Live and Raw Just Got Easier!

Oh Yeah! I unpacked my Excalibur 5 tray dehydrator last evening and set it up on the counter, and then I spent the rest of the evening reading about what kinds of foods etc.

When I ordered it I was mostly thinking raw crackers and cookies,  to enhance my meals so I don't feel like I am eating celery, carrots and apples all the time. I realized last evening though that this is going to be a fantastic way to save all the abundant fresh produce to eat year round.

Live and Raw Just Got Easier!

Oh Yeah! I unpacked my Excalibur 5 tray dehydrator last evening and set it up on the counter, and then I spent the rest of the evening reading about what kinds of foods etc.

When I ordered it I was mostly thinking raw crackers and cookies,  to enhance my meals so I don't feel like I am eating celery, carrots and apples all the time. I realized last evening though that this is going to be a fantastic way to save all the abundant fresh produce to eat year round.

My family is eating so much more raw then they used to. It is interesting, because I have never considered myself the driving force behind what my family eats. Even though I am home all day, I never spent much time in the kitchen, and everyone pretty much forages :-) for themselves. Of course when the kids were little it was different.

What I've noticed though, is that because I am taking time every day to plan a healthy menu, my family is following my lead. The other night I made a broccoli and cauliflour salad. Justin suggested maybe I could snap some green beans that he could eat raw since he isn't fond of Broccoli. So I did, and his beans were sitting necx to the salad.  When it came time to sit down, I noticed his plate was mounded with broccoli salad, and no beans! I said, "Hey, I thought you didn't like broccoli". He said, "I don't BUT this looks really good!". Oh man, I laughed!

So anyway back to the dehydrator. Right now I have 4 trays of tomatoes and 1 tray of garlic cloves dehydrating. It was easy…. I simply washed and sliced the tomatoes, and put them on the trays…the dehydrator is a LOT bigger than it looks in the picture too, and holds lots of food! I am going to dehydrate tomatoes, garlic, onions, peppers, carrots, zucchini, hot peppers, … you name it … everything I can get my hands on from the farmer's market. I bought a huge grocery cart full of fresh veggies and tomatoes today and all for $30. In the winter at the grocery, that same amount of produce will cost 4 times that amount. (Don't forget I live in Canada!)

I am going to powder some of it and put it in jars to use for cooking, and some I am going to store in chunks in mason jars to use in soups and stews for the family who like their hot meals in the winter! (I probably will too!)

I am also going to do the crackers, and maybe try some raw cookies too. It is SO easy. I will probably have the thing running daily for the first month while I prepare for winter. This is SO much easier than canning or pickling, and MUCH more nutritious as I am saving all the nutrients and enzymes. Very little is lost in the dehydrating process.

Read this article about Dehydrating foods, from Excalibur:

Raw Food Dehydration health benefits

Many people are now choosing to follow a raw food diet for the extreme health benefits of eating only raw, unprocessed foods. One way to follow this type of diet is to dehydrate raw foods, so that they are conveniently available. Dried vegetables and fruits provide convenient and delicious additions to all types of meals.

Raw foods, also known as living foods, are uncooked, free from animal products, organic, easy to digest and highly nutritious. Anyone following this lifestyle consumes a large portion of uncooked, unprocessed and often organic foods in their diet.

Some raw food dehydration requires refreshing the dried food.  Refreshing is accomplished by soaking or cooking the dried food in water until the desired volume is restored.  Depending on the food being refreshed, you would adjust the amount of water and the length of time.

Here are some general guidelines for refreshing various dried foods:

• Root, stem and seed vegetables are soaked for 30 to 90 minutes in enough cold water to keep them immersed.
• Spinach, kale, cabbage, chard or tomatoes are refreshed by covering with warm water.
• Dried fruits are soaked in warm water.  Of course, dried fruits can be eaten as is, and do not need to be refreshed to enjoy.

Another reason raw food dehydration is so popular is that dehydrating does not subject the foods to high temperatures associated with traditional canning.  This has an added nutritional benefit because when a raw food is heated to an internal temperature of over 120F, the majority of its nutritional value is lost, particularly the enzymes.  In addition, the canning process also leaks out water-soluble minerals and vitamins, thus depleting the nutritional value even further.

