Hi there, and hope your summer is going well. We’re having a relatively mild summer so far here in the midwest, although it we are finally beginning to warm up to the ’90s!

It seems that most people who learn that we are vegan raw foodists are baffled as to how we can even exist without eating any form of baked bread / rolls / biscuit products, etc. Actually, I thought that I would miss my morning toast, but not when there are so many wonderful ways to make dehydrated crackers and bread that truly rival the baked varieties! Plus, no more IBS symptoms which I think were related to wheat bread and other baked products. So today I wanted to post a dehydrated cracker and raw dip recipes that are both nutritious and delicious, travel well to a picnic or potluck, and everyone will enjoy them.

These recipes require a high speed blender and the dehydrated crackers require, well…of course, a dehydrator! How did you guess? When you make a commitment to become a vegan raw foodist, two appliances become household necessities: a high speed blender like the VitaMix or BlendTec, and a dehydrator. I used to think that I would also need a food processor, but find that my high speed blender works perfect as a food processor too.

Dehydrated crackers are very easy to make, keep well for a long time, and you can vary the flavors and textures to your own personal preferences. Just about any vegetable works great and soon you’ll be creating your own unique cracker or bread recipes for everyone to enjoy!

Simple Flax Seed Crackers
Note: All ingredients for the following recipes should always be organic whenever possible

You can soak the flax seeds in freshly juiced vegetable juice instead of plain water. Soaked flax seeds are very gelatinous and goopy, sort of like cake batter - you spread them on thickly and they look very “handmade” when they’re done - I love the way they look!

1 lb golden flax seeds – soaked in filtered water or fresh veggie juice for 8 hours
1 carrot
1 thin slice onion
1 thick slice tomato
1 thick slice red pepper
Celtic salt and some pepper - to taste
1 tomato - chopped
1 onion – chopped

Process the carrots, onion, tomato, and red pepper in a high speed blender. Drain the flax seeds and add to the blender, and process until blended well.

Lay the chopped onion and tomato down on teflex sheets, and spread the flax seed mixture on top. Dehydrated at 105 for about 12-13 hours, and then turn the sheets upside down and peeled the teflex off, and continue dehydrating until the veggie slices are dry.

Remember to chew the crackers really well, like you should! All of the benefits of flax seeds can’t be assimilated unless they’re ground, either by mills, or teeth!

Vegan Mayonnaise: Avocado and Basil Mayo Recipe

Transitioning over to a raw food diet means no more mayonnaise. For some, that can be very difficult since mayonnaise is used in many different meal preparations from sandwich spreads to creamy salad dressings.

Since eggs are not a part of the raw vegan food lifestyle, then a great alternative to egg-based mayonnaise is the following vegan mayo made with avocados and basil.

Avocados are probably my most favorite food. I generally eat one or two a day, since avocados are abundant in healthy fat (mostly monounsaturated), fiber, potassium, and folate. Avocados are one of nature’s best sources of lutein, a natural antioxidant that is needed for healthy eyes and skin.

Basil is rich in volatile oils that have natural anti-inflammatory properties. Basil is also an excellent dietary source of vitamin K, fiber, iron, calcium, beta-carotene, and magnesium, making it one of the most nutrient-rich herbs that you can eat.

So the following vegan mayo recipe made with avocados and basil will provide you with loads of flavor and nutrient-density; I hope you enjoy this avocado-basil mayonnaise recipe - it’s really very tasty!

Basil and Avocado Mayo
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocados, halved, pitted, scooped
¼ - ½ cup of fresh basil leaves
2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp fresh lemon or lime juice
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely minced
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Directions:
1. Combine basil, garlic, and a pinch of sea salt in a blender or food processor and blend until well blended and pureed. Or you can chop everything up very fine by hand.
2. Add avocados and blend until smooth. With blender still running, add the oil and lemon or lime juice, and then season with sea salt and pepper.
Use this delicious avocado and basil mayonnaise in place of regular mayonnaise - it’s particularly tasty on dehydrated crackers with tomatoes, onions, and romaine lettuce leaves. Very delicious when used as a salad dressing too!

Below are a couple of videos that I thought everyone should see. It is good to be aware of what is going on regarding the quality of food, and how it impacts the health of the people in the world. The more people make a conscious decision to change their diet from the Standard American Diet to a plant based vegan and/or raw vegan foods lifestyle, then and ONLY then will we begin to see a significant drop in our country’s obesity rate, heart disease, chronic illness, cancer and other debilitating diseases that are so unnecessary, and caused by poor dietary choices.

What a Nightmare!

Still think milk is good for you? Watch this first!

For more information, you’ll want to see this document from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

We’re back home again after an awesome vacation and some much needed quality time spent with family. Unfortunately, it will probably be the last time we fly for awhile. It seems the whole experience was spent in a ‘hurry up and wait’ mode, and all the extra charges and security checks pretty much took the fun out of flying.

You are allowed to bring your own food aboard the plane, but not your own water bottle, or any other liquid unless you purchased it inside security for an inflated charge. So we guzzled the last of our water, then ditched our bottles before security check in. Fortunately, we had plenty of fresh fruit and trail mix to munch on until we got back home. I think next time we’ll drive out to California to see our family.

