The question I get asked most is whether I'm 100% raw. The answer is a simple no. I am high raw and eat more than 85% raw. If I'm invited to someone's home, I choose to accept the meal prepared for us with love rather than obsess about what went into it. We also have six children who we spend a family night with, and we have company once a week. These two meals often include cooked food.
The next question I'm asked is why I eat raw. Simple answer, I feel great and I'm worth it! If you haven't seen the movie "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" I highly recommend it, as it was inspirational! Not just informational like Food Inc, Future of Food, Food Matters, Flow and other movies but Inspirational. I mean there is Joe in this large, unappealing body, accented by a heavy gut and generous bottom. He emerges from his 60 day juice cleanse like a butterfly emerges from it's cacoon. I love my husband and confess that he is the hottest man I've ever laid eyes on. Having said this, I am not blind, and know if someone is attractive or not and disgusting was what came to mind when I saw Joe in his swim trunks at the beginning of the movie. At the end of the movie, I cheered Joe for discovering the "hot" body that was hidden behind his mounds of fat. Throughout the movie, he transforms from a lethargic subject to a sparkling, passionate conversationalist who bonded with all sorts of people as he tried to encourage them on the road to health.
Then you meet the truck driver who is so likeable, he has a good heart but the body of a heart attack waiting to happen. The interviews on the show were so typical of standard american sentiment. People knowing that their food is no good for them but not caring. Europeans in general spend most of their income on shelter and food. They aren't attracted to cheap food, their goal is quality food and they are willing to pay for it. Americans spend less money on food in proportion to their income then any other country in the world, but we have more gadgets than anywhere else. We spend money on our cars, flat screen tv's etc. but complain about the "idiots" that shop for organic food. I must profess that I saw myself in some of those interviews. When I took the course for well children at the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential 4 years ago and they told us to eat strictly organic food, I put up my hand and said I couldn't afford to eat organic. They asked me how much more expensive it was and I said "double" and sometimes triple. They told me the food had 8 times the nutritional value so I could eat half as much and be 4 times healthier without changing my budget. I was 4 weeks pregnant with our daughter Sarai and was unbelievably sick. But, I tried their elimination diet, which is posted on our website at www.makeloveinthekitchen.tv, and was shocked when 72 hours later I was up and walking around. I had never felt healthier.
Since everyone is always asking me questions, let me ask you the question, I asked myself. If you aren't working to sustain your life, why are you working? The one thing that sustains our life directly, is the food we eat. If I can't afford to eat food that nourishes my body to keep me alive and free from disease, what the heck am I working for? Whether a house is big or small, in the end it's the place we sleep, which is why entire families live in tiny abodes in India. A car, whether it's old or new, big or small, still just gets us from point a to b. But every bite that enters our mouth can heal us or sicken us. Why then did I work my whole life to earn money to surrender the most important input to my life to the cheapest bidder, the absolute stranger who cares nothing about me or my health. So if you can't afford to feed yourself nourishing, life-sustaining food, what are you working for?
The answer to why I eat raw is simple, because I want to be the best I can be. The more pertinant question is why don't you? Can you really afford to be so busy that you can't invest in your health or are you like the guy in the movie who, despite having a son, wasn't motivated to sacrifice his penchant for disease inducing food in order to live longer. I'm pleased to say that I'm in love with my life, my family, my friends, my health and my God. I am a purista and my energy is spent creating living foods that Revive! I am proud that my occupation is preparing healthy raw foods that nourish people at Fresno's only Raw Food Cafe. I am proud of the people who choose to eat raw food and am especially proud of the group of young people who are becoming advocates of their health by starting the 30 day juice/raw food challenge tomorrow. Follow them at http://www.facebook.com/FSSSRebootChallenge.> May you become inspired to love your body and reject cheap, degrading, disease ridden food that only abuses you and embrace a healthy relationship with foods that love your body back. I'm not suggesting that you obsess about everything you eat. I certainly don't. Accept that you choose what goes into your body and that certain occassions call for eating cooked foods that aren't nutritionally dense. However, accept too that you are your bodies advocate. Don't drown out the voice begging you to be the best you can be. Like Joe, discover the healthy, hot body inside of you. Revive! Tara Hamilton tarahamilton@me.com, organicfresno.com facebook.com/revivecafe 1807 Broadway Street, Fresno, CA 93721 559.4920.raw, 559.497.5085
