Raw Food Diet Questions and Answers
What is the difference between raw and living foods?Typically these words are used interchangeably, but technically there is a difference. Raw foods are unheated and living foods have active living enzymes. For example raw pumpkin seeds are a raw food but until they are sprouted, they are not considered living. The gold standard of a raw diet is to incorporate raw living foods into your diet. What about spices, are they raw?Of course there are fresh herbs and seasonings. But spices that come from a jar have been heated. I am not aware of any brand of seasoning that claims to heat their spices under 120 degrees. But many stores now carry organic seasonings.What about the freezer?It really depends on what you are comfortable with. Freezing obviously does not heat the food, but many of the living enzymes are lost in the preservation. It really comes down to personal choice. I know many people who feel they eat a raw diet and they feel that including frozen foods in limited amounts is fine. They feel that it gives them a way to preserve the entire fruit or vegetable. I know a few others who only eat fresh produce. You need to do what works for you and your family.As I have said before, I have 3 children. I always keep frozen vegetables and often frozen berries in my freezer. We don’t eat them all the time, but if I can’t make it to the market I feel better about giving them frozen produce rather than no produce at all. So the bottom line is look at your own life, decide why you are eating raw foods. If you are doing it temporarily as a cleansing or for healing you may want to just stick to fresh produce. If you are changing your entire life-style, baby-steps! Don’t take more on than you can handle. Again if you have frozen produce on hand will it keep you from binging on delivery pizza? The choice is personal.
Where do you get your protein?This is a fair question given that the media and government have pushed the idea for years that if we don’t get enough protein we will be weaklings. I'm going to try to keep this answer short because I tend to ramble on about this topic because there are so many points to bring up.First of all, I really think it is hilarious that we drink milk to get protein. Why? Because cows eat grass to get their protein. Why not just skip the middle man? Some of the most powerful creatures on the planet are vegetarians. For example, gorillas who some believe to be relatives to us (I don’t believe in evolution personally) have amazing similarities to humans. They are however even stronger than humans and guess what, they get their protein from plants. The weirdest part to the whole protein argument to me is the idea that we need tons of it. Why? I don’t have any idea where the idea that all of this protein would somehow be beneficial came from. Why didn’t they pick a particular vitamin to push or a mineral? Why protein? -after you have assimilated what your body needs you place your body in a tough position, being responsible to process and excrete all the excess protein. It puts unnecessary stress on the body and on your pocketbook. Simply eat the recommended amount and you'll be in good shape. But to finally get around to answering the original question we get our protein from plants. Some of the best sources are wheat grass juice,
green leafy vegetables
, sprouted garbanzo beans,
raw nuts,
and
sprouts
in general. Try one of my favorite
raw protein recipes.
More Raw Food Diet Questions and AnswersQ. I always use olive oil and citrus juice, usually ½ a lime squeezed on my salads as a dressing. Do I need to worry about how much fat I am getting? Q. Okay, so nothing beats a fresh salad with olive oil dressing for a nutritional punch. But do I have to get all my antioxidants from fruits and veggies? Q. Have you ever heard of the Garden Diet? Check back for more raw food diet questions and answers!
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