Dealing with Society

[Coatue]

For those who have been consuming only raw food...how have you dealt with the outside world? Outside of language, Agriculture/cooking is the main element that creates culture. Dedicating oneself to only consuming raw food and being rewarded with the gift of an energetic healthy intelligent youthful life in the end seems worth it to be a social outcast. Constantly being given the look like your crazy as well as the constant bullshit arguments over the issues of "food safety" just sounds like its going to get old real fast. There are just too many people in this world that have been so socialized into the current paradigm that they can't think "outside the box" enough for the raw food life to be the logical cure to all diseases. At first I thought eating raw meat behind closed doors and then having this alternative "public" life would be ok. But now I can't get over the horrible way i feel after consuming anything that has gone through some kind of cooking process before it gets to my mouth. I feel like I am literally swallowing poison and I am the only one at the dinner table that knows the harms of what we are consuming. This has nothing to do with vanity, something people commonly mistake for a raw foodist motive. Its only got to deal with the fact of how much better I feel consuming something that has life in it.  Why can't society realize that human beings are animals? Can't they just look around and notice we are the only species that needs to prepare and cook our food? Its quite simple people, LIFE LIVES OFF LIFE!   

[goodsamaritan]

In a few more months you will mellow down and just accept that we are kinda lucky we are into this raw paleo thing.  Socially there are acceptable raw things like raw fruit, raw fish.  Just think ahead.  See what you can cheat with.  And live on. 

Nowadays people don't mind that I'm weird because they see I glow so much with health these days, it's a refreshing change from my old self.

I was just at a party last Sunday and all I ate were raw oysters.

[kurite]

Yah even when Im out to eat at a fast food restaurant with friends they always have some raw alternative like salad.

[raw-al]

Initially when I was a vege I was as pure as possible and I made a bit of a deal about it till I realized that this made me a social pariah. Nobody wanted to invite me to dinner and I had to explain why I was a vege so many times that I finally told no one and kept it to myself and made excuses. It was just easier. I had one guy who had a few drinks in him almost get in a fight with me even though I said not a word about being a vege. He figured it out and got highly in sensed. He wanted me to explain what the hell I was trying to prove.... go figure. 

Then I did something even worse..... OMG I became a cavemen , All I wanted was blood and guts 'n veins in me teeth. A raw eater. Other than extremely close friends I keep this to myself. Sometimes I just "oh whatever" and eat the cooked crap, or I try to eat as little as possible. I used to be a fanatic about Indian vegetarian. Now I eat it and I feel like a balloon. Go figure.

When I am on the road I take a cooler bag/box, filled with milk, raw meat, honey, milk, eggs, juice (vege) and a bit of raspberries or blueberries and try to eat it before I go to eat and just have a soup to be sociable with coworkers. I freeze the milk so when I travel it keeps everything cool  as it melts. Then I put ice in the box from the hotel icemaker and put it all in the fridge in the hotel room. I put as much as I can in mason jars as they are convenient and then if I buy more meat I can just put it in the mason jar as I empty them. Whatever works.

I keep planning to take high meat with me but haven't yet.

[miles]

I can't do anything... I can't keep my T-shirt when I am hot, when I am feeling uncomfortable/sick and know I can feel comfortable just by taking it off, because as well as insulating me it's stopping me from perspiring effectively. The only thing making me keep it on would be cultural idiocy... I can't trudge to the shops uncomfortably in shoes when I know I could move freely and joyfully, running if I wish just by taking my shoes off. I can't wear long shorts when it's really hot and they're making me feel uncomfortable/sick, and then not wear shorter shorts the next time... Then, of course, I would not eat any food that wasn't paleo(raw)... I'd sooner go to extreme lengths and fight to scavenge morsels of raw paleo food than I would return to crap... Now, I'd sooner run in to the unknown woods and fight for my life there, even if I may risk losing it, than I would be forced to give up any of these things...

Speaking of this... Does anyone know where the best places to go would be, if it came down to it? Where would be the best place to turn to, to survive in the wilderness with nothing but what's there, where there would be ample paleo food which could be eaten raw.. Suitable animals to hunt etc..? I just want to know I have something.. Something to turn to, so I can not be pressured in to anything I don't want to do... I want to know, that if it came down to it, I COULD turn to the wilderness, that I don't NEED to fit in with anybody's rules... Even if I didn't go to the wilderness, I need to know that it's there, to give me strength and a positive mind... To feel in control... Because I will not let anybody's cultural idiocies influence me, over my own senses, ever... and that restricts what I can do... What jobs I can take etc...

