The Detoxifying Benefits of A Raw Foods Diet

One of the most popular diets for cleansing and detoxifying your body is the raw foods diet. There are actually many variations of the raw foods diet - from eating mostly raw foods, with some lightly cooked thrown in, to eating entirely raw fruits and vegetables only. This extreme diet may not be all that healthy, as you may not be able to get all of the protein you need, but for sure, throwing some raw foods into your diet can definitely be a healthy way to eat. Often raw food diets are used for a defined period of time, such as a week or two, as a cleansing and detoxification program. The Total Wellness Cleanse, for example, incorporates lots of raw foods into the 30-day program, while also including some healthy cooked foods.

Raw foods. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The benefits attributed to a raw foods diet seem nearly endless: lowering cholesterol and triglyceride levels, eliminating cravings, preventing overeating, purging the body of accumulated toxins, balancing hormones, maintaining blood glucose levels and reversing degenerative diseases are just a few of the purported benefits.

Followers of a raw diet cite numerous health improvements, including increased energy levels, improved appearance of skin, improved digestion, weight loss and reduced risk of heart disease, just to name a few. Proponents believe that enzymes are the life force of a food and that every food contains its own perfect mix. These enzymes help us digest foods completely, without relying on our body to produce its own cocktail of digestive enzymes.

There can be some side effects when you are first starting a raw foods diet. Some detoxification effects may be experienced as your body attempts to shed some toxicity. This may include occasional headaches, nausea sensations and mild depression. If these symptoms persist, you should seek the help of somebody who is experienced with detoxification symptoms.

Following a raw food diet means that you have to carefully plan your meals to make sure you don't fall short of essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals. In some instances it might be appropriate to consider taking dietary supplements, especially when just starting out.  You'll need to invest in some appliances so that you are able to prepare the food, if you don’t already have them available.  A durable juicer, a blender, and a large food processor make raw food preparation a breeze. You may also want to look into purchasing large containers to soak sprouts, grains and beans, as well as for storage.

The smoothest way to begin a raw foods lifestyle is to slowly transition into it. Try starting off by eating approximately 70 to 80 percent raw foods in your diet. Have fruit and salads throughout the day and a cooked vegetable meal with a salad in the evening. This should help make the transition easier on your body and hopefully lessen side effects associated with detoxification. This is an emotional time as well, so you should allow yourself plenty of time to make the switch.  Journaling during the process can help. Before you know it, you’ll be feeling the positive effects of a healthy, detoxifying raw foods diet. 

Want more guidance or help with the transition? Try the Total Wellness Cleanse for a step-by-step program that will ease you into eating more raw foods, and also naturally and gently cleanse and detoxify all of your bodily systems.

Five Cooking Tips to Save Energy in the Kitchen

We’re all looking for ways to save money and consume fewer resources for a greener planet. Some of the ways to save energy, like turning the thermostat up or down, seem fairly obvious and don’t feel as if we’re doing enough.  One great way to amplify your efforts is to look room by room at how you can save energy.

If you've been reading our Cooking From Scratch blog, you know how much I love to cook! So today we're going to talk about what is perhaps the most energy-hungry room in your home - the kitchen.  Here are five cooking tips to save energy in the kitchen:

Large and small skillets on different sized burners. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

#1.  Use the right size pan for the cooking job and make sure to match it to the right sized burner.  It may sound silly but you can waste a lot of time and energy trying to boil a giant-size pot of potatoes on an itty bitty burner.  And you can waste a tremendous amount of energy warming up a small pan of sauce on a giant burner.  If you can see more than a half inch of overlap, either the pan overlapping the burner or the burner overlapping the pan, see if there’s a better fit. 

Additionally, if you only have to boil three potatoes you don’t need to get out the giant 5-quart pot.  And if you have to boil twenty potatoes, you absolutely do need a large pot with an appropriate amount of water – just enough to cover the tops so you don’t have to spend too much time and energy heating all that water.

