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11 reasons why I eat a raw vegan, mostly fruitarian diet

A raw vegan diet consists of uncooked and unprocessed plant-based foods – fruits, vegetables, greens, nuts, seeds, legumes, grains, sprouts and spices. Nature offers us alive and complete foods that are perfect for our bodies just as they are. Hence a raw diet is the most natural way of eating just like for any other species. I have been eating a 100% raw vegan diet since 2017, before that I was eating highly raw since 2015 and below are the benefits I experience.

 

1) Better health

I have never felt in such great health as long as I remember. I used to eat everything, meat, dairy, processed foods, lots of wheat products, loads of sugar, chocolate, cakes, fast foods, left overs, ready meals, canned foods at any time in any quantities.

In my early twenties I started developing serious digestive issues, food intolerances, joint pain, chronic skin disease called psoriasis, warts, fungus; I also had issues since young, such as herpes, dandruff, back pain, cavities, fatigue, vertigo, anaemia, heart palpitations and horrible menstrual cramps.

I am proud to say that all of these are gone out of my life. I do not even have seasonal flu, colds, coughs or fevers any more. Science says that for all the cells of your body to be replaced by new ones it takes an average of 2 years. Where do we get new cells from? The food we eat! So I feel like I have rebuilt myself a new body with alive, healthy and pure ingredients.  I have optimal digestion, clear soft skin, healthy hair and nails and lots of energy.

The body has its own capacity to heal when it has the opportunity. You can observe this when you cut or burn yourself, how the skin heals itself without the need to do anything. However, we keep stuffing our bodies with toxins and the body is too busy digesting and trying to keep us alive that it does not have time to detox and repair. Imagine you keep scratching a cut on your skin; it won’t be able to heal as fast.

When you feed your body with alive and healthy cells only, you slow down the aging process looking and feeling younger. In my experience, I can tell you that I feel like I am starting to experience more and more what it’s like to be at optimum health and discovering my optimum human potential. It’s seriously awesome!

 

2) Better taste

The authentic whole flavour is found in the food that nature offers us as it is in its original raw form. When food is cooked, applying high heat destroys a significant amount of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and other things that constitute food and hence diminishes its flavour too. And this is why when we cook, we add so much salt and spices and other condiments. There is a whole gastronomy around raw vegan cuisine now with amazing recipes ranging from simple to elaborate with substitutes for all comfort foods and cultural recipes so no worries about getting bored.

 

3) Heightened perception

One of my favourite benefits of a low fat raw vegan mostly fruitarian diet is the constant clarity and sharpness of mind. I feel more present and more aware and alert in the present moment. More focused when I do something. Better concentration which was my biggest difficulty at school.  My five senses are more awake and more intense as in I see more, I hear more, I smell more, I taste more, I feel more, yes it really happens! Mind and body are not separate so when you heal the anchor for the mind which is the body with healing foods, the mind also gets purified. I could make another article just about this! I feel my mind and my body have become more intelligent, more practical and more anchored and grounded in the now. This helps to respond more appropriately to the situations of life.

Anyone suffering from mental and emotional instability such as anxiety, over-thinking, paranoia, and emotional blockages can benefit immensely and heal with the assistance of healing foods as well as supportive and loving mentors, coaches or wise friends and family members.

When your body purifies, your perception is also purified from confusion and fogginess. There is so much liberation in a heightened perception and that makes you start experiencing yourself and life in a new way. I personally feel that it also made me much more truthful and spiritual in my own way.

 

4) More energy

There is something called Vital Energy or Life Energy or Prana or Qi in different cultures. What this essentially means is the life inside your body that keeps your body alive and its shape together – The Aliveness. When the body is broken, the life leaves the body and the body decomposes to return to Mother Nature.

Raw food is alive, cooked food is dead and does no longer contain the aliveness – the vital energy, and its body starts to deteriorate fast. Constantly eating dead food feeds your body only dead cells to regenerate itself so the body ages faster, gets weaker and hence is more susceptible to disease. Dead foods include cooked food, dead animal foods and processed foods.

Constantly feeding the body with alive organic food which still contains the aliveness gives you full-on pure energy and alive cells. This makes you feel more vibrant, high on life, always alert, you sleep better and less, so you have more time to live, more time on a daily basis.

 

5) Convenience

This diet and lifestyle is less time consuming preparing food and it is cheaper in warm climates. I mean think about it, fruit is like the ultimate fast food. There is no cooking or baking time so you only pick or buy, rinse, peel, chop or eat straight away. What can take more time is when you get into the more elaborate raw vegan cuisine, but it is still a faster cuisine since the cooking time is not there. For example, a quick cooked cake takes an average of 1 hour. A quick raw vegan cake in my recipes takes an average of 10 minutes; that is 6 times less! Talk about more time in your day!

