Top 5 Reasons To Be a Raw Foodist

Feature Article: Top 5 Reasons to be a Raw Foodist
By Tera Warner

It?s true that raw food is making the news and every day more and more people jump on onboard to learn about the benefits of this still rather unusual lifestyle. While it may not always be easy to put into action, the benefits are hard to ignore. Before we dive into the Top 5 Reasons to Be A Raw Foodist, we just want to clarify in our words, what it means when we say we eat ?Raw Foods.?

Fruits

Everything from the classic apple and banana right through the dozens of varieties of peaches, plums and berries to the exotic flavors of the kind of fruits you?d see in an Asian Market. This would include things like dragonfruit, jackfruit, durian and litchis to name but a few!

Leafy Greens

While there are an abundance of wild greens and herbs that are definitely edible, the most common leafy greens are all varieties of lettuce, parsley, spinach, chard, kale, arugula. A few names you might not be so familiar with, but are worth trying are watercress, mache, and lambs quarters. There are more, but these are the most common.

Sprouts

Sunflower sprouts, alfalfa, buckwheat, and pea shoots are the most common green, leafy sprouts. Many people also eat lentil sprouts, mung bean sprouts, germinated sunflower seeds and other soaked and sprouted nuts and seeds. Though nuts and seeds, even soaked or sprouted are not considered sprouts per se and are best in a small volume because of the high fat content.

Nuts and Seeds

As mentioned above, in very small quantities only: sesame, almonds, cashews and other nuts and seeds form a small part of the our raw food diet.

Having clarified that, why on earth would anyone want to give up french pastries and fried chicken for cucumber soup?

1. Raw foods just LOOK better.

This may sound a bit superficial, but whether you attribute it to evolutionary adaptation or spiritual wisdom, this point is a strong one that is not to be undervalued.

From an aesthetics view alone – and as a woman, believe me when I say, aesthetics count – raw fruits and vegetables win hands down in the food beauty category. There?s nothing else that can compare to a gorgeous arrangement of juicy fruits and crispy vegetables. I mean, how gorgeous can a slab of meat or a plate of noodles get?

Given the complex and developed nature of humans as a species, it just makes sense that in nature we would be attracted to our most ideal foods in their unadulterated state. I don?t suspect all creatures on the planet have such a refined sense of aesthetics as humans. We delight in colors and shapes and art and without question fruits and vegetables are the most stimulating to our perceptions when it comes to aesthetics.

2. You?ll be healthier!

Raw fruits and vegetables contain more vitamins than cooked food and all the antioxidants, and essential nutrients that you could ever wish for in their most digestible and most easily assmilated form.

Speaking historically, without the backdrop of all the years of modern research that are accepted as common knowledge today, we would not know the nutritional breakdown of our food. One cannot look at an apple and know that it is loaded with Vitamin C. These are discoveries of the efforts of those who have brought the practice of nutrition to a precise science of measurable nutrients.

Having this information however, we now know that the highest concentrations of nutrients and vitamins are found in raw fruits and vegetables.

3. You?ll have more energy than you thought was possible!

Raw foods contain ?life energy? and require significantly less physical energy to process. It?s no accident that most people have huge energy gains when switching to a diet that is high in raw foods.

Raw foods require significantly less resources on the part of the body to digest, process and assimilate. That means your body is able to put its resources into other tasks and activities. Most people who try out the raw food diet find that the first thing they notice is a dramatic energy improvement.

By following a raw food diet, they allow the body to free up this energy that was being used just to handle digestion, to allow the body to heal itself from whatever conditions may be arising in it physiologically.

4. Raw fruits and vegetables are rich in the very best quality of water you can get.

The ?You must drink 8 glasses of water? a day indoctrination has been based largely on a cooked food culture?s practices of eating heavily seasoned and salted foods that demand additional water in order for the body to detoxify and cleanse the toxins that are being consumed.

There?s no need to drink all that water when your foods are naturally high in water to begin with. An additional bonus is that the water found in raw fruits and vegetables have been naturally distilled by the plant itself, and is thus of the best quality comparatively speaking.

