Monday 4 February 2008

Better prepared

I am better prepared this week for an increase in my percentage of raw food.

Last week, when I decided I wanted to eat more raw, I had already made my family meal plan, with its nightly cooked dinners, and the accompanying shopping list.

I think I was doing pretty well, averaging about 60% raw, but I knew I could do better. So this week, the shopping list included some extras.

I have made a big container of raw muesli (there’s a recipe in the sidebar) for breakfasts. I mixed up some almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and lots of dried fruit for a raw trail mix for snacking. And of course there’s plenty of produce in the fridge and the fruit bowl, including carrots for juicing.

I don’t have the time or inclination for the gourmet dishes that appear in many raw food books. If you have to soak something for a day, sprout it for 3 days, process it and dehydrate it for another day, that’s too much for me!

I was thinking about some of the advantages of a rawfood diet - there are many, and if you want to read a really good book about it, I recommend Nature’s First Law, because that’s the one that convinced me that it’s the way that humans are meant to eat (just like the rest of the animals in the world).

So here’s my list, though if I gave it more thought it could be twice as long:

Achieve and maintain ideal body weight (I'm talking about YOUR ideal body weight, not the images that surround us of stick-thin models with fake boobs!)
Enjoy better health and more energy
Avoid excess packaging of processed foods
Cheaper fuel bills
Quick meal preparation and easy cleanup
Avoid the “affluence” diseases
Avoid controversy over leaching from tin can linings and other plastics
Avoid acrylamide - raw foods are never heated above 105 degrees Fahrenheit


Raw Score:
Sunday 75%

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You're an inspiration Nicola. I'm hoping to one day be as energetic and productive as you. Unfortunately, right now I'm craving chocolate cheesecake, so I'm not sure how well I'll do!