I think it is great that you encourage people to make small changes instead of doing things 100% which can be unhealthy in a different sense.

However, I do find it odd how you state that a too restrictive diet (in terms of rules etc.) can lead to deprivation and nutritional deficiencies but at the same time say that it is a bad idea to combine two certain kinds of foods. From a pure restriction point of view, it seems to me that worrying about food combining is one of the most restrictive and complicated nutritional guidelines.

Furthermore, there is no credible research that supports the food combining theory. There is, however, a lot of research that shows how it is important to combine certain foods (contradicting the food combining theory). But if scientific research alone is not convincing, I think it makes sense to just think about it a little. As you know, most foods are already a mix of carbohydrates, fat and protein to begin with, so if certain macro nutrients should not be digested together, a lot of foods could not be eaten at all. Of course you could say that well it depends on what a food has MOST of. But again just because we see meat as “protein” or bread as a “carbohydrate”, they cannot be regarded as such in chemistry (and ultimately that is what the biological function of our body comes down to). I would be interested to hear how you would explain the food combining theory with scientifically sound statements. A common pitfall is to think that when something sounds scientific, it is scientific. A lot of people have abused words and concepts to explain things that actually just do not make sense with respect to what we truly know about chemistry/biology (like the enzyme theory of some raw foodists).

But don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that because of this, raw food is not healthy etc. I eat a very similar diet to yours, but I guess our reasoning as for why differs in some ways. I just feel like people should be more careful about what they believe or even what they say. I am sure you would agree that a common problem in nutrition/diet is that there are a LOT of different and often contradictory theories out there. And overall I think this might be a big factor in why some people cannot make effective diet changes — it is just too confusing and one is always worried if their choice was the right one. To take the food combining theory as an example, assume for the sake of this argument it is complete BS: How many people have felt frustrated because they were confused about the theory? How many people were turned off from making healthy changes because they thought eating this way was optimal and since they couldn’t do that, they would just stick with what they usually ate? Of course there is the other argument that even if a certain theory is not actually true, but has helped people nonetheless to feel better (placebo or other coincidence), then it does not matter, right…? I can see both sides and in the end it comes down to a philosophical argument.

Sorry for the long response and for going off on tangents. Love your recipes your views even if I do not agree with some of them. Keep up the good work!

What fascinates me about eating raw is the creativity. Food is a form of art to me, so seeing all of the creative ways raw food is prepared is very alluring.

Excellent post, thank you for writing it. I agree, there’s no need to go from raw to animal products, there’s a stage in between.

Jenn