Raw food and health books

I''ve always been book worm. As long as I can remember, I’ve always been reading something. My parents used to bring bags of books home from the library and we all read all of them, so I got taste of crime and horror books early on. A good murder mystery remains my favourite and there is not a day when I don’t read a book.

I’m also obsessed reading books when trying to find out something, so no surprise there that when I decided to go more raw, I ordered heaps of books from Amazon. I thought it might be useful to write a little mini review of each of the books I’ve read, including the cook books I use.

The Complete Guide to Herbs, Natural Healing and Nutrition
by Jill Rosemary Davies

The book is giving you great overview of different herbs you can use for various alignments, but it also discusses nutrition and detoxing. It recommends high raw, vegan diet for best health and weight loss, and describes the down sides with eating gluten, diary and meat products. Informative and easy to read book. Information about herbs might be a bit overwhelming if you’re not into herbalism, but it’s still useful to see what can be used and how it affects your body.

The Raw Energy Bible
by Leslie Kenton

This "bible" believes a high raw diet - in which 50-75 percent of your foods are eaten raw - can help you lose weight, prevent colds and flu, and retard ageing, also help you banish stress and fatigue, and give you a sense of vitality. The book contains recipes and practical information and promotes food combining - no protein and starchy food in same meal.

It’s an excellent book for people who are thinking or are in the beginning of transforming to high raw diet. It’s not as strict as some raw food books are, as it doesn’t banish cooked food completely and allows organic fish and poultry in moderation. The book also promotes vegetable juicing and has delicious recipes. I recommend this book for everyone who wants to find out more about raw food diet, but don’t want to go the “whole way”.

The Eat to Live Diet: Lose 20 Pounds or more in Six Weeks - Safely
by Joel Fuhrman

According to this book you can eat more and still lose weight. Furhman states that as long you eat foods that have high proportion of nutrients and low calorie count, you can eat as much as you want and lose weight. So basically the more nutrient rich food you eat, the more satisfied you’ll be and the less you crave junk food. Furhman has a back-up of his claim in form of 1000 scientific studies which not only showed weight loss but also cured diverse diseases such as arthritis, gastritis, fibromyalgia, acne, diabetes and high blood pressure. Furhman explains which foods are nutrient rich and which aren't, you guessed – raw vegetables and fruits are most nutritional, followed by nuts and seeds and then cooked vegetables. Good book both if you want to lose weight or you just want to find out more about how to switch to healthy diet for life. Great information about the meat and milk industries influential power on our eating traditions and the myths about protein and calcium. Maybe a bit American for us Europeans, but definitely worth reading…

You Are What You Eat
by Gillian McKeith

McKeith has several books on the theme of You Are What You Eat, I've read 3 of these. The title book here contains good information about how various foods can help with minor diseases and conditions, and gives recommendations on food combining - proteins and starchy food to be eaten separately. Her cookbook has several tasty recipes, but she's not concentrating entirely on raw food, mainly on vegetarian cooked food. 

The Joy of Living Live
by Zakhah

Zakhah is a member of African Hebrew Isrealite Community, who live in harmony with nature and eat high raw diet. The book has over 100 delicious raw recipes, my favourites are nut mayo and cheese cake.

The Raw Food Made Easy
by Jennifer Cornbleet

American cooking instructor shares her favourite raw recipes in smaller quantities for 1-2 people. Most of her recipes don't need complicated equipment and take no time to prepare. I'm yet to try most of her recipes but they look good.

The Detox Health-plan Cookbook
by Maggie Pannell

The book describes all steps you need to take for safe detox - how to clean your body of toxins, eat well and lose weight if you need to. The book has a clear two-week diet plan which is easy to follow and has some tasty recipes. It also touches topics such as exercise, relaxation, meditation, massage and aromatherapy techniques. Really good book for some great ideas.

Eat Smart Eat Raw  by Kate Wood and The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose are 2 books I just bought and haven't read yet. Good thing with Kate Wood's book is that it's seen from British point of view, most raw cook books are written by American authors.

Time to go now, read some more books... =)