If it gets too much for anyone else, you'd be welcome to come with me =D

[nicole]

If people ask you why you don't eat the food when you are at trivial social get-togethers just say you have a lot of food sensitivities or that you can only eat organic food for your specific health conditions.  Act like it's not a choice.
If I eat a meal non-raw paleo at an important social function I make sure that it is something really delicious like rich icecream or a fattening desert or something cheesy and fattening. And I eat regular size meal. I only do this a few times per years so might as well make it something to remember.

[Sitting Coyote]

Sometimes I eat cooked food to blend in, but this happens less and less and I can foresee it stopping in the very near future.  Many acquaintances and friends know about my raw diet, and their reactions fall somewhere on the continuum between curious and completely accepting.  I even told my dad and grandfather about it when they visited a few weeks ago, and they were accepting.

I think people's reaction to an admission of a raw diet depends entirely on how articulate you are and how the subject comes up.  My strategy is to not volunteer any information or give unsolicited advice, but rather just eat what I want and turn down what I don't.  When people ask about my choices, I volunteer just enough information to answer their questions.  And if they have lots of questions, I patiently offer just enough information to answer each of them, until their curiosity is satisfied.

It has been my experience that when people learn about the raw diet from a place of curiosity, they are generally open-minded and accepting.  If you force them to learn about the raw diet by preaching to them, then they won't respect your choice or take you seriously. 

[Coatue]

I can't do anything... I can't keep my T-shirt when I am hot, when I am feeling uncomfortable/sick and know I can feel comfortable just by taking it off, because as well as insulating me it's stopping me from perspiring effectively. The only thing making me keep it on would be cultural idiocy... I can't trudge to the shops uncomfortably in shoes when I know I could move freely and joyfully, running if I wish just by taking my shoes off. I can't wear long shorts when it's really hot and they're making me feel uncomfortable/sick, and then not wear shorter shorts the next time... Then, of course, I would not eat any food that wasn't paleo(raw)... I'd sooner go to extreme lengths and fight to scavenge morsels of raw paleo food than I would return to crap... Now, I'd sooner run in to the unknown woods and fight for my life there, even if I may risk losing it, than I would be forced to give up any of these things...

Speaking of this... Does anyone know where the best places to go would be, if it came down to it? Where would be the best place to turn to, to survive in the wilderness with nothing but what's there, where there would be ample paleo food which could be eaten raw.. Suitable animals to hunt etc..? I just want to know I have something.. Something to turn to, so I can not be pressured in to anything I don't want to do... I want to know, that if it came down to it, I COULD turn to the wilderness, that I don't NEED to fit in with anybody's rules... Even if I didn't go to the wilderness, I need to know that it's there, to give me strength and a positive mind... To feel in control... Because I will not let anybody's cultural idiocies influence me, over my own senses, ever... and that restricts what I can do... What jobs I can take etc...

If it gets too much for anyone else, you'd be welcome to come with me =D

I'm curious about this as well. I was thinking somewhere north of the Canadian-US border. Someplace not inhabited by a lot of people with a lot of wild life still intact.

[raw-al]

Winter can be problematic. However that just means it's a challenge. People did it in the past and now we have a certain amount of technology on our side to help. Of course there is always the option of bailing if it all goes for you know what.

[miles]

Do you think anywhere in the UK would be suitable?

[Haai]

In the Uk I guess the ultimate, dream prey item would be a red deer or some other deer. I can't imagine gettin close enough to one to spear it or something, so (assuming we're not using guns) you'd probably have to build some sort of trap to kill it. So a very remote place would probably be necessary to avoid killing humans accidentally in this trap. Not sure if there would be a remote enough place in the UK tbh. The Scottish Highlands come to mind, but you get the odd walker there, don't you?

[raw-al]

Back a number of years there was a movement of people who joined together in communes to explore similar ideas. There is security in numbers. Raising animals for food is not such a bad thing. If done with care and by getting animals that have not been too genetically messed with (what nowadays has not) would give you a similar life.

Raising animals the way that the guy I believe in Pennsylvania who is mentioned in "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFpjskn3_Pc  http://michaelpollan.com/books/the-omnivores-dilemma/ would certainly be a good idea.

Having said that there certainly have been people who went out and lived off the land, however unless you are in a very wild country I think you might be asking for starvation. Remember you are used to having a fridge and a tele. The land that is most productive for animals has long ago been populated.

[djr_81]

The Scottish Highlands come to mind

I was thinking the same thing.

[actionhero]

I don't give a rats ass about what others think. If you don't judge others you won't be judged in return. If you don't feel like eating something DON'T EAT IT. It's as simple as that. Why should you suffer just to get the approval of others? What he or she thinks is really irrelevant. You can tell people you only eat raw meat. If they have a problem with that then it's their problem not mine.