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Do Yourself a Favor and Switch to a Healthy and Delicious Raw Food Diet

 by Edward Ulrich, updated September 30, 2022

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Dehydrated “kale chips” that are covered in a batter made from sunflower seeds are a great substitute for potato chips.

There are a lot of healthy benefits of eating a raw food diet, which consists primarily of fresh fruits and vegetables that haven’t been cooked.  Such a diet has become popular in recent years, and adherents of it have developed many great recipes that are diverse and delicious enough for such food to be eaten exclusively.

A raw food diet can be helpful for losing weight, but it is delicious and healthy in any case.

Personally I don’t eat raw food exclusively, but I enjoy it along with other types of vegan food.

This article presents some of my favorite raw food related information that I’ve found over the years.  I’ve included videos and other information from well known raw foodists that I’ve found to be particularly interesting and helpful.





Article Notes
new: September 30, 2022 - Updated the text in the article.












A Summary of a Potential Raw Food Dieting Approach


Following are suggestions for transitioning to a raw food diet:

— It is preferable to start your diet with a week-long fast, as detailed in the next section.

— After your fast, you should start eating more or less completely a diet of raw food, which is actually easy to do if you know what your options are.  “Raw food” consists of recipies that are made entirely out of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds that haven’t been cooked.  Later parts of this article will show examples of such food.

— On a raw food diet you should not eat food that is made out of wheat, beans, or potatoes for example.  None of those foods are “raw” since they cannot realistically be eaten raw.  While not eating such foods might sound like an impossible limitation, it is actually not difficult to avoid them while eating a delicious and satisfying diet— as long as you know what your options are.

— Personally I think it is also ok to consume what I call “raw-worthy” food on a raw food diet— which is food that technically could be eaten raw, however it has been cooked, such as vegetable soups and steamed vegetables.  However such food is not “raw” and many raw foodists exclusively eat only raw food.






The few (if any) “downsides” to a raw food diet


There are some issues with a raw food diet, however they are not insurmountable:

— Since raw food consists mostly of ingredients that are fresh vegetables and fruits (with exceptions such as seeds and nuts,) it is not necessarily as easy to stock up on raw food as it is with other types of food— which means that you will likely need to shop at a relatively frequent rate, such as once a week.

— Raw food can be relatively time consuming to prepare, compared with convenience foods such as frozen burritos or rice dishes for example.  Raw foodists are generally people who enjoy the process of preparing their food while knowing that they are making the most healthy and delicious meals as possible.





The Benefits of Fasting


A lot of benefits can be gained from fasting.  When I fast for a week I usually lose about ten pounds.  I’ve tried fasting for longer periods of time, however the weight starts dropping off at slower rate after that point, and of course there can be health risks when fasting for too long, so I don’t recommend doing it for more than a week.

During the first few times that I fasted some years ago I also drank a mixture of water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper (Stanley Borroughs’s “Master Cleanser”), which made the hunger pangs go away quickly, but it doesn’t taste very good.  More recently I’ve found that the hunger pangs go away naturally after a few days so I’ve stopped drinking it.

I first learned about the master cleanser mixture from a Len Horowitz video, and I’ve also found the information in this Len Horowitz article.  (Also see the article for information about creating the mixture and information about other types of fasting.)

The above article mentions that it could be possible to consume some types of foods on a fast such as watermelon slices or applesauce, but I haven’t tried that yet.  It also explains that it is important to not chew gum or mints on a fast because it starts the digestive juices flowing, and it is also important to not drink orange juice or tomato juice.

As you are fasting, you could be doing research about the best foods and recipes that you will be eating after your fast, and you could be preparing in advance to have such foods ready to eat.







Helpful Raw Food Information Sources




Information from the Renegade Health Show


One of the first sources of information about raw food that I found was The Renegade Health show, being run by Kevin and Anamari Gianni.



Phillip McClusky explains his transition from obesity to a normal weight through switching to a sustainable raw food diet

Running Time: 10 minutes

Kevin Gianni of the Renegade Health Show interviews Phillip McClusky, who explains that at one point he weighed over four hundred pounds and was considering getting gastric bypass surgery when he decided to instead try switching to a diet of eating only salads and other raw foods, which eventually brought him to a healthy weight in a sustainable manner that transformed his life.




