Victoria Boutenko often receives emails from people who feel better on the raw food diet, but have a hard time staying raw. She believes that it is impossible to avoid eating cooked food for significant periods of time through will power alone.

Over the years, Victoria has been exploring the topic of how to stay off cooked foods. She has come to the conclusion that cooked food is highly addictive and observed that most people are unaware to what degree they cannot manage their eating habits. This information was first published in ‘12 Steps to Raw Food’.

Below is a simple test which  illustrates Victoria’s view.

Please answer the following three questions honestly, yes or no:

1. Have you ever overeaten?

2. Did you like how you felt after overeating?

3. Can you promise here and now to never overeat again?

Based on your answers you can conclude whether or not you are able to control your eating habits. The raw food diet has proven to have colossal values for physical health, however, many people cannot stay on raw food. They blame their lack of will power, yet if cooked food was not at all addictive, they would not even need to exercise their will power.

Victoria believes that recognizing the addictive potential of cooked food has helped her to create multiple coping techniques that enable anybody to be strong on the raw food diet in this “cooked” world.  She says that we live in a very stressful environment, and as a result of this, we often become unable to relax. When we feel stressed, we cannot feel joy and happiness. To numb our stress, we have created countless ways to escape. Food is the most common form of escape because it is readily available and affordable. Sometimes our lives get so stressful, that food becomes the highlight of each day. At this point, food gradually begins to push the most meaningful aspects of our life to the secondary place. Victoria is sure that the awareness of how cooked food can run our lives will prompt even more people to consider the raw food lifestyle.