Another added bonus of raw food dehydration is the ability to make a beverage like a juice or smoothie using the powdered fruits and vegetables from the dehydration process.  This allows you to boost the nutritional value and content of your raw food beverage even further!

Visit Excalibur Dehydrator online store to learn more about the health benefits, ease and convenience or raw food dehydration.

So anyway… Angela gave me an idea for the post and that is to give you a glimpse of my preparation. You see a huge part of my preparation takes place only a couple of times a week, and this is a huge time saver over the week. I also REALLY do not like to be caught unprepared with no ready to grab food. Eating mostly vegan, mostly raw, I am hungrier more often than if I were eating foods with denser calories.

So here is what I did this morning. First lets start with the vegetables and fruits I am going to prepare, that I get all out… (I have a very large kitchen with lots of counter space.

What I did this morning.

1. Made a huge veggie salad,
2. put veggies and fruits "ready to eat" in containers for snacking
3. made a fresh  smoothie.

Time in Kitchen 1 hour, 10 minutes. What you see above is an accurate (close to) view of the fruits and vegetable amounts I processed.

2 pounds carrots – 3 large, peeled chunked and set aside for juice,  2 large, sliced thinly in bowl for salad,, and the rest cut in 'sticks' in container for snacking.

1 head of celery – 2 stalks sliced in bowl with salad, The rest cut in 'sticks' in container for snacking.

Peppers chunked and tossed in the salad,

Beets – washed, tops and thin root removed, 3 set aside for juice, the rest in container for later.

onion – 1/2 chopped in the salad,. The rest saved for something else.

Beans (Yellow and Green) 1/2 of each chopped for salad,, the rest topped, snapped and in container in fridge for snacking.

Broccoli – 1 head…. 1/2 of the florets in salad, 1/2 the florets in fridge for snacking and the stalk set aside for juice.

Cucumber half – chopped for salad

1 cup frozen mixed berries in the blender for my smoothie

Apple set aside for juice

Grapes washed and put in serving sized containers (6) for snacking

Flax seed oil in blender for smoothie.

Once the veggies were prepared and salad put away, and snacking sticks strips etc put away, I took my carrots, broccoli stalk, beets, and apple that I had set aside and juiced them. Then I put the juice in the blender with the berries and the flax seed oil and made a YUMMY mid morning smoothie for my snack!

So now I am ready for the day. this amount of produce will do me 2 days in summer because I am not eating much else. It also encourages my daughter to eat better (she grabs a container of grapes and some carrots for school snack) and my son who LOVES raw fresh green and yellow beans. In the winter I am eating other things as well because the produce is not as nice or as abundant as it is from local farms right now!

:-)

Smoothie enough for two

If you want to share!

I'm one of those who doesn't care for greens on their own. it's an acquired taste for sure. I still need to make sure I am getting my greens every day though, so I try some creative ways to disguise the taste. This was a SMASH hit. My husband drank it. I just told him it was a smoothie without telling him there were green things in it, and he loved it! It makes lots!

Juicy Smoothie for two

Blender and Juicer

1 cup frozen mixed berries – in the blender

Juice

2 large carrots

1 stalk celery

2 cups loosely packed spinach leaves

1/2 head of brocolli

1 red delicious apple

1/2 cup green grapes

(TIP - juice spinach leaves sandwiched between pieces of hard fruits or vegetables.)

Pour juice over berries in the blender, add 1 tablespoon flax seed oil and a teaspoon of raw organic honey.

Blend until smooth.

YUMMY!

If you are new to juicing, it is VERY easy to get fresh yummy juice.

Wash fruit  well (I like mine from the refrigerator so my juice won't be too warm). I recommend that for fruits and vegetables that you do not have to peel (apples, grapes, pears) buy organic. Juicing concentrates everything including whatever washing doesn't get off.

Peel the fruits and/or vegetables you would normally peel (oranges, pineapple etc)

Chunk them into large pieces and feed them into the chute. Use the plunger provided to push the fruit into the juicer. Juice comes out one end into a cup of some kind and pulp comes out the other and is caught in some kind of receptacle.

Drink the juice right away so you get the full advantage of enzymes, vitamins and minerals all of which begin to degrade (oxidize) as soon as they are exposed to air.

