Hi, I have a few questions please!

[Learning_About_Raw]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and to the raw diet. I am not a raw foodest myself, but I am taking Culinary III at my school, and get to specialize for one semester in whatever I'm interested in, and I'm specializing in raw food prep!

So, I have a few quick questions to begin with, and I'm sher I'll have more later on (by the way, if I'm posting this in the wrong sport- sorry! Please move this thread somewhere else if I shouldn't have posted this here! Thanks!):
1. If I buy a bag of wild rice at the grocery store, is it raw? How do I sprout it?
2. If I buy a bag of beans (the kind you would normally boil), a) can I sprout it, and b) is it raw?
3. How about grains and vitamins? I know that raw foods have more vitamins then cooked foods, but do they have all the vitamins and minerals I will nead? And what combo of foods should I prep to insure that they are full of nutriants?
4. How do I make raw "milk" (vegan)
4. Any general advice on raw food prep?

And please, please do not refer me to books!!! I can not afford to buy books at this point in my life (I'm a pour vegan teen who is trying to pay for food to eat, since my parents are not supportive).

Thanks so much, and I'm sorry if these questions annoy you, but I did a search and couldn't find what I was looking for.

Thanks,
Jennifer/ Learning_About_Raw

[rawhippie]

Originally Posted by Learning_About_Raw

Hi everyone, I'm new here and to the raw diet. I am not a raw foodest myself, but I am taking Culinary III at my school, and get to specialize for one semester in whatever I'm interested in, and I'm specializing in raw food prep!

So, I have a few quick questions to begin with, and I'm sher I'll have more later on (by the way, if I'm posting this in the wrong sport- sorry! Please move this thread somewhere else if I shouldn't have posted this here! Thanks!):
1. If I buy a bag of wild rice at the grocery store, is it raw? How do I sprout it?
2. If I buy a bag of beans (the kind you would normally boil), a) can I sprout it, and b) is it raw?
3. How about grains and vitamins? I know that raw foods have more vitamins then cooked foods, but do they have all the vitamins and minerals I will nead? And what combo of foods should I prep to insure that they are full of nutriants?
4. How do I make raw "milk" (vegan)
4. Any general advice on raw food prep?

And please, please do not refer me to books!!! I can not afford to buy books at this point in my life (I'm a pour vegan teen who is trying to pay for food to eat, since my parents are not supportive).

Thanks so much, and I'm sorry if these questions annoy you, but I did a search and couldn't find what I was looking for.

Thanks,
Jennifer/ Learning_About_Raw

okay, sprouting...another day, i need to get out my books with the charts to get that for you and i'm tired right now
however, a general rule of thumb (i believe) is to stay away from bagged anything. you want beans? buy them fresh in the produce aisle.
nut milk:
take about two cups of your favorite nuts two cups water, tablespoon vanilla or almond extract and a tablespoon raw honey................blend until creamy. to get it to "milk" consistency, it's a drag, but you have to strain it thtu either a fine strainer or cheesecloth. i just use a strainer, the cheesecloth always gets unruly for me. you can use this same recipe with sesame seeds and it's delicious (and also high in calcium)
advice on raw food prep? WEAR AN APRON, and also be sure to have lots of tupperware containers, bowls, utensils, dishrags, etc. ready at hand. things tend to get a bit messy.
good luck and i hope you try to make nut/seed milk as it is delicious (especially if you let it sit in the fridge overnight) and very easy to make.
good luck!
alright, sprouting....i don't have my book in front of me, but it isn't rocket science....soak nuts/seeds/grains/beans,etc. in water overnight submerged in GOOD water (if you can, if not, don't worry about it) and strain the next day in a strainer. leave them draining in the strainer all day and night and RINSE ONLY once or twice a day. i say rinse because some people have soaked again, you can ruin your food doing that. rinse once daily (twice if it's really hot out because they will start to ferment) until you start seeing them sprout "tails" wait until the're about 1/4 inch long and then use in your recipe.
good luck and hope this helps.
hippie
sorry for rambling, i'm tired.

[greenbunny]

Hey Jennifer, that's great that you are doing a semester on raw foods! I hope you get totally hooked and want to do nothing else!!! I've answered your questions below to the best of my ability inside your quote in blue.

Originally Posted by Learning_About_Raw

Hi everyone, I'm new here and to the raw diet. I am not a raw foodest myself, but I am taking Culinary III at my school, and get to specialize for one semester in whatever I'm interested in, and I'm specializing in raw food prep!

