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.
mary wrote on June 17, 2010
I loved the post. I have been at least 80% raw for about 3 months now and I have to say it has been a bit getting used to. It’s kind of like learning how to eat and prepare foods all over again. I started raw because no matter how “clean” my diet was I still didn’t feel “great”. I considered my previous diet to be pretty healthy. I just felt that there must be a way to feel less tired, less digestive problems and more alert. After 3 months my nails and hair look fantastic, I’m less tired, skin looks great, i have no bloating and better digestion and lost some weight. I won’t ever go back to my other lifestyle of eating. Yes it takes a bit of work and a bit of planning but it’s soooo worth it. I treat cancer patients for a living and really feel if half my patients ate a raw diet they wouldn’t have half their illnesses. So, I’m with you Rawamazing! Keep spreading the good word!
Kristen Magno wrote on June 17, 2010
ps. gorgeous photography…I’m beginning my journey in photography and loving it…your photos are amazing…did you take formal classes or are you self-taught?
Susan wrote on June 17, 2010
Thanks! I am self-taught.
Kristen Magno wrote on June 17, 2010
I’m on my way to a high raw diet, and when I say I have little to no time in the kitchen, I mean it…with a 3 hour commute and 9 hour workdays…a new puppy, trying to fit in walk time for the dogs and yoga for myself…going 100% raw right now would be overwhelming, so I started this month with raw breakfasts…I drink a green smoothie or green juice every morning. I included a large salad with dinner (I’m already vegan)…and have already lost 3 pounds in 2 weeks…just by going raw for breakfast…and I have a ton more energy…so if someone wants to try the raw diet I suggest starting with one meal and working your way up from there…maybe also including some raw snacks and/or raw deserts. 🙂
Stacey wrote on June 17, 2010
Hi Susan-I’m not sure how I found your site but I’m glad I did. Recipes are wonderful and unique, your commentary is very thoughtful and the photos are lovely. I started raw in earnest (75-80%, I figure) in April. Had found the Green Smoothie ladies from Cananda somehow, and started there. Toyed with raw after finding the Kenney/Melngailis book in 2007, great recipes for now and then, but too complicated for regular use. With 10 lbs of weight loss in the first month or so, I feel so much better. It’s a lifestyle change for sure (I was already vegetarian) but it doesn’t feel like denial. It helps that it’s warm outside and that the garden is planted, but it’s true, there’s less time in the kitchen (I’m an avid cook and used to own a wholesale bakery) and easy cleanup. It feels great to be reacquainted with produce and to handle it so lightly with such groovy results. I hope folks at least incorporate more raw stuff into their diets, not with an extreme attitude of all raw or nothing. The best advice is to go gradually into any change. Oh, and to have fun!!
Susan wrote on June 17, 2010
Stacey, I couldn’t have said it better!
Jodie Bonfrer wrote on June 17, 2010
Saw some of the comments with a picture of the person who did the comment.
How can I ad a picture with my comments?
Susan wrote on June 17, 2010
I honestly have no idea about the picture. I don’t have access to that from my end. Anyone?
Jodie Bonfrer wrote on June 17, 2010
That sounds real yummy Elizabeth.
I just made a yummy chocolate mousse and it taste better than the dairy stuff.
I find most of the raw food much yummier than cooked food .
Made a nice soup the other day just boiled the water turned of the heat and put all the soup mix in it in one go so it cooled it down real fast and than I served it all veggies nice and crunchy but nice and warm.
any body ever made a tofu yogert at all I made it this week wow so yummy.
elizabeth wrote on June 16, 2010
I’ve been RAW for close to a year and can honestly say it is the best thing I have done for myself. Yes, you have to think about what you are going to prepare for dinner, but the rewards are tenfold. I have never felt so alive, and at 55, I’m running marathons and loving it. As a Registered Nurse, I get on my soap box to all my patients, (who will listen) and explain this simple concept of eating raw.
PS: My dinner is in the dehydrator now, tomato slices with a nut cheese/basil in between, drizzled with EVOO, garlic & sea salt. Yummy!!
Elizabeth wrote on June 16, 2010
Pay now or Pay Later. I am also baffled by people who think this lifestyle is so difficult. But I have compassion too. It really takes a whole NEW way of thinking to prepare foods this way. I’ve been raw for two years, 100% for extended periods of time, and I still, sometimes stand in my kitchen thinking how easy it would be to eat a veggie burger right now. (And sometimes I do). But I always feel better when I don’t.
In fact the longer I have been doing the raw thing the less complicated it gets. I crave simple meals like a smoothie or a salad or beautiful greens, kelp noodles, tomatoes and sprouted/seasoned/dehydrated seeds or I break open an avocado and dive in with a spoon.
Susan I love this article. It’s so important that we talk about this over and over again. It takes a while to break free of how we all learned to prepare foods on the SAD.
Jodie Bonfrer wrote on June 16, 2010
I read with interest the comments and like to ad something.
I’m a 69 years old male from New Zealand ,and have always avoided processed foods.
I have not been sick for over thirty years and are very very fit and healthy.
Six years ago I met a nice lady and started living together.
She is a diabetic and insulin depended I said you have to lose weight to get of her diabetic
I was toled diabetic was not reversible but did some research and came to the conclusion that the meat and dairy products are the problem.
a few months ago I started us on a complete raw diet and she now uses less and less insulin we saw the doctor the other day and she had lost weight her blood pressure was normal and her cholesterol was perfect it shows that it really really works and I’m sure I will get her diabetic sorted .
I have One happy lady now as she feels great and has hope for the future to be insulin free .
Hope more people will take note of our lead and start eating healthy.
the doctor said she has not seen a 69 years old as healthy and fit as I’m for a long time.
She said it’s hard to believe I’m 69 .
Another thing I like to add is make sure you expose you body to the sun for at least 15 minutes a day as it will protect you from getting cancer