Why raw?

Many of my friends usually raise an eye brow when I mention that I strive towards Raw Foodism, even though the name says it all. Here is what Wiki says:

"Raw foodism (or rawism) is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of un-cooked, un-processed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet. Raw foodists typically believe that the greater the percentage of raw food in the diet, the greater the health benefits. Raw foodism or a raw diet is usually equated with raw veganism in which only raw plant foods are eaten, but other raw foodists emphasize raw meat and other raw animal products. Depending on the type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include a selection of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds (including sprouted whole grains such as gaba rice), eggs, fish (such as sashimi), meat (such as carpaccio), and non-pasteurized/non-homogenized dairy products (such as raw milk, raw milk cheese, and raw milk yogurt). Raw foodists can be divided between those that advocate raw vegetarianism or raw veganism, and those that advocate a raw omnivorous diet."

So where do I belong? At the moment, I would say I'm 70% raw vegetarian, which means I eat mainly raw fruits, veggies, nuts, sprouts, but I also eat cooked vegetables, grains, legumes, fish and occasional egg. Now and then I might have a bit of chicken and a slice of cheese, especially at weekends. I would never eat raw meat, not only it tastes horrible, but it might also contain harmful bacteria, parasites, hormones and viruses. I do have occasional sushi, but mostly I end up with smoked salmon. As for raw milk, I've never tasted and it doesn't really appeal to me, if I fancy something milky I use rice, nut or soya milk (some smoothies are nice with added nut milks). I don't think I'll ever go 100% raw, but I'm hoping to reach 80-85% one day. I've decided not to stress about it too much, just do as well as I can under circumstances. I do believe in health benefits of high raw diets, and that's the main reason I'm doing it. And also for my little baby angel, she's enjoying her daily mountain of fruits, not so keen on raw veggies though, but cooked seem to be ok. Even my husband is coming around and starting to share my veggie juices (mixed with lots of apple and carrot juice) :-)

There are always pros and cons with any life style choice, as there are advocates and opponents. Raw Foodists say that cooking destroys vitamins, minerals and enzymes of raw fruits and vegetables, while the opponents claim that our digestive system has evolved to eat plants and animal meat in cooked form. I agree that all fruit should be eaten raw, and most of vegetables are more nutritious in raw form. But nutrient content in some vegetables actually increases when cooked gently, such as carrots, broccoli and tomatoes. I also find quite difficult to eat cauliflower raw, but for the rest: Raw does it! And if I feel some days I haven't got enough greens, I'll just juice them! I think everybody should find what suits them and their family best, and I think I'm getting there.

What have I eaten since my last post? As it's weekend, it's been a bit varied: smoothies for breakfast, today we had also freshly pressed grapefruit juice (so goood!), yesterday's lunch wasn't great as had to eat in hurry on the go and ended up with egg roll, and for dinner we had our first BBQ with grilled veggies and corn fed chicken kebabs (marinated in my "secret" recipe) with salad and salsa. For starters I made my garlic-chilli-coriander-lime marinated prawns. Today's lunch consisted of left-over BBQ, guacamole and M&S Super-food salad, and for dinner we had fish.

Hopefully I'll have more pictures next week. Time for bed now!