I was never breastfed as a baby, never even had my mother's colostrum. My pediatrician advised my mom not to breastfeed me (the reason I cannot remember anymore) So I was digesting infant formula since day one, which meant I've been drugged since the very day I was born. This was the beginning of decades-long unhealthy eating habits for me. I was fed Gerber and Cerelac too, the former still containing MSG in the 70s. So dairy, Gerber, and Cerelac curbed pretty much what my diet would be like in the future.
As I grew up I craved for ice cream, cheese, gluten, and MSG-laden junkfood. I remember that at the age of 4 I would sneak out of the house and cross the street unaccompanied just to buy me some junkfood. I was a lugubrious kid and I didn't know why. I would only find out several years later that I was allergic to dairy and gluten, which are notoriously known to affect the mood and the way you think negatively.
I grew up with a couple of immediate-onset allergies (dust and crustaceans), and several delayed-onset ones (dairy, gluten, eggs, soy, nuts, corn etc.). I was a sickly kid and took a lot of antibiotics and antihistamines, but they didn't help.
I got acquainted with the raw diet when I bought an InStyle magazine that had an article on Hollywood diets. I looked it up on the net and found the most sensible health articles I've ever read. I was still a medical writer at that time and knew how drugs could damage your health, so I had no problem welcoming the idea of eating natural foods as your medicine.
But still I had no strong motive to try out the diet, so I went to the bookstore to look for a particular book on raw foods. It was out of stock. Instead, I found this book on hidden food allergies which I ended up buying after skimming its contents. I started to read the book as soon as I got home and found out that I've been putting into my mouth everything that was making me sick. Though it didn't make a pitch for vegetarianism, the book did recommend that I eat a lot of raw fruits and vegetables.
So I followed the elimination diet. In a matter of days I eliminated most of my allergy symptoms such as post-nasal drip, mood swings, foggy brain etc. But I still had allergic rhinitis, which was caused by my dust allergy. According to the book this was something I had to live with for as long as I live because immediate-onset allergies are incurable.
Most raw foodists are either vegetarians or vegans, and I didn't really want to become either. As a teenager I thought vegetarians were "losers." I thought, what kind of life do these people have? Meat is so great, how can they live without it? Still I decided to give it a shot. To my surprise my 24/7 back pain (which I've wrongly attributed to scoliosis) was gone within 2 days. I did feel weak at first, but I knew what to expect. It took about a month or so before I felt normal again.
So I did a lot of experimenting with the raw diet. I decided to try different kinds of fasts. One fast that brought huge results was the lemonade cleanse(yes, the famous Beyonce diet, only 4 times longer). So I tried that fast and to my pleasant surprise, my dust allergy was gone! And they said IgE allergies are permanent! Of course I didn't bother to find out anymore if I was still allergic to crustaceans.
I have never taken any pharmaceutical drug ever since I went raw and found myself healing more quickly from colds and occasional fevers. Both are common detox symptoms, so I wasn't really alarmed during the few times that I got them.
Going vegan was easier than going vegetarian, although I suffered from severe withdrawal symptoms for eliminating dairy from my diet. I already eliminated it for 4 of months when I first went vegetarian, and decided to reintroduce it. The book said it would already be safe to eat dairy products again after you've completely abstained from it for at least 3 months. So giving up dairy was really tough for me because dairy was my first food ever. But my energy level went up when I went vegan, which only meant that it was the best diet for my body.
So this is my recovery story. I know that not everyone was meant to be a vegetarian or vegan by virtue that God made all animals clean for consumption in the new testament, but I just feel blessed that veganism was God's will for me. God knew from the very that there will be meat eaters for as long as men are free, that's why He decided to lift the ban on eating unclean animals.
While I do not recommend meat to anyone, I have completely accepted that not everyone will be open to a vegetarian diet. But I am very optimistic because I do know for a fact that there are more vegetarians right now than at any point in history. People are wising up when it comes health, environmental issues, animal welfare, and spirituality. That's why there are more vegetarian converts than there are meat converts.
Published in Catholic Answers Forum by Raw Vegan Girl
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