Hi,

I am looking for a raw / diet / detox / cleansing-related book that
- addresses weight loss
- could be high raw (not necessarily 100%)
- easy for beginners
- not too heavy
- has nice pictures, etc.
- has easy recipes (no dehydrator / exotic ingredients)

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

I don't exactly know how to answer this; I don't do recipes and those recipe-books that I know of tend to require dehydrators and expensive blenders. In terms of weight loss, it depends where you are coming from and who you are. A male coming from standard eating will most likely lose weight just going 100 per cent. vegan. Many people of all types, especially males, lose weight just switching to 100-per cent. raw, rather dramatically - that is, they can eat freely of any raw vegan food and lose quite a bit of weight quite rapidly. There are others (again, usually male) who will definitely lose weight quite rapidly on a raw diet of primarily fresh fruits with or without greens. Others may have to apply principles of pH balance, as for instance laid out on ninjagreens.com - is this for you? What are you doing now? I recommend keeping pretty recipe-less, and sticking to simple foods of few ingredients. I could be more helpful about what books would serve you if I knew where you were in terms of rawdom, what you've been trying, doing, etc. Books focusing on weight-loss tend to be female-oriented, like _Beautiful on Raw_, which might be worth a look (I know it has pictures). You might get a copy of Steve Meyerowitz's juice and smoothies recipe book that goes into all sorts of ailments including weight (no photos). _Green for Life_ lays out a plan for adding green smoothies to the diet with the express purpose of losing weight.

Unless you have been raw and are maintaining weight you don't want, I don't think you particularly need a weight-loss-focused book, as first you should try just being 100% - perhaps you have and it isn't cutting it! Books like Sapoty Brook's _Eco-Eating_ and Wolfe's books will address raw eating for weight loss.

There's also a dreadful book aimed at people like my father, fat rich carnivores, called _You Don't Have to Be a Tree-Hugger to be a Vegan_ - it promotes veganism as a weight-loss modality, as does the work of Neal Barnard. There's also a not-all-raw book called _The Love Diet_ that addresses weight loss through vegansim (if I remember correctly).

Peach,

Thanks for your response. This is actually not for me, but for my mom. She's heard of raw but is not too excited about it. That's also why I asked for something for beginners, that would explain raw / why it's so super terrific, etc. She's just started doing some fruit and green smoothies and she likes them. Not much beyond that.

I will look into the books you recommend. Thanks again.

James, I would definitely recommend then getting her _Beautiful on Raw_ and the companion volume, _Your Right to Be Beautiful_ - the latter is a good book, but there are parts that are very offensive to atheists, agnostics, or people who do not accept Judaeo-Christianity or its scripture. You have to read through that, to get at the good parts. I think she'd find it persuasive and inspiring, but the companion volume does not have recipes or pictures - it explains the principles (easy reading, pop-oriented). David Wolfe's _Eating for Beauty_ might be helpful, too.

I leafed through the Raw Food Detox Diet in Borders yesterday. The recipes look good and simple, but it isn't all raw, which might be perfect for your mom.

Also, the Rave Diet at ravediet.com might suit her. I can't vouch for the book because I haven't seen it, but it appears to be predominantly, though not all, raw. The web site isn't the easiest to navigate. But if you scroll down the home page and look for the text link "What's in the book" you'll get the table of contents.

James, I'd get her Alissa Cohen's combination DVD and book. Have her start with the DVD, which is a 2 + hour video of Alissa in her kitchen preparing food and explaining raw to two ladies. (You could watch it with your Mom). It's a good, professional production, properly lighted, etc., and with a proper DVD menu so you can click to each section. The ladies run a local health food store and want to try raw for 30 days, mostly for weight loss.

The video is a hoot, and presents raw in a way that is upbeat, fun, and easy. The ladies are adorable. Alissa shows us how to whip up simple but delicious recipes, most of which take under 10 minutes to prepare, plates them up for the ladies, and they gasp and swoon as they taste the yummy food. A good part of the sound track consists of the ladies moaning 'Oh my God, Oh my GOD!' as they scarf up Alissa's creations.

The end of the video shows stills of each lady after the 30 days. They've both lost tons of weight and look great, very bouncy, healthy, and happy.

The book has tons of great recipes and a whole lot of inspiring first person stories about going raw.

