RESPONSE: ‘I’d a raw vegan birthday cake and was miserable, now I’m taking on the clean-eating brigade
RESPONSE: ‘I’d a raw vegan birthday cake and was miserable, now I’m taking on the clean-eating brigade
This is a response to the following article:
Dr John MacDougall said it best:
“People love to hear GOOD THINGS about their BAD HABITS”
In the diet industry, authors are handed large advances from publishers to do just that. In the article above, a newly published author is “fighting back” against the “clean eating brigade”. She is not fighting against terrorism, against human trafficking or against poverty and starvation around the world.
No, no, my friends.
This noble warrior is fighting back against that most heinous of crimes: “clean eating”
Because, of course, there are just too many healthy people in this world. Too many fruit and vegetable guzzling maniacs, getting to bed at 9pm and up at 5am for their 10 mile run followed by yoga and meditation. Avoiding all the vices of the world; cigarettes, alohol, drugs and casual sex in favour of saying their prayers and eating their vitamins.
But seriously, where is the fight?
Dr Doug Graham used to say “The war on drugs is over. The drugs won!”
Well, the war on Junk Food is over. The Junk food has well and truly won.
The idea that there needs to be a fight against clean eating is so preposterous it’s not even worth thinking about. This phrase “clean eating” has taken on a negative connotation. It is connected with eating disorders like orthorexia, anorexia and bulimia. It is connected with an obsession with what one is eating and obsession with going to the gym and how you look.
Of course, these are not good things.
But it is not raw vegans that are obsessed with their food. It is the junk foodists that are obsessed with food. Food is the main and sometimes the only pleasure in their life. People eat badly at the expense of feeling good and looking good. They eat badly and put themselves at huge risk of disease. It goes beyond obsession, it is an addiction.
The thing that we all know about addiction is that an addict never admits to being addicted. They don’t admit to the power that their addiction has over them. They are in complete denial. They are also in complete denial about how bad the addiciton is for them.
If you question their decision to carry on with the addiction they often become very angry. Food is such a sensitive subject!
But tell them good things about their addictions and they will love you for it.
For me, I think it is much more compassionate, much nobler and much more important to give people reasons why they must change rather than encouraging them to stay on a deadly path.
What’s The Real Reason Someone Is Miserable When They Are Eating “Clean”?
Well, just because someone is eating clean does not necessarily mean they are eating healthy. We would have to know exactly what they were eating. If they were eating raw perhaps they were not eating enough carbohydrates and too much fat. Did they ever get any good coaching or advice on thriving on a raw vegan diet? We don’t really know but it seems unlikely.
One big reason a person might be miserable is that they don’t have a community or support network. She mentions leaving lectures late so she wouldn’t have to go to the pub. I have known raw vegans who have went back to eating the standard diet simply to fit in with the friends that they are around.
It is really hard to stay on a raw vegan path in a world in which is going in the opposite direction. We have a desire to be part of the crowd and to be like everyone else. We all want to fit in. There is nothing wrong with that, but do we really want to fit in at the expense of our health?
Sometimes I have reflected on my life and wondered how different it would have been if I had made different health decisions.
Like, if I have started drinking with my friends when I was 16. My youth would have probably been completely different and maybe a lot more fun. Perhaps I would have had more friends, more girlfriends, made more connections that would have helped in various career paths.
I honestly don’t know. I have chosen to stay on a healthy path and continue to advance down it. I like to think that the best of my life is yet to come and that if I stay healthy I will be able to enjoy that so much more. The sacrifices of eating “clean” will not really seem like sacrifices then.
Let me share a vision:
I want to wake up in a beautiful house, surrounded by fruit trees, not too far from the ocean. Fresh morning air breezes through the room. I am surrounded in community with friends, family and colleagues who all thrive on a raw vegan diet and live in close harmony with nature.
Is that not a wonderful vision for the future?
I just can’t imagine how depressing it would be to give that up in favour of going to dark and depressing pubs and gorging on fast food every day, getting fatter and sicker in the process.
Clean Eating Is The Way To Go!
If there is to be any fightback, it is a fight against the fast food companies, the pharmaceutical companies and the various lobbies that allow them to continue to promote disease-causing products to billions of people every day. The fight is to help the human race wake up and go vegan to avoid a complete environmental catastrophe on this planet.
I don’t really see it as “clean eating” I see it as “eating”. Or “common sense eating”. It makes no sense to continue to eat something to excess that you know will kill you eventually. It makes no sense to eat things that lead to the environment being harmed. It makes no sense to subsidise an industry which kills billions of animals every year when we have no requirement or true desire to eat animals.
Clean eating should not be strange it should be the norm!
Don’t Let The Diet Gurus Scare You
Diet and nutrition is really simple. Fruits and vegetables are the healthiest foods, whatever you do, eat as many of those as you can. Then eat more.
There is no other healthy diet plan. There is no science to suggest you should eat eggs, cheese, bread, pizza, meat, fish, processed foods, salt, sugar, coffee or alcohol for your health. There is plenty of noise and confusion created by the food industries and the authors that are supporting them.
Break free of the nonsense. Go raw vegan to give up all your food addictions and embrace a healthy life for the future!
RESPONSE: ‘I’d a raw vegan birthday cake and was miserable, now I’m taking on the clean-eating brigade This is a response to the following article: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/weekend/id-a-raw-vegan-birthday-cake-and-was-miserable-now-im-taking-on-the-cleaneating-brigade-36800559.html Dr John MacDougall said it best: “People love to hear GOOD THINGS about their BAD HABITS” In the diet industry, authors are handed large advances from publishers to…