To cook or not to cook?

Two days ago my brother sent me a link to a blog that had a recent post about eating raw. He thought I might be interested in learning more, which of course I was. (If you happen to click the link, you should check out the before & after photos link and you'll be interested, too). I must admit, much of my interest came from wanting to discredit raw foodies as lunatics (which I may or may not do by the end of this blog post). I had recently been discussing raw diets with my going-on-2-months vegan friend Molly. Molly told me she had been browsing the raw food cookbooks in Barnes & Noble because they happen to be placed right next to the vegan cookbooks. We brainstormed a bit about what these cookbooks could possibly contain. I mean raw cookbook is an oxymoron, is it not? My best guess was basically guacamole with some carrot sticks for dipping. It didn't sound much like cooking and it didn't so much fun to be eating either.

Nevertheless, I found myself guiltily cruising the information superhighway in my pjs at 10:03pm last night. I was hoping no one would catch me and accuse me of losing all of my marbles. The first post that my brother had provided had a lot of reasons why eating raw is great, and though a couple were a little out there (something about natural life energy and eating seeds that have sprouted), I felt like maybe eating raw was at least as good of a choice as the Typical American Diet (or TAD for short, an acronym I just picked up from the raw food circle last night). Plus, who doesn't want to join a diet where you get to eat ALL THE TIME because of your foods are so light in calories that should you eat only 3 plates of food a day you most certainly would die immediately. Also, I would get to eat plenty of nuts and avocados (two of my favorite items from nature's bounty) to help me sustain life with supplemental fat. It sounded healthy enough, even if I was questioning the fact that I would get enough protein.

Then, at the end of reading a posting on someone's 30 day trial of eating all raw, I found it. At this point, I was seriously considering trying a raw diet, especially during my summer in Dallas when I would have access to all kinds of fresh, local, raw produce. Steve had lost 8 pounds in a month, but found his weight had stabilized and he was feeling "insane energy". I thought I would return for my wedding looking great and feeling even better. Then Steve told me his secret. He admitted to experiencing some difficulties during the 2 week detoxification period. And then Steve told me that he had such dry skin since he began the diet that his skin was cracking and bleeding all over his body, and that it hadn't gotten any better during the entire month.

Steve, your skin is trying to tell you something.

(This post is dedicated to Leah, the one who was always there to remind me that I like my blog and should stop avoiding it).