So, I have a few quick questions to begin with, and I'm sher I'll have more later on (by the way, if I'm posting this in the wrong sport- sorry! Please move this thread somewhere else if I shouldn't have posted this here! Thanks!):
1. If I buy a bag of wild rice at the grocery store, is it raw? How do I sprout it?
[As far as I know it's raw but they have started to heat so many things before going to market that I can't be completely sure. The best way to find out is to try to sprout it. If you do standard sprouting procedures and the seeds don't seem to grow then it's not raw. I've done this with lots of nuts that are supposed to be raw, like cashews for instance and they wouldn't grow. Then I found out that cashews are usually heated to get them out of their shells. Walnuts and pecans are in pieces and won't grow. Most legumes and seeds do grow. You can see it happening.
2. If I buy a bag of beans (the kind you would normally boil), a) can I sprout it, and b) is it raw? Now most bulk beans are raw but raw foodist don't eat raw beans or seeds, legumes or nuts of any kind raw. They have enzyme inhibitors in them when they are raw that keep them from sprouting when not in water and the right temp but those inhibitors also keep them from digesting. That is why all the jokes about beans and flatulence. Nuts and beans are notorious for bad digestion because of those enzyme inhibitors. Soaking releases the enzyme inhibitors into the water that is washed away and also dramatically increases protein and the general nutritional content of those foods. It makes them into superfoods. Truly raw beans and nuts are actually worse for you to eat than cooked ones.[/color]
3. How about grains and vitamins? I know that raw foods have more vitamins then cooked foods, but do they have all the vitamins and minerals I will nead? And what combo of foods should I prep to insure that they are full of nutriants?
Nutrition is so much more than a list of nutrients. It's also the body's ability to absorb and use what nutrients are in the food. Raw foodist use more of the nutrients that are in the food. For instance standard nutrition does not take into consideration enzymes. If you really want to open your eyes research the importance of enzymes. Enzymes are used in the body for just about everything. Some people consider enzymes to be the source of life force and that when the body runs out so does its life. We use up enzymes from our other bodily processes to make them into digestive enzymes when food is cooked, using up our life force. When you eat raw you are eating the enzymes necessary to digest the food and hence have more energy for other things - like beating your heart and breathing etc. But to answer your question more directly - yes - raw foods more than has all the nutrients that the body needs and more. It's important at first to incorporate lots of live food proteins because bodies get addicted to eating more protein than they need and take time to get adjusted. It's good that you are looking into using nuts and seeds and grains as a chef because people in transition needs this things and they taste "heavy" enough for the average person. I need to do more experimenting in the kitchen on how to use grains. The thing about grains is that you would need to use a vitamix and dehydrator to make things I would think that would be tasty. But since you are the chef you might discover something and share it with us! [/color]4. How do I make raw "milk" (vegan)
[Raw almond milk is really just soaked almonds (overnight) that are put into a high powered blender with water. People add things like sweeteners, but that's basically it. [/color]
4. Any general advice on raw food prep?
As a chef wanting to make truly fabulous tasting more richly yummy things two fairly expensive pieces of equipment are usually used: A high powered blender that can mash and powder things like the vitamix and an excalibur brand dehydrator that can "cook" things at low temperatures but there are many recipes that are great that don't use these appliances. Another thing about raw foods is that if any one ingredient isn't fresh or doesn't taste just great it will affect your recipe dramatically. It's not like cooking where the flavors get masked and covered or converted. Taste a little of each ingredient before putting it in to make sure it's at peak freshness and top taste bud power. With raw foods one bad apple most definitely will ruin the barrel[/color]

And please, please do not refer me to books!!! I can not afford to buy books at this point in my life (I'm a pour vegan teen who is trying to pay for food to eat, since my parents are not supportive).
I'm sorry to have to say this but the best thing to do really is to beg borrow or steal even just one really good raw cookbook. I couldn't imagine starting out without one. You can do a poll in the more general forum on what people's favorite cookbooks are and figure out how to get just one to experiment with. Perhaps someone has one that they would be willing to gift you. You never know. It doesn't hurt to ask. Raw foodist love supporting one another. You can also write to the authors stating your case. There's also ebay and Craig's list. Some people have multiple copies and might be willing to share. Gabriel Cousens wrote one that I like. There are sources for recipes on the web too, but it's just not the same because you don't really know who it's coming from and since you're new you don't have the "sense" yet of how ingredients will probably taste together. There are recipes on this site but I haven't tried any of them yet. There is one site that I know that is run by some raw foodists here in austin that I would trust to give only recipes worth trying. Go to meetup.com and search raw food and you will find out about them. Their site has a wealth of information. The guy's name is David Favor. They are really nice people and if you wrote to them they might be willing to help you. [/color]

Thanks so much, and I'm sorry if these questions annoy you, but I did a search and couldn't find what I was looking for.

That's what this site is here for.[/color]

Thanks,
Jennifer/ Learning_About_Raw

Best of luck Jennifer and please keep us posted on how you do!

Greenbunny:[/color]

[Learning_About_Raw]

Hi,
Thanks for the responces, they were very helpful! I talked to my teacher today and got permission to leave campus and explore raw foods some, this truelly opens up a lot of possabilities! I can learn from someone at the local raw food group (if they are still around, I havn't heard anything from them in a while), work with the vegan/raw chef at a local health food store, etc.