Phillip McCluskey explains preparing raw food “Cauliflower Popcorn”

Running Time: 10 minutes

Kevin and Anamari Gianni speak with Phillip McClusky who explains how to prepare a great dish called “cauliflower popcorn,” which consists of cauliflower pieces mixed with nutritional yeast, cayenne pepper and sea salt.

Since I’ve seen this video I’ve prepared the dish many times, and I’ve also made variations including adding finely chopped sweet onions and sweet peppers, fresh corn kernels, olive oil, and other vegetables.

This video also introduced me to nutritional yeast, which has become one of my favorite ingredients.  Nutritional yeast tastes exactly like cheese, and it is actually made from beets.  Many vegans who like the taste of cheese make use of nutritional yeast to create a cheesy taste with their food.  Some raw food purists avoid nutritional yeast however because it is technically not “raw” due to the fact that it is heated up during its manufacturing.





“Spiralized Zucchini Tonarelli with Wild Mushrooms and Poppy Seeds,” by Boris Lauser


One of my favorite recipes is the “Spiralized Zucchini Tonarelli with Wild Mushrooms and Poppy Seeds,” by the European gourmet raw food chef Boris Lauser.  This is exactly the sort of dish that you would be served in an expensive gourmet raw food restaurant.  It is more delicious than you can imagine due to its finely tuned balance of ingredients.  When preparing it you should make as few ingredient substitutions as possible, and not change the proportions of the ingredients from the amounts that have been specified, although I usually use olive oil rather than walnut oil.


See the article link for the recipe and more information.

You will need to have a spiralizer to shred the zucchini into noodle-sided pieces, which is a very useful kitchen tool.





Shea Lynn Baird demonstrates how to make raw “onion bread” in a dehydrator

Running Time: 10 minutes

In this video Shea Lynn Baird with Kevin and Anamari Gianni demonstrates how to make raw “onion bread” in a dehydrator, which ends up having the consistency of a thick, flat “fruit roll-up.”  Many such delicious and healthy raw food recipes can be made in a dehydrator.  They also mention the “I am Grateful” cookbook where the recipe came from, which is an excellent resource for raw foodists.










Using a Dehydrator to Prepare Raw Food


Many delicious foods can be prepared in a dehydrator, which gives the food a unique characteristic that can’t be obtained any other way.  I have converted my oven to be used as a large-size dehydrator (more about that in a future article), however most people purchase custom-made dehydrators that work well although they tend to have smaller capacities.

I highly recommend using a dehydrator because it enables you to prepare delicious and healthy snack foods that you can use as a substitute for snack chips, along with many other types of uses.

Also note that it is essential to use an actual dehydrator when preparing such recipes— just trying to use a regular oven will definitely NOT work when dehydrating food.




Making “Pizza Kale Chips” in the dehydrator

“Pizza kale chips” are a great healthy snack that are easy to prepare in a dehydrator.  There are thousands of recipes online that explain how to make them, and the recipes can vary quite a bit where many of them use unnecessarily expensive ingredients for the end result such as tahini and dehydrated tomatoes.


This is a stock photo, but it is pretty much exactly what Kale chips end up looking like.  You can coat them thicker with batter if you want to.  Imagine them being brittle almost like leaves from the trees in the fall, except with their tasty dehydrated batter giving them rigidity for dipping.

After making Kale chips many times, I’ve derived my own most affordable kale chip recipe that tastes as good as the others while also making use of less expensive ingredients.  The key is to use blended sunflower seeds (as is often the case in raw food recipes) rather than using tahini or blending expensive nuts such as cashews.

Do the following to make Kale chip batter to coat two large bunches of Kale to be dehydrated:

Ingredients:

2 large bunches of Kale
1 1/2 to 2 cups of hulled sunflower seeds
1 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons or more of nutritional yeast to taste (important)
1 teaspoon Himalayan salt or sea salt to taste

(You can also add whatever other seasonings that you would like, such as ground dried hot peppers.  You can look at other recipes for additional ideas for ingredients, kale chip recipes are very flexible.)

Instructions: Blend the above ingredients into a paste, and then tear the Kale leaves into pieces and coat them in the mixture before arranging the leaves on the dehydrator trays.  Dehydrate the leaves for about seven hours until they are dry and crisp.




