So I wasn't planning on really sharing this with a significant amount of people for a great while, but tonight we just got back from our 1st RAW FOOD/Vegan Potluck @ Taft in Houston and I am just so inspired and positively encouraged that I can't help but share that Patrick & I are going RAW.
That's right! We've been eating nothing but raw food (vegetables & fruit) for the last 4 days. And yes, it's been hard at times, although not all the time. WHY? Because I've known for a long time that eating the typical American diet is the wrong way to go, but I just CANNOT ignore it any longer. I read the monumental book: "The China Study" recently and it really BLEW my mind!
The fact is....it is plain and clear that eating tons and tons of animal products everyday: meat, dairy, eggs.....is significantly increasing our risk of a ton of chronic diseases. I think one of the most devastating diseases by far that I see everyday in patients I take care of at work is definitely Diabetes. Diabetes is just such a terrible disease that leads to so many things later down the line and people just kind of ignore it--> coronary artery disease, renal failure, peripheral vascular disease, diabetic retinopathy. So in other words you end up on hemodialysis, missing one or both of your legs (from amputations from gangrene foot ulcers), blind, and with heart failure. This is just plain and simple. Of course I know you are thinking of someone you know that has diabetes and how they don't have one or all of those things...but if you have DIABETES or metabolic syndrome then in my opinion you are on your way down this path.
I would be devastated, just absolutely devastated if I ever got diabetes. What really really impressed me about "The China Study" was the section on diabetes. They took patients with typical UNCONTROLLED diabetes taking tons of insulin everyday and put them on a vegetarian diet and then others on a vegan diet. The ones on the vegan diet were off all their diabetes medication at the end of 30 days. Can you fucking believe that?!? To me that is amazing, because diabetes is truly a horiible, horrible disease. Other topics in the book that were real highlights for me were: breast cancer and diet relationships, and also when the book covered the topic of menopause.
(*Side Note: The avergae age of a girl in America to start her menstrual cycle is 9-12 yrs old. In Japan the average age for a Japanese girl is 15-17. What does that tell you!? And no it isn't the water!)
Anyway, I'm really past the convincing me part. I know a lot of people in the general public view vegans and people who only eat raw food as crazy people. But really what it boils down to is ignorance. I wouldn't say this is necessarily something I WANT to do or that I ENJOY doing yet, but it's to that point where I believe that if I don't do something then I'm just going to end up like every other OBESE, minimally active, bacon eating, cheeseburger eating, caffeine addicted, pill popping, congestive heart failure, renal failure, demented, CABG x 4, cancer infested middle to late aged person in their 50's-70's.
And this isn't just about weight control, this is about what is going on in the inside of the body on the molecular level. I'm not trying to live forever, but I do want to be healthy and comfortable while I'm here. There is no reason why at 54 years old you should be bedridden and infested with disease.
For right now we are all or nothing. Black or white. Maybe later on down the road after we DETOX from our life of eating meat we can have some cooked vegan meals instead of just RAW. But right now we have to get over that big hump of no longer wanting the bad substances. We've already noticed changes and it's only been 4 days.
Excited/Inspired/ afterthought....am I crazy?
P.S. And if you think vegetarians or vegans are crazy or whatever think again- I think if we continue to live in the dark ages about what we are putting in our mouths- we will just continue to spiral out of control with our CHRONIC DISEASE AND OBESITY. Look at the OBESITY in AMERICA- it is astonishing. Don't be fooled- the American public is CONSTANTLY marketed to everyday- every second and it is ALL FOR MONEY. CORN is in everything- SUGAR IS IN EVERYTHING! Think of what this is doing to our bodies- WHY IS CORN IN EVERYTHING? b/c it is CHEAP! It's all about the $, not your health!
