Raw Snack Bar.

Just thought I'd share another raw snack bar that I really really like. This one is by RAW REVOLUTION. The flavor above is Chocolate & Coconut. It's amazing to me that I used to not really care for coconut. I love it now. So, it you're looking to have some "on the go snacks", this is a good choice. I wouldn't go overboard, but it's a nice treat!!

This is spirulina cashew, which wasn't quite as good in my opinion.

Cabbage Salad

Well, I'm back from vacation, but off to work the next couple of days. I'll fill you in on our trip later this week if I have time. For today, I wanted to share this little cabbage salad with you. I know I've posted my favorite kale chip recipe for you a couple of times. Whenever I make them, I have leftover dressing, which I usually eat by the spoonful! Last time, I thought I would put it to use on a cabbage salad. It was perfect! I shredded some regular cabbage and carrots and topped it with the leftover dressing. That's it! Super easy and a great way to use up some cabbage. It's a nice replacement for regular ole cole slaw! Below is the recipe for the dressing.

Chrissy's Goddess Chips
Posted by Chrissy on Raw Food Talk

2 bunches kale, broken into large pieces by hand (preferably dino kale)

Dressing:
¾ cups sesame tahini
¼ cup nama shoyu
½ cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup water ~ more if needed
2 scallion
1 clove garlic
1 lemon, juiced
¼ t. sea salt
¼ cup fresh parsley


I'm pretty sure I could eat this dressing on something every day! It's amazing!!

Update for next week!

I know I don't normally post anything to this blog on the weekends, it's my family time, but today I'm just sending out a little update for this upcoming week. I will be on vacation the entire week, so I will not be posting Monday thru Friday like I normally do. I could've planned ahead and had lots of pre written posts for you, but I wanted to take full advantage of some rest and relaxation, and that means not going crazy trying to pack and worry about blogging. I also start a new job the day after we return, so I have a lot going on!! In a good way of course!!

Speaking of vacations, it's always a challenge to stick with certain diets or eating habits, especially at an all-inclusive resort. Too bad they didn't all have an organic raw restaurant, but I'd likely be eating alone:) So, when I get back, I'll share with you how I managed.

I also had planned on doing a documentary day this past week, but when I went to look for that little Netflix envelope, I couldn't find it anywhere. I know it will turn up somewhere, but I need to spend more than 5 minutes looking for it:) So, the documentary day will return sometime after our vacation.

Due to the fact that I work two 12 hour shifts back to back when I return, I'll start the week off with a couple of dehydrator snacks I made this past week. 

If the weather forecast cooperates, I'm hoping to be strolling a sandy beach in less than 24 hours! Perfect source of vitamin D! Happy week everyone!

Raw Snack Bar.

Do you ever carry food and snacks in your purse or bag in case you get hungry during the day? I do. I used to get low blood sugars years ago and have made it a habit ever since. Now, it's just a good idea so I have something healthy if I'm hungry. I've been sampling a few raw food bars lately, and this is one of my favorites.

Add caption

 This label is hard to read, but you can easily see it says, gluten-free, raw, vegan! I've also tried a couple of their other flavors, and they are all good. This one just happens to be my favorite. The blueberry is probably my second favorite. Here's a link to the website for some additional information!

http://thepurebar.com/pure-products/pure-organic/chocolate/

Dr. Pottenger's Experiment.

Ever heard of Dr. Pottenger's cat experiment? Well, if you haven't, you're going to today! It's really quite interesting and really gives you something to consider. Wikipedia is obviously public knowledge, so here is a brief summary of the study taken from there.

Pottenger's cats

Pottenger used donated laboratory cats to test the potency of the adrenal extract hormones he was making. The adrenal glands of these cats were removed for the experiments and Pottenger noted that most of the cats died during or followng the operation. He was feeding the cats a supposedly nutritive diet consisting of raw milk, cod liver oil and cooked meat scraps of liver, tripe, sweetbread, brains, heart and muscle.