Clean up will vary depending on the machine and needs to be done as soon as you've finished your juice. Small sticky fruit bits will stick like glue if left over a few hours without soaking.  I have a rule… don't buy a juicer that takes more than 5 minutes to clean!

So let's get to some of the combinations that are great for beginners. (If you've never had 'greens' then add them slowly. Most people find the taste needs to be acquired.

BetaCarotene Drink

3 LARGE carrots

1 Granny Smith Apple

2 Large stalks of celery (With or without celery this is delicious!)

Beet Beat

1 medium beet root

2 pears

a thumbnail size ginger root

hand squeeze 1/2 lime

Cool as a Cucumber

1 medium cucumber

1 red delicious apple

1 medium carrot

"Ginger Ale"

A dozen Green Grapes

1 Granny Smith Apple

thumbnail  of ginger root (less if you find the taste too strong)

squeeze 1/2 lime and 1/2 lemon

sparkling water

 Summer Punch

dozen strawberries

1 Orange

Sparkling Water

Apple Greens

2 Granny Smith Apple

Handful fresh Spinach Leaves

squeeze 1/2 lime

Stress Breaker

2 Pears

2 Apples

1 Celery

1 Kiwi

Vegetable Cleanse Drink

3 celery stalks

Large Handful fresh Spinach

3 Large Carrots

There…..That should get you started ! I try to do at least 16 ounces of freshly juiced drinks every day. Some days I am totally on the fly though. I am sure you know what days I mean… :-) when I absolutely can NOT get my fresh juice made I can still get all of the goodness on fresh.

I have found a WHOLE FOOD RAW (dehydrated at less than 100 degrees) mix of picked fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. This juice has been tested at every stage for quality. I am convinced that it is a VERY good alternative to fresh made juice. In the winter (at least here in Canada) it likely has more freshness and enzymes than the produce we can get at the grocery.

It's called URI International. They have a wonderful line of products including some toxin free cleaners and an organic coconut oil (more on that later) but the two products that caught my raw juicers eye were The FEAST and Beyond Berries.

If you click on the image below you will be able to see the introductory pack you can get of this product. The prices are out of this world too! A month supply of the FEAST (2 servings a day) is under $50 which of course is what I spend in a week on fresh produce for my juicing. At any rate… it's great to have a few cannisters on hand.

Click the image below to view the FEAST sample pack

Click the image below if you want to view the rest of the whole food product line.

Juicing is not just for fruit!

Keep in mind that I am a 45 year old 'work from home' mom, with grown teens. I live on Canada's east coast… we are not exactly overflowing with diversity of any kind here. I don't even KNOW a vegetarian! (no I am not kidding!) There are no juice bars… oh there may be one opened up over there at the Goodlife Fitness Center. Seems to me that the last time I was there they had some such, and there could very well be the odd juice type franchise popping up here or there, but our entire province only has 900,000 or so people, so there really isn't a huge market out of the very small percentage of people who might be into all this 'fringe' health stuff.

Anyway… I digress. I started this journey (have been led?) a while ago. Juicing, just vegetarianism, veganism, and raw foodism, has me intrigued. So I dug around and read websites, and blogs, articles and books. I am a 'sometimes' reader of Mike Adams over at NaturalNews.com (it used to be News Target) and he likes the whole juicing thing. At any rate, I've discovered that when it comes to juicing, just like anything else, there's a whole spectrum of people. On one end… where I used to be, there's the person who buys "Florida Sunshine" in a carton and drinks a small glass every day with breakfast. On the other end of the spectrum there are the "Juice Feast" proponents who do 92 days at a time drinking ONLY 100% fresh fruit and vegetable juice, pressed through their kitchen counter top juicer and consumed immediately. Up to 4 gallons a day of fresh pressed juices with no solid foods what so ever for 92 full days.

Apparently the health benefits of the "Juice Feast" are huge, although I may never be able to give you a first hand account. Admittedly, my blog articles are aimed at the "in between" crowd which is where I seem to be planted at the moment. I've been fond of saying that this journey of mine is not a religion. It's simply a day by day choice. while many people might find that non-committal (and they would be right) it suits my lifestyle, and is still a radical shift from how I survived up until a couple of weeks ago.

SO… back to juicing…. oh yeah … for BEGINNERS.

There are so very many reasons why juicing fresh fruits and vegetables is really good for you. I am going to list just a few of them for you.

