I've been on a raw food diet for three days. I am not sure if I'm doing this correctly. I was told that almond milk was good, so I bought three boxes of almond milk at the local supermarket. Now I'm not sure if this is considered OK or raw. It's from Pacific Natural Foods, All Natural Almond Non-Dairy beverage. The ingredients say it contains filtered water, evaporated cane juice, almonds, tricalcium phosphate, sea salt, potassium citrate, carrageeenan, soy lecithin, riboflavin (B2), Vitamin A Plamitate, Vitamin D2.

I tried that stuff once in my early raw days too. Doesn't taste anything like the almond milk you make in a blender with raw almonds, vanilla and dates strained through a nut bag.

In a Carton isnt raw

but... its certainly a step up from dairy

you can make your own with water, vanilla and almond

or make hemp milk--hemp seeds

Half sesame half cashew works well too-- creamy tasting

or just a blended banana with water works well as a mlyk sub

Otherwise you could just make instant nut milk with a spoon of raw nut butter and water.

If it helps you in your transition then go for it!!

Don't worry about being 100% raw, especially if that's not your goal. Just get as much raw in as you can....it's easier said than done to make nut and seed milks at home. I am more than willing to take the time to do it, but I don't have a Vita-Mix and I would have to strain and use TONS of cheesecloth to get the pulp of the nuts out.....plus I only use nutmilks for my decaf (Swiss water method, fair-trade, organic, before I get yelled at ) coffee, so I sometimes just buy soymilk.

I see a lot of questions on here w/ regard to not wanting to eat a single cooked food; I don't think raw foodism is about absolutes; it's about eating fresh food most, or at least 75%, or the time.

cashews don't need to be strained, just so you know. they blend right up nice and thick in a regular blender. it helps to soak them a bit first of course.

Thanks for that tip. i have made cashew crema before and it turned out well; I'd just have to add more water! yay.

I think it's fine if you make it yourself. But the prepared stuff is not only cooked but also nasty tasting. I tried Almond Breeze once and I will never make that mistake again. Not only cooked, but also expensive and yuk for the taste/

But I'm on a diet - and I've read that dates are high on glycemic index. It's better to substitute it with agave nectar. Does anyone know how much agave nectar I have to put into the blender for every four cups of water?

Try 2 - 3 T. then taste.

Have you used stevia?

Ew. Stevia is NO GOOD. Well, it's good for supporting healthy blood pressure (and studies suggest it can maybe help lower high blood pressure), and good for teeth (and bone integrity, according to some.) but it does not taste delicious as dates, figs, juice, agave, or any other kind of raw sugar I've encountered.

stevia is yucky to me too. tastes like aspartame. but that's good for people used to diet stuff, it would taste just the same to then!

though stevia is indetactable in fresh lemonaide. try it sometime, just lemon juice, water and stevia. that ick taste is not there, it's amazing, just delicious.

I use it in tea. And I'm not "used to" artificial sweeteners, haven't had them in over 5 years. I use the liquid, not powder. I realize it has a little bit of taste, but the tea overpowers it, as does lemon, apparently!

Dates don't really go in tea. :p

I've never tried Stevia but now I'm curious....



My website: The Coconut Chronicles

I make nut milk a lot, about every other day. My favorite is a combination of walnuts, macadamia nuts and almonds. Lately I've gotten into a rhythym..soak the nuts before bed and make the nut milk in the morning. I usually make a gallon at a time, and flavor half vanilla (with dates, vanilla and irish moss) and half chocolate (with dates, cacao, agave and irish moss). It's simple to make and sooo delicious! My kids love it!

The regular stevia powders and liquids you get at the stores is processed and refined. Unprocessed stevia is a GREEN powder. It has quite a strong taste, but not an artificial one.

Processed stevia gives DH symptoms (frequent urination). Unprocessed doesnt. Tastes strong, takes some getting used to!

Dates are a whole food and agave is not. Dates have fiber and other vitamins/minerals, agave is pure sugar... do you know the glycemic load of the dates combined with the other ingredients? (I say load vs index because load accounts for serving size). Because that is really what will affect your body.

Check out this article by John Kohler called The Truth about Agave Syrup: Not as Healthy as You May Think.

"so you end up trading a cooked addiction (eating candy bars or cookies) for a “raw” addiction which is not much better."

the blurb you linked contained the above quote, which i find ridiculous. i have never heard of anyone being addicted to agave syrup, nor have i had any cravings for it myself. if i crave anything, on a cooked food diet or a raw foodist diet (at least 75% raw), it's fruit. fruit, fruit, and more fruit. sometimes dried, sometimes fresh.

i don't really like generalizations in an "article" that is supposed to be informed but has no basis in science....

i'm not anti-dates, but i think dates have their place for certain preparations and agave has its place as well, and is certainly better ethically than taking from bees and otherwise exploiting them. i don't know, i guess maybe i'm unique in that i care about ethical concerns over minimal health concerns.....(minimal in my view, obviously)

[utopiankitchen.wordpress.com]

utopian life,

cool photo.

Good point about choosing agave over honey... still I personally would moderate its usage to less than daily (at the most). As far as addiction, I would assume sensitivity to it (as far as sugar addiction) would depend on the person. I still get a "sugar rush" feeling from it, far more than from fresh fruit, but dried fruits are very potent.

Thank you. Yeah, I definitely don't use agave every day, but I think it's nice in some dessert, every-once-and-a-while dishes!

[utopiankitchen.wordpress.com]

Thanks for the article. I head read that raw agave isn't really raw somewhere before too. Interesting that fruit contains sucrose & glucose too, apparently; I thought it only contained fructose. I'll need to go check that out.