(This is Part 5 of a series. Go back to Part 4.)
If we decide to try a living foods diet, it's a good idea to be aware of what can be called the seven pitfalls:
–Eating too much fat. It is quite possible on a living foods diet to focus on foods like avocados, olives, nuts, seeds, etc. and thus take in way too much fat. Some raw-vegans have taken in as much as 65% of their calories from fat. Even if it is raw-vegan, such a diet carries with it all the usual drawbacks of too much fat in the diet.
–Eating raw animal foods. Cooked or raw, animal foods contain no fiber or phytochemicals and are much too high in concentrated fat and protein—which over time tends to damage the liver, kidneys, and the digestive, hormonal and vascular systems. Eskimos eat a lot of raw animal foods, and they have one of the lowest life-expectancies on earth (55 years) and its highest levels of osteoporosis.
–Eating too much salt. I remember going to a raw foods restaurant in San Francisco where every dish had a lot of salt. To me, this distorted the whole idea of a living diet. Salt is an inorganic mineral which is toxic to the body except in the small amounts found in natural plant foods. In a state of nature, we do not eat inorganic salt (salt not found naturally in foods).
–Eating "refined" raw foods. Even fresh juice is a step toward refinement. It concentrates sugar and removes most of the fiber. An apple is closer to nature than apple juice. Similarly, foods that have been dehydrated are a step away from nature. It's another form of concentration and steps away from the natural form created by nature. This is one of those areas where a little goes a long way.
–Emphasizing "magic" raw foods. A good example is dehydrated algae. In nature we would not consume algae because it is not in our size-scale. In nature, we'd be looking for something in our size-scale such as a fresh ripe piece of fruit. Except in cases of specific deficiency, a natural living-food diet does not need magic foods or supplements of any kind.
–Making it too complicated. Our minds are capable of making even a simple natural diet into a complicated affair where lots of ingredients and preparation must go into a raw dish. But in nature we would probably at any given time eat just one fruit until we felt satiated. Such a
mono-meal is how virtually every animal in nature eats.
–De-emphasizing fruit. Some raw-vegans eat little fruit and emphasize raw vegetables instead. I have not tried this, but what I hear anecdotally is that this is not optimal. Sometimes low-energy and/or digestive disturbances are encountered on such a diet. Most raw-vegans seem to eventually gravitate to a fruitarian diet, which includes nuts and greens but emphasizes fresh ripe whole fruit.
One last note: Whether on a raw diet or not, if you feel that you don't digest raw vegetables well or that fruit makes your blood sugar go up and down, try a water fast for 10 to 20 days and let your digestive system rest and detoxify. Afterwards, it will almost always be found that vegetables digest well and that a fruitarian diet offers you an effervescent, rock-steady energy supply.
(Of course, a long fast should be undertaken only with the supervision of a health practitioner, one experienced in fasting and familiar with your personal situation.)
Even if we think it's desiralbe, a transition to a fruitarian diet is a flirtatious one for most people. That is, we "flirt" with it for awhile, often for years, going back and forth, on it and off it, before finally crossing the line for good.
Most of us have eaten cooked food for decades and thus have a deep habitual groove in the brain about cooked food. For decades we've associated cooked foods with the pleasure of eating. Thus, even if we think it's desirable, escaping from the gravitational pull of cooked foods is not a trivial process.
What's important is our vision of a vital, living-foods existence. Then if we have a "mashed potato attack"—whether for an hour or a year—there is no need to put ourselves down. It's an opportunity, if we wish, when we wish, to rededicate and refocus ourselves upon that vision of aliveness.
A fruitarian diet may or may not be the right path for us
at this time. Each of us is the judge of that. But if we do choose it, the benefits are many:
For example, our senses of sight, hearing, smell and taste become more sensitive, more vivid. The breath is sweet; no mouthwash needed. The teeth always feel clean. The eyes become clear and radiant. The skin becomes soft and velvety. We sleep soundly and, upon wakening, feels an inner joy at being alive.
Additionally, we naturally feel more attuned to nature. We feel a natural kinship with the organic food/farming movement, a natural sisterhood with the animal-welfare movement, a natural brotherhood with the environmental and sustainable-planet movements, and a natural oneness with the earth and all beings who live upon it.
(This is the end of Part 5. Go to Part 6.)
—jim sloman, 12.5.05
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