Originally published May 21 2008
Raw Parenting by Shazzie, Raw Foodist and Founder of Raw Creation Limited
by Kevin Gianni
(NaturalNews) This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's Raw Summit Teleseminar program which can be found at (http://www.rawsummitarchives.com) . In this excerpt, Shazzie, a raw foodist from the United Kingdom, shares with us information on raw parenting.
Raw Summit Excerpt with Shazzie, a raw chocolate revolutionary, author and entrepreneur and mother.
Kevin: Let's move into raw parenting. You were a raw foodist. What were some of your fears and some of your expectations in the beginning?
Shazzie: Well I don't have any fears. But I wasn't ready for the fact that I couldn't eat raw food. Because I had been raw for 4 years when I got pregnant and then suddenly I couldn't eat it. I couldn't eat anything apart from fruit. And I'd seen when I went over to Germany a lot of damaged teeth in the young children at this raw food conference.
Kevin: Okay.
Shazzie: And I thought, "I can't just have fruit. It's not going to be fair on the child." So I started eating cooked food again. And it was so bizarre and I put on loads of weight and because I'm hyperflexible, by the time I was about four or five months pregnant I couldn't actually walk very far because you get a hormone called relaxin. It makes all your ligaments really sort of stretched and soft. And it is to create space for the baby to grow in and come out of your pelvis. Because I'm hyperflexible it just made my hips kind of not work.
Kevin: Really.
Shazzie: It was really painful to walk.
Kevin: They were so loose.
Shazzie: Yeah, and I was writing "Naked Chocolate" at that time. And I remember I was like, "Oh, everything is so difficult," and I wasn't used to it because I've had four years of being really happy. You know I've had my whole life of being weird and disconnected and out of touch and depressed. And then I got four years of feeling amazing and doing all these really great things and then I just was like, "Oh my God, I can't get off my fatigue." It was like a "Wow what on earth has happened to me. I've turned normal again." I didn't expect that at all. So I spent a lot of time with Evie talking to her and saying, "It's going to be alright," My initial thought was I will give birth, unassisted, under a tree. And it turns out that she was breech, born first with her legs extended in exactly the same position as I was when I was born.
Kevin: Oh wow.
Shazzie: After a lot of soul searching and after no support from the midwife, I decided on the cesarean because the chances of me having a cesarean anyway after I'd attempted natural birth would be really high.
Kevin: Okay.
Shazzie: So it was so bizarre going from one end to give birth under a tree to having a cesarean, but I made the best of it. I'd also been on a Hypno-birthing course so I learned how to do completely natural things like getting into a no pain state and going through it in a kind of hypnotic way. So it was a waste. We had this birthing music so I'd play it everyday and that was on while Evie was being born. And I have no screen and I was naked and they gave me a straight away and all this stuff was against their protocol. But they did it and they were absolutely great, you know. I made a birth plan and they stuck to it, wonderful. So throughout the really unnatural birth I still had that natural edge to it which I was really happy about. As soon as she was born and, oh God, it was just amazing because she was blue and she just opened one eye and squeaked at me. And then I breastfed her a few minutes later and they didn't wash her, you know. She wasn't washed for five days. So her umbilical cord fell off. And it was just so beautiful. The whole experience of motherhood was so, so beautiful. And she didn't eat any food until she was seven months.
Kevin: Okay.
Shazzie: She only started eating food at that point really because that was when it came to a head with her dad and we decided to go our separate ways and the stress made my milk temporarily dry up.
Kevin: Wow.
Shazzie: So I had to give her food which I wasn't bothered about because I thought you know, it's after the six months period at that time. So I started mixing breast milk with papaya. She had a little bit of Spirulina and a little bit of algae mixed up with things and mango and breast milk. And then we started living on our own and it was fantastic. And all these new flavors came in and she loved it. I used to do little tiny (just think of the vitamins that can shatter the cell walls of vegetables. So it is like cooking. So you're still releasing all the nutrients in the food) casseroles and stuff like that and Vita-Mix, but really mild like carrots and tomatoes, avocado, and stuff like that. And gradually she really got into the food and she got bigger and stronger and, you know she was on the 50 percentile when she was born and at some point she went up to 96. So you know you normally stay the same, but she went right up and, you know she's pretty tall for her age and we only had one real problem when we found out she was anemic.
Kevin: Okay.
