I’m going to a restaurant tonight that serves several raw dishes. I’ve heard from some academia and scientists in relevant fields that raw-foodism does have it’s health benefits but is often taken too far and can lead to health concerns. I’m wondering what, is any, raw food dishes I’d like to avoid?
Naturally, no raw meat. But I mean other dishes?

Alright, I’m having a very hard time here. I’ll try to simplify this as much as possible. I’m 19 years old and decided to try vegetarianism starting the new year, Jan 1 2009. After adapting to the different types of foods and living the life style of a vegetarian, I felt excellent mentally, but not the best physically.

Since soy is the most common replacement for meat in a vegetarian’s diet, I was eating a lot of it per day. After a month of this I was experiencing severe eye pressure, coldness, and others problems caused by malfunction of the thyroid gland. After doing a little online research I learned that soy really has some serious debilitating effects on the thyroid gland. Just one quick google of "hypothyroidism" and "soy" and you will come up with hundreds of results discreditting soy. After realizing that the soy in my diet wasn’t allowing my thyroid gland to function properly and was affecting my vision I had to drop it from my diet completely.

Now, here is my main problem. I completely agree with the countless number of reasons to become a vegetarian, from the health benefits, to the anti-animal abuse, and the positive environmental effects. However, I am starting to rethink this whole vegetarian diet, which saddens me.

It looks as if I’m going to have to drop the lifestyle I’ve been so dedicated to for the past 40 days or so and go back to the immoral meat-eating. If I did go back I’d definately be eating organic meats from the grocery store and not EVER McDonalds, but I would still feel terrible doing it. Does anyone have any advice for me? It just seems without soy in my diet, the amount of vegetarian foods available to me would be cut dramatically and it would be extremely hard to maintain vegetarianism without soy.

Thanks.
i was eating oatmeal (breakfast), boca burgers w/ cheese (lunch), bean burritos (dinner), raisins, pasta and I was drinking water, protein shakes, and orange juice.

I have recently been introduced to the raw food diet, and am considering eating vegan food two weeks / then raw vegan food the next two on and off. but what I really wanted was too get some really nice simple recipes that are cheap and not to expensive.

Also what are the health benefits of this diet?.

I already have one and that is raw mushrooms with soya sauce and olive oil.
I am trying too get a food processor from freegle to aid in making my recipes and I already read about making the pasta dish. I will also be seeking out a copy of RAW I have no cook books so that would be a nice start!.

what do you mean sprouting or dehydrating. like growing or losing weight. then definitely sprouting.
Nutella is definitaly not vegan but yoou can make easily make your own vegan nutella. chocolate is generally a no because it normally contains milk. However I am addicted to chocolate soya milk :)
Thanks for all the links, a friend of mine has the veganomicon so I will ask him when we next have our Afed meeting :) am not growing sprouts. But I will be growing my own tomatoes, spring onions, potatoes etc. & hopefully some herbs. I’m glad I now know about dehydrating things. so it would be okay to dry out tomatoes and things using a cooker?.

and I am really hoping too get a Blender from freecycle sheffield!.
Well I am definitely looking forward to some RAW bananna ice cream :]

Hello. I am very interested in taking up a raw food diet / lifestyle because of all of the health benefits. However, I am unsure of exactly what to eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack in order to get the sufficiant amount of nutrients and calories. There has to be raw food dieters out there on Yahoo Answers. If so, can you give me a sample menu with stuff that I can find at a local grocery store on the east coast. Thanks a million,

Hi, vegans and vegetarians! I assume that this is the best forum to post my question.

I’ve researched raw-foodism, and I am sold! I’m eager to gain all of the health benefits from this diet. But there are so many cooked foods and non-vegetarian foods (sorry) that I can’t imagine living without. How do you cope with this? Should i just go 75% raw and allow myself to eat those prized foods occasionally? Will my health improve even as a 75% raw foodist, or do I need to go all the way?

I’m thinking of starting a raw food diet for a few weeks to see what the health benefits/ weight loss is like. However, I was wondering if the diet is meant to be vegetarian, or if raw fish ie sushi can be eaten. I don’t mind either way, I’d just like to know. Also to anyone who’s done the diet, how did you find it? Did it do everything it said on the packet ie increased energy, better skin weight loss etc? Thanks in advance!

I’m transitioning over to raw foodism and when I told my best friend, she kept telling me how I should not eat just vegetables and fruits and that I should eat other things too. she doesn’t understand that you can get all the nutrients and vitamins your body needs without eating processed foods. also, I know my family is going to have an issue with this, how could I explain this to them? I’m very excited about the short term and long term health benefits I will be getting by cutting out dairy and processed foods from my diet (I’ve been vegetarian for three years now).

i need to go on the raw food diet for health benefits, one of which is losing weight. i’d like to know how much you lost your first week! also, what are your favorite recipes and drinks? thanks so much!

I am really interested in starting this for the health benefits but I seem to be addicted to cooked, and overprocessed food. Does anyone know of any really good books about this with some recipes for me to get started with?
Yes, sushi is my favorite food!!
If not vegan than maybe vegetarian. I would still like to eat some dairy and fish.

I'm really interested in the health benefits of doing a mostly raw diet ( I read that even 75% raw is still considered a raw diet). Is there any books or sources that were invaluable when you made your dietary changes? Any tips or advice for a newbie? I'd be particularly interested in any kind of websites with a support chat or meal plans, also any books or other sources that are helpful.

I am writing a paper about the health benefits of the raw food diet. One of my sources has to be a scholarly book/monoraph, but so far I can not find one. Any ideas would be highly appreciated!