Is The Un Raw Un Vegan Movement Rumbly In Your Tumbly?

There is a movement within the raw vegan movement away from vegan and also sometimes away from raw. You have asked me what I think about it, so here goes...

The raw vegan diet isn't easy for everyone to stick to in the long term. Some people are coming to realise that for whatever reason, it didn't work well for them. And that's fine, the universe does allow U-turns and life is just a beautiful journey. I think above all, what we're really seeing is a shedload of honesty, and I really appreciate that. I much prefer it when people are honest about what they do, especially if they have a "following". I can't bear it when people say "raw chocolate is poison" and then are seen eating chocolate cake in public. That doesn't sit well with me.

Where am I at?

In my 2008 book Evie's Kitchen, I wrote about the issues surrounding a vegan diet, so if you've read that, you'll know that I don't sit on the puritanical vegan side of the fence. I don't believe it's possible to raise a child on a vegan unsupplemented (non-fortified) diet and yet for personal reasons I want myself and my daughter to eschew animal products as much as possible. This is where I am right now:
I am still vegan (about 25 years now, but really can't remember).I'm still mostly raw (about 95-98%).I still have the odd glass of champagne or wine.Sometimes it's not so odd, sometimes it's not there at all.I still have superfoods with everything I eat at home.Much of my food is in liquid form.I still go heavy on medicinal plants.I partake in a lot of other healing modalities such as reiki, affirmations, kambo, ayahuasca and iboga because food isn't our only medicine.I still supplement B12, bone formula, vegan DHA, MSM and a few other things.I still feel healthy, but document when I'm not because I know you also value honesty (such as when I got a frozen shoulder).I feel really really satisfied with my diet.

However, I have felt very disconnected to the "vegans only need to supplement with B12" party line, because it's just not true. If you could see the emails and letters I get from mums who tried that diet with their children (high fruit / low fruit / high fat / low fat and all combinations in between) and their children didn't thrive, you would feel heartbroken. And you would speak up, too.

So in the name of honesty, I want to tell you what I did a couple of years ago which may shock you. I ate some raw sheep cheese. Gosh, it was WEIRD, after twenty odd years without it. I did it really consciously, and it was a teeny tiny amount (about a 1cm cube). It took me about 30 minutes to get it in my mouth. It felt odd, unnatural, and not something my mind wanted to do. But I repeated it three times on three different days, because I wanted to know if my body wanted it.

It didn't feel at all right to me, but I was glad I tried it, because after so long, I wondered if I was just being a vegan for the sake of it. Afterwards, I kind of felt remarried to veganism. I was glad, because I really really like being a vegan. BUT a vegan who supplements properly and continually evaluates her diet.

Where is Evie at?
Evie still eats a few organic free range egg yolks.I'm trying to increase them to about five a week.She has a teeny tiny amount of raw organic local yoghurt and some raw cheese.She loves honey, and has a local honey as well as a manuka honey.She eats as much raw food as I can get into her.She has superfoods in almost everything she eats.She has medicinal herbal drinks every day.She has multivitamins every day.She has other supplements every day (such as bone supplements in her food).She has vegan DHA when I can get her to have it.She tried (organic) meat once when I wasn't looking.She liked it but didn't want to try it again.I asked her if she wanted some salmon once but she wouldn't.She likes not eating animals.She is happy with the non-raw compromises I allow her.

So should you be vegan?

I don't want to ever convince anyone to be vegan, it's a huge choice to make, if you're going to do it properly for a long time. There are nutrients that are low or missing on a vegan diet, and I've written extensively about this and what to do about it in Evie's Kitchen. I supplement, and always have done. I would never ever be an unsupplemented vegan, and I would never recommend that to anyone either. Deficiencies often creep up slowly, and second generation deficiencies are heartbreaking to witness. If you want to be vegan, get full knowledge of it first and go easy on yourself. It does feel great to not eat animals, but you need to choose that from your heart. Never do it because someone else tells you to do it. Well, that goes for everything in life, doesn't it?!

But it's not natural to be vegan

No, it isn't. Even "vegan" horses and cows eat a lot of insects and poo. That's why I supplement (which is also not natural). I'm heavily into being as self sufficient as much as possible. I am looking at how to create that reality here in my home in the south of the UK. I am a being of limitless possibilities and I know it can be done, with the help of a few non-local supplements. My personal feelings are: Would I rather eat part of an animal than take a very tiny small unnatural supplement? No. You may choose otherwise, and that's totally fine. But for my daughter, it's slightly different. She's not me and she's got a lot of growing to do. I want to make sure she doesn't even have borderline deficiencies, which is why she eats a small amount of non-flesh animal products.

Why the shift?

There are always shifts. They're just more prominent now because people are famous in their own Facebooks. Ultimately, my aim is to spread information on how to be the most healthy while feeling good about your ethical choices. The practical combinations of this are endless. Take a bit of what you like from everyone you vibe with, and make your own world up. That's so much fun!

So what do we do?

There will always be people who follow the next big diet trend because they didn't feel truly satisfied on the last big diet trend. So it's great if you get involved in this unvegan unveggie thing: just don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. If someone is telling you saturated fat is good, great, eat it. But remember what you learned about how harmful that fat is when it's cooked. If someone is saying eat colostrum and it vibes with you, then eat it. Just don't expect everything that everyone says to be the thing that rescues you. That is only something you can do by eating a variety of organic, raw and nutrient dense foods over the long term. If you remain vegan, please supplement. If you're not a vegan, please do all you can to eat from non-intensive farms. And whatever you choose, be happy, smile and be grateful you have this abundant choice.

Posted in: Movement,Rumbly,Tumbly,Vegan