Staying Healthy by Eating Raw Foods

Most of the foods I eat are raw and uncooked.
There are some exceptions, which include one
quart of homemade soymilk that I drink each day,
and rice and cooked beans. Other than that, my
diet consists of raw fruits and vegetables,
dried fruits, and sprouted seeds and grains.

I enjoy visiting the following website, and
subscribe to their free Internet letter:

http://www.rawfamily.com

I recommend that you visit this site to learn more
about a raw food diet. This months newsletter
includes a list of items that newbie raw foodists
sometimes do wrong. In checking the list, I found
that I had made many beginner's mistakes too. Now,
I know better, but you might find this list has
benefit for you too.

From Victoria Boutenko's January, 2007 column:

Seven Common Mistakes that Occur on Raw Foods

Many raw fooders do not eat enough greens. Solution:
regularly consume energy soup or green smoothie to
guarantee the proper amount of greens.

Many raw fooders do not consume enough fiber, soluble
and insoluble. Solution: Drink more smoothies or energy
soups instead of juices.

People on raw food often consume too many fats. When
they try to imitate cooked dishes, they substitute
starches with nuts. For example, when making raw cakes,
they mimic a wheat crust with a nut mixture. Solution:
use nut pulp left over from making nut milks, use more
seeds and less nuts, and use more fruit and vegetable
pulp from juices in your mixtures to minimize the
consumption of nuts.

Raw fooders commonly try to become too perfect too fast.
They don’t give their bodies a chance to adjust to such
a radical dietary change. Solution: gradually adjust
and purify your own individual diet to help you ease
into the healthiest diet for you.


When people change their diets they usually decide the
other components that make up health are no longer
important such as: sun bathing, exercising, proper rest,
fresh air, etc. Solution: practice a well-rounded
healthy life style.

People on the raw food diet often over-indulge in some
particular foods and neglect the variety of other fruits
and vegetables. For example, orange juice is very healthy,
but in extremely large quantities it can be damaging to
teeth and sugar levels. Large amounts of sprouts, berries,
and anything else will inevitably create disharmonies.
Solution: eat foods in reasonable quantities.

The biggest mistake that many make is that they listen to
the raw food authorities and don’t trust the invaluable
messages their own bodies communicate. Solution: keep a
diary of your daily food consumption and how it affects
your well-being.

One problem that I personally have with a raw food diet
is the cost of fresh fruit. Yesterday, I paid $6.99
for a large fully ripened honeydew melon. This morning,
I am making a great effort to keep those sweet green juices
away from my keyboard. That same melon will make six meals
for me, so the price when compared to a fast food Sausage
croissant is not all that steep. With twenty degree
temperatures, each bite seems like a return to last summer's
bounty. I've already had a glass of freshly squeezed orange
juice, and have munched on a half-dozen kumquats which one
of my readers was kind enough to harvest from a tree in her
front yard.

Each one of you eats raw. Some eat less than others, and
some eat more. Today's lunch will consist of four different
pears. Try that yourself...the tastes and textures differ
dramatically, and you'll find yourself appreciating the
great variety to be found in just one kind of fruit.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...