When the number of donated cats exceeded the supply of food available, Pottenger began ordering raw meat scraps from a local meat packing plant, including organs, meat, and bone; and fed a separate group of cats from this supply. Within months this separate group appeared in better health than the cooked meat group. Their kittens were more energetic and, most interestingly, their post-operative death rate was lower.

At a certain point, he decided to begin a controlled scientific study. Pottenger conducted studies involving approximately 900 cats over a period of ten years, with three generations of cats being studied.

[edit]Meat study

In one study, one group of cats was fed a diet of two-thirds raw meat, one-third raw milk, and cod-liver oil while the second group was fed a diet of two-thirds cooked meat, one-third raw milk, and cod-liver oil. The cats fed the all-raw diet were healthy while the cats fed the cooked meat diet developed various health problems.

• By the end of the first generation the cats started to develop degenerative diseases and became quite lazy.
• By the end of the second generation, the cats had developed degenerative diseases by mid-life and started losing their coordination.
• By the end of the third generation the cats had developed degenerative diseases very early in life and some were born blind and weak and had a much shorter life span. Many of the third generation cats couldn't even produce offspring. There was an abundance of parasites and vermin while skin diseases and allergies increased from an incidence of five percent in normal cats to over 90 percent in the third generation of deficient cats. Kittens of the third generation did not survive six months. Bones became soft and pliable and the cats suffered from adverse personality changes. Males became docile while females became more aggressive.
• The cats suffered from most of the degenerative diseases encountered in human medicine and died out totally by the fourth generation.

At the time of Pottenger's Study the amino acid taurine had been discovered but had not yet been identified as an essential amino acid for Cats. Today many cats thrive on a cooked meat diet where taurine has been added after cooking. The deficient diets lacked sufficient taurine to allow the cats to properly form protein structures and resulted in the health effects observed. Pottenger himself concluded that there was likely an "as yet unknown" protein factor that may have been heat sensitive.

[edit]Milk Study

In another study, dubbed the "Milk Study," the cats were fed 2/3 milk and 1/3 meat. All groups were fed raw meat with different groups getting raw, pasteurized, evaporated, sweetened condensed or raw metabolized vitamin D milk. The cats on raw milk were the healthiest while the rest exhibited varying degrees of health problems similar to the previous cooked meat study.

This particular Pottenger cat study has been cited by advocates of raw milk as evidence that it is likely healthier for humans than pasteurized milk.

[edit]References

[edit]Books

• Pottenger's Cats: A Study in Nutrition. ISBN 0-916764-06-0
• Fundamental Chemistry in Lab. ISBN 0-673-07877-9

[edit]

So, what do you think? If you have time, you could do some research and find that there are some opposing thoughts to this study. They have come up with multiple reasons why the study wasn't good or valid, but bottom line: it matters what you put into your body. So, take it for what it's worth, and consider yourself a little more educated today!

Leftover greens

 Here's a green juice that I put together the other day with leftover greens that I needed to use.

Ingredients:

Bunch of parsley
1 baby bok choy
about 5-6 romaine leaves
3 celery sticks
3-5 apples depending on how sweet you want it
1/2 lime with peel on

Just a few reasons why you should make and drink this juice:

Bok Choy contains beta-carotene for the eyes, calcium and potassium, which can help lower blood pressure, and a great source of folic acid for pregnant women. These are just a few of the benefits of bok choy. Don't forget that parsley helps to detox your body of heavy metals. Celery is a good source of vitamin C, so winter time is a great time to eat it. Ward off those colds! It's also a diuretic and helps reduce inflammation. When carrots and apples are mixed by juicing (the pressing motion in some juicers) there's a reaction that takes place with the enzymes which actually helps to activate and boost the immune system! Drink up!!

