The diet consists mostly of raw vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruits.A friend of mine went on the diet a few months ago. She's lost a ton of weight and looks really good. Her complexion is radiant and her eyes are bright. She looks a lot younger. The other day she super-enthusiastically said to me; "Did you know that you can eat oatmeal raw?!"
Actually that's one thing I have been doing the last five years. I often eat an oatmeal granola mix for breakfast. I mix a big batch of mostly oatmeal (I buy it at a fabulous store that packages raw oatmeal in one kilo bags) and a granola mix, some long-grain unsweetened coconut, some raisins, peanuts and almond bits, and whatever else I have around that would go into this) and then I mix it all up and store it in a huge glass jar). In the mornings, I put some in a bowl, pour boiled water over it, slice up a banana or other fruit and this is my typical breakfast. My husband eats it too, but instead of boiled water, he prefers to pour cold cold cranberry juice over it. Oatmeal is one of the foods that can keep you going for a long time in the morning without getting hungry.
But personally to me the raw foods diet seems extreme. I think anyone who follows the Raw Food Diet for a long time period must have extreme dedication to their weight loss goals.
But I would completely agree with the underlying principle which is that if your diet is composed largely of raw foods, your overall health is bound to improve. I'm not a professional nutritionist but I can believe that the relative absense of raw foods in our diets is largely responsible for the increasing incidence of asthma, learning disabilities, chronic fatigue, depression, diabetes and obesity.
If you are interested in more details about a raw food diet, Wikipedia.org has a good overview. They also provide links to the leading sources of online raw food diet information. The most popular Raw Food Diet related book these days is Raw Foods For Busy People: Simple And Machine Free Recipes For Every Day
It's gotten great reader reviews. Here's a couple of examples of what people are saying at Amazon;"In our modern, grab-and-go society, most people don't have the time for radical changes in their diets. But, fast food is literally killing us! It's no secret that at least half of the western world is suffering from one ailment or another; and it's not gettin' any better! So, how do we improve our health, while maintaining our go-go-go lifestyles? Jordan Maerin has the answer in her new book "Raw Foods for Busy People." Whether you're looking to just add more raw food into your diet, or you're going for the extraordinary results of a 90-100% raw food diet, Maerin's book can make that path a lot easier.
She starts off with the basic ideas behind the raw food diet, including her own personal journey, then moves onto pages full of delicious, easy-to-make recipes (most of which you can make without having to spend hundreds of dollars on new appliances!). And if you thought raw food was boring or tasteless, think again. My personal favorites here are the Pesto-stuffed Vegetables, the Curried Coconut Soup and the Cottage Pie! So, if you're looking for a healthy alternative to fast food, and you can't afford highly priced gourmet raw food meals, "Raw Foods for Busy People" has everything you need to get started on the path to awesome health."
*****
"Its very apparent that a lot of love went into making this book. The layout, additional info and resources are excellent and presented very clearly.
As a single guy with not a lot of free time I searched all over for a Raw Foods cookbook that I could use. This is the ONLY book I found that has things I'd eat, enjoy and are easy to make without exorbitant costs or prep times or weird ingredients. Honestly after researching a lot of the Raw Foods books I figured the only people who could eat this way are housewives with a lot of money, I couldnt imagine anyone spending the time or wanting to eat a lot of the recipes in these other books.
After making many things from the book I can say that they fall into two categories-great or bland/too watery. Things like the cinnamon stewed apples, cashew cream, schezwan marinade, halvah shake, puddings and the dehydrator recipes are outstanding. Others like the gravy, curry apple marinade, tahini marinade, mashed potatoes and others are way too watery or lack flavor.
I'd still rate this book 5 stars since theres no other raw cookbook like this but I think she needs to fine tune some of these recipes. Would still highly reccomend it though. It was a big relief to get a practical book like this after my 1st purchase- Raw in Ten which was truly an awful raw book."