5. It just makes sense.

Just imagine yourself in a field of wheat and ask yourself how you?d make lunch out of your surroundings. While it?s true we?ve been awfully clever to create all the magnificent artistic and gastronomical displays that we’ve put together, we?ve managed to pull ourselves a long way out from eating the kinds of foods that we might actually find in nature. As a result, we?re living the consequences in astronomical rates of diabetes, blood pressure problems, cancer, arthritis, etc.

Humans are here to thrive and to survive as well as we can, and as long as we can. Your body is the only tool you have for getting around in this life, so treat it as well as you can and feel as good as you can inside it.

Another Self-Indulgent Sunday

I’m sitting here plugging away on some new materials for the website. Amy and I have been working hard on the upcoming Cravings Project and some exciting other stuff. Amy says I need to just learn how to talk less about all of our great ideas until they’re actually DONE!

I understand, but I get SOOO EXCITED. We have some great ideas and we’re thrilled about finally putting them into action.

http://www.terawarner.com/cravings/cravings.htm

So, anyway, I was just sitting here plugging away on some stuff and listening to music. Most of my favorite music is in French, so I can’t really share it with you (unless you speak French, of course!) But there is one SUPERDIVA singer that I love in English.

You may already know of her…

Ani Difranco

Now, THAT’S a DIVA!

She’s amazing.

Anyway, one song I looooove is 32 Flavors. Yumm..

What woman hasn’t been touched by Diana Ross’s “I Will Survive”?

I don’t think I would have survived my divorce nearly as gracefully without that song.

If you do speak French, Jean Leloup is soooooooo cool. I danced my whole pregancy to the song “Balade

8 Food Combining Rules for Raw Foodists

Though the subject itself has only really come under investigation in the last 100 years, it has been covered in so many ways by some many different people that there are entire shelves in bookstores devoted to this very subject. Unfortunately, this makes for a whole lot of confusion for the average health-seeker.

No other creature on the planet seems to need elaborate charts and pyramids before they dive into their daily feast, so let?s see if we can?t come up with something simple so we can get out of our heads and on with the joys of eating and feeling good!

One of the first things to understand about food combining, is that the need for these principles comes from the fact that we have removed ourselves from our ‘natural environment’. Meaning that most of us can’t go out and pick our own mangos and then graze on the green leaves we find along our merry way. In modern society we have an infinite selection of food stuffs available to us at any moment. Combine that with our seemingly endless need for stimulation and we find that even though some apples, bananas and celery sticks would be a perfectly acceptable, nutritionally complete meal, we seek complication. The end result has been some marvelously elaborate recipes and a whole lot of indigestion.

The main problem with our combo-abombos and “gourmet” meals, (raw or otherwise), is that different foods digest at different rates. Generally, in order of speed of digestion, it’s sugars, starch, fats and then proteins. If you put something in your stomach that takes a long time to digest, followed by something that would normally digest very quickly, well the latter is forced to sit in the pipes and wait. Given the nature of the environment in the stomach, this leads to fermentation (sugars) and putrefaction (proteins). The byproducts of this gastric volcano is alcohol, indigestion and a whole lot of hot, smelly air. LITERALLY!

So, how can we avoid these physically and socially uncomfortable experiences? If you are going to get adventurous in your raw food play, take the following simple guidelines into consideration:

1. Fat and Sugar do not mix well.

Fat, which takes several hours to digest, and sweet sugars, which digest and are assimilated very quickly, do not make great belly-mates. Unfortunately, when you look around at most raw food recipes, you?ll see there is a discouraging number that contain mixtures like dates with nuts, banana with avocado, or sweet fruits with coconut. These recipes are an open invitation for digestive fermentation (never mind what they do for blood sugar issues)!

2. Bananas and Acid do not mix well.

Mixing bananas with oranges, for example, is less than ideal. Bananas are a starchy sweet fruit and where other fruits are concerned, combine best with other sweet fruits (like mangos) and sub-acid fruits (apples, pears, berries etc.) You should always listen to your body’s response to the combinations you try, but we definitely advise you to avoid combining bananas and durians. Other fruits generally mix fairly well together.