Shazzie: And I gave her the ionic iron because it goes straight in and it doesn't need the protein to assimilate it. So I just give her that. I put it in her coconut juice with her bone formula that I give her as well. Basically there are two supplements that I really sort of stipulate she has all the time. The bone formula has got some minerals and vitamin D2 in it. And I do think that if children are not getting a lot of sunshine then they really need that especially for bone growth for the early years. And the other supplement I got excited about really is DHA and she gets that in the breast milk.
Kevin: Okay.
Shazzie: And I take a lot of that because I was prone to depression and I had postnatal depression. And then I really, really have to take a lot of that for myself and for Evie because it is essential for her brain growth, but it's also essential for my sanity. So I take six of those a day, so it's a lot.
Kevin: Wow. And you were saying before that you went to a raw food conference and a lot of kids had bad teeth.
Shazzie: Yeah.
Kevin: What ages were these kids and what do you think was going on?
Shazzie: They ranged from 2 to like 7, right?
Kevin: Okay.
Shazzie: You know that was the milk teeth really. And what I actually think is that they were on demineralized diets.
Kevin: Okay.
Shazzie: And, you know really people that are not into superfoods and are not into eating a lot of wild greens can end up like that and I think the other thing that's really essential for that is the vitamin D. You know, it's essential for bone formulation and really, teeth are just bones that are exposed.
Kevin: Yeah.
Shazzie: And I just think, "God if their teeth are like that imagine their bones. Imagine," you know and this is why I'm really vigilant with Evie about vitamin D. It's in really small amounts in vegetable food and you need to supplement it either by the sun or by vitamin supplementation. And I think it's not good to cover this information up. I think we need to get it out there.
Kevin: Yeah.
Shazzie: And this is why I'm really happy. Evie is nearly 3 and her teeth are absolutely perfect. Nothing wrong with them and she is strong and she is tall for her age. So it works. You know and that little tiny bit of supplementation.
Kevin: Alright. Where did you find most of the information about raising a child this way?
Shazzie: Well there isn't a law, you know and this is why I'm writing the kitchen books that I'm writing at the moment because there is nothing that has everything in it. And you know the thing is the raw vegan diet can be extremely healthy if you take certain measures. And the measures are
really small. They are not big deals at all. Most of the foods that you would feed a raw vegan child will create super health in a child.
Kevin: Yes.
Shazzie: And so I don't want to raise or exaggerate these things, but I do want to actually give them a place and I didn't find anything from anyone and this is why I'm compiling this cooking kit but the internet is an absolute God send.
Kevin: Yes.
Shazzie: I found out about raw food on the internet. I mean it's a really good resource for a lot of things and finding out about nutrition is difficult sometimes because there's a lot of conflicting advice but I know what's good for me and it's a very high-green diet, super foods, and supplementation.
Kevin: Right.
Shazzie: And that's what works. And it's great because it doesn't have to be really expensive because the high-green diet can be free. You can grow it for pennies or buy it if you want but that kind of counteracts the super foods and the supplements.
Kevin: Right. And we're still far removed from what we used to feed our children a long time ago. I mean, it seems that it's a challenge to get either back to that if we want to. I mean, the infant mortality rate was probably higher, but you know, it's hard to get that back and get that information that we really need.
Shazzie: Well I think, even what we fed them a long time ago wasn't necessarily right.
Kevin: Interesting.
Shazzie: You know for thousands of years, we've had an agricultural based culture.
Kevin: Yes.
Shazzie : And so for all that time, it has been completely bonkers and because that's what's created this weird patriarchal left brainist society that we're living in and getting out of that agricultural society where grain is the mainstay of our food, will create the change that is needed and of course the goddess rising thing that we're feeling, you know. Where women are actually coming into power and the people's right brains are having time to shine and this is what we find with raw foods is that �- the grains we eat are ancient like quinoa and amaranth and stuff like that and they don't have all that left brain energy in it. And so suddenly, this is what the men understand while raw food men understand the goddess mentality so well and why a lot of people understand that diet, yes, understand it because they're there too.
To read the rest of this transcript as well as access 14 different raw food experts just like Shazzie, please visit (http://www.RawSummitArchives.com)
About the author
Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker. He has helped thousands of people in over 85 countries learn how to take control of their health--and keep it. To view his popular internet TV Show "The Renegade Health Show" (and get a free gift!) with commentary on natural health issues, vegan and raw food diets, holistic nutrition and more click here.
His book, "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution," is a step-by-step guide to optimum health for the time and energy-strapped. To find out more about abundance, optimum health and self motivation click here... or you're interested in the vegan and raw food diet and cutting edge holistic nutrition click here. For access to free interviews, downloads and a complete bodyweight exercise archive visit www.LiveAwesome.com.
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