who knows you eat this way?

[Ioanna]

I'm so in the closet on this one, lol!

I mean, if my family or friends knew they would fear for my life, lol.  I don't have a boyfriend at the moment, I can't imagine how that is going to work out.

[yon yonson]

yeah, i dont really see how i would be able to get a girlfriend at the moment either. i guess it's possible though.  but i have told and eaten in front of my immediate family and my closest friends (4 or 5 of them). they're generally accepting of it but aren't completely sure why im doing it and are all pretty skeptical that it's not detrimental to my health. i generally hide it from other acquaintances and such though... which is frustrating, to say the least, in social situations.

[glennm01]

I just let it all hang out with my friends and family. Most think it's weird, some are genuinely intrigued. Ah well, no point in hiding it if it's who you are, right?

[goodsamaritan]

I try to tell everyone as much as I can.
It's like spreading the good news.
It's health advocacy, it's charity.
Plus I direct them to my website Cure Manual where the recommended diet is a Raw Paleolithic Diet and its variants.
I tell them I'm the family healer and I had better practice what I recommend.
With RPD we try to get as close as possible to the original human diet so RPD lays the foundation for getting well from all diseases and for staying healthy.

Just this afternoon I was having lunch with a customer and I had packed my raw beef in tupperware.  So they had lunch and I had my lunch.

[TylerDurden]

I just let it all hang out with my friends and family. Most think it's weird, some are genuinely intrigued. Ah well, no point in hiding it if it's who you are, right?

I agree. I don't think it's a good idea to bring this subject up with complete strangers, though. What I do in such situations is to go out with them to sashimi or sushi restaurants as these are very popular in London in recent years and considered healthy by most - result is one doesn't have to mention one's diet. Plus, as long as one is flexible , there's little need to bring up the diet - for example, I don't mind occasionally drinking crappy, pasteurised german/czech beer in pubs because of the rheinheitsgebot in both countries guaranteeing them free of preservatives/fish-guts etc.

Re girlfriends/boyfriends:- I think it's all a matter of confidence. If you accept who/what you are, people will be far less put off by the diet than if you are nervous about it.

I've heard some female RAFers claim, in the past, that quite a number of the men they've met were rather thrilled at the notion of a woman eating raw meat. I guess those men saw it as a sign of  increased adventurousness and daring. Plus, raw animal foods are seen as having an aphrodisiac quality(well, specifically, raw oysters) so that might have been another incentive. Ah, this reminds me of a post I need to make in the "iconic raw-meat-eating moments in film/tv " thread.

Actually, though, a majority of RAFers seem to be married  with children before they even turn to RAF diets, so they don't have to worry about that issue.

[wodgina]

I think its a lot easier for girls who eat raw meat. Women on here have disagreed with me though.

I still hide it for the most part and dont go out that much anymore. I used to get really drunk at least once a week at a party/go out. I used to love getting drunk but i dont get the same effect anymore and rarely drink.

[Raw Kyle]

I don't hide it or advertise it anymore. Just yesterday at work a coworker I don't know too well came into the break room while I was eating to use the vending machine and asked "is that raw beef?" and I said "yes" and he said "ok." That was it. My good friend coworker who was eating with me felt the need to say "it's very healthy" as if explaining it, and he just accepted what she said and didn't bring it up anymore. As long as you don't look like a weirdo, in my experience, no one cares. People ask me all the time, and they're either interested, just want to ask a question or two, or concerned about the safety of it.

I've been on raw diets for so long (starting raw vegan maybe 5 years ago) that my family and close friends are super used to it. They also have seen me do these things for that whole time and never have any health problems, so how could it be bad? It's one thing for someone to think it's dangerous to eat raw meat, completely another to still believe that after watching your son eat it twice a day every day for 2 years and never get sick once.

I had a girlfriend for a while on this diet and she didn't care. She even tried cooked paleo for a while.

One word of advice that I learned after a lot of banging my head against the wall, don't advertise or try and convert people to the diet. It's just like politics and religion, people that want information will come to you and no one likes being preached to on subjects like those. And advertising it, if you make it seem like the central part of your life (which I did for a while) then that's all people will think you're about. Now I just put out the message that this is what I eat, I think it's healthy, and that's that. It's not a hobby of mine or obsession, and I don't "need" to do it like some unhealthy eating disorder, I just choose to. And if I want to eat something else, I will, I don't act like I'm religiously strict about it.

