The question I want to ask you is, "Is food primarily a pleasure for you?" Before you rush to say no, think about how you celebrate important events. You don't go hungry on your birthday, wedding or holiday. Perhaps you are just going for a walk in honor of the holiday? Or are you still engaged in preparing a lavish and exquisite meal? When you go to any celebration, don't you anticipate a delicious meal? How will you feel if there is no food?
Food is synonymous with celebration. We meticulously plan holiday meals and buy the most exquisite food that makes our mouths water. We all have holiday specialties such as cakes, chocolate truffles, pies, candies and various snacks that we associate with certain holidays. Food is an integral part of the holiday for us! So how do you feel after a hearty holiday meal? Can you honestly describe how your body feels the next morning? Do you feel sleepy, tired, or lethargic? Do you find yourself craving coffee? Have you noticed that this is how your body feels after big holiday meals? Even if you answer all of these questions in the affirmative, will that stop you from planning your next holiday meal?
If you weren't addicted to delicious food, would you eat potato chips or drink beer or coffee? When you go to the store and see a variety of delicious foods in the prepared food department, do you think about how healthy they are? Or do you still anticipate the gustatory pleasure they bring you? I think most people would answer that they are anticipating the pleasure. If we recognize that food is primarily a pleasure for us, then we can recognize the fact that we consume food not in terms of the nutrients we need, but for pleasure.
When we want to get pleasure from food first, nutrients second, then the nutritional qualities of food are sacrificed for flavor. Because of this, all of our food has a very stimulating flavor, but has practically no nutritional value. These are the two main characteristics of cooked food. Raw food, however, gives us both nutrients and pleasure.
I started teaching raw food classes eight years ago. As soon as I lost the first 30 pounds, I invited neighbors and friends over to my house and started telling them how my health had improved since switching to raw food. Everyone loved it and they all decided to become raw foodists too. However, none of them lasted on raw food longer than the next morning. A few days later, I met a couple of my students at the grocery store and asked them how they were keeping up with their raw food diet. One said: "I can't eat everything raw yet. I have to cook lunches for my family." The others tried to avoid me. I decided it was my fault, as a teacher, that my students couldn't keep up with the raw food diet. I decided to gain more knowledge. I've been to various raw food centers and read day and night. Then started teaching classes again, and this time I put all my talents into it. I sang and danced and joked. I did my best to get the listeners interested in enzymes and sprouts. When the class was over, everyone was very excited and exclaimed, "I will never take cooked food in my mouth again. I will only eat raw." But as I later found out, these students' raw food diet didn't last more than a day either. A week later, I went to the store and met two of my female students there. Hiding the muffins behind their backs, they said, "You'll forgive us, Victoria, but we couldn't help ourselves." I realized that there were flaws in my teaching, I felt bad that my friends were hiding from me like the police! I decided not to teach any more classes until I found a way to teach that would help everyone stay raw. I set out to meet other raw food educators and learn from them how to successfully help students transition to raw food.
For two and a half years we traveled all over the country and visited many different alternative healing centers. We found a few places that taught raw foods. People with allergies, diabetes, cancer, asthma, and other serious illnesses traveled there from all over the world and spent usually two to six weeks there to learn raw food. They were taught how to prepare raw food and explained why it is optimal for the human body. They were fed very tasty raw dishes.
We spent nine months in one such center. The conditions there were perfect for the transition to raw foodism. All who came were completely isolated from all temptation and stress, and the environment itself was completely homely.
Most of the arrivals were fatally diagnosed, mostly with cancer. Most grasped at raw foodism as the last straw. Many have already gone through radiation and chemotherapy, and doctors have told them there is nothing more they can do to help.
All were put on 100% raw food diet and all 132 patients soon felt better. They watched as, literally within weeks, their tumors shrank in size, their symptoms of the disease disappeared, and they got better. Everyone made the decision to stay raw food because it helped them so much. The relatives who came to visit were very supportive of the raw food diet, t.к. they saw a difference in the health of their loved ones. It was clear to all the patients that raw foods were literally saving their lives. We rejoiced for them and their improving health. When they left, we all hugged each other, wishing them success.
Later, I asked Dr. Don Hochi, the owner of this center, if he knew how many of his patients stay on raw food after they return home? For a long time he was silent, and then he sighed and said: "Only about 2%. After they get home, they don't stick to that diet." I was amazed: "Do they really choose death?" The doctor didn't answer, a tear rolled down his cheek. I could not find an explanation for this fact - why the patients did not stay on raw food diet even after they were convinced by their own experience that this diet is health-enhancing and firmly decided to change their lifestyle. I set out to find a solution to this problem.
In the meantime, I continued teaching. My students were always enthusiastic about going raw, I taught them how to make delicious raw dishes, and still very few stayed raw. I began to feel tired and frustrated.
