the rawligion

Rawligion, a set of beliefs about how best to be raw, eat raw, think raw and do raw.  As with any religion, it is possible to find rawligious zealots, fanatics and evangelists but luckily so far, no suicide bombers 🙂

It’s common these days to find raw foodists from different ‘camps’ who resonate with different ‘leaders’.  Do you follow the wisdom of [insert name here]….David Wolfe? Doug Graham? Shazzie? Brian Clement? Tonya Zavasta? Kate Magic? The Monarchs?  Viktoria Boutenko?  Daniel Vitalis?  Kevin Gianni?  The answer to this question will usually say a lot about what you think about raw food and what raw food you eat.  Usually, not always.  I’m not criticising any of these ‘raw gurus’, I’ve taken something important for my own health and wellbeing from each and every one and I’m grateful to them all for sharing their experiences with the world.

It’s so fantastic to see so much raw food information ‘out there’, spreading the good message about moving away from processed junk to a more natural wholefood diet.  More and more people are accessing the benefits of greens, superfoods, sprouts, fresh fruit etc. and I don’t think it will be long before raw foodism becomes more mainstream what with the advent of raw chocolate and raw bars in supermarkets.

The downside however, is that because there is a whole lot more information out there about how best to eat raw, it’s beginning to confuse people from the outside looking in.  So much so that we run the risk of people getting turned off before they’ve even got turned on!  Raw food forums are frought with the rights and wrongs of how best to eat raw food based somewhat on experience but also to a larger extent on whichever raw guru they resonate with.  There are newbies who are heavily influenced by those that shout loudest or are better at conveying or regurgitating the information they’ve been told despite the fact they either a) don’t follow that advice themselves or b) they do but they’re not getting the results the other person wants.

For example, 801010, works just fabby for a lot of people, living out there in the tropics, access to ripe freshly picked fruit and wanting to do 3 hours a day exercise.  Chances are that might work for you, living in Glasgow, freezing your arse off chomping on fruit picked before it was ripe and likely weeks before, sat behind a desk all day.  Chances are it won’t.  But if you subscribe to that rawligion then you’re gonna find yourself in a tricky situation if you start to not feel so great despite being told ‘this is the way’.  I’m not berating 801010, I know it works for some people.  I know it doesn’t for others.  That’s the way it goes.

In my opinion and experience this search for the ultimate way to eat raw only seeks to complicate matters further and lead people down a more dangerous path of being frightened about what they can eat.  So what to do?

Well, after running around in circles listening to everyone out there I made the decision to listen to myself.  Yes indeedy, I have taken the best from what everyone has to offer and after some (ok, a lot of) trial and error, started my own rawligion.  I am officially my own raw guru and I have my own commandments and everything!  Still working on the crown…

Commandments

1.  Listen to your own body and discover what works for you – trial and error

2.  Share your experience with those that ask for it but do not get embroiled in other rawligions

3.  Listen to the people getting the results you want but remember that what works for them, may not work for you

4.  Chill out

How good are they?  It’s a great rawligion and so far it’s working for me just dandy.  If you’re in the confusion boat heading straight for the sea of what the hell? then I encourage you to form your own rawligion and be your own guru.  Your body will soon tell you whether what your doing is working or not.

Have fun, it’s not rocket surgery 🙂