Raw foodie vs. Supplements: First Round

Ding, Ding!

For those of you who aren’t neck deep in the raw foodie movement, this may be news to you; for those of us who have been around the block (or almost around the block) we are familiar with the ongoing controversy between raw foods and supplements. What, you may wonder, is this controversy? Well there are a couple different questions that are being asked by new and experienced raw foodies alike and I am going to attempt to give some basic information here (and possibly in following articles) to answer some of the basic questions! Please remember when reading this, these are just my thought’s, opinions and I am attempting to provide basic information. The key there is basic!

If I am eating a raw food diet, why should I need supplement?

Depending on the school of thought you follow (or the particular guru you are interested in that week) there could be a lot of confusion for you over this topic!

**A little disclaimer for those of you who haven’t been reading my blog or for those who don’t know me: I don’t subscribe to any particular school of thought. I am an intuitive eater and do a ton of research. My husband and I were at one of our favorite pre raw restaurants and have become friends with one of the managers, she was telling us all about how they are going to start having raw items on the menu and wanted to see if I wanted to try the new dressing on my salad instead of oil and vinegar. After this conversation, my husband said something to the effect of “Well, it’s starting to get trendy, I guess we will have to find something new.” He was joking, because he knows this is the only thing that works for my health, but the moral of the story is, I never do easy…or take the path less traveled. I enjoy doing my own research and making sure that I am listening to myself. The funny thing is, my intuition is what took us to the restaurant, I just had this nagging feeling we had to go. Well I think I have gone off on enough of a tangent! I will stay on point from now on.**

Are supplements important? As I said, it depends on who you listen to. There are multiple different deficiencies people are suffering from these days. For example, if you Google “Vitamin D Deficiencies in US” you will see statistics starting around 36% of American adults, but it doesn’t stop there! We’re just scratching the surface! Scientific America states in this article that “Three-quarters of U.S. teens and adults are deficient in vitamin D, the so-called “sunshine vitamin” whose deficits are increasingly blamed for everything from cancer and heart disease to diabetes…” This is only one of the umteen million supplements that stare at you from the shelves at your local health food store!

Well if you are a raw foodie, chance are you aren’t afraid of the sun! You probably fall in the 1/4 of Americans that aren’t deficient (during the summer months anyway). But what about the winter? What then? Should you supplement? We will cover this in a little more detail in a later article (Round 2 – Vitamin D).

If you were to listen to David Wolfe (this actually makes a lot of sense to me personally) there are a lot of good reasons to supplement. Shazzie also is a big advocate for supplementing. Bridgette Mars covers the importance of vitamins (and what whole foods you can get them from) extensively in Rawsome. These are only a few of our raw food celebs that cover the importance of specific vitamins (whether they are provided by whole foods or supplementation). Bridgette Mars gives a very unbiased position on vitamins (so I am not sure where she stands personally but LOVE her information!) David Wolfe, on the other hand, is an advocate of supplementation. His reasoning based on a talk I attended (and reading a few of his articles/books) is that our soils are depleted and a lot of them are essentially dead. Dead soil doesn’t grow healthy, thriving plants (same idea can be applied to humans – dead foods don’t promote supreme health). His views on agriculture are fascinating! His other point is that you aren’t always going to be able to get organic foods and even the organic foods aren’t as high in nutrients as they could be so it’s not a bad idea to take that extra step.

Shazzie also talks about the importance of supplementing. One of the major supplements that she talks about, which until that point I had never heard of, was K2. I am hoping to do another article on K2 in the near future, but that one is going to require some more research! She talks about a number of other supplements (mostly whole food supplements) in her book “Evie’s Kitchen.”

My conclusion (at this point – it could change! I am constantly doing research) is that supplementation is different for everyone. For me it’s important. I was pretty sick before going raw and can use ever bit of help I can get. Needless to say, if my health depended on taking a pill every day I would be in trouble. Whole living foods do make a HUGE difference on their own (I have seen that first hand!) I am not convinced that I will reach optimal health at this point without some supplementation though, because organic isn’t always an option and my body was so demineralized to start out with! I also came from the North East originally and am pretty sure that I had vitamin D deficiencies resulting in depression. Since moving South of the Mason Dixon line I am much happier. It did take a couple years!

I personally do supplement. I use applied Kinesology to determine how much and when I need certain supplements, but I do take them. I don’t freak out if I miss one, nor do I feel guilty. My health is 150 times better than it was a year ago and part of the reason I choose to supplement is because I want to be 200 times healthier then I was a year ago.

Do what works and resonates with you! In theory I shouldn’t have to take them, because my diet should supply all my nutrients. But it doesn’t. I also listen to my body. I don’t take a multi, but I do take K2, D3 (during the winter), an EPA supplement (which isn’t vegan – the vegetarian ones make me gag, I CHOSE to go back on Moxxor and I have had wonderful results) and B12. These are the ones that resonate with me. I also consume a lot of sea veggies to make sure I keep my Iron level’s up and dark leafy greens for calcium and other trace minerals. When I try to take a multi I always end up gagging and unable to get it down. There is something in the multi’s that my body doesn’t need/want, so I don’t take them.

It’s important that you do your own research, because ultimately you know you the best! Nutritionist’s and Doctors are great, but they should only be used as a guide (in my opinion). I don’t use either because I am confident in my knowledge and feel that I know myself the best and shouldn’t have to pay someone to tell me what to take when in general most Doctors and Nutritionists don’t know the first thing about a living foods diet. Just because this works for me doesn’t mean I expect it to work for everyone! Utilize any resource you can. If you have a receptive Doctor or Nutritionist, more power to you AND them!

Another aspect of this whole process (I believe) is intention. If you are taking the best supplements you can find with the intention for them to be for your greatest good, you are going to feel good! The supplements will work, and you will feel good about yourself. You still need to do this with a knowledge base, but how do you think people see a difference in their health when they take a “One-a-day?” Those things are “magic bullets” and don’t do a darn thing for you (in my opinion), but people that don’t know that take them and notice a difference, this is what we call the placebo effect. Why do you think that is? Intention. They are taking those things thinking that they are doing something good for themselves! And in a way they are. They are taking care of themselves (or making an effort to do so). It’s just like people purchasing Old Roy for their dog that they love instead of feeding table scraps because that’s all they can afford and their dog living until it’s 16 with perfect health. Love and intention play a roll in everything we do in our lives (for ourselves and the ones we care for)! Now imagine if you are taking one of the best supplements out there and doing it for your health because you love yourself! You are integrating supplements in with wonderful intention and love, you are doing a great thing for yourself!

If after reading this you choose to supplement: do your research, listen to your body and DO IT FOR YOU! If you are doing it because someone told you to and not truly for yourself, you won’t experience all the benefits! And most important, listen to your body! Really tune in. Don’t try to choke down that vitamin that’s making you gag (there’s a reason you are gagging – there may be something in it your body is allergic to or doesn’t want), pay attention to how you feel after (if you have a mini allergic reaction and are sneezing with a runny nose for the next couple hours – and this happens every time you take that particular supplement it might be time to find a new one), and do your research to make sure you are getting a high quality vitamin (you are just wasting your money on “magic bullets,” you might as well get something that is supporting your body with your wonderful intention and self love).

Until Next Time! (and I will be writing more frequently, I promise!)

xo