By Bob McCauley, ND
“If you let people think they are thinking, they will love you.
If you make them think, they will hate you.”
~ Don Marquis
The word vegetarian derives not from the word vegetable as one would assume, but from the Latin homo vegetus, whose literal translation means someone who is lively, fresh, vigorous, robust and healthy. Romans referred to this kind of person as a vegetarian. I only discovered this recently, but in the 25 years I have been one I have learned why I call myself a vegetarian, what it actually means and how to defend myself against attacks and scorn for being one. If you stop eating meat, you will open yourself up to derision from the rest of the meat-eating world. But as a vegetarian, you will know that you are unwilling to sacrifice your health for the taste of animal flesh.
You become a maverick, an outsider, the day you announce to the world that you will no longer be consuming cooked foods. You are an outcast because you are no longer part of the cooked-food clan that composes 99% of our society. If you think outside the cooked-food trap, you are considered a health nut, not someone who simply wants to put healthy things into their body instead of substances that have little or no nutrition and lead to all disease. Being a nutritional maverick does not make moving to the raw-food lifestyle any easier. These are the times in which we live, and you will be displaced from the world when you decide to take your health back and not put yourself on the latest low fat, high protein, pill slimming diet. But know in your heart that you are a nutritional pioneer who will have the last laugh because you will not be the one facing disease and all its deadly arrows. And all those who remain behind in the dull, dangerous cooked-food world will eventually wish they had come with you.
Food brings us together in many ways. People gather socially around food more than anything else. When you become a raw foodist, you alienate yourself from social gatherings that take place around food, especially during the holidays when families get together to share love, gifts and food.
It has never been a problem for me because I don’t judge what others eat even though I myself am constantly judged. In fact, I never comment on what they eat unless I’m asked about it and then I diplomatically explain to them why cooked foods don’t belong in the body and why raw foods do. I tell them that my health is of great importance to me, much more important than what I put in my mouth that might happen to taste good. If they are persistent and suggest that a little meat, potatoes or other cooked foods aren’t going to hurt me, I explain that I have broken my addiction to cooked foods and I don’t want to go back to them because they are not the path to health. I enjoy my health the way they enjoy their food. I explain that there is more to food than only taste. If they persist, I finally tell them that I intend to honor the temple that God gave me by putting the foods in it that God created himself, raw foods that have not been destroyed by man and his invention called cooking. They usually leave me alone at that point.
That is my life, that of a nutritional maverick. I prefer it because I have grown to love the raw foods I eat each day. Sometimes you need to ride alone for a while until others see the value of what you are doing and begin to follow you. Without doubt, some eventually will. Many will be inspired by your discipline and healthy appearance.
The times that we live in have never been more favorable to be a raw foodist. There is a sea change occurring in our fundamental thinking about health. The medical establishment and the various health care systems are draining our resources chasing cures that simply don’t exist in the world of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, radiation, surgery and other artificial treatments. Increasingly, people are realizing that running to the doctor when they get sick only to be treated for the symptoms of their disease rather than the disease itself is doing nothing for their health. Consequently, minds are beginning to open to the alternatives. Our trust in doctors and their artificiality, bred into us from birth, is waning as our innate trust of nature reemerges.
Once you accept the fact that cooked foods are addictive and that you are an addict, a profound choice will be laid at your feet that you will be forced to confront. You will either move toward the raw food life or you will chose to ignore the truth about health and continue on your path of taste and pleasure at the expense of life’s ultimate gift, your health.
The Raw-food Diet is the only diet that leads to true health. The constant promotion and marketing of extracts, concentrates, enzymes and synthesized hormones only serve to confuse the average person who knows little about health. They hear that everything they are used to eating is bad for them, although tasty, satisfying, healthy alternatives are never offered to replace everything they know about food. After you’ve been told your whole life that chicken soup is good for a cold, it’s hard to accept that mom was wrong and that raw, something completely alien to everything you know, is right. The cooked-food lifestyle and the world of medicine that attempts to control the innumerable diseases that result from it is one of utter hopelessness.
The body that is built from cooked materials that are void of enzymes is ready to crumble at any moment. A body built of raw foods will put itself into perfect health and last as long as it was built to last, and it will not die of disease.
And when you are challenged by others, know that you regularly practice true health. When practiced absolutely, the reward is absolute. Without doubt, you will rise to the next level of your life. That is the fine art of true health.