3. Acidic Fruits and Fats are okay for some.

Some people have no problems combining acidic and even sub-acid fruits with fat. The understanding is that these foods can actually help digest fats. The idea makes for some nice salad dressing combinations:

Tomatoes and tahini?
Orange juice and avocado?

4. Avoid Mixing Different Fats in the Same Meal.

Mixing different sources of fat like coconut, nuts, seeds, avocado or durian at the same sitting can make for a heavy-duty digestive workout and is best avoided. It? just a lot more work than necessary for that beautiful body of yours.

5. Dark, Leafy Greens Go With EVERYTHING!

Mix them in your smoothies, or smother them with your favorite avocado dressing. Either way, leafy greens like spinach, lettuce, celery, etc. combine well with anything! (Green vegetables like broccoli, and cabbage do NOT mix well, and are not considered dark, leafy greens. They can be mixed with fats without any problem, however.)

So What About Cooked Foods and Other Vegetables?

If you want to eat fruit in the same meal as other foods, (salads with fatty dressings or cooked foods) then allow at least 20 Minutes for the fruit to make its way through the system, thus avoiding the uncomfortable side-effects of bloating, gas and digestive fermentation!

The Sweetness of Simplicity

Ultimately, we recommend simplicity because it most closely resembles the way things would be in nature. When you permit yourself the luxury of enjoying foods for the individual wonders and works of biological art that they are, you also allow your body to digest in ?layers.?

Eating one food at a time, follow the following guidelines:

1. Eat Your Watery Foods First!

Because of its high water content, melon digests very quickly and within minutes of eating, it has already left the stomach!! While it does mix with other fruits very well, in sequential eating watery foods first, please!

2. Eat Acidic Fruits Before Sweet or Starchy Foods!

Things like citrus, kiwis, pineapples, and tomatoes should be eaten before other fruits. Again, if you think that most oranges tend to be less ?concentrated? than a mango or a banana, this makes sense. *Dried fruit can be considered a concentrated food and should be eaten after fresh fruits, if eaten at all. We do not recommend more than occasional consumption of dried fruits.

3. Fat, Protein and Other Vegetables To Follow.

That?s it. Think generally in terms of eating your least concentrated foods first, and you?ll pretty much have it covered.

We hope these tips are comfort to your tummy and help to simplify what can appear to be an awfully complicated subject. The simpler you keep your foods the better you?ll feel!

Here?s to your health!

3 Life Lessons I Learned the Hard Way So You Don’t Have To

You never quite know when life is going to throw you a fastball—when you’ll find yourself in a situation you’d not expected, wanted or even imagined possible. I subscribe to the idea that crises and “problems” are just opportunities in disguise.

Earlier this year, while living in Costa Rica, life presented me with my greatest “opportunity in disguise” to date.

I have received a lot of emails asking what happened.

I promised I’d tell the story, but admit that the story isn’t easy to tell.

I like to put my attention where it helps and where it serves, so recounting the details of what is unquestionably a highly dramatic tale, just for the sake of being dramatic, doesn’t interest me. But what I can do is share the lessons I learned and hope that they can serve you in some way.

The story in brief is that while living in Costa Rica, I caught a virus and became physically very ill. Due to the conditions at the time, the situation worsened over the course of two weeks, which ultimately caused me to lose control of my ability to function or reason.

I was eventually hospitalized in the National Psychiatric Hospital** of San Jose in Costa Rica.

Now, that’s not easy to say, but it’s true.

And here’s what I’ve learned. I hope it can serve you.

1. Take Care of Your Body and Take Time for You

The only reason I caught a nasty tropical virus in the first place is because I wasn’t taking care of my body. I stayed up all night one night to work and missed a day on the beach to work some more.

Then I got sick.

I never got another chance to go back to the beach.

In the events that took place I’m quite sure that I realized the maximum output potential for my body, because when it happened the plug was pulled and I no longer had control over my body. That meant other people were now in control of my body for me. That’s a very scary place to be.

What happened to me can happen to anyone. Rest sufficiently. Eat well. Take time to play in the sun. If you do that, you’ll be okay.

