I finally finished answering the interview questions, I found it somewhat a difficult task to keep motivated on, being preoccupied with many other life events, and a slight case of writers block.
* Would you consider yourself a foodie? How was your relationship towards food before the dietary change?
Currently, I consider myself to be an extreme foodie, whose taste for the best has driven me to seek out the most optimal kind of diets. I wasnt always so dedicated to food, and come from a relatively average family with a typical American Diet. My mother worked at an Italian restaurant and would often bring home good food. She also served good home cooked meals for dinner, but looking back I have to admit that I did eat a lot of junk food. Sugar cereal for breakfast, lots of cheap snack foods, bologna sandwiches, Fast food burgers.
Ive always had an intuitive feel for foods, even as a child I was fairly good at moderating the junk food intake, while making sure to eat at least one healthy meal a day. As a young adult I became more aware of some nutritional based issues which were beginning to effect my health, though financial hardships often made it difficult to provide for the quality of food which was ideal. Eventually after years of experimenting with various diets with limited success, I said inwardly enough is enough, and began seeking out a better way of nourishment, which somehow lead to the daily gorging on large quantities of Raw Red Meat. With the attitude of lifes too short to eat bad food, I began my transition into Raw Paleo and have developed a taste for the finest quality flesh of the land, air and sea.
* You’ve literally taken the raw food trend to the next level—hows it is affected your life, both positively and negatively? Have you ever thought about writing a recipe/lifestyle book or guide for people who have experienced the same health restrictions? What is your favorite recipe? What do you eat in a normal day (breakfast, lunch, dinner + snacks?). What does everyday-food vs. when you want to treat yourself food look like? WHat’s your to-go meal?
Becoming a blood thirsty raw flesh enthusiast has affected my life in many ways. For the most part the experience has been entirely positive and has lead me down a path of discovery which goes far beyond the scope of my original self experimentation in the nutritional sciences. The change made me feel more alive, more vital, it gave purpose and direction to a life which was at a point floundering under the weight of health problems, financial hardship, and a feeling of hopelessness at the possibility of living out a meaningless miserableness.
There has been negative sides to this way of life as well. The inconvenience of being such a strict Raw Foods Purist has made traveling abroad difficult. Finding decent tasting flesh at the average market isn't easy for someone who has developed such impossibly high standards. Like a finicky feline I cant eat something unless suits my taste. Social situations revolving around food are also difficult for me, so this diet has somewhat affected my social life. All and all Ive come to terms with the drawbacks, and generally the positives have outweighed the negatives.
Raw Mutton is typically the mainstay of the diet, harvested myself and its so rich and delicious I have no problem with eating it breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The whole animal is eaten with nothing wasted; the blood, guts, brain, liver, bone marrow, fats, and virtually all the other glands and organs are consumed raw. I will go for other foods like eggs, beef, sushi, and shell fish an occasion; and will also eat a small mixed green and herbal salad once a day. Typically my vegetation intake is minimal, roughly less than 10% of total caloric intake, and often includes coconut, avocado, tomatoes, lemons, and various wild herbs and leafy foliage.
* Do you think your diet will ever be trendy?, considering all the different food hypes nowadays/within our generation? Have you inspired people to change their diets to the one you are living by?
Im not sure if this diet will ever be trendy in a mainstream way, though it has promise of becoming a phenomenon in certain foodie and alternative nutrition circles. People contact me all the time about wanting to try the raw meat based diet, and I do my best to give helpful advise and spread the Raw and word.
* What impact does the color red have in your life? Do you ever think about that consciously? What was your relationship to the color red like before you’ve started your new diet? What does red trigger in you/what does it make you feel like? Does red equal raw meat? What’s your personal stance on red as a color/what do you connect it to?
Having Raw Red Meat as the staple of my instinctively driven paleolithic style diet, has made the color Red of primal importance when determining overall quality of the Flesh I love. I prefer meat that has an entirely Deep Red color, richer and darker than the blood. Young animals with immature flesh tend to be much paler in color, while older animals of good quality tend to ripen with age much in the same way fruit ripens, turning a darker and richer color of Crimson. The sight of fresh blood after slaughter triggers a strong blood thirst, and there is nothing better to replenish the body than drinking fresh blood , while its still warm. When it first flows out of the animal, blood glows with the color of an iridescent rose blooming out of the carnal essence, the sight of which now sends me into an ecstatic joy.
I believed the eyes evolved in our most ancient of ancestors to see red as a way to direct us to optimal sources of food, as well as to enable the identification of certain positive and negative qualities of many aspects of the natural world.
Some scientist claim that seeing red helped our missing link ancestors detect ripening of fruits. Red may have also been valuable when reading signals of potential mates through blushing; and was useful to our ancestors for tracking blood trails of wounded animals while on the hunt.
