Here they are. 7 of them.

1. Diversity

   Love: Going raw helped me discover so many new varieties of fruits and vegetables. I tried new tropical fruits from around the world (like durian), and delightfully local vegetables growing in my backyard.

   Hate: I cut out tons of things that some might not even consider to be fit for human consumption. Most days I’m fine with that, but sometimes it sucks.

2. Relationships

   Love: I met tons of amazing new people through my foray into healthy eating-land. I still meet new amazing people, most notably: you.

   Hate: Like I’ve written about in the past, going raw can rock the boat on any relationship. It’s not something to be overlooked.

3. Evangelism

   Love: When you find something that works for you, you want to shout it off the rooftops and make sure everyone knows about it. That’s how it is for me and eating more fruits and veggies.

   Hate: Sometimes people make their own judgement about your experiences and your ideas. They think you’re promoting an eating disorder, or that you’re trying to push a scam diet onto them.

4. What Defines You

   Love: On the one hand it can be great to be “the healthy one” in the room, always able to lend a hand or recommend a solution to someone.

   Hate: Eventually you realize that you’re a lot more multifaceted than you thought, and you would like to discuss topics other than raw food, weight loss, and the like.

5. Ancestral Habits

   Love: I love the idea of eating closer to nature, eating the way that my long-ago ancestors may have eaten. Grazing, picking berries.

   Hate: Humans have been evolving for thousands of years, and there’s a reason that we’ve got cooked food and blenders. We don’t have all day to sit around and chew.

6. The Word Diet

   Love: Having boundaries and lines helps. We’re all a little too easily swayed by commercials and photos of happy mouths eating unhealthy food.

   Hate: I’ve never dieted. I don’t like the word, and it’s not something I think really works for anyone really. So why use the word, with all the baggage that comes with it?

7. My Calling

   Love: I love that I am here to help people eat more raw food. Whether I can spare you the hate part of the love/hate relationship, I don’t know. But I’ll certainly try to make eating more fresh fruits and veggies a fun experience. Not an all or nothing, but a balanced, welcoming life style.

   Hate: I can’t stand watching people I love hurt. It hurts me to see them, especially if I think I have the answer. (Do I have the answer? We can only know once we give things a try.) But I think that’s part of the job too, allowing people to come to their own realizations.

What do you love or hate about raw food?

These are mine. Share yours in the comments. :)