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A Food Pyramid for Raw Foodists 18 y
Anyone familiar with David Wolfe's Sunfood Triangle?
I’ve been looking for a food pyramid for raw foodists. As some of
you know, David Wolfe, of "Nature’s First Law," has developed such a
pyramid; he calls it the sunfood triangle, and it consists of three
food groups: leafy greens, plant fats and fruit sugars. Wolfe’s book, " The Sunfood Diet Success System: 36 Lessons in Health Transformation" details
his system, which he said will lead every raw foodist to optimum
health. I do not own this book, so if anyone does and would like to
comment on it, I would be interested in your thoughts. According to
some ... read more Friday, April 21st, 2006 18 y
Our Bragg's found a new home :-)
Oh,
I ate too much tonight! I don’t feel ill, I just feel like I could have
stopped eating before I actually did. I had a
great salad and then an endless snack of guacamole and flaxseed chips
(all homemade, of course). A delicious meal and a movie on a Friday
night. The scale may complain about it later, but I enjoyed it without guilt!
Today we gave away our big bottle of Bragg’s to a vegan friend of ours
who loves the stuff and isn’t worried abou what the naysayers have to say about it. She loves the taste and has been using it for awhile (in
fact, we
bought ours aft ... read more Thursday, April 20, 2006 18 y
A look at Bragg Liquid Aminos
(Photo: Bragg’s Liquid Aminos seasoning)
Today I ate pretty
much the same small meal repeatedly- salad in various forms. I also had
a fruit smoothie into which I added about 3 oz. of lettuce (rather than
having a green smoothie into which I add some fruit).
The photo above is the Bragg Liquid Aminos. It appears in so many
raw recipes that we bought some a couple of weeks ago. It’s very salty
and reminds me of strong soy sauce. Felicia used it in the nut burgers
she made last week. To be honest, I can’t say I like it- it’s way too
strong and salty for me.
I have no idea ... read more Hey- why's my blood pressure doing that? 18 y
I'm NOT happy.
(Photo: Buckwheat groats)
I
am so sleepy I’m going to keep things brief. I went to the doctor
today- my insurance provides a walk-in type of visit. My intention was
to address the hair loss problem, possibly get my blood drawn, a
referral to the nutritionist, etc. Unfortunately, after being called
into the doctor’s office I ended up waiting for over 30 minutes for the
doctor to show up. No doctor ever arrived. I left in absolute
annoyance. They probably still don’t know I’m gone. It’s hard for me to
find time to see the doctor, so I don’t know when I’ll go back. Anyway ... read more Tuesday, April 18, 2006 18 y
Water does this body good!
Today I visited a job fair right before classes. Although I had a green smoothie and trail mix before leaving, I had nothing to eat and little to drink for several hours thereafter. Bad Idea. I knew I wasn’t going to make it through class because I was already getting a headache. I’ve discovered that often when I get my headaches it’s because I haven’t had water in a few hours. These headaches can also come when I’m hungry, but if I remember to try water first, sometimes they’ll go away without my eating anything.
Speaking of water, it’s still amazing to me that I drink mostly water ... read more Sunday, April 16, 2006 18 y
Pictures of the nut burgers, plus a note to gastric bypass patients
(Photo: The surprisingly scrumptious "nut burger" sandwich)
My nut "burger" made a delicious lunch today.
I had that along with a salad around 3 pm. I wish I could convey
through photos how good that burger tastes, but they aren’t the
prettiest things you ever saw! F ... read more Raw Odyssey: I'm declaring my weight loss plateau officially over 18 y
Today promises to be another good eatin' day~
GREEN PROTEIN
I
had my third green smoothie in a row. Today’s smoothie had 2 kiwi
fruit, one banana, and 6 oz. of romaine. I actually enjoyed this one
without adding avocado, because using less lettuce made it smoother
automatically. I left out the avocado so I could
save my fat grams for another " burger"!
As
you can see from the nutrition label, this smoothie was very healthy. It
is even considered a complete protein, with a score of 122 from
Nutrition Data.com, meaning it contains the quantity of essential amino acids considered healthy for the b ... read more I had a burger today - but no- it wasn't a slip! 18 y
Who knew a burger made from nuts and seeds could be so good?
(Photo: raw nut burgers)
I admit that the
"burgers" pictured on the dehydrator tray might look a little- um-
nasty? But if you think that looks bad, you oughtta look at the mixture
while it was still in the bowl- I thought I’d spare you by putting that
photo further down on the page. (Someone told me that a picture I
posted from another recipe looked like the results of a liver flush!
Well, this must surely look worse than that). I was really hesitant
about tasting this latest creation of Felicia’s, but the girl is on a
roll. What she did was make "b ... read more Raw Odyssey: My First Green Smoothie! 18 y
This sucker packed a lot of nutrients
I made my first green smoothie today. I just "winged" it. My
girlfriend brought me some romaine lettuce and a slew of cucumbers. I
peeled the cucumber and dropped a few chunks into the blender and
processed those first, then started adding torn up romaine leaves. It
was much easier than I thought it would be- I expected the leaves to
just sit there with the blades spinning uselessly underneath, but the
cucumber helped get things started. I alternated romaine with
cucumbers, getting a beautiful green color.
