The Fresh Network Blog

Dairy didn't work for me, says Debbie Took

2010 has been a year of fierce debate among raw food fans about whether or not our optimal diet is a vegan one. We first chimed in on this topic in January with our article Why the shift away from veganism in the raw world?, and again in February when Doug Graham and Thomas Billings debated the topic in the article Is 100% raw vegan our optimal diet? Later that month we revisited it in Are YOU getting enough vitamin D?

Popular raw food blogger Debbie Took contributed interesting material to the debate in March and April when she announced that she had tested below the normal range in vitamin B12 - B12 being one of the biggest deficiency risks among vegans. 

A raw vegan for around three and a half years at the time, she was forced to choose between taking supplements - something she didn't believe in - and compromising on the vegan part - something else she was dead set against doing. She tells the full story around this tough decision in her articles Debbie Does B12 Part 1 and Part 2.

She eventually decided that compromising on the vegan part was the lesser of two evils - largely because it was the more natural solution of the two - and she added a little soft cheese to her diet. However, she found raw cheese near impossible to source, and as for ethically produced - that unfortunately does not exist at this time. So she was forced to compromise not only on (1) her vegan diet but also on (2) her raw diet and (3) her strong desire not to cause suffering to other sentient beings. Nonetheless, for a while this decision still seemed to be the best option available to her.

However, Debbie privately emailed me an update recently, and I asked her permission to share this information with you, as it is written with such honesty and openness. At a time when there is still so much we don't know about optimum nutrition, all such accounts have something to teach us, and I know this one will resonate with many of you. Debbie kindly agreed to have her comments made public, and you can read them by clicking below. Thank you, Debbie, for sharing your experiences with me, and with our readers.

"How I do Christmas" by 10 raw food leaders

Back in its Winter 2001 issue, Get Fresh! magazine asked a selection of raw food experts these questions:

Please set the scene as to where you'll be this Christmas and who you'll be with.  

What's likely to be on the Christmas menu this year for you personally and for those around you? 

What are your tips for spending a hassle-free Christmas with people whose food choices are different?

What's made this year a great year for you? 

Any words of wisdom to share with our readers?

Last week we put the same questions to 10 of today's leading raw food experts: Elaine Bruce, Alissa Cohen, Dao Earl, Karen Knowler, Paul Nison, Ani Phyo, Natalia Rose, Shazzie, Pete Vincent and Tera Warner. 

We hope you find their answers as wise, inspiring, funny, interesting and thought-provoking as we did.

When raw meets romance

By Sarah Best.

If you’re passionate about all things raw and your partner is too, count yourself lucky. Most raw food fans who are in a relationship are with someone who doesn’t share their enthusiasm for health and high-energy living. 

As anyone who’s been in this situation knows, this is about a lot more than just sitting down to different dishes at mealtimes, or heated arguments about restaurant choices (your beloved voting for dim sum at The Dragon Inn while you’re hankering after sprout salad at The Happy Buddha). Our diet and lifestyle choices don’t just affect us physically – they affect us mentally, emotionally and spiritually too.

They also say an awful lot about our values and beliefs. The wife who makes dietary decisions based only on what tastes good and/or keeps her slim and the husband who is vegan for ethical, environmental and health reasons clearly have two very different world views and sets of priorities.

All other things being equal, it is much easier to be in a relationship with someone who is on the same page as us about life’s biggest questions. But the universe doesn’t always have “easy” in mind for us when it comes to relationships. Many of us, for various reasons, will achieve greater spiritual growth with someone who sees the world differently; challenges our beliefs; pushes our buttons.

But don't assume this path is always hard work. Some of the happiest couples I know are made up of one raw food fan and one standard diet eater respectfully accommodating each other’s habits and idiosyncrasies. 

So that's okay then

By Sarah Best.

I'm passionately into natural health, but purely because I never got around to doing anything about it I still have something in my house which is widely believed by experts in the natural health field to be a very bad thing. Wireless internet.

There are plenty of highly qualified people who believe that daily exposure to "wi-fi" is at the very least a potent energy zapper. Some experts believe its consequences can be a lot worse than that.