Carrot Ginger Juice

I know I've mentioned before that my husband usually only make apple carrot juice. I decided to make it one day, but add a little zing of ginger. It was so delicious! My 2 y/o drank about 8oz. of it and didn't seem to mind the bite of the ginger at all.

Here's what I used:

4 apples
6 carrots
1-2 inches of ginger, depending on how much of a ginger zing you want!

Ginger is great for many things. Here's a few:
morning sickness
motion sickness
reduced pain and inflammation
helps fight certain cancers
menstrual cramps
migraine relief
heartburn

Raw Food Night!

It WAS that time again: raw food night at the Green Owl Cafe! I so much look forward to having someone else make a raw meal for me. Unfortunately, it was the one night that we finally got snow, and the roads were awful. So, I did miss the raw night this month, but I'm hoping for success next month. Anyway, when I called to make my reservations a couple of weeks ago (yes, and I was the first person to make a reservation), I spoke with the dessert chef, who informed me of the menu idea they were working on. I happen to love ethnic foods, so this was going to be a real treat: raw food, Russian style!! Here's the rundown of what I almost ate:

SMALL PLATES

Seasonal salad of fresh greens, orange sections, shaved fennel, and pinenuts with a light vinaigrette
Borscht soup: beet, tomato and cabbage soup with cashew sour cream adn fresh dill
Cabbage rolls with herbed cauliflower and parsnip rice filling and fresh tomato sauce

ENTREE

Mushroom stroganoff with creamy mushroom sauce over wide-cut vegetable noodles with side fo caraway-flax bread and cucumber salad

DESSERT

Raw Russian Teacakes with raw ice cream.

 I'm still so disappointed that I didn't get to go, but now I'm just looking forward to next month even more!!!

Easy Bok Choy Salad.

MARINATED BOK CHOY SALAD

From Gone Raw

A quick, easy and super yummy asian bok choy salad. Baby or regular bok choy can be used.

Ingredients: 

5 baby bok choys

1/4 c sesame oil

1 tbsp nama shoyu or wheat free tamari

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1-2 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice

1-2 tsp lime juice

1/2 tsp fresh ginger, minced

optional:

1 garlic clove, minced

shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes or other vegetable

1 tsp toasted sesame oil (not raw)

Preparation: 

Using baby bok choy, cut the stems to about 1 inch, keeping the leaves whole add all to a bowl. Combine marinade ingredients in a jar and shake well. Pour dressing over bok choy and serve immediately or marinate for 1-2 hours to let the bok choy soften. Keeps in refrigerator for up to two days.

This was a very last minute "throw something together for work" salad that I decided to make this past weekend. I made a much smaller version of it to take to work with me. I also added some baby romaine to mine, just to bulk it up a bit. It's delicious!! The dressing makes it!

Documentary Day #2

FED UP! (57 minutes)

This documentary isn't all about eating raw and how great it is for you, but it does have some good educational points to think about when purchasing your food.

The first half was my least favorite, but it actually got interesting as I kept watching. It talked a fair amount about genetically modified products and how there really is no control over cross pollination of the genetically engineered products with other non modified products in nearby fields. Although there are no policies about drifting of genetic material, there are some policies out there about pesticide drift.

They covered one specific bacteria called Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT). BT is a bacteria that is engineered into certain plants to act as an insecticide. It's residue has been found up to a year after the genetically modified plant has been removed from it's growing spot. Apparently, non-targeted insects, like the monarch butterfly, are killed by BT. I personally don't understand how you can target a specific insect and exclude others in the first place. That's why I'm not a biotech expert! Anyway, along these same lines, they mentioned how some of these engineered products have become tainted. They have found some targeted insects (and weeds too)  that have actually grown resistant to these insecticides. The most astounding thing I heard was that in California there is one product that has actually shown spermicidal properties. That's not very cool!

