Any new thoughts on this? I just recently got to know what's a RAW foodism and it kinda makes sense to me (on the level of my personal knowledge about diet, food, pieces of various studies, etc..).
The question I've asked myself many times (over the course of 8years of tweaking of my diet) is - "How X food is beneficial to me?".. I've eliminated many "usual" products answering it. Over that course I've actually was heading to the "RAW" diet without knowledge (by assesing the results). First there were sweets - I was a HEAVY duty addict, you wouldn't imagine what amount of sweet (various) foods I could eat in a hour (I'm lucky I have the genes not to get fat). I had major problems with acne in my teen years. Accidentally (after hearing 6, f*ckin 6 dermatologists, some of them prescribed me hormonal skin creams, that food DOES NOT cause acne) found that it was exactly the main trigger of it. Cut sweats in ONE day.. well like 70% of them. Acne started dissapearing the next day, like magic, after a good 4-5 years of torture and cluelesness. Experienced hard withdrawal symptoms, relapsed many times in first 3 years, but they went away step by step year after year, though until half a year ago there still were spontaneous cravings that were very hard to resist (but I did, most of them). I say until half a year ago, because approx. by that time I went like 70% "raw" without knowing (eliminated all the baked semi-sweats, all the processed semi-healthy foods I still eated from time to time, milk, various sauces, evan these called "No conservants", salt...).
It's too big list to name the things I eliminated, I can tell what's left - wheat, lean beef, chicken breast, fish, sallads, fruits, some grains (buckwheat, rice, not cooked, soaked) and occasionally bread (considering to get rid off it too, or eat just whole grain one. WUALLA - the PHYSICAL cravings STOPPED, all of a sudden, without thinking, one evening when I was hungry I saw a stack of chocolates and other sweets laying around (for guests) in the cupboard and felt just a TINY psychological eager to eat, but more like "..may be tasty, but.. Meh..'" lol. And believe me - this WAS significant for me as I know what a hell I came through when withdrawing from these sweets. BTW - my digestive system never worked better then now. No "drowsiness" after eating (even a lot. as a bodybuilder I eat a lot of these foods) 10 mins and you feel like you haven't eated at all (just not hungry and full of energy). Once I got a bad poisoning from fish. Before my second meal of some grains and chicken. After TWO hours (of this meal) I've decided to wash my stomach with water (vommit) and guess what - there were just a FLUIDS I've washed out, no unprocessed meat, anything.
Back to the RAW foodists, is it just my impressions or most of the ones I've already saw (in pics or vods on the internet) have very healthy glowing skin? Good looking, "bad" looking, "young"/"old", skin just glows. Some of them were just too good to believe, but as I'm reading further - most of them gives advice free of charge and doesn't try to "hook" you up on some products/creams/substances, which is a good sign in my book.
This really got me interesting. What is this all about (if it's true) - semi-CR diet? Lack of proteins (so a LOT better maintenance of them, like in these bats or mole rats)? Lack of AGE (maybe it's the most important factor in CR. You consume less - you get less AGE, less intracellular junk, more cleaning, better repairing, etc)? These "enzymes" (which I doubt, but most of these ppl aren't scientists, just persons who seemingly gets results they want, so it's understandable why some even goes far as "spiritual changes" explanations)?
At this phase (of life extension) I'm open to a lot of viewpoints. I even actually would consider more the opinion of a 60+ year old who looks like a 40 (hot one) or a guy who has flawless skin at the same age, then an old wrinkled scientist with one study on the hands (no offence to these guys, just another way of viewing things). I say this because there was so many actual experience VS scientific proof misalignments (for some time before actual proof comes) like - anabolic steroids. Everybody (that used) knew they are working, working wonders, and many scientists until late 80s claimed "There aren't any evidence that they actually work as said" untial actual studies were performed, etc..
It's not even "radical" (as many ppl thinks). What's "radical" about eliminatig food that's no benefit for your body? What's "radical" about not eating products that weren't around just a few hundred years ago and are merely a product of capitalism in a way of creating a meal that stimulates taste receptors to make a person feel good, to stimulate his dopamine system and make him buy these foods again? What's radical of not eating grilled stake (which is SO USUAL u think it's natural to eat one, because u've ate it for years, and millions do the same) if actually it's NO good for your body?
Not smoking is not radical anymore (because many pople does that), though not drinking alcohol (at all) is still considered pretty radical (as so many does that). When in reality it's the same as smoking - you DON'T NEED IT to function, to make your cells turn over, to build healthy new cells, you just DON'T.
Meat, I'm sure human isn't suited to eat meat (after being a hard headed pro meat enthusiast for many years) as no animal processes/cooks/boils/grills of these that eat meat in the nature, though I still eat it (as I need it for my sports), but I'm get surer and surer that it's an alien food for homo sapiens no matter what anybody says. The fact that some of the early ppl couldn't eat plants in the cold areas of the world doesn't mean their genome was suited to processing meat, they just wandered too far away from their origins/the place that was most proper for them to live.
Edited by VidX, 08 August 2009 - 06:19 PM.
