What is Raw Food?

Look at all the colour!

Hey everyone sorry for my sporadic posting habits... ideally I would love to be able to update this blog daily but due to differing amounts of school work it ends up that I only update when I have free time in my schedule. I feel that not having a posting schedule isn't fair to those of you who have been loyal followers and as such I have come up with the idea to set up a blogging schedule. What do you think about this? If you guys are supportive of this idea I will post twice a week on set days, most likely Tuesdays and Fridays so let me know what you think!

Now that I have addressed that topic, I have one more announcement before actually talking about what this post is all about. As most of you know, Suki is in the Fido Casting Call (it runs until November 17th) so please continue to vote at http://www.fidocastingcall.ca/dogs/16125

Now on to my post... What is Raw Food?

Raw foodism can include any diet of primarily unheated food, or food cooked to a temperature less than 40 °C (104 °F) to 46 °C (115 °F). 

The most popular raw food diet is a raw vegan diet. It is believe that foods cooked above these temperatures have lost much of their nutritional value and are less healthy or even harmful to the body. Raw food advocates argue that raw or living foods have natural enzymes, which are critical in building proteins and rebuilding the body. 

Typical foods that can be found in a raw food diet are fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains and legumes.

Raw foodist's typically use:

1) A food processor
2) A juicer
3) A blender (such as a Vitamix)
4) A dehydrator
To prepare their meals.


You might be asking yourself... what do raw foodist eat? One of the restaurants that I listed in my last blog post (called Crudessence) is a raw food restaurant located in Montreal. The last time I was there my friend and I ate nachos with an avocado, corn, tomato chutney, a BLT sandwich, and split a sugar pie for dessert. Of course these are not the typical nachos, sandwich, or pie that may come to your mind when you read those words but a raw food take on them. (below is a picture of our BLT and nachos)

Some basic raw food dishes include:

Salads

Soups (check out this fantastic post for ideas)
Nut pates
Zucchinis or other vegetables sliced thinly to resemble “noodles,” tossed with sauce
Nut burgers (pates shaped like burgers)
Collard roll or romaine lettuce raps
and Sushi stuffed with veggies or nut pates

If you are interested in learning more about a raw food diet feel free to leave me questions in the comment section on this post or go check out resources such as http://www.choosingraw.com , and http://goneraw.com/

Picture of Raw Raspberry Cheesecake

and let me know, what are some of your experiences with Raw food?