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February 28, 2012

The raw truth

Text by Nikka Sarthou

Raw food preparation tips

Ready to go raw? Here are some helpful guidelines on how to safely prepare raw food.

1. Go organic. As much as possible, buy organic produce and ingredients from reliable sources so you would know that these are really free from harmful chemicals and pesticides.

2. Use the right equipment. You will need some handy tools in the kitchen so you can treat yourself to a variety of raw food dishes. Not all juice extractors are created equal, for instance. Some generate more heat during the juicing process, thus destroying the live enzymes.

3. Wash properly. If you do not have organic produce, just make sure that you wash your fruits and vegetables really well by creating a concoction of one part white vinegar, one part baking soda, and water. Put everything in a spray bottle, shake well, and then spray the mixture to the produce. Wait for two minutes before handling the food. It would provide enough time to pull off the residue from the pesticides.

With the right information and mindset, anyone can attempt to go raw. Little by little, just incorporate the healthy stuff in your diet and you will be ready for the raw food lifestyle in no time.

Raw violi with garlic cheese filling and sun-dried tomato sugo

South Beach. Atkins. Cohen. These are just a few of the most famous diet programs that have been all the rage among the health-conscious lot, some of which have become only a fad to some. The raw food lifestyle, however, is not just another diet craze. It is more of a lifestyle change where a person shifts from eating the usual cooked food to purely raw cuisine.

But why go raw?

The beauty of raw food is that it has live enzymes and all the vitamins, minerals, proteins, and phytonutrients are in their natural state. Raw food advocates have enhanced vitality since they are able to take in 100 per cent of all those goodness, compared to cooked food which only has 20 per cent.

According to certified raw food chef and health coach Mona Lisa Neuboeck, "The raw food lifestyle is the simplest, healthiest, most satisfying way to detoxify the body and obtain/maintain a slim figure, great skin quality, and with the bonus of being the most environmentally friendly way of eating." She admitted that she experimented with several fad diets before she discovered the raw food lifestyle a couple of years ago. With that discovery, she noticed that simply eating raw foods significantly increased her energy level.

This particular lifestyle entails the use of "superfoods", which are really high in nutrients. The good thing is that there are a lot of available superfoods in the Philippines—from malunggay to cacao, mangosteen and even ampalaya. It would be best to incorporate such ingredients in your raw food meals to maximize the benefits. After all, the best foods are actually those that haven't been processed.

The only challenge of maintaining this sort of lifestyle is creating a variety of raw food dishes, unless you would be satisfied with existing on fresh fruits and green salads alone. It would be best to get your hands on useful kitchen tools and gadgets such as a blender, food processor, dehydrator, or a juice extractor so you can be more creative with your culinary recipes. Aside from the optional equipment, you need to arm yourself with essential tips on how to prepare raw food the right way.

Learn about raw food

For those who want to find out more about raw food and how to prepare exciting raw food dishes, consider signing up for the workshop, "Discover the Beauty of Raw" in Sugarleaf. Raw Food Chef Mona Lisa Neuboeck will conduct the half-day raw food science lecture and gourmet raw food preparation class on April 14, 2 p.m. at Sugarleaf at MEDICard Lifestyle Center Makati City.

The chef will share her tips and tricks on how to maintain the everyday raw lifestyle, and even demonstrate and share her delicious signature raw food creations. For inquiries and reservations, angelo@sugarleafph.com or contact (+63917) 803-9055.

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1 comments so far (post your comment)

I recently stopped from eating raw vegies because my stomach went crazy. -_- I suddenly had a crazy bowel reaction from eating cucumber, which was very surprising because it's one of my fave vegies and a staple in my lunch meal for the longest time.

Posted by Ria on Monday, 03.5.12 @ 17:45pm