What is in a name anyway? Nothing! We make generalizations and label ourselves and each other to try to communicate and simplify questions for example about what you might like to bring to a potluck to be as inclusive as possible for all the potluck participants.
Vegan think: no “artificial” flavorings, no honey, no leather shoes, politically active, and sometimes pretty high carb diets. Being a part of the vegan community involves embracing a lot of politics and painful awareness about animal conditions. There is less space for the actual nutrition/cuisine and more room for important political action. Do you think, the vegan movement in a lot of ways gave birth to the raw movement?
When I think of the raw community I think of a very diverse crowd: cancer survivors, religious zealots, doctors, professional chefs, farmers. It seems like many rawfoodists were at some point vegan. I have read that most rawfoodists don’t eat animal products. Wiki defines rawfoodists as people who primarily eat raw food. People come to the raw community with their strongest interest being health and some have read and studied nutrition for years and take their food based B vitamins, Udo’s oil, and have even spent months tracking their daily food intake and can run reports on exactly how much protein, vitamins and minerals they are getting.
The focus is different, the motivation or impetus is slightly different. And the raw food diet is more inclusive and less rigid. It is also a newer community, maybe after raw has been around a while that will change…I hope we stay pretty inclusive and welcoming and not about creating absolutes.
What is your experience? Were you first vegan than raw? Visa versa?
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