Over the last week or so, I have been listening to a lot of inspirational people in the raw food world talk about various aspects of following this type of diet (whether a completely or only in part raw food diet). The experts talked about all kinds of aspects related to eating and food: nutrition, emotions, social, spiritual, eco and ethical. It was a bit of a "whirlwind" as there was so much information presented in a short space of time.

But in the last session, the host, Steve Prussak, actually presented a summary of the main points of agreement between the various speakers, and I thought it would be useful to share that information with you. So here are the main points on which many (not all) of the speakers, prominent people in this field agreed:

- A diet that consists of 100% raw foods is healing, and can reverse diabetes and other chronic diseases
- A 100% raw food diet can reverse obesity
It may or may not be necessary to stick to 100% raw foods once your body is "clean" and free of chronic disease
- A diet that is high in raw fats (ie avocados, nuts and seeds) is not recommended (raw fats may be less unhealthy than cooked fats, but they are still fats and not optimal for the body in large quantities.) Similarly, eating a lot of gourmet raw food, and dehydrated raw food is not healthy for similar reasons. Steamed vegetables would be more healthy than this.
- Juicing fruits and vegetables and making fruit and green smoothies is beneficial for health.
- Health is about more than just food. Relationships to oneself, and other people are crucial. Exercise, spirituality, being outside and connecting with nature and the earth, light and sunshine and surrounding yourself with positive people are all really important.
This all resonates with me and my healing journey. Changing my diet slowly over the years from an "ordinary" meat and 2 veg diet to a vegetarian diet, to a vegan diet and then finally to a mainly raw vegan diet has definitely been a huge part of my healing journey - from chronic fatigue syndrome / ME (Myalgic Encephalopathy) to a life as an energy healer.

For me, diet alone was never enough. I used to find that the detox emotional symptoms that came up for me when I was moving towards eating more lightly were not bearable, and generally eating more lightly was unsustainable.

It was when I discovered energy healing and the Emotional Freedom Technique that I really had tools to help me move through the emotional aspects of this type of diet.

Nowadays, with clients, I tend to recommend increasing the amount of living, raw food in your diet, as well as working on the emotional side through energy healing and the Emotional Freedom Technique. And of course all the other things I mentioned above - as good social network connecting with nature, being in the sun, and having some kind of spiritual path (whether or not you would use those words.) I think this "multi-faceted" approach is particularly important in healing chronic illness, such as chronic fatigue syndrome / ME.

Author's Bio: 

Fiona Cutts is an energy healer who specialises in working with clients suffering from ME. You can see more about her work with people struggling with this debilitating condition at http://www.treatmentforme.net/. She has herself recovered from ME using a combination of energy healing, the Emotional Freedom Technique, nutrition, graduated exercise, meditation, chi kung and dance. She is an Integrated Energy Healing, in the tradition of Barbara Brennan, an Advanced Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner and a reiki practitioner. You can read more about her and the way she works with people suffering from ME at http://www.treatmentforme.net/#/my-story.