There's a certain corn called, "Starlink" that is only approved for animal consumption, that has been found in human food. These foods were recalled because the EPA couldn't support or approve it's safety. This just made me sad that they think it's ok for animals. I love my puppies.....most of the time:)

If you haven't ever heard of "golden rice," you'll want to watch the video yourself. There's a fair amount of information about this topic. The "golden rice" was modified version of rice by a bio tech company to contain high amounts of vitamin A. One anti-biotech gentlemen that was interviewed believes that the biotech industry did this just to get the sympathy of others as opposed to really wanting to help with a nutritional problem. Marina McGloughlin, director of biotech at University of California said, "adding this capability is helping people considering we need to eat healthy foods to stay healthy instead of always running to the doctor for a cure, although biotech has an answer for that as well, but much cheaper and healthier to eat better in the first place." If this is the case, why not just eat organic unmodified whole foods? I personally have a difficult time understanding how insecticides added to foods can be helping people. That's just me though!

The last part of the video was my favorite. They interviewed a couple of smaller organic farmers. I absolutely love small farms, mostly because it reminds me of growing up in the country. I used to help my dad in the garden alot when I was a kid. Fun times!! They talked about going to local farmer's markets, which is one of my favorite things to do in the summer. They were encouraging the community to get involved in CSA's, farmer's markets, and even visiting local farms to see where your food actually comes from. Buying direct from a farm is a great way to know exactly where your food is from and how it's produced.

On a separate note, tonight is raw food night at the Green Owl Cafe, so I'll be posting the results of my dining next week:) I'm looking forward to catching up with a friend tonight over raw food. It's her first time, and she's not a raw foodie so I'll let you know how it goes!!

Raw Non-dairy Blueberry Yogurt

Yogurt seems to be a favorite of so many people. I received an email a while back with a raw non-diary yogurt recipe, so I thought I'd try a couple of recipes since it is such a popular snack. Here are the two I tried.

Version #1

1 cup soaked cashews

1 cup blueberries

2-4 soaked dates (depending on how big they are and how sweet you want it)

 After soaking for 3-4 hours, drain the water and blend all ingredients together.

 Non-Dairy Blueberry Yogurt from Hallelujah Acres

Version #2

Ingredients

1 cup blueberries

1 medium avocado

2 Medjool dates

Set aside 1/8 cup of blueberries. Place all remaining ingredients in a blender and blend, adding enough water to obtain desired consistency. Remove from blender and stir in the left over blueberries. You can add about 1 teaspoon of agave nectar if you desire a sweeter yogurt. A few drops of vanilla extract adds additional flavor as well.

Substitute any other desired fruit you like for a different flavor.

I preferred version #2.

Udo's Oil

http://www.udoerasmus.com/articles/udo/udo_index.htm

Omega 3 fatty acids are necessary for healthy bodies, but our bodies don't naturally make it. We have to get omega 3's from food sources. The most common places to get it are fish, such as salmon, halibut, and tuna. It can also be obtained from algae, krill, some plants, and nut oils. So, if you're a vegetarian and looking for an omega supplement, you are limited to the plants and nut oils of course.

From the University of Maryland Medical Center:

Research shows that omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation and may help lower risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. Omega-3 fatty acids are highly concentrated in the brain and appear to be important for cognitive (brain memory and performance) and behavioral function. In fact, infants who do not get enough omega-3 fatty acids from their mothers during pregnancy are at risk for developing vision and nerve problems. Symptoms of omega-3 fatty acid deficiency include fatigue, poor memory, dry skin, heart problems, mood swings or depression, and poor circulation.

It is important to have the proper ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 (another essential fatty acid) in the diet. Omega-3 fatty acids help reduce inflammation, and most omega-6 fatty acids tend to promote inflammation. The typical American diet tends to contain 14 - 25 times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids, which many nutritionally oriented physicians consider to be way too high on the omega-6 side.

Read more: http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-3-000316.htm#ixzz1iWXTU0ob


The Udo's Oil Blend shown above is a great Omega supplement and it's completely plant based. I add it to my raw oatmeal, a salad, or I even put it in smoothies. 


