the public are becoming more widely aware of the benefits of a high alkaline diet. Most junk foods and heavily processed foods are acidic, causing a stress on the body which increases weight gain and decreases immunity. Ideally, the diet should be made up of at least 70% alkaline foods. A raw food diet high in vegetables easily satisfies this requirement. When our systems are alkalized, we feel calmer, can think more clearly, feel more on top of things, and have a stronger immune system.
Immune System
Cooked foods put a greater strain on the immune system than raw foods. When cooked foods are eaten, the body has an immune response known as leucocytosis. This does not occur when raw foods are eaten, although cooked foods can be eaten if they form less than 50% of the meal, and the raw foods are eaten first, in which case the body does not produce leucocytes. Generally, raw fooders find they are less prone to catching viruses than when they ate cooked foods, and when they do catch them, they tend to get them less severely and to shake them off faster.
Raw fooders tend to eat from four main food groups: vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, and sprouts (grains and pulses). From these foods, we can get all the requirements that conventional nutritionists state we need. To be successful, I believe a raw food diet should consist of at least 50% vegetables, the majority being green vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, rocket, broccoli, kale, celery, cucumber. The green leafy vegetables contain the most minerals and are also a surprisingly good source of protein. Juicing vegetables is an excellent way to up our daily intake. Fruit should be eaten minimally as a high fruit diet upsets blood sugar levels and can contribute to tooth decay. Try and eat local and seasonal fruit in preference to tropical fruits, which have lost a lot of their freshness and vitality as they have been shipped across the world. Nuts are a good source of protein but are generally acidic and mucus-forming. Soak nuts before using to activate enzyme inhibitors, and try and use seeds in preference. Seeds such as sesame, sunflower and pumpkin are highly nutritious, more easily digestible, and less acidic. Sprouted foods, like lentil, alfalfa, sunflower, wheat and buckwheat, are one of the best sources of nutrition because they are guaranteed fresh, raw, seasonal and locally grown! Sprouts have a superhigh nutritional content, and are cheap and easy to grow yourself.
My current thinking is that the ideal daily raw food diet should look something like this:
And a balanced mix from the following food groups:
I think it’s crucial to include daily EFAs in the form of flax oil and hemp oil (at least 1 tablespoon), and fermented foods and drinks such as sauerkraut or kombucha are also extremely beneficial.
I believe for raw foods to become successfully integrated into our existing lifestyle, it is important not to get too fixated on our diets. Many people fail because they set themselves unattainable goals which they can’t stick to, and then they feel that the raw food diet must not be for them. For it to be sustainable, it is far better to introduce raw foods gradually than rush at it headlong. Just increasing 50% of your diet to raw will reveal the benefits to you, especially when combined with daily consumption of superfoods. The rest will come in time. Raw is a journey not a destination; it is the key to a door but we must walk through the doorway unassisted, with no crutches. When being 100% raw becomes the goal, we are missing the point; if sticking to the diet is making us unhappy because we can’t share food with friends, we are getting it wrong. Emotional health is just as important as physical health, and it is vital we keep that perspective: preparing and eating your food with love is just as beneficial as the quality of the food itself. When done properly, we shouldn’t have to think about it; raw is there to enable us to live our lives more fully, to free up energy to enjoy ourselves, not to become another set of rules to be entrapped by. Raw foods open up a whole new paradigm within us, a world of unlimited life and abundance, where there is no death, just a continual rebirthing process. The potential for the transformation of humanity as more and more people open themselves up to this way of being is mind-blowing.
If you are interested in finding out more about raw food nutrition, and want some recipes to get you started, I go into more detail in my earlier books, Eat Smart, Eat Raw and Raw Living.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
—MAHATMA GANDHI
I adore superfoods. I have been eating them every day for over two decades, and I can say unequivocally that they provide me with that edge which helps me deal with the demands of life as a woman in the 21st century. Of course, I could do fine without them, but I don’t want to just do fine, I don’t want to just get by, I want to live a fulfilling and abundant life, and superfoods are a major factor in my being able to juggle and balance the varying and often contradictory elements of my world. I run a successful business, I enjoy many creative projects, I spend large amounts of quality time with my children, I have a full and fun social life, I am a conscientious and dedicated homemaker, and I get plenty of time in solitude to meditate and reflect. I am not leading a life that everyone isn’t capable of, and I don’t come from an exceptional background. I have had little support from family and society in my life because of the unconventional paths I have chosen to take, and I have lived for long periods of my life in relative poverty. But I had a dream, and I kept focused on that dream, and my focus has led me to this point today. As a teenager growing up in the 1980s I knew there must be more to life than the picture of doom and gloom presented to us in the media, and the drudgery and boredom of my parents’ lives. I sought to find alternatives, to find a deeper truth, a more beautiful way of living. My journey brought me back time and time again to the answer that all we have, all we need, is here in the moment, and the more we live life in our highest truth at every turn, the more we are rewarded. “Being the change” means being aligned in body and heart, constantly reminding ourselves of our focus and our truth in life, of how we can play our part to make the world a better place. And that is how I came to be so passionate about superfoods, foods that help create that inner and outer alignment in our lives.
People are becoming more familiar with the idea of superfoods, but there still remains a lot of confusion as to what actually qualifies as a superfood. I would classify them as natural plant foods which have two primary qualities: firstly, they are exceptionally high in nutrition and thereby provide the body with increased energy, and secondly, they have special intrinsic properties which can enhance our lives greatly. In my book, broccoli and blueberries are not superfoods! They may be excellent food choices, but they don’t have the incredible charge and power of true superfoods. True superfoods really do make superbeings!
Because all the nutritional properties of these foods are so packed in, they are amazingly efficient, and make the body’s job of extracting what it needs and utilizing it so much easier. When our bodies are getting their