I could also just travel to farms and check out the food, maybe do some picking, I'm so excited with how all of this seems to be working out! I've been wanting to learn how to prep raw foods/meals for a couple of years, and can't wate to get going! Maybe I'll go back to only eating raw lunches (if I can come up with the extra money, lol).

Thanks for the insperation and for answering my questions! I can't wate to get going!

Greenbunny: Are you saying that eating raw nuts isn't healthy? I often spend the extra money on raw nuts and seeds from my health food store, should I buy the cooked ones instead? (I'm confused by this! Can you explane more?) Many of the raw recipes I find online (or when I'm at the book store browsing through the raw cook books) call for raw nuts, are these "bad" recipes?

Thanks for all the love,
Jennifer

[greenbunny]

In a nutshell - yes raw nuts are worse for you than cooked nuts. The best thing to eat are raw nuts that have been soaked in pure water. This makes them grow a little and expel the stuff in them that keeps them from digesting well into the water and makes them tremendously nutritious and easy to digest. If you need them to be crunchy - all you have to do is put them in an excalibur dehydrator and they get crunchy again and then you can use them in those recipes. The best recipes call for soaked nuts, seeds, legumes and grains - never raw. These people understand live foods.

It is very sad that many people do not understand this in the raw community. I have repeated this message over and over on this site. When I got started with this 20 years ago the few books about raw food emphasized the importance of enzymes and made enzymes the point of eating raw. The message seems to have gotten lost and diluted. Raw foods is becoming "Americanized" meaning greed and gluttony have set into it without real understanding. There are now a slew of "raw bars" and processed foods most of which are packed with easy and cheap ingredients that make Americans feel like they are getting the fat, sugar and salt that they are accustomed to. You see, soaking and dehydrating nuts is time consuming and not cheap, therefore they just use raw nuts to provide fat. The people just starting out and writing books or putting recipes on the internet don't know any better because the message has been lost. In raw food bars and recipes by people that don't know any better you will also find maple syrup which isn't raw, most things get loaded down with a new product called "raw agave nectar" which makes things overbearingly sweet to match snicker bars and icecream for addiction and there is no real way of knowing what items are really raw in those products because there are no laws saying that raw means raw. Now almonds that have been heated can still be labeled raw. People that write the books that are coming out now are following a wave, a trend of interest many times to just make a profit just like so many other areas of interest in the US. You have to be discerning. If you understanding anything about enzymes and enzyme inhibitors you would never eat a raw nut, seed, legume or grain again. If I can't soak my nuts I will usually eat an egg instead to get my protein because it is a perfect protein and I will use cold pressed flax or hemp oil to get some fat if I can't get those seeds soaked and eat them directly in that most healthy and natural form.

Eating raw nuts is bad for you! Eating soaked nuts or sprouted nuts is great for you.

Eating raw nuts, seeds legumes, grains and anything that if you put it in the ground and it will grow is bad bad for you. Soak them and they are good for you.

Enzyme inhibitors keep things from growing until the right conditions are present. Enzyme inhibitors inhibit enzymes. Enzymes are the reason raw food is so good for you. Inhibit the enzymes from working and you are actually creating a situation directly opposite to the reason for eating raw foods in the first place. You only have so many enzymes to run your entire body, thoughts and energetic bodies. Waisting them on cooked food is bad enough, but wasting them on foods that use up enzymes in tremendous amounts and thinking that you are doing yourself a favor is a deep misunderstanding.

When people stay on raw foods for awhile and start to clean out I will often hear them say that they eat too many nuts, or that nuts make them feel bad. Their bodies are telling them this truth. Raw nuts are bad for you - sprouts are superfood. Take that same nut and grow it and it will make you feel fabulous.

Cooked nuts are not great food. I'm not saying to eat cooked nuts. I'm saying to eat sprouted nuts. Some people would say that soaking them overnight isn't sprouting. Some people say that you have to see a little tail growing for a thing to be a sprout. I'm using the word sprout to mean something that has started to grow. If you soak just about any nut, seed, legume or grain overnight it will be growing enough by the next morning for it to be healthy for you. If it is mushy, doesn't have the life force increased, if it doesn't taste alive, the seed was probably compromised and it is no longer alive. Live foods is about eating things with life force. If a picture is taken of a sprout with kirilian photography you will see color all around it. It emits an energy that can be captured on film. When you eat such a thing that energy goes into you and the food just about digests itself. It's easy on the body. Cooked food and seeds that aren't growing don't show this energy. They take energy from you instead.

This is why life fooders say that they have tremendous amounts of energy. Read the comments here. People that eat live foods feel more alive.

Eat nuts, seeds, legumes and grains that are alive. Soak them. This is live foods.

Greenbunny