When travelling, you can find fruits and veggies absolutely anywhere. It is safe and you don’t need to worry about reading labels. It is also easy to pack in your backpack and yes you can take loads of food on planes, trains and buses. I do it all the time. If someone says something, you can say that you have a special diet for your health, always works!

I know fruits are very expensive in cold countries so perhaps this does not apply there. Apologies to my northern friends here! Anyways, I often wonder why the heck we built civilisations in freezing climates?! In warm and tropical climates, fruits are cheap and abundant, and since I do not spend money on processed foods and animal products. I find myself actually spending less and eating more.

 

6) No more restrictions

I have always been a foodie; I just am in love with food and making food. But as I said earlier, I used to eat and over-eat anything and that was very unhealthy. Been back and forth with dieting, restrictions, yoyo effect, counting calories, binge eating, emotional eating, guilt, looking for that perfect body; you name it. I had such an unhealthy relationship with something I love. I am still healing my relationship with food as this is on the psychological level but I am so happy that I do not count calories any more nor restrict myself with quantities and when I do binge eat emotionally, the food that I binge eat on is not harmful and loves me back. I now see food as Mother Nature’s beautiful and sacred offering to us. This kind of interaction and immense respect for food came along as I started growing my own organic food and witnessing the whole process of how nature and us humans interact. It is so precious and wonderful!

Another thing that happened eating this way is that my weight has stabilised to a healthy average whether I eat more or less. No more dieting, this is THE diet. This food is so nurturing, so nutritious, so satisfying, and so delicious and you feel it! That makes you naturally and effortlessly become consistent at how you eat over time.

 

7) Better for the environment

As the demand for organic fresh fruits and vegetables and other plants increase and the animal products decreases, this will automatically have a ripple effect. More fruit trees will be planted, less chemicals will be used, less packages and plastic will be produced, more and more farmers will be interested in going back organic and healing their poisoned soils. More livestock farmers will be interested in converting into growing plants instead of animals. Just in passing, working in animal farming and slaughter houses is one of the most depressing and painful jobs. As better food becomes more and more available it will also get cheaper and more people will have access to it and they will become healthier and healthier. Wellbeing will be a natural consequence. Eating purer makes a human more conscious, sensitive and loving, it soothes the survival mode, aggression, distress and fogginess. It’s a healing diet for humans, and the entire planet. It is the most natural way of eating for humans and when we tune back into what is natural for us, we go back into harmony.

Animal products are not a natural source of food for human beings; we have a plant-based/fruitarian body and get all that we need from plants. Animal products are actually harmful. The best thing you can do for your health and for the health of this planet right now is to go vegan (healthy vegan!).

 

8) Deep Healing

The human system is made of physical body, life energies, emotions and thoughts. Whatever aspect we address for healing has an automatic ripple effect on the rest as these 4 aspects are all the same in different manifestations. So it is no surprise that purifying the physical body will start moving a lot of things within the human system. When I did my first detox, I physically felt a lot of things moving within my body and also a lot of emotional baggage came to the surface for me to feel and liberate. Feeling is setting the non-serving stuck past emotions free, it is healing. We resist and deny a natural process of our humanity and we create blockages and sickness. Resisting our emotions is like lying to ourselves. Setting emotions free in a safe space, sometimes alone, or sometimes with non-judgmental loving friends has been one of the most liberating things in my life. I have realised that we are taught out of our feelings since young, and that is so disconnecting! It’s like denying one of our human abilities and gifts to operate at full function on this earth.

When I first did a detox, I experienced something called Detox Symptoms. I was prepared so they did not scare me; I knew it was part of the healing process. Detox symptoms are when your body starts to detoxify and lets toxins out in ways that we do not expect, especially when the body is not healthy. It passes eventually. It is very important to engage with healing and detox with the support of experienced professionals in this field. This will prevent from harmful mistakes.

Healing is not easy; it takes you out of your familiar zone. So if you are not ready for some serious healing and liberation, perhaps this journey is not yet for you. Usually people use the phrase ‘comfort zone’ and I am using ‘familiar zone’ on purpose because in my experience I have been moving to a more and more comfortable and pleasant place within me. I would say it is more like moving from familiar to unfamiliar, from old habits to new, from known to unknown. Change and uncertainty is scary for some and shedding the past and letting go of the old persona if it does not work well for us can also be an overwhelming and powerful experience. However, looking back, I know that there was much more discomfort and bondage in being someone that was not me following society’s programs.