* With your story being published, what was the reaction from the public, as well as from family and friends? Has life changed after that from you? Have you found people/a community similar to you that you otherwise wouldn’t have been in touch with?
Ive experience mixed reactions from others over my dietary anomaly. Im often met with disbelief or skeptics who think its just a mater of time before I drop dead of some Raw Meat Parasite. Some people seem to not be able to comprehend the science and reasoning behind my way of extreme raw living, and its typically rare to make converts. What publicity has done for me is to give a greater sense of direction and purpose, along with the motivation to continue the experiment onward to wherever it may lead. As much as the Magazine articles and television shows has done to tell my story, I still live in relatively obscurity so am able to live and move about in relative anonymity, which allows a fair balance of personal freedom while at the same time a small platform from which to continue to document my personal experiment. Ive made contact with many others who share similar eating habits, and its been helpful to communicate and learn from others who also have found health and healing from Raw Meat. So far haven't found anyone who goes to the extreme of eating two pounds of raw red meat a day while also consuming the blood and all the organs. Of those I have found though we share many similarities and affinities, though it seems like there are many difference between us, of which diet is just one facet; so trying to build up a close community in the modern world based upon a raw meat diet, has as yet to manifest.
* What is your advice for people who have never tried raw meat (except tartar)? How would you describe the taste of raw meat? What other familiar (for the ordinary public) tastes/flavors would you compare it to? Is it an acquired taste?
Foods like Tartar, Ceviche, Sushi , Selfish, raw Eggs would be good starters for those looking to transition toward Raw foods. Cooking is a pervasive and addictive habit, it affects the very way our brain persuasive taste and alters the functioning of instinctive craving. Raw Red meat may be an acquired taste especially for people use to eating heavily seasoned and roasted. Some may at first taste bland and unappealing at first. It took me a couple of weeks, after eliminating all other foods before I began to tune into the actual flavor of the flesh itself. Once the transition took place, a world of difference in my sense of taste and food cravings occurred. I could taste the blood of the animal and extract its flavor from the flesh. Pronounced differences between good and not so good meats began to direct my choices, and soon instinct took over entirely. Now I am willing to search the world over to find the flesh of my dreams.
* Has your diet changed you as a person? Has it made you a better person? Do you think you’ll ever go back to a conventional diet?
Ive grown as a person since the transition, though its hard to tell exactly how much of it is due to diet, or how much is just a normal part of the maturation process. I think in many ways it has reconnected my spirit to the earth and the primal nature of Gaia; overall it has had an enormously positive effect in restoring and rejuvenating my body, mind, and spirit. As of now there are no plans of ever going back to the conventional way of life.
* What’s peoples first reaction when they find out you’re only consuming raw meat? Have you learned a lot about people in that sense? What’s the most frequent asked question? What’s something nobody ever asked you? What do you wish people would talk to you about instead of your diet? Are there any personal anecdotes you feel comfortable sharing?
The first reaction from my friends and family upon learning of my diet was to promptly question my sanity. After a few years of not falling down dead they more or less began to accept that as crazy as it seemed, it was working for me me. I eventually learned how to better discern people who would be open to my diet from people who wont even consider it. People are most interested in knowing if Ive ever gotten a parasite, which as far as I know I haven't got anything yet. People generally dont seem to comprehend the interrelations and connections between diet and life style and how these choices shape the world at large. In many respects I understand that my situation is somewhat unique and there are many experiences and realizations that have come as a result of the transition which are beyond words to describe.
* What do you wish from the future?
The future is something I have often dreamt about. It seems so unlimited in its possibilities, though I try not to expect too much from events which may or may not ever happen; Part of the charm of life is not knowing what the future holds, heaven knows 10 years ago I would never in a million years imagined it possible for my life to take the course it has, yet here I am living the impossible dream. Who dares to say what the future holds, its only limits are set by our imagination; it is with this spirit that my own future wishes are made, or more accurately "Future Visions yet to be manifest".
There is this evolving vision which as been slowly revealing itself, of an fully integrated being, capable of unifying the Primal natural side of life, with the futuristic and mechanical entities of which we are becoming. My wish is to be an agent of intermediation between these two worlds; There seems to be such a rush to cut our umbilical connection to the primal past, in this mad dash toward progress; yet I feel that we are not yet mature enough to understand the ramifications of premature abandonment and our total desecration of the natural world. There is a sense that there are indeed ways of living which can reestablish this connection to the earth; by nurturing the body, mind and spirit in accord with the optimization of the genetic structure; the vital essence of human spirit can more fully evolve and mature into beings able to successfully adapt to and even thrive, no matter what the future may be.
Best Wishes
Derek