2. In All Circumstances and Conditions, Find your Point of Personal Responsibility

In your moments of greatest struggle there will always be the end of a thread there for you to grab on to. The thread is personal responsibility—it is your ability to see yourself as the cause of the conditions you create in your life. ALL OF THEM.

If you grab onto that thread, you’ll see it’s attached to a rope. And if you grab onto that rope, why, you can pull yourself out of just about any swamp. And when you get out of the swamp, then you’ll see that with that rope you can climb any mountain.

No matter where you are right now, you can get where you want to go by grabbing onto just a thread of personal responsibility. See yourself as the cause of your conditions, no matter how difficult that may be to imagine. When you let go of your personal responsibility, you let go of your power to change things.

Whether you’re stuck in the muck of a cooked food binge or a broken marriage, you are where you are because you created the conditions that put you there. Accept that you have something to learn and maybe even more importantly, you have something to teach others when you get through it.

Your experiences are your training ground for life. Learn from them and share what you learn to serve the lives of those around you.

3. Know your Friends and NEVER Minimize your Strength or Power

If you find yourself in a situation where you are being asked to be less than you fully are… if you feel you have to extinguish your fire to receive approval or acceptance from others, then take note.

You may lose every manner of fine sparkles, gadgets and gismos. You may even lose your home and some relationships, but if you lose your strength, your honor, or your personal integrity, then you have lost everything.

You’re not here to please others or have their approval. You’re not here to be “liked” or “admired,” you’re here to be YOU! And who you are is a glorious gift to the world so LET IT OUT! And never permit anyone to extinguish the fire of who you ARE!

Be true to your own goals, be true to yourself and never compromise with your own reality.

With profound gratitude to all who have ever loved in spite of great fear,

Tera Warner

**In the United States a person is involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution every 75 seconds. Inform yourself: http://tinyurl.com/yqxe2b

Make It Feel All Right Again With WATER!

This week has been a rough one in the food department, and I know I’m not alone. I’ve received so many emails this week from people in the same boat. Who can say sometimes if it’s emotions or gravity pull lines interfering with my “aura,” but it happens that I encounter a bump in the road. I see how it affects my energy. You can too, I’m sure. The days when I’m buzzing high on the color of lillies and life I was DEFINITELY raw.

I must simply be a vibration thing at the end of the day.

Some food has a higher “vibration”

Maybe sometimes we need a lower vibration. I know that for a while last week I was starting to feel like my happiness meter was causing me to be “unreal” to some people. Regardless, I’m back in the thick of stuff this week, and being here has its advantages, too. It’s like research, you know. The battlefield where we come to arm ourselves with the tools we need to get out of the fight.

Okay, maybe battlefield imagery is a bit much. But it’s true. I mean, it’s when I’ve struggled the most and just got FED UP that I finally decided to create the Body Enlightenment System, and that program changed hundreds and hundreds of people’s lives.

This week I’m back in the field researching cravings and emotional eating.

Amy and I are putting together an exciting program. I’m really excited about it! A Diva’s Survival Guide To Cravings and Emotional Eating. I mean, the only way out is through it and it’s no accident that this week I’m going to need to draw on all the resources we’re putting together for this program. And I’ll get out. And every tool I use to do it, I’ll record and tuck aside in “A Diva’s Survival Guide to Cravings and Emotional Eating.”

One thing I know for sure is that I have not been drinking enough water. And often I will go to the fridge for another round of fruit instead of just grabbing a glass of the clear stuff my body wants most.

If you’ve been having a rough week, give water a chance to slip and slide within and make it feel all right again.

And be gentle with yourself. There’s learning to be had in these bumpy parts of the road. It’s your field study. Take the learning and pass it on!

Hugs and watery waves of love coming your way…

Tera

Why I love August the 14th.

Because it marks the halfway point in August to my birthday. (Selfish me!)
Because it is the birthday of two people I love a WHOLE BUNCH! (I love you Heather! Je t’aime, David!)
Because it is the day before my Mom’s birthday.

Happy 14th of August to you all.

I love this day.

Tera

Never regret yesterday.

