why raw food is like a salad bar… is that ironic? no really, is it?

Before I begin I’d just like to say how utterly in love I am with the irony in the title of this post.  It is irony isn’t it?  Is it?  Sometimes when I think I know what irony is I question whether I’ve ever really fully grasped the concept of it at all.  Maybe that is in itself ironic somehow.  See what I mean?  There’s probably no irony there, even in that.  Please can someone tell me whether raw food being like a salad bar is ironic?  Thanks.

Moving on.

So I was watching Big Trouble in Little China the other night and there was a bit in it that literally hit me in its profundity.  If you haven’t seen this film you really, really have got to go and watch it immediately. 

The bit that spoke to me was this:

“…The Chinese mix everything up… There’s Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoist alchemian sorcery.  We take what we want and leave the rest…just like your salad bar” 

And this is how I feel about the whole raw food movement.  You see, there is a lot of conflicting information out there.  I spoke before about how easy it is to get overwhelmed.  It feels like all your raw food gurus have something different to say about what you should be eating, what you should definitely not be eating, when you should be eating, who you should be eating with, sleeping with bla bla bla bla shoot me already…

So what do you do?

Well, you treat it like a salad bar.  A big gigantic imaginary salad bar with everything.  The whole damn shebang. 

You walk round the salad bar, you see what’s on offer, what everyone has to say, what everyone thinks about the various aspects of eating raw food and you pick and choose what appeals to you!  

Fill your plate, try it out and then decide.

Nobody says you have to have a bit of everything.  You can take just one or two bits and leave the rest. 

Do what you want.

Maybe next week when you visit the salad bar you will fancy something a bit different.  Maybe something you had last week didn’t agree with you.  Maybe you just feel like sexing things up a bit. 

MIX IT UP!

Essentially we need to become our own god-damned guru.

Embracing someone else’s philosophy in its entirety is a bit like trying to be someone else.  Weird and doomed to failure. 

You are you! 

Make your own philosophy.

So yeah, salad bar.  Pick and choose.  Try little bits of everything.  Savour and enjoy.  Spit things out you don’t like.  Be open to experimentation.  Have some motherfucking fun!