So I got to thinking about the best ways to staying raw on a road trip. I figured I’d post something here for those of you still getting ready for your vacation, whether it’s to see family, go to Disney World, or fly to another country. It’s important to know ahead of time and plan your meals so that you aren’t forced to eat food you don’t want in your system. Keep in mind that if you are spending any mealtimes with your family, you’re going to be in for quite a bit of scrutiny, questioning and ridicule.

As you can imagine, traveling is one of the biggest obstacles to maintaining a diet high in living foods. And you are much more likely to stay raw if you pack accordingly, and are prepared. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. Traveling with little preparation and then left to eat what is provided or available makes it difficult to get the support you need to stay raw while on the road. Good intentions are basically useless if you aren’t physically prepared with all your raw goodies to stay mostly raw. It simply does not matter how long you’ve been following the raw path - if you go somewhere without your raw food snacks you’ll find yourself being compromised!

Maintaining a live food diet while traveling can be easy if you have the right information. Once you’ve made the decision to go raw, the small inconveniences of your new lifestyle are quickly outweighed by renewed energy, rapid weight loss, and improved health. After a month or so, you should have an exciting repertoire of new foods to enjoy—some that involve more or less work than others, and some recipes that require special equipment like a dehydrator, a Vitamix, or a food processor.

So what should a “raw foodie” do when it’s time to hit the road? You can’t very well pack a five screen dehydrator and Vitamix in your overnight bag, can you? Fortunately, there are many quick solutions that will enable you to stay 100% raw and feeling great. I will say that I did pack my BlendTec blender and had fun making some raw food dishes, as well as smoothies to share with our family. But for most people, it is not realistic to pack a blender, unless you have a small portable one, like this one: Elite Cuisine Mini-blender.

So it goes without saying that you are much more likely to stay raw if you are prepared and pack accordingly. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. I found out the hard way myself when I showed up as a guest at someone’s house and I didn’t bring some of my own raw food. Good intentions are basically useless if you aren’t physically prepared to stay mostly raw. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been eating raw…if you go somewhere unprepared you’ll find yourself in a tough situation.

Grocery and Health Food Stores
Be sure to do your research before leaving to locate hotels with organic grocery stores within walking distance of your hotel. A simple search, for example, for “organic stores, Boston” provides a Google map of the city with about 15 choices. Find one you like, and then do another search for a nearby hotel.

What to buy:
• Salad in bulk (if there’s a big organic salad bar)
• Pre-packaged guacamole (make sure it’s dairy free), salsa, or olive tapenade to for dipping with carrot sticks or the crackers you made at home
• Lots of fresh fruit to keep around your hotel room in case you get hungry
• Buy a bag of pre-washed baby greens, some olive oil and raw nuts, and mix up a salad right in the bag!

Room Service
Room service is usually NOT what you want to eat, so don’t bother even looking at the menu…. Unless you need to order fresh fruit – but generally it’s best to get outside, get some exercise and find a fresh fruit stand (no, not a bakery or deli!)

Even if you are in a remote location sans organic food stores, order plenty of fresh fruit for breakfast, double portions of salad for dinner, and request olive oil and vinegar or a light vinaigrette dressing. Eat until you’re full—and stay away from the bread basket!

In Case You get Stuck in Timbuktu!
Always remember to pack a Live Greens type of supplement no matter where you’re going. You never know you might be out in TimbukTu and not a grocery store for miles. In case you end up in some far-flung place and no grocery store in sight, and unable to get any fresh produce—organic or otherwise—you can still travel stay raw. With a small mason jar, and filtered water, you can shake-shake-shake to health!

You might want to consider purchasing a battery-operated portable blender to pack in your suitcase. Throw in a banana and distilled or filtered water, mix with your organic green powder like Live Greens, and you will survive!

Keep up the Greens
A big challenge will be maintaining your daily consumption of greens at a proper level. I always travel with a big bottle of Live Greens, and bring along little mason jars for easy mixing while on day trips. It’s easy to simply add your green powder to filtered water and shake it up.

Remember the experience is more important than the food!
It seems when you travel, either to some exotic location or just to visit family, it always turns into a big eating fest. Shopping, planning and preparing the next meal before finishing the plate in front of you seems to become a time consuming endeavor. When you haven’t brought along any of your own food, it’s easy to become concerned about where your next meal will be coming from, or your hosts are concerned about having enough food available to feed you and your family. It would be great to learn to enjoy the vacation experience, sights, sounds, and smells of new and different places. Packing your own raw food makes this possible, because no longer are you concerned about your meals, restaurants, etc. And it puts less pressure on your hosts if you are staying with friends or family.

Also, the benefit of taking the pressure of meal planning and preparation away from your hosts is that you can prepare some of your favorite raw food dishes and introduce them to new flavors, and share the benefits of a raw food lifestyle.

When your vacation is no longer just about the food anymore, it provides you with time and opportunity to explore the area, such as historical museums, art, theater, festivals, shopping, and day to day life.