Just last night one of my younger cousins asked my advice about Vit C supplements as she is always having tonsil problems and other infections, so I told her about Dr. Ron's stuff and she might try that instead of synthetic Vit C pills. This is because I appear healthy and calm about my choices, not because I address the press or wear them on my sleeve all day long.

[TylerDurden]

RawKyle is absolutely right. It's a waste of time trying to convert others. I tried to do that, years ago, with my father, who was eating a classic SAD diet involving cooked animal food,lots of pasteruised yoghurt and potatoes, and it led nowhere. Far better to set an example and not to overemphasise the diet.View it simply as something you do and not what your whole life revolves around.

[goodsamaritan]

I let my family and friends know about RPD.

I get them to realize that they eat a lot of raw stuff traditionally like fruits, salads, raw fish / sashimi / oysters / sea food dipped in vinegar / raw eggs and that the only raw thing they don't traditionally eat is beef - chicken - pork.

And when we hold parties at home, we serve mostly raw stuff, people have a good time.

My hope is when they get sick, they remember that RPD at the top of their mind, is a viable option that they can easily do and it will help them get well.

Like this current liver cancer patient who is living on freshly squeezed oranges, raw fertilized eggs, raw goat livers, raw fatty ground beef, and juiced vegetables.

[wodgina]

My brother and mum have been eating RPD for about 9 months after seeing what it's done for me.

The fact that we think the same helps, my Dad doesn't want to know about it and I would never even bring up the subject but I know his been watching my mum lose 10kg and get some muscle so maybe the seeds have been set...he is very into kayak racing and likes winning so that may push him into it. A few friends eat more steak now and always tell me about how much more they are eating.

Telling people the way they are eating insults their mothers, the 'Bear' talks about this. If someones grandmother raised them on lasagna and you pipe up and tell them it's poison, your insulting the people that mean the most to them, this is why I don't preach anymore.

[invisible]

I don't talk about it to anyone I know really. Being 20 years old all my friends eat SAD, high carb cooked italian and asian foods etc. None of my friends really have any immediate health concerns so wouldn't understand, plus people around me would not accept it for health reasons either since all they know of nutrition is what is in the mainstream media. Also hanging out with friends always involves food - going out to lunch, watching tv while snacking on chips, going out to bars - it would be hard for young people to just give up common foods. When I'm older I won't promote it but won't hide it. At the moment if I'm out I'll just eat junk not because I want to, it's just easier. The only other alternative is really to have zero social life.

[LvB]

My family knows, and my boyfriend knows. Basically my boyfriend says that he likes me anyway, he just asks that I cut back on raw meats if i ever get food poisoning after eating raw meat, and because I feel the probability of that is very low, I'm fine with agreeing with this. He's considering going on a paleo diet, he says he eats the way he eats because he cooks for his family, and usually just goes along with what they prefer.

My parents are different, my mom emphasizes the "disgusting" opinion, where as if my dad hears about me recently eating raw meat (especially ground) he gives me a big lecture about how people die from e. coli when they eat raw meat. He also thinks that anyone on a raw meat diet is cheating death. I think he's just stubbornly fearful of bacteria.

None of my other friends know yet, nobody has asked though. I'm choosing to follow the advice of previous posts and not talk about it unless someone else approaches me and asks about it.

[Cosmo]

Hi everyone!
My mother and her sister started eating raw liver and beef a month ago after they noticed great improvements in my health. I was very surprised when they asked me to prepare raw liver for them, it was one of the best moments of my life, I've never felt so close to my mother before, I always thought that we were very different... now I know that we are the same blood after all :-)))
At first she could only eat 2 table-spoons of raw liver but a week later she could eat almost as much as me.
Next day she told me that she felt great and slept like a baby through the night (after having just 2 table-spoons of raw liver)!!!
So yes, my experience with telling people was great so far.
P.S. My mother and her sister decided not to tell their friends and collegues about their new eating habits, they are old enough to know that most people of a certain age are not as open minded as they were in their 20s. By the way my Mum is 56.

[SkinnyDevil]

I'm not at all secretive about it. I don't advertise, but a rough outline of my dietary habits is on my biz web-site as well as my facebook page & other places.

My entire family knows, my friends know, and anyone the slightest bit interested in me usually finds out pretty quickly.