Food You should Eat in Raw Food Diet

[linda]

The raw food diet consists of food that is uncooked and unprocessed. A food is essentially ‘raw' if it is kept below 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degree Celsius); the temperature above which enzymes are destroyed. It still contains important enzymes which assist in the digestion and absorption of food. You should eat Unprocessed, preferably organic, whole foods in Raw Food Diet such as:
• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Beans
• Grains
• Legumes
• Dried fruit
• Seaweed
• Unprocessed organic or natural foods
• Freshly juiced fruit and vegetables
• Purified water
• Young coconut milk

[ryan]

Thanks for the list -

The raw food diet is how we were meant to eat, the best raw food diet is one with mostly fruit and some veggies, most veggies aren't fit for human consumption, have you ever been attracted to eating a raw veggie without seasoning, etc? There are only a handful of veggies that we can consider human food, and some can be considered fruit(romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, celery, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado and bell peppers(all colors except green which are unripe)).

Beyond that I highly recommend lots of fresh air and sunshine and abandonment of pharmaceuticals, creams, soaps, cigarettes, etc(assuming you don't absolutely need them, I don't know you and the raw food diet may lead to you saying good-bye to these products). I wash in just water and brush my teeth with just my brush and water.

If you live like this you can say good-bye to 99% of all disease including cancer, diabetes, etc, and never have to worry about them again.

[littlegreenfairy]

I found this cool article about a raw food chef and her recommendations:

RAW REVIVAL: Chef preaches goodness of uncooked food

May 18, 2010 11:53 AM
TERESA FARNEY
THE GAZETTE
Martine Purdy massages kale leaves when preparing them as an ingredient, soaks seeds and nuts before eating them, and instead of adding cheese to lasagna and pizza, she whips up red bell pepper-avocado-almond “cheese” or a creamy dill-avocado “cheese” as a substitute.

The thread that links these is that they’re raw foods and are part of a diet that stays away from processed or packaged food. And Purdy, owner of Chevy Lee Raw Foods, has become an expert at making uncooked food combinations at her business, which is just a few months old.

It’s the culmination of her experimenting with raw food that began about four years ago when she began preparing foods for Rick Laurenzi. He was on a raw food diet for weight management and cancer prevention. Purdy found she liked the foods she was discovering and saw an interest in people who liked to eat this type of diet but didn’t necessarily like to do all the preparation. Voilà! Her business was the result

Proponents of such diets are called raw foodists. Their meals consist of 75 percent to 100 percent uncooked food. Raw foodists say cooking kills enzymes in food that help with healthy digestion and that raw foods increase energy and prevent diseases.

“The basis of the diet is using fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and only grains that are gluten-free,” she said. “The actual temperature at which foods cook is highly debated. Some say 105 degrees, some 109 degrees, some 118 degrees. There hasn’t really been a lot of official research done in that area, just a lot of opinions. So I set my dehydrator at 110 degrees.”

Purdy relies on a food dehydrator, a blender (Vitamix), a juicer, a food processor and “really sharp knives,” she said, to prepare her raw food recipes.

“To add crunchy texture to some dishes, I massage oil into kale leaves to soften them. Then I rub the leaves with a little agave nectar and dehydrate them to make the leaves crispy.”

A good example of how she uses raw foods to make a delightful dish is her cucumber-avocado-dill pizza (pictured) which I saw her make. The crust of the pizza is made by soaking pumpkin seeds to release their acid and make them easier to digest. Then they’re blended with buckwheat to make a dough. The dough rounds are dehydrated to make a cracker-like crust. She blends avocado and dill to make a “cheese” spread that she smoothes over the crust, and tops that with sliced cucumber, avocado, red bell pepper, walnuts and crispy kale. The finished dish is colorful and tasty.

Is preparing raw food hard?

“It’s not hard,” she said, “just different. It’s a whole different process.”

Laurenzi, who has lost more than 150 pounds on a raw food diet and self-produced the weight-loss film “Dropping a Ton and Making it Fun,” is a purist in his approach to the raw food diet.

“The diet is more than just a raw food diet. It’s an alkaline diet. I stay away from high sugar fruits and high acid foods,” he said. “There are a lot of raw food cookbooks, but you have to be careful about the sugars.”

That’s why he plans to write 10 recipe books over the next 15 years.

“I’m almost ready to print the first edition, ‘Ricky’s Rocket Fuel,’” he said. “It has recipes for dishes that are commonly embraced by this country: pizzas and burgers.”

Ashley Kipp, a pilates instructor and nutritionist, recommended the diet, too. “I think one of the greatest benefits of a raw diet is that it really focuses you to eliminate the junk (in your diet) and focuses on eating clean, whole foods,” she said.

For Angela Thompson, a raw food coach and frequent customer of Chevy Lee Raw Foods, it’s about the difference live foods can make in her life.

“For me, it’s meant having more energy, more focus, more freedom in getting to my ideal weight, fewer aches and pains, more zest for life and more freedom to follow my dreams,” she e-mailed. “Live foods have helped me be the ‘me’ I was created to be. I’ll be 63 in a few days and feel more fully alive than ever — in spirit, soul and body.”

Thompson pointed out that this is a great time of year to get started, with lots of fresh organic produce coming available soon — especially with farmers markets starting up in the near future.

“The easiest way to get started on a raw food diet is to add more fruit and veggies,” she said. “The more life-giving food you eat the more you want and the less you crave those things that rob you of optimal health. Start your day with a life-giving juice or smoothie. Take a class and discover new life-giving favorites — it’s not just salads.”