1. Enzymes: "Until recently, the scientific community believed that the digestive enzymes in our body are constant and last forever. Researchers now know that we lose digestive enzymes through sweat, body waste and the natural ageing process of the organs that produce our digestive enzymes.
   Our current fast-paced society with its preoccupation with convenience has resulted in more chemical pollution, overly processed foods and microwave cooking, all of which create a lot of free-radical damage in our body, also known as a process of accelerated ageing. This process of free-radicals lowers the body's natural ability to produce enzymes and meet its demands to function well."

   1. Digestive Enzymes, secreted by the salivary glands, stomach, pancreas, and the small intestine help break down food into simple components.

   2. Food Enzymes exist naturally in raw food. If the food is cooked above 47 degrees Celsius, the high temperature involved in the cooking process destroys the enzymes. Digestive enzymes and food enzymes serve the same function; they digest the food so it can be absorbed into the blood stream. The difference between the two is that food enzymes are derived from fresh, raw, uncooked foods such as fruits, vegetables, eggs, raw unpasteurised dairy, meat and fish (sashimi), whilst digestive enzymes are made inside our body.

   3. Metabolic Enzymes are produced in the cells and are found throughout the body in the organs, in the bones, the blood, and inside the cells themselves. Metabolic enzymes help run the heart, brain, lungs, and kidneys. Hundreds of metabolic enzymes are necessary for the working of our body.
   ref: The Power of Enzymes

2. Juicing is a way to get vitamins and minerals in the most absorbable form to the body.
3. Juicing is a way to get far MORE in nutrients than you would if you were eating.
4. What we're finding today is not only that raw foods are good medicine, but in fact raw foods are the BEST medicine for virtually all the big diseases now devastating Western civilization. Juicing super concentrates the beneficial compounds in raw fruits and vegetables.
5. Heat (cooking) and irradiation destroys the beneficial ingredients in foods.
6. Mike Adams (NaturalNews.com) says " Cancer simply melts away when bathed in these vegetable juices."

And a final note from Mike Adams

The bottom line to all this, folks, is that juicing vegetables is the secret to reversing disease now and preventing disease for a lifetime. But it has to be fresh, raw, living juice.

Remember, pasteurized vegetable juices purchased in bottles at the store are worthless! That includes all the Naked Juice, V8, Odwalla and other brands that claim to be good for you. While they're not bad for you, they're also DEAD JUICE. That means they have virtually none of the nutritional healing benefits of fresh, living juice. Don't be fooled by healthy-sounding bottled juice products. If it's in a bottle, it's dead. And dead juice doesn't support life.

There is only one way to get fresh, unprocessed, living juice: Make your own juice! This is the simple secret to staying healthy, vibrant and mentally sharp for the rest of your long, enjoyable life: Juice your way to health! (And then supplement with superfoods, herbs, and other targeted nutritional needs.)

Juicing is the future of medicine. It cures cancer. It reverses heart disease. It stabilizes cholesterol and blood pressure. It ends kidney stones and gall stones. It reverses depression and psychosis. It builds strong bones and strong muscles. It absolutely reverses diabetes in a matter of days, and it obliterates obesity in a matter of weeks. And in doing all that, it makes virtually all pharmaceuticals obsolete.

Juicing and raw foods go hand in hand. They are the answers to disease and sickness. No wonder Big Pharma and the FDA don't want you to find out about the true healing power of plant-based nutrition, huh?

So what do you need if you wanted to start juicing? Well  to start with you might want to get a juicer.

 The other thing you want is a good variety of fruits and vegetables for juicing. If you've never had fresh green juice before I will recommend you start with romaine lettuce, celery, cucumber, spinach and maybe some alfalfa or broccoli sprouts. These are milder. I found (and still do) that green juice is an acquired taste. I will juice a couple of apples with mine or some carrots (or both) most days.

Other vegetables that are great for juicing are beets, red cabbage (one of my faves), all kinds of lettuce, zucchini, tomato, yellow and green beans… just about any vegetable you can imagine. I do not like the starchy veggies juiced (potatoes, yams, squashes) but you can try and see what strikes you.

For fruit, lots of whatever is in season.  Go organic whenever possible but if you find it is too expensive, save the organic for those fruits and vegetables that are hard to wash (broccoli, cauliflour, lettuce etc) or that you are not going to peel.

