RAW VEGAN CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER

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JON KATZ'S PERSONAL PAGE

RAW LIVING

NOTE- The following brief article is adapted from my discussion about raw living at my personal links page, and my amazon.com review of Raw Family.

Through a three-year process, in 1988 I finally eliminated all meat, fish and fowl from my diet. In August 2001, much too overweight for five years, I started trying a 100% raw vegan regimen for weight loss and health. Combining exclusively raw foods with increased exercise, during the next seven months -- and continuing -- I kept shedding more weight each week and kept increasing my energy and feeling of better health. My blue jeans from 1987 fit again, as does my rugby shirt from 1984. I've graduated to the top level on the Stairmaster for Pike's Peak. My pulse (averaging 60 beats per minute) and blood pressure (well in the healthy zone) are down.

The catalyst for this critical change in my approach to eating took place when I innocently enough accepted a friend's invitation to a large raw dinner gathering presented by a family from Oregon, named the Boutenko's. Here is my amazon.com review of their first book Raw Family:

Raw Family is an excellent book for inspiring people to try a raw foods diet. Excellent prose are not needed to accomplish this; all that's needed are the heartfelt words of the authors. Here's the benefit I've derived from this book and the Boutenko family: After 13 years as a vegetarian (usually at least 10 pounds overweight the whole vegetarian time - rarely overweight that much before becoming a vegetarian, except for the year before), the most effective route for me has been the 100% raw foods route. I've lost ten pounds in 15 days on this diet, and plan to stay with it to shed several more overweight pounds. I include 3-4 times weekly of 1/2 hour - 1 hour of exercise (Stairmaster, t'ai chi, one round of weights minimum every other day). I had the benefit of being convinced to try this raw
foods diet without intent when (1) meeting the Boutenko raw family (order their book at
http://www.rawfamily.com) and (2) knowing a trustworthy acquaintance who knows well
and vouches for the reliability of the Boutenko's claims (e.g., that the mom shed away
her 280 lb. frame on raw, her son lost his juvenile diabetes, her husband lost his serious
thyroid condition, and her daughter lost her asthma). I'm doing a simple raw diet. To
make it easier to eat raw all day rather than going frustrated with a lack of time or
recipes, I have not used any machinery (juicers, dehydrators, blenders, food
processors). Besides, summer is a great time for an abundance of delicious raw foods
at reasonable prices (including tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, bananas (year round),
the broccoli family, summer fruits (melons, plums, nectarines). In colder weather, there
remain numerous vegetables, citrus (I eat citrus daily), dried fruits, winter fruits, raw nuts, and transported tropical fruits. In this short time, I'm feeling better overall. My body feels cleaner. I don't feel the sniffles that I often had a few times a week for at least an hour. My cravings for un-raw food are slim to none.

August 2001

ADDENDUM I: Don't miss 12 Steps to Raw Foods. which is Victoria Boutenko's follow-up to Raw Family.

ADDENDUM II: June 2004. I have remained a 100% raw vegan since August 2001, and feel better than ever. Sometimes I get temptations for cooked vegan food (e.g., Indian and Ethiopian food, pasta, and pizza with soycheese), but they tend to pass within thirty to sixty minutes. The main reason I remain raw is that this lifestyle is the only one I have found that has enabled me to solve the battle of the bulging stomach for the longterm and in a healthy way. I imagine that I would get similar benefits from eating the same foods cooked (even though the raw foods movement focuses on the alleged benefits of more enzymes in raw food than cooked food), in that my eating style keeps out the heavy amounts of starches and fats that helped make me a heavy vegetarian before I switched to raw.

I am 50 lbs. lighter than when I began my raw lifestyle in August 2001, down from over 210 lbs. at 5'10", and have rarely fluctuated to less than 40 lbs. below that starting weight. In April 2004, I began experimenting with eliminating all raw nuts and seeds and their analogous jarred raw butters, thus relying on avocados and coconuts for fat; this has made it easier to avoid weight fluctuations, and has helped me feel lighter and more energetic. Likely, I will return to eating moderate amounts of nuts and seeds (including flax seeds), probably soaking before eating them (which apparently increases their enzyme content) to control against eating too many right out of the bag. I do not try to convince others to follow a raw lifestyle one way or another, and feel that there are less radical ways to take care of our bodies through sufficient exercise, rest, balanced eating, and spiritual maintenance; for me, raw eating has made it easier to resist and avoid the cravings for the types and quantity of foods that led me to gain weight.

ADDENDUM III: October 2004. My weight now stays below 160 lbs., at 5'9"; this is close to where I was twenty years ago. I am somewhat more flexible on the non-raw vegan foods I eat, so long as they are either whole foods (e.g., shredded coconut from the health food store, e.g., when I cannot find a ripe avocado (my favorite fat source)) or a limited number of powdered spices (mainly curry powder, turmeric, and chili powder in big bags from Korean food markets (the latter tastes great in avocados and nut butters, mixed with Bragg's Liquid Aminos, raw apple cider vinegar, and minced garlic)).

I take vitamin B-12 supplements that I hope are as vegan as claimed on the bottle. I have not eaten any nuts ore seeds for about five months, except for one day when I had about a teaspoon of flax seeds, and another day when I ate several delicious raw dehydrated flax seed crackers together with raw sunflower seed paté. I plan to return slowly to eating freshly ground raw flax seeds, for their general seed and fat benefits, the eating satisfaction they provide, and their Omega-3 and -6 contents. I like mixing ground flax seeds into grapefruit juice, and also as a satisfying salad dressing base.

I do not subscribe to the concept that eating 100% raw is necessary for optimum health. I do think that people can achieve better overall health (for the health of themselves as well as for non-human animals that are otherwise put up on the food market) through plant-based eating than through flesh-eating. Also, eating milk and egg products contributes substantially to cruel treatment of the animals that provide such products, and apparently calves are deprived of sufficient milk from their mothers who are milked for human consumption (particularly when the calves are raised to be slaughtered for veal). Moreover, I understand that milk-producing cows and egg-laying chickens ordinarily are slaughtered for food (e.g., meat soup and bouillon) after they stop producing sufficient quantities of such products.