No answers to my previous questions (were they stupid questions?), I'll try just one more time here. Does anybody have any tips for sitting down with everybody to a cooked holiday meal and not be rude? Do raw foodist's prepare their own meal to eat with everybody else's meal? The only thing I can think of to do is to have a thick, filling smoothy before the meal so I am not very hungry. I will be at someone else's house so I am not sure how to handle this and not be rude. Any suggestions? I am a brand new raw foodist - actually I am just working into it.

Thanks in advance. I hope I hear from at least somebody!

Hi!
I try to eat something before I go to a gathering where there may not be food for me--arriving not hungry, but not so full that I can't enjoy some of the food there, in case there is any.

Recently I went to a dinner and asked in advance if it would be all right for me to bring a dish to share. That was fine with the hostess, so I brought enough that there would be some for me to eat even if it was popular. It was a shredded carrot and beet salad that was easy to make, looked good, and was tasty.

Sometimes it's easy to stay raw in a party setting--often there are fruit and vegetable trays.

For me, though, eating raw is just a health thing, and it's not going to kill me to eat cooked stuff on a special occasion, including spending quality time with friends (being vegan, on the other hand, is one of my core values, and not something I'm going to put aside just to be social).

Actually, it's a struggle for me to be very consistent with my raw diet even at home, so I must admit that your question is not one I worried about over the holidays this year. But I thought I'd chime in, anyway, since nobody else seems to be speaking up! You might find a good forum for raw food talk at [www.goneraw.com]

Aloha,

I usually bring my own food with me wherever I go. If I am going to someone's house where cooked food is, I will ask if it's ok if I bring a dish to share, and I make enough so that I can eat and be satisfied as well. And as a safety, I'll eat a light salad before I go and have a few things in my car for afterward in case everyone loves my dish and eats most of it, leaving me little to feast on myself. I'll usually keep in theme with the event as well. If it's a Thanksgiving thing, I'll make a cranberry relish salad or raw pumpkin pie or stuffing, etc. Just ask the host. If they mock or whatever, say your doctor has you on a strict diet right now. They don't have to know you are your own doctor now that you are raw. The maybe have a few benefits of raw in case you get asked questions.

Rawk on,
Astrum