Raw Foods

There are many ways to easily increase the amount of raw fruit and vegetables in your diet. This is the best way to hydrate your cells and to obtain the necessary vitamins and minerals your body needs to function optimally.

When we eat fruit and vegetables raw versus cooked, they contain more vitamins, minerals and digestive enzymes and are much better for our bodies. They therefore give us more energy and are easier to digest than cooked food.

The simplest way to add more raw food into your diet is to substitute raw snacks instead of coffee, chocolate, crisps etc. Here are a few easy ways to increase your intake of raw foods:

• Take chopped celery (bite-sized) in a bag to munch on at work.
  
• Take some topped and tailed radishes as snacks at work.
  
• Just eat an apple!
  
• Chop up a banana and pop on top of your breakfast.
  
• Add a chopped avocoado into your sandwich at lunchtime.
  
• Plop a load of strawberries or raspberries or blueberries in some yoghurt for a healthy desert or midday snack.
  
• Cut some raw carrots into battons or just peel, top and tail and take as a snack for the day.
  
• Make up your own raw nut, seed and dried fruit mix - add walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, dried mango, any other raw dried fruit, raisins, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds - put in all your favourite stuff!
  
• Try raw asparagus tips dipped in sour cream or with cottage cheese

Here are some websites that have some great raw recipes:

http://www.alissacohen.com/recipes.html#date

http://www.fresh-network.com/recipes/index.htm

Good luck with your experimentation with raw foods!

© 2005 Susie Kong