Alissa's approach is terrific for newcomers because she emphasizes one rule: stay raw. If it's raw, you can eat it, even if it's raw apple pie a la mode or raw lasagna for breakfast. None of the long discussions about how much fruit, fat, greens, etc. that you find people discussing here or advocating in some of the other approaches. Alissa's approach makes it simple for the newbie and eliminates any sense of deprivation, especially after you witness the pig-out of that video.

Another nice thing about Alissa is that she's trained consultants, so if your Mom gets into it and needs help, she can likely find someone to call.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2007 11:11PM by greenie.

That DVD sounds like a lot of fun - keep in mind, though, that a great deal of people will not lose weight that way. Perhaps it depends on where your mom is coming from dietarily and how much she weighs. People on the if-it's-raw-you'll-lose-weight plan might get discouraged and feel bad if it doesn't work. Maybe if you can afford used copies, you could get the two Zavasta books as well as the Cohen DVD (beautifulonraw.com also offers consultations), so that your mom understands not just what's super-terrfic about raw but what is bad about sugar, salt, cooked, medications, bread, animal stuff, etc. The Wolfe book and the Zavasta also go into specific foods in action - so she'll get excited about her ingredients like watercress and papaya and seaweed and so on. A DVD is a great idea for seeing people actually bounce around in color and motion. Just be careful of the eat-raw-cake-and-lasagne approach, because it may disappoint. I think it would work as weight loss if someone were eating an omnivore junk dietary and switched to all-raw that way. But I'd be very cautious with it - a lot of overweight people have basal metabolic rates barely over 1000 calories, and eating tons of dried fruit, nuts, avocadoes, dates, bananas in that case may not have the desired effect - they could even gain weight (I speak from personal experience).

It's a good point Greenie makes about presenting raw as _more_, not less - not "deprivation" at all - _Beautiful on Raw_ states that the author found that whilst most women she talked to wouldn't want to go raw for health, they would go raw for physical appearance - that would be what motivated them enough (as if there were a distinction between health and beauty!); the Wolfe beauty book is also empowering, so that people think of it like creating a work of art, not "dieting". I should think it would be great to have a visual component in the form of a DVD - can you really make raw lasagne and pie without dehydrators? About half of the recipes in _Beautiful_ are dehydrator-y, so it may be of limited use to your mom, but there are salad and raw soup and smoothie recipes. Interestingly, it features (in separate chapters) various raw-foodists with conflicting views, including Alissa Cohen and Roz Graham - they all talk about what raw has done for their appearance, even, say, Rhio is against Grahamism, Graham is for Grahamism, and Cohen is for combo-abombos.

It's so true that the whole problem of fruit, fat, etc. is so off-putting, even for many longtime raw enthusiasts, and it's best to avoid the controversies with your mom. _Beautiful on Raw_ does that as well, but advocates a transitional diet of "anything" and an ultimate (natural) goal of very, very simple, light eating.

In terms of people with recipes that are simple and will almost certainly lead to weight loss for your mom, you might want to investigate some of the e-books offered by thegardendiet.com or fredericpatenaude.com - all these businesses offer consultations and free newsletters with recipes, I believe.

Perfect Body by Roe Gallo was my bible for the first 2 years, I also have Raw Food Detox Diet on order at Barnes and Noble. I've checked it out of the library about 5 times.

I'm 54 and when I started raw foods I was 50 and I lost 71 lbs. in under 6 monhts. The biggest thing was the turn around in my health..and although I'm struggeling to get back to high raw I'm still benefiting from the lost weight and better health due to raw foods. That's why I struggle to get back to it..it does a body good!

Love,
Prism

Hi James Smith-i was 245 and that was in Oct.of2006.i have lost 70 pounds now.i went raw and went out and bought all these raw cookbooks.but i can not even make alot of them cause i am trying to loose weight.i try to only eat a tiny bit of nuts or tahini butter on my fruit(banana)in the morning.or on my raw carrot bread.i eat more veggies.and drink smoothies that are more veggie than not.and walk the 10,000 step program.i have to be 100% raw but be really careful if i want to continue with my weight loss program.is i were to have a peice of pie with date/nut crust...i would have to only have a taste.i have been tending to lean toward very simple foods.good luck.taylor

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the best answer I found to raw. I tried everything else. I didn't lose weight ---to much fats. I feel better, more satiated on 8-1-1 than anything else I have ever done. I feel I can and will do this for life. No deprivation here and no liver overload. Pure delight. Simple.