So you want to eat more raw food. Where do you start? There are many ways to increase your raw food intake. Here I would like to present the different levels of raw food incorporation for all types of patients, budgets and schedules.
Raw Food Level 1- “The Basics”
For people with a little bit of time for food preparation or a new interest in eating raw food. This is the practice of increasing your intake of fruits and vegetables throughout the day without changing your original diet too much. Try:
- Breakfast: adding fruits, vegetables and berries into a morning smoothie, cutting up a fruit to eat on gluten-free toast or in addition to regular breakfast.
- Snack: Eating whole food fruits and vegetables: a piece of local fruit (apple, banana, pear, grapes, peach, nectarine, watermelon, papaya, pineapple), vegetable snacks in the afternoon (carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, snap peas).
- Lunch/Dinner: Making sure your lunch and dinner plate is 25-50% raw in the form of a salad. Beginning your meals with a fruit like melon or papaya to help the process of digestion by adding natural enzymes into your system.
- Oils- adding a cold pressed flax oil into your diet as a salad dressing (with lemon juice and garlic). Olive oil (omega 9) and avocado oil (saturated fat) can be used in dressings as well.
- Nut milk*- a great alternative to dairy, can be made in 15 minutes and lasts from 5 days to a week in the fridge for things like cereal, tea and smoothies.
Raw Food Level 2- “Raw Voyage”
This is the level where many people in North America reside if they have an interest in health. People at level 2 know how to eat whole raw foods in the form of fruits, cut up veggies and salads. At raw food level 2 you start eating fully raw meals by embracing the art of raw food preparation- making your favorite cooked recipes… raw!
People at Raw food level 2 have a blender for making smoothies, and are considering the other raw food kitchen tools such as: food processor, dehydrator, chopper or spiralizer. Try including one of these in your daily menu:
- Smoothie for breakfast
- Raw Tacos- Walnut taco meat in red cabbage taco shells, salsa, guacamole, raw sour cream and cilantro garnish
- Raw Chili- Nut meat in a tomato base with corn and spices
- Raw Indian Curry + Rice- Coconut milk, cumin and coriander curry with cauliflower + sweet pea rice
- Soup- Oh there are so many! Carrot ginger, spicy tomato, split pea…
- Sandwiches- Flax and veggie bread with your favorite fillings: avocado, peppers, sprouts
- Burgers- Veggie burgers made with a beet or mushroom base and eaten between a raw bread or leafy vegetable like kale, romaine or cabbage
- Cheese- make with blended cashews, spices and a probiotic!
Raw Food Level 3- “Raw Renegade”
This level is for the raw renegade who enjoys 1-2 all raw meals per day and is enjoying the art of raw food preparation. They are eating a raw breakfast such as a smoothie, parfait or other amazing raw food breakfast option, plus an all raw lunch or dinner. Level 3’ers are getting familiar with the tools of the raw food kitchen that are very useful for creating a satisfying raw food diet.
- Blender- smoothies, sauces, soups, nut milk, dessert fillings
- Food processor- pie crusts, patés, coarse food chopping, vegetable slicing
- Chopper- coarse vegetable chopping e.g. salsa
- Dehydrator- warming foods, kale and vegetable chips, fruit bars
- Spiralizer- veggie noodles for pasta dishes
Raw Food Level 4- “Raw Revolution”
This is for people ready to try the all-raw food challenge as part of a detoxification protocol, weight management program, lifestyle change or just regular radiant life.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks are 80% to 100% raw. Smoothies for breakfast, a delicious raw lunch and dinner followed by a raw food dessert.
I recommend this program in combination with other tools of detoxification for three weeks to three months or more depending on the desired medical outcome. Stay tuned for next month’s Raw Food On A Real Schedule. We will talk about how to eat a raw food diet during the week including recipes and a schedule!
Dr. Ariel Jones is a native of Vancouver BC and a graduate of BINM (2013). Her practice emphasizes removing the physical, mental and spiritual obstacles to cure while implementing a toxin-free lifestyle for raw, radiant health. Ariel has enjoyed living in Victoria, BC during her BSc. in biology and psychology, Calgary AB and Hilo Hawaii for a post-graduate residency focused on raw food diet, detoxification, addictions and cancer therapies.