How do you deal with the social pressures?
i find this to be the hardest part, when im home i can eat 100% raw good, but if at a party or holiday its extremely difficult and if i just eat fruit or something and turn down the food, i get an awkward stare and a feeling of being tense...people connect through food.
how do you do it?! and still keep friends and family.
i want to be the life of the party but not engage in there unhealthy acts... i havent been able todo it yet.
Also, do you ever lecture friends or family? or is it best to not say anything?
This is a much-needeed question to ask on this board. I was wondering when people would get around to it.
Here are various suggestions offered by various RPDers over time, to cope with social pressures:-
1) Be confident about your diet. If you show nervousness when explaining your diet, then other people will feel nervous too. In short, humans are naturally empathic, and it's wise not to show any uncertainty re your diet. That said, it's not a good idea to boast about the diet in public unnecessarily- , if you're asked, mention that you're doing a raw, palaeolithic diet, vaguely in passing, as though it's only a minor part of your life. No one has a clue about what a "raw, palaeolithic diet" is, and few will enquire further, usually.
2) Make compromises. Some American RPDers go to restaurants and ask the chef to cook their meats "cold on a cold plate", meaning the meats are only cooked for 10 seconds on either side, or so. Or they always invite people to restaurants offering raw seafood such as Japanese Sashimi restaurants etc.(my favourite option as they usually offer sushi as well which is good for my cooked-food-eating acquaintances). Some do naughty things like go and eat raw at Korean restaurants - some types of Korean restaurant give you the pan etc. on the table along with the raw animal food which they expect you to cook right there, but some RPDers just go to an isolated table and pretend to cook them, but just warm them for a few seconds).
3) Third option is to eat some high-meat and some enzymes before going out to every single cooked-meal, so as to minimise digestive-issues that often arise after such meals. Also, eat those cooked-foods but just eat little bites at each meal, claiming that you're on a diet.
4) There are various sites online which tell you how to reduce the amounts of toxins created by cooking:-
http://www.aolhealth.com/health/bbq-grill-cooking-safety5) Re lecturing:- Don't bother lecturing anybody. I was in an appalling state of health pre-raw diet with extremely obvious quite visible symptoms of ill-health, yet most people around me just pretended that I was always OK with no difference after several years on raw - I even have one acquaintance who is a total moron (and a doctor), who tried to delude himself that I was only a little healthy as a result of eating less fat(actually, I told him that my raw-fat-intake was pretty high). This moron is a 100% believer in the Balanced Diet and is in appalling state of ill-health(he's 69 and has to take pain-killers every single day in order to cope with extremely painful joints ruined by decades on cooked diets).
Plus, by avoiding the preaching/lecturing, you avoid the "them and us" view that some Rawists mistakenly have. After all, if you criticise other peoples' diets, you can't expect them not to criticise yours. The best thing is to just do the diet, and occasionally some wise people will notice how healthy you are and ask questions. Few will go all-raw, unless they're in dire straits, but one or two, here and there, will make healthier choices such as eating lots of sushi instead of the usual fried junk-food or whatever. At least, that's what I've found.
*Hopefully, others on this board will have further suggestions re this rather important topic*.
