New to raw food?

WHAT IS RAW FOOD?

  • It’s a lifestyle where you eat mostly “raw food” – that means food that hasnt been cooked above 42 degrees C.
  • You can pretty much consider yourself a raw foodie if you eat more than 85% raw food.
  • This includes: vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, dried fruits and natural sweeteners, such as raw honey.
  • Food can be heated under the sun or in a dehydrator up to 42 degrees C, this is done to make raw breads and crackers (as well as sauces and desserts) – so you can make delicious raw pizzas and burgers!
  • Often the food is organic and full of healthy goodness!

WHAT RAW FOOD ISN’T?

  • Boring salads (I hardly ever eat them)
  • Sushi (raw VEGANISM implies that you don’t eat any animal products, and yes that includes raw salmon sashimi!)
  • Hard to make (turning raw has made my life so much easier and cooking soooo much faster!!!)

WHY GO RAW?

  • If you fry a seed, it will die. If you plant a raw, living seed, it will sprout into something wonderful. Raw food is full of LIVING ENERGY, that it will then pass onto you!
  • Cooking sadly destroys much of the goodness in food (remember your biology lessons, that graph where enzymes die after 40 degrees? Well it applies to food too!) – raw food on the other hand is filled with vitamins and minerals that your body needs.
  • I would like to point out though, that I don’t necessarily think that going 100% raw is the best thing for everyone since we are all totally different. I’m mainly trying to get people to realise the benefits of incorporating at least 50% raw food into their diets, if you feel better with more, then great, but if you don’t, I wouldn’t want you to force it upon yourself just because it works for others.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF RAW FOOD?

❂ BEAUTY – your skin will look younger and tighter and your hair will have a naturally beautiful glow to it.

❂ GREAT STOOL – one of the first things you’ll notice after going raw (even after 1 day), is an improvement to your digestion. You’ll forget the words: constipation, gas and hemorrhoids. Vegetarians hardly get such things, let alone raw vegans!

❂ WEIGHT LOSS – you will start to naturally lose weight, it will be a healthy loss and will stabilise at the ideal weight for you. Death to “lose-10kg-in-a-week” diets!

❂ BETTER SLEEP – you will have more energy and will sleep better. I’ve noticed that I get up an hour earlier without an alarm and no longer have the usual morning tiredness.

❂ NO MORNING STARVATION – do you ever wake up absolutely starving and rush straight to the kitchen? I used to have that before I went raw, now I can easily hold off for a few hours in the morning before I get hungry.

❂ IMMUNITY – because you will be giving your body more of what it needs, all those lovely vitamins and minerals, it will respond by strengthening its immune system. This winter, everyone around me was sneezing and I wasn’t affected at all until I decided to experiment and eat pasta – immediately my nose was blocked. I don’t need any more proof that raw food was keeping me healthy. A lot of people also use raw food to get rid of some diseases like diabetes and candida once and for all!

❂ HIGHER VIBRATIONS – from a spiritual point of view, you will be clearing out your body and raising your vibrations. You may start to experience life a little differently, like become more irritated at things that no longer serve your highest good (e.g. smokers, newspapers). You may also notice a mood uplift, which you will spread around!

 

ARE THERE ANY NEGATIVE EFFECTS?

When you do something new with your body, it may react a little funny at first. You know how people say it needs to “get worse before it gets better”? You could experience diarrhoea in the first few days, especially if youre not used to taking in so much fibre from fruits and vegetables. You may experience gas and headaches, but this happens very rarely. I personally just sat in the loo for a good part of the first few weeks, but it was super after my body adjusted! If anything happens, just think of it as temporary, if you ate McDonalds everyday for the whole week I’m sure your body would react funny too!

WHAT IS RAW FOOD?

  • It’s a lifestyle where you eat mostly “raw food” – that means food that hasnt been cooked above 42 degrees C.
  • You can pretty much consider yourself a raw foodie if you eat more than 85% raw food.
  • This includes: vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, dried fruits and natural sweeteners, such as raw honey.
  • Food can be heated under the sun or in a dehydrator up to 42 degrees C, this is done to make raw breads and crackers (as well as sauces and desserts) – so you can make delicious raw pizzas and burgers!
  • Often the food is organic and full of healthy goodness!

WHAT RAW FOOD ISN’T?

  • Boring salads (I hardly ever eat them)
  • Sushi (raw VEGANISM implies that you don’t eat any animal products, and yes that includes raw salmon sashimi!)
  • Hard to make (turning raw has made my life so much easier and cooking soooo much faster!!!)

WHY GO RAW?

  • If you fry a seed, it will die. If you plant a raw, living seed, it will sprout into something wonderful. Raw food is full of LIVING ENERGY, that it will then pass onto you!
  • Cooking sadly destroys much of the goodness in food (remember your biology lessons, that graph where enzymes die after 40 degrees? Well it applies to food too!) – raw food on the other hand is filled with vitamins and minerals that your body needs.
  • I would like to point out though, that I don’t necessarily think that going 100% raw is the best thing for everyone since we are all totally different. I’m mainly trying to get people to realise the benefits of incorporating at least 50% raw food into their diets, if you feel better with more, then great, but if you don’t, I wouldn’t want you to force it upon yourself just because it works for others.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF RAW FOOD?

