RAW CHOC?
http://www.sarahbesthealth.com/most-recent/
A bit back I recall listening to David Wolfe talking about his guaranteed home grown cacao at sources he was in conversation with.
He also mentioned that it had come to his attention that much of what is being sold at fairly high prices in usa and even possibly uk is not in fact true raw cacao.
A short time later, someone else asked me about this and I didn't truly know the answer - and I still dont.
In truth I am personally not that fussed - in that I choose high raw living foods - I no longer feel any specific admantcy to 100% raw. I love cacao - but I know that my body doesn't! No matter how much I try to tell it about high magnesium levels and the cacao devas! the truth is, my body doesn't recognise it as the recreational food it has become. I do respect and celebrate it as a sacred ritual food.
But stuffed with agave, and other concocts to titilate the mouths of raw fooders.. I dont feel it belongs in my food choices.
I love the taste of chocolate and the 'feel good factor'
But I moved into living foods, for purity and simplicity and my diet - overall had deteriorated since the raw food media buzz.
Why - cause I fell into the abyss of ' long as its raw its okay' Which I know is rubbish. My body is far happier with a plate of steamed home grown kale, than it is with the yummiest tasting raw food cracker! which does sort of settle in my gut like concrete!. Does my personality like them. Yes of cause it does! as it does chocolate!
So I have been shaking myself into truth of late regarding raw foods!
Remembering that its about LIVE foods - not just technically uncooked to a certain temperature foods!!
Having said all that. What I seek to know is - Is non raw cacao being sold as raw when it isnt. Does anyone in fact know. Do the companys who sell it know? Cause thats about a question of integrity and ethics.
So hence my interest and question.
I was further tweaked on this subject today, when I was sent a link to the above website.
I know Sarah, and have a deep respect for her having been editor of GET FRESH magazine for many years. I have met her at events also and know she walks her talk of truth.
I know that its not just about our food choices, its about life choices, and recognising the food of what we choose to watch, listen too, and invest our lives into.
I don't seek to judge, in a personality opinion - but I do hold the posture of discernment! and if and when people strutt the raw food banner, I kinda of have a preferred attachment? to an assumption that its about conscious lifestyle choices, not just about food choices.
posted by Harmonious Living @ 2:26 pm
8 Comments:
At 8:04 am,
Veronika said…
Integrity is important, and I do believe that those people who are seeking out 'special' foods and paying very special prices for such items deserve the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth....regardless of what the food item is...
At 8:26 am,
Harmonious Living said…
Okay. thanks. you did mention this to me a bit back and I didnt really invest much thought into it, and then I get a link to Sarahs site.. so am now pondering, well YES maybe ? NOW that David has honoured much of the cacao in the past as NOT being raw. Where does that leave Cacao choices now. From investing in some reading, I now have info?? around cacao being raw? but the powder and butter Not being raw - I dont know- but its time for us to start knowing.
I dont want to throw out the baby with the bath water and move into trashing ethical companys who I know have held a high integrity over the years.
Dont the media just love it when there is a stirring in the home camp!! - This ought to be investigated and explored with non emotive detachment, till I know the outcome.
Thanks for your comments and thanks for tweaking me on this issue earlier.. I am going to read all the comments on Sarahs site later. x
At 2:19 pm,
Sarah Best said…
Ruth, thanks for holding a space of awareness and compassion around this issue. That is all I am trying to do, too.
My main motive? I do not personally want to be a part of any community or movement unless it is all about truth and honesty - and it is clear to me that the majority of those committed to health and higher consciousness feel the same. However, not everyone does. It is in some parties' interests that this does not come out - many others simply find it too painful/uncomfortable to look at too closely, and I understand that.
The raw community lacks accountability, it lacks regulation and it lacks checks and balances. I have no desire to be the raw police, believe me. However, I do observe that many people who gravitate to this path do not get the results they are looking for, not even close - and after many deep conversations with such people, as well as my closest friends in the industry, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that this is at least in part down to the fact it has actually become acceptable in parts of this industry to make inflated health and other claims about products.
It's ironic when we in this community deplore the fact that the agribusiness, pharma and media giants do not tell us the whole truth, but the truth that suits them - to know that the same is going on in this very community. It's on a smaller, less serious scale but it's the same fundamental issue and, as Anna Rodgers (aka Miss Eco Glam) wrote this week, the new age we are entering is about truth in all things, big and small. I really agree with that...
Thank you for writing about this and, again, for your compassion and openness to the truth. I have no desire to knock any individual or company. But nor do I think this is solved by looking the other way and pretending this isn't going on. As one of my sources on this wrote, "I don't know how to look the other way and pretend this isn't about me. If I do that, I'm culpable, too." That's how I feel - but this is a highly personal one and we can only each do what feels right to us...and honour the choices others make, too...