I liked its wonderfully fresh and healthy flavo ... read more My Raw Odyssey: Attacking the Hair Loss Problem 18 y
More ammunition for my battle against hair loss
Based on the raw food message boards I peruse, so many people lose hair
on raw that it seems to me it really should be made a prominent issue
on raw food forums as obvious sign of the change in one’s nutritrients.
Hoping for a renewal in my battle to get my hair to stop thinning I
went back to Raw Food Talk, one of my favorite forums, looking
specifically for causes of hair falling out (not breaking off or failure to grow).
Some
of the ideas they listed included "your hair follicles are repairing
themselves," nutritional deficiency, "too much sebum in the scalp ... read more Thursday, April 13, 2006 18 y
I love raw, but it's a lot of work sometimes.
(Photo: my wonderful, dehydrated coconut strips. I’m in love!)
The macaroons I started making yesterday didn’t look much different today than they did when they went in to the
dehydrator. However, they were a bit more stiff and had a harder
"shell" on the outside, and are soft on the inside, like the macaroons
we’re used to. They dehydrated for about 17 hours. They are very
coconutty, which makes me happy. Felicia
likes the sweeter macaroons (from the half I made with more dates) and
says they remind her of the baked ones she’s had in the past. I still
say that ... read more Today's Dehydrator Project: Macaroons 18 y
Instructions and photos for making raw macaroons
I made the macaroons today. They will be done dehydrating by tomorrow. The ingredients I used were:
1 cup almonds, soaked for 8 hours
4 medjool dates, soaked for 2 hours
1/2 cup the water from the dates
1/2 tablespoon almond extract (probably isn’t a raw ingredient!)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
The
coconut was difficult to shred using a hand grater, which is what I
thought I could get away doing, so I had to switch to a food processor.
An entire coconut provided a bit more than 1/2 cup of shredded meat.
I combined all of the ingredients at once to the blender ... read more Tuesday, April 11, 2006 18 y
The scale is being friendly again
(Photo: lemonade made with fresh squeezed lemons and agave nectar)
I weighed myself! This time I have good news to
report. However, heaven only knows how long this will last, since I
seem to be on a plateau. My weight this morning was 289. I started at
341 on January 1st, 2006, so that’s 52 lbs gone FOREVER.
I did a little measuring yesterday and found I’ve lost inches just
about everywhere, including my neck. Funny- why don’t people measure their
faces? Is it just because it’s weird? Well, I can tell from my old
photographs that even at a lighter weight than I am tod ... read more Monday, April 10, 2006 18 y
Dehydrating coconut is better than incense.
(Photo: Himalania Sea salt)
I
sprinkled a little of the brewer’s yeast onto my salad this evening and
I survived. However, I must confess that I didn’t sprinkle that much,
and I had a lot of flavor in the salad already which covered up much of
the yeast flavor! I’m a wimp, but it was a good start. Next time I’ll sprinkle a
little more, I promise!
Right now I am dehydrating the meat from the
coconut I hacked this week. I had a tough time getting the shell apart-
all the hacking away in the world didn’t do me much good, so I ended up
scooping the meat out of an almost in ... read more Nutritional Yeast (blech!) 18 y
Got a couple of helpful suggestions regarding my yeast post.
I got a couple of helpful responses to my Yeast post. Ren says to try it in orange juice. Thanks, as always, Ren!
Krystal sent a message that not only was helpful, but made me chuckle:
"Oh, Honey. Nutritional yeast is not meant to mix with sweet foods. I
can’t *believe* the can said you could drink it straight, and
personally I wouldn’t recommend contaminating your smoothies with it
either. It makes a decent "cheese" substitue, though. I use it on
salads or as a "parmesean" flavoring. It isn’t quite the same as real
parmesean, but tha ... read more Sunday, April 9th 2006 18 y
Could the plateau be over?
I
hopped on the scale and it finally looks as if I’ve dropped about three
pounds. I’ve been going up a pound or two and then going back down,
maintaining a steady averweight over the past few weeks, so I’m not going
to get excited about possibly breaking my plateau. Still, it was nice to
see a bigger change than usual. I didn’t really change my diet over the past few
weeks- I’m still eating raw cheese, drinking smoothies and eating
avocados. I even put olive oil and pecans on a recent salad. I resolve
not to be afraid of fatty plant foods! I know that I may need to try reducing
m ... read more Two experiences (one I'd like to forget!) 18 y
How a layperson hacks open a young coconut :-D
Today I thought I’d show you how I open up a young coconut. Notice I said how I open a coconut. My way is the unskilled version of an actual, legitimate method. A skilled person wouldn’t need a million hacks to get through the shell and then top off the experience by pouring half the water down the drain. Hey- I learn as I go!
Oh - here’s another not-so-smooth experience I had today. I decided to try the nutritional yeast flakes we just bought, since I want to increase my protein intake. According to the container, the brand we bought has a ”superior flavor” to that other bran ... read more |