I must say that I am somewhat new to this whole raw food thing, but I am lovin' it! I have been vegetarian for about 14 years now, but I found that I wasn't really living healthy. I was consuming way too much cheese and other dairy products, and not enough fruits and veggies. I decided that I couldn't continue this terrible path and on my own decided I was only going to eat what God intended for us to eat: Natural food in it's natural clothing. I have been eating this way for about 10 days now and I feel wonderful! The clothes are starting to feel a little baggy and I have more energy than I could ever dream of. I also stopped drinking diet pop and coffee. I do however like to drink wine on occasion and was wondering what everyone thought about that. Also, I love tofu with such passion, I don't know that I could ever give that up for good. If I ate tofu once in a while, am I considered a fraud to the whole living foods thing?

P.S. Does anyone have any good (practical) recipes I could try?
P.P.S. If anyone could give me some reasons why this way of life feels so great, that would be cool too. :-)

Congratulations on your venture into raw foods eating. I like your logic that led you to it. Angela Stokes, another raw foodist that lost a lot of weight eating raw foods, also just came up with the idea on her own. She was looking at animals and thinking how animals were never fat that lived in the wild.

Some people do drink wine on occasion, I believe I have seen that on other posts. I can't because of how it affects my blood sugars.

You don't have to be 100% raw right away, or even ever. We encourage any amount of raw foods in your diet. I think I saw one thread where the person eats one cooked meal when she eats out once a week. Another one is eating a little cooked food each day. A lot of us are 100% raw, but not all of us. Maybe you should try all raw with some wine and tofu for now and see how it goes.

Personally, I am kind of anti-soy because of the many articles on Dr. Mercola's website and also because I used to eat too much of it and it affected my thyroid. But you should follow your own path.

I am kind of lazy in that I mostly eat salads, fruits, veggies, smoothies, and juices and some raw bars and raw olives on occasion. I still have to cook for the family and I don't want to spend a lot of time on preparing my meals. But a lot of other people on this forum are experimenting with some great sounding recipes.

Reasons, let's see -- less energy required for digestion so more energy for everything else including healing, more enzymes, more nutrition, less toxins. I'm sure other people will offer more.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks for the info! I heard that soy can have some negative effects on your thyroid. My brother-in-law who has a masters in excercise science and nutrition told me that he had soy formula when he was a baby and now he's on medication for a thyroid condition. Do you know what kind of studies have been done to support that theory? I don't know if I could live w/out soy nuts and edamame and tofu and all that good stuff but I certainly don't want to be poisoning my body either.

I'm glad to see that you still do cooking for your family. I do as well, and was feeling somewhat guilty that they're not getting the benefits that I am from eating raw foods. I do have a rule in the house that the kids are not allowed to snack in between meal times, but they are allowed to eat as many fresh fruits and veggies as they want (and they don't even have to ask to get in the fridge and get them, which makes them feel more grown up and independent) but I worry about incorporating any more raw foods in their diet because I don't want them to miss out on nutrition at this critical stage in their development. Are their any parents out their that have their children on a "raw" or "living" foods diet? And what do you guys think about that?

Oh yeah, and what is a "raw bar"? I keep seeing that everywhere I read. What are some brand names and where can I find them?

If you go to www.mercola.com and search for soy, you will find a bunch of articles. They say soy formula is the worst, it is like giving a birth control pill to the baby - here is an article [www.mercola.com]. I don't know if there are too many studies, because who would fund them? The soy industry is only funding studies that support their sales. I know my hair started thinning and breaking when I ate too much soy and it took awhile, but now my hair and thyroid have recovered.

The way I understand it is that, yes, Asians eat soy. But they also eat little meat and lots of veggies and get a lot of exercise usually, so those are what provide them with health benefits. Also, it was poor rural Asians that started eating soy because they were desperate and starving and it was cheap and readily available. But they were also smart enough to ferment out the toxins before they ate it. They ate tempeh, natto, miso and shoyu. Now we are eating the unfermented soy products here in the states, full of the toxins. Not so smart. Here is a good article on the Weston Price website [www.westonaprice.org].

After raising our kids on cooked food, we can't expect them to switch to 100% raw food just because we decide to. All we can do is set a good example. I am just trying to limit the sweets, additives, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, hormones, etc. in their foods and include raw fruits and veggies everyday.

The Raw Family (Boutenkos) have two grown kids that are on the raw diet, but they all switched by choice - kind of. They only ate raw at home but one of the kids sometimes ate cooked at school for awhile, then she decided to switch to 100% raw also. Jinjee & Storm of thegardendiet.com are raising and homeschooling 5 raw kids. Their oldest though has been experimenting occasionally with cooked food when not at home. Right now, it would have to be my teenagers' decision and I am not going to force it on them. My daughter did decide on her own a few years to become vegetarian and she has stuck with that.

They are food bars that are made of all raw ingredients. Not the perfect raw food, but good for transition and better than a candy bar. My favorite is this one [www.amazon.com] that I buy at Whole Foods.

I hope you are enjoying all your raw food! :-)

Hey, thanks a lot. I will check out those websites and see what they have to say. I must say today has been a little more difficult craving something warm to eat (if that makes any sense). It doesn't really matter what that something is either. Just anything above room temperature sounds good. Also, I am concerned that I am not getting enough carbohydrates and fiber from breads and grains.

If you had a Vitamix or K-Tec (or Blend-Tec) blender then you could have a raw soup. The blending warms it up a little bit and some people seem to love it. I crave the cold foods usually, so I make frozen fruit smoothies with my K-tec blender fairly often. But, would warm drinks help? If it would, just warm up some water and squeeze some lemon juice or something into it or even have some tea and don't worry about it being raw or not.

You are getting lots and lots of carbs and fiber in the fruits and veggies (and protein too because they are full of the amino acids that make up protein). Much more easily absorbed and utilized carbs and fiber also, than the ones in breads and grains. But if you want bread, the best (in my humble opinion) would be sprouted whole grain bread like Ezekial 4:9 bread or Manna - available at Whole Foods. I have tried them and they are very hard on my blood sugars, so grains don't work for me at all. Here is a good article on bread [www.westonaprice.org].

The raw food journey can be tough because we have developed an addiction to cooked food since before we were born! But it is your journey and I am confident that you'll find the right path for you. :-)

hello there..i just wanted to drop in and say hello and welcome you to this forum and congratulate you on going raw!! it is a big step in life..but one that is so worth taking you know?? congrats!!
let us know how things are going and how you are doing!!
lots of love
earthangel
xoxoxoxo

Much peace and love!!!
EarthAngel
Xoxo