After years & much frustration, I have finally figured out what I need to be able to go fully adopt a raw lifestyle.

I need information on what Gabriel Cousens calls "taste balancing". I am a very methodical, organized thinker/learner. I need to understand the principles and concepts of food tastes so that I can take any raw ingredients and know how to put them together so they will taste good. I can't just throw things together, experiment, and try things to see what works. I have seen many posts here from people who seem to be struggling with the same problem.

I know there are people who can just experiment and throw things together. My boyfriend is one of them. He has no training, knowledge, or cooking background, but no matter what this, that, or the other he throws together, it's delicious. It drives me crazy because I couldn't do it to save my life!

Beginning on page 141 of Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine, Gabriel talks about four categories of tastes--Fat, Acid, Sweet, and Salt and talks about what foods fall into which categories. He touches very, very lightly on this concept of "taste balancing"--enough for me to realize it's what I need to know, but not enough for me to really understand the details.

Here is a link to the pages in Rainbow Green... about this subject to help further explain what I am talking about. [files-upload.com] (pdf file 1.2M

Here's what I need to know:

--A detailed, thorough list of what foods fall into what categories (greens being extremely important, of course).

--All the principles and exceptions (you know, like grammar & spelling classes had lots of rules, but also lots of exceptions?) of blending those foods to taste good

--Recipes to use as real-world examples of putting the concepts to use

Gabriel mentions a book by Chad Sarno called Vital Creations and seems to suggest that this book goes into much more detail about "taste balancing". Does anybody have this book that can tell me if it would fit my needs? There is no info about it on Amazon.

If Vital Creations doesn't have the info I need, is there another source for it already in existence? If not, I will consider paying someone to write down this info for me. It needn't be perfect like a published book, but it does need to be organized. I suspect that there are quite a few other people who could use this info as well, so even in rough draft form it would probably be worth some price. Eventually maybe make it into a book.

If you have this knowledge or know where I can get it, please private message me here or post your contact info on the forum here.

------SUMMARY OF QUESTIONS-------

1) Does Chad Sarno's book Vital Creations have the info I need in it?

2) Are there other books that have the info I need?

3) Do you have the info I need and would be willing to write it down, possibly for payment?

4) Are you struggling with staying on a raw food diet and think this information would help you, too?

---------------------------------

BACKGROUND INFO

I have been studying and trying a raw diet for years. I have not been able to go raw because I lack both money and knowledge. I take care of dozens of rescued dogs and cats so there is no money to either pay someone to prepare raw food for me or to pay the high price of organic produce.

Even on my (no meat) Standard American Diet, I have never cooked, so I don't even know how taste balancing works in that area, either. Even though I could theoretically prepare raw recipes, it's expensive and wasteful to buy the ingredients for one recipe (which leaves little room for cost consciousness--if you're going to make the recipes, you MUST have these ingredients) and you inevitably have to throw some away because you can't find a use for all the left over ingredients.

By the way, maybe one recipe ever turned out right for me, even when using the expensive equipment.

When I came across the mention of "taste balancing" in Rainbow Green... book, it struck me that it was exactly the information I needed to learn. But Googling "taste balancing", "taste blending", and "taste mixing" came up with nothing. Even a search of this forum turned up nothing.

I realized that by obtaining the info I listed above, I could plan a garden properly (make sure I have enough variety of plants in each category). Or I could join a CSA with a local organic farmer (where you get a box of produce each week for a relatively small amount of money) and I could put everything in it to good use without any waste or uncertainty about how to use a given item. Once I have the knowledge about "taste balancing", THEN I will be able experiment once I know the rules and exceptions.