Travel with Raw Food Partner or Friends
It definitely helps to have a raw foodie partner or friend who shares and enjoys the same meals as you do. It makes the experience so much easier and definitely more fun. Together you can enjoy the raw food journey while traveling to exotic locations or simply visiting family. It also helps to have the support and encouragement that you can give each other. Larry and I enjoyed our raw food snacks together, and I helped him to stay strong when dealing with pressure to eat this or that from his family members.

If your friend or partner is not a raw foodist, then you’ll be able to share and example with them why raw food is important to you. Make time to sit down with them, go over menu ideas, food preparation suggestions, and really set the intention for what’s to come. Getting them excited will get you excited too, and you’ll be able to support each other along the way.

What to pack
Below are some suggestions to pack for your trip:
• Green Superfood: Live Greens are my favorite, but also Vitamineral Green, Sun is Shining, Pure Synergy
• Raw Honey or Agave: Only good quality dark agave or organic honey, forget about the cheap stuff, you deserve the best.
• Bee Pollen (some vegan purists don’t do honey or bee pollen)
• Goji Berries and/or Cacao Nibs
• Dried fruits and nuts: take it easy on these and always try to soak them the evening before consumption.
• It’s very important to pack a variety of easy snacks in your carryon bag in the event that you can’t find healthy snacks in the airport, train station, or hotel when you arrive. It’s easy to forget just how many options there are:
• Fresh veggies: carrot sticks, celery, broccoli and cauliflower.
• Dehydrated vegetables: sweet potatoes, white potatoes with salt and vinegar, zucchini, and yellow squash.
• Fresh fruits: a banana and grapes for the plane/train/car; apples, oranges, and pears packed in your bag.
• Dried fruits: dried apricots, apples, and pears; raisins, prunes, figs and dates.
• Raw cookies or snack bars: made in your dehydrator at home, last 3-5 days in Ziploc bags.
• Raw crackers: a huge variety can be made, a wonderful, crunchy treat when you’re craving salt.
• Granola: make a big batch in your dehydrator before you leave
Many organic grocery stores are beginning to carry prepackaged raw food bars. They’re a bit expensive ($3-5 US dollars each), so it’s best to make your own if you can, but some great brands are:
• Raw Organic Food Bars: cinnamon raisin is a favorite
• Raw Revolution bars: cashew is terrific
• Pure Bars: ginger snap—yum!
• Smart Monkey Bars: chocolate brownie
• Think! Organic: apricot coconut

Many of these brands can be pre-ordered by the case. Stock up before you leave. Note that international flights may not allow perishable items in carryon bags. Find out the rules before you leave.

Be on the lookout
Be alert for exotic fruits and try everything. Check the local paper for farmer’s markets, fresh fruit stands, and organic restaurants and shops. Don’t be discouraged, more and more towns and cities are providing organic and fresh vegetable shops. Don’t be shy, ask the locals where to find the organic food stores.

If you’re traveling overseas, you may want to look into the services of a local guide, who can be hired for as little as $1 an hour to show you around and help you locate organic foods by asking detailed questions to vendors like…”Are pesticides used? Do you have raw honey? Do you give discounts?” and so on.

Restaurants and Juice Bars
United States
• Atlanta: (live food truck that will deliver meals to your hotel or office)
• Boston: Grezzo (Alissa Cohen’s new restaurant, open 2/1/08)
• Miami: Tree of Zion (raw-friendly, fresh juices)
• New York: Pure Food and Wine (amazing gourmet raw food), Jubbs Longevity LifeFood Store (take-out live food)
• San Francisco: Alive! La Vie Cafe
International
• Amsterdam: Unlimited Health
• London: VitaOrganic
• Rio de Janeiro: Universo Organico (first live food restaurant in Brazil, great juice bar and raw food with local flavor, won Best of Brazil)
• Toronto: Live (affordable, delicious raw food), SuperSprouts and Remedy Café
• Vancouver: Eternal Abundance (organic produce, raw food in the back of the store)

Traveling Overseas
Traveling for pleasure overseas is a luxury for most, and if you’re going to a foreign country, remember to be a positive example of your home country…(The USA needs all the help it can in that area right now) … get a foreign language phrasebook or go online and write down some key phrases, like:

• Thank you
• Please
• Hello & Goodbye
• How much?
• Yes & No
• and of course, “cheaper?”

I think you get the point, a little goes a long way!

Needless to say a little planning definitely goes a long way. Kind of like the Boy Scouts’ motto: Be Prepared. Remember to pack your essentials, and your chances of having the best trip ever will skyrocket.
Safe travels…and never stop exploring. You will always discover more of yourself in the process.

Riff on all the raw food approaches, by Nomi Shannon

Water only

Juices too

Just green smoothies

What to do

Do it like Ann wigmore did

Just be sure to alkalize

Food combining is the way

Acid fruits are not OK

But yes they are –just before 10

Now I hear you should only eat the pineapple stem

Have you heard of 80-10-10?

What about Fit for Life and Zen

Let’s be reasonable apples only

But haven’t you heard of the grape fast

What about Joanna Budwig-quark and flax

What is quark and is it raw

I haven’t time to grow the sprouts

If they don’t sell it at McDonalds I have my doubts

Can I eat sweet potatoes, rutabagas and tomatoes?

