Blissful Eating: Raw Vegan Food

Most people think they love food, but rarely do they really love it. Instead they are using it to have something to do, as a requirement in social or family situations, as a crutch during any stress, mindlessly eating because they’ve always done so, because they’ve become addicted to it, etc. Or it’s been heavily altered from it’s original state with cooking, chemical additives, sweeteners and/or spices to make you like it. There are a select few that truly love food and usually those are chefs or anyone else whose life revolves around food for more than just the normal reasons. I’m not unusual as I was eating for all the reasons above and ate all the typical foods everyone else ate. I could eat Italian-style food every single day. I could eat my dinner, followed by a pint of ice cream and a whole entire bag of chips without any obvious problems. I could order Chinese food or pizza for delivery when I chose. I often experimented with a variety of so-called healthy diets, but mainly ate junk. I didn’t really like restaurants, but I went quite often because that was part of socializing before I became raw. I wouldn’t say I truly loved food; it was just what I did. Now eating fruits and vegetables completely raw and with very little flavoring added or modification (often none), I can truly, without a doubt say that I love food authentically. Something wonderful happens when you become truly healthy while sticking with a raw vegan diet. You learn how conditioned we all are in terms of food. How we are taught healthy food doesn’t taste good. We’re given tasteless, flavorless vegetables (because they’re cooked or not prepared well) and think we don’t like them, but we force ourselves to eat them when we can because we’re “suppose to”. We may eat fruit, but often it’s also modified with added flavors, unhealthy ingredients, canned, frozen, etc. or it’s not organic, which can affect the flavor as well. Or we just learned not to like them among all the other choices. Our taste buds just aren’t use to pure, natural healthy food and therefore we miss out and everyone who isn’t eating this way is missing out. They (you) think we’re the ones deprived, but we have it easy and fun. Now we get to truly enjoy real food. We discover new foods we never had before, even though they were always available to us. We rediscover others we’ve tried before as well. As we progressively become more healthy, we find that we love fruits and vegetables. Love! Because they actually taste good. Because this is real food. Because with some modifications, we can create fancy raw vegan dishes if we choose like lasagna, cheese and chocolate mousse. Or we can keep it simple and just grab some fruit or make a salad. We find ourselves sitting and eating a bowl of fruit and relishing every single bite in a completely new and different way than how we use to enjoy food. The experience is so fun and the food is so delicious. We don’t have to feel bad or guilty that we ate something unhealthy. We don’t have to worry about gaining weight and depriving ourselves so we can lose it. We rarely have to go to doctors or take medication because we usually don’t have health issues and if we do, they can be healed with raw food, fasting or occasionally, supplements. There’s something so blissful about biting into a piece of a rich, decadent dessert, knowing that not only does it taste amazing, but it’s also good for me. Imagine social and family situations where you actually focus on your conversation and connections within these relationships, instead of what you’re eating. For many, being raw can be a spiritual, meditative experience that leads to other significant improvements. Every single thing about being a raw vegan, once you become accustomed to it, is a positive fun lifestyle that enhances all areas of your life. It’s one of the best decisions I ever made. Raw is a gift available to everyone.