We Have Minorities - revisited

[Guest guest]

The problem that I was addressing is that there

are a number of raw food gurus (read people who

make it sound like they know all) out there who make

it sound like, if you do not eat your food in the

original form that it came in, then you are doing wrong.

(I am not going to name names... I am just here to tell

people that they do not have to listen when people say

such things). The horrified response by people such as

you is what I want to see, because there are just too many

people who buy into the latest guru, or the reigning guru,

and think that, if they can't do what that guru says,

they will not be able to be healthy, and, so, they should

give up.

I recently attended a raw food group meeting where a woman

was espousing the idea of not processing. Okay, she did not

process anything (I wish she had kept her arms down). She said

that if someone wanted juice, they should chew up the vegetable

or fruit and spit out the part they did not want. I was pretty

much horrified by what she said, but I looked around, and the

the sheep were nodding yes. I was sickened.

 

I went to a raw food meeting where the famous raw food guru/author

told us that we should just eat the food as it comes.

I was shocked, since many of the people I work with

cannot do that, unless the fruit/vegetable is as soft as a banana

and has been cut into bite-sized pieces or even pureed or juiced.

 

One of the problems with the so-called " gurus " who are cropping

up, recently, is that they are only thinking of healthy people with

all the parts God gave them working at some basic level.

 

They cheerfully pronounce that we should eat fruit and vegetables

in their natural state, which idea knocks out most of the people

who might benefit from a raw food diet who cannot chew or swallow.

 

All these current gurus espouse a totally " natural " diet patently

disregard the people who could most benefit from a raw food diet, or

consign them to a lesser desirable diet status.

 

There are people who will see these kinds of restrictions to a raw

food diet, which may have been recommended to them as a possible way

to heal, as a barrier, and back off, and begin to look elsewhere, when

" this where " would have been the answer to their issues.

 

Hard line is ridiculous, except where it is CAN be used in healing

therapy.

If you think root vegetables are verboten, okay, don't eat them.

Carrot juice, and the juice of other root vegetables, can be used to

heal people.

 

If you think that only " whole fruit " and " whole vegetables " should be

consumed, then fine, if your teeth and swallowing system are up to it,

God bless. Keep on doing was you see fit.

 

People who cannot chew, and/or cannot swallow are not at fault and

should not be excluded from raw food lifestyle and its healing benefits.

 

We must ALL work at being more PC ( " politically correct " for those of

you who have not read any current literature of any sort) in our

presentation, and discussion of the raw food lifestyle, particularly

in public forums, so as not to alienate and/or discourage those who

cannot (for physical reasons) meet our own (personally chosen) high

standards.

 

I am personally shocked by the number of negative comments I have

received regarding my post. All too many people are too busy being

perfect to notice that there are far too many people out there, who

proclaim themselves to be experts, or who posit themselves as gurus,

suggesting that the only way to eat raw food is leaf by leaf, biting

into an apple, biting an orange section, chewing it, and swallowing

it, eating a tomato whole, or eating nuts straight out of the shell.

 

Coming from a much more primitive and less refined moment in time,

i.e., before so many gurus existed, and when there was only raw food,

and knives were not weapons but fair things to use in kitchen, yea,

when Cuisinart was a new and expensive item, and a Champion juicer was

available only to the well-heeled, I am not well-equipped to accept

the drive to NOT PROCESS. Working with people who cannot eat food

straight out of the field, I am NOT WILLING to accept this drive to

NOT PROCESS, and, furthermore, I feel it is necessary to speak out

against it. On this list, I have seen this attitude crop up from time

to time since the early beginnings. Going into a local New York City

meeting, in which the famous speaker suggested that people only eat

only whole whole natural raw food, I was close to tears -- my clients

cannot do that.

 

It is time for someone to speak out against the ignorance of the

so-called experts, and, furthermore, to raise the consciousness of

those who are mindlessly yea-saying to these experts, even as they,

themselves are juicing and processing, and, Heaven forbid, chopping

and mincing.