Today I called my internet service provider, a leading British telecommunications company, to find out how I can move off wireless. The person who took my call was, insofar as one can tell this from voice alone, not a day older than 20. 

When I explained that I would like to change from wireless broadband to wired he at first replied that I can simply connect using a cable. "But surely the wi-fi will still be in the house even if my computer is on a wired connection?" I asked. He replied that it would, and that if I was worried about someone else hijacking the connection I should password protect it. I explained that my concern was in fact about the health consequences of having wireless at home.

Sun worship

By Sarah Best.

Let me paint you a picture I only wish I could paint more often. I am currently sitting at my garden table, in my bikini, with a parasol shading my laptop, and the sun beating down on my back. It's scorching hot and there's not a cloud in the sky. And it's quarter past six in the evening, for goodness sake!

The south of England, where I live, has enjoyed uncharacteristically high temperatures since last Thursday. I've had an especially lucky time of it because, prior to that, I spent a week in Tuscany – which was also experiencing unusually high temperatures. And I feel better than I’ve felt since…well, since the last time I spent a fortnight in the sun. Coincidence? I think not.

For half of it I haven’t been on holiday; I’ve been hard at work. But whenever possible I’ve been hard at work in my outside office, wearing my summer uniform.

Why? Because the more I study health and meet people around the world who are enjoying extraordinary levels of it, the more convinced I am that getting out in the sun at every opportunity is one of the most health-promoting things we can do. And that whatever ails you, be it physical or mental, there are few things that will make you feel as good, as quickly, as getting out in the sun.

I’m sure there is more to this than vitamin D; I’m sure the sun’s rays bestow benefits on us that science has yet to uncover. But vitamin D is a huge deal and the studies that prove it just keep pouring in. Vitamin D has been linked with bone health, mental agility, immunity and emotional balance. And deficiency has been linked with osteoporosis, dementia, cancer, MS and depression – among other things.

Compassion

By Sarah Best.

In the Brad Pitt movie Seven Years in Tibet there is a memorable scene where the garden of a Buddhist monastery is to be bulldozed but the monks won’t allow the machinery in until they have spent days painstakingly picking through the soil to remove worms from the danger zone and transport them to safety. We see them gently placing the creatures back into the earth and even thoughtfully sprinkling them with water. (Watch the clip).

Since most of us are not living at a level of consciousness where it would even occur to us to go to such lengths, it is easy to scoff at this as a bizarre cultural idiosyncrasy that has no relevance for us. Yet it shows a respect and reverence for all of life that is sorely lacking in our world. The monks were practicing ahimsa, which is the Buddhist tenet of not causing harm to any sentient being.

Most of us lead lives that don’t permit us to get down on our hands and knees multiple times every day to search out and rescue otherwise non-visible insects or invertebrates that may be lying in our path. Yet if every human being lived with a fraction of the compassion demonstrated by these monks it would transform the world – not because of the way we’d be treating worms but because of the way we’d be treating each other! However, we don’t have to take it that far in order to achieve transformation on a massive scale.

Imagine the world we would live in if enough of us simply decided it is not acceptable to knowingly treat any sentient being, whether human or animal, with disregard for its needs and rights, let alone with any form of violence? And crucially that it is just as unacceptable to buy products which involve such violations as it is to commit those violations ourselves?

Think about it for a moment. If enough of us lived with a respect for the sanctity of all of life, everything would change. Factory farms and sweatshops wouldn't exist in such a world, and neither would famine or war.

If you are conscious enough to recognize dogs, cows and chickens as beings which deserve gentle and kind treatment, how would you ever commit any act of violence or cruelty towards another human being?

You just wouldn't.

You just couldn't.

And I think we can all agree that this world needs more people like that.

Top 5 books on compassionate living

1. Animals Like Us by Mark Rowland

2. The Pig Who Sang To The Moon by Jeffrey Masson

3. Diet For A New America by John Robbins

4. The Great Compassion by Norm Phelps

5. Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating by Erik Markus

I'm back - with my Raw Guide to Bali

By Sarah Best.

