Raw Foodists: The TRUE Green Goers

* What’s New: My Experience with the “Other Side” of Raw

* Feature Article: Raw Foodists: The TRUE Green Goers

My Experience with the “Other Side” of Raw

Last Wednesday, I got the great opportunity to meet a couple of well-known raw foodists.  None other than Matt Monarch and his lovely wife Angela Stokes Monarch stopped by to lecture here in Memphis.

Matt Monarch & Angela Stokes

If you know anything about Matt and Angela, you know that their views on raw food are quite different from mine.  They advocate little fresh fruit, lots of greens, sprouts, dried fruit, dried nuts, supplements, enzymes, colonics, etc. It’s a very low calorie, low exercise, high expense, high maintenance, diet.

I definitely felt the urge to shout “NUH-UH!” quite a bit during the two talks.

None the less, I had a great time at the lecture for a couple of reasons.

First, I was able to meet a few local raw foodists.  While I am a member of the raw food meetup here in Memphis, I am not able to attend because I have class.  This lecture was on a different day so I was able to go.

This was cool because I do not know any raw foodists personally.  It was nice to talk to someone face-to-face about raw and not get the “wow, you’re nuts” look.

There was actually a gentleman there who had lost about 100lbs in one year after going raw.  He passed around a photo of himself before he went raw and you honestly could not tell that it was the same person.

That’s my raw inspiration for at least the next month!

Second, I was able to actually meet individuals from the “other side” of raw (i.e. the mainstream, low-fruit, high-fat crowd) and try to see things from their point of view.

To be brutally honest, this was impossible for me.  I just can’t see how “low-glycemic” dried Inca berries from a bag can compare to a fresh, tree-ripened peach or how a sodium bentonite cleanse is going to remove “years” of waste from inside my colon.

With that said, I was able to latch onto all of the similarities that both the low-fat and mainstream raw foodies share.  There’s the whole raw aspect, of course, but there is also the emphasis on vegan foods, local and organic foods, gradual transitioning, and environmental care.

Speaking of greening the environment…

Raw Foodists: The TRUE Green Goers

You know what really gets my goat?

Wastefulness.

I hate the thought of wasting time.  I hate the thought of wasting energy.  I even hate the thought of wasting food, which is actually one of the reasons I remained a binge eater for so long.

I love efficiency.

I love getting things done in a timely matter.  I love only using as much as I need.

And I LOVE a low fat raw food diet.

Where am I going with all this?

I really don’t consider myself an environmentalist.  I don’t petition for the polar bears and I don’t support the EPA.

I am currently taking a course on health and environmental justice and constantly feel at arms with my fellow classmates and their views on eco-responsibility.

And yet, I am the most environmentally conscious person I know!

Why?

Because I eat a raw food diet.

Cooking is NOT Environmentally Friendly

Because the topic has already been covered extensively, I’m not going to focus too much on meat and dairy consumption in regards to environmental efficacy.   Suffice it to say that the livestock industry has a profound effect on the earth’s trees, topsoil, and water supply.

If you have any doubts that world-wide meat consumption is completely inefficient and has devastating consequences for our environment, be sure to check out the link below:

Eat To Save The Environment?

Let’s consider a cooked vegan diet that excludes, meat, dairy and eggs and typically includes lots of grains, soy and other processed products as well as fruits and vegetables.

Not only is this seen by many as the healthiest of all diets, it is viewed as the most environmentally friendly way to eat as well.

But is this true?

Here’s an example of some of the damaging effects of grains on the environment from Grain Damage: Rethinking the High-Starch Diet by none other than Dr. Douglas Graham:

Modern grain farming has resulted in the loss of almost all of our topsoil.  What was sixteen feet of topsoil a century ago has been reduced to six inches or less on most of our farms.

And a little further on:

The following is a partial list of toxic chemicals used in the processing of grain.  How much residue from these chemicals remains in the grain itself, versus how much is simply dumped in concentrated form onto our top soil is of little consequence.  In either case, these chemicals end up polluting our bodies and the environment.

Mercury
Cyanide
Ammonium salts
Chlorine

(Each of the above, in high enough doses, can cause insanity or even death).

Flourine
Mineral oil
Allum

(These are high-potency toxins).

And we all know how much cooked vegans love their soy!  Here’s a quote from an article from 2004 on the effect of soy cultivation in Brazil:

Soy – at this moment – is the most important driver for deforestation, directly and indirectly,” says environmental analyst Jan Maarten Dros. “Directly because the cerrado is being converted from natural vegetation into soy fields. But indirectly, because in this region a lot of cattle farms are being replaced by soy farmers buying or renting land from cattle farmers.” This means, according to Dros’ 2003 WWF study on the impacts of soybean cultivation in Brazil, that the “cattle farmers tend to advance into new forest area, causing more deforestation.

*But that’s not all!*

Have you ever thought about all of the wasted materials that go into packaging these “environmentally responsible” foods?

Plastic, aluminum, steel, tin, cardboard, etc. are all used to contain prepared products such as oatmeal, granola, pasta, organic chips, gluten-free frozen foods, and the like.

*And we certainly cannot forget about cooking!*

All the heat used to bake, roast, grill, and steam vegetables.

All the water used to cook pasta, potatoes, rice etc.

By the way, do you know how much water it takes to boil a pound of pasta?  4-6 quarts.

That’s at least 1 GALLON of water!

The TRUE Green Goers

If you really want to be as efficient as possible, if you really want to go green, if you really want to do everything you can for Mother Earth, you can’t do much better than eating a healthy raw vegan diet.

The reasoning is quite simple.

The more whole, raw foods you consume, the less processed, packaged ingredients you buy and the less cooking methods you use.  The less processed, packaged ingredients you buy and the less cooking methods you use means less wasted materials and a healthier planet (not to mention a healthier you).

When I compare the amount of material and energy waste before I went raw to after, the results are quite astonishing.

Sure, I was eating a vegan diet and consuming lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, but I was also consuming packaged products everyday, such as oatmeal, sprouted bread, prepared juices, tofu, and lots of dried herbs and spices packaged in plastic bags and containers.

Plus, I ate a whole lot of brown rice and pasta that had to be boiled and a good amount of steamed and baked vegetables.

On the contrary, the foods that I consume now – fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds – require very little to no packaging at all.  In fact, my first two meals of bananas is just that…bananas!

No plastic wrap, no cardboard containers, no twisty ties, etc.  Just banana peels that can easily be composted for a lovely, eco-friendly home garden.

And all of this doesn’t even begin to consider the fact that I am no longer supporting destructive agricultural methods, while at the same time encouraging the growth of environmentally AND ecologically friendly fruit trees.

According to The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation:

Fruit trees heal the environment by cleaning the air, improving soil quality, preventing erosion, creating animal habitat, sustaining valuable water sources, and providing healthy nutrition.

And here’s another one from Grain Damage:

During the great floods of 1993, for example, millions of acres of grain crops were destroyed in the United States, while tree crops flourished.  Whereas grains crops lead to depletions and loss of precious topsoil, orchards pull their water and nutrients from deep down in the subsoil, assist in the building of topsoil, and aid in nutrient recycling.

Fruit and nut trees are durable, they protect the soil from erosion, and they encourage biodiversity.

Trees also act as grand air filters, causing particulate matter to fall to the ground.  As we replace fields of grains with orchards, we can expect our air to become cleaner, sweeter, and healthier for us.

Food for Thought

Here’s one last little bit of info from my main-man, Dr. D.

An acre of orchard will feed 250% more people than an acre of grain.

How’s that for efficiency?

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze