Raw food on 20/20 news show

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Permalink Reply by LilyLoo on September 7, 2008 at 9:26pm

oops sorry, i searched, but i guess i did the slash in 20/20 a different way

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Arrow on September 7, 2008 at 9:14pm

Wow. I had never heard the term "orthorexia" before. I could definitely see myself slipping away into this! I was a typical SAD eater for 32 years and I've been 100% raw for last 46 days now. I've caught myself saying that exact line from the article: how can I stop? I wouldn't know what former food to eat first. Cooked Rice? Oatmeal? Cheese Burger and Fries? I don't want any of them. It's like when Neo is free from the matrix, he can't ever go back.

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Permalink Reply by LilyLoo on September 8, 2008 at 10:48am

Thank you for sharing this. That is very interesting and pretty much what I thought went down when they filmed it. It is unfortunate when the media takes such an obvious bias on certain issues and choose to not shed light on both sides. They should be educating people...not persuading them. The story came off as very silly and shallow to me because they just made a bunch of negative statements on raw food, yet did not really say why it was negative. You are right that they chose to show two unfortunate cases of people who could not control their way of life or way of eating with a healthy balance on both. I guess in the end, the well-being and health of the American people comes in second place to money and greed.

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Permalink Reply by LilyLoo on September 8, 2008 at 10:56am

It is a new term to me as well, but I do think it makes sense. The problem with it though is the fact that it can be loosely thrown around to people in the raw food movement. Its sad when people want to become more healthy and eliminate processed foods and other foods we KNOW are bad for us, but then we are made to feel guilty or think we have an eating disorder?? The people who suffer from orthorexia have a serious mental and psychological problem to the point where it controls their life. Of course food and diet is a big part of everyone's life, but just because the raw diet consists of some more time consuming dishes does not mean it has to control your life. Just because you want to put healthier foods into your system does not mean it has to control your life. It may take some time when you first start, but so would taking on any new activity that you aren't used to. Once you start to educate yourself, the choices get easier and you don't have to think about it so much.

Argh, I just wanted to slap John Stossel when he kept arguing that we eat worse, but are now living longer. Some people just cannot get the big picture in their minds about what is really going on here with the food and medicine industries. And as Kulvinskas made the point that just because we are living longer, does not mean the quality of life is better. And thats the damn truth! Temporary fixes with drugs may make you live a few years longer, but the point still remains that Americas are sicker than ever. Alive longer and sick longer.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer on September 8, 2008 at 11:33am

I guess as strange as it may seem....Congratulations everyone!

We are ruffling up a few feathers here with our choice to opt out of mainstream dietary habits and head down a path of continual growth and personal development. We are the sheep who fled the field and we cannot be corralled back! We can't be convinced of anything they try to sell us anymore, it's impossible.
Personally, I couldn't be happier about this article/show! ( although I'm sure my mom is going to call me and make sure I know all about what that which she has no clue about! LOL)

Keep up the good work!

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Permalink Reply by rawrawraw! on September 8, 2008 at 11:53am

"My compassion reaches out to her that she took the path. Well, at least she got detoxified and clean, and moved on into another incarnation." Viktoras Kulvinskas
She died, that's a tragedy. At least she got detoxified...my goodness.

Well a lot of raw fooders aren't Orthorexics like this article is talking about. Those people are just as mentally ill as any other person who suffers from an eating disorder. Show your mama the facts. :D
You look healthy and happy to me, but I think the signs are obvious. If someone is doing something horrible wrong, it shows.

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Permalink Reply by LilyLoo on September 8, 2008 at 12:06pm

Yes, I think I will bring it up for her. She worries way too much and sometimes does not bother to question what the media is feeding her.

I did not totally agree with everything Viktoras was saying, such as when people eat meat, they eat the fear of the animal. I can totally understand what he is saying, and I think before these animals are brutally slaughtered, they are very stressed, sick and frightened. I am sure they have many toxins and adrenaline and whatever running through their bodies, but his statement kind of made him look goofy to the mainstream thinkers. Maybe he said other things and they edited him to look kinda wacky. Either way...I know my body and the moment anything starts to go wrong, I will work on getting it healthier, be it from raw foods or anything. Thanks for your reply :)

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Permalink Reply by AwesomeUniverse!!! on September 8, 2008 at 1:15pm

I love your video's David! You are so right on...=)

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Permalink Reply by telefunken on September 8, 2008 at 1:52pm

Thanks David for posting. ----tele

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Permalink Reply by David of Bristol on September 8, 2008 at 3:01pm

I don't think it was an obvious hatchet job although did imply that certain eating habits (raw) were somehow dodgy.