#2.  Don’t preheat your oven.  Have you ever been pressed for time and just shoved that tray of chocolate chip cookies in an oven that hasn’t been preheated?  What happened?  Presumably you may have had to add one or two minutes to the cook time but it certainly didn’t add ten minutes or more to the cook time.  With many ovens it takes 10-15 minutes to warm up to 350 degrees, and that’s wasted energy.  Don’t waste your time and energy preheating - get those cookies in the oven and enjoy!

#3.  Use smaller appliances for smaller jobs.  If you’re making an open-faced sandwich, warming up leftovers or eating those frozen and ready-to-cook cookies, then skip the oven and use your toaster oven instead.  It uses less energy to heat up - and it also won't put off as much heat into the house so you won't have to run the a.c. as much.  Additionally, if you use a microwave, it can be used to steam, reheat and even to make eggs, melt chocolate and warm up canned foods in much less time and with much less energy.

A pressure cooker with a simple regulator and an oval lid. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

#4.  When you are making soups, stews and even some barbecue recipes or roasts, consider using a slow cooker instead of cooking them for hours on top of the stove.  Slow cookers use less energy and you can cook your meals during low energy times in your home. For example, if you’re using the air conditioner during the day and also cooking, you’re going to make your a/c work harder because your cooking will add heat to the home.  However, if you can cook your roast overnight when your a/c isn’t running as hard then you’re saving energy. It also won't heat up the house as much as using the stove or oven.

#5.  Grab your mother’s pressure cooker and embrace it for its amazing power to cook foods in a tenth of the time!  However, if your mother’s old pressure cooker scares the heck out of you, the newer models are significantly safer, and easier to use. 

You can save a tremendous amount of energy focusing your attentions and habits on one room at a time.  And what better place to start than in the kitchen, the core of your home and probably your biggest user of energy? 

Video - Healthy & Tasty School Lunches

This short video gives you some great ideas to make your kids lunches delicious, fun, and healthy. Once you make sure your kids' lunch boxes are safe, you want to make sure that what's in the box is also safe and healthy for your child! These tips will help create fun and visual interest in your kids lunches, and encourage them to try and eat different nutritious foods. Check out some of these tasty tips for ideas on how to get your kids to eat healthier at school and at home.

Quick Tip Recipes: How to Make Healthy School Lunch for Kids - Weelicious
Healthy School Lunch Tips: bit.ly Don't know where to start when it comes to packing a delicious and healthy school lunch. These tips, tricks and ideas will help you think outside the lunchbox making the process a breeze! Tell us what you think! Post...

Raw Food Recipe: Zucchini Pasta with Marinara Sauce

Here's a delicious raw main dish you can serve cold or warm - it only takes a few minutes to prepare, and is full of tasty and healthy fresh summer veggies. You can use herbs and veggies from your own garden or CSA, and no cooking is required! With just some quality fresh ingredients and a few minutes of prep time,  you can have a yummy raw-food meal packed with healthy goodness.

Raw Food Recipe - Zucchini Pasta with Marinara Sauce - A Raw Diet & Raw Recipe
www.learnrawfood.com Raw food author and chef Jennifer Cornbleet shows you to make delicious gluten-free raw pasta out of zucchini, which is topped with raw marinara sauce. From her DVD, Raw Food Made Easy. raw diet raw recipes raw recipe raw vegan t...


More Delicious Raw Food Recipes: 
   

Why Go Raw? (Or Why Your Body Is Overweight and Undernourished)

Because cooking takes so many nutrients and vitamins out of food, you automatically start feeding your body what it needs when you stop cooking food and start eating uncooked, nutrient-rich foods. A raw carrot has exponentially more nutrition than a cooked carrot.

Blood flow visualization (Photo credit: Argonne National Laboratory)

Cooking also alters the chemistry of foods, often making them harder to digest. Why do we have so many digestive problems in this country? Because we’re putting foods into our bodies in a form that we weren’t designed to absorb. High-fiber, high-water-content fresh produce helps alleviate constipation of the bowels, cells and circulatory system. Obstructions are cleared and blood flow increases to each and every cell in the body. 