Here are some disease processes that Omega 3 Fatty Acids have been shown to help:
Heart disease
High Cholesterol
High Blood Pressure
Bipolar Disorder
Depression
Schizophrenia
ADHD
Cognitive decline
Diabetes
Lupus (SLE)
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Osteoporosis
Skin disorders
Asthma
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Colon Cancer
Breast Cancer
Prostate Cancer
Menstrual Cramps
Macular Degeneration


To read more about each of these diseases and how Omega 3 has been shown to help, click here.

Raw Celery Chowder

Raw Celery Chowder by Rhonda Malkmus of Hallelujah Acres

1 cup freshly made carrot juice

1/2 cup freshly made celery juice

4 stalks celery (diced)

4 green onions (diced)

1 small zucchini (diced small)

1/2 red bell pepper (diced small)

1 garlic clove (diced)

1 teaspoon parsley (minced)

Sea salt to taste

Blend half of the diced vegetables and garlic with the carrot and celery juice.

Stir in remaining diced vegetables, minced parsley, and salt.

This was good, but I wouldn't try it unless you've acquired a true vegetable taste!

Excuse the small 2 year old finger attempting to push the pulp into garbage:)

Documentary Day #1

DECONSTRUCTING SUPPER

If you've been following me for a while, you know that the two documentaries, "Food Matters" and "Food, Inc." are two of my very favorite documentaries. They are also probably two of the most known documentaries, and maybe you've even watched them yourself. I've decided to take some time each week, provided that I have the time, to inform you of some other wonderful documentaries that aren't as common.
If you can spare just 48 minutes of your time over this next week, let's start with the documentary, "Deconstructing Supper." It's about a chef, John Bishop, from Vancouver who goes on his own journey to "deconstruct supper." His restaurant guests began to ask him questions he could not answer like, "What's in your food?" "How's it grown?" "Are chemicals and pesticides used?" "Does your food contain GMO's?" In fact, not only could he not answer these questions about the food that was in his very own restaurant, he didn't even know what GMO's were.

Here's a basic overview from Wikipedia.

A genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically engineered organism (GEO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. This DNA is then transferred into an organism, giving it modified or novel genes. Transgenic organisms, a subset of GMOs, are organisms which have inserted DNA that originated in a different species. GMOs are the constituents of genetically modified foods.


The documentary goes on to explain that large biotech companies combine organisms of different species, plants, animals, insects, fish, bacteria, and viruses that wouldn't naturally breed.


John goes to Aventis, a biotech company in Saskatchewan, and meets with the head scientist, Dr. Malcolm Devine. Dr. Devine tells John that even though foods aren't labeled as containing GMO'S, 60-70% of processed foods do contain some sort of GMO. One comment made by Dr. Devine about their process of getting GMO's at Aventis really stood out to me: "We have to do a whole bunch of little things to get it in the right form so it meets our needs." I'm wondering who's needs he thinks he's meeting because it's definitely not mine:) John ends up going to the grocery store with Dr. Devine and picks out a variety of foods that all contain GMO's. He then makes a meal for the two of them. During dinner, Dr. Devine explains that, "Genes makes special proteins that are very specific. It's toxic only to certain classes of insects. It kills those insects, so it protects the corn from insect damage." Coming to an obvious conclusion, John asks, "So are these toxins still in the food?" Dr. Devine's response was this, "In the processing, almost certainly, the toxin is degraded." Almost is just not good enough for me!


After hearing the biotech companies view on GMO's, he goes straight to the farmers next. One such Canadian farmer, Percy, had been growing canola for over 53 years, growing the best seeds, with the highest yield, the most disease resistant, and those best suited for the local land. One day in 1997 he found a genetically modified plant, made by Monsanto, in his field. Despite the fact that Percy wanted nothing to do with Monsanto's GMO's he was later sued by Monsanto for having their product in his field. There's more information on this part in the video, but one of the main points taken away was this, "whoever controls the seeds and land controls the food supply, and whoever controls the food supply, controls what we eat. This should be the consumers choice and not a large companies. 