As some of you have noticed, this blog has been dormant for a while. Rather a long while. I have had emails enquiring as to whether I am still alive, and if I am, whether I have decided to opt for a life of leisure. The answer to both questions is yes, but the latter was, sadly, over all too quickly ; )

If you are wondering why this post comes accompanied with a photo of a baby monkey, it's because I recently returned from three weeks in blissful Bali (and a day either side in skyscrapered Singapore). Sometimes a holiday's gotta be a holiday, so I left my laptop behind and re-charged my chi with 21 days of complete R&R. And let me tell you, after a particularly mad, manic and multi-tasking start to 2008, I slept for England.

But enough about England.

Bali: I fell in love with this Indonesion island the first time I visited it, in the year 2000. This latest visit was my third and, wonderful as it was from start to finish, I was in agreement with my five-year old son about the absolute highlight: feeding bananas to the impossibly cute wild macaques (a Balinese breed of monkey) in the Monkey Forest Sanctuary. If there ever was a real-life enchanted forest, this is it, as nestling among the trees and creepers is a lost city of ancient temple ruins. 

Bali... I celebrated my birthday at a beachside restaurant that was all candles, crashing waves and chilled music. No, it doesn't get much better than that. 

But is Bali a good place to go if you want a 'raw holiday'? Well, fresh juice is fairly widely available in restaurants and cafes (much more so than in the UK), within two minutes of where I was staying was a juice and smoothie bar (mostly raw), and across the road from it were two markets selling durian. Young coconuts (you drink the refreshing, nutrient-rich water and then scoop out the flesh) are widely available in swanky hotel bars and humble beach shacks alike.

Our location turned out to be about as ideal as it gets for the raw food fan, but as this is an island where neither juice nor durian nor ripe tropical fruit nor young coconuts are hard to come by, it is hard to go wrong. On the gourmet food front I was expecting slim pickings as I knew from past experience that it's hard to get a decent vegetarian, let alone vegan, meal in most restaurants on the island, whether western or traditional. On the whole, that hasn't changed.

Why I'm getting things done (plus random ramblings about Christmases past and present!)

By Sarah Best.

I just love this time of year and always have. I enjoy the celebration, the get-togethers with loved ones, the excitement, the anticipation and (since Christmas 2002) the sheer magic of experiencing it all with a small child. And almost as much as all of the fun stuff, I enjoy the natural urge to take stock of the year that’s closing and to plan for the one about to begin.

But for me, until a few Christmases ago, my enjoyment of all of the above was curtailed by the fact I invariably spent this season in a junk food-induced fog. I’d exist on a diet based around canapés, mince pies, chocolates, cake, cheese, wine, champagne and more chocolates.

I’ve been ‘health conscious’ since the tender age of 14, but until my 'rawakening' I’d invariably assume a different personality over the festive season...one that wanted to consume its weight in marzipan and Milk Tray! Over the last six years that has all changed, and during that time I’ve been lucky enough to make many friends who have walked just the same path as I have, with the same happy results.

Like all of us, I also have a few people in my life who remain genuinely perplexed as to why I eat the way I do. I wish I could make them understand I’ve had hands down the best Christmases ever since I banished junk food from my life! The fog I used to be in for the whole of December and into the new year? I still remember exactly what it felt like... Yes, I had fun, but once you really experience that you can have all that fun and more without the negative side effects…well, why wouldn’t you?!!

Energy soup for the soul

By Sarah Best.

