How to understand the numerous power systems that the Internet and books offer today? How to understand what is actually useful, and what is a marketing ploy, a lobby or amateurism from nutrition? Whom to listen to if the experts contradict each other?

I often hear from my clients that they find contradictions in popular nutrition systems. Here are the most obvious ones:

• The China Study by Collin Campbell provides evidence against drinking milk, and Ayurveda uses milk as a medicine.
• A raw food diet cures cancer and chronic illnesses, slows down the aging process and gives lightness. And the same raw food diet causes hormonal disorders, problems with the gastrointestinal tract and other side effects.
• There are more and more studies in the world about the benefits of a balanced vegetarian diet, but Ayurveda allows meat with certain imbalances, and the paleo diet even includes it in the daily diet.
• The “Dr. Douglas Graham” diet, which many athletes and stars sit on, welcomes fruits in maximum quantities, functional medicine says that an excessive amount of simple carbohydrates in fruits causes the growth of candida fungi and “sugar swings”, and Ayurveda believes that everything depends on dosha and season.

Common in popular power systems

1. Perhaps all dietary approaches welcome the inclusion in the diet plenty of greens, as well as seasonal organic vegetables and fruits. Healthy hit of the 21st century - green, which is drunk by the whole world enlightened on the topic of healthy lifestyle. And not unreasonably, by the way.
2. Choose whole, as little processed foods as possible. The more processed a product is, the further it is from its natural form, and the less nutrients it contains. At best, the processing deprives the product of its usefulness. An example is white polished rice, from which useful coarse fiber has been removed. In the worst case, processing adds harm to the product. Chemical additives found in processed foods cause damage to the intestines, liver, and nervous system, hormonal imbalances, and even developmental delays. According to this principle, completely abandon dyes and flavors that are identical to natural, homogenized and trans fats, GMOs. Minimize stabilizers and preservatives, or choose products where these substances are natural.
3. cook at home as often as possible. . Exclude fast food and all its derivatives. Completely and forever.
4. Use gentle heat treatment methods. Avoid frying, or at least frying in sunflower oil. Instead, choose healthy alternatives that can withstand high temperatures - or.

Now let's talk about approaches.

Ayurveda

Ayurveda is part of an ancient system of knowledge about life, which covers not only the body, but also other levels of being.

Theory

According to Ayurveda, the state of balance with the world is crucial for health. Being in balance with the environment, we are cured of diseases and receive energy. Balance can be achieved through nutrition, daily routine, sleep and sexual energy management.

Ayurveda, operating with the concepts of Prakriti and Vikriti, is a deeply individual system. There are fewer “general recommendations” here than in any other system. At the same time, an Ayurvedic doctor will never treat the hand or skin there separately from the whole body. Ayurveda considers the human being as part of a common whole, inextricably linked with the world - a microcosm in the macrocosm.

Criticism of Ayurveda

Opponents of Ayurveda say that this knowledge, which had value in antiquity, has lost its relevance today. Many recommendations are not designed for the environmental problems that we have in today's reality. Ayurveda uses which are difficult to get, especially in the middle lane. Often these herbs have an unusual taste for us.

I know from experience that many beginners find Ayurveda strange to say the least. She uses as her main detox meal, milk with butter and spices to calm the mind, and substances like mercury to cure serious illnesses. Can you imagine how masterfully one must possess knowledge about a person in order to treat with mercury?

Also, one of the (relative) disadvantages of Ayurveda is that in order to get results, you need to delve into it more than just reading a couple of articles. And act comprehensively - oh build nutrition, daily routine, sleep, physical activity. Just eating according to your dosha is not enough.

Practice of Ayurveda. My experience

The Ayurveda approach is the most profound and personalized of all that I know so far. The irony is that the approach is not at all modern - this knowledge has been known for thousands of years.

Two years of Ayurveda practice gave me the biggest result than all other systems before it. It's really a very individual approach. And it really works.Yes, it's difficult. Yes, at first you get confused all the time and it is difficult to deal with skepticism. But - it works.

Vegetarianism

Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, and seafood, but include eggs, milk, and honey.

Theory

In October 2015, WHO recognized meat and meat industry products as carcinogenic. I write more about this in . Also, more and more authoritative studies prove the benefits of a balanced vegetarian diet and its effectiveness against the so-called "diseases of the rich": hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, coronary heart disease.

There is also an aspect of influence on the atmosphere of greenhouse gases generated in the process of animal husbandry. If the entire planet stops eating meat, the rest of the measures to save the ozone layer will not be needed.

Well, the ethical point, of course. Animals are beings with consciousness.

Criticism of vegetarianism

The paleo diet welcomes meat, explaining this by the fact that the diet of the first people consisted of it. According to this theory, our digestive system evolved on meat, so we are adapted to properly absorb animal fiber.

Meat is a product of violence, so Ayurveda treats it very carefully.

I met such an interpretation of Ayurveda by a modern teacher of this science: meat is allowed when you yourself have obtained it. Caught, skinned and cooked to satisfy physical hunger. Not because your mind wanted a delicious steak in the photo on the menu, with plenty of other food. Do you catch the difference?

Ayurveda also allows the use of animal fiber in conditions of Vata imbalance, especially during the cold season. For example, in cases where heavy, grounding, satisfying nutrition is urgently needed. In other cases, Ayurveda advises avoiding meat.

The practice of vegetarianism. My experience

I refused meat with my mind - I realized that eating meat that is sold in stores is unprofitable for health and energy. But very soon the body was connected to the mind: it came, it began to require less sleep, the aggression left, the outbreaks of which I occasionally had. The changes turned out to be so obvious and obvious that very soon the smell of barbecue ceased to seem to me the best smell in the world. After 8 years without meat, I can’t imagine how I could like this smell.

Now, even if someone told me that a lot of research has proven the benefits of meat, I wouldn't care. I know quite clearly that my body and mind are better without meat. This is my truth, lived through personal experience.

But. This only applies to meat. Sometimes (very rarely) I eat wild fish from the cold seas, if I can find it, as well as high quality seafood. Fish and seafood are phosphorus, protein, omega 3, iodine and other elements. But most importantly, the rare inclusion of sea food in the diet does not give those negative effects on well-being that meat gave. And this is also my truth, which I did not immediately come to.

