Chapter 5-Raw Foods You Should & Shouldn't Eat
How to Incorporate Animal Products, Herbs and Other Food into Your New Raw Food Diet
If you want to include animal products in your diet you can try with cheese, milk, raw eggs, and yogurt. When you are including grains, beans, and nuts in your diet, you may soak them in water to release the enzymes so they will be more digestible for you to consume. As a beginner you should stick to following easy recipes that you can prepare without much hassle. You will eventually find that consuming raw food is going to be a lot more convenient that cooked foods. When you are craving desserts such as cakes or chocolates, instead choose to eat things such as dried fruits like cranberries, pineapple, raisins, apricots, or dates.
When you want to add some more flavor to your meals add fresh and dried herbs. When you use herbs and condiments it can really help you to transition to a raw food diet. Many seasonings have therapeutic benefits. The majority of culinary herbs and spices are rich in natural volatile oils that will help improve your circulation and digestive system as well as improve your nutrient assimilation. Some of the more common herbs and spices that you can get are parsley, coriander, basil, cayenne, oregano, and cinnamon. You can also use sea salt to add flavor to your foods. You can make salad dressing with virgin olive oil. These will help enhance the taste of your meals. Unlike processed foods, raw foods will spoil rather quickly so don't buy too much at a time or they will just go bad. Try not to keep leftovers as much as possible.
You can freeze dried fruits, shelled nuts, and grains to keep them longer. Remember that some fruits need to ripen fully before you can refrigerate them such as tomatoes, mangoes, avocados, plums and pears. Never refrigerate pumpkins, onions, garlic, bananas, potatoes, and pineapples. The low humidity of a fridge can easily dry out fruits and vegetables. To stop this from happening pack the fruits and veggies in air tight plastic bags. This will help slow down the dehydration process and keep them fresher longer. When storing fruits and veggies in fridge store avocados, cucumber, eggplant, zucchini, passion, fruits, tomatoes, and mangoes in the crisper. Store fruits such as apples, pears, peaches, grapes, apricots, and sweet corn on the upper shelves of your fridge.
Beginners often wonder what they must do in order to get enough protein in their daily diet. To get the right amount of proteins add leafy greens and sprouts to your meals. These will be a good source of protein for you. You can also snack on raw nuts such as pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, Brazilian nuts and flax seeds. Goji and Incan berries are rich in protein and so are soy products. Make sure to add plenty of these foods in your daily diet.
Foods You Should Eat
Try to eat as much organically grown food as you can. Try adding dandelions to salads, smoothies or juices; the whole plant is edible and very nutritious and medicinal.
Below is a list of fruits and vegetables with lowest pesticide content: Watermelon, sweet potatoes, sweet peas, lettuce, pineapple, mushrooms, eggplant, grapefruit, kiwi, mangoes, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, bananas, avocados, and asparagus.
I would highly suggest that all other produce that you consume is organically grown. Besides being very healthy for your body it is also much easier and quicker to prepare. To be successful in this diet it is a good idea to make sure that you surround yourself with nice quality fruit. If you get to many bananas no need to worry! You can peel them and put them in bags and freeze them for months, then use them in smoothies. Feeding your bacteria in your colon foods that are high in resistant starch will deter them from climbing into your intestines looking for food. To help speed up the process in getting your bacteria used to your new plant-based diet you can try consuming raw apple cider vinegar, take probiotics, and eat a small amount of fermented food every day. Fermenting vegetables, and fruits, mushrooms, and herbs, nuts and seeds can be as simple as blending them up then putting them in a mason jar and have them sit out for several days in water and salt. Try tasting them periodically when you find a taste you like, then put the mason jar in the fridge. They will remain good for many months. You can add raw apple cider vinegar or probiotic capsules to speed up the fermentation process of your mason jar mixture.
When it comes to eating greens to help ensure different nutrient profiles and to avoid oxalates from the same plants rotate your greens. The most nutrient dense foods ounce for ounce is green plants, but they produce oxalates as a type of defense mechanism. To help prevent a buildup of oxalates in your body, as they can block absorption of important minerals, avoid going for months eating the same greens. You want to keep eating greens, they offer an abundance of nourishment including chlorophyll which helps clean your blood of contaminants and it actually contains oxygen. The easiest way to get a lot of greens into your diet is through making smoothies. Eat all kinds of fruits and vegetables, use the stalks of your broccoli to use in smoothies as they are full of calcium. Eat apple seeds even though they contain arsenic, in order to become sick you would have to consume many cups of seeds. The apple seeds contain vitamin B17 which many people have used to cure different types of cancer. You can also get this from apricot seeds without arsenic. To get vitamin B12 make sure to eat fermented foods. You should always make sure to soak your nuts in seeds in water to help lessen the amount of phytic acid which can block the absorption of certain minerals.
Foods You Should Not Eat
Even though raw foods are good for our bodies there are some that you should avoid consuming in their raw state they are the following:
Cassava: Some types of cassava are toxic, so make sure to be cautious when consuming cassava flour.
Buckwheat: When they are in a raw state they can have harmful effects on our bodies.
Those that have fair skin are especially at risk if consuming large amounts of raw Buckwheat. Buckwheat contains fagopyrin, which increases photosensitivity and other skin problems.
Alfalfa Sprouts: These contain canavanine that is a toxic substance
Apricot Kernels: Make sure to stay well away from these as they have the toxin cyanide.
Kidney beans: Raw kidney beans and sprouts are toxic. They contain a chemical called Phytohaemagglutinin that is not good for our health.
Meat: Raw meat could have harmful bacteria and viruses and parasites if not carefully monitored.
Milk: Raw milk contains Mycobacterium bovis that can cause tuberculosis
Parsnip: They contain toxic furanocoumarins.
Eggs: Raw eggs have activated Avadin, this is an inhibitor of vitamin B7. If you consume 24 raw eggs, the Avadin can deactivate the B7 vitamins in your body. Also, there is the risk of salmonella bacteria in some raw eggs.
Peas: Raw peas should never be consumed as they cause neurological weakness in the lower limbs.