Sarah x
At 3:14 pm,
Harmonious Living said…
Aloha Sarah. Thanks for your sharing... and also thanks for the update info which I read last night. I will check out comments on your site later.
Yes I dont want to attack or trash or throw out with bath water either. But time to start asking and checking around raw cacao or not..I dont feel 'part of' any movement.
Loathe the expression raw food movement!!! I dont and never will fit under any umbrella grouping.. I have dallied in the past! BUT my only lesson has been that group hyped energy always downward spirals with personality issues, fragmented opinion. Off shoot groups, attacks and slander. Its just what seems to happen under the public veneer of any group or movement, there often can be find a festering smouldering inferno :)
At 4:09 pm,
Sarah Best said…
Very well put. I'm with you re groups/movements... :-) I guess what I actually meant is we are all connected whether we like it or not - the more so with others on a similar path to us - and the old energy that still has to work its way out here is affecting all of us until it does. By old energy I don't just mean those who have knowingly misled - but also those whose intentions were only good, but who did not do the due diligence that really anyone must do if they are calling their product raw and charging raw prices for it. Most people I've spoken to just want to be able to trust that when a company makes a claim about its products, they can trust it - so they can then make their decisions with full awareness. In appreciation, again, for holding this space. Sarah x
At 4:29 pm,
Harmonious Living said…
Yes. Sarah... I feel its about finding a line - I know some while back I chased up Nakd bars as I discovered they were riding on the raw food hype whilst their oats were not raw. I spoke to the guy direct. Who offered a very articulate argumentative input. But I held the posture!! I got all my own purchase refunded - and more. And initially they thought they had purchased my neurosis off.. but I kept following up, went to trading standards etc (thats where I found out that there was no bench mark for the word RAW - anyway, I believe they have changed wording or ingredients.. (I did in truth give up in the end) but I think I made enough noise that they listened.
Again for me personally I was not fussed, what I WAS fussed around was that they were not even involved in any way with live foods, they were just riding the emerging high market.
I do feel those involved in retailing raw cacao in uk mostly make conscious food choices and are into it all. These Nakd bar peeps were DEF not. :) x
At 8:44 am,
Sarah Best said…
Wow, interesting to hear you chased up the Nakd people - something I considered doing but just never got round to - I applaud you! I had figured that would be the response of Trading Standards - 'there is no benchmark for the word raw'. But the raw food market in the UK is worth mega millions in the UK now, so there should be! Whenever a claim on a label enables a company to charge more for its product - and raw products often retail for as much as *five times* the price of comparable organic (itself already seen as expensive compared to conventional) - really, once this much business is being done in it, Trading Standards ought to be on it!
Raw products are not only bought by people into the lifestyle who know about the 48C (or so) official temperature ceiling on raw, but others who do not know about that. And personally, until I got into this lifestyle I always took "raw" to mean literally raw - i.e. NO heating. So I don't think anyone is buying products w raw on the label thinking they are steamed (as I believe Nakd's oats were) nor heated to a temperature that's above the temperature used to pasteurise milk by the HTST (high temperature short treatment) method, and for a longer duration - as is the case for an indeterminate number of other raw-labelled products on sale in the UK... Considered responding to this one privately - hope you don't mind my sharing thoughts here again :-) I just feel what you've shared re Trading Standards' attitude to raw is of public interest.
At 4:45 pm,
Harmonious Living said…
Sorry - only just got around to publishing this and replying! - A somewhat bombastic man who thought his articulation would shut me up, Did quite the opposite actually lol!!
Yep and soon as something is worth mega millions it diminishes - take soil association as an example!!
Personally I dont put much credance on the magick number... as I can buy??? all sorts of recreational foods. that are supposedly?? made with magick number intact, but are such a hodge podge of combination nightmares. I really dont care anymore if its raw or not. And all the stuff around raw nuts and seeds??? erm I think not.. I dont believe half of it.
When I got into LIVE foods it was about LIVE foods.. I didnt even know about raw food movements and the like.. and Live foods to me was fresh fruits and veggies, nuts seeds and sprouts... the golden oldies from which I first read, norman walker and others. didnt have this modern day neurosis around raw!!
Yes Nak'd oats were steamed.. and yes maybe they needed to be, BUT why call it raw then.. but at the time I think I was more in reaction around the fact that they were nothing even to do with the raw food ethos, they had just smelt a market opening.
No I dont mind you responding on the blog. I feel its good we all get to witter around it... :) bless you.
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