What do they mean by mono meals?

Mr. Aajonus vonderplanitz says eat raw fat and meat

That sounds gross -but how will I get my protein

Better only eat low glycemic

I’m afraid I’ll become anemic

Fruits til noon and then my veggies

But where do I buy them and how do I make them

I need help and what did they say about nightshades

Don’t they go on top of lamps?

I think I’d better wait for awhile

and put if off until I know –just

Exactly the one right way

to eat better every day
If you are confused about how to begin… or want to renew your enthusiasm, Join Nomi and Friends today:

FREE WEBCAST EVENT

Join Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet, with Kevin Gianni of LiveAwesome.com and David and Katrina Rainoshek of juicefeasting.com for this FREE webcast event on Saturday April 19th, noon EST, 9AM PST.

Learn Nomi’s three secret fail-safe steps to success on starting and continuing your raw food diet.

Learn Kevin’s 8 step process that will prepare you to soar beyond the health and fitness goals you thought you could never achieve.

Learn about David and Katrina’s experiences in their 50th day of juice feasting and how it can affect you in your quest for better health.

EVENT: Spring Renewal, Begin 21 Days to Better Health
DATE & TIME: Saturday, April 19th at 12:00pm Eastern 9AM Pacific
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)

TO ATTEND THIS FREE EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…

http://www.instantteleseminar.com/default.asp?eventid=2534709

This will be an approximately 90 minute event.

The Raw Gourmet
PO Box 10396
Wilmington NC 28404

Make it Fun!
By Frédéric Patenaude

The scene looks like this: you’re hungry, you’re alone, and you’re going to eat another meal of romaine lettuce, tomatoes and avocados. And you’re bored. And these avocados are starting to be less interesting than ever. And it’s raining outside, and cold, and damp. And you’re wondering, is the fun of eating raw gone? Will I be able to eat like that forever? Can this really be healthy?

As pure and as simple as our raw meals can be, there comes a point for most of us where boredom can set in, when we require more variety or friends to share food with, else we will might face one thing: lack of enthusiasm.

I’ve told people that simplicity is best. That a simple meal of ripe mangoes when you’re hungry beats the best raw or cooked pie you’ve ever had. That making a great salad doesn’t necessarily involve putting everything but the kitchen sink in it and that, too often, raw recipes are too complicated and, as a consequence, difficult to digest. However, I did not mean that it is better to be a sad ascetic than a merry epicurean.

It may be because I’m a bit of an epicurean myself. I love food and, since I seem to be endowed with a few culinary talents, I get never bored. I like to vary my diet and introduce new fruits, new nuts, new vegetables and new recipes. And I encourage you to do the same for two things. First being bored isn’t fun. Second, it might not be healthy either.

I’ve noticed a few things in raw foodists. They don’t seem to vary their diet a lot. They often stick with the few foods that they like. I’ve noticed for example that many raw foodists eat avocados everyday. Others eat almonds everyday. Many raw-foodists told me that they eat a meal of romaine lettuce, avocados, sprouts, and tomatoes everyday. Sometimes they add some red bell pepper. Others bananas for lunch and nothing else almost every day of the year. Is this supposed to be what simplicity is about? Always eating the same thing? Is this natural?

Chimpanzees are known to eat over 120 different varieties of plant food in a year. While carnivorous animals always eat the same and never get bored, frugivores seek variety. Most of us, too, have been raised on a varied diet. When someone only eats porridge and potatoes every day, we know that things are not going well for him. As human beings we are used to variety and, if we don’t have variety, it’s usually because of a lack of means or sheer incapacity to cook (many divorced men find themselves in that situation!).

On a raw food diet, variety is even more important because raw fruits and vegetables provide nutrients in a less concentrated, more diluted form. Thus, a certain vegetable may lack in many important nutrients, which are compensated by what other vegetables can provide. It is not enough to look at the charts and calculate our nutritional intake because these numbers are wrong. A tomato grown in a farm in California doesn’t have the same nutritional value as another tomato grown in a local garden or one grown in a hothouse. The only way we can insure proper nutrition on a raw food diet is by constantly varying the foods we eat according to the season. Let’s review a few pieces of advice and add some more:

1) Vary the fruits — It’s easy to get stuck eating one food that we like and forget everything else. I know, personally, that when mangos are in season, I eat mangos. But fruit is fun. Fruit is what makes the raw food diet a lot of fun, especially when we include exotic fruits in the menu. So I suggest constantly varying the fruits that you are eating and discovering as many tropical fruits as you can. A durian cure once a year is allowed.

2) Eat according to the seasons — When I tell people to eat seasonally, most of them don’t understand. They think, if something can be bought in a store, it means it’s in season, right? Partly. It’s in season somewhere, but not necessarily in your hemisphere! Let’s consider the following: cherries are in season during the summer, but in our side of the world. So the cherries you may buy may be imported, but they are in season for you. If you find cherries in the stores in the middle of the winter, this means they have been imported from a far away country like Chili, which is situated in the southern hemisphere where the seasons are reversed! It is not only completely un-ecological to import foods from that far away, but the fruit is also picked way too early and eating it at that time doesn’t follow our own biological rhythm.

