Karen's Story
I am a 45 year old mother and wife, who has spent many years involved in the study of herbalism, yoga, self-improvement and other assorted health-related subjects. I have no doubt that these things have been invaluable tools for living, but when I started to have deep-seated health problems, beginning about 4 years ago, they could only provide a moderate degree of comfort. Some comfort is better than none but I wanted to be well. Well with a capital 'W'. Isn't that what all humans seek? To be truly well and not to settle for a half-life? It began with peri-menopausal symptoms at about age 41, followed by a surprise heart attack. This was quite a shock to me and my family as I only ate what I then thought was healthy food, drank clean water, had one good-quality organic coffee a day, exercised regularly, and barely drank alcohol. The only meat I ate was salmon, free-range or organic chicken, and lamb. The fruit and vegetables I ate were probably around 30-40% organic, I ate no cow's milk products and never any chemicals! The only chemicals I ever imbibed would have been the constituents of my 4 glasses of champagne every Saturday night, combined with maybe a couple of tailor-made cigarettes with which to wash down the champagne. I secretly congratulated myself on my healthy attitudes to life and my quality diet, and I truly enjoyed my little bust-out every Saturday.
After the heart attack, I started to gradually shut myself off from life. It was such a slow process, that in the beginning it was barely noticeable. Of course in hindsight, I can say it was purely from fear. Fear of people and fear of the world. Fear of another heart attack. I gave up my Saturday nights. I gave up on coffee. I stopped yoga classes and began to do it in earnest at home by myself. My diet began to be more and more restrictive, but even then I'd still say it was at the very least 70% cooked. I had heard of so many diets as I'd worked in the health food industry for 13 years or more, but I'd never really heard of the raw food diet. My family started to accuse me of anorexia, which was most definitely NOT my problem. I had always eaten a lot, and even with my increasingly strict diet, I continued to eat 5 - 6 times a day in substantial amounts. I think what they were really seeing was that perhaps I had given up on life in some way, which, of course, I had.
The most difficult period has been the past two years. In the past two years I have experienced increasing hair loss. So much so that it had reached a point where I really would not go out at all any more and was looking for excuses to stay at home all the time. I almost resigned from my job because I couldn't bear the humiliation of going bald publicly. I began to spend all my free time perusing Internet chat rooms for balding women. There's a lot of pain out there in the world. I'd even started to look for wigs, which are really not my thing! A woman going bald may not seem like such a big deal when there are so many other kinds of great suffering in the world. All I can say is that suffering is relative. I talked to a woman who had ended up in psych. ward due solely to her hair-loss. She felt it was a complete loss of femininity and of self. I often felt bad that I couldn't say to people that my balding head was due to chemotherapy for breast cancer, and that I'd either die or finish my chemo. And it would all grow back. I had people close to me lose all their hair from this treatment only to have it all come back, meanwhile mine was just looking worse and worse. I do not think sadly wandering around balding chat-rooms was helpful, except for the fact that it lead me to David Wolfe and his raw food philosophy. There are no accidents. He was such a charismatic and inspirational speaker, I immediately went out and bought all the foods he recommended to add to a raw-food smoothie. His emphasis seemed to rest primarily on the nutrient density of foods, and for me, beginning the transition to a raw food diet means that since then, I've never looked back!
It's several months now since I had to worry about hair-loss. My hair does NOT fall out anymore, and it wont be long before the new growth gathers some length. If I had to choose which foods in particular have contributed most to my new hair growth, it would be the Goji Berries, the raw Cacao, and the high quality, raw organic greens (particularly parsley) that I now have daily. I believe in my heart that the way forward for humanity, not only on the level of the physical, is the RAW food diet. Not only does it heal your physical body, but I believe it also feeds the healing of our emotional and spiritual bodies as well. I have had dramatic shifts in my perception of the world around me. I am less shy and much more comfortable in my own skin. When I feel overwhelmed by people or circumstances, I ride the wave in joy. Life is joyful. The raw food diet is an expression of joy. It is an expression of non-egotistical self-love. I believe it comes into your life when you are ready and willing to care deeply for yourself and for the world.
I trust that my story may be of help to someone who is ready... My initiation into raw food came from watching the youtube vision Ultimate Smoothie with David Wolfe.