Common.