 

If food is raw, if a person processes it without heat exceeding 115

degrees, it will still be raw, regardless of whether that processing

is juicing, cutting/chopping/mincing with a knife, processing in a

food processor or a juicer/blender/Vitamix/YouNameItExpensiveBlender,

or dehydrating, that food will still be raw, and, if any of that is

what a person needs to be able to eat the food, for whatever reason,

it is nobody's business, because that food is still raw.

 

If you want to just eat an apple as it comes off the tree, if your

physical condition permits it, well, God bless you, go right on ahead.

At the same time, please, whoever you are, accept that rawness is

when the food started raw and has not been heated above 145 degrees

(according to most experts), or 125 degrees (according to many

experts) or 95 degrees (according to conservative experts)

 

If you have been reading this, and you still don't get what I am

talking about, please try to understand that people hear what they

hear, and we cannot control what that will be. People who hear that

food should be whole but cannot eat whole food may not be able to

understand that they can " cheat the system " by doing something to that

" whole food " which will allow them to eat it but will not change it

from being raw. Hence, it is important for us to watch what we say

(just as we do around all other sorts of people because we are very PC

people), so that we do not risk scaring off people or causing them to

eliminate themselves before they even try to heal themselves with raw

foods.

Margaret

 

rawfood , " Erica " <schoolofrawk wrote:

>

> rawfood , " Margaret Gamez " <manifestnow@>

> wrote:

> >

> > WE HAVE MINORITIES: How Can We Possibly Disregard People Who Might

> > Benefit From a Raw Food Diet, Bit Who Cannot Follow Our Rules?

> >

>

> > In response to your full piece, is anyone really doing that? Blended

> foods are optimal -- even those who can physically chew okay are

> kidding themselves, generally, because they don't chew ENOUGH and

> surely have compromised digestion (unless raw since birth, etc). Dr.

> Ann fed EVERYONE blended soups 3 meals a day. Energy soup. For that

> reason. Erica

>

[Guest guest]

This was an excellent post! Thanks for clarifying all that Margaret,

and making the other points you did. Very informative

[Guest guest]

I think it's important to understand that there is a continuum of

health and optimal choices. For instance, I know that eating a whole

food in it's natural form is better than eating it processed

(smoothie), or further processed (juiced). This does not mean that

benefits cannot be reaped from the food in those processed states.

Quite the contrary.

 

Janet

 

rawfood , " Margaret Gamez " <manifestnow wrote:

>

> The problem that I was addressing is that there

> are a number of raw food gurus (read people who

> make it sound like they know all) out there who make

> it sound like, if you do not eat your food in the

> original form that it came in, then you are doing wrong.

> (I am not going to name names... I am just here to tell

> people that they do not have to listen when people say

> such things). The horrified response by people such as

> you is what I want to see, because there are just too many

> people who buy into the latest guru, or the reigning guru,

> and think that, if they can't do what that guru says,

> they will not be able to be healthy, and, so, they should

> give up.

> I recently attended a raw food group meeting where a woman

> was espousing the idea of not processing. Okay, she did not

> process anything (I wish she had kept her arms down). She said

> that if someone wanted juice, they should chew up the vegetable

> or fruit and spit out the part they did not want. I was pretty

> much horrified by what she said, but I looked around, and the

> the sheep were nodding yes. I was sickened.

>

> I went to a raw food meeting where the famous raw food guru/author

> told us that we should just eat the food as it comes.

> I was shocked, since many of the people I work with

> cannot do that, unless the fruit/vegetable is as soft as a banana

> and has been cut into bite-sized pieces or even pureed or juiced.

>

> One of the problems with the so-called " gurus " who are cropping

> up, recently, is that they are only thinking of healthy people with

> all the parts God gave them working at some basic level.

>

> They cheerfully pronounce that we should eat fruit and vegetables

> in their natural state, which idea knocks out most of the people

> who might benefit from a raw food diet who cannot chew or swallow.

