I’ve been interested in the whole idea of eating Raw for several years now, since a few friends of mine did a Raw 90 day challenge in the summer of 2008. I did a 7 day Raw Detox the following year (it went well – I lost close to 10 pounds, was seldom hungry, and felt great – except that for a few days I really despised salads for supper 😉 And the fruit smoothies that had been my breakfast for many years morphed easily into Green Smoothies.
So, what kept me from making the switch to 100% raw? I guess laziness is as appropriate an excuse as any. I have a husband who was not prepared to go raw, and two children who were horrified at the very thought. So, I gradually introduced them to raw dishes that they could enjoy, but continued, in general, to serve cooked meals for supper.
Periodically I would attend a Raw Food workshop, and get really enthusiastic, for a while. After the last gourmet raw food workshop, a few months ago, I was enthusiastic (again), and promptly bought a really good (used) juicer, and started making fresh fruit and vegetable juices. And got some books out of the library – trying to figure out how I could go more raw, and get most of the benefits of going mostly raw, but still manage to feed my family (in a way they would like to be fed) AND not spend crazy amounts of time doing it.
Which is where this blog-post comes in – I think that I’ve found a book that describes going (mostly) raw in a way that can work for me.
The author, Natalia Rose, is a Clinical Nutritionist who believes that cleansing at a cellular level is the key to vibrant health, emotional balance and mental clarity. Her book, The Raw Food Detox Diet, provides step by step instructions on how to improve your health, lose weight, and feel fantastic – no matter what condition you happen to be in right now. She recognizes that the transition from fast food and pizza to raw fruits and vegetables can be a difficult one, and is best done gradually, so as not to overwhelm you with cravings, and toxins, and … So she provides sample transition menus that can be used to get you from wherever you are right now to the next level of dietary cleansing. And she doesn’t insist that, if you’re not going to go 100% raw, then there’s no point in even getting started with this (it’s possible that the other authors of other books I’ve read haven’t insisted on this, but it certainly felt like they were highly disapproving of anyone who wasn’t prepared to go all the way).
I’ve tried several of the recipes she provides, and so far they’ve all been a) delicious, and b) (equally important) quick and easy to prepare.
One thing. Natalia is a proponent of ‘proper food combining’, which I first read about close to twenty five years ago, and many well-known raw foodists seem to agree with. Food combining basically states that your body will be better able to digest meals that do not contain certain food combinations. Fruits should be consumed by themselves (or with leafy greens, like in a green smoothie). Concentrated proteins (like steak) should not be consumed at the same time as concentrated starches (like garlic bread, or baked potatoes), but either one can be consumed with vegetables. You can probably already see where this would rule out many meals that you eat regularly. That said, it can be done, and isn’t all that difficult. Especially if you’re willing to do without meat several times each week. She provides a lot of sample meal plans that meet the food combining criteria, and look really delicious.
My husband has read this book too, and agrees that it looks like a good approach to eating/living more healthily. In fact, Robyn Unrau, the certified raw food chef who taught the last raw food workshop I attended, said this is one of the books she refers to most often when helping people make the transition to eating raw. So, I’ll be returning the book to the local library and ordering my own copy this weekend.
Check it out, and let me know what you think about it!
Great article.