3) Eating simply doesn’t mean eating just one food at a meal — I don’t believe in mono-eating in the sense that every meal should be ideally composed of one food alone. I think this way of eating leads to abuse. For example, pineapples and oranges are acid. If we eat only these fruits at one meal, we’ll likely eat too many of them to satisfy our hunger and introduce too much acidity in the system. Dates are too sweet. Plums contain a particular acid which can give you the runs if you eat too much. Melons and papayas are rich in water but a meal of them doesn’t satisfy. So I recommend, when eating fruit, eating 2-3 varieties, ideally not more than that. And if you like, you can eat them one at a time like a true mono-eater.

4) Vary your vegetables — Your mum told you “Eat your vegetables!” And she was rights. But the chances are that even as a raw-foodist you may not be listening to her. First you may not be eating enough vegetables, and second you may not vary them enough. To eat enough vegetables, you have to be creative. A salad can get boring. So put your salad in the blender and make a raw soup sometimes! Check out some raw soup recipe books for ideas. Green vegetable juices are also extremely beneficial, and I recommend to drink some every day, if possible. I like my green juice to be tasty, so I mix enough celery juice in it and sometimes add a little bit of carrot and beet juice too. And as for variety, the key is to make the base of your salad out of a different vegetable every time and discover the unknown varieties.

5) Don’t eat avocados everyday — This is my advice for raw-foodists. Most of them tend to eat too many avocados and too often. Consider the avocado as one type of fatty food, not the staple of a raw food diet. I suggest eating avocados no more than once every other day. Try to eat some nuts instead, and discover new varieties. Seeds are also excellent. Hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and sesame seeds should be added to the menu more often. This will help provide a wider range of nutrients that avocados alone could not provide.

6) When in doubt, blend it up — Why shun all modern developments and insist to eat only whole fruits and vegetables when we have diabolical machines such as the blender that can transform them into liquid meals of unsuspected nutritional power? Hey, a little technology is good. One of my friends says, “I love my car.” With the same unabashed mien I say “I love my blender,” which just happens to be a Vita-Mix that I use almost everyday. Smoothies and raw vegetable soups are great ways to vary your diet and avoid boredom. And when we add young coconuts, soaked nuts, avocados and carob powder to the blending orgy, the possibilities for fun creamy treats are almost endless.

7) When wondering what to eat, go to the Chinese — The Chinese themselves like to say they’ll eat anything with four legs except a table. We‘ll close an eye on some of their unscrupulous ways and concede that they have helped us get out of the dark ages of raw eating in northern countries, when no durians were available. Chinatowns are full of surprises waiting to be discovered. I even found durian toys. Then you can learn to say “thank you” in Chinese (shiay shiay), or in whatever language the store owners happen to speak.

I gave you some basic recommendations on varying the diet. However, I didn’t tell you exactly how you can make your raw meals fun and exciting. I will now give you some ideas for quick and fun raw meals, which will hopefully open your mind to try out more.

A friend of mine, for whom I was un-cooking, told me with a shrewd look one day, “It’s all salad anyway.” I was probably preparing a raw spaghetti from zucchini lasagna with eggplant, and he told me, just like that, “It’s all salad anyway.”

Okay, it may all be vegetables, but first it doesn’t look like salad, and second it doesn’t exactly taste like a salad. The difference between a salad that looks like a salad and a vegetable mix that looks and tastes like something else is, as Mark Twain once put it, “the difference between lightning and the lightning bug!”

Here are some ideas:

1) Take a nori sheet. Spread some mashed avocado on it or one tablepsoon of tahini. Add grated courgettes and rinsed dulse. Roll up like and eat like a sandwich. Everyone will think you’re a genius.

2) For a great smoothies, blend some papaya and two whole ripe mangoes. Add any other fruit in season. Blend with some water and beware of flying socks if you have your friends try it out.

3) Soaked sun-dried tomatoes really add flavor. Put them in everything that is not sweet and be ready to discover great combos.

4) Blend frozen durian with other fruits. Let it thaw for a few hours and then blend it up with coconut water, mangoes, or other fruits. You can even blend it with some carob powder, coconut water, and a few dates for an “out-of-this-world experience.”

5) For a quick nut spread, blend in your food processor raw tahini and carrots together. Use more vegetables than nut butter. Add your favorite seasonings.

6) An easy dressing idea: blend 1-2 whole oranges with a small avocado. Add other herbs or vegetables if desired. Simple and delicious.

7) Here’s an easy soup that will surprise many: blend tomatoes with celery. Use 2-3 stalks of celery per tomato. Add diced tomatoes or cucumbers to the mixture. This will take care of any salt cravings you might have.

These were just a few ideas to vary your diet and avoid boredom. My motto is it should be tasty, healthy, and easy to prepare. When I open some raw cookbooks and find a recipe with a page long worth of ingredients I ask myself, “Do they really expect me to spend that much time just to eat?” Then I think of all of the time it will take to wash all the dishes and I give up. Are they kidding? I can prepare something in 10 minutes and it will be just as good, easier to digest and will leave me enough time to do the things that I really like to do, such as writing articles for Get Fresh!

