Eating raw food: Its all about attitude

Confessions of a raw-foodist

In the society we live in, eating uncooked food is looked down upon, considered dangerous. We are inundated daily w/ propaganda in the news, billboards, nutrition facts, commercials, all telling us to eat cooked food. They tell us to consume whole grain bread, to cut back on protein and fat, and increase on legumes, beans, potatoes, rice, etc. They tell us poisonous propaganda, and people eat it up like bowl of rice w/ soy sauce.

How do you bypass all this propaganda and widely perceived societal perceptions of eating raw food? How do you overcome the weird looks you receive as you grab a hunk of ground beef and pop it in your mouth like a gumdrop? How do you go to family dinners as your relatives inhale cooked to death turkey and buttered bread? I recently read an article by a man attempting to follow in Anjonous' diet, but failing because he couldn't take the pressure of his social life, and raw food diet, not meshing:

Social pressures have a great deal to do with diet. As I've said, my wife doesn't share at all in this diet and I'm going to my son's home for Thanksgiving dinner. He and his family don't share in this diet either. So, I'll be the "only one" eating in this strange way on this special occasion. That is tough to do for anyone! It's hard to go to a birthday party and refuse the cake! It is even harder to then start lecturing to the party-goers about the evils of sugar!

If you are a pot smoker, for instance, and all your friends are pot smokers, you will feel very much out of place in the Woman's Christian Temperance Society. The reverse is true, obviously.

If you with your American values were to try to live in an African village of cannibals, you could hardly find it "right" to kill and eat your enemies. What is right for them is not right for you. You would have a hard time "fitting in" that group.

So, we are a society of cooked food eaters! We are a society of sugar eaters. When you deviate THIS much from such a basic behavior, you will not fit in. Click here to read about my personal experience with compromising my own reality and eating a full complement of cooked food just to "fit in." I regretted it soon thereafter.

Even if you suppress your disgust at others eating cooked stuff, you feel it. Even when they are polite to you, they consider you weird.

I don't know what the solution for this is, but I am obviously looking for it.

This desire to be with people who are "like you" certainly explains why Catholics marry Catholics, usually, and why it is a big deal when it doesn't happen. That is not so rigid today as it used to be, so it's a safe example to use here.

When I was young it was a real deviant behavior for a black person and a white person to marry -- still not "normal" but more accepted.

In this same way, I suppose, we will arrive at a social acceptance of "raw food eaters."

http://www.karlloren.com/Diabetes/raw-food-diet.htm

Now here is his biggest mistake: Perception.

Because our society has been in the same routine for so long, we fear deviating from the herd, we fear exclusion, we fear alienation.

My experiences w/ people's perceptions about my diet have varied, but mostly it has not been negative. When you fear something, or you are self-conscious of something, it is maximized to the outside world as being more extreme than it truly is. For example, if you wake up one morning w/ a pimple, you are completely horrified and you don't even want to leave your house; then throughout your day, everyone will probably stare at your pimple. But; if you wake up, stick some medicine on it, think;(its not too bad)and completely forget its even there, people will hardly even notice it.

I had one experience that really changed my outlook and made me feel really good, when I was working for Greenpeace.
When you were recruited to work sites, they usually sent a partner w/ you, especially when you're a noob. I was recruited w/ a guy, who was kinda nerdy, his hair was thinning and he was MY age, and he tried his best to eat the seattlite healthy way(soy milk and wheat bread etc.) I told him right off I ate raw meat(When I tell people I eat raw meat I act casual, like its perfectly normal)He said; "Really? Straight up just raw meat?" I said "Yup." He says to me; "So at lunch today, your just gonna pull out a package of raw meat and start eating it?" I reply; "Yes."

So lunch rolls around, I pull out my little Styrofoam and plastic wrapped package of ground beef, and I start eating it, dipping it in my favorite Annie's mustard. My companion then looks at me, pushes his meal to the side, and says; "Alright!" Now my first thought is he can't handle watching me eat my ground beef, and he's lost his appetite, but then he says; "Let me try some, I've gotta try everything at least once!" I'm in complete shock, totally speechless, this cooked food eater is asking to try some of my raw meat! I say; "Are you sure?" He's like; "Yeah why not!" So I pass him the package, and my mustard. He grabs a hunk, dips it, pops it in his mouth, chews it a bit, and tells me; "Hey, that's not too bad, I thought it would taste gross."

That experience greatly imprinted me, to realize that if you act strange and hidden about your raw meat eating habits, people will perceive it the same way as if you were hiding your meth pipe and losing rapid amounts of weight and you don't want anyone knowing.

So my general attitude about raw meat, is to sit down, w/e your hungry, and enjoy a good bowl of ground beef uninhibited. If people ask what your eating, simply state; "A bowl of raw meat." Don't act shy or nervous, be forward about your diet. If they ask questions, answer as politely as possible, you'll be surprised how many people are just curious more than they are disgusted or disturbed. I've had a lot of people just think it was really awesome that I was the only person they'd ever met that ate raw meat. Act like your raw meat eating is cool(cause it totally is)and be proud of your unique and healthy food choice, and the fact that you are way hotter than your cooked food eating friend!

Sky