John attempted to interview Monsanto himself, but was declined an interview. He found two journalists that, years earlier had had the opportunity to interview Monsanto, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson. They were interviewing Monsanto in regards to their bovine growth hormone that is liberally injected into cows, and there for our dairy products. So, milk was actually the first genetically modified product on the market. The journalist thought it only right to have such dairy products labeled as containing BGH, but apparently the charges were not thoroughly tested by the FDA and not labeling was never allowed. The U.S. in the only major industrialized country to approve consumption of BGH, which has been linked to colon and breast cancer. 


He then met with Luke Anderson, an activist and author out of Great Britain, to talk about our rights and how to get things done. His suggestion was public pressure, and you can watch more about this on the video. 


Lastly, John went to India, where they actually campaigned against  roundup. In the 60's, the range and selection of crops diminished drastically d/t the addition of chemicals and pesticides on their fields. They are now working to improve that damage and encourage free exchange of seeds. The first scientist interviewed said it well, "Manipulating plants isn't about farming." Hear more by watching the video. 


So, personally, I think that buying local and organic as much as possible will help us to support what is true and healthy for our bodies.  Buy less processed food, but most of all make an informed choice about your food!!

Raw Hot Tortilla Soup

Submitted By: Rhonda Malkmus at Hallelujah Acres

To make this soup (and warm it), just place all of the ingredients in a powerful blender like the Vitamix Turboblend VS variable speed blender (http://ecommerce.hacres.com/VitaMix-TurboBlend-VS-Blender) and leave it running for several minutes. The friction creates heat that warms the soup.

This recipe uses Rhonda’s Simple Vegetable Soup Stock(http://www.hacres.com/recipes/cards/simple-vegetable-soup-stock).

Ingredients

• 3 cups of Rhonda’s Simple Vegetable Soup Stock
• 1 Roma tomato
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery rib
• Thin slice of onion
• 1 garlic clove (peeled)
• ¼ slice of red bell pepper
• 1 cup of shredded cabbage
• 1 avocado (peeled and pitted)
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• ½ tsp unrefined sea salt or Himalayan salt
• Pinch of cayenne
• ¼ cup pitted olives
• ¼ cup raw or frozen corn

Directions

1. Place all ingredients (except olives and corn) in blender and begin blending with the “variable” speed at #1 (using a Vitamix Turboblend VS).
2. Then quickly increase speed to #10 and then switch setting to the “Hi” and run on “Hi” for three to four minutes until steam escapes.
3. Turn off blender and add olives and corn.
4. Blend again on “variable” speed setting #5 just until olives and corn are mixed into the hot soup.
5. Serve in soup bowls topped with broken pieces of tortilla chips.
6. Add a big salad and some homemade whole grain bread and ENJOY

Vegetable stock.

I placed everything in my blender all at once. 

This is a terrible picture, but it still tasted good!

Now, I'm sure you can see that this soup isn't completely raw, but it has a great combination of veggies. I made this soup, but with a few alterations of my own.  While I did use vegetable stock, I did not warm my soup.  I just used my good ole Cuisinart Food Processor. I also did not consume bread with mine, but I did have some Stacy's Pita Chips on top. They are not raw, but pretty delicious! I definitely think it's worth trying if you're interested. It's a nice "mostly raw recipe" to try if you're just getting started!