The people featured had severe neurotic illness. On raw forums you do get people posting anxiously that they ate cooked and feel terrible - it's probably 90% psychosomatic. Too many raw fooders analyse the effect of every morsel of food instead of living their lives.

Like anything - hard partying, a relationship, a bad job - if it's doing you harm it's time to stop.

I love raw food as it's made such a huge difference to me but if I wouldn't let myself get ill for the sake of an imagined purity.

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Permalink Reply by Laura Bruno on September 11, 2008 at 3:46am

Yes, this kind of reminds me of that UK special with Suki from this past winter--definite distortion!

I will say, though, that there ARE quite a few folks out there with eating disorders who have turned to raw foods as a hope of curing themselves. In most cases I've encountered this has helped significantly, but not actually "cured" the issue; in some cases, it has nudged those tendencies to spiral out of control. I have a lot of articles posted online, and of all my articles, by far the one that I receive most emails and phone calls thanking me for posting is this:

http://rawglow.com/healingfoodissues.htm

about eating disorders among raw foodists and nutritionists. It's not a judging article but does acknowledge the issue and offer tips for dealing with the feelings, especially shame for being "healthy" or health leaders and having this problem.

Based on coaching clients and readers, it may be a much bigger issue than people let on b/c everyone who contacts me tells me they thought they must be the only one who feels this way. For the record, I love raw foods and believe it's a wonderful lifestyle, but the judgment and shame ... not so much!

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Permalink Reply by Laura Bruno on September 11, 2008 at 1:32pm

Hi RawZi,
In my experience with coaching people who happen to have some of these issues, I have found that it really is most often a process of embracing gifts that seem "too big" for them to handle on their own. Encouraging people to turn towards mindfulness, loving-kindness and yoga tends to help more than putting them into a labeled group of "orthorexics" or "anorexics," etc. Also, volunteering tends to help put things into perspective and relieve some of the symptoms; finding a career that allows them to serve others in a heartfelt way really helps as well.

Please note: I'm talking about "functional orthorexics, etc." ... those who privately will admit that they have taken their obsession with health beyond a comfortable level to the extent that it now interferes w/ their enjoyment of life rather than contributing to it. (Generally, these people do not contact me specifically to deal with an eating disorder, as I'm not a psychologist. The eating disorder just factors into their overall feelings that they need some shifts in their lives.) In these cases, focusing attention even more on the food or the food issues often causes frustration, shame or even greater issues.

By contrast, turning the attention to compassionate ways of contributing or to a sense of life purpose helps place the food issues into proper perspective: they are a distraction. Getting at the root cause of the symptoms obviously helps, too. This could be through an intuitive reading, meditation, or counseling (but I'd encourage folks to look at ALL of life and not just focus on this one little aspect of it.) I recommend Sally Kempton's Awakened Heart meditation CD and her book, The Heart of Meditation. There's also an old, but good book called, "Getting Unstuck," which people might find valuable.

In the case of people who have dangerously obsessive tendencies to the point of needing hospitalization or severely compromising their health, I would suggest getting in touch with some of the bigger organizations for their particular eating disorder. I have heard that some of the anorexia facilities have incorporated yoga into their treatment program, with good success.

It depends on where the person's at on this continuum of symptoms, but the tricky thing about support groups in this particular topic is that sometimes they feul competition to get thinner, purer, etc. A few years ago, this became an obvious problem with some of the online support groups for anorexia, for example. In junior highs and high schools, teachers often note that "eating disorders are contagious." For this reason, I always encourage people to do their own inner work and let themselves shine--but again, I'm coaching or doing intuitive readings for the functional ones who just have this as a side issue, not counseling people deep in the throws of a full blown eating disorder.

Sorry I can't give you a one size fits all approach, but I hope some of these resources prove helpful to your friends!

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