Veganism

Vegans differ from vegetarians in that they do not eat any animal products at all - meat, fish, milk, eggs, and the most orthodox exclude bee products.

Theory

Veganism is advocated by renowned Dr. Colin Campbell, author of the acclaimed China Study. Milk and milk protein casein are mainly denounced as the cause of almost all modern diseases. If you want to know more about this, I highly recommend the book, which can be read both in full and in a more accessible presentation. Also, all theories of raw plant-based nutrition automatically fall under veganism.

Criticism of veganism

Ayurveda makes extensive use of ghee - ghee - as a medicine. Ghee is especially useful for Vata dosha and all doshas during the cold season. Ghee grounds, warms the body, reveals the spices cooked on it, enhances the effect of milk and honey. There are also Ayurvedic recipes with cheese fried in spices and spinach - “palak paneer” and a fermented milk drink like kefir.

As for the eggs. A few years ago, there was a hysteria among Western nutritionists about the supposedly high cholesterol content of eggs. Healthy people were advised to limit eggs, while hypertensive patients and those with vascular disease should strictly exclude them altogether. However, today this myth has been debunked - eggs are recognized by science as a source of high-quality protein and are recommended within reasonable limits.

You can also often hear that vegans lack iron, vitamin B12, and other elements. This judgment has the right to life, since in veganism it is necessary to rebuild the diet especially carefully. An ordinary person simply does not have enough knowledge, time and energy for this.

If you refuse animal products completely:

1. Give all your attention to the enrichment of the diet with micro and microelements. Eat as many different foods as possible within the food groups you eat. If these are vegetables, then all seasonal vegetables that are available to you. Don't forget the right fats and omega 3s with good DHA content. Combine plant-based foods with each other to get the most amino acids.
2. Make sure all elements are absorbed. This can be prevented, for example, by phytic acid, which I write about in detail in article on the Organic Woman website, as well as problems with the gastrointestinal tract: food sensitivity, leaky gut syndrome, an imbalance of healthy and pathogenic microflora, etc. and work with.

The practice of veganism. My experience

I have not drunk milk since childhood. But she always loved kefir, sour cream, sometimes she could eat cottage cheese and simply adored cheeses - from white and young to mature and smelly. This continued even after I gave up meat.

Eventually, through food diary and self-observation, I found that dairy products caused white-headed pimples to form on the lower part of my face. Besides, if I drink a cup of coffee with milk, the next day I wake up with mucus in my nose. I've learned to track this connection so much that I wonder why I didn't notice it before. Well, the last straw was the “Chinese study”, the value of which for me is beyond doubt.

Thus, milk is a solid no. Eggs can occur sporadically during the cold season when my Vata is out of balance and needs grounding nourishment.

paleo diet

Followers of the paleo approach eat what a hunter-gatherer caveman could eat, and excludes what appeared on our table in the process of evolution. So, the white list includes meat, fish, eggs, herbs, mushrooms, vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts and seeds. Eliminates dairy, sugar, and grains, including gluten-free and flour, as well as all processed foods.

Theory

The paleo protocol undoubtedly has a reasonable grain at its core. In the world every year there are more and more people suffering from food intolerances, leaky gut syndrome, allergies of all kinds - ailments, the cause of which is seen in the abundance of gluten, added sugar and processed milk in the diet. This is not to mention the epidemic of obesity, mass and other symptoms of progress.

In contrast, the paleo diet advocates a clean, organic diet of whole, unprocessed, or minimally processed foods. The Paleo protocol has shown its effectiveness in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, due to which this system is becoming increasingly popular in the world.

Criticism of Paleo

Opponents of the paleo approach tend to be vegetarians, vegans, and raw foodists. The weakness of this theory is that, developed as a salvation from the modern product reality, it does not take this reality into account very well. For example, it is very difficult to find the same good quality meat today. By good quality, I mean the meat of an animal grown under normal conditions without the use of antibiotics, hormones and other chemicals, processed, transported and stored in accordance with certain standards. Such meat can now be found only in the villages of farmers, and then only the most conscious.

And if you remove animal products from paleo, you get something between a raw food diet and veganism.

Paleo practice. My experience

Interestingly, having started out as a strict vegetarian, I have intuitively gravitated towards Paleo in recent years. Before, it seemed to me that the main thing is not to eat meat, since it is meat that is the most evil. But grain, sour cream and kefir are sometimes possible. Years later, it turned out that gluten and milk for my body are much more evil than animal fiber. Since I almost completely eliminated these two types of foods, my skin and digestion have improved a lot. I used to suffer from inflammation and acne, but lately I have forgotten what it is. At the same time, I occasionally allow myself fish and eggs, paying special attention to the origin of these products. And of course, the foundation of everything is greens, vegetables and fruits.

And the coolest thing for me personally is that the paleo approach is very correlated with. Since there are almost no starches and sugars and no milk at all, on a conscious paleo you intuitively combine foods correctly: fish with vegetables, meat with vegetables, nuts and fruits separately, etc.

Raw food diet, Species nutrition according to Shatalova, Alkalizing theory, 80/10/10 system

Raw foodists eat only unprocessed food of plant origin. There is also a mono-raw diet, a more strict approach in which only one food is consumed during one time interval. For example, all day only bananas. You often see raw foodists who don't mix tomatoes and cucumbers in a salad, but mix a bunch of other ingredients when they need to make raw dough, raw cheese, or milk.

Theory

The raw food diet is very synchronous with. Usually, smart(!!!) A raw food diet is a diet of predominantly alkalizing foods. There is a lot of evidence of how chronic diseases were cured with the help of a raw food diet, as well as all sorts of diagnoses of “unexplained genesis”, such as infertility.

A raw food diet objectively adds lightness and energy to the body, improves the condition of the skin and greatly contributes to weight loss. People who practice a smart raw food diet for many years age more slowly and practically do not get sick.

Criticism of the raw food diet

The raw food diet is an interesting and certainly effective system, but there are important nuances.

Climate and gut. Raw food is good in the tropics for people like Pitta. Where there is access to seasonal local fruits all year round, where there are plenty of coconut products, fresh herbs and vegetables. In such a climate, there is no need to keep warm with food - on the contrary, you constantly want to cool down. And according to Ayurveda, it is raw food, greens, coconut products and water procedures that cool the best, as they reduce.