So in conclusion, varying your diet doesn’t have to get complicated. It doesn’t involve becoming a raw gourmet genius. It just means having the attitude of, “Hey, I’m going to have fun with this and try something new everyday.” It’s about being open to try new foods you’ve never tasted before, and making sure you don’t eat the same thing every day.

And remember, the cure for boredom is curiosity. But there is no cure for curiosity.

This new recipe book will prove a delightful, entertaining, indispensable companion to your everyday raw Life.

“The Easiest Way to Eat Raw”

“I Just received “Instant Raw Sensation” and “The Best Foods on the Planet” booklet. I just love it. This is without a doubt the easiest way to eat raw foods.

“I’m so glad you published this since I have had problems knowing just what to eat on a daily basis to give me the nourishment I need. These two books will definitely be my bible from now on.

“Once again, thank you for your efforts in showing us how easy a raw food diet can be.”

Ilse Lostvogel
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Click below to buy Frederic Patenaude’s new book.

Instant Raw Sensations
by Frederic Patenaude

“Frederic Patenaude, is the author of the best-selling e-book “The Raw Secrets”. He is currently giving away fr*ee access to his private library of over 100 exclusive articles along with a subscription to his newsletter Pure Health & Nutrition. Visit http://www.fredericpatenaude.com while charter subscriptions last.

I always love hearing other people’s testimonies about how simply changing their diet to an all natural, raw vegan lifestyle helped them eliminate their health issues. And when they are healed, they no longer need to see the doctor, spend money on pharmaceuticals, or need to continue to take prescription drugs that poison their system. There are thousands of testimonies on the web of people who have been healed of all kinds of debilitating and chronic diseases, easily lost weight, and gained significantly more energy. Below are just a few people who overcame their health issues and are making a difference by helping others do the same.

In his book, Your Natural Diet, David Klein writes about how he got fed up with seeing doctors, having a myriad of tests run, and taking tons of prescription medicine for his Colitis and Crohn’s diseases. Someone told him about eating a whole living food diet, and to eliminate all animal products. It wasn’t easy, but when he started to make that transition, his colitis and IBS flare-ups began to subside. He committed to a 100% raw food vegan diet, and immediately began to feel better than he ever had felt before. This was almost 20 years ago. He went on to get his Ph.D in nutrition, and has been counseling others in transitioning to a natural vegan diet ever since. Today over 1,000 clients have been healed since 1993 on his medically endorsed vegan diet healing plan. On one of his sites: http://www.colitis-crohns.com/ he says:

“99% of our clients heal and feel great in 2 to 8 weeks by their own self-healing power. This is not a quick fix. No other plan results in health. Find out why natural hygiene is the true path to health. …”

His testimony is amazing, as are many, many others who have made the change to a vegan, whole food, natural diet. I still refer to one of his great books: Your Natural Diet, I would encourage anyone interested in learning more about the “diet that heals” to get this book.

David Wolfe is another very well known raw foodist and is considered by peers to be one of the world’s leading authorities on nutrition. David is the author of Naked Chocolate, Eating For Beauty and The Sunfood Diet Success System. David works, in conjunction with Sunfood Nutrition™, to develop, market and distribute some of the world’s most wonderful and exotic organic food items. David and Sunfood Nutrition™ (formerly Nature’s First Law) were the first to bring raw and organic: cacao beans/nibs (raw chocolate), goji berries, Incan berries, cacao butter, cacao powder, powdered encapsulated mangosteen, maca extract and cold-pressed coconut oil into general distribution in North America. Known for extraordinary quality control and ethical production, these products and many others developed by David and Sunfood Nutrition™ lead the field. David Wolfe has degrees in mechanical and environmental engineering, political science, a juris doctor in law, and a masters in living-food nutrition. He has studied at many institutions including Oxford University. Currently, David still participates in higher education as a professor of nutrition for Dr. Gabriel Cousens’ masters degree program on live-food nutrition. David Wolfe is the middle son of two medical doctors, which provides him with a unique perspective in the health field. Since 1995, David Wolfe has given over 1,000 health lectures and seminars in the United States, Canada, Europe, the South Pacific, Central America and South America. He hosts at least six health, fitness and adventure retreats each year at various retreat centers around the world. David is the founder of the non-profit Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (www.ftpf.org) whose goal is to plant 18 billion fruit trees on planet Earth. David is also the founder of, and leading contributor to, the internet’s only Peak Performance and Nutrition online magazine: www.thebestdayever.com. David may not have any real great testimonies about personal healing, but for someone who travels constantly, doing seminars, and sharing his knowledge, his busy schedule is a testimony in and of itself for the raw food diet. You can see some videos I posted about him here.

Shelly Keck-Borsits went to hell and back with her health issues for many years before she made the connection of a raw, vegan food diet and her health. I wrote a post about her testimony here: http://raw4healing.com/health/dying-to-get-well and how she documented her story in a free ebook that you can download and read here:

http://www.abcinternetmarketing.com/dtgw/ebook/free/rawfoods/DTGW.pdf

She also bravely writes about the little known corporate conspiracy and cover up by the food manufacturing industries, and the medical and pharmaceutical industries. They are not concerned about improving your health, they’re primarily in business to make money, at the risk of your health!