In my experience, it has been and still is the most liberating thing I have done for myself. It has brought me so much joy, growth, well-being, health and freedom.  I feel so much lighter as if I have been liberated from heavy ancestral old baggage and it still continues. It feels like going back to my true essence, being in the present moment has become so much easier. My perception is less and less distorted by my past conditioning. And that child-like bliss and fun is sneaking back in full force!

Taking care of myself has taught me acts of self-love, respect and acceptance, I became more confident in being who I truly want to be and that is such a joy!

When you intimately connect with your inner nature, you connect so deeply with the outer nature too, and you feel part of a bigger planetary and cosmic flow. You also start truly feeling sorry for what is being done and wanting to do your best to protect nature and educate people about the importance of respecting nature.

 

9) Easier and more enjoyable physical performance

When I was young, I used to be physically active with school and classes. I did dancing, fitness and played tennis. When I left for university at the age of 17, I gained so much weight and reached 70 kg. I am 165 cm tall. I had stopped exercising and when I would go back to exercising it would be such an effort. I left for the UK so exercising was mainly indoors. I pushed myself to exercise to eventually admit to myself that I was truly bored indoors with machines and this is why the motivation was not there. So I quit this idea of the gym and started realising that it is more fun to move my body in any way I enjoy instead of having fixed ideas of how long I should exercise, how often etc. Focusing on a goal never worked for me, I enjoy the process much more and goals happen by themselves.

I now practice yoga and meditation every day and I love dancing, hiking, walking, swimming and playing games. I have so much breath capacity, so much more endurance, strength and energy on this diet. I sometimes go for a run and I surprise myself how I can run once a month and not feel like I am out of shape at all and can just go for like 5 to 7km without even noticing.

There are many vegan and raw vegan body builders and athletes as well as celebrities. Check their stories out!

 

10) Closer to nature – A new magical intimacy with earth

I grew up in the city of Algiers (Algeria), studied in the city of Leeds (UK) and worked in the city of Dubai (UAE) so I never really lived in nature until I moved to beautiful Montenegro.

My interest for nature started on my plate. It all started in the UK when fruits and vegetables did not have a taste and I wondered why. This took me all the way to find out how ingredients grow and where they come from and there started my love story with Mama Nature, our loving home.

I jumped straight from a corporate job in the desert city of Dubai to the jungles of Thailand volunteering on organic farms. Let me tell you that was quite a shock for me! As a city kid I was so afraid of bugs, of walking barefoot, of darkness, of dirt, of touching soil, of dirtying my nails. One day I found myself having to walk through chicken shit and worms to feed them, I was soaked in sweat and dirt, full of mosquito bites and now covered in chicken shit surrounded by worms. I will always remember this day, because this is the day I surrendered to dirt and it was hilarious! Like total defeat, I gave up all my resistance and that was liberating!

In cities everything is so sterile; we are so alienated from our natural habitat that we fear it. I now love walking barefoot in mud, touching soil, sweating, getting dirty, the shower feels so much better than before! It’s like I was wearing a fear mask that prevented me from seeing the magic of nature, I was too busy protecting myself and avoiding things. Now I am so in love with nature, it is so magical.

All the life, animals, insects, plants, trees, flowers, fruits, sounds and symphonies, games, colours, smells, lights, vibrations and sensations, oh! I feel sorry for people who do not experience this. In my view, it is so important to be close to nature, our body is made of nature, and being connected to our source gives such a feeling of well-being. Every time I am in a wild place, it is so magical that the same sentence always comes to my mind “I know why I am here, it is to experience this!”

 

11) A new fun and creative cuisine journey

I always loved eating food, cooking food and creating new recipes, I guess I am fascinated by combinations. I grew up with Algerian and French cuisine and these cuisines are a fine art, rich and elaborate and so diverse!

Going raw vegan I thought oh no what about all the creative fun, the techniques, the hand skills, the meticulous decorations, what about all my tools and machines? What about all the flavours and traditional dishes! Well I was so happy to be inspired by raw vegan chefs and raw vegan restaurants to show me the amazing culinary fun and creativity in this new gastronomy world. And I can now tell you I have even more fun especially knowing that I am eating the best food ever. Check out my recipe page or my instagram to see what I do. That will speak for itself better than a text @raw.mama.nature

This is the food of the future! It is not the latest trendy diet; it is not a philosophy or an ideology, nor some hippie trend or cult. It is the simple truth.