In the conditions of central Russia in winter, a raw food diet is quite uncomfortable. According to Ayurveda, cold is the season of Vata, which digests raw fiber worse than other doshas. In case of Vata imbalance, Ayurveda recommends that raw fruits and vegetables be subjected to minimal heat treatment. Plus, in winter there are very few that can be eaten raw, and off-season ones contain a lot of chemistry. On a raw food diet, especially at first, you constantly want to warm up. And with a lack of physical activity, it is difficult to get rid of the chills.

A smart approach to diet.Due to a lack of knowledge about human nutritional needs, many beginner raw foodists eat a very poor and unbalanced diet. In an attempt to make up for the lack of healthy fats, raw foodists add a lot of nuts, seeds and sprouts to the menu, which is why the Omega 6 content exceeds the Omega 3 content. Other elements are also unbalanced. As a result, hormonal disorders, inflammation, disorders in the functioning of systems and organs, and other problems appear.

Therefore, you can often find reviews of how a raw food diet “turns off” menstruation. People lose weight excessively, hair begins to fall out and nails break.

To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to build a diet on a raw food diet even more carefully than on a vegan diet. Periodically take tests for micronutrients, hormones and basic blood parameters.

It is also worth considering taking some beneficial substances, such as Omega 3, for example, in the form of supplements. On the one hand, supplements are not the same as whole foods, and this is a minus. On the other hand, soil depletion led to the depletion of the micronutrient composition of fruits and vegetables. A lemon grown 50 years ago contained ten times more vitamin C than lemons grown today.

The practice of raw food. My experience.

The raw food diet is the food system that I have the most questions about. On the one hand, my close people have a positive experience of a raw food diet, which I personally observed and cannot ignore. Definitely, a raw food diet can be considered and taken as a medicine - in doses and courses. If you constantly live in central Russia, then here I agree with Ayurveda - a (conditionally) healthy person can and should eat a raw diet in the summer, but I do not recommend doing this in the cold season.

For a raw food diet to be beneficial, it must be a balanced organic raw food diet - a conscious and rational approach to the menu, and not just an "eat everything raw" diet.

Summary

Each power system has its pros and cons. In addition, each of us is individual and conditioned - genetics, environment, experience. To follow one system and turn a blind eye to the rest - this approach seems to me limited. I find a grain of truth in many systems. But the most important thing is that everything that seems logical to me, I will definitely check in practice.

Only in this way will you understand what nutrition and practices are right for you, make up your own unique picture of health. No coach, Ayurveda doctor and nutritionist will give you this information. Only your body and the ability to hear it.

Be healthy and mindful.

Valentina Gorbunova

Raw foodists, vegans and other alternative eaters: a short guide

Food is the simplest and, it should be noted, the most effective way to manipulate human consciousness. That is why the number of trends associated with eating or not eating something is growing every year. We have put together a short guide.

Vegetarianism

The current that came to us from India. By the way, the first Russian vegetarian society was registered in 1901 in St. Petersburg. Vegetarians do not eat meat, poultry, fish and seafood of animal origin, and there is still debate about whether they can eat honey and mushrooms. Vegetarianism has a lot of additional trends that also have a name. October 1st is World Vegetarian Day: you can start steeping aloe juice and slicing carrot sticks!

Veganism

A more severe branch of vegetarianism - adherents of this ideology refuse to use all animal products (animal milk, eggs, skin, fur). Veganism emerged as a separate trend in the middle of the 20th century. You will be surprised, but the main Russian vegan was Leo - "War and Peace" - Tolstoy. November 1 is International Vegan Day - and you will have something to celebrate it: there is a special vegan alcohol.

raw food diet

Raw foodists eat only or mostly raw plant foods that have not been processed (heat treatment, salting, fermentation, pickling, and any other types of food processing). So, if life is not sweet to you without a cabbage leaf inside and fresh potato, then this is for them. In addition, they believe that raw food is the most biologically correct. At the same time, there are several varieties, for example, when you can eat raw meat, fish and eggs. Raw meat! Sounds scary. But remember that there are such dishes in the world as carpaccio, raw fish sushi and eggnog, and your diet will become a little clearer.

fruitarianism

If you think fruitarians happily eat only sweet fruits, then do not rush to join their orderly ranks. They also have fruits of plants, legumes, grains and seeds on the menu. The main idea is that there is something for which the plant does not need to be destroyed (carrots - no, no!). But then they came to their senses and took pity on themselves and decided that people are usually considered fruitarians, in whose diet raw fruits make up at least 75% (3/4). Ideally, only the fruits of plants are used. Food additives and spices are not used, so it will not work to cover everything with sugar or at least salt.

Pescatarianism

Under this almost abusive word is the refusal to eat the flesh of warm-blooded animals, because a person is also a warm-blooded animal, and there are others like him - ah-ah-ah! That is, theoretically, snakes, fish, mollusks, and that's all you can eat. However, some true pescatarians argue that land animals should also be excluded from the food chain, so you can't eat a snake, sorry, as they say.

Pollotarianism

Refusal to eat the flesh of mammals. Poultry, eggs, dairy products, fish and shellfish - welcome! Ethically, Pollotarians justify their choice by the fact that at the moment of killing mammals, a large amount of adrenaline is released into their blood, respectively, they are aware of the moment of their own death, which, according to adherents of this diet, is inhumane. But the birds and fish do not care!

Flexitarianism

The power system under the slogan “if you can’t, but really want to, then you can.” Its adherents try to minimize meat consumption and focus on plant foods, but the exact figure for the allowed amount of food of animal origin is not indicated. The current is sharply criticized by the vegetarian community as not vegetarian enough, but the flexitarians bite the sprouted wheat sprouts with a cutlet and would not care about the criticism.

Religious prohibitions

Just in case, let us remind you that the Jews have Kashrut - a set of rules that determines the compliance of something with the requirements of Halakha, the Jewish Law, and according to which all food consumed must be kosher. So, for example, pork, shrimp, crabs and some types of drinks are not kosher and are strictly prohibited.

In addition, livestock must be slaughtered according to fairly strict rules - similar rules also exist in the Koran, according to which Muslims must eat only halal food. There is a ban on the use of blood, meat of animals that died a natural death, were slaughtered not with the name of God and unclean animals: pork, predators, omnivores, etc. Alcohol is also strictly prohibited for Muslims.