I could write for days about all the testimonies of people getting healed by simply following a pure, natural, vegan diet. Not even necessarily 100% raw food, as it may seem pretty radical to some people. I’ve heard of health improvements on an 85% raw food diet. The main thing is to make the decision to stop eating packaged, processed, canned, pasteurized “food”. Food manufacturers spend more money on packaging and fancy color pictures on the boxes than they do on the junk inside!! More money is spent on preservatives, food colorings, and MSG than on the so-called food itself! It’s all about getting the consumer to see it, and then want it. They don’t care if it’s healthy for you. Remember, like I’ve said in my other posts, just follow the money trail.

But let me focus on the title of this post: Raw Food Diet Cures Fibromyalgia. I recently read Alissa Cohen’s book: “Living On Live Food” (which includes a DVD) and enjoyed it very much. She teaches a raw food certification course, and she shares many tasty recipes as well as her own personal story. She was, what she calls a ‘quasi-vegetarian’ when she was sixteen. She wasn’t specifically concerned about health benefits, animal rights issues, or environmental concerns at the time. She just didn’t like red meat that much. Around this same time, she started working out in a gym, and began reading books on health and fitness. She read “Fit for Life”, “Diet for a Small Planet” and others promoting the vegetarian philosophy.

When she read John Robbin’s “Diet for a New America”, she immediately became a confirmed vegetarian. She was fascinated with Robbin’s theories on the physiological impact of eating animals, his exposition on its social, ecological, and economic consequences really blew her away. (It really impacted me, too, when I read John’s book; highly recommended reading!) As a result, she began reading more about how whole foods have a major influence on the overall health of our bodies.

Alissa thought that since she wasn’t eating meat, chicken, fish or eggs, that she was healthier than most people. But she was experiencing chronic illness, including constant yeast infections, and bladder infections. She was tired a lot, her skin was breaking out, she was having frequent headaches, and she couldn’t keep her weight down.

Seeing the doctor only aggravated her problem. He put her on antibiotics, which helped for a week or two. But she was constantly getting colds, her immune system was being weakened due to the continuous round of drugs she was taking. The various doctors she was seeing kept telling her she had a yeast infection, and kept prescribing her antibiotics and other drugs. This regime went on for two years! And she was getting worse. At the age of twenty-two, she began to feel like a very old lady, with no energy, tired and achy all the time.

Finally, a doctor recommended laparoscopy. This was to be exploratory surgery involving a fiber optical instrument to be inserted into the abdominal wall through the navel in order to examine the organs. It was painful and intrusive, and yielded no new information. And yet, further exploratory surgery was suggested. That’s when she said NO! No more!

As her depression grew worse, she began to listen to her gut feelings and researched holistic practices. When she wandered into a local health food store, and discovered a book call “The Yeast Connection”, she writes that “Purchasing and reading that book was a life changing decision for me.” She learned how the food she was eating was contributing to her yeast infection. She visited a holistic practitioner who confirmed what she had read in the book and he told her that changing her diet will help to rid herself of the yeast infections, and improve her immune system as well.

She had Candida and Fibromyalgia and a host of other ailments and after seeing the holistic practitioner, she immediately changed her diet to nothing but 100% raw vegan food. She found that when she ate so called good vegetarian foods (steamed veggies, rice, tofu, etc.) she would feel lethargic and foggy-headed. But her body would buzz and her energy began to soar when she ate raw fruits, vegetable, nuts and seeds. Her back didn’t hurt, her Candida went away within days! She couldn’t ignore how she felt when she ate raw compared to when she ate cooked food. The concept of eating whole foods full of life energy and enzymes made so much more sense than eating dead cooked foods.

At the time, the only information available was Dr. Ann Wigmore’s book “Recipes For a Longer Life”. She teaches how living foods create live bodies, dead foods produce dead bodies. This impacted Alissa so much she began eating only raw foods.

After just a few months on the raw food diet, Alissa had no symptoms of Fibromyalgia, her Candida was gone and she felt better then she had since her teenage years. Her energy shot through the roof and she began to look younger and younger, and was more positive and happy. Soon, she began to share this diet with others and found they got the same kind of results. She knew she had found the perfect way to eat for her and, for others as well.

Since then, Alissa became a nutritional counselor, polarity therapist and personal fitness trainer. She has certifications in energetic bodywork, holistic counseling and nutrition, and opened her own health food store. She was experimenting with raw food before much information was out there, and as result, began to teach herself and work with many well-respected teachers and trailblazers in the raw food movement.

So what is the best way to get into raw foods?

Everyone is different. The very first time I learned about raw foods was actually several years ago. I was researching the benefits of a vegan diet, and stumbled on some information about raw foods. I had also read Dr. Ann Wigmore’s book back in the late 1970’s about the health benefits, and cancer fighting properties of a raw food diet, but it just seemed like too much work. And that is really what many people first think when learning about a raw food diet. There is a little bit of a learning curve as well. Preparing meals with fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds is VERY different than what we grew up with. Learning to make a ‘cheese’ with raw cashew nuts or pine nuts, corn tortillas with a dehydrator, and noodles with zucchini is radically different than what we’re used to. But the benefits are so awesome, I can never go back.

