MSN.com article- Raw food as a "fad diet"???

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by MOTH on February 15, 2009 at 12:17pm

Sooo stupid. Raw, complicated??! Time consuming! Hardly!! It takes me two seconds to grab a bunch of ripened bananas, or some apples, or green leaves and start eating them. No prep required. As for a 'fad' diet??! It's the oldest way of eating there is. I see eating crap cooked food as more of a fad. The fresher and thus the more whole the food, the more nutrients you are going to receive from it. Silly article on raw food.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jodykwik on February 15, 2009 at 12:26pm

Just plain uninformed. Comparing raw to the Master Cleanse for one thing...how do you compare a way of eating to a moderated fast? But then she should know this being from Marin County and all...lol.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Zoe on February 15, 2009 at 1:07pm

Although the 'journalist' says she has had plenty of experience with raw food, it sounds like she has only tried Roxanne Klein's premade meal in a box style raw food that you get in Wholefoods in the USA.
Which isn't really 'plenty of experience'.
I was really interested in that line of pre made Roxanne Klein raw food coz at the time Chris and I were planning to do something similar here in the UK, so I searched for reviews of it on all the forums etc and I didn't find a single person who had anything good to say about her food...her line of ready raw meals was universally slated. I think it is really hard thing to mass produce raw food meals, which have to have a certain shelf life, be easy to factory produce etc etc...a tall order for R.K. which she fell short of.
So it sounds to me like the journalist had made her mind up about her stance on raw food before she wrote the article, and therefore didn't bother to do any proper research like go to a raw restaurant or a pot luck, and just popped down to wholefoods and bought a load of plastic raw ready meals...and confirmed her doubts and suspicions about raw being bad tasting, expensive and fiddly...lazy journalism, what a shame !

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ian on February 15, 2009 at 1:20pm

This artcile was written by (yet again) another spokesperson from the American Dietetic Association, Julie Upton. Ms. Upton attended the University of Michigan and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition. She has a Master's Degree in "Nutrition Communication" (wtf????) from Boston University.

What the fuck is "nutrition communication"??

It is interesting to note, however, that Ms. Upton is probably paid quite heftily from the sponsors on her webpage (ie- Redbook, Runners, Good Housekeeping, Men's Health, Women's Health - now I see where the "communication" part comes in. I wonder if they train people to speak in terms of nutrition that magazine readers understand?)

And, she does spend a bit of time traveling back and forth between her offices in San Fransisco and New York City, in between rounds of tennis at the yacht club with Uncle Biff, and afternoon tea with Aunt Muffy, I am sure.

Who are these people? They make some of these obtuse raw food gurus look like shining geniuses. Her largest criticisms of the raw food diet was the fancy preparation of the meals, which eas exactly the same comment that Dr. Andy Weil made when he criticized it (reference discussion topic here: http://www.giveittomeraw.com/forum/topics/dr-weil-against-the-raw-f...)

I emailed her (like I emailed all of the others) to politely ask for an medical explanation of some key terms. I don't expect an answer from her either, but it is nice to dream :-/

Ian

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken on February 15, 2009 at 8:08pm

Nutrition Communication:

Is when you consult with her and tell her you are considering raw foods and she goes:

"Hello! mcFly!" and knocks her knuckle on your head.

also another popular course in University features a variety of techniques of "pureed sweet potato airplane" for infants.

----
its cool that you write these people...they probably DO read it.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ian on February 15, 2009 at 8:30pm

Great stuff! I must have missed that course in college ;-)

I love jousting with these University types. Their collective silence, oftentimes, can become deafening.

Ian

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ian on February 15, 2009 at 8:34pm

My posts don't really have much insight, they're just for entertainment. So I am happy to see that it worked. hahaha.

And truth be told, I applaud anyone who goes to school to follow a path they want to study. But I guess I should lambast MSN Health for picking some arbitrary nim-rod with a magazine portfolio to write as a nutrition "expert". I found her entire critique of raw food to be completely short-sighted and painfully juvenile.

I'll post her response on this thread, if she responds :-)

Ian

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Asty on February 15, 2009 at 8:49pm

Thanks for attempting to reach her, Ian. I enjoyed reading your posts. :)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ian on February 15, 2009 at 9:10pm

You enjoyed reading my posts? OK, that makes one person on this site ;-)

I often find that there are people who go to college to become an endless purveyor of truth-seeking, and there are others who simply want the piece of paper for their own ego-gratification purposes. These are the people who attend class, happen to be naturally bright, have a refridgerator filled with weed and Budweiser most days of the week, do not have to work at all while in school, and stumble to the platform on graduation day in a stoned/drunken stupor, yell "hey mom, I did it!", and then somehow end up with a $45,000 per year job the following day.

Since I was the geek in college always reading and dissecting periodicals, I tend to ask a lot of questions that simply draw blanks stares from people such as Ms. Upton, mainly because she probably wasn't too interested in the finer arguments of academia that had been going on while she attended school.

Which is fine.

However, as with many subjects, I am learning that academia is not quite providing its "end product" (ie- graduating students) with the proper tools in their respective fields, and I have witnessed this in fields such as philosophy, finance/economics, and now nutrition.

As previously mentioned, I will reserve judgment until I hear a detailed response from her pertaining to my inquiry ;-)

Ian

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Meditating on February 15, 2009 at 3:41pm

Well that seemed stupid and slanted. For someone claiming to be familiar with raw food diets, she clearly doesn't know much about them. If more people ate raw diets, they would not need nutritionists.

My initial impression of raw was that it was very complicated but that is because you are introduced with every meal being something that usually does a poor job imitating SAD food. I understand the appeal of people thinking they can still have pizza, but there are simple raw dishes you can start with and I now really enjoy mono eating. When I leave for work I just throw a few pears and carrots in my bag and I am in good shape. It is really the greatest.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by s on February 15, 2009 at 3:52pm

i find it interesting that the writer compares lifestyles with diets in this article. raw food and breatharianism are indeed lifestyles and shouldn't just be for someone who is trying to drop a few pounds (i.e. the intended audience of this article).
i also think it humorous that she claims to be a "part-time vegan." what the hell is that?
s

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Meditating on February 15, 2009 at 6:33pm

Part-time vegan? I thought that was funny too. Is that like being a little pregnant?

▶ Reply to This

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last