>

> All these current gurus espouse a totally " natural " diet patently

> disregard the people who could most benefit from a raw food diet, or

> consign them to a lesser desirable diet status.

>

> There are people who will see these kinds of restrictions to a raw

> food diet, which may have been recommended to them as a possible way

> to heal, as a barrier, and back off, and begin to look elsewhere, when

> " this where " would have been the answer to their issues.

>

> Hard line is ridiculous, except where it is CAN be used in healing

> therapy.

> If you think root vegetables are verboten, okay, don't eat them.

> Carrot juice, and the juice of other root vegetables, can be used to

> heal people.

>

> If you think that only " whole fruit " and " whole vegetables " should be

> consumed, then fine, if your teeth and swallowing system are up to it,

> God bless. Keep on doing was you see fit.

>

> People who cannot chew, and/or cannot swallow are not at fault and

> should not be excluded from raw food lifestyle and its healing benefits.

>

> We must ALL work at being more PC ( " politically correct " for those of

> you who have not read any current literature of any sort) in our

> presentation, and discussion of the raw food lifestyle, particularly

> in public forums, so as not to alienate and/or discourage those who

> cannot (for physical reasons) meet our own (personally chosen) high

> standards.

>

> I am personally shocked by the number of negative comments I have

> received regarding my post. All too many people are too busy being

> perfect to notice that there are far too many people out there, who

> proclaim themselves to be experts, or who posit themselves as gurus,

> suggesting that the only way to eat raw food is leaf by leaf, biting

> into an apple, biting an orange section, chewing it, and swallowing

> it, eating a tomato whole, or eating nuts straight out of the shell.

>

> Coming from a much more primitive and less refined moment in time,

> i.e., before so many gurus existed, and when there was only raw food,

> and knives were not weapons but fair things to use in kitchen, yea,

> when Cuisinart was a new and expensive item, and a Champion juicer was

> available only to the well-heeled, I am not well-equipped to accept

> the drive to NOT PROCESS. Working with people who cannot eat food

> straight out of the field, I am NOT WILLING to accept this drive to

> NOT PROCESS, and, furthermore, I feel it is necessary to speak out

> against it. On this list, I have seen this attitude crop up from time

> to time since the early beginnings. Going into a local New York City

> meeting, in which the famous speaker suggested that people only eat

> only whole whole natural raw food, I was close to tears -- my clients

> cannot do that.

>

> It is time for someone to speak out against the ignorance of the

> so-called experts, and, furthermore, to raise the consciousness of

> those who are mindlessly yea-saying to these experts, even as they,

> themselves are juicing and processing, and, Heaven forbid, chopping

> and mincing.

>

> If food is raw, if a person processes it without heat exceeding 115

> degrees, it will still be raw, regardless of whether that processing

> is juicing, cutting/chopping/mincing with a knife, processing in a

> food processor or a juicer/blender/Vitamix/YouNameItExpensiveBlender,

> or dehydrating, that food will still be raw, and, if any of that is

> what a person needs to be able to eat the food, for whatever reason,

> it is nobody's business, because that food is still raw.

>

> If you want to just eat an apple as it comes off the tree, if your

> physical condition permits it, well, God bless you, go right on ahead.

> At the same time, please, whoever you are, accept that rawness is

> when the food started raw and has not been heated above 145 degrees

> (according to most experts), or 125 degrees (according to many

> experts) or 95 degrees (according to conservative experts)

>

> If you have been reading this, and you still don't get what I am

> talking about, please try to understand that people hear what they

> hear, and we cannot control what that will be. People who hear that

> food should be whole but cannot eat whole food may not be able to

> understand that they can " cheat the system " by doing something to that

> " whole food " which will allow them to eat it but will not change it

> from being raw. Hence, it is important for us to watch what we say

> (just as we do around all other sorts of people because we are very PC

> people), so that we do not risk scaring off people or causing them to

> eliminate themselves before they even try to heal themselves with raw

> foods.

> Margaret

>