In the raw

For years, I've heard about the radical lifestyle known as the raw diet.  I say "radical" because I always thought someone had to be completely off the deep end  or a self-obsessed celebrity to only eat raw foods but I might be slowly changing my mind.

Last Friday I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when my supervisor came up to me and asked "are you on the raw diet?"  Whaaaattt??? Why would she ever think that I would be on a raw diet?  She quickly filled in the blanks as I stared at her with a puzzled look.

"Well, I saw the container of raw almonds on your desk and I heard that you ran a few competitive races this summer, so I was thinking that you might be interested in eating raw," she said.

First of all, I eat almonds because I like almonds.  Second of all, they just label the almonds that I buy "raw" because they're not covered in salt or some other crazy flavor enhancer.

Looking less puzzled, but still a little perturbed I continued to listen to her.  "If you'd like to learn more, I have a fantastic raw book that I can bring you.  I tried it for a little while and had an amazing amount of energy.  I was wired, I only needed about four hours of sleep a night!"

I said I was looking for more energy and that I would think about it.  But then this morning, she plunked down the book on my desk, 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko.  I chuckled a little to myself thinking, "this is all just a big misunderstanding, I'm not going to eat cold vegetable soup for the rest of my life."  But, I figured I would be nice and page through the book, just in case my supervisor happened to walk by again.

I started reading the first chapter and before I knew it, I was engrossed in Victoria Boutenko's story about how she decided to go "raw" 18 years ago to save the lives of her family members.  In 1993, she was obese and suffering from a heart arryhthmia and edema, her husband had chronic rheumatoid arthritis and hyperthyroidism, her daughter had severe asthma and allergies and her son had just been diagnosed with diabetes.  At that time they were spending up to $4,000 a month on medical bills and eating an unhealthy diet of cooked and processed foods.  After just two months on the raw diet, Victoria said that her family's health problems had all but disappeared.

Do I want to believe this?  Yes.  I've read a lot recently on the benefits of eliminating processed foods from your diet.  I was also turned onto a documentary called "Food Matters."  It addresses the problems with this country's food industry and the pill-popping culture that has invaded modern medicine and is the direct result of pharmaceutical companies.

Most importantly, I think I might want to consider this diet because of a recent conversation that I had with two friends.  Both women, they had suffered incredible physical pain in recent months and it was because of deficiencies in their diets.  After months of terrible chest pain and inconclusive test results from doctors, one of my friends self-diagnosed her allergy to gluten.  She has eliminated foods that contain gluten and has lost 15 pounds and the chest pains are gone.

What it boils down to is a simple principal.  If your diet is not healthy, your body will tell you in all sorts of ways.  Every morning that I wake up, I feel like I have not slept at all and I even feel more tired than when I went to sleep.  I should not be this tired at my age.  I am working out regularly and my energy level has improved slightly, but the exhaustion persists and I have to take that as sign.

So, I will start small.  In the book, the author suggests easing yourself into a raw diet or just adding more fruits and vegetables to a cooked diet to see an improvement.  I will take her suggestion to blend "green smoothies" which consist of 60 % fruits and 40% green vegetables.  I can do that.  It doesn't take that much effort and could possibly even convert me to a "raw-fooder" as the author calls her kind.  At most, it will probably improve my overall health and that's a good thing!