Making “Eggplant Jerky” in the Dehydrator

I also like to make dehydrated strips of eggplant that I first marinate in a solution of Tamari soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, water, and “Liquid Smoke” seasoning before I dehydrate them.  You must first slice the eggplant into thin “bacon” shaped strips using a mandolin slicer (explained later in this article.)




Dehydrating Tomatoes in Bulk During Harvest Season


Tomatoes that are about to be prepped to be dehydrated.

Another great use of a dehydrator is to use it to dehydrate large batches of tomatoes during the harvest season to then be used as sun-dried tomatoes which can be used to make tomato sauces during the rest of the year.  (This has been yet another useful application for converting my oven into a dehydrator.)

To make tomato sauces (and excellent raw ketchups) from dehydrated tomatoes, it is simply a matter of first re-hydrating the tomatoes by soaking them in water for a few hours.  They will then blend into an naturally sweet raw tomato sauce.









“Rawsagna” will win over any non-raw foodist


A delicious raw food recipe that is just about everyone’s favorite is known as “Rawsagna”— which is an amazing raw food substitute for real lasagna.  Thin slices of zucchini stand in for the noodles, blended sunflower seeds stand in the cheese, and its tomato sauce is made from blended re-hydrated tomatoes.  It is just about every raw foodist’s “go-to” recipe.

To make the recipe you will need a Mandolin Slicer to slice the zucchini into as thin of strips as possible.  But make sure that you wear a cut-proof glove (or even two of them) when you use it though.

I would recommend searching online for the term “Rawsagna,” especially in the image sections of search engines.  You will find hundreds of variations of the recipe.

As with the pizza kale chips recipe that I’ve detailed earlier in this article, everyone’s version of Rawsagna tends to be different.  I find that blended hulled sunflower seeds are a great ingredient to use for the “cheese” instead of using more expensive raw ingredients.


Here is my version of the recipe that is an accumulation of many recipes that I’ve tried.  It will make two bread pans of Rawsagna.


FOR THE NON-SAUCE LAYERS:

2 medium ZUCCHINIS, sliced into as thin of strips as possible with the mandolin slicer (These will be the “noodles” of course)
6-8 BUTTON or CREMINI MUSHROOMS, sliced into thin slices
1 large BEEFSTEAK TOMATO, or a few smaller tomatoes, sliced into relatively thin slices


FOR THE “RICOTTA” FILLING:

Blend all of the following together in a food processor:

1 1/2 cups HULLED SUNFLOWER SEEDS (preferably that have been soaked for at least four hours)
1 cup packed FRESH BASIL
2-3 cloves GARLIC
2 Tbsp OLIVE OIL
1 - 2 Tbsp LEMON JUICE
Add 1 Tsp HIMALAYAN SALT (I definitely recommend using this rather than normal iodized salt)
1/4 cup TOMATO SOAK WATER from the next step (Add more or less depending on the thickness of the sauce that you would like..)


FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE: (You will be impressed with the raw tomato sauce that is created by soaking sun-dried tomatoes and then blending them.)

Blend all of the following together in a food processor:

1 cup SUN-DRIED TOMATOES, before re-hydrating by soaking in water for at least four hours
1 cup TOMATO SOAK WATER
1 large BEEFSTEAK TOMATO
1/2 cup chopped packed BASIL LEAVES
2 tbsp OLIVE OIL
2 cloves CHOPPED GARLIC
1/4 teaspoon heaping FRESHLY GROUND PEPPER
2 teaspoons HIMALAYAN SALT
1 tablespoon LEMON JUICE


PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Start with a layer of ZUCCHINI NOODLES on the bottom of the pans, and then build up the layers with tomatoes and mushrooms, then the “ricotta,” and then the tomato sauce, continuing to stack in such a manner.  Eventually you may find that you will need to drain a bit of water from the bottom of the pan, do that by tilting the pan while holding the ingredients in place.









Videos by the “Life Regenerator” Dan McDonald


Dan McDonald the “Life Regenerator” has been making videos over the past two decades about living a healthy raw food lifestyle.  He is a purist about raw food and he demonstrates how the diet can be maintained for the long term.  He is currently living and making videos in Hawaii.

