Hi all,

Total NOOB here, just starting to look into raw/live foods but have no edu. on this subject.

I have a JL power juicer and love fresh veg. drinks. Fruit seems very strong and almost too sweet,and have found a great combo similar to V8 that I really like. I am very interested in nuts and seeds (which I really love). I love ROASTED sesame seeds,roasted peanuts,roasted cashews,roasted pistachios,almonds,sunflower,etc. For some reason I have a very strong feeling that I will HATE the taste of RAW/SPROUTED seeds and nuts,but have never experienced them. I read a little on RAW seeds and nuts,nut milk&live seeds here and am curious. Do they taste like the roasted at all or is it totally different?

Just bought a KitchenAid KSB560 blender and want to make healthy smoothies, etc.I know it's not top of the line,but at least its a start.

I am just quitting smoking and drinking alcohol,(40 days now)and am very motivated
to try to restore my body and health. Real foods seem like the right way to go.
Caffeine will have to come a little later------

Just found this site yesterday and am overwhelmed with the amount of info here (but I love it.) I stayed up till midnight last night--a bit of info overload right now.

Is there a difference between "raw and live" foods that can be quantified??

Thank You,
Regards, Rich

"Is there a difference between "raw and live" foods that can be quantified??"

Nutritiondata.com gives sundried tomatoes 4 stars-- [www.nutritiondata.com]

They give raw ("living" cherry tomatoes 5 stars-- [www.nutritiondata.com]

Nutritiondata.com takes a while to get used to and is limited by its computer logic.. humans are still smarter , and limited by the lack of statistics (from the USDA), in this case comparing tomatoes likely of different varieties grown in different locales with varying methods. Sundried tomatoes could be expected to lose vitamins, in my opinion, though I'm not sure if this example illustrates that. It looks like vitamin E is lost in the drying process.

The sundried tomatoes appear to have too much sodium added causing a negative hit in the computerized "star" rating, or else the loss of 95% of the water in dehydrating the product makes it seem high in natural sodium per unit weight. I'm not sure how they calculate it, sodium/weight or sodium/calorie.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2010 12:04PM by loeve.

Hi Rich!

You don't like all cooked foods so I guarantee that you won't like all raw foods - just find what you like and eat it :-)

I think that sprouted stuff is kind of "earthy" tasting, especially sunflower seeds and lentils, and I rarely sprout stuff. Right now I am soaking seasame seeds and brazil nuts overnight and I'm going to blend them with carob powder and dried fruit into a pudding.

Congrats on making your own V8! Raw food is fun because you are always coming up with new combinations :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2010 05:18PM by tropical.

I REAALY LIKE raw almonds and cashews. They have a richer taste than the roasted ones, much fresher tasting, go figure. I think I like them much better, like the previous poster said the sprouted (soaked) nuts are a little more earthy tasting, but they are good. Good luck on the quiting smoking, I quite about 5 years ago, if you WANT to you can. Also, good luck on your new journey into health, I am fairly new to all this also, been eating 100% raw for a couple months. I lost 60 lbs. and feel great, didnt really do anything extra besides eat raw. A good read I just discovered is David Wolfe's Sunfood Diet Success System. It encompasses much more than just diet, it is a good one. Again good luck with everything.

You can eat nuts and seeds without sprouting them. I never sprout them. Give them a try and see how they taste to you. If you don't like the taste, you can still blend them into your salad dressing to thicken them.

As for the "raw and live" terminology, raw means a food hasn't been cooked. But it could have been dehydrated, or not fresh, or old and stale.

Live usually means their is signs of life in the food. But this term can also by applied to fermented products, where the original food product is dead and/or cooked, but what is alive is bacteria. So this is why sauerkrauts and miso and nama shoyu are considered "live", where sauerkraut is also raw but miso and nama shoyu are cooked.

The ideal foods are fresh, ripe, organic, whole, and raw. This means the fresh produce you find in the produce section of the grocery store: fresh fruits and vegetables. As for vegetables, the easiest to eat raw are the vegetables normally found in a green salad.