Eating raw, live foods enliven cells and contribute to a better functioning body. As more people awaken to the incredible benefits of this natural way of eating, the global ecology also begins to flourish. But besides grabbing an apple, how can eating raw become convenient to keep up with a busy lifestyle?
While mastering dishes such as sun-baked pizzas, mock salmon sushi or gourmet tacos (such as the delish one above, from Gourmet Vegan Chef) can undoubtedly take a little time, there are high quality options for raw foodies on the run.
Registered nurse and natural foods chef Alice Benedetto turned her passion into an organic raw-food product that gets my seal of approval (I’m addicted, actually). Raw Revolution Organic Live Food Bars
“When I made raw snacks for my son as an alternative to high sugar processed snacks, friends also loved the taste and suggested selling them. That seemed impossible. As a single mother of an active two year-old, working full time, how would I start a business?” Alice says on her website www.rawindulgence.com.
“I found time to develop the Brownie, tested them out and got great response. Even the average person, not just a health food nut, loved the taste.”
Raspberry & Chocolate and Spirulina & Cashew are a must try, as much for the superb taste as for the health-boosting enzymes that are very much left in tact in this generous-sized bar.
Some of my other faves include:
Pure Bar 
LÄRABAR — is simply fruit and nuts. Each bar has no more than seven ingredients. There’s no added sugar, is gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, vegan and kosher. Available internationally at natural, conventional and specialty grocers.
Righteously Raw Maca Bar — Vegans everywhere, rejoice. This decadent, raw, organic food bar has no sugar, no dairy, and isn’t pasteurised or homogenised. With ingredients such as cacao butter, cacao powder, khadrawi dates, lucuma, coconut oil, agave nectar, vanilla bean and Himalayan pink alt, it’s little wonder The Health Ranger named it his favourite too.
Main photo courtesy Geoff Peters 604
Each time I visit the supermarket, especially the big chains, I remind myself that every product I buy is an endorsement for that particular brand, the company’s values (or lack thereof) and the quality of food inside the packaging.
I’m often amazed that much of the produce on the shelves (in NZ) is shipped in from China, the US and beyond. Most of these are gassed or treated in some way to stop vegetables from sprouting, fruit from spoiling etc. So customers are not only buying pesticides with their “food”, but also other chemicals used to preserve the produce for the boat ride across the big blue. Of these chemical-laden loads, one only then has to wonder which ones were born in a laboratory … nutrient-deficient genetically modified imposters. Wannabe apples, if you will.
But the great news is, the more people who buy organic, locally-grown produce, the more supply there will be. Additionally, the more people who choose to eat this way, the less dis-ease there will be. Whether we consumers want to believe it or not, we can turn things around, every time we line up at the register. Every beep of the scanner is a vote.
Buying food as nature intended may hurt the hip pocket more than the mutant kinds that currently fill many supermarket shelves, but the vibrant health that can result from eating healthily means fewer doctors appointments and hospital visits in the long run. It’s also a beautiful way to contribute to the restoration of the planet. It’s a win-win for all.
Elite ultra-endurance athlete Harley Johnstone is giving Aussie livestock producers something to worry about, according to a story on ABC Rural News.
What’s making the meat industry quake in their bloody boots? The fact that Harley has ridden more than 160,000 kilometres in the past 10 years on a diet of fruit and water. No meat. No dairy. Just a good ol’ helping hand from Mother Nature.
“He could be every fruit grower’s best mate, and every livestock producer’s worst nightmare,” the reporter quipped.
The Aussie vegan has founded a raw food vegan group, 30 Bananas A Day, and says he’s the country’s biggest fruit lover.
“A typical day, well I’m quite active so I need a lot of calories. So that’s typically 35-40 large bananas, or if I’m not eating bananas that could be 20 or 30 mangoes, or a couple of kilos of dates from California,” he said.
“A lot of people say, are you nuts? And I say, no, I’m bananas.”
Harley’s fruit of choice, the banana
Today is day three of my planned 7-day nutritional fast, which means loads of fresh fruit and veges smoothies (and water). It’s a great way to introduce yourself to fasting, because you’re still getting the fibre of the fruit and vegetables, which can be a lot more satisfying that just water or juice. I’m also a big believer of needing the whole fruit or vegetable to reap all of the nutritional benefits.
Fasting (or juice feasting) is a great way to give your digestion a break, while giving your body an opportunity to dump all built-up those toxins from your organs, including your skin. Plus it’s a fabulous way to ring in the new year—physically rejuvenated and mentally clear.
While I’m going with instinct and my own knowledge to put together a plan, there are plenty of books and websites that can help guide you on a fast/feast that suits you.
Here are some of my faves:
The Blending Book
JuiceFeasting.com
GreenSmoothieRevolution.com
Green For Life
GreenSmoothieGirl.com
GreenSmoothieBlog.com
How Green Smoothies Saved My Life
If you’re tempted to get blending and need a recipe, here’s my organic breakfast smoothie:
• 1 banana
• 3-4 silverbeet leaves
• Big handful of spinach
• 1 apple
• 1/2 small cucumber
• 2 teaspoons Kal’s Nutritional Yeast
• 1 teaspoon of Nutrex Hawaiian Spirulina
• Fresh parsley to taste
• Add water for desired consistency
Also check out Rhonda Lee’s 7 Ways to Make Green Smoothies on The Green Dove.