As for the Christian tradition, the practice of fasting is widespread - temporary abstinence of the body from food of animal origin (and the soul from sinful thoughts). Together with weekly food restrictions (for example, meat and milk are prohibited on Wednesday and Friday), a little more than six months of fasting days are recruited.

Photos: Shutterstock

In recent years, vegetarianism in Russia and Ukraine has gained high popularity, the fact is that people are becoming more educated, they have access to information sources from the United States and developed Western countries, all this is influenced by the Internet and even the level of education in schools, when modern students are more erudite, well-read, know English compared to what we were at their age.

Voluntary vegetarianism is common in high-income countries, it is a deliberate choice of some individuals who were driven by various reasons, for some it is compassion for animals, and for others it is simply a desire to get rid of chronic diseases and lose weight. Nevertheless, vegetarianism is more common in African and Asian countries, but this is forced vegetarianism, here people die from completely different diseases than in developed Western countries, in the first place are social diseases, various infectious diseases, and diseases that can be caused by too much fatty foods are simply absent, for example, these are diseases of the cardiovascular system or cancer.

Harm of vegetarianism for the body

The human body can adapt to any conditions of life, including the absence of meat. A vegetarian does not receive some of the essential amino acids that are absent in plant foods, but the body needs them badly, the so-called saprophyte bacteria appear in the intestines, which, processing plant foods, provide animals with essential amino acids. A vegetarian needs to be extremely careful with the microflora, which can be disturbed by eating garlic, onions and hot spices, but the ability to damage the microflora and teach the body to create essential amino acids has not been proven. Garlic and onions can only affect the stomach and duodenum, while bacteria are produced in the large intestine.

The lack of animal proteins sometimes leads to the fact that the human body, as it were, begins to eat itself, that is, the protein that is released from the digestive system for digesting food is itself processed by the stomach for its own purposes, as you know, we are now talking about enzymes or enzymes that are a protein. By the way, all these enzymes are sold in the United States as a dietary supplement, such enzymes can be of both plant and animal origin. In any case, a person who refuses to consume meat will still be a meat eater, since he will continue to consume his own endogenous proteins.

Calorie deficiency

Many opponents of vegetarianism claim that the benefits of such a diet are short-term, that is, vegetarianism is undeniably beneficial for overweight people and those with type 2 diabetes. After a person has lost weight and overcome diabetes, and this happens quite quickly, the same diabetes is treated by 100% vegetarianism with a guarantee, then you need to return to meat again and get your recommended at least 2000 kcal.

The dangers of a low-calorie diet

The danger of a low-calorie diet, according to scientists, is that a person spends about 1600 kcal per day on metabolism and maintaining life, and this is the work of the heart, the movement of blood through the vessels, intestinal motility, breathing, not to mention active physical exertion.

Where does a vegetarian or raw foodist get his strength from?

Here the question arises before us: where does a vegetarian or a raw foodist get strength, where does this difference of 400 kilocalories come from? It is believed that a vegetarian takes a lack of calories from lactic acid released during muscle work, so a vegetarian uses the energy that has come from food many times, and the law of conservation of energy is not violated. Up to 80% of the calorie content of food eaten in humans is glucose, which is stored in the liver and skeletal muscles in the form of glycogen, and most of it is stored in skeletal muscles. If what got into the liver is released into the blood and consumed as needed, then the skeletal muscles use their glycogen only by 5%, the rest enters the blood in the form of lactic acid or lactate, getting into the liver and turning into glucose there can be reused. 95% of muscle energy can be reused, so for vegetarians and raw foodists, physical activity is important, which does not allow them to die of exhaustion. A sedentary vegetarian or raw foodist is inevitable death, at least meat lovers say so.

Nutrition for the brain

In the average meat-eater, the excess energy of lactic acid lactate is consumed by the brain, and it is through the consumption of the brain that non-vegetarians are not strongly prone to gaining excess weight. The brain of an ordinary person consumes 90% of the energy of glucose and lactate contained in the blood, that is, 90 percent of the free lactic acid is consumed by the brain, vegetarians do not have this possibility, lactic acid, after it is processed in the liver into glucose, returns to the skeletal muscles.

Physiological differences between vegetarians and meat eaters

At the same time, oxygen, which oxidizes lactic acid in the brain, becomes unnecessary. This means that a vegetarian or raw foodist makes much fewer respiratory cycles than an ordinary person, a vegetarian's heartbeat is less frequent, body temperature is lower, less need to fall asleep, less energy is spent on any life processes compared to an ordinary person. But maybe this is where the secret of the lack of calories for the life of a vegetarian lies, which scientists meat-eaters cannot unravel? Just compare: a vegetarian makes 4-5 breaths per minute, while a normal person takes 16-18. The body temperature of a vegetarian can be 35 degrees, and that of a meat eater 36.6, but in practice it is all 37.

A decrease in body temperature and a decrease in the frequency of breathing are the first sign that the body is starving without meat, the brain is starving.

Mind and Vegetarianism

It can be assumed that from this moment on, a vegetarian, or even more so a raw foodist, begins to grow stupefied, to turn into a prehistoric monkey. However, experiments show that vegetarians are much smarter than meat eaters, although this may be due to the fact that vegetarians are more intelligent, they are more well-read and educated due to the fact that they were able to come to the practice of refusing meat.

Physical education and sports for vegetarians and raw foodists

But what happens if a vegetarian refuses to engage in physical education, probably, nature itself will make the human body tense up, probably, these will be bouts of hysteria and excitement. Vegetarians such as Hitler and Leo Tolstoy can be cited as an example. Hitler reported hysteria in public, and Leo Tolstoy, after he stopped actively working in the field, began to quarrel with his wife, which ended in failure.

Refusal of meat food leads to a slowdown in metabolism, hormonal disorders, for example, thyroid hormones, leads to disruption of the endocrine system, in women, the production of estradiol and progesterone by the ovaries is disrupted, and as a result of menstrual irregularities, vegetarians themselves associate this with cleaner blood.

Slow metabolism is dry skin, slow heartbeat, low temperature, fear of cold, the body simply does not warm, there is no energy.

Some vegetarians try to replace meat with soy. It is believed that soy stops enzyme reactions in the thyroid gland and slows down its work, which can lead to goiter and hypothyroidism, leading to weight gain.