Drink the juice right out of the juicer, or add it to a smoothie, but DO drink it right away, as the digestive enzymes and oxidation will begin breaking down the nutrients. If you must make it and save for later, then put it in mason jars (GLASS) and refrigerate no more than 24 hours!

Go for ALL the colors Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and purple, and orange and mix them up. Don't be afraid to experiment.

Please let me know all about YOUR first experience with juicing! Bottoms Up!!

Getting Healthy Can Keep You Busy!

WOW I went the entire day before I got to my update post! I went to the farmer’s market again and just inhaled! LOL I just filled my fridge yesterday so I really didn’t need anymore fresh produce!

I also got a new page put up on my blog for people with wellness related blogs to add their site. See up in the menu there where it says "Add Your Blog"? It’s real easy… all you have to do is add your link and then grab one of the banners or the text link to put on your site. We’ll have our own little network of wellness sites all joined together in this community. FUN!

So how did I do yesterday?? OOOO I am so glad you asked! I made the most beautiful salad I’ve ever seen and it was delicious. It gave me the idea that when I make up something that I really like I should write it down here, so that led me to think that I need a recipe section as well. So that is what I am going to do. … And if YOU have a vegetarian, vegan, raw or just plain ole healthy recipe you want to share you can put it in the comments section.

So I kind of got lost searching for yoga info and didn’t really get to actually doing anything in the way of exercises yesterday, so today it was the first thing I did when I got my carcass out of bed! 40 minutes on the bike and then 20 minutes of long slow stretching while I lost myself in thought. It was delightful!

And Boy oh Boy you should see the bounty I came home with yesterday. Zucchini, cucumber, green onion, garlic, yam, carrots, yellow and green beans, peas in the pod, romaine, mushrooms, tomatoes, grape tomatoes, new potatoes, grapes, strawberries, mango, black plums, nectarines, lemons, limes, avocado, apples, tangerines, cilantro, parsley, basil, oregano, and thyme, and a bunch of whole grains…. Oh MY!!

Oh and I have to tell you my amusing "breakfast" story! If you’ve been reading along, you know that I’ve been quite fascinated with the whole "eat everything raw" idea. So when I was searching the other day I came across a site that talked about raw grains for breakfast, so I thought, "Self, that is something you should try!" I like to have something substantial in my stomach for breakfats, and apples and oranges don’t seem to be doing it. SO this guy said to get a variety of raw whole grains and seeds, (he listed about 14 different ones) and then grind them in a coffee grinder…. well when I was at the grocery store, in the organic section, I found some "Bob’s Red Mill" 10 grain hot cereal. It had most of the grains the website talked about, and had the added benefit of being already ground, and mixed.

So take 1/3 to 1/2 (I took 1/3) cup of grain mix, add about the same amount of water and soak overnight. I decided that I would add raisins to soak with it, so I added the raisins and water and popped it in the fridge. The next morning I could hardly WAIT to have breakfast! YAY no apples for me! So I grabbed my cereal, popped off the lid, gave it a stir, and put a big spoonful into my mouth.

Well the first think that happened was that the moisture that was in the cereal immediately soaked into my mucous membranes. What was left in my mouth felt like sand. I couldn’t chew, swallow… I could barely move it around off my cheeks and the roof of my mouth! So I immediately got out a pot and spooned the rest in with a bit more water and turned on the burner! That kind of grain is NOT meant to be eaten raw and don’t let anyone trick you into thinking it is!

Anyway, I think I am starting to experience a bit of detox…. today (and yesterday afternoon) my lower abdomen is acting up a bit and churning. I’m also less energetic today. HOWEVER I am STILL a hundred times better than I have been for the last few years so I can handle it!

So now I am going to go write up that salad recipe before I forget, and YES I am going to get to the article on juicing! (*nag nag* )

Could the Vegetarian Lifestyle be for me?

I find myself increasingly drawn to vegetarianism. I am very fascinated with the whole idea of eating nothing but nourishing, nutrition packed fruits and vegetables interspersed with whole grains. Today I had absolutely nothing to eat EXCEPT raw fruits and vegetables, a few pieces of my yummy healthy chocolate, and a piece of cheddar cheese this evening, only because I was a little hungry, and had a craving for salt.