Hot tip: Be sure to “chew” each mouthful of your green smoothie, to ensure the digestive juices do their work. This allows the body to absorb all of the nutrients.
To celebrate Mohanda Karamchad Gandhi’s birthday (Oct 2), I’m sharing an article written by a fabulous vegan friend, Cynthia Morgan, on her blog The Overwoman. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
By Cynthia Morgan
My copy of Gandhi’s autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth arrived a few weeks ago and holy cow! I have a new found appreciation for Mahatma. I knew he was a vegetarian (oh, and that in his spare time he liberated India from British rule and single-handedly established the civil disobedience movement) but I had no idea he was the central figure in pioneering the animal rights crusade in India.
Do you know what this spiritual and political leader writes as the greatest “tragedy of my life”?
That he drank goat’s milk.
You see, Gandhi had made a lifelong vow never to drink a cow’s milk due to “the torture to which cows were subjected by their keepers.” He gave it up after vacationing at vegetarian Leo Tolstoy’s home in which a discussion ensued about the harmful effect of drinking cow’s milk.
From then on Gandhi eschewed animal products and considered nuts and fruit the optimal diet. He attributed this dietary choice to his very healthy and fit life. However, in 1914, he contracted a serious illness that dropped him off near death’s door. The attending physicians were sure Gandhi would die without drinking a glass of cow’s milk, which was a popular treatment back then. Gandhi compromised and drank goat’s milk.
Gandhi’s wife, Kasturba, had made a similar vow. As did their sons. She and Gandhi proclaimed they would rather die than drink cow’s milk. And they meant it. Total radical nonconformists.
I haven’t had milk since I remember my mom having to pour it for me, but I was surprised at Gandhi’s staunch stance on cow’s milk when facing death. Then, there wasn’t much information. You’d have thought he would’ve listened to the doctor. Then again, there wasn’t dairy industry propaganda hypnotizing the masses into thinking it’s healthy either. Today it’s super easy to abstain from milk with all the more nourishing substitutes.
“Milk does a body good” is a lie. It’s a marketing ploy. It’s their dirty secret. They don’t care about our bodies. I always feel sorry for those celebrities with the idiotic milk mustaches who are oblivious to what they’re representing. (Oops, I’m veering into previously bloggedterritory…..)
Unlike Gandhi’s day, we now know milk does a body no good. Well, we know if we research the people who are researching it. Milk is being targeted for all kinds of ailments, certain types of diabetes and cancer, even mental illness.
I’ve always had really strong fingernails that grow too fast. To the point where people have actually commented on them over the years. I tell them it’s because I don’t drink milk. I may have been on to something.
Studies are revealing that–are you ready?–consuming milk causes osteoporosis! Countries where people have very little dairy intake rarely see cases of osteoporosis. We’re not often told that green, leafy vegetables are high in calcium.
Also, milk (unless organic, and even organic isn’t immune to its problems) is laden with antibiotics and growth hormones, which researchers link to the cause of young girls developing more quickly and getting their periods, thus pregnant, at an earlier age.
There’s a really interesting study on the effects of the Americanization of the Japanese diet. (By Kagawa, published in Preventative Medicine, 1978.) Before 1946, Japanese did not consume milk. After that, milk and dairy became staple foods.
In 1950 the average person in Japan ate 5.5 pounds of milk and dairy products. The average girl was 4′6″ tall and weighed 71 pounds. She began menstruation at 15.2 years old.
In 1975 the average Japanese consumed 117.4 pounds of milk and dairy products. The average girl had grown 4 1/2 inches and gained 19 pounds! And she started menstruating at 12.2 years old!
This study was done 34 years ago. Frightening to think what these numbers are now.
Some researchers are linking the rise in breast cancer to the copious amount of dairy products we now consume. It’s a fascinating topic. And serious.
You know something’s wrong with this milk picture when the Director of the Department of Pediatrics at John Hopkins University School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief at the John Hopkins Children’s Center, Frank Oski, MD, writes a book called Don’t Drink Your Milk.
I didn’t make the choice to not drink milk for health reasons. Though that would definitely be a factor if I were making the decision today. I don’t drink milk because it’s meant to fatten up calves, not me. I don’t drink milk because I find the idea disturbingly repugnant and, did you know, it’s full of white cow pus. Uh-huh. No one says that in their ads.
Mostly, I don’t drink milk, like Gandhi, because of the cruelty dairy cows are subjected to–constantly being impregnated to produce milk, having their babies immediately torn from them, chained to a cage day in and day out, never seeing the light of day or breathing fresh air, hooked up to a milk machine that painfully tears their udders.
The way I see it, what isn’t good for an animal isn’t good for me. It’s going to have an effect. Somehow, someway. Lovelessness is going to show up, asking us to pay up. It always does.
