Food choices – Eat more raw

Food choice are exactly that a choice.  Its your choice to choose how and what you consume, no one can tell you how to eat, they of course can guide you but ultimately you are the decision maker when it comes to what food you eat.

Food is a necessity but it should also been seen as nourishment, as what else other than food and water gives us our energy each day.  We need to start viewing food, not in a bad way with the understanding of what foods are going to give us strength, nutrients and most importantly enjoyment.

We love food and our journey of following the Tarian lifestyle sees us experiment with all the different ways in which you can cook or not cook food.  Over the last few weeks, we have doing our research regarding ‘eating more RAW’.

This way of eating isn’t a fad, isn’t a diet or a way of eating that will help you lose those unwanted kilo’s, well that not how we see it anyway.  It’s a way of eating that benefits health greatly and should in some way or another, play a part in our eating habits.

Definition of RAW

The definition of RAW is simply: uncooked, unprocessed. Meaning primarily unheated foods or food cooked at temperature less than 46 degrees.

There is nothing new about RAW food, most of us buy it every day yet when someone mentions RAW we tend to get a little freaked out and immediately focus on how we could never adopt such practices into our diets.

Fruit, vegetables, nuts seeds, sprouted grains & legumes are all RAW and these end up in our shopping trolleys each and every day. So are we surprised at how many raw products we buy?  I guess now the question is, what do you do to these foods once you get them home will determine how much RAW you actually eat.

Examples of 100% RAW food

• Freshly squeezed juice
• Fruit smoothies
• Green smoothies (orange, celery, kale, banana, kale)
• Vegetable sticks (carrots, celery, cucumber)
• Raw almonds, cashews, walnuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios
• Sunflower and pumpkin seeds
• Salads: rocket, cucumber, asparagus, tomatoes
• Tomato & Basil salad with olive oil (cold pressed)
• Watermelon and mint salad
• Raw chocolate
• Nut butters
• Mushrooms
• Granola with berries
• Fruit salad with coconut yoghurt
• Cauliflower cous cous
• Corn salsa (tomatoes, corn, avocado, parsley, coriander, olive oil)
• Grated carrot and cumin salad with currants
• Water

Radical diets

There are many more examples of raw foods but I think you understand where I am coming from, in reality we already eat a lot of RAW.  These so-called “radical diets” see us realising, we actually adopt these practices into our every day lives without even realising it.

There are extremes to all diets…sure there are some of us who live on a 100% raw diet but this does not mean you have to.  With any food choice, its about understanding the balance and understanding that by adding more raw, less processed and heat treated foods into your diet, you are giving your body the chance to enjoy nutrient dense foods.

Finding a true interest in food is exciting, investigating different ways to create, cook and consume is fun and fascinating.  Changing our eating habits for the better will see changes in our body and mental health and by introducing more RAW meals into our diets; we will start to feel RAWTASTIC!