Should cooked food and sugar be treated like an addiction?

I mean, leaving it like a tobacco addict should, or like a drug addict, or alcoholic, or chocoholic (GUILTY)?

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Permalink Reply by Rawk n' Roll Jenny on April 23, 2010 at 3:43pm

I **SO** came back to this thread to mention "The Pleasure Trap" and Megan Funk already did! Definitely an interesting book, and you can probably find a Youtube or Google video of him speaking about it. I know he promotes a low faw, "whole foods" partially cooked vegan diet. So yes, it's hard to say if simply COOKING a food makes it addictive. But what I get out of The Pleasure Trap is that it is the properties of the food, the way we process them and extract elements from them, that is typically eaten cooked that make them addictive to the brain. Potato chips -- mostly fat. Ice cream -- sugar and fat. White bread -- fiber free carb city. Even nuts have been stripped of their organic essence. Beans... I'm not really sure about... but they taste pretty yucky raw and unsalted. So if we look at this from two different views -- one is the question of whether or not these foods have chemical INHERENT addictive properties -- the other is the question of the brain's addiction to things it is supposed to want anyway, but we begin to trick our brain when we don't eat whole foods. Perhaps it is possible to say that a baked banana wouldn't do you much harm, or a dried fig, etc., if it is a food that a) you keep fully intact, b) you would eat in the same manner either cooked or raw and c) no salt, whole fresh ripe organic, etc., is that addictive? The person who answers that question with full certainly I think has yet to exist. But then of course we get into the discussion of lost vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Why not pack a full punch with everything you eat? You must be in control of your brain, body and health. And then there is the topic of Vitamin H -- that's Happiness. If you want to eat a cupcake on your birthday because it thrills you, do so.

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Permalink Reply by Isabella on April 24, 2010 at 11:22am

I'm getting that book. Thank you :)

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Permalink Reply by Kristina on April 23, 2010 at 5:54pm

YES, it should.

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Permalink Reply by Isabella on April 24, 2010 at 11:24am

haha, true.

Anyways, what I really want to ask right now is how comes it's that HARD to go raw? Even more lfr. Why do you get so many cravings? Why do you want processed food instead of bananas or spinach? (well, at least at the beginning)
How should I go raw.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Heithaus on May 25, 2012 at 12:05pm

I think what it comes down to is two things. (of course its many more things)

1) Make sure you are CONTINUOUSLY learning about the HUGE variety of options when it comes to whole, RAW foods! There is such a vast, delicious, incredible variety of fruits and veggies that can make it DELICIOUS & SUSTAINING, but it might be hard see if you, like me, were always used to the regular US Grocery Store and their SAD lack of amazing organic produce.
ITS OUT THERE, all that amazing variety of fresh organic food! once you find it you'll get alot of joy out of gifting it to yourself and those around you and the rest of the world who will benefit from your vibrant health!

2) Make Green Smoothies a Staple, and learn about ALKALIZING your internal state (this squashes all junk food cravings in my experience)

Get after it Isabella :) there is so much knowledge and wisdom and joy to be gained on this journey!

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Permalink Reply by ORGANIC811LFRV on May 25, 2012 at 12:19pm

It is not hard to go raw. It is hard to be sick, age rapidly, be bitchy all the time, be a zombie because of the chemicals in phood, and spend your life's savings on doctors, hospitals and still never feel "right" and then die an early death.

First you need to be 100% commited. Then the Universe opens up to make your decision easier.

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Permalink Reply by ORGANIC811LFRV on May 25, 2012 at 12:15pm

Yep! It is actually. It isn't just the cooking of the food. It is the type of food and the chemicals, gmo's, and all that rubbish that people eat in the item they are cooking. Food is not what it was 50 years ago when it was safe to eat and trustworthy. Thanks to Monsanto and the other big food manufacturers no telling what an item is that is then destroyed further by heat treating it.

There is a reason I am 100% raw and organic. Nothing I eat is questionable.