Hej! I've been lurking here occasionally for some time, so I thought I'd finally join and introduce myself. I'm a twenty-something agronomy student. I've worked in agroecology and for some food policy organizations for some time, but I'm still a little bit in the "closet" about my diet. I certainly didn't adopt it for fun. I had some severe health problems (IBS, GERD, ulcers, asthma, arthritis, chronic fatigue) some years back probably caused by a ridiculously horrible diet of things like hot dogs and ice cream, which I cured with a paleo diet. Also lost a bunch of weight, cleared up my skin, and became converted to the fat=good camp.
Then I moved to Europe and I was really great, so I started eating crap again, drinking coffee...and vodka. Got sick, took ibuprofen, stomach got bad again...not as bad as before, but clearly in bad condition. When I tried to go back to paleo I found that the cooked meats made me feel quite bad. So I'm now into raw, esp. raw fish, which I love, but I didn't grow up eating fish (I was picky) so I am constantly discovering new fish to eat. I'd like to phase out salmon, which is delicious, but hard to find wild here in Sweden. I think having a good omega-3:omega-6 ratio has been instrumental in fighting my illnesses.
I guess my main obstacle is that I'm quite poor (mostly by choice since I've been working in low-paying volunteerist sort of things in sustainable ag, though of course sometimes I have access to the best things like freshly slaughtered meat). I have learned to ID many wild plants, which is great since Sweden is a place that cherishes foraging, but I'm moving to a big US city soon. I will miss the reindeer and moose too, but I can't wait to eat buffalo again. I've done a little hunting and fishing and would love to do more. I'm currently only about 80% raw, but it has increased rapidly and probably will go highly as my health continues to improve. It's amazing that I've recovered pretty well because in my line of work I encounter some pretty tasty, but unhealthy food, and I do cheat. I guess my dietary goals these days are to exercise more, eat less sugar (hard because I'm beekeeeeeeeping, but it does not make me feel so great), and stop drinking so much caffeinated tea.
I'm also very interested in anthropology, partially because of my paleo diet and also because of working with Native Americans who suffer from the horrifying effects of modern food. I guess when I am more established I would like to "come out of the closet" as paleo and write a book. I work with lots of people who are vegetarians, vegans, dairy-farmers, and everything else, so I'm not sure I want to take down these things just yet
I've been on some raw vegan forums, but I'm clearly not a raw vegan and I get tired of dealing with the constant barrage of pseudoscience ala "OMG animals R cute and fruit iz g8, meat rots ur intestinz." I'm glad forums like this exist!