Increase in life expectancy. Harm of Vegetarianism Research

Scientists say that any low-calorie diet leads to physiological changes, not just vegetarianism. All the harm of vegetarianism described above will be tantamount to meat-eaters who restrict calorie intake. The main harm of vegetarianism, raw food and low-calorie food in increasing life expectancy, this increase in life expectancy has been proven by scientists many times in mice, monkeys and other mammals, which include humans. A low-calorie diet leads to an increase in longevity on average up to 30% compared to a regular diet in abundance. And what harm vegetarianism can do to the pension fund, let's also remember the spiritual renewal of society, associated with the acceleration of the socio-economic development of the country. The old people are too ossified, they do not accept the updates of social psychology. No need to think only about yourself, think about society. With your conservative views you stop progress.

Vegetarianism is bad for sports

Meat-eaters boast of their strength. Let's look at what professional athletes eat. It may seem that they have some kind of special scientific diet, but in practice they are on a diet called McDonald's. The most popular dish among Dynamo football players is dumplings, all of which are unhealthy food by modern standards. Many professional athletes are still not satisfied with such nutrition, noting that there is not much benefit from meat, if you calculate how much effort you need to spend on digesting it. We can be horrified by the usual portion of meat that heavyweight athletes eat, and how have they not died of atherosclerosis yet? The fact is that they are intensely engaged in sports, and this is the thing that has a natural protective and preventive properties. As long as we are actively involved in sports, we are not afraid of diseases that can be caused by excessive consumption of meat and excess calories, but just as these athletes leave big-time sports, misfortunes occur. A person still eats out of habit, but he does not have such physical activity. By the way, the profession of an athlete is considered the most short-lived, but at the same time, clergymen and politicians live the most.

It is difficult for vegetarian athletes to withstand heavy physical exertion, as you know, muscles grow from proteins and fats, you cannot become a bodybuilder on a raw food diet, you cannot become an Olympic weightlifting champion, but you can achieve significant results, for example, in a marathon. Vegetarianism gives stamina, eating meat gives strength. Where strength is needed, one must eat meat; where endurance is needed, one must refuse this meat. What do you need more: strength or endurance, it seems to me that for a high life expectancy, endurance is more important than strength.

Vegetarianism is bad for young children

Any raw food diet in children ends with rickets. For development and growth, the child needs animal products, which should be in moderation. Personally, I didn’t like meat or dairy products since childhood, there was some kind of rejection, hostility, I just felt sick from the smell of boiled meat or milk, in fact, this is happening now. As a result, I was not a big man in my class, moreover, I could not surpass my father in height, my brother is at least 5 centimeters taller than me. All this is a total lack of meat in the diet, or maybe this is a rational norm, maybe other children have overeaten this meat compared to me?

Children instinctively refuse meat, if there is something else on the plate, then the child will eat it all and leave the meat untouched. How true are the instincts of the child, but children instinctively dislike people who are socially disadvantaged.

Meat contains a large amount of cholesterol and saturated fatty acids, all these substances adversely affect the human body, moreover, in its pure form, omega 3, like omega 6, are harmful to humans. But look at a small child, how much he jumps, runs, somersaults, no adult has ever dreamed of such physical activity. Young children are like bodybuilders, they can't be harmed by meat in moderation.

What happens if you give up meat, vitamin B12?

Vitamin B12 is involved in the metabolism of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, provides the conversion of folic acid, which is necessary for body growth, cell division, brain formation and hematopoiesis. Lack of vitamin B12 is the so-called megaloblastic anemia, when new blood cells cannot be formed, which leads to atrophied muscles with significant external manifestations in the form of dry skin, brittle nails, hair loss. But these are all signs that you are on a raw food diet, even if you know for sure that your vitamin B12 is normal, since its reserves usually last at least a couple of years or you use vitamin B12 tablets. Try to buy D3 calcium tablets and your problems with hair, nails and teeth will disappear. Vitamin D regulates the exchange of phosphorus and calcium, it is also necessary for our bones and teeth, so as you can see, calcium tablets always go in the same company as vitamin D3, without which it is not absorbed. That is why no matter how much a vegetarian eats plant foods rich in calcium, there will still be a lack of this calcium in the body without eating meat.

On a raw food diet and vegetarianism, the digestive organs are under stress

There is an assumption that if you eat plant-based raw food, then our digestive system will be subjected to tremendous wear and tear, and after a couple of years of such nutrition, a person simply turns into a worn-out old man. But if we eat boiled cereals, meat, everything thermally processed, then we, as it were, shift the work of our digestive system onto the shoulders of a gas or electric stove. We believe that fire will do everything for us, it will be able to break down complex carbohydrates into simple ones, and make food easily digestible. However, in fact, not everything is so simple, everything turns out to be exactly the opposite. Ordinary food, especially meat, is digested in our stomach for more than a day, at least this applies to time, starting from the moment food enters our stomach and leaves it, for some food can remain for two days or more, while for raw foodists this is a maximum half a day, fruits are digested in literally 20 minutes. Worn out digestive system? Remember how you feel after a hearty meat meal and remember how you feel after eating a raw apple? Do you have any other questions about wear and tear?

Vegetarianism and raw food diet is a temporary diet

Another strong opinion is that vegetarianism and a raw food diet are a temporary forced measure, as is therapeutic fasting. As soon as the body on a plant-based diet cleanses itself and gets rid of chronic diseases, it will be possible to return to our old diet, on which we received everything from which we temporarily came to the consumption of vegetables and fruits. But as soon as we return to the old food, our diseases return to us. All the chronic diseases that we seem to have cured on a raw food diet and vegetarianism will immediately come to us as soon as we let in the old diet of meat and thermally processed food. But each such experiment with raw plant foods will show all its advantages compared to thermally processed foods, from which it becomes ill and sores return.

In countries where people eat meat, the average life expectancy is higher than in countries where people eat plant foods.

This seems to us the biggest disappointment. In the United States, where life expectancy is one of the highest in the world, the average per capita meat consumption is the highest, and higher than in countries where the local population does not see it because of poverty. But the causes of death in the United States and in these countries are completely different. In the United States, the main cause of death is cardiovascular diseases, which are caused by excessive meat consumption and a sedentary lifestyle, and, for example, in African countries, these are social causes, various infectious diseases. In Africa, there is no cardiovascular disease in the way that there is no meat, people just eat grass. Of course, this is a simplification in a sense, people eat anything and in any form, but this is the most primitive plant food, but it is consumed in a thermally processed form, which weakens the immune system and provides an entry way for infectious diseases. You can discuss the topic: if you run a real raw foodist there, will there be a risk that he will get sick, for example, with malaria?