Enhanced blood flow is significant for two reasons: as mentioned above, blood delivers nutrients and oxygen to living cells, and carries away their toxic metabolites.

Obesity is endemic in this country. The diet industry is more profitable than the oil companies. Why? Because the way we eat and prepare our food practically guarantees that we’ll overeat. Psychologists tell us that we overeat because our souls are hungry. But in reality, our bodies are hungry, even though we may feel full. When you start giving your body the nutrients it craves, overeating will cease.

Eating raw foods is a boost to your metabolism as well. It takes a little more energy to digest raw foods, but it’s a healthy process. Rather than spending energy to rid itself of toxins produced by cooking food, the body uses its energy to feed every cell, sending vitamins, fluids, enzymes and oxygen to make your body the efficient machine it was intended to be.

You’ll naturally stop overeating, because your body and brain will no longer be starving for the nutrients they need. A starving brain will trigger the thoughts that make you overeat. The brain and the rest of your body don’t need nearly the quantities we Americans feed them - instead, they need quality. 

Be sure to check back for the rest of this series and how eating raw naturally detoxifies your body, as well as some tasty raw food recipes!

Want to Buy Healthy? Check Out These Healthy Shoppers Resources

Shopping in today's world can be a mind-boggling exercise, especially if you are concerned about buying the healthiest foods for you and your family - avoiding toxins, getting the best nutrition, and supporting your local community at the same time.

Here are some excellent resources you may find very helpful in guiding you through the food shopping jungle!  (And of course be sure to check back here, as we share helpful tips on these sorts of things on a regular basis. For ideas and recipes for preparing healthy meals, also see our Cooking From Scratch blog.)

EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce
Image via WikipediaThis is a great one you will always want to check with when trying to decide which fruits and vegetables to buy organic and which are OK to buy conventional. And keep your eyes on this blog, as this is updated annually, and we always post the new results when they become available.

The Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass just released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This interactive map shows where to find USDA-supported projects in your area that support local food. Just click the link to learn more about markets near you.

The Meat Label Decoder, in EWG's Meat Eater's Guide to Climate Change + Health. This handy guide gives some helpful tips on how to read labels on meat and dairy products. From free-range to lean, it helps you know what you're buying.

Organic vs. Natural. What's the difference between natural and organic anyway? If you still find these terms a little confusing, our friends at The Organic Center have published this handy tip sheet to help you out.

EWG's Sugar in Children's Cereal Report. Did you know that many popular cereals have more sugar than
Twinkies or chocolate chip cookies?? This report may shock you. (Click the "Full List of Cereals" link to find out where your favorite ranks.) And if you're looking for a healthier alternative breakfast choice, try the yummy recipes in tip #4.

Use these resources to shop healthier the next time you go grocery shopping!

Video - Detox Smoothie Recipe

Here is a quick video with a recipe for making a tasty fruit and fiber smoothie that can help to clean toxins out of your system. Make sure you are using organic fruits, to avoid adding toxins back into your system. You can use this with your detox program, or just as part of your regular diet to keep you clean and healthy.

You can find Stevia (which is the all-natural sweetener she uses - she used the liquid, but there are powder forms available too) and flax seed online very easily.

How to Make Vegetable & Fruit Smoothies : Detox Recipes for Healthy Fruit & Vegetable Smoothies
Learn the basic ingredients to make a detox smoothie recipe and the health benefits of a detox smoothie in this free nutritional video on making healthy fruit and vegetable smoothies. Expert: Nili Nathan Contact: earth911.org Bio: Nili Nathan, host o...



Some Ingredients from this Video:
  

10 Best Detox Recipes

Cleansing and detoxing your body is a necessity for almost everyone these days - at least everyone living in an industrialized modern society. It can sound pretty, well, "icky"....  But actually there are some easy and even very tasty recipes that can make the process easier, even while getting your body cleaner and less toxic.