Life is in you right NOW, and every thought you hold is busily creating your tomorrow.

So, what does your tomorrow look like for you?

When you look up at the stars, or when you lie on your pillow at the end of the day, what are you creating?

What kind of person are you going to bump into this week that totally changes YOUR life?

What miracles will you see?

What revelations will come upon you?

Who will phone?

What will you stumble across?

What will you do to impact positively the lives of others around you?

I hope your week is a glorious one. I hope you’re inspired to use every minute for the miracle it is.

Muah!

Tera

Survival Strategies to Handle Your Worst Food Cravings

We?ve all been through the tortures of cravings. Just thinking about that ?forbidden? food can send a wave of urgency pulsing through us that can seem stronger than ourselves. If you?ve ever heard the expression:

?What you resist persists?

?then you know that resistance is futile, and the more you try to avoid what you?re craving, the more it impinges itself upon you.

For those of us trying to implement new lifestyle choices, handling cravings can feel like it requires either superhero strength or some kind of magic. Well, The Raw Divas have called upon both kryptonite and fairy dust to put a few solutions together that just might help do the trick when cravings strike.

Physiological Barriers

Before we even begin to address solutions for stubborn cravings, let?s start by addressing the fact that some foods are ADDICTIVE — just flat out physiologically addictive. When you?re trying to remove these foods from your diet, it may require a bit more gusto to get through the process.

Coffee
Cheese
Chocolate
Bread and Grain products (especially wheat)
Meat

I?m sure there are more to add to this list, but these are the most common ones by far. If these are the foods you?re craving, understand that half the battle is going to be physiological. Take heart! The following suggestions and tips will help you to kick these habit forming foods, but it can be helpful to be aware of the extra challenge that may be involved in breaking free.

Let?s take a look at the most common cravings and some possible solutions for them!

Salt Addicts Anonymous

If there was such a support group, I would be the founder. There?s nothing quite as irresistible to me as salt. Who came up with the idea? I?d like to know. It is beyond me that even though every sailor knows that if you drink sea water you?re as good as dead, we?ve decided somewhere along the way, that it would be a great idea to dehydrate sea water and sprinkle the end product all over our food.

I don?t believe salt has any place in a diva?s healthy diet, and for some of us, it?s down right addictive.

If you struggle with salt cravings, then here are some recommendations:

Snack on celery sticks or succulent tomatoes, both of which are naturally very high in sodium. Try making yourself a delicious raw soup of blended tomatoes and celery. Very satisfying!

Also, be sure that you?re getting enough minerals in your diet. Minerals are best provided in greens. Simply increasing the volume of greens in your diet may be enough to get rid of salty cravings. You can also easily and enjoyably up your mineral intake by choosing to eat a broad selection of crunchy vegetables.

Have you got a mouthful of Sweet Teeth?

If you?ve got a regular hankering for sugar, then chances are that you?re not getting enough calories in your daily diet. The best way to ensure you?re getting enough calories is to eat fruit. If you?re getting enough fresh fruit, there?s no reason you should be suffering from sugar cravings. Please note that we do not recommend consuming dried fruit outside of an occasional treat. Fresh fruits are the best way to meet your caloric needs.

Everyone is responsible for observing the reactions in their body, but as long as you?re getting sufficient greens, and avoiding an excess of fat in your diet, there is not reason to have any fear of fruit or fruit sugars. Nature wouldn?t have made them so gorgeous and tasty if they weren?t meant to be enjoyed.

?I?m craving PROTEIN!?

Well, if it?s protein you?re looking for then you?re best bet is definitely going to be found in crispy, fresh greens and sprouts. Since sprouts are up to 35% protein and greens like spinach are between 40 and 50% protein, increasing the quantity and quality of greens in your diet will more than adequately meet your ongoing protein needs.

Green smoothies are our recommended way of consuming sufficient greens. Just take your favorite fruit smoothie and add any of the following: kale, chard (take out the stalky part), spinach, lettuce, parsley, mint or celery.

Contrary to popular belief there is absolutely no problem mixing these leafy greens (or celery) with fruit. Enjoy!

?Feed me FAT!?