Warning: this will make you smell like garlic:)

Temperature

I've been asked many times about the temperatures of food and what is considered raw. I've also heard some comments recently about how some cooking methods don't really destroy the foods. In response to this, I wanted to talk about temperature today! We might as well talk about heat since it's been unexpectedly warm for this time of year in Wisconsin. And I am NOT complaining!!
I've been a registered nurse for 12 1/2 years now and have spent most of my experience between the emergency department and the cardiothoracic intensive care unit. I'm telling you this, because even in the medical profession, we care about temperature. Obviously, a fever or high temperature is the body's way of fighting a virus or bacteria that has invaded it, but if it gets too high, we start to worry. I can remember caring for septic patients in the ICU that required cooling blankets to keep their temps down. Somewhere around 107 degrees, depending on who you ask or where you read,  brain cells begin to die, so we do not want to see this high of a temp in a person.

Just as in brain cell damage/death with high temperatures, food is also destroyed if subjected to high heat. Consider these temps:

Raw fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts begin to have breakdown of  living enzymes at 107 degrees! Same as brain cells!! Wow! That is not that hot when you think about most cooking methods. By 122 degrees, the food will be completely dead. Most raw food resources will tell you to keep heat under 118 degrees, but to be perfectly safe and undestroyed, temps should remain under the 107 degree mark. Keep in mind that the temperature of boiling water is 212 degrees. And if you think steaming is a better choice, think again! The temperature of steam is around 212 degrees as well.  You could use your oven, but depending on what type of oven you have, heat settings only go as low at 225 degrees. All canned and frozen vegetables are also heated/blanched prior to packaging. If you are a milk drinker, you should know that during pasteurization, milk is heated to 160, far beyond the cutoff of living foods! So, it's easy to see how most Americans are eating completely dead food.

The best way to heat foods, if necessary, is to use a dehydrator set on a low heat setting.

Here's a little science experiment I read about on the Hallelujah Acres website. The directions said to buy  5 raw carrots. Cut about 1/2 inch below the stem on carrot #1, and place it in a shallow bowl of water without cooking it. The other carrots are to be cooked using 4 different methods (steam, boil, oven, fry etc.), then also cut 1/2 inch from stem and also placed into a shallow bowl of water. The uncooked carrot is supposed to actually grow, while the cooked carrots will not. Here is the results of my experiment.

 I chose to steam one carrot, because it's generally thought to be the best cooking method. I steamed the whole carrot for 15 minutes.

 I cut the top off of my raw carrot.

 I placed the raw carrot in water.

Steamed carrot in front and raw carrot in back. I took pictures of them side by side, then placed them each in their own pan. 

I placed the tops in a pan, just to show the difference in looks after steaming.

Raw carrot green. 

Cooked carrot green.

 The picture below, shows the carrots after 5 days of sitting. The top pan is the steamed carrot, which looks pretty disgusting if you ask me. The bottom pan contains the raw carrot, which still looks quite fresh. The water in the pan with the steamed carrot turned very cloudy, and although you can't tell, it started to smell pretty nasty. The raw carrot was actually still edible.

 This is a great experiment to show just how "dead" cooked food is! It starts to rot very quickly, unlike the raw carrot, which still contains it's living enzymes.

I'm glad you can't smell this guy!

Happy New Year!!

Well, Happy New Year everyone!! I have to say that 2011 was a tough and great year all at the same time! It was my first year of really trying to stick with a raw diet. What an adventure it was! I have learned SO much about raw food and how much it benefits our bodies, and I absolutely love to share those things with you! In case you didn't know I am very passionate about food, health, and excercise! (wink, wink) Anything that I can share with you, to help you feel better, makes me happy! I have come across lots of recipes and shared only the decent and good ones with you.

I'm very excited to be starting a new year with all of you! I have a couple of new items to add to the blog in terms of updates, educational readings, and of course new fresh recipes! (mostly created by other raw foodies with a few of my own) I will also have a few AMAZING give aways in the very near future! You do not want to miss these! I promise!!! Also, you will be able to follow along with me as I train (animal protein free) for my next figure competion, provided that I don't get pregnant:)

So, let's welcome the new year together as we venture into another great year of raw food and improved health!!