Wednesday 20 February 2013

Raw food diet, vegan diets

Just a random blurb of a thought and hopefully you can help me with your comments for, against or just about, a couple different ways of eating.

I often find recipes that I make and enjoy that are vegan and / or raw.  One does not equal the other.  But in an unending quest to reduce refined sugar intake and highly processed ingredients (not eliminate) I usually fall on raw food sites and / or vegan sites.  Without wholly adopting the eating style, I do appreciate and sometimes love the new recipe I have found.  Occasionally they become a new "regular". 

My thing is this: when I think of vegan food and certainly raw foods, I think of cooling adjectives.  I think of things that are stored in the fridge or freezer.  I think of fruits and vegetables.  I don't think warm and comforting thoughts. 

Take, for example, chocolate pudding.  My first thought is milk, sugar and cocoa in a small pot bubbling on the stove and eaten warm.  In order to reduce the milk and sugar, I find a recipe with avocado.  I have no qualms whatsoever with it, it is yummy and chocolatey and I have achieved the immediate goal of less sugar and milk product.  But, by combining the ingedients in the food processor or blender, the end result is cool in temperature.

Is this more of an ayurvedic conflict inside me? 

When I want a brownie, I want warm, gooey and fudgey.  Not terms I associate with dates and nuts finely ground together and pressed into a pan and put in the fridge to set or cool.  And again, the date / nut mixture is good and good for me and I like it, but it's not a brownie.

Is this so deeply ingrained in me, like my fingerprint, that I will always feel this way about the things that make me not feel good about myself afterward?  I don't think I have an intolerance to dairy, gluten and sugar, but I have never eliminated them from my diet so cannot say for sure.  I do know that the days / hours that I consume less of these three things I feel better.  Is it because combined these things combined usually produce and "extra" food and not a necessary food, not even a nutrient dense food.

When I think of throwing together a picnic or food for the road, I kind of check off meat, cheese, fruit, bread and wine (or drink).  Can we subsist on this?  Is this the way to go?

You usually come to me to find answers but on this note, I have few.  I would really like to hear your thoughts on this.  Share and tell me what you eat that makes you feel good, what makes you feel not-so-good, how you balance your healthy eating lifestyle with your what-you-want-to-eat self.