If you?re craving fat in the form of nuts, avocado, etc., then chances are that you?ve simply been eating too much of them. One of the first things that happens to people who overeat fat is more cravings for fat. This can be true for anything to a certain degree, but holds especially true in the case of fats.

To help you kick the fat habit, be sure that you?re getting enough calories, and include more green smoothies in your diet.

Here are a few other reasons that you may be struggling with cravings and what to do about them:

Insufficient Calories and Under-eating

If you?ve been transitioning yourself to eat a more raw food diet, and find yourself running into regular cravings (every few days) then the culprit may simply be that you are not getting enough calories from your raw food diet.

If you have a tendency to under-eat on calories, then you do risk running into cravings for cooked foods simply because your body is looking to refuel from the most efficient source it can get. (Efficient in the sense of high concentration of calories per bite.)

To be sure you?re getting enough calories, try using a free online service such as www.fitday.com.

Are you thirsty?

While it?s true the raw food diet has a much higher quotient of water naturally occurring in its foods, when the cravings strike, grab a glass of water and you may be surprised to see you were actually just thirsty. This can be especially true in the early days of a new raw food regimen when the body is hard at work clearing out the remains of your previous eating habits.

Boredom Breeds Fridge Invasions

If you find yourself spending too much time staring into the fridge between meals, try getting more active and involved in something you love. Get out, get fit, and get productive. When you are actively engaged in life you will feel better and be less attracted to the foods that drain your energy or cause you to feel unwell!

A Final Word

Above all, remember that the spirit with which you enjoy your food affects EVERYTHING. If you do give in to cravings, well, do it with extreme gratitude and appreciation for every bite. Make it a celebration and leave guilt at the door. Making anything a ?forbidden? food only increases our attraction to it. Continue to choose the foods that nourish you the most and you?ll be well on your way to greater health and energy.

Love and hugs,
xoxo
Tera

p.s.

Members of The Body Enlightenment System participate in a special course on how to handle Cravings using Emotional Freedom Techniqes (EFT). They also receive full menu plans designed to handle the most common causes of craving and avoid them. If you?ve not yet signed up to take a test drive of our Body Enlightenment System, you can do that here!

When I Indulge In Cooked Food

I admit.

It happens, though not very often. Anyway, the thing that helps me the most is just to take a break after, and really let my body take the time it needs to process what I’ve put in.

Because I tend to be a real raw food monomeal eater (eating just one food at a time) my system is pretty sensitive. And so, what I do, after a cooked food adventure, is I will often fast and wait until real hunger sets in again. Often, it takes about 24 hours or more before I feel truly hungry.

I even wait until I feel TRULY thirsty to drink.

Then I drink and drink and drink water. As much as I want naturally.

And then, when genuine, mouth-watering hunger sets in, I will go for a single, simple fruit meal.

Since I really love eating, a fast like that is usually enough of an incentive to avoid the blasted cooked stuff the next time.

Anyway, for those of you who strive to be 100% raw, but struggle with the OCCASIONAL cooked food adventure, then I recommend a short fast until real hunger sets in again. I do not recommend a lifestyle of bingeing and fasting, but rather suggest you use this as a tool for indulgences that are infrequent at best.

Hope this helps. Sure helped me this week. Darned tomato sauce!

Love and hugs and lots of fresh fruit and veggie visualizations coming your way!

xo
Tera

Music moves us!

On Saturday night I put on a twirly skirt and went to a dance club with my roommate! The place was playing some great 80s classics, and we had so much fun I can hardly believe it. I had intended to go for a run that day and didn’t manage. So I thought I’d do my yoga DVD, but then just didn’t get that done, either.

So at 11:30 when she proposed a dance club, I thought, HEY! I may just get my workout yet!

And I definitely did.

Have you blared the music lately in your living room, and danced like no one was watching?

Too many windows? Worried about someone seeing you?

I have been known to lock myself in the bathroom with an ipod and funk it up until the sweat beads start to gather on my brow.

Music moves us. If you’re struggling to fit in fitness, turn up the tunes and let THEM move YOU.

Love and hugs,

Tera