McDonald relies on making use of fresh raw fruits and vegetables without using trendier “non-raw” ingredients such as agave syrup.  He often makes use of juicers, blenders, and food processors.  I’ve learned a lot of useful tips from watching his videos.

Dan’s YouTube channel can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/user/liferegenerator/videos, and his website is at: https://www.regenerateyourlife.org/



Dan McDonald demonstrates how to make one of his favorite salad dressings

Running Time: 10 minutes

One of Dan’s specialties is making a great variety of healthy and delicious salad dressings using flavorful ingredients.  In this video Dan shows how to make one of his favorite salad dressings in a blender using the following ingredients:

Four cloves of Garlic
16 oz of Orange Juice
Two Red Peppers with their seeds
Three teaspoons of Sea Salt
One Avocado
Two teaspoons of Cyanne Pepper
Two tablespoons Powdered Ginger
Two tablespoons Tumeric
Three teaspoons Black Cumin Seed





Dan McDonald demonstrates how to make a simple healthy no fat salad

Running Time: 10 minutes

In this video Dan shows how to make a great simple light salad using a variety of fresh ingredients.









Videos by “The Friuitarian” Michael Arnstein


Michael Arnstein, who is known as “the Fruitarian” has won many marathons and endurance races while eating a fruitarian diet consisting mostly of fresh fruit.  His YouTube channel is at: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheFruitarian/videos



“The Fruitarian” Michael Arnstein winning the 2017 Hurt 100 Mile Ultra Marathon in Hawaii on his 40th birthday

Running Time: 7 minutes

See footage of Michael Arnstein competing in and winning the 2017 Hurt 100 Mile Ultra Marathon in Hawaii on his 40th Birthday after sustaining himself almost exclusively on a fruitarian diet for many years.




“The Fruitarian” Mike Arnstein gives an update since moving from New York to Hawaii

Running Time: 5 minutes

Mike Arnstein gives an update about moving to Hawaii from New York in 2014.









Videos by John Kohler from GrowingYourGreens.com and okraw.com


John Kohler makes many videos explaining how to grow your own food using organic farming techniques, and about the raw food lifestyle.

Kohler’s video channel “GrowingYourGreens.com” focuses on how to most effectively grow your own food, and his “okraw.com” video channel gives information about having a raw food diet.



Eating Lunch Fresh out of the Garden using a Homemade Vegetable Dip Recipe

Running Time: 30 minutes

In this video John Kohler shows how to make a delicious vegetable dip, and then gives a tour of his garden showing how the food that he grows can be eaten immediately after being harvested.








Raw Food Books


I Am Grateful, by Terces Engelhart

 


Terces Englehart with her
husband Matthew Engelhart

I Am Grateful: Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude” by Terces Engelhart is an an essential recipe book for raw foodists, containing many raw food recipes that most non-raw foodists would be surprised to learn are actually raw.  Engelhart also operates the popular gourmet raw food Cafe Gratitude restaurants in San Francisco, Berkeley, Marin, and Los Angeles that serve many of the recipes that are detailed in the book.



Wild About Greens: 125 Delectable Vegan Recipes for Kale, Collards, Arugula, Bok Choy, and other Leafy Veggies Everyone Loves, by Nava Atlas

 


Wild about Greens” is a great book to learn about the vast variety of leafy green vegetables that exist and the many ways that they can be prepared.



Raw Food, Fast Food: Simple Recipes, Faster Than Takeout

 


Phillip McCluskey’s book “Raw Food Fast Food” contains a great variety of plant-based mostly raw food recipes.  McClusky is a weight loss expert who has educated thousands about the benefits of a plant based diet.  He had transformed his life by switching to a raw vegan diet and losing over 215 pounds after previously weighing 400 pounds.




Choosing Raw, by Gena Hamshaw

 


Choosing Raw” is a cookbook by Gena Hamshaw that contains many delicious recipes.  It is contains both raw and non-raw recipes. 




Books by Judita Wignall

 


I have the books “Going Raw” and “Raw & Simple” by Judita Wignall, that contain many great raw food recipes.




Books by Ani Phyo

 


Ani Phyo has written many raw food cookbooks.  I have her book “Ani’s Raw Food Asia” that contains many innovative raw food equivalents of Asian recipes.







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