I’ve been almost 100% raw for nearly a year now, having been a total vegan for many years before that. But it wasn’t until I started eating more raw fruits and vegetables, and learning to prepare delicious raw food meals, when my own health issues began to disappear. My skin rashes and scalp problems cleared up, my muscle and joint pains are gone, I no longer wake up with stiff, swollen hands in the morning (water retention), my hypoglycemia is gone, I sleep less, I weigh less than I did in high school, and I have more energy than I’ve ever had in my whole life. And my husband has lost over 30 pounds in less than three months, is able to reduce his asthma medicine, and has more energy than ever before.

For some people that decide to start eating a whole, living and raw food diet, they feel they need to transition slowly, while others are ready to jump right in. Generally, it is recommended that people should start 100% raw right away. Usually, when people go slow they simply just never get there. They’re not committed, and get side tracked and eventually lose momentum. When you’re not eating 100% raw, the results are slower and the motivation is lost since the results are not quick enough. Read books, search the internet, attend some local raw food classes and find out for yourself what the best way to do this diet is. I do think that raw food is for everyone but that doesn’t mean that everyone should have the same raw food diet. This diet can be tailored to your needs and your situation. No one way will work for everyone, some people eat mostly fruit, some more fats and proteins, others more of a mono diet and so forth. You need to experiment and see for yourself what works best.

I have found that for those new to this lifestyle, the easiest and healthiest way to transition is to go on a ‘juice feast’. A juice feast is simply blending fruits and vegetables in a high speed blender, and literally ‘drinking your food.’ This provides your body with the maximum amount of nutrition, is very filling and satisfying, and at the same time, it allows your body to detox. Many health issues are the result of built up toxins and poisons in your system from eating a standard American diet (SAD). On a juice feast, you don’t have to worry about preparing special raw food meals, take the time read some raw food books with recipes, and do some shopping. Some juice feasts can last from three days to 92 days, like the current Global Juice Feasting program.

There are some problems when people transition to a raw food diet. They might get too strict. They try to eat a mono diet. They start fasting. They cut out nuts. They start thinking one food is not good, that fruits are too high in sugar, they shouldn’t have as much fat, they should not eat too much, etc. Eating raw food is drastically different to what most people are used to eating. What makes people think that eating an extra piece of fruit or more raw nuts will be the worst think in the world when just a week before they were eating pizza, ice cream and Mexican food? On this diet, people tend to go to the extreme. Raw food is extreme enough for most people. Just relax around it and have fun with it. And some people think that a raw food diet consists of nothing but fruit and salads all the time. Oh, it is so much more than that! There are so many awesome and wonderful, easy to prepare raw food recipes that are alive with flavor, and full of nutrition and enzymes.

Another major pitfall is not having food in your house. You need to make sure you have enough food so that when you get hungry you can eat! For some reason when people go raw, they don t think they need to have a lot of raw food in their home. But you would have cooked food if you were eating a cooked food diet! Make sure you know how to make some good raw food meals so when you re hungry you know how to whip something up so you don t find yourself driving to the nearest fast food chain restaurant.

In summary, if you are really serious about improving your health, losing weight, and having more energy than you know what to do with, then you want to learn all you can about how to change your diet to a natural, vegan raw food lifestyle. Think of it as an investment, not only in your own health, but in your family, children and even your friends. Once you begin to share the benefits of this new lifestyle, think of the impact you will have on those around you. Especially children. Do you realize that children raised on a raw food diet are healthier, smarter, and have far less discipline problems? They do not have ADHD symptoms, obesity problems, (both of which are now considered to be at epidemic proportions with our children today), or even discipline issues. If parents were to change their diet in addition to putting their children on a raw food diet for just two weeks, they would never look back. I know I never did!!

Frequently, I will pass up on buying organic vanilla beans due to the cost alone. They are expensive, and easily go for $3 to $6 per organic vanilla bean at your local health food store. It’s so much easier to just grab the pure vanilla extract, instead… but now there’s good news!

At The Organic Vanilla Bean Company, you can now afford to load up on their incredibly low priced vanilla beans.  They are offering organic beans at 10x to 12x less the retail price! You just have to check them out!

Deal: $25 for 1lb of Grade A Certified Organic Tahitian Vanilla Beans (6-7″ long). That’s about 25 cents per bean!

Description: “Tahitian Vanilla comes from the fruit of an orchid variety called Vanilla Tahitensis and has very little vanillin, but is high in the natural organic compound called heliotropin. Tahitian beans are generally plumper than Bourbon, but more delicate with a stronger nose: they are flowery, fruity and anisic with a smooth flavor. Gourmet and pastry chefs love to work with the Tahitian variety, as they crave its instant flavor burst without the lingering finish.”

You just have to try them! So much better than vanilla extracts, and the bean itself adds such a great flavor to your smoothies, raw desserts, and all your other cool creations!