I know there are plenty of you who can intuitively just mix things and be successful. I envy you and I'm very happy for you! :-) But I can tell that there are others facing this same lack of appropriate knowledge--and it's the only thing standing between them and enormous freedom and health. I promise that if someone can help me find this info, I will help get it to other people who need it--those people in the same pickle I am in!

i'm confused. why mix foods?
why not one at a time?

when you talk about taste balanacing that seems alot to me like the teachings of Ayurveda, you can read more about that here the 3 Doshas are Vata [www.ayurbalance.com] , Pitta [www.ayurbalance.com] and Kapha [www.ayurbalance.com] at the end of each page is the balancing part of diet to next page .. if anything its an interesting read

maybe check some of that out for some answers

i think the tastes are
pungent, bitter,astringent, sweet, sour and salty

fat isnt a taste at least as far as i know.. its just fat lol although i think one can definitely aqurie taste for/crave for fat ...butters an oils an such...

are you lookign for fancy raw vegan fare? simple raw foods are as easy as picking up a peice of fruit and eating it ..no cooking, no prepwork ...easy no fuss no muss

if you cant afford organic right now .. raw unorganic fruit and veggies are certainly better then not eating anything raw at all

if you find you cant use up ingredients before they go bad .. toss them in a blender and drink em in smoothies or freeze them for smoothies later or thaw them for a blended cold soup ..nice on a hot day.

if you still insist that taste balancing is the AHAH! moment your missing in your journey .. maybe try g.cousens buliten board and see if someone there can clarify it for you more or contact tree of life center an see if someone cant answer this..

lots of luck .. honestly id save your money your offering for information and keep trying to seek the info for yourself.. spend it on some fruit an veggies.. im sure someone will come up with something for you

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

i also found this , its called the 5 taste balance technique, maybe contact them for some clarification too ...?

[www.seedwiki.com]

Five Tastes Balance Technique:


The concept of five tastes balance that Victoria Boutenko refers to in her article “Seven Common Mistakes that Occur on a Raw Food Diet” is based on both ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine principles of balancing the five tastes that the body requires: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and spicy. It is felt that we could eat in harmony and have internal balance by incorporating a bit of each of these tastes into each our main meals; Taste balance is also important in raw food preparation and is essential to creating delicious tasty food.

Sweet:

• fresh fruit such as ripe banana, mango, peach pear
• dried fruit such as figs, dates, prunes and raisins
• orange juice
• cherry tomatoes
• carrots
• beets
• coconut water

Salty:

• celery
• sea vegetables such as dulse, kelp or nori
• celtic sea salt
• olives
• miso

Sour:

• lemons
• limes
• cranberries
• grapefruit
• apple cider vinegar
• sauerkraut
• sorrel

Bitter:

• dandelion leaves
• celery tops
• parsley
• arugula
• endive
• kale
• mustard greens

Spicy:

• ginger root
• red radish
• daikon radish
• mustard green
• cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla
• basil, dill, cilantro, rosemary or peppermint
• garlic cloves
• scallions


The following information is found in Rose Vasile's new book Uncooking with Raw Rose - Your Guide to Raw Food
and is very useful to have on hand when you are attempting to balance the five tastes.

The ratios will change with each dish. The key to creating great raw recipes is to balance the five tastes. When you are done preparing a dish, be sure to taste it, asking yourself whether it needs more of any of the tastes. Note the following:


Excess SOUR is balanced by adding SWEET
Overly BITTER is balanced by adding SOUR
FATS tone down SPICES and mellow too much SWEETNESS
SALT brings out flavors. It is the most concentrated, so use little.
BITTER accents the SWEET. Use carefully so the BITTER isn't overpowering.

In 2002, Rose was trained as a Raw Living Foods Chef by Victoria Boutenko. In the forward of Rose's book "Uncooking with Raw Rose - Your Guide to Raw Food", Victoria write:


Rose Vasile's book is a gift to all of us. It is a practical and easy-to-follow guide for making a wide variety of delicious raw foods... we are fortunate to have her recipe book with extremely accurate, pre-measured, and pre-tested instructions that guarantee a scrumptious taste.

With the author's simple, down-to-earth explanations, this book is especially helpful for beginners to raw food. At the same time, the abundance of recipes will easily attract longtime raw fooders. Rose's sincere style, combined with her personal story, makes the reading engaging.

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

or 6 tastes if you like .. lol [www.eattasteheal.com]

Taste Primary Actions Common Sources

Sweet Builds tissues, calms nerves Fruit, grains, natural sugars, milk
Sour Cleanses tissues, increases absorption of minerals Sour fruits, yogurt, fermented foods
Salty Improves taste to food, lubricates tissues, stimulates digestion Natural salts, sea vegetables
Bitter Detoxifies and lightens tissues Dark leafy greens, herbs and spices
Pungent Stimulates digestion and metabolism Chili peppers, garlic, herbs and spices
Astringent Absorbs water, tightens tissues, dries fats Legumes, raw fruits and vegetables, herbs




1) Include all 6 Tastes in each meal
The 6 Tastes offer us a user-friendly guide map for how to nourish ourselves. Rather than looking at nutritional labels for X amount of protein or Y amount of carbohydrates, the 6 Tastes naturally guide us towards our body’s nutritional needs. Each taste feeds our mind, body, senses, and spirit in its own unique way. From a modern nutritional perspective, the 6 Tastes satisfy each of the major dietary building blocks. Sweet foods, for example, are rich in fats, proteins, carbohydrates, and water, whereas Bitter and Astringent foods are high in vitamins and minerals.

The brain sends the body signals when it requires energy in the form of food. By incorporating all 6 Tastes into each meal, we ensure that these signals are adequately met, thus avoiding food cravings or the over-consumption of certain foods..

Including the 6 tastes in each meal doesn’t need to be a daunting task. Adding a squeeze of lemon to cooked dishes, for example, can quickly satisfy the Sour taste, while adding a side salad will fulfill the Bitter and Astringent tastes.

2) Allow your unique constitution to determine the proportion of tastes you eat

The body naturally desires tastes that balance its doshic makeup and shuns tastes of an aggravating nature. In this sense, things are made pretty easy for us: If we simply follow our natural inclinations, we are led to the proper foods. Vata individuals, for example, are naturally drawn to moist, grounding foods, while Kapha individuals favor light, drying foods.

Ayurvedic nutrition recommends including all 6 tastes in each meal, while favoring those tastes that bring greater balance to your particular constitution. A Pitta individual, for example, will favor cooling foods and spices such as dark leafy greens and fennel,which are high in Bitter and Astringent tastes, while requiring a smaller quantity of the Pungent taste.

Balancing the Doshas Through Taste


Most Balancing Most Aggravating

Vata Sweet, Sour, Salty Bitter, Pungent, Astringent
Pitta Sweet, Bitter, Astringent Sour, Salty, Pungent
Kapha Pungent, Bitter, Astringent Sweet, Sour, Salty


In the overview of the 6 Tastes below, “-” after a doshic initial refers to a balancing (or decreasing) effect on that particular dosha, while “+” refers to an aggravating (or increasing) effect.




Sweet taste results from the combination of Water and Earth and is heavy, moist, and cooling by nature. In the West, sugary foods are most commonly associated with this taste. Sweet taste is also found in milk and milk products (like butter, ghee, and cream), most grains (especially wheat, rice, and barley), many legumes (like beans and lentils), sweet fruits (such as bananas and mangos), and certain cooked vegetables (such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and beets).
Sweet taste naturally increases bulk, moisture, and weight in the body. For this reason, it is excellent for building the body’s seven vital tissues (called dhatus) of plasma, blood, fat, muscles, bones, marrow, and reproductive fluids. Sweet taste also increases saliva, soothes mucous membranes and burning sensations, relieves thirst, and has beneficial effects on the skin, hair, and voice.






Sour Taste is composed of Earth and Fire and is hot, light, and moist by nature. It is commonly found in citrus fruits (such as lemon and limes), sour milk products (like yogurt, cheese, and sour cream), and fermented substances (including wine, vinegar, pickles, sauerkraut, and soy sauce). Used in moderation, Sour taste stimulates digestion, helps circulation and elimination, energizes the body, strengthens the heart, relieves thirst, maintains acidity, sharpens the senses, and helps extract minerals such as iron from food. It also nourishes all the vital tissues (dhatus) except the reproductive tissues (the exception being yogurt, which nourishes all the tissues).





Salty taste is composed of Fire and Water and is hot, heavy, and moist by nature. It is found in any salt (such as sea salt and rock salt), sea vegetables (like seaweed and kelp), and foods to which large amounts of salt are added (like nuts, chips, and pickles). Due to its drying quality in the mouth, it may seem counterintuitive to think of Salty taste as moistening. The element of Water in its composition, however, relates to its water retaining quality. Salty taste falls somewhere between Sweet and Sour tastes with regard to its heavy and moist qualities. While Sweet taste stimulates the greatest water retention and weight gain in the body, Salty taste will have similar effects when used in excess by any of the doshas.
In moderation, Salty taste improves the flavor of food, improves digestion, lubricates tissues, liquefies mucous, maintains mineral balance, aids in the elimination of wastes, and calms the nerves. Due to its tendency to attract water, it also improves the radiance of the skin and promotes overall growth in the body.







Pungent taste derives from the elements of Fire and Air and is hot, dry, and light. It is the hottest of all the 6 Tastes and is found in certain vegetables (such as chili peppers, garlic, and onions), and in spices (like black pepper, ginger, and cayenne). In small amounts, Pungent taste stimulates digestion, clears the sinuses, promotes sweating and detoxification, dispels gas, aids circulation, improves metabolism, and relieves muscle pain.





Bitter taste is composed of Air and Ether and is light, cooling, and dry by nature. It is found in green leafy vegetables (such as spinach, kale, and green cabbage), other vegetables (including zucchini and eggplant), herbs and spices (like turmeric, fenugreek, and dandelion root), coffee, tea, and certain fruits (such as grapefruits, olives, and bitter melon). While Bitter taste is often not appealing alone, it stimulates the appetite and helps bring out the flavor of the other tastes. Bitter taste is a powerful detoxifying agent, and has antibiotic, anti-parasitic, and antiseptic qualities. It is also helpful in reducing weight, water retention, skin rashes, fever, burning sensations and nausea.





Astringent taste results from the combination of Air and Earth and is dry, cooling, and heavy by nature. It is the least common of all the 6 Tastes and can be found in legumes (such as beans and lentils), fruits (including cranberries, pomegranates, pears, and dried fruit), vegetables (such as, broccoli, cauliflower, artichoke, asparagus and turnip), grains (such as rye, buckwheat, and quinoa), spices and herbs (including turmeric and marjoram), coffee, and tea. Astringent taste is not as cold as Bitter taste but has a greater cooling effect on the body than Sweet taste.
Astringent taste is classified more in relation to its effect on the tongue than its actual taste. It creates a puckering sensation in the mouth (such as cranberries) or a dry, chalky feeling (such as many beans). Foods like broccoli or cauliflower have a mildly Astringent taste that is less detectable. Dry foods such as crackers and chips, most raw vegetables, and the skins of fruits also have Astringent qualities

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

sorry about the above posts references to dairy products i tried to edit it after posting but for some reason the edit button is just hanging on and not going thru

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

this was a pretty cool article .. just about Taste ... part in bold i thought was really interesting [www.apa.org]

What predicts which foods we eat?
A genetic disposition for certain tastes may affect people’s food preferences.

By Beth Azar
Monitor staff

Along with rational thought, human eating habits set us apart from all other animals. We don’t eat merely to gain nutrients. We eat to taste—combining ****, fruits, vegetables and seasonings to concoct a never-ending variety of flavor and taste sensations.

Biopsychologists and nutritionists have begun examining the factors that predict which foods people eat. Some are looking at how people’s earliest experiences with different flavors—through breast milk and perhaps even amniotic fluid—affect the food preferences they develop. Others are examining the human tongue to determine whether genetic differences in how people taste and experience food predicts which foods they eat.

Once researchers understand the social and biological factors that underlie food preferences, they may be able to design interventions that can help people learn to eat healthy diets, they say.

Early learning

Babies begin to learn about the flavors specific to their culture through breast milk, and maybe even amniotic fluid, research shows. When a woman eats garlic, for example, her baby will suckle longer, finds psychologist Julie Mennella, PhD, of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. Babies don’t seem to ingest more milk. Rather they spend the extra time analyzing what they’re tasting, keeping the milk in their mouth, pausing and perceiving the flavors. Vanilla flavoring has a similar effect, studies show.

Amniotic fluid, which babies ingest inside the womb, also picks up a distinctive smell after a woman eats garlic, Mennella finds. And it’s likely the fetus detects the change in its living environment.

Many cultures believe that early exposure to traditional foods is critical for shaping a baby’s food preferences. Although this link between early experience with flavors and later food preferences hasn’t been established by research, several studies hint that it might be valid. For example, Leann Birch, PhD, now of Pennsylvania State University, and her colleagues found that repeated exposure to green beans and peas—in the form of baby food—helped babies overcome initial rejection of the vegetables. Also, several studies by Mennella and her colleagues find correlations between the diversity of a mother’s diet and her infant’s willingness to eat a variety of foods.

And studies of rodents, sheep and pigs show that, once weaned, young animals prefer flavors they were exposed to through their mothers’ milk.

A bitter pill

Other researchers have begun to examine whether differences in how people perceive tastes—their perceptions of how bitter broccoli tastes or how salty a pickle seems—affect their food choices. In the early 1930s, researchers discovered an inherited taste trait that determines people’s sensitivity to bitter tastes. People can be classified as “tasters” or “nontasters” based on whether they are able to detect 6-n-propylthiouracil, or PROP, which tastes bitter to some people, but tastes as benign as water to others. Research has found that nontasters eat a larger variety of foods than tasters.


Knowing about genetically determined preferences may help people better understand their eating habits and work to reshape them.


Several years ago, Yale University psychologist Linda Bartoshuk, PhD, discovered that a subset of people find PROP even more offensive than regular tasters did. She named them “supertasters” and soon determined that she could distinguish that group from tasters and tasters from nontasters by looking at their tongues. Supertasters have the most fungiform papillae—the rounded structures on the tongue that house the taste buds, which send information about flavor and texture to the brain. As their name implies, supertasters perceive tastes more intensely than tasters and nontasters: Bitter tastes more bitter, sweet tastes sweeter and salt tastes saltier, finds University of Connecticut assistant professor and dietician Valerie Duffy, PhD, RD, who collaborates with Bartoshuk. These findings confirm work by French physiologist Brillat-Savarin in 1826, who said that people with more papillae lived in different worlds of taste. Research by Bartoshuk and others finds that about 25 percent of the U.S. population are supertasters, 50 percent are tasters and 25 percent are nontasters. Also, women are more likely than men to be supertasters.

But eating is more than taste. The “feel” of food can be just as important to people. In fact, 75 percent of the nerves coming out of the fungiform papillae lead to the trigeminal nerve, which connects to the pain and touch centers in the brain. So for super-tasters, an excess of fungiform papillae means they “feel” foods more intensely too. Duffy finds that supertaster women rate fat as creamier than tasters or non-tasters, a sensation resulting from the “feel” of fat rather than its taste. And they also feel more “burn” from substances such as ginger, alcohol, the carbon-dioxide in soda, and capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili peppers, finds Bartoshuk and her colleagues. Research is beginning to find that these differences in taste sensations, in part, predict which foods people prefer. For example, University of Michigan psychologist Adam Drewnowski, PhD, finds that during a taste test, supertaster women are more likely than tasters or nontasters to reject bitter-tasting foods, including green tea and a range of soy products such as tofu, miso and soy milk. In other studies, supertaster women found the taste of naringin—a bitter chemical found in grapefruit juice— less appealing than nontasters. When asked to rate food preferences, supertasters gave lower ratings to coffee, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and spinach.

This research included a study of 123 college-age women as part of a grant from the National Cancer Institute to investigate whether being a supertaster affects people’s willingness to accept foods high in anti-oxidants—the compounds found in many vegetables that researchers believe ward off cancer.

So far, his results don’t prove that supertasters’ distaste for bitter vegetables translates into a diet low in those foods, he says. He is now analyzing food consumption data from the women, including daily food diaries. And he is also collecting data from a sample of women with breast cancer to determine if taster status affects their willingness to switch to a cancer-fighting diet low in fat and high in fruits and vegetables.

Given the role of dietary fat in human obesity, researchers are also interested in whether taster status affects people’s preference for fats. In a study now in press, Duffy and her colleagues find that supertaster women report a lower preference for sweet and fats than tasters or nontasters. As with bitter tastes, supertasters seem to find sweets and fats too intense, says Duffy, whose research was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In another study in press, however, Drewnowski and his colleagues find no relationship between taster status and preference for sweetened dairy products.

The supertaster gene may be a remnant of our evolutionary past, which once acted as a safety mechanism to help humans avoid toxins and other unhealthy foods, researchers contend. Supporting that claim is evidence from Duffy and her colleagues that women become more sensitive to bitter flavors during the first trimester of pregnancy, a time when ingested toxins would most severely affect a fetus.

It would be ironic if, now, taster status discourages some people from eating disease-fighting foods, says Drewnowski. But, he adds, food preferences are malleable, affected by social cues and exposure to different foods. Knowing about genetically determined preferences may help people better understand their eating habits and work to reshape them.

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2007 06:19AM by Jgunn.

WHAT MAKES SUPER TASTERS DIFFERENT
FROM MEDIUM AND NONTASTERS?

Miller and Reedy have introduced a new perspective. They utilized methylene blue to stain the taste buds so that they could be counted. They found that tasters had more taste buds than nontasters. In addition, they found that subjects with more taste buds perceived stronger tastes.

Since there are pain fibers associated with taste buds, super tasters are unusually responsive to the oral burn of spices. A recent extension of this work showed that super tasters have the largest number of taste buds, nontasters the smallest.

The difference in number of receptors are very large. For example, the average number of taste buds per square centimeter was 96 for nontasters, 184 for tasters and 425 for supertasters.

The super tasters fungiform papillae were smaller and had rings of tissue arid them that were not seen on the fungiform papillae of nontasters. These anatomical differences my prove to be a better indicator of genetic status than the taste differences

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

ok im goin to bed now before my head explodes i guess thats enough to wrap yer thoughts around for awhile hehe

p.s. ya owe me a buck

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

hey shirlscoho

i say you hire Jgunn to be your 6 Tastes Specialist Doctor
with all that info she has given you
i say get on that diving platform

now

and

dive

thanks Jodi, that's really interesting information. I have bookmarked some of the articles to explore in more depth later.I've been reading 'Helping Ourselves: A Guide to traditional Chinese Food Energetics' by Daverick Leggett. Similar info, but working with 5 tastes. Food preparation is a true healing and creative art!! So much to learn
Shell
x

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[www.therawkitchen.blogspot.com]

Thanks so much, jodi, for all the info! You sure spent a lot of time to post all of that!

I will be going through it to see what I can learn!

i totally get why people want to eat fruit and veg as it is.....i think that eventually, that is where we would all end up on our raw journeys....in an ideal world.....i used to eat like that a lot more when i was the only person i knew eating raw, and i didn't have to make food for anyone else.
Now i am feeding people raw all the time, and i have to make full use of all the flavours in dishes, to entice people transitioning from cooked food. It really helps people who are used to cooked dishes to feel totally satisfied. I usually do taste balancing quite intuitively....it's a subtle alchemy....however, learning it intellectually really helps too....it gives an understanding of WHY we do certain things....that there is actually an elegant reasoning behind it all.
At the end of the day, it's alchemy, sometimes complex, sometimes beautifully simple....lovexxxx

~~~~~~~~~~
[www.therawkitchen.blogspot.com]

tamu, you are so right about eating fruits, vegs, etc. just as they are being the ideal goal. Nature, God, or whoever didn't intend for us to have high-powered blenders and juicers to be able to comfortably eat raw. But like you realize, the transition from the awful SAD diet means that everyone can't just go straight to the ideal. I wish I could, and have tried to, eat a leaf of kale, for example. But my body chemistry and taste buds have to transition to appreciate the taste.

While following links posted by jodi (above), I came across this article by Victoria Boutenko [www.emaxhealth.com] (alternate link [tinyurl.com]) about transitioning and how long it takes taste buds to recover from the standard American diet. Scroll down to the section titled GOURMET RAW FOOD MIMICKS COOKED FOOD. It's quite fascinating.

I'm really glad you can intuitively put foods together. It certainly helps you stay on raw foods more easily. Sadly, no matter how badly I want to be raw, I can't without money or the knowledge I am seeking with this post.

I am rather shocked at how hard it is to find the info I need. Based on how many people have posted here over the years exhibiting difficulty with "just throwing things together", I'm surprised no one has filled this gap with a book/DVD/etc.

As I said before, when I do find the answers I need, I'll make sure I somehow make it available to my fellow challenged raw foodies!

is there anyone near you doing raw food prep classes or workshops? That might be a really good way of learning recipes, and the basic principles behind 'throwing things together' that taste fantastic? just a thought......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[www.therawkitchen.blogspot.com]

There is, and I have contacted some of them, and will be contacting more of them. So far, it doesn't look like those who go through Alissa Cohen's classes learn this.

Also, I am looking into Frederic Patenaude's (sp?) books as he has mentioned the taste balancing concept, as have the Boutenkos. I just can't afford to buy all their respective books to see if they have really detailed info.

I don't find that the "principles" of taste and flavor are that different raw than cooked. If one can throw together a cooked meal then one can throw together a raw meal.

For instance, if I were going to prepare a raw tomato soup, I would use exactly the same ingredients as I would if I were to cook it. Some of the seasonings would be adjusted perhaps, as raw garlic is somewhat different than cooked garlic and so on...but, essentially, the elements of the dish remain the same.

However, if one CAN'T throw together a cooked meal and is recipe dependent, or restaurant dependent, it's doubtful that any book will make you a competent raw chef. Food preparation is an art form, at least at the level of "throwing things together". Some people got it and some don't. I've never met anyone - and I've been around food preparation for many years - who did NOT love to prepare food that ever learned to become exceptional at it. and I've never met anyone who loved food preparation that could not "throw things together" and make a wonderful dish.

I don't really believe that success on the raw diet is dependent on ones' culinary skills. Simple is really best and some of the most accomplished chefs will tell you that this is true of cooked as well. And no matter how many books you read on the "5 flavors" and how to combine them, eventually you have to TASTE the flavors to know how they work.

khale

shirlscoho Wrote:

>I wish I could, and have tried to, eat a leaf of kale, for example. But my body chemistry and taste buds have to transition to appreciate the taste.

i don't like kale and i've been on this raw path for 25 years, so i don't see why this is a problem. maybe you have some other examples of foods you don't like and how this is a problem for you.

>I have been studying and trying a raw diet for years. I have not been able to go raw because I lack both money and knowledge.

it takes neither money nor detailed knowledge. it takes action.
the action consists of eating more raw plants.
those plants do not have to be organically grown.

> I take care of dozens of rescued dogs and cats so there is no money to either pay someone to prepare raw food for me or to pay the high price of organic produce.

food does not need to be prepared.

you seem to be looking for excuses not to go raw instead of reasons to be raw.

problems of taste just mean that you are picking the wrong foods (kale, for example).