It’s not that I have anything against meat eaters, or meat for myself. I eat meat, but I am enjoying it less and less, only because I am immersing myself in vegan and vegetarian research. I mean… LOOK at that picture over there. I feel healthier just LOOKING at a picture of food like that. First of all, it is visually appealing, second of all, a bounty like that smeels really great, and you know smell is the FIRST taste you get of your food. I see mostly fruits in that picture, but vegetables have the same visual and olfactory appeal.

I found myself ALL DAY researching vegetarianism, and raw foodism. I signed up for a bunch of newsletters and the more I read the more excited I got. It seems kind of a silly thing to be excited about. But why not… whenever you make a drastic lifestyle change like I have been making, you pretty much think about it all the time. At least that’s been my experience. So if I need to be obsessed about anything, and I need to lose weight, it seems that fruits and vegetables are a good thing to be excited about!

So what about the vegetarian lifestyle. I won’t call myself a vegetarian, because to me that denotes a certain attitude. Yes that’s it… vegetarianism seems like an attitude. So I’m not a vegetarian. I think I am just going to choose fresh fruits and vegetables whenever possible. That feels right to me for now.

if I am presented with a chunk of cow or pig (hehe) well I may or may not eat it. Vegetarianism (for health) doesn’t need to be a religion. It will be a meal by meal choice. I do think that just for the first 30 days or so (maybe 6 weeks? to form a habit) I will try to be strict with myself, and make a conscious decision with every bite to stay with the vegetarian choices. I think it needs to be that way for the first while because habit always wants to pull us back in, and refined food withdrawal is likely.

So first I have some whole food, raw organic vegan powdered drinks and protein shakes on the way. (well I don’t know if the shakes are raw or not but I do know the drinks are. I am going to talk about those a bit later as well, because I have already had some samples and they are TRULY amazing and very yummy! But I think I will save that discussion for my next post on ‘juicing’. You know, vegetarianism is so easy, and SO appealing right now, being that it is summer time in Canada, and the bounty of fresh is plentiful, but what will it be like in November through to June? I guess I will wait and see. It’s not like we can’t get produce here. it’s just that it isn’t as fresh, and it is very expensive. With the cost of gas going through the ceiling, and the flooding all through the farmer’s fields in Canada, and mid-west USA, I dread the food costs this winter.

Oh well…. aren’t you laughing at me worrying about that already?? I just realized what I am doing… did you recognize it? I just gave myself an escape hatch in case the whole vegetarian thing doesn’t work out for me. I’ve created a perfect scape-goat in case of failure! That is so typical and GOOD FOR ME for recognizing it! You know, here is going to be the best thing ever about writing down my thoughts every day…. I will be able to recognize bahaviours that are designed to take me and hopefully stop them before they manifest a s a reality!

So back to vegetarianism…. it will be important to make sure I am getting all of the nutrients I need. I have see it said that B12 may need to be supplemented. B12 is mostly in organ meats, although wild rainbow trout and salmon have decent levels of B12, and I do love fish!

I have a number of supplements I take that I will talk about in another post as well, but one thing I know and that is that protein is NOT an issue like some people believe. Plants in variety will give us all of the amino acid complexes that we need to live.  At any rate I do have my back up protein shakes on the way, and I will probably have those frequently in smoothies and alone as part of a meal, so I am unconcerned about that.

So overall I think I have convinced myself that fresh organic fruits and veggies, leafy greens and sprouts are going to be a popular way to eat. I’m kind of excited about it!

I would love to know what you all think!

Ok so I’ve had almost a week to get used to daily journalling ONLINE about my darkest secret. Do you know how easy it is to be who ever you want to be from behind the protection of your office computer? I suspect many of you have experienced the power of cyber anonymity and it’s intoxicating feeling of being judged by words alone. No one to look at you and form a first impression of you based on your hair, or your lipstick (or lack there-of) or your hip size. It’s a great feeling that allows you to be very unselfconscious! There is something about openly documenting this journey that has left me feeling exposed. (So I hope you appreciate the effort! ;-))

 Yesterday was NOT a good day! We ended up NOT boating because the morning clouds and fog never lifted, so I hung around the house all day (feeling sorry for myself! hehe) I did exercise … I am up to 30 minutes on the bike, and I was in so deep to the book I was reading that I kept pedaling until I finished the chapter, so ended up 45 minutes. Then I did some resistance exercises. It really isn’t enough though. As I mentioned earlier, my goal is 3 planned exercise periods  every day because I sit on my office chair for about 12 hours every day.

