Daniel Vitalis and avoiding dogma

[fallenrose]

Interesting video from a healthy/raw living "guru," Daniel Vitalis. It is direct at raw foodies, but it seems to me it would be interesting to many folks. As I continue to ponder and research, I'm finding I'm agreeing much more with the "any dogma is bad, just eat what makes YOU healthy" kind of folks than the "100% raw vegan is the only way to be

Comments

[solestria]

I've been having success adding some local, organic, raw goat's milk into my diet (one of my coworkers has a milk goat and I get it from her). I thought I couldn't handle dairy at all, but my body definitely likes this stuff. It may be the kind of dairy as much as anything else that bothers you. Incidentally, I'd tried the only raw or fermented dairy before, but I also didn't know the source like I know Laurel (and I've seen pictures of her goats, know they're well-treated, etc). This is a different level of quality control

[fallenrose]

Agreed! I winced at that part a little, but I got what he meant.
Yeah, everything I've read indicates that going from a weak digestive system to a high raw diet can be a bad, bad idea. I've also read that transitioning slowly can be a big help and that done right, raw foods can really strengthen the digestive system because the enzymes are being replenished rather than depleted. Digestive enzyme supplements can be helpful too - I have found I seem to have trouble digesting too much fat (eating a lot of avocado or nuts upsets my stomach) and digestive enzymes help.
I have decided I want to try raw goat milk/kefir at some point... I don't know where to get it around here. And I am still hesitant, because I am so used to dairy really messing me up! Right now I'm just sticking to kombucha and coconut milk kefir - which Bloomingfoods now sells! But if I can find a good source, I think I'll give it a try. I think you are probably right that it may be just the kind of dairy, and not all lactose.

Gosh, now I'm hungry!

[solestria]

I've never even heard of coconut milk kefir! Is it branded? If so, I'd love to get that ordered by my local health food store.

Indiana's got lots of farms; I imagine someone's got a milk goat you could meet. Try checking with the Center for Sustainable Living, perhaps? Incidentally, I seem to do MUCH better when I avoid cow dairy (though at the moment, my coworker's goat's milk is the only diary I'm eating at all--I'm going to slowly try other goat/sheep sources and see what happens).

One day, I will get a kombucha baby and make my own. Unfortunately, I simply don't have the funds to buy it, though drinking it makes my body happy.

[fallenrose]

Yes, it's Turtle Mountain, the same company that makes the "So Delicious" soy ice creams. They've branched into coconut milk this year - Bloomingfoods started selling coconut milk yogurt earlier this year. It is SO good, very creamy in texture.
I should talk to folks at the Farmers' Market and see what I can find...
I have a Kombucha starter in my fridge right now... I just need to find a container big enough to ferment a couple gallons at a time! I got it through the local Permaculture Guild - you might look into a trade like that too.

[mindstalk]

I cannot take "raw vegan is best" seriously. We have canines and moderately short guts. We need a vitamin found only in animals. We've been controlling fire for at least 100,000 years, probably more. Pretty much every society hunts and cooks to some degree; we're adapted to meat and cooked foods. Some foods have anti-nutrients disabled by cooking; a few foods will outright kill you with toxins if eaten raw. (Not Western foods.) Cooking kills parasites -- less of a problem in modern heavily inspected and sprayed agriculture.

As for "what's best varies", yeah, that seems likely -- we now know that evolution can be fast, with major changes happening in the past few thousand years. I suspect there's been a lot of sorting by population and traditional diet, with unpredictable results for people of mixed ethnicity. Saying "milk is bad" is nearly as dumb as the Westerners who originally assumed "milk is for everyone".

[solestria]

Interestingly, traditional fermentation methods often supplied the missing vitamins that are found only in animals; Indonesian tempeh, for example, typically contained a bacterium that produced plenty of vitamin B12. Now that those fermentation methods have been cleaned up, that bacterium is generally missing from the process and so the same is not true of most tempeh available, at least in the west

[mindstalk]

Some interesting points, thanks.

"traditional in the east, soy was ONLY used in fermented form"

Tofu? Edamame?

[solestria]

Tofu is traditionally lightly fermented. I'd forgotten about edamame; now I'm wondering how it was traditionally prepared.

Google says it was boiled in salt water, but they're also the immature green form of soy beans, so perhaps they're picked before they have the chance to form the anti-nutrients? That's my guess. Thanks for correcting that statement.