Raw Food Week

If you want to give eating raw a try, you ought to experiment with an all-raw day and use some raw recipes from this book, or eat raw foods most of the day and enjoy a cooked dinner. I often do this, sipping a green juice or creamy smoothie for breakfast, eating a crisp green salad loaded with superfoods (hemp seeds, seaweed, pumpkin seeds, etc.) for lunch, and later enjoying a lightly sautéed dinner of fresh veggies from the garden with quinoa.

If you’re feeling ready for it, go for a raw food week. As well as being a fun experiment in a different way of eating, a raw food week is also an excellent way to cleanse after a vacation splurge.
Preparing raw food takes some extra time. Get ready for your raw food clean-eating week by shopping, blending, and preparing ahead of time. Not too far ahead, because you want your fruits and veggies to be beautiful and fresh. Eating raw does take a bit of extra work, too—some formulas can be perplexing and tedious to get ready. On the off chance that you’re pressed for time, check out the raw food delivery services I list in the resources section at the back of this book.

Protein
A raw food diet is close to what we’re calling a Modern Vegan diet in this book—leaving out most animal products (with the exception of honey), and eliminating cooked beans, legumes, and most grains, with the exception of those that are raw and sprouted. Without the standard plant sources of protein, can you get enough of this crucial nutrient on a raw food diet?

Protein sources for a raw diet include nuts, seeds, and dark leafy greens. Most raw foodists add in copious amounts of greens (kale, chard, spinach, etc.) to provide plenty of protein, vitamins, and minerals. They blenderize their foods to allow their bodies to digest those amounts needed for ultimate health. Raw foodists and most Modern Vegans are keenly aware of the nutritional values of their foods and keep an arsenal of superfoods on hand to ensure their success.

By using raw food preparation methods such as blending and juicing, and through their directed focus on nutrition, people who eat a lot of raw food usually get plenty of easily assimilated protein. Following a raw food, diet strengthened my nails and my hair. My nails started to grow in again, after years of breakage. In an ah-ha moment at a hair salon in New York, I realized that after a year of eating raw, my hair was long and thick again.

Following a raw food, diet strengthened my nails and my hair.



Some people go so far as to include raw fish and meat in their raw foods eating plan, but that’s not something I’m comfortable recommending. Sushi is fine when it’s prepared from really fresh fish at a good restaurant by skilled chefs, but otherwise, avoid raw animal foods—the certain bacteria on them could make you sick.

Adding in raw foods to your menu will also allow you to push out other foods, such as processed cereals, bread, and animal protein. All of these foods can slow and clog your digestion and lower your energy levels. The more efficient your metabolism is, the more efficiently your body works. Use summer as an easy, delicious pass to a healthy way of eating.

Crowd out the junk; ditch the processed foods for breakfast and enjoy a big bowl of berries or a green smoothie with fresh fruit included. Forget the sandwich for lunch and instead, grab a fresh salad topped with easy-to-digest avocado slices and hemp seeds. Try raw zucchini pasta a few nights a week and discover if eating the raw way adds some spring to your step.
Discovering your Nutritional Style is about finding what works for you. Maybe raw is your summer Nutritional Style?

Hydration
You don’t need me to tell you to drink more water; your body lets you know right away when you need it, isn't that so? Off-base! Your body doesn't flag to you that you’re thirsty until you’re already a bit dehydrated, and by then your cells already have started to wilt. Symptoms of mild dehydration include foggy brain and low energy—maladies that most people try to fix with caffeine (a diuretic that makes dehydration worse).

Besides giving you more vroom-vroom and clearer thinking, being properly hydrated helps sustain a youthful appearance. Water plumps your cells and adds elasticity, resulting in the softer, smoother, younger-looking and glowing skin. That’s a train I want to be riding on!

Properly hydrated internal cells help keep your body functioning at its best. Just as eating raw foods aids digestion, so does drinking plenty of water. You want to stay hydrated so that you can take full advantage of the nutrients in the organic foods you so mindfully found and prepared.
Drinking more water also helps with weight loss. It works in three primary ways: water helps keep your digestion efficient, reduces hunger, and curbs cravings.