Why oh why can't we have decent role-models? So far, the only decent ones I know of are Carol Alt and Uma Thurman. We need someone like the Pope or the Dalai Lama as a RVAF-eating role-model.
Again I'd add Denise Minger who eats raw fish and raw eggs and occasional raw organs (
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/01/20/my-current-diet/), though not other raw meats (
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/), and a mostly-raw overall diet. She's not 100% raw nor 100% Paleo, but then neither am I and I don't require that, so she's sufficient in my book.
I'll also throw in Lex Rooker, so that we have both a raw Paleo/ancestral god and a raw Paleo/ancestral goddess (which I say with a bit of tongue-in-cheek and twinkle in the eye, because I don't actually advocate making gurus of anyone, and Lex has stated that he doesn't want to be a guru) and representatives from both the plant-heavy side of the spectrum and the animal-food-heavy side. Yes, I know that Lex eats pemmican, but he doesn't claim that doing so provides any health benefits.
Here are some examples of Denise's appropriateness for the title, and brilliance:
From
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/01/20/my-current-diet/:
I choose raw for myself based on personal experience and eight years of self-guinea-pigging: Compared to a cooked diet based on the same foods, a raw diet offers more physical and mental benefits (reduced need for sleep, strong desire to move and exercise, clearer eyes, better complexion, a steadier emotional keel, mental clarity, overall feel-goodness, and other little perks that make the social hassles worth it).
I’m also kind of accident prone, so it’s probably for the best that I’m not near hot stovetops. "Eye color changed from light brown to hazel after switching to raw foods,
likely from an increased intake of glutathione."[Some foods rich in glutathione:
Avocado
Asparagus
Broccoli
Garlic
Raw Eggs
Raw Meats
Spinach
Tomatoes
Curcumin
Turmeric
Read more:
http://www.amazing-glutathione.com/what-foods-have-glutathione.html#ixzz1JMPpDP33]
From
http://letthemeatmeat.com/post/1438446275/interview-with-an-ex-vegan-denise-minger:
Q:
A lot of people who don’t thrive on a raw vegan diet give up veganism but stick with raw, like you basically have. Why not give up raw and go to cooked veganism?Denise:
As soon as you dip your toe in the raw vegan world, you start learning about the horrors of soy and grains and fake meats and all those other other things that usually comprise a cooked vegan diet. And a lot of people also become indoctrinated with the idea that cooked food is inherently toxic, or lacks enzymes and “life force” and other woo-woo concepts. (One of my biggest peeves with the raw movement is the willingness to embrace everything *except* science, but that’s a story for a different day.) So when raw veganism goes awry, cooked veganism hardly seems like a viable option.
In some cases, people also migrate to raw veganism because cooked veganism wasn’t enough to make them really healthy, or because they’re trying to clear up chronic conditions that a cooked diet didn’t improve. So again, backtracking from raw to cooked vegan isn’t always a logical step. The early stages of raw veganism — the “honeymoon” period — can bring a lot of incredible health improvements, and I think folks stick with raw-non-vegan because they want to preserve the benefits raw brought while circumventing the problems veganism ushered in.More from Denise in this interview:
> What happens on paper doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s going on biologically, and a person’s ability to get everything they need from a vegan diet depends on more than what goes in their mouth.
> Harvey Diamond, ... after 25 years as a vegetarian, started uncontrollably craving steak and now eats meat again.
> When someone jumps off the conventional nutrition boat (S.S. Food Pyramid) and finds a diet that radically improves their health, it’s natural to become very passionate about it and emotionally invested in its legitimacy. And that can lead people to cling blindly to an ideology, parrot the group-think they’re surrounded by, and ignore any evidence they don’t like.
> I don’t think veganism offers anything that can’t be achieved through well-planned omnivorism, self-flagellation, or Scientology.Three cheers for Denise and Lex: Hip hip hooza! Hip hip hooza! Hip hip hooza!