What’s So Great About Fermented Food?
Thousands of years ago when refrigerators were yet to be invented, our ancestors depended on fermentation as a method of preservation. This was especially true when it came to preserving vegetables. They relied on the fact that once triggered, chemical changes activated certain bacteria in fruits and vegetables, turning on the production of lactic acid. When lactobacilli just ‘do their thing’, starch and sugar content in fruits and vegetables transforms into lactic acid, a natural preservative. Voila! We have fermented food! Lacto-fermentation is the process that prevents raw organic produce from rotting. Ultimately this happens through the production of enzymes that keep harmful elements like carcinogens and toxins at bay.…
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Happiness in the Raw : 8 Mood Boosting Foods
It’s scientifically proven that happiness seems to be more plentiful in people who eat a plant based diet. Maybe that’s why so many other folks are so grumpy! Is everyone else just jealous? Is that why they keep pestering us about our weird diets? Yes, our weird diets. Fruits and vegetables. All Natural. Coming from the earth. Weird. Apparently the raw food diet makes people nervous. Even if it’s just raw till 4. It’s not normal. What’s Wrong With Us? Many of us get really tired of people asking us the same old, tired questions about the raw diet: I know it’s pretty much the same way with vegans too.…
Raw and Ready: Eating In and Eating Out
For many, adopting a raw vegan diet – even if it’s just till four – is scariest because it means that, unless you confine yourself to a salad, there is less opportunity to eat out at restaurants. All of a sudden you represent a minority: meagerly represented and majorly misunderstood by the masses. It’s bad enough being a vegan – but if you add Raw into it, you’re really a Wierdo! You would assume that if the celebrities have caught on – and they have – then what’s the deal with everyone else? Suffice it to say, the celebrities have their own personal chefs. Some even open up their own…
In Praise of Slowness: On the Road to More Raw
I love Raw Food. Its that simple. Although ‘More Raw” is my mantra, I’m not a vigilante. Nor am I going to get on my soapbox and tell anyone that this is ‘The Way’: eat Fruits and Vegetables and You Will be Saved. And there’s no reason to tell you that even if it might be true. For me, it kind of is. And for you, it might be too. You’ll find out for yourself, all in good time. Just don’t be in too much of a rush. It’s not all or nothing. The journey to better health is just that: a journey. And, like all journeys, it takes time.…
Vitamin B12: The Missing Link in the Vegan Diet?
Vitamin B12 always seems to sneak into conversations about the viability of a raw vegan diet. Produced by bacteria that live in the digestive tracts of livestock, Vitamin B12 is present in the muscle meats of these animals. So it would seem that meat eaters reap the benefits. But the fact is that plants have vitamin B12 too – or shall I say, organic and wild plants do. Whether we’re getting it or not, is a different story. It’s All About the Soil… Many take it for granted that simply eating raw fruits and vegetables means you have a healthy diet. And it certainly might present a better option than…
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Happiness is a Loaded Smoothie
Raw Vegan Replacement Therapy… A Smoothie? My first tentative dip into the raw vegan pool was through the process of substitution. A raw green smoothie displaced my usual breakfast – typically something that I would grab off the Bed and Breakfast table after my guests were done eating. I was literally like a dog waiting for scraps. A piece of frittata?! A heel of cinnamon toast!? Give it to me! Now! Hell, I was a one-woman’ ravaging horde – the poster child for the Importance of Eating a Good Breakfast! Leaving my house so early in the morning to prepare food for other people, I would hardly have time to…
Eating Raw: A Primer for the Curious
What does it mean to be eating raw food? When you’re eating raw, you are eating food that has not been “cooked”. Typically, you are eating fruits, vegetables, nits, seeds, legumes, sprouts and grains in their natural state. If they are heated or processed at all through blending, juicing, food processing or dehydrating, they are never heated over 118 degrees Fahrenheit. What are raw and living foods? Raw and living foods constitute those foods that are provided by nature, organically grown and consumed in their original, uncooked state. They are the considered to contain the highest nutritional contentment of all plant foods and include fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes,…
What the Hell is a Vegan and How Did I Get So Raw?
Once upon a time, I had never heard of a raw vegan diet… It’s strange that I honestly never even thought about vegetables or fruit being involved as mainstays of a raw vegan diet. Hell, I had never heard of such a thing. But I guess that if I’d been forced to hazard a guess as to what it was, my ideas would have hovered around sushi and steak tartar. Or maybe food you hadn’t cooked and shouldn’t even think of eating. But honestly? I was clueless. My friend, Alisa, changed all of that for me. She alone is responsible. What Do You Feed A Vegan? I operated a Bed…
Why A Plant Based Diet?
There’s a lot of arguing that goes on about whether man was designed for a plant based diet or is essentially an omnivore. To add to that pot, I recently heard a new one on a Ted Talks: man is a ‘coctivore’ – the species that cooks. It makes me laugh at times. Because whatever he (or she) is or was, let’s face it: man has proven that he will eat pretty much anything. Are We Made For Meat-Eating? We can look at the basics, though. It took a hell of a lot for man’s jaw to even evolve to the point where meat-eating became easier. There was one indisputable ingredient involved…
The Raw Diet: Winterized
It’s winter again and with it comes the quandary about just how far to take the raw diet and where or if to make concessions. There is no sugar coating it: winter is not my favorite time of year. Apart from the occasional awe elicited when my high desert view arbitrarily masquerades as a winter wonderland – usually for all of two hours – I am definitely with the bears on this one and would gladly hibernate if it were at all possible. That not being in the cards, last year I decided to take up skiing again after a twenty year absence from the sport. People told me I…