❂ BEAUTY – your skin will look younger and tighter and your hair will have a naturally beautiful glow to it.

❂ GREAT STOOL – one of the first things you’ll notice after going raw (even after 1 day), is an improvement to your digestion. You’ll forget the words: constipation, gas and hemorrhoids. Vegetarians hardly get such things, let alone raw vegans!

❂ WEIGHT LOSS – you will start to naturally lose weight, it will be a healthy loss and will stabilise at the ideal weight for you. Death to “lose-10kg-in-a-week” diets!

❂ BETTER SLEEP – you will have more energy and will sleep better. I’ve noticed that I get up an hour earlier without an alarm and no longer have the usual morning tiredness.

❂ NO MORNING STARVATION – do you ever wake up absolutely starving and rush straight to the kitchen? I used to have that before I went raw, now I can easily hold off for a few hours in the morning before I get hungry.

❂ IMMUNITY – because you will be giving your body more of what it needs, all those lovely vitamins and minerals, it will respond by strengthening its immune system. This winter, everyone around me was sneezing and I wasn’t affected at all until I decided to experiment and eat pasta – immediately my nose was blocked. I don’t need any more proof that raw food was keeping me healthy. A lot of people also use raw food to get rid of some diseases like diabetes and candida once and for all!

❂ HIGHER VIBRATIONS – from a spiritual point of view, you will be clearing out your body and raising your vibrations. You may start to experience life a little differently, like become more irritated at things that no longer serve your highest good (e.g. smokers, newspapers). You may also notice a mood uplift, which you will spread around!

 

ARE THERE ANY NEGATIVE EFFECTS?

When you do something new with your body, it may react a little funny at first. You know how people say it needs to “get worse before it gets better”? You could experience diarrhoea in the first few days, especially if youre not used to taking in so much fibre from fruits and vegetables. You may experience gas and headaches, but this happens very rarely. I personally just sat in the loo for a good part of the first few weeks, but it was super after my body adjusted! If anything happens, just think of it as temporary, if you ate McDonalds everyday for the whole week I’m sure your body would react funny too!

DOESN'T THAT SOUND GREAT

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Check out some very easy raw food recipes

Awesome, how do I begin this
healthy lifestyle?

The only thing you need to do, is decide that you are ready to change your life for the better and keep your heart open. Try not to get upset if you can’t go 100% raw right away, you had spent so many years “feeding” different habits, noone will look bad at you for having a lasagne once in a while!

Most importantly – LOVE your food! If you don’t like something, don’t force it down just because someone said its “good for you”. Your body is the one that knows best whats good for you and what isn’t, so I beg you to start listening to yourself! If you feel that its ok for you to eat cheese, then please go ahead, when the time is right, your body will let you know.

It’s easier to start if you have raw food restaurants in your city, that will give you an idea of the kind of foods you can make and will take the pressure of cooking. If you dont, try making simple things, or make your usual dishes, but add more raw elements to it. For example if you like making Vietnamese rolls with noodles, try skipping the noodles and just have some raw vegetables inside with a raw sauce, like pesto. Experiment with new flavours and ingredients.

You could try joining a vegetarian/raw community (I know there are a few on – that way you can make friends with similar interests and you can share recipes and ideas!

I DON’T COOK

isn’t there anything frozen I can shove in the microwave?

You could certainly freeze bananas and make incredible raw ice cream with the help of a blender!! But no, you should forget the word microwave, apart from being awfully bad for your health, they are not part of the raw foodie appliance list. If you CAN’T cook, I would recommend you at least try, what’s the worst thing that could happen? You may even enjoy it. You can start simple, buy some ready-made raw crackers, buy some pesto and put a sundried tomato on top – doesn’t sound hard, right? It really doesn’t have to be complicated. Eventually you will want to make your own pesto, and with time even your own crackers, but noone says you have to rush off to get a dehydrator right away 🙂

If you don’t LIKE to cook, you may just be surprised how much fun raw food can be. I have found raw food to be an amazing inspiration in the kitchen. Because its something new and exciting, it makes you want to experiment. Also, because its mostly fast and easy (yeeeah it really is!!) I feel like I don’t waste time cooking as much as before. And of course if you just really hate cooking…well there are always restaurants! Or a personal chef if you can afford it!

I DON’T COOK

isn’t there anything frozen I can shove in the microwave?

You could certainly freeze bananas and make incredible raw ice cream with the help of a blender!! But no, you should forget the word microwave, apart from being awfully bad for your health, they are not part of the raw foodie appliance list. If you CAN’T cook, I would recommend you at least try, what’s the worst thing that could happen? You may even enjoy it. You can start simple, buy some ready-made raw crackers, buy some pesto and put a sundried tomato on top – doesn’t sound hard, right? It really doesn’t have to be complicated. Eventually you will want to make your own pesto, and with time even your own crackers, but noone says you have to rush off to get a dehydrator right away 🙂

If you don’t LIKE to cook, you may just be surprised how much fun raw food can be. I have found raw food to be an amazing inspiration in the kitchen. Because its something new and exciting, it makes you want to experiment. Also, because its mostly fast and easy (yeeeah it really is!!) I feel like I don’t waste time cooking as much as before. And of course if you just really hate cooking…well there are always restaurants! Or a personal chef if you can afford it!