But then one day a friend of mine invited me to go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with her. And as I listened to the speakers, it suddenly became clear: cooked food makes you addicted! That's why willpower and the best intentions can't keep you on raw food. I finally found a solution to a problem that has been plaguing me. I felt infinite joy! It was a real revelation!
I went to the library and asked for books on the subject of addiction to alcohol, drugs, etc.д. The librarian led me over to the bookshelves. I asked: "How many books can I take?". She replied, "38." And I walked out of the library with 38 books on alcoholism, drug addiction, overeating, etc.п. I read all 38 books and went to the library until I had reread them all. The librarian was convinced I had a SERIOUS problem.
Then I visited the largest bookstore in our town. Spent the whole day there reading and brought home a whole bunch more books. One book was written by two professors of medicine, and it had a universal questionnaire for determining addiction to a chemical.
As an experiment, I made a copy of this questionnaire, replacing the words "from a chemical" with "from cooked food". I handed out this questionnaire to my students in three classes, and everyone answered yes to most of the questions. I found myself saying, "Here's proof that this is an addiction." It was another confirmation! I felt like after jumping off a tall building. And the more I thought about this discovery, the more it made sense.
Hundreds of thousands of people are trying to become raw foodists. They realize the merits of a raw food diet and genuinely want to stick to it. Many of these people switch to raw foodism because of a serious illness. But when they start eating raw food, they discover that being a 100% raw eater is very hard, almost impossible! Only a few people actually stick to a 100% raw diet for more than a year. Even well known raw food teachers admit that they can't stick to a 100% raw diet. What seems very simple at first glance, actually turns out to be very chesty due to the addiction to cooked food.
Open the "Big Book" of AA ("Alcoholics Anonymous"). There you will find that only one in a thousand can quit drinking by a simple effort of will. You will also read that the 12 Step program has helped hundreds of thousands of people quit drinking. I was convinced that if this program helps alcoholics, go it could also help those who depend on cooked food.
I realize now that it's not enough to just educate people on the merits of raw foodism. Only one in a thousand will be able to stay on 100% raw eating by pure willpower without any support. I've met 2-3 people who have stayed on 100% raw for over a year by willpower alone. The problem is that when you're irritated, hungry, lonely, or tired, you reach for cooked food as comfort, and no amount of willpower helps you.
That's why I wrote this book, 12 Steps to Raw Foodism. Over the past year and a half, I have taught this program in Washington, Minnesota, Oregon, Arizona, Maryland, Colorado, and California. I was a little scared at first. I didn't know how she would be responded to. After all, this radical theory was a complete novelty. But then I saw that most students who attended the 12 Steps to Raw workshops and stayed on raw for a few months to a year went on to be 100% raw! This program is already producing amazing results and as mentioned above, I continue to work on it. The 12 Steps to Raw Foodism program is very different from other 12 step programs. I believe that addiction to cooked food is more subtle, more cruel, more invisible, and therefore much harder to overcome.
Without a doubt, cooked food easily becomes an addiction also because it is promoted and encouraged everywhere. In today's society, boiled food is considered a normal and quite healthy diet. It doesn't even occur to us that cooked food can do us harm, and we look for answers to our problems, anywhere, but find nothing. For most of those who converted to raw food, there was a good reason: either health, ethical, or spiritual. For me personally, the choice meant life or death. I knew I wouldn't live long if I didn't find the answer for myself. All of my family members had serious health issues before they switched to raw foods. We covered this in our first book, The Raw Food Family.
The addiction to cooked food is much stronger than any other. All the books on drug addiction say that the earlier you start taking drugs, the harder it is to quit. Think back to the first time you ate cooked food. You were probably somewhere between six months and a year old. Did you like cooked food the first time you tried it? Probably not. You don't remember. Let's make an analogy. Think back to the first time you tasted coffee in your life. What was the flavor? Bitter. Didn't you ask yourself: "How can adults drink that?" We get used to the taste of coffee. We ignore our body's "Ugh, bitter!" reaction and keep tasting it until we get used to it. We do this because coffee is a social drink and a symbol of adulthood. What about the first sip of beer? Or your first cigarette? Do you remember your body's reaction? "No! Don't give me that!" When we first try something that is harmful to us, our body always warns us about it. The first time you tasted cooked food, you most likely cried. You might even get a rash. But your mom thought you were teething. And with the best of intentions, mom kept feeding you boiled food. Then you got used to it and became dependent on it.
However, talking about addiction to cooked foods can lead to a big problem. The word "addiction" has a bad reputation in our society. We don't like to associate that word with ourselves. We don't want to be looked down upon. In reality, we are all addicted to something, whether it's constantly buying different things, addiction to TV or sweets, etc.п. We call such phenomena bad habits. We don't like to call them addictions.
I deeply apologize if I have offended anyone. I had no intention of hurting your ego. I just wanted to share with you my extraordinary discovery. Let it serve for the good of all..
