I’ve gained a small amount of reputation among friends, family, and followers as ‘that girl’ who not only creates delicious raw food, but preaches it as a lifestyle.
While the first is correct, the second isn’t 100%. I emphasize including more live, bio-dynamic, plant-based foods into one’s lifestyle – especially if that individual is seeking to heal, but as an overall lifestyle adjustment, I don’t think a 100% live food (raw vegan) diet is optimal. Let me explain:
As I once wrote in Raw Vs Paleo Vs Vegan, a popular post that has probably driven 25% of traffic to this site, I have experimented with a plethora of diets, and being fascinated by all aspects of the human health system (Holistic Nutritionist here!), I’ve studied them even more. You name it: Atkins, Low-Carb, Paleo, Bullet-Proof, Low-Fat High Carb, Vegan, Plant-based, etc… There are as many diets as individuals on this planet, I’m sure, because at one time or another, someone found a way of eating, or a “lifestyle” that helped their body regain balance, and in effect, they healed.
Here’s where most people go wrong, though. There’s this belief that the body is somehow ‘wounded’ and/or ‘afflicted’, and that it’s a certain type of ‘diet’ or super-food that allows it to heal. No, no, no. Your body is healed and tends towards a perfect condition, but your thoughts, your food choices, and your diet all affect it, and when we consume a modern diet of processed, acid-forming, and unbalanced food choices, disease results.
Clear out the junk (the basis of most diets, regardless of their macro-nutrient rules), and the body is more easily able to heal itself.
I’ve just finished reading a book called “Food and Healing” by Ann Marie Colbin, and I highly recommend it to every individual interested in understanding the basis of ALL principles of diets and health. She lays out in ways I can’t even begin to try to comprehend the yin / yang balance of the body, spirit, mind, and how food relates. In most diets, there are expansive and contractive foods, and their energetic properties (related to salt / sugar / cooked / uncooked qualities) have different effects on the body.
The reason the raw food lifestyle is SO beneficial for people seeking to heal, is that most people are stagnated and ‘too contractive’ (Yang) due to high sugar, high acid, high meat, highly refined / processed foods common in the Standard American diet. Once they adopt more of a Yin diet comprised of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains, greens, seaweeds, they immediately become more ‘expansive’ and a balance is found. Or at least for 3-4 years. This is about the time the certain health problems set in, and I was no exception.
If you consume only cooling, expansive foods, one is likely to become ‘ungrounded’, spacey, and oftentimes, cold, the symptoms of imbalance. It doesn’t help that certain leaders only counteract such claims by saying “Eat More! You’re not eating enough!”… and the person doesn’t actually find the balance they once obtained by switching, but throughout time continue to develop more issues. These sometimes manifest as dry, stringy hair, inability to think, and even dental problems.
While I still believe a predominantly plant-based diet is optimal for health, and live foods should make up a large part of that, to tout 100% raw foods and not take into consideration the valuable aspects of health taught throughout thousand-year-old systems of healing (Chinese and Ayurvedic) is to be ignorant, and quite honestly, a bad healer.
How did I come across such realization and awakening of how all systems work together (meaning there are never EVER bad food choices – if obtained naturally, organic, unprocessed – just poor diets for certain people at different times)? Through meditation. It began while sitting in my bedroom in Costa Rica and allowing the exhilarating light of awareness run through my body. What happened next was shocking: I was shown and told the principles of how my body was unbalanced, but also how I could counteract it (this information came over a period of a few weeks).
I was shown (without any previous knowledge of Chinese Medicine, and little to none pertaining to Ayurveda, only awareness of the Doshas) how there was a condition of ‘dampness’ in my body, and how I had become too ‘warm’. Humidity and tropical fruits weren’t helping it, and I was told that I was ‘expansive’. I had no idea what this meant.
Talks with spiritual-minded braniac Topher helped me understand that ‘expansiveness’ = inflammation, and that made sense. I’ve been shown and feel that my body is not at its optimal state of health, even though ‘finding health’ is part of what I have dedicated my life to. It took humility and faith in Source to listen to my higher intuition and adopt a more Yang diet similar to that of Macrobiotics, focused on low-glycemic vegetables, some grains, sprouts, coconuts, and avocados.
Immediately differences were felt, my skin got better, I started losing water weight, and my MIND (which I already thought was super sharp) became more clear and focused than before. This is a big one for me, and such small differences have inspired me to continue on with this.
Everything I read in 
Such revelations are exciting pertaining to the quest of helping others find their own balance. Such information also explains a lot about why certain diets can be incredibly healing for some, while not as much for others.
More information will continue to be shared on the topic of this post (there could probably be 1,000 books written on this!), but it’s exciting nonetheless.
So there you go. I don’t eat 100% raw. I explained my position and reasoning, and urge you to keep an open mind if exploring this more.
Above all, ALWAYS listen to your body and highest self. Good healers are able to tap into the energetic principles of others and share insight of what may be best… but such insights are always there for you to comprehend as well.
If your health is suffering, be open to change. If you are seeking to detox, check out a raw food diet! If you are seeking to balance and find stability after 3-5 years on a raw food diet, incorporate more Macrobiotic. (There’s a LOT to learn, however, before you dive into such radical changes.
Message me if you want more info, plus definitely read Ann Marie Colbin’s book and other works).
The health of the human vessel and spirit is an interesting and elusive topic, but I truly believe that one day we will come to understand that health is not a permanent state of being, but a condition that flits in and out changing with our dietary, lifestyle, and mental choices. Although it should be the natural state of being, we must be mindful and always open to adapting our eating and lifestyle choices to stay operating at peak performance.
You can begin transforming your health by going predominantly plant-based, that much is for sure. But remember this post when you start to become too radical or dogmatic. You ALWAYS have option of how you want to eat, and as ‘blooming for life’ is the focus, there will never ever be anything to apologize for if you keep happiness as the main purpose of your journey.
Blessings,
Amanda Froelich
Pssst – For ease, here’s her book on Amazon:
