Raw Is Not Difficult!
At what point do we start realizing how important what we eat is to our quality of life. I was listening to Dr Christiane Northrup, MD, author of “Women’s Health, Women’s Wisdom”. She stated, “What we eat and exercise are the single most important things we can do for our health”.
I was informed by a good friend of mine that she and a friend were looking at the Rawmazing.com site the other day. How on earth do you eat like that. It is so hard and complicated! And the ingredients are so exotic…where on earth do you buy all of that stuff.
I sat, mystified. Was she really looking at my site? My *I am impatient in the kitchen site*? My *I need my food to be simple site*? It couldn’t be MY site…but it was.
There is a huge misconception among traditional diet eaters that raw is more difficult and time consuming than traditional cooking. I can honestly say, I spend less time actually preparing my raw food than when I made cooked food. I am not including dehydration time but that is just a matter of planning. I am talking about actual food handling time.
Many of the raw food recipes here are very easy to make and require very few ingredients. You can find raw food recipes that have a large number of ingredients, just like some traditional recipes can contain a lot of ingredients. If you want quick and easy, choose simple recipes.
My daughter was home for the last few weeks. She is a vegetarian, loves raw but still wants her veggie sausages in the morning. I bought a box from the coop. The next morning, I opened the cardboard box, and plastic packets, containing the sausage fell out. I opened them and dropped the sausage into the fry pan. It felt amazingly foreign to me. This “making of food” without ever touching one ingredient.
It felt so strange, so foreign. That’s when it hit me. There are a lot of people who’s idea of cooking involves opening a box. It is a different kind of fast food. No wonder why people think that actually touching fresh ingredients, cutting the vegetables, creating a raw meal is time consuming.
Along with this “fast box” mentality has come a fast decline in our health. Since we are an “I want it now” society, the need for instant gratification overwhelms the inner knowledge that this fast answer could create some really bad, very time consuming health problems down the road.
So, when you are contemplating the difficulty of incorporating more raw foods into your lifestyle, think of the big picture. The future picture. Know that taking a little more time with your food now could save you in the future.
MB wrote on June 16, 2010
LOL.
I think I meant to say per 100g not per pound. Pound would be nice wouldn’t it?
scherry valentine wrote on June 16, 2010
Great post. I agree with you. Friends have said the same things to me. I just look at them and say, ” Not really. ” Or I get the ” That diet seems so restrictive.” And again perplexed I say, ” But I eat constantly, as much as I want, all day long and lose weight! ” Just keep blogging and rawing and eventually everyone else will catch up. Oh, think of the complexity of weighing and counting everything, yikes!
sarah wrote on June 16, 2010
This is so true, I was at orientation for a new job yesterday and in one example, a birthday cake for a party, they were talking about how we have gone from gathering fresh ingredients to make a cake, to buying cake mix in a box, to buying a cake from a bakery. We are so busy these days we do very little from “scratch.” Most kids these days would consider baking a cake from a box, making one from “scratch.”
Diane wrote on June 16, 2010
I think it’s more the perception of more complicated recipes or more time in the kitchen. I’m probably 60/40 raw/cooked right now, and a top quality blender has helped tremendously. When I “cook,” it’s typically very simple, like steamed veggies, poached eggs, or maybe a quick lentil soup, so I don’t find prep time to be much different between the two. I do agree about the planning, though, with raw, even without a dehydrator – anytime I bring fresh produce into the house, 9 times out of 10 I wind up chucking at least 1/3 of it because I get too busy to do make whatever recipe I’d planned for. My raw right now is primarily green smoothies and salads because anything more complicated than that typically doesn’t happen.
Dot D. wrote on June 16, 2010
Susan, I appreciate your articles and agree with them. I’m a Newbie at being Raw and not at the point of “full tilt” but my body knows it is best for me to continue with it. I have taken classes and an going to teach it in the fall. Just set up my website. I always give your site a plug to all my classmates and friends. Would you like me to list it on my website as well?
Thanks for being there. You are a good support for me and I look forward to all your communcations. Till next time………
Dot D. wrote on June 16, 2010
MB, I am paying upwards of $12-$14/lb. on nuts and seeds on the East Coast at Whole Foods stores, so I’d love to get them wherever you purchase them! Mail ordering is a bit better for me.
You can pre-soak your nuts and seeds on the day you buy them, let them air-dry a bit, then store them in containers in the refrigerator for 3-5 days if that helps. I’m also told that nuts can be left in the dehydrator for days/weeks and nothing will go bad!! Raw/Vegan restaurants do this.
Best wishes keeping Raw!
Barbcam wrote on June 16, 2010
Great comments by all! I for one refuse to label myself as anything concerning my diet–I also don’t believe in completely eliminating any one thing from my diet. I try, like you said, Susan, to incorporate as many raw fresh organic whole foods in to my family’s diet as possible. I have been High Raw for the last 6 months and have made it work with raising 2 young kids and working full time. I have had some bouts of low energy during this time. So, now I’m trying to incorporate some cooked foods, which helps at dinner time because my husband and children are not raw. What could be simpler than green smoothies and huge wonderful salads for 2 meals (no dehydrator required) and a simple cooked dinner with raw sides? It works for me. Just the process of learning about the raw foods lifestyle has completely changed the way I look at food and feeding my family who are the most precious things to me. I have tried many of your recipes, Susan, and they have all been WONDERFUL. Just nothing requiring a dehydrator–I’m not ready to go there just yet.
Mel wrote on June 16, 2010
Haha that reminds me of the other day, my friend made herself a full cooked breakfast and i just chopped up some fruit and threw it in the blender – she looked at me baffled and said ‘you’re lifestyle requires a lot of hard work, I couldnt do it’ ..well not really, but there’s a reason they call it ‘slaving over a hot stove’
The things I dont like about raw uncooking is the planning – I can’t plan ahead, which is why i live a lot of juices. But when I’m preparing food it usually goes into my blender or food processor – maybe even the dehydrator – there is very little manual work for me, except maybe if my cheap blender cant mix something and I have to scoop a bit.
Oh if the fifties housewives were raw how easy their lives would have been.
Ashley wrote on June 15, 2010
This is a wonderful post. I get the question of “what do you eat?” “doesn’t it take so much of your time?” all the time. I think so many people are accustomed quick boxed meals that they have forgotten what actually goes into them! That is one of my favorite aspects of eating raw; knowing, seeing, and working with every ingredient that goes into my meals! It may take a period of adjustment, but preparing raw food can really help simplify your life.