Eighth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

The raw food ideology is based on an ideal of health, a social demand that of a humanity relieved of suffering and disease. Its ambition is to make the individuals become “more alive.” This commitment is therefore based on the conviction and the faith in the power of the living to establish a just order. The emergence of raw foodism, claiming to hold a “truth” hidden by other approaches, is based on a dynamic of disenchantment/reenchantment of the world. The approach envisages individual awareness as a vector of societal change integrating values relating to the body, the environment, education, spirituality or politics, joins a generalized tendency which considers that a global change must first come from the individual. This is because the purification of personal lifestyle is associated with the solution to social problems. This food practice reveals an initiative of self transformation. In France, this diet is becoming increasingly popular. This article aims to understand, with a sociological approach, from the individual stories of french raw foodists, how experimenting with a new way of eating makes possible other ways of living one’s environment and body. I will draw attention to the interviewees’ perception of their food choice and to the way they describe their commitment. The analysis of the interviews conducted during this thesis shows how common the vibrations are between the individual and the collective problems at the level of society.