During the summer months, with the abundance of produce, sunshine, warmth and activity, it can be quite easy to be raw. As the weather starts to turn and the temperatures drop a little, or a lot, depending upon where you are on the planet, it can be challenging to convince yourself to eat raw foods and you may find that integrating more cooked foods into your diet works great.
Sheleana: “Remember, this is your body, your life and you get to find the balance that works best for you. There is no rule to eating raw food that you have to be a 100% fanatic or that you have to follow some cult-ish diet tribe that raw raw’s around making everyone wrong for their choices. Just do what feels good and keep being awesome :)”
Here are 5 tips to help guide you in the right direction:
1. All raw food does not have to be cold. Eat your raw foods at room temperature, instead of straight out of the fridge – letting things come to room temperature can make them more pleasing when it is cold out. Avoid adding frozen fruit to your smoothies and use room temperature fruits instead.
2. Add warming spices to your meals – things like ginger, cayenne and other spicy peppers will serve to help warm you from the inside out. They also add nice flavour variation to your meals as well. A nice salad with a hot pepper in the dressing, or even a juice with ginger and turmeric can help to move the body into a warmer state. Ginger and turmeric are also wonderful in a cooked vegetable based soup with vegetable broth or fermented, unpasteurized miso.
3. Include warming drinks like teas and tonics – these drinks can help to balance out the cool nature of raw foods, to help keep you warm while still eating high raw
4. Eat enough food to keep your metabolism moving – Sometimes people feel extra cold when they start eating raw because they are not eating enough. If you are feeling really cold, it could just be that you need to increase the amount of food that you are eating, in order to keep your metabolism burning on high gear. Also remember you need extra fuel to burn to keep yourself warm!
5. If you do not want to eat all raw, that is ok! Try adding some raw foods to your cooked meals. You can still have your warm bowl of cooked quinoa, just serve it over a large bed of greens. Have your steamed veggies alongside some raw pasta with a nice raw sauce or enjoy a cooked vegetable soup with fermented chickpea miso in it! Eating raw food does not have to be all or nothing, and the body will often respond to a more diverse diet that includes both raw foods, and cooked foods.
In Ayurvedic or Chinese Medicine, they believe that having cooked food can be very supportive to a healthy body. At least having raw elements to your diet throughout eat day will be very beneficial to you overall. We don’t believe in a one size fits all diet, but we do know that having even a portion of your diet consist of raw foods on a daily basis can be exceptionally healing. You can add a warm element to your mostly raw meal, and still enjoy the benefits of eating raw. Many vegetables offer up different health benefits when they are raw or cooked, so you can have a truly balanced and optimal diet by eating “high raw”, where a portion of your diet is raw and a portion of your diet is cooked.
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