In regards to eating meat

[Monica]

I just well, I believe in sourcing and growing products locally. Seasonal local products are in tune with us. When your living somewhere like the north of England or Scotland, the food that is naturally around winter time are root veg, barley oats and such.

Agreed! I just started buying produce from a local farmers' market. I agree that eating locally is generally healthier.

The weather is cold and there are weeks when you see no sunlight - the sunlight you do get isn't strong enough for your skin to make Vit D.

Mushrooms are an excellent source of vitamin D. They absorb vitamin D, even after being harvested.

Vegetarians in cold, dreary climates can easily take a vitamin D supplement, rather than relying on fish oil. Actually, most people are vitamin D deficient, whether vegetarian or not. We have supplements readily available and very inexpensive.

I could be wrong, but for a healthy raw food diet at this time of year are you not going to have to really on an awful lot of imported items?
In the summer I ear hardly anything, I don't feel I need to I have energy in bounds and feel healthy and warm all the time.
In the winter then I crave foods like porridge and warm thick soups.
Didn't different diets evolve due to people moving and adapting to the environment they found them selves in?

Unquestionably, it's easier to go raw in areas where fruit is abundant. Hence, the growing movement in the raw vegan community to move to tropical islands!

Although I think it's a wonderful option for those with the freedom to do that, it's not an option for my family.

It's natural to want warmer foods in winter. This derailed me in the past. But now, I have learned that there are all sorts of warm options, even on a raw vegan liveit! Lovely raw soups, pastas and breads can be warmed, though not hot, and still retain their digestive enzymes (and hence, their 'raw' status).

Fats are especially important during the winter, whereas fruits tend to be more appropriate for summer. Notice how nuts are harvested in the autumn! While very little fruit is available. Nuts store well and provide the 'warming' oils necessary.

From what I understand, it's not so much the temperature that makes a food 'warming' but the fat content. That's why nuts, seeds, and avocados are very important during the winter, while high-water fruits tend to be more 'cooling' and thus more appropriate for summer. I wouldn't recommend living on imported tropical fruits if you live in a cold climate.

I try to have a diet in tune with the local environment and time of year - we grow food all year round and forage.

Great! I'm getting into that too.

Diets including meat were the norm of people in colder areas due to sheep/goats grazing on land not favourable for crops ect…. High protein veg items aren’t so easily grown in colder areas.
Hill farming/fishing in these places have been how people evolved and were able to live there.

Very true. Animals were necessary at that time, undoubtedly. But that's no longer the case. We now have a much greater understanding of the needs of the human body, and we now have many more options available that don't involve cruelty to animals who unmistakably feel pain.

I agree with your view that it's best to eat locally and in season. That's why I love The Essene Gospel of Peace so much; Jesus said to eat what Mother Earth puts on her table.

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We have a term for fat vegetarians here... we call them "pudding vegetarians" LOL. In fact the fattest guy on German television claims he is a vegetarian.

So much for the "vegetarians are all emaciated" myth!

I know many people have a problem digesting raw food. Cooked food is easier to digest.

What many people think is difficulty digesting raw food, may actually be from lack of proper chewing. Raw food requires more chewing. The 'difficulty digesting' is easily remedied. Raw food has digestive enzymes, whereas cooking destroys those enzymes. But the food has to be chewed.

So it's not that cooked food is easier to digest. It just doesn't have as much food value to begin with, as the vitamins have been largely lost in the cooking process, so it just sort of slides on down the throat and thru the body.

Raw food, in contrast, requires a bit of work, but the payoff is a vibrant nutritional profile that is unlocked in the chewing process.

A way to cheat is to get a high powered blender (such as a VitaMix) and/or juicer, which are ways to get concentrated nutrients from raw foods.

Another reason some people think they can't digest raw foods is that they eat fruit after a heavy meal. Fruit digests much more easily and quickly than protein foods, so if they eat, say, an apple after eating a hamburger, the apple will just sit on top of the meat and ferment.

The meat takes a very long to get thru the digestive tract, since we lack the digestive tract carnivores have. End result is gas, bloating, etc. and the fruit gets blamed for it.

Eating fruit on an empty stomach solves that problem.