Posts Tagged ‘Raw Food Diet’

Raw Food Cleanse :: Guidance For A 10 Day Cleanse

If you want to rejuvenate, find new energy and bring a sense of well being into your life, plus lose a few pounds, what better way than through undertaking a raw food cleanse?

Raw food is almost always healthier than the foods that most of us are choosing every day. If you eat only fresh, unprocessed foods, you will automatically cut out all refined sugars and flours and most fatty foods. During a raw cleanse, you will eat very simply and your body will thank you for that!

A Raw Food Detox Diet Offers Cleansing Benefits

The raw cleanse can last from 7 to 10 days. You will need to do some planning ahead of time. Social occasions can be difficult when you are eating raw so if you want to make your detox as easy as possible, try to pick a period of time when you do not have any business lunches, restaurant meals or visits to family. If people are visiting you that’s fine because you can control what you eat. It is possible to take your own food when eating at somebody else’s house but it can be hard for them to understand so it will be much simpler if you can find a clear week in your diary for your cleanse.

The day before your cleanse begins, try to eat as simply as possible with plenty of fruit and vegetables. Avoid eating a lot of meat or fatty, sugary foods and stay off alcohol. If you drink more than two cups of coffee/tea per day, cut down gradually in the days leading up to the cleanse to avoid caffeine withdrawal headaches during the cleanse.

Then begin your cleanse with a 24 hour fast, starting from the time that you finish your evening meal on the last day before the cleanse. So imagine I am starting a cleanse on a Saturday. I eat dinner on Friday evening, finishing at 7.30 pm. I don’t eat or drink anything else after that except water, until 7.30 pm on Saturday, day 1 of the cleanse. Then I will have my first raw food meal.

During the cleanse you will eat anything that is the fresh, non-fatty fruit, leaves, stem or roots of a plant, without cooking it. This includes salad, vegetables and fruits. You can have as much of these as you like, whenever you like, but do be sure to include at least one pound of green vegetables each day. This will give you a broader range of minerals than if you eat fruit only, which means you will have fewer cravings. Celery is great if you have cravings for salty foods.

Have Lots Of Fruits And Veggies On Hand

Be sure to have a wide variety of ripe fruits and vegetables in the house at all times during your raw food cleanse. It is important to be able to have whatever type of fruit or vegetable you feel like eating.

There are a few fatty fruits that you should avoid. These include avocado, coconut and durian (jackfruit). You will also avoid nuts, seeds and oils. There is no need for any dried herbs or seasonings, although you can use fresh herbs in small quantities if you want. You will not need any drinks other than water. Be sure to wash all foods well.

You can make a simple salad dressing by blending equal quantities of tomato and cucumber in the blender. Add a few herbs or red bell pepper if you want.

If you want to continue eating a raw food diet after the end of the cleanse, you can add some fats in the form of nuts, avocado, unpasteurized cheese etc. The cleanse program does not contain all of the fatty acids and other nutrients that are needed for a long term diet.

Be aware that you may have some detox symptoms in the first few days of the cleanse and in some cases these can be quite severe. Check with your medical adviser before going on a raw food cleanse, especially if you are pregnant or nursing or have any pre existing medical conditions.

Raw Food Protein :: Where Do You Get It?

Raw food protein is something that anybody following a raw diet will be asked about very often. If you want to get involved in the growing raw movement, you better get used to answering the question, ‘But where do you get your protein?’ You are going to hear it from virtually all of your family and friends, plus a large selection of strangers!

The general population believes that protein is almost only found in animal products. In fact a lot of people have trouble believing that a vegetarian who eats milk and cheese is not getting enough protein. If you cut out these as well and become vegan, especially raw vegan where you will not eat processed meat substitutes, a lot of the people you meet will be anxiously examining you for signs of protein deficiency. They probably would not be surprised if you dropped down dead in front of them just from not eating meat.

Of course this is ridiculous. There are many raw food protein sources, even for raw vegans who do not eat raw meat or unpasteurized dairy products. What is more, most people in western societies consume far more protein than they need.

Our actual protein requirements might surprise you…

The WHO (World Health Organization) says humans need about 5% of their daily calories to come from protein to be healthy. The USDA puts this figure at 6.5%. Now let’s look at the foods that people on a raw food diet eat.

Vegetables

Vegetables contain the highest proportion of protein for energy, with around 10% of their calories coming from protein. This is way more than we need even on the American calculation. Of course, it would be very difficult to get enough calories by eating only vegetables, but it will surprise most people to hear how much protein there is in a food like broccoli or cabbage.

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts and seeds are higher in protein weight for weight but of course they also contain a lot of fat which adds to their calorie content. Generally you will get between 5% and 10% of calories from protein when you eat nuts and seeds.

Fruit

Fruits carry the lowest protein to energy ratio with around 2% to 4% of their calories coming from protein. This means that if your diet consisted entirely of fruit, you probably would not be getting enough protein. You would also be missing out on several minerals and vitamins.

As you see, it is not likely that anybody following a raw food diet will suffer from lack of protein unless they are trying to live entirely on fruit. Simply vary your diet, including a good variety of all raw foods, and you will automatically cover your protein requirements from plenty of different raw food protein sources.

Where To Buy Raw Food

It is not as easy to buy raw food as you might think when you start out on a raw food diet. Many items on the supermarket shelves appear raw when really they are not. Some, like cashews and many other nuts, may even be labeled raw when in fact they have been subjected to very high temperatures in the process of extracting them from their shells.

The good news is that it is possible to obtain many of these items in their truly raw form. You may find some things in your local health food store, but it is often easier to order online. It is so easy these days to buy items like this on the internet and you can find many sites that will cater to people wanting to buy raw food to get the benefit of a non cooked, non processed diet.

There are many online raw food suppliers in the USA and a quick search on Google for whatever you are looking for will quickly produce some online stores. David Wolfe’s sunfoods.com specializes in raw cashews, chocolate/cacao and superfoods. In the UK, detoxyourworld.com provides most of the ingredients you could need to stock your raw kitchen. In Australia you can use getprice.com.au to find suppliers of just about anything.

As we have said, there are many foods that you might need to buy from a specialist raw food supplier if you want to be 100% raw. These include olives. Raw olives can be bitter so most of the olives that you find in the store have been cooked. However, there are a couple of varieties that taste wonderful in their raw form and you can find these online. Order plenty because you might find they disappear very fast!

The law now requires that all almonds produced in California must be pasteurized. This means most of the almonds sold in the USA and Canada, so check packaging and order from overseas if you have to. In other countries, almonds are extracted from the shell without using heat. However, of course you want to buy them with their skins on. White, skinless almonds, including chopped and ground, have been blanched in boiling water to remove the skins. And if you don’t like the skins, you can remove them quite easily after soaking the almonds overnight.

If you are not planning to be a raw vegan you may want to find a source of raw dairy foods to add enzymes and calcium into your diet. Unpasteurized milk is illegal to be sold in stores in many jurisdictions although you can still often buy it direct from the farm. Unpasteurized cheese is usually easier to find since many specialty cheeses are traditionally made raw. Be aware that as well as extra enzymes, raw dairy products can contain unwanted bacteria. Pregnant women in particular are usually advised not to consume raw dairy products.

Finally, have you thought about toothpaste? OK, you probably don’t eat it, but you must be ingesting some of it and if you buy any kind of commercial brand it will not be raw, even if it is fluoride free. Many people who go raw switch to Toothsoap which is free of undesirable chemical ingredients. It may take a few days to get used to the taste but it is not unpleasant and it is getting rave reviews. So that is something to add to your list when you go online to buy raw food.