Here are a few good ones to try. And feel free to share your own below!

Detox Recipes: 10 Best Recipes to Clean You Out
A detox diet removes toxins and poisons from the body. It is a low-fat, high fiber diet that will aid in cleansing the body. But, even it is a low-fat,
Publish Date: 01/27/2011 8:11
http://www.thedetoxrevolution.com/273/detox-recipes-10-best-recipes-to-clean-you-out/

And once you're clean and feeling great, you may also want to check out our Cooking From Scratch blog for some good healthy recipe ideas (we often feature vegetarian, healthy, and delicious recipes - often using organic ingredients - as well as more "standard" fare, but always without preservatives, artificial fats, or other unhealthy ingredients).

Other Detox Recipe Sources:
    

How to Find Organic Food Recipes

Are you interested in eating organic foods?  If you are, you may be looking for organic food recipes.  Unfortunately, there are many new organic food eaters who do not know where to look.  The good news is that you do have a number of different options, a few of which are outlined below.

The internet is a great way to find organic food recipes.  You can do a standard internet search using your favorite search engine, but if you are looking for something in particular, incorporate that into your search.  For example, if you are looking for recipes for breakfast, your search phrase could be “organic food breakfast recipes.”  The internet, as you can see, is one of the quickest and easiest ways to search for organic food recipes. (Also check out our Cooking From Scratch blog, where we feature healthy and organic, as well as locally-grown foods, on a regular basis!)

Image via WikipediaAs for what you will find online, you will see that it varies.  Your standard internet search is likely to produce a number of different results.  You may find websites that specialize in organic food recipes, websites that specialize in recipes in general, as well as online message boards where organic foods are being discussed and where recipes are traded.  In fact, there are a number of benefits to joining an online community or an online message board if you are looking to learn more about eating organically.

You can also use the internet to examine the online websites of organic food stores and organic food makers.  These websites can easily be found with a standard internet search.  In addition to special offers, recipes are also commonly found online.  This is great if you actually use the products from the company in question, as most of their products are what is featured in an organic food recipe.

You can also find and learn more organic food recipes by speaking with those that you know.  Do you know of any organic food eaters?  If you do, ask them for recipes.  In fact, if you have already developed a small collection of your own organic food recipes, ask to trade.  If you do not know any other organic food eaters, consider meeting some.  You may be surprised just how easy it is to do so.  Did you know that some cities and towns have groups that are designed for natural and organic food eaters?  Many have meetings where they talk about organic foods, trade recipes, try out those recipes, and do so much more. If you're a member of a local CSA, this is also a great place to find like-minded people.

Printed recipe books are another great way to find organic food recipes.  Although most recipe books are for “traditional” foods, organic foods are increasing in popularity, as more people become concerned with their health and the foods that they consume.  For that reason, more organic food books are hitting the market.  If you are interested in buying an organic food recipe book, you will find that you have a number of different options.

When looking to buy an organic food book, many book stores carry a limited selection of books.  (Of course you can also use regular cookbooks, but with some organic foods, particularly meat, cooking methods and times may differ slightly.) With that being said, you are likely to find the best success locally when shopping with an organic food store.  Although most specialize in selling food products only, recipe books are also commonly offered for sale.  The internet can also be used to find organic recipes in the form of cookbooks.  What is nice about using the internet to shop is that it is easy to compare prices and books.  In fact, you are provided with the largest selection of all when using the internet.  As a reminder, free organic food recipes can also be found online.

As outlined above, there are a number of different ways that you can go about finding organic food recipes to cook for yourself or your family.  Although using the internet to find free recipes is a nice approach, you may also want to purchase your own organic recipe cookbooks.  This is because cookbooks are filled with a large number of recipes, some of which readers may have never though of making before.

You can find lots of good and affordable cookbooks on Amazon.com, such as these: