[purelyraw.com]

what is everyones take on this?

if it's true
what are good substitutions for items that are on this list?

I certainly agree with the list - as I can see it. You can simplify your life if you wish by substituting and switching out ANY processed items like salts, spices, oils, dehydrated items, packaged items, frozen items, vinegar, yeast, etc.,....with fresh, raw plant foods. Find the foods that are more naturally full of sodium like celery or tomatoes.......for salt. Find naturally sweet fruits and fruit juices to substitute for more sweet items. For acid....you've got lemon/lime juice. For savory, you have garlic & onions. For hearty, you have avocado, coconut, etc.

-YOU need to really do the leg-work on this one. Finding healthier alternatives....and setting VERY small goals....is a path of discovery and consciousness that no-one can take away from you....or lay out in a 'pre-made' fashion. Don't you think?

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

It IS true, but if you feel you need substitutions for things on the list, you might consider not eating live foods exclusively until you're ready. That is to say, give yourself a few years of eating conventional raw cuisine to wean off of SAD tastes. When you hold the intention of eating living foods, your body will reject dead foods over time. The intention heightens awareness of your body's signals. The more you eat life, the more your body will crave it.

Cheers!
Betty

The list had items on it such as agave, and nama shoyu, which I have learned to be raw and many recipes call for...that was my biggest concern.

and that is why I ask for substitutions.

Here are some substitutions:
agave, maple syrup: fresh organic dates (like Date People)
braggs, nama shoyu, miso: something salty like dehydrated celery or sun-dried tomatoes
cacao: carob
brazil nuts, cashews, Macadamias, Pecans, olive oil, olives: avocado, sunflower seeds?
tahini: ground sesame seeds (in your coffee grinder/seed grinder)
dried fruit: fresh fruit

Most of the items on the list i don't use, but i do eat some occasionally... sometimes miso, agave, cacao, olive oil and some of the nuts. None of them are a staple in my diet though. Even though these foods are not technically raw, I personally have no problem using them on occasion as they are still so much better for you than most other food found in the average supermarket.

This is just my attitude/approach, but I try not to limit myself with raw dogma. I've met a couple raw folks who seem to find great joy in calling out other raw fooders who might use some of the items on this list. For some reason they've taken it upon themselves to decide who is raw and who is not. Last month i had a pompous raw fooder tell me i couldn't call myself raw because i had olive oil on a kale salad. I asked him if he felt better about himself now that he had disqualified me from being raw and he said "No, i just don't think you should run around calling yourself raw, when you are obviously not!" I said "well, i actually run around calling myself Greg and I eat the food that feels right to me...almost all of it happens to be raw, but if you need to identify yourself only by what you eat, then go for it dude!"

Sorry for the rant, but this list brought back the memory of being kicked out of the raw club for violating raw policy.

...actually, now it's got me thinking... David Z Mason, you might be wrong, apparently there are raw food police!

*Hugs Maui Greg*

You can come to the raw club I'm in--it's filled with loving people who want to do the best they can for themselves and the planet, based on where they are in their lives at any given moment. ;-) The raw food police just need some extra hugs and a dose of compassion so they can see us as human.

I have been raw for two years, only a little over a year 100% (well, I guess not technically according to the police). I know each year I'll be cleaner and cleaner with my diet, not because I strive to follow some raw rule, but because I instinctly know that the more pure my food the healthier and vibrant I'll be.

I don't think lists like that are horrible. They are actually helpful for those who are looking to move to another level of health. For me, I'm concentrating on lower fat this year. So, I'll still consume agave and nama shoyu if I feel I want them.

Lots of love to all of you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

Thanks for letting me in your club Wendy.

I do totally agree that the list is good...lot's of great information. And overwhelmingly the raw folks i've met don't behave at all like the guy who called me out on the olive oil thing. It was just an odd experience and this list reminded me of that instance.

Besides, i rarely pay any attention to the police...raw or otherwise.

Aloha nui loa, greg

"No, i just don't think you should run around calling yourself raw, when you are obviously not!"
"well, i actually run around calling myself Greg and I eat the food that feels right to me..."

Allow me to extend a HUMONGOUS high-five in your direction, Greg, that made me smile. =)

I found the list informational: a lot of the items I don't consume on a regular basis, but if I do have something raw gourmet, now and again some of those things get included. I had no idea about cacao or tahini!

A lot of those items are also awesome for people in transition! I haven't forsaken the notion of raw hummus yet, for example, which is worlds better with a bit of olive oil (cold pressed)--for now, I'm working on decreasing my portions when I do eat these things, and hopefully, one day, I won't need them at all.

The attitude within varying degrees of rawness should be the same that works best when dealing with people who still eat meat, dairy: you can't hate on them, because you once ate the exact same things, too--or possibly something worse. :O

Perhaps the person giving you a hard time still has a hard time with himself, and being comfortable with his own lifestyle. I knew some holier-than-thou vegans who were completely vegan... except for the tubs of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. The road is long.

Hi MauiGreg. Its funny that the people that are often NOT doing ANY legwork, want to pick apart those that are doing SOMETHING. Heh..heh (as I wager that gentleman probably was). You've got their number....for what it's worth! LOL.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

I really appreciate what Betty said about the power of the intention. It was only a short time ago that I developed the intention to consciously eat raw food. Now I have found that the intention, if thoughtfully maintained, has a real power of it's own.

I make plans to try various raw foods and recipes. Each time I follow through with my plan and eat more raw food I find that it strikes a chord. The more raw food I eat the less I want cooked food. It's a fairly simple process as long as I don't draw lines in the sand for myself.

As for the list on purelyraw I think it serves a valuable purpose. Each person needs to make his own decisions about what to eat and any knowledge is helpful.

The one thing I would mention is that the simple fact that something was steamed or blanched or touched with heat in any way does not mean that it's dead to the core. You can drop a big potato into boiling water and it might be a half hour before the center of it reaches 120 F. And I worked in Saudi Arabia for a year where it was sometimes 125 F during the day. I don't think anybody would say that the carrot or the melon I ate was "dead" because it was sitting out in the open air.

Making incredibly strict rules about things and then enforcing them harshly both on yourself and others only serves to generate a lot of bad feelings. Personally, I'm here to try to heal, not to find a new way to feel bad.

"All packaged, bottled and canned juice is pasteurized. Always."

This statement is incorrect. Whole Foods sells fresh squeezed juice in plastic containers. I contacted their corporate office twice and both times they told me that they cannot heat this juice or else they would not be able to call them fresh squeezed.

MauiGreg Wrote:
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>"well, i actually run around calling myself Greg

pfft, funny! can i join "Club Greg"? awesome.

No5 Wrote:

> Whole Foods sells fresh squeezed juice in plastic containers. I
> contacted their corporate office twice and both times they told me that they > > cannot heat this juice or else they would not be able to call them
> fresh squeezed.

for sure, they don't flash pasturize it? the laws around "raw" juice are weird.

When I was transitioning, someone at work knew about it. I don't talk much about my personal life there but it's a small place... hard to be completely private. But, anyway, she was sitting across the office from me with a Diet Coke in her hand and she said, (with an "AHA! CAUGHT YA!" tone) --

"Odwalla is pasterized! It isn't really raw."

Uh huh.

I was tempted to point out that nothing in Diet Coke is actually even a food product, but I just smiled and went on drinking it. No need to respond.

For some folks, living on air and organic grapes is enough. That doesn't make them better than someone who eats almonds or olive oil. You have to follow your own path.

Your path doesn't go down my throat.

coco Wrote:
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> No5 Wrote:
>
> > Whole Foods sells fresh squeezed juice in
> plastic containers. I
> > contacted their corporate office twice and both
> times they told me that they > > cannot heat this
> juice or else they would not be able to call them
> > fresh squeezed.
>
> for sure, they don't flash pasturize it? the laws
> around "raw" juice are weird.

I asked them if they used *any* form of heating and they said no. So either they're lying to me or their fresh squeezed juice is raw. They also sell organic versions of this juice so irradiation and chemical treatment is out for sure. I encourage anyone who is interested to also contact them and see if they get different information...

-I am continuing to research and will post.

-I believe...from my research...that any unpasteurized juice must be labeled with a warning. Just check to see if you juice possess such a label....and/or if the place where it is sold posts such a label/sign. Anyone else have an observation?

-In any event....even if juice is not pasteurized...or treated....the juicing process itself is quite oxidizing. My own opinion/experience is to stick with fresh....as I regard the rest to be less than optimal.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

i know Whole Foods in Santa Fe did serve fresh unpasteurized citrus juices. With a big warning label.
my local farm sells unpasteurized apple cider- very big warning label.

it must be labeled unpasteurized with the warning from what i can tell. i don't invest often, but now that i'm out here away from fresh grapefruit juice that i didn't have to squeeze, i miss it and i will occasionally cheat with flash pasteurized. not because i think it's comprable to fresh, but because it's the best choice i can make at the time (re: living in a hospital for two weeks will instigate a large odwalla drinking for me and frantic calls to friends for shipments of fresh fruit).

fresh is optimal.
unpasteurized is my second
flash pasteurized is a distant third

and nothing else passes my lips.

i think lists like this are great for people looking for ways to move more raw, and knowledge is power when you are in charge of your health. i use this information to educate my husband and to make decisions about what we need to stock, trim back on, or eliminate in our home.

knowledge is to be used, not worshipped.

peace-

No5 Wrote:
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> I asked them if they used *any* form of heating
> and they said no. So either they're lying to me
> or their fresh squeezed juice is raw. They also
> sell organic versions of this juice so irradiation
> and chemical treatment is out for sure. I
> encourage anyone who is interested to also contact
> them and see if they get different information...

I just asked Whole Foods how they comply with the final FDA ruling on using HACCP systems to sanitize raw juice instead of simply asking them if they heat their juice. Here's part of the response I got...

"Our manufacturers wash all fruit at a temperature of 180 degrees or more to reduce the spread of pathogens into the juice..."

So technically they don't heat the "juice" since they heat the fruit before they make juice out of it. That means they didn't lie but it also means that their juice isn't raw. I apologize for spreading misleading information...