Will vegetarianism cost humanity less than meat production?

Many believe that vegetarianism and the consumption of plant foods will cost too much for humanity as a whole, which can no longer be fed with a hug of apples and nuts. But let's remember that almost all the grain grown is used to feed farm animals, that is, to obtain meat. I eat exclusively fruits and vegetables, I do not buy seeds, nuts, legumes or grains, much less processed foods. Well, how much is this unfortunate cabbage and apples?

My raw food diet is cheaper than any vegetarianism and omnivore! At the same time, I do not waste money on empty calories, on the so-called junk food, all my products have the maximum biological value. My law when going to the grocery supermarket is not to spend a single penny down the drain! Get the maximum benefit from every penny. Now I can’t even believe that I used to spend money on alcohol! This is how wasteful you had to be in terms of money and your own health.

70 billion farm animals and only 7 billion people

Mother Earth is now feeding over 70 billion animals that are meant to be food for 7 billion people. You are probably guessing my question now! This question is very logical. So, why do we say that it is difficult to feed only 7 billion people on plant food, when we manage to feed an order of magnitude more farm animals on this plant food, and note that a cow or a pig eats much more than a person.

09/07/2016 at 17:33

Hello dear friends! Elena Rouvier is with you!

Today, I will continue the topic of my diet and lifestyle. I'll start from the very beginning: 5 and a half years ago, I still ate like most people! In the morning - cereals, coffee or cocoa, in the afternoon and in the evening - sandwiches or meat and fish dishes, ...

But subconsciously, I have always been drawn to vegetarianism. When I was 12 years old, I even asked my parents to become a vegetarian, but they did not allow me to do this because of their concern for me and misunderstanding of the real needs of the human body!

Thus, this idea left my head a little... For the time being, for the time being... So, here is my path of transformation. Vegetarianism and raw food diet and detoxification of the body!

The beginning of the journey - the awakening of the sleeping

I regularly had the same dream where I walked around the village and went into a stall with cows. And there, I suddenly realized that now they would be killed, and I was terrified. I tried to free them, but I couldn't! And then I ran away from the stall in tears and woke up with terrible feelings of bitterness in my soul!

And then one day I saw a movie "Babe: Four-Legged Baby" with your kids. I was very touched by the scene where the pig was feeding her newborn piglets and I wanted to find a beautiful picture on the Internet on this topic!

And so all my horror began! Instead of a cute and touching scene, I came across terrifying pictures of industrial farms!

Somewhere deep down I understood that, of course, animals are killed for meat and I never liked meat departments and shops, but I did not realize the horror of this industry! I could not imagine even one percent of the horror that I had to discover!

On my blog, I won’t talk about the hellish life and death of our smaller brothers, since I have a positive one, but if you are interested in this topic and you have strong nerves, I can recommend the film Earthlings, which is easy to find in networks.

So, on this day, I became one step more conscious, and when Leon came home from work in the evening, I stunned him with the news: “Darling, from today I will never touch meat again!”. At first, of course, he was stunned, but over time, I provided him with all the necessary arguments and he agreed with me. Today, he still occasionally eats meat, but of course he cooks it himself. That's how it all started!

How and why do people become vegetarians?

Many people ask: "how to become a vegetarian?"

About the correctness of my choice in terms of health, I did not ask at all at that time!

But now, from my own experience, I understand that a sharp transition to vegetarianism will not bring trouble, since vegetarianism, although more useful than omnivorousness, still does not cause strong cleansing crises, as when switching to a raw food diet. After all, thermally processed food still blocks strong deslagging processes.

So, I think that you can become a vegetarian immediately, without gradual transitions! And maybe with them. It's how you like it!

Well, now for the reasons. For me personally, the beginning was compassion for animals(and the transition was drastic with no side effects), but there are other reasons why people become vegetarians:

After finding a lot of information and thinking for a long time on all these topics, in the end I can say that I became a vegetarian for one reason, and I will remain a vegetarian for all the others too!

Types of Vegetarianism

There are many types of vegetarianism, and some people pretend to be vegetarians without being such. So let's take a look in detail:

The benefits and harms of vegetarianism

An unequivocal answer to a question "Who is healthier and who lives longer - vegetarians or meat eaters?" no. After all, each person has his own habits and preferences. It is they that make each person unique in physiological terms (although in the spiritual matter, each person is unique, but that's another topic!).

Also, from birth, people have different heredity. Some of them got sick more in childhood and were stuffed with drugs, which also slagging the body more. Also, it is very important to note the mobility of the lifestyle, the absence of bad habits and the psychological attitude!

So, a vegetarian who abuses sweets and alcohol, for example, will be more likely to get sick than a meat eater who eats homemade low-fat meals with a moderate amount of meat.

But still, if we consider the same diet, with a single difference: with or without meat, then of course a vegetarian diet will be more useful. About the dangers of meat, I will soon write in more detail!

Now, I've also made changes to my morning routine:

• first 1-2 glasses of distilled, structured water, then wait 20 minutes
• then, 1 glass of freshly squeezed juice from these (or similar) recipes, then I wait another 20 minutes
• and finally, attack the fruits!

Then I also started eating fruit for lunch (it was easier: no need to prepare a salad for work, just fill the bag with fruit and you're done! Colleagues giggled and called me a fruit seller, because I brought them in impressive quantities!

And in the evening - a salad with lots of greens or sprouts and seasonal vegetables. I like to season with seaweed, linseed oil or avocado sauce.

Eating like this for about a year, I no longer have breakdowns, and when I had the last ones, the junk food was poorly absorbed and the harmony in the body was disturbed, and a feeling of heaviness appeared. I really didn’t like all this, so it helped a lot to reduce the breakdowns to nothing.

I think that the fact is that the microflora has changed in my body and is no longer able to digest dead food!

My cleansing crisis lasted about a year and I was terribly unlucky, because most of its manifestations appeared on my face: red spots, flaky skin, acne, ...

