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This is so new to me it's almost not a "this" if you know what I mean. I do not eat a predominantly raw diet; I juice often and love it, mostly carrot-apple-beet or simple stuff like that, haven't been too adventurous. My family eats almost no exrternally processed food because of an allergy conscious diet and the desire to not put junk into our bodies. I have never entertained eating a raw diet, but I'm open to new things. I can see the benefits, but after some rather abrupt essential changes in the past few years with diet, I prefer to take optional changes at a more leisurley pace.
Where do I begin? I know there is more to life than romaine salad from reading here, but as basic as eating raw foods sounds, it appears that it can be a rather complex art. What is the best way to make real change? I'm not looking for the all raw vegan diet, but would like to see a fair number of raw mealsor desserts find their way onto the family favorites list. I like to cook and prepare foods and it seems like raw foods require just as much--if not more--preparation and planning, but with a host of new ingredients and tastes I'm kind of in the ocean with a canoe.
We had to go the elimination diet route to deal with my son's eczema. When he was nursing full time I went down to turkey, pears, rice and squash for a month and added in one vegetable, one fruit, one meat, one spice at a time, each time we would wait to see if there was a reaction and often had to repeat trials of foods. While this diet did put a rather abrupt end to the extra baby weight, and while I would do it all over again without question, I will not lie and say I thoroughly enjoyed it. What I will say is that our son is much better thanks to God's grace, and I and my family did benefit from the experience tremendously and are grateful to have had to face it.
I am lookng to raw foods as a new, fun arena for culinary creativity, health benefits are a bonus right now and am more than willing to accept advice on intigrating raw foods into our very cooked diet.
Ina
Comments
green smoothies are a great way to start into raw. just throw some fruit and greens into your blender and go to town. It helps to have a high speed blender but its not necessary. There are a lot of green smoothie recipes out there, but you can keep it simple too ( like two apples, couple handfuls spinach, ice, water-- done!) Don't get overwhelmed by all the gourmet out there- its really only for special occasions. raw should be quick and easy. I can usually have my dinner together before a pot of water would boil.
good luck!
An easy change is to switch to all raw snacks. Chopped veggies and fruit can be breakfast, part of your lunch, appetizers, or dessert. You can change it up and find dips for fruits and veggies, different types of fruit salads, different ways to arrange them, different smoothies to blend em in. Quick, easy, and there are a million variations. Salads don't have to be your standard romaine and ranch - investigate recipes and include an outstanding salad at every dinner (raw slaw, raw carrot salad, shredded beets, anything goes!). On the go, some dried fruit, raw nuts, and apples or oranges are great to take along. Raw is already a part of many cooked diets - people just call it a different name like "Fruit Platter" or "Veggie Tray" or "Side Salad".