Then I ate chips :-( A LOT of chips! I ate salt and vinegar chips until my tongue was SO sore! ARGGGGGGGHHH WHY do we do that to ourselves?? Ah well… that was yesterday! No biggie and I am not going to sweat it. (Or maybe I AM going to sweat it!)

Today I woke up feeling swollen, and of course I am swollen after all that salt so I will drink tons of water today, I’ll have a couple of mugs of detox tea, which I really enjoy anyway, and do my workout, and all will be as it should be. I also joined a weight loss forum yesterday to find some support on my journey. It is nice to know that there are other people out there rooting for you.

Oh and I ‘stumbled upon" a DELIGHTFUL blogger on my surf this morning. I came across THIS POST and found myself loving this fun gal. (I need to take notes on how to be more interesting!) Anyway, enjoy her blog while I head off to the bike. I’ll be back later…. I found a REALLY awesome way to get my raw fruits, veggies, sprouts etc in juice form without juicing! YUM…

Pop back later for the dish!

Many Blessings,

Diva

Why Raw is Better Than Cooked.

(Part 1)

I’ve spent the last couple of months reading everything I can get my hands on about nutrition. As a nurse I have a pretty good background in understanding how the body works, and what we need. Most nutritionists are still following ‘Canada’s food Guide’ which closely resembles the recommended eating plan supported by the American government. (Do they call it a food pyramid?)

Well I don’t think there is a nutritional purist on the planet that would begin to accept what the government recommends that we eat for health!

Let me explain

Or better yet, allow a medical doctor with a passion for nutritional awareness explain.

On the blog Weighty Matters, in the post entitled Canada’s Food Guide to Unhealthy Eating Dr Freedhoff says

I believe that Canadians deserve a Food Guide that reflects medicine’s best understanding of the effect of diet on chronic disease prevention.

I also believe that Canadians deserve a Food Guide that will not make them gain weight if they follow it.

Here’s the guide.

OK so first off I don’t want to get into a huge analysis of the Food Guide. Suffice to say that Dairy is more and more being shown to NOT be a healthy choice, no one really needs 2-3 servings of meat a day, and the recommendation of 5-12 servings of grains a day is shocking. You could eat white rice, canned peaches in syrup, processed cheese and peanut butter every day and be with in the parameters laid out in Canada’s food guide! Can you think of ANYONE who would need 12 cups of white rice a day?? (When the bovine industry starts promoting the food guide with ads like The Canadian Government says "Put Pork on your Fork", sensible people KNOW we’ve got an ISSUE!

OK so really…. this is supposed to be about raw. The diet being recommended by what I consider REAL nutritionists… people who study nutrition and apply it to their own bodies daily… these people recommend a diet of AT LEAST 80% fresh, locally grown, raw, organic fruits and vegetables.

Real extremists (The Raw Foodist Community) will not EVER eat ANYTHING cooked! Nothing heated at a temperature over 110 degrees. There’s are sone  very specific reasons for that.

Let’s go to famous Raw Foodie Alissa Cohen for the answer to

What is Raw & Living Food?

Raw and Living foods are uncooked, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sprouted grains. These raw foods can be eaten whole or combined to make the healthiest, most delicious meals.

Sound boring? NO Way!!! Imagine eating burgers, pizza, pasta, cookies, cakes and pies everyday. Imagine never having to count calories, proteins, fats or carbs! You won’t have to weigh or measure your food. The raw and living food diet is about eating whatever you want, whenever you want! You can lose weight, heal your body, increase your energy, look and feel younger, not in years, not in months but within days!

Now I will admit to being concerned about food variety, but truthfully I do not need a particularly exciting diet to live. I just grab and eat mostly without tasting anyway. That may not be the same relationship everyone has with their food. So Alissa has a recipe book (oh I almost said CookBook LOL) that has yummy looking raw/live food choices such as the amazing looking pizza there.

