Have you ever wondered why some people are drawn to raw food after a sudden event in their life?
Maybe it’s because raw food appears to be an extreme measure. It’s only when death knocks at the door that we realize we had better change your ways.
Whether or not you have been driven to the edge, I’m glad you’re here to learn more about raw and living foods.
Let me explain to you the story of how I decided to change my dietary habits.
I Was The Candy Girl
As a young child, I did everything in my power to eat sweets. I used emotional tactics against my parents to force them to succumb to my will. (Guilty!)
Of course, I wasn’t aware of the damage I was causing both to myself, and to my parents and their relationship.
Every day after school, I would ask for money and buy candy at the corner store. Failing that, I would eat the highly processed packaged cakes that my grandmother kept around the house.
I had no clue the damage I was doing to my own body.
I Ate Cookies For Breakfast
As a teenager, I was extremely hard to please: I was a picky eater. I didn’t like vegetables, and I ate a very highly processed diet. (Actually, I loved raw carrots and string beans, but they didn’t “count” as vegetables unless they were cooked. Go figure.)
I ate chocolate cookies for breakfast. Worse, they were packaged microwavable “warm-up” cookies, and I had to have at least two for breakfast.
At school, I ate uncooked ramen as a snack at recess. My friends and I would put the dry packaged “sauce” in the bag, then crunch up the noodles, and eat as is. I cringe looking back.
Unsurprisingly, I had acne before I hit age 11. I kept hoping that it would pass. Doctors would tell me that it had nothing to do with what I was eating.
A dermatologist recommended birth control pills, and I took them. The acne got a little bit better, but it didn’t quite go away.
The Cafeteria Drove Me To Even More Junk Food
In College, I discovered just how little I was used to eating different foods. At the cafeteria, I ate mainly chicken fingers, you know those deep-fried ones. Sometimes I’d add a salad, but eating just chicken fingers was cheaper.
While I was growing up, many of my family members suffered heart attacks and died. The grandmother who fed me highly processed sugary cakes had passed away. The uncles that teased me for being skinny, had also passed away.
The stroke that broke the camel’s back came when one of my aunts died. She was unable to breathe, and she went into a coma. All of these events were related to the foods we were eating, that much I knew for sure.
Extreme Circumstances Call For Extreme Measures
I started researching nutrition, and cures for all of these diseases that were ailing and killing my family members.
I came across a variety of different raw food diets. Some of them included raw eggs, and raw fish. I tried all of them. My skin cleared up temporarily, but I wasn’t satisfied yet.
After a long conversation with my boyfriend, I decided to stop taking birth control pills. Now, I wasn’t trying to get pregnant. I was however, trying to cleanse my body of all the drugs and chemicals I had been putting into it my whole life.
As soon as I stopped taking birth control pills, the acne came back with a vengeance. I also discovered a new way of eating raw: raw veganism.
Although I wasn’t out of the woods yet, I had found something that made sense to me on an instinctual level.
Read about the rest of my raw story here.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Hi Nathalie,
While I am not a vegan, I do eat a lot of raw foods. And, it’s one of the best things I’ve done for my body in the last few years. I’m wishing you well on this journey you’re on!
February 27th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Hey Nathalie!
I was looking forward to reading about your new blog :) It looks great!
While I still have a long way to go towards eating healthily, I’ve been losing my craving for meat these days. I do feel a difference in my energy levels.
Will you post some raw food recipes? I’d love to try the cakes that you have posted pictures of before.
February 28th, 2009 at 10:56 am
@Lance: Thanks, I’m glad you’re already including a lot of raw foods. I’m sure your body is thanking you for it. :)
@Martine: Thanks so much! It sounds like you’re already doing great, the energy makes a big difference in motivating us to eat healthy. (It’s one of my big reasons for raw!)
I’m totally going to be posting yummy raw recipes. I want to make more raw recipe videos, but if I can’t film them fast enough I’ll probably just post pictures and recipes. :) Thanks for stopping by!
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Hey Nathalie!
love the look of your blog, keep going and come see what I am up to!
http://www.debbiedoesraw.blogspot.com
deb
March 2nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Nathalie, your site is looking great! Maybe you’d be interested in doing an article in RawFu Magazine sometime. I’d love that.
Come on over and join our community if you’re not a member. It’s fun! http://www.RawFu.com
March 4th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Good for you. I think more and more people are doing the same, partly due to health and ecological issues, and partly because nobody can trust the FDA anymore. I mean, how the heck did a neurotoxin like Apartame become so widespread?
Anyway, I'm slowly migrating to raw foods. I'm almost entirely vegetarian now (except for fish). I found some great vegan / raw food recipes here (for anyone whose interested): http://tinyurl.com/c9vfbk
Great post.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Good for you. I think more and more people are doing the same, partly due to health and ecological issues, and partly because nobody can trust the FDA anymore. I mean, how the heck did a neurotoxin like Apartame become so widespread?
Anyway, I'm slowly migrating to raw foods. I'm almost entirely vegetarian now (except for fish). I found some great vegan / raw food recipes here (for anyone whose interested): http://tinyurl.com/c9vfbk
March 4th, 2009 at 10:08 am
I hear ya about the FDA. I think once we take back our power, and take our health back into our own hands, we won't have to worry about the FDA anymore.
I commend you for migrating toward raw. Going vegetarian is a big step, so congrats! :)
March 4th, 2009 at 10:08 am
I hear ya about the FDA. I think once we take back our power, and take our health back into our own hands, we won't have to worry about the FDA anymore.
I commend you for migrating toward raw. Going vegetarian is a big step, so congrats! :)
March 4th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Good for you. I think more and more people are doing the same, partly due to health and ecological issues, and partly because nobody can trust the FDA anymore. I mean, how the heck did a neurotoxin like Apartame become so widespread?
Anyway, I'm slowly migrating to raw foods. I'm almost entirely vegetarian now (except for fish). I found some great vegan / raw food recipes here (for anyone whose interested): http://tinyurl.com/c9vfbk
March 4th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
I hear ya about the FDA. I think once we take back our power, and take our health back into our own hands, we won't have to worry about the FDA anymore.
I commend you for migrating toward raw. Going vegetarian is a big step, so congrats! :)