Those of us fortunate enough to own computers don't lack for food to feed our bodies. But our souls often do hunger for nourishment, and perhaps especially so at this time of year. This is a period when we naturally reflect on what the past 12 months have brought - the joys and triumphs, and also the things we plan to do differently in the future. If you are anything like me you probably find yourself coming over all deep and philosophical as the year draws to a close. So my gift to you this Christmas is a selection of my favourite quotes: 

“Those who dream by day are cognisant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” Edgar Allan Poe

“Walk with those seeking Truth. Run from those who think they've found it.” Deepak Chopra

“Money often costs too much.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right.” Henry Ford

“Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up.” Jesse Jackson

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust

“If you can’t, you must. If you must, you can.” Anthony Robbins

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw

“There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.” Mother Teresa

“We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past, but by the love we're not extending in the present.” Marianne Williamson

“As we become purer channels for light, we develop an appetite for the sweetness that is possible in this world. A miracle worker is not geared toward fighting the world that is, but toward creating the world that could be.” Marianne Williamson

And I'll leave you with this one, which I received on an e-card a few days ago:

“YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE…this is the universe speaking!

Today I will be recording your EVERY thought and emotion…no matter how ‘good’ or ‘bad’, no matter how generous or stingy, and no matter how helpful or hurtful they may be. And everything I record will be played back FOR YOU, as soon as possible, as some type of manifestation in time and space.

Thank you…that is all.”

How to have a happy AND healthy Christmas.

By Sarah Best.

This is my sixth Christmas since I started experimenting with eating raw. First off, I am not going to tell you how to be 100% raw during the festivities nor even that you should try to be. A much better goal to have is to eat in the way that best serves you, wherever you as an individual are at this point in time physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and also geographically. I have never had a 100% raw Christmas and this is primarily because I live in the UK, where it is freezing cold at this time of year. I don't care what anyone says – this is a serious obstacle to being 100% raw, and healthy and happy with it! And it isn’t just psychological, or something you can ‘get over’. It’s actually to do with the fact that we are designed to eat seasonally, and ideally to eat what is growing in our locality at any given time.

With this in view, eating a plate of tropical fruit that had to be picked two months before it was ripe in order to be shipped half way round the world to you, where it is now snowing outside, suddenly doesn’t seem so natural! That's not to say there's no place for it in your diet during a cold winter; simply that you're unlikely to feel great if you attempt to base your diet on foods like this.    

This is a topic for another post, but I don’t believe we humans thrive in cold weather. It is not the climate for which we were designed and we have to go to all sorts of lengths to even survive in it: central heating, layers of warm clothing and, for almost all of us, including cooked food in our diet. While being raw through an icy UK winter is not something I aspire to, living somewhere warm and sunny most definitely is!

Don't get me wrong. The ideal diet for everyone, wherever they reside, will contain A LOT of raw food. But as I have yet to meet anyone who can happily get through a cold winter on fruit and salad, the question comes down to whether it is better to round out that lighter fare with large amounts of nuts, seeds and/or dried fruit, or with cooked vegetables, or with a judicious combination of the two. We're all different in terms of what works for us and what doesn't. Personally, I would go for either of the latter choices over the former any day.

This year, I naturally found myself in a period of eating 100% raw for quite some time until the nights got longer and the frost more frequent, and my body told me, in no uncertain terms, that it wanted something different for a while. One of my five-year old son’s favourite times of day right now is when we make vegetable soup together for dinner. I chop, he stirs, and as long as I manage to stay in charge of the seasoning too, between us we make a great team! I've spent quite a few evenings in London in the last couple of weeks, for Christmas parties, various get-togethers with friends, and, last night, the journalists' carol service at St Brides on Fleet Street. It's been bitterly cold the whole time but I've felt great on my high-raw-with-strategic-additions-of-cooked-whole-foods regime.

But to get to this point I tried it all! I’ve done many a Christmas on the standard diet and on the vegetarian version of the standard diet. Since learning about raw food, I've done Christmases where I based my diet around loads of fruit and salad and piles of nuts and seeds and dried fruit, and ended up supplementing that with whatever cooked food everyone else was eating because my blood sugar was completely out of balance. Some time later, when I worked out what would constitute a balanced raw diet that would suit my constitution, I simultaneously figured out that this was not going to sustain me through an icy British winter.

These days my December fare consists primarily of lots of green juices and raw salads, small amounts of fruit, and cooked vegetables in various guises whenever I desire them, plus of course some festive 'fun' foods, including raw sweets and desserts, and the healthiest cooked vegan indulgences I can find.