The best reason I have seen in favor of raw living foods are the enzymes. I mean, never mind that absolutely nothing can compare in flavor to a vine ripened tomato picked from your patio garden, or a crisp Cortland Apple plucked from the tree after the first fall frost. Never mind that you are getting whole nutrients, and plenty of fiber, or that you house fills with the fresh summer aroma of field strawberries brought in by the quart, fresh from the u-pick or farmer’s market. Living foods have enzymes that are beneficial to your body’s health and vitality.

Here are some FAQ’s from Living-Foods.com

 

Raw and Living Foods are foods that contain enzymes. In general, the act of heating  food over 116  degrees F destroys enzymes in food. (Enzymes start to degrade in as little as 106 degrees F).  All cooked food is devoid of enzymes, furthermore cooking food changes the molecular structure of the food and renders it toxic.  Living and raw foods also have enormously higher nutrient values than the foods that have been cooked.

 

What are Enzymes?
Enzymes assist in the digestion of foods.  They are known to be the "Life-Force" and or "energy" of food.

 

From the dictionary:
Noun: Any of the various complex organic substances, as pepsin originating from living cells and capable of producing certain chemical changes in organic substances by catalytic action, as in digestion.

 

Why are Enzymes Important?
Enzymes are important because they assist in the digestion and absorption of food.   If you eat food that is enzyme-less, your body will not get maximum utilization of the food. This causes toxicity in the body.   (Can you guess why over 75% of Americans are overweight?)

 

Doesn’t the acidic ph of the stomach destoy enzymes?
Viktorus Kulvinskas, one of the world’s foremost and most experienced active researchers into enzyme nutrition has information showing then stomach acid merely deactivates food enzymes.  The enzymes are then reactivated in the more alkaline small intestine.  Many people who eat all raw foods, sense a world of healthful difference in our energy, digestion and connectedness with nature by eating enzyme-rich living foods. When we stopped eating cooked protein foods which require large secretions of stomach acid (which is not healthful for several reasons) our stomach doesn’t produce much stomach acid.  Many people who eat  raw foods eat a low protein diet and are free from the stomach acid secretions and have much more energy and a lighter disposition.

 

Is there a difference between living foods and raw foods?
Living and Raw foods both contain enzymes. In living foods, the enzyme
content is much higher. Raw, unsprouted nuts contain enzymes in a "dormant"
state. To activate the enzymes contained in almonds, for example, soak them
in water for as just 24 hours. Once the almonds begin to sprout, the enzymes become "active" and are then considered living. In the context of this web site,
the terms are used loosely.

 

Why eat only Organic Foods?
When juicing or eating foods, it is very important to choose to consume only organically grown produce. "Conventional" or "industrial" produce are grown with pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, and other chemicals that are toxic and/or harmful to your body. Organic foods are grown without the use of these harmful substances, taste better, and are more nutritious.

Do I need to eat all organic to be raw?
No, you do not NEED to eat all organic to be raw.   I personally reccomend eating as much organic food as possible.  It has been shown that organic produce contains less pesticide and other toxic residues.  In addition, it has been shown that organic food may taste better and contain more nutrition.  I believe its better to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables in most any case.

There is often a concern expressed by meat eaters that vegan, raw-foodists will not get adequate protein. The truth is that there are amino acid complexes in live and raw fruits and vegetables, and eating enough and a wide array of organic living foods will provide you with enough protein. If you are concerned about protein though, you can certainly find a number of vegan protein sources including soy, sprouts, nuts, and if you really must… shake mixes. (I must! LOL)

You will find me talking a lot about raw, and the need to move towards an 80% raw diet. The more I know the more this makes sense. If you think about our body physiology, and our hunter/gatherer ancestors, as a race we survived mostly on fruits, seeds, nuts, and grass. Hunting for meat didn’t come until later. So back to our roots I say.

Again, don’t get me wrong, totally vegan may be an impossible goal for most of us, but to make raw food choices over cooked whenever possible is likely going to be easier than you think, especially if you plan ahead (i.e. BEFORE you go to the grocery store). I do want to make mention of one thing…. I have almost completely removed myself from processed foods when it comes to meals. For the most part, I cook from fresh ingredients whenever possible. I think we ALL need to start preparing meals from real foods. I swear our hips are made up of those gross swanson tv dinners, and big macs that came in styrofoam containers!

So now I want to leave you with this wonderful video…. (I haven’t eaten at McDonald’s since I saw this early this winter!