Today, to my great joy, it has come to an end and in the place of all the troubles I have beautiful elastic skin, which even in childhood did not happen (due to allergies, I often had red spots and dry skin).

In any case, with feelings of lightness, joy, energy and awakened awareness, I live well. I don't even miss old habits!

The main thing is not to remove foods from your diet, but to replace them with others! This is how the transition will go smoothly and harmoniously.

Cleansing the body of toxins

Well, the last thing I wanted to say is about the cleansing of the body, which I have undertaken in the last 2 years. It’s not enough just to change your diet to raise your health to a high level! We have been clogging the body with toxins for many years and getting rid of them is not so easy and not so fast!

So here are the cleanings I did:

Do you think everything? But no! At the moment, I take Zalmanov's turpentine baths every 3 days. I conduct capillary therapy in this way! But about each procedure, I will write a separate article. In this one, I wanted to give an overview of my transformation and what I have done in the name of health.

By the way, an unpleasant dream with cows let me go from the moment I became a vegetarian!

On this, my article ends (and the transformation is not!).

See you soon on elenarou's blog. May the Force be with you!

I grew up in such a normal family, where they always loved meat very much, and even more so, I grew up in the city of Sochi, where not a single event can do without barbecue and this is, you know, a national dish. Of course, I remember when I came to my grandmother for breakfast, dumplings with meat immediately went there, that is, everything was as it should be. Of course, there was never any talk of vegetarianism or veganism. All my childhood I remember that I had a stomachache. I always ate some kind of sandwiches, I even remember I have some kind of just I don’t know what happened to me, some kind of idealism - my mother cooked some delicious food - salad, for example, cutlets, potatoes. I went to the store, bought myself Doshirak, can you imagine that? Doshirak! I sat down in front of everyone, while everyone was eating normal food, I ate this one. Understandably, my stomach hurt, no wonder why.

How did I become a vegetarian?

Everything changed when I moved to Moscow. I met one girl, she was a vegan, and moreover, she was a vegan since childhood, since she was 5 years old. met her mother. Her mother looked very cool. She is, of course, a gorgeous woman. And I was surprised that it is really possible to look like that at her age? She went with us periodically to clubs, some restaurants, and everyone always thought that this was her sister - she looked so good, they even asked, they wanted to get to know her: “Oh, we didn’t know that you had such a girlfriend !" I mean, that's how cool the man looked. And her mother, of course, was a vegan for many years. But anyway, it didn’t push me to become a vegan, but at that moment I thought about it, I thought how cool it would be to look like that at her age, because after all, when we are 20 years old, 30 years old, we we look about the same, anyway, yes, you can’t say that there is any big difference, but when we are already over 40, 40 years old, the difference becomes already visible, you can immediately see who ate how, who went in for sports, and who lay on sofa, watching TV. And, of course, at that moment I also wanted to look like that, I looked after them, watched what they eat, but at the same time continued to eat what I ate.

Crucial moment

There was a moment when I was very sick in Moscow. Every two weeks I had a fever, I felt terrible. For two weeks I have been sick, for two weeks I have been normal, for two weeks I have been more, in short, some kind of horror, I don’t know. I just lost my immunity at the time. And I decided to go vegan. After reading some information for a bit, I thought, okay, I'll try and pushed me to this post, you know, a great post that lasts 40 days. I never sat at the post and decided to try it, usually everyone says: “How difficult it is to endure 40 days.” I think, well, okay, if I survive 40 days, then I will succeed further. 40 days, of course, passed unnoticed for me, and I realized that yes, it’s great, I live perfectly without meat and I feel great, I don’t have some kind of, you know: “How I miss chicken, or else for something." Although, as doctors say, for example, the first blood type, like mine, it cannot live without meat, that is, they are such direct meat-eaters. I felt great, and at the time when the post had already passed, I continued to be a vegetarian and began to read books. I began to learn, of course, information, I began to watch different videos, because, thank you, thank God, there is information. It’s a pity, of course, people don’t want to recognize it, they don’t want to know about it somehow in more depth, but when I got to it, when I started digging, at that moment I, of course, already thought about it, thought about my health, about After all, how important it is for health, how we poison ourselves with all this, and above all, of course, I had health, that is, I thought, that's it, no more meat, my goal was only health. And I thought, I didn’t think about animals at all, to be honest.

But then I got to the movies, of course, I got to the movie, where there was a hidden camera and it was filmed exactly where animals are killed, yes, on all these farms. And that's it, it was some kind of point just set when I watched these films. I cried so much, I couldn’t sleep, I don’t know how many hours I cried, but of course, I had such a shock at that moment, I realized that, but, you know, when you eat meat, then you just don’t think, you know they kill animals, but like you don't put any effort into it, well, okay, and it's fine, I don't do that, I already bought a ready-made chicken, and everything is fine with me.

But, in fact, this is not the right approach, and if you look at how animals are killed, you just see all their suffering, you see - it's just some kind of nightmare, and you understand that you don't want to do this anymore have nothing to do with it at all. At that moment, I just saw this difference, you know, when people, for example, love dogs very much or love cats very much, but they have some other attitude towards a cow or a small goat, but these are the same animals, what is the difference between them? This is exactly the same living being that has some kind of consciousness, but has feelings. I decided I didn't want to be a part of this anymore, no more deaths. I understand that I can't save a bunch of animals there, but at least I don't have anything to do with it anymore.

And from that moment I went vegan. I ate dairy products, but I didn't eat meat. Sometimes I ate fish, but it was intermittent and four years passed, but I still continued to get sick. I was sick, because after all, my body, of course, was still very clogged with toxins from all this animal protein, that is, of course, of course, there is so much incomprehensible, for so many years it is incomprehensible that, of course, it is very clogged and feels terrible.

Going vegan

Then four years passed, and I moved to live in America. After moving to Miami, I was a vegetarian and after some time I met my boyfriend, and he had been a vegan at that time for many, many years. He never forced me to go vegan, never told me anything about it. He just ate what he eats and also told me: “Do you want to eat this, do you want that? Whatever you want, order it." And somehow it became interesting to me, what is it, why does he not eat milk? I started digging, I started reading books, and, of course, I got to the point where I decided for myself that I don’t want to be a vegetarian anymore, I don’t want to eat dairy. And again, of course, this is about health, because .... I do not want to tell all this now, it does not make any sense, if you are interested, you can read a lot about it, I will even leave books for you. I realized that everything, I'm done with it, I became a vegan. After being a vegan for some time, I began to feel good, I stopped getting sick at all, and up to now four years have passed, and I am no more. That is, while I was a vegetarian, I was still sick, everything, for four years I have not been sick, I feel great.

Refusal of alcohol

I went vegan, then I gave up alcohol. When you give up alcohol, you know, it's like you wake up, I don't know. You stop eating meat, you stop drinking alcohol, and everything becomes different. Your consciousness is changing, indeed, it is changing, you generally begin to see things differently, everything, you think differently.

Switching to a raw food diet

By that time, I was thinking about a raw food diet. I already started meditating then, started doing yoga a little, then I met a man, he worked at HolFoodsey, he was already such an elderly uncle and he turned out to be a raw foodist. He said that he had been a raw foodist for many years and his wife was a raw foodist. And moreover, he is such, you know, a specific raw foodist who does not even eat nuts, that is, he is such - only fruits, sprouts, a lot of everything that is fresh, alive. And he looked very good, he had such a skin, completely different from that of ordinary elderly people, he was all glowing, it was tense, somehow simply unreal. And, of course, he also went in for sports, he says: “I swim every day in the ocean, I run,” that is, she is such a very active grandfather. And I also wanted so, that is, you know, such examples they give you such a kick in the ass. When someone just says to you: “For example, I am a raw foodist!” Then you think: “So what? What's the difference between me and you, we basically look about the same." But when you see a person who is already at such an old age that he looks much better than all the other people of his age, and you understand that you can also look, you can be just as healthy, you already begin to think about how to switch to this diet.

And I started practicing a raw food diet in Miami, but, of course, there were breakdowns, there were regular breakdowns, there’s no way without it, because I really want boiled food. I really want to eat something like that, I also remember that then I didn’t immediately refuse alcohol, that is, sometimes, very rarely there was a glass of wine. And when this glass of wine is still where it is, you just fall for pizza. There were such moments, but when the alcohol was completely gone, of course everything went away and more such awareness came, but there were still breakdowns, because there were no raw food restaurants in Miami, there were no friends of some raw foodists, and when you If you cook at home, you cook almost everything in the same way, the same salads, of course, it gets boring over time, and you sometimes break down.

Moving to Los Angeles

Then, a few years later, I moved to live in Los Angeles. Los Angeles seemed like heaven to me, because everything is here! For raw foodists and vegans, this is heaven. There are a whole bunch of all sorts of restaurants, a whole bunch of all sorts of cafes, anything, especially for raw foodists there is everything - fruits, vegetables, anything, a lot of different products for raw foodists (any milk, but raw food) anything. And, of course, the first time I broke down, because I could not get enough. There were no even vegan restaurants in Miami, there was only one restaurant in the whole of Miami, and there are a lot of them and you, it turns out, want to be on a raw food diet and at the same time want to try everything new, because you didn’t eat it. I had such, you know, breakdowns, breakdowns, breakdowns, then I came to the point that I started a raw food diet, I set up such a system for myself - five days a week I go on a raw food diet, two days a week I eat something fried.

Problems of my transition

And on a raw food diet, the body becomes very clean, you know, it becomes so clean. And when you are on a raw food diet for five days and you allow yourself something fried on weekends, then, of course, you immediately develop acne. It just irritated me very much, because I’ve been walking so pretty all week, my skin starts to glow, everything is fine, you know, you feel very good, you ate something fried for the weekend - everything, everything spilled out.

Starvation

It got me, and I decided to switch to a raw food diet. And, of course, I decided not just to switch to it, I began to read a lot of literature to make it easier, because when you read a lot about it, it is much easier for you to stay on it and not break loose. Plus, I started practicing fasting. 4 times a month I starve, once a week, it turns out, I sit on the water. Fasting helps very well to go on a raw food diet and, in general, to hold out without breaking down. I am still holding on, everything is fine with me, I feel great, then I started doing it in addition to fasting, fasting in general helps to cleanse the body of toxins, mucus, and any toxins in general. I highly recommend you, I can make a separate video for you on this topic.

Cleansing the body

In general, I began to starve and began to cleanse the body of various organs, such as the liver, intestines, kidneys, and so on. And this helps a lot, because when the body is already clean, you don’t want any pizza anymore, you don’t even want a vegan hamburger anymore, because you know that you have already done so much work that you don’t need to clean your body anymore. there is a hunt, because you know that it is harmful. And even I don't want to. But you know how you strive for some kind of perfection, set some kind of goal for yourself, because if we do not strive anywhere in this life, we do not grow, then we degrade. There are only two states, there is no third. If you are not growing, then you are degrading. And I like this state of growth, learning something new and looking, experimenting on myself.

Ayurveda and raw food

You know, of course, many may not agree that, for example, a raw food diet is suitable for everyone. Yes, I read, for example, Ayurveda, in Ayurveda, in general, this science is very close to me, I really like it, I read books, so I even wanted to learn it, but Ayurveda says that a raw food diet is not suitable for everyone, that is, it is impossible to attribute one diet to all people on the planet. According to their system, people are divided into three types, and each type needs a certain food so that a person does not get sick later and nothing happens to him. I have a type - cotton wool and my type, of course, cannot be on a raw food diet. But yes, there are times when, for example, I get cold on a raw food diet, but in principle, thank God, I live in a warm country and I have the opportunity to warm up. And while I will definitely be on it and I am not going to leave this system anywhere.

Bottom line after 8 years without meat

Thanks to those people who met on my way and who showed me this way, because, of course, I'm happy that I came to this, I feel very good - I have a lot of energy, I'm positive. But you know, when you stop eating meat, some kind of depression goes away, illnesses go away, more positiveness appears, especially when you sit more on fruits, fresh vegetables, then in general it’s kind of like an Energizer battery. I make a lot of different juices, I have several juicers, I make different smoothies, all sorts of green smoothies you want, in general, I have everything. I do not pretend to be some kind of master, teacher, etc., because nevertheless in my videos I share some of my experience with you and maybe this will also help you, as it somehow helped me when I met certain people in my life. If you have any questions, guys, feel free to write in the comments, you can also always write to me in contact, I always answer, I will always help you, I will tell you whatever you want.