Photo Credit

This is a guest post by Laura-Jane the Rawtarian.

In North American culture, we are accustomed to eating because it tastes great, rather than eating for nourishment. When the average person hears the words “raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds” they cringe and picture dry carrots sticks and tasteless iceberg lettuce salads. In fact, to most people, the idea that healthy food can actually taste great and satiate sounds like a myth.

But if you’ve tasted any of the raw food recipes here at the this web site, you’ll know that healthy and delicious are not mutually exclusive!

Here are 5 easy raw food meals that save you time and taste great, too.

1. Raw pate

All raw fooders should have a standyby raw pate recipe in their raw recipe arsenal. And Nathalie’s Indian-inspired pate is one of the greats!

Raw pates are versatile, quick to make and, best of all, they keep well in the refrigerator. I make a batch of raw nut pate on the weekend so that I can easily pull together a raw meal quickly later in the week.

Raw nut pate can be served in collard wraps, in nori rolls, on raw crackers, on cucumber rounds, or, my personal favorite, eaten out of a small bowl with a crisp gala apple on the side.

2. Raw veggie burgers

If you have a dehydrator, raw veggie burgers are a great meal option. Make large batches of veggie burgers and be sure to dehydrate them thoroughly so that they can be kept in your pantry or refrigerator.

Raw veggie burgers are simply made by processing nuts, veggies and a binding agent (such as flax seeds), forming them into patties, and dehydrating them in a dehydrator.

I like to serve raw veggie burgers in romaine lettuce wraps. Serve with raw ketchup or raw mayonnaise for extra zip!

3. Your favorite raw salad

Every raw fooder should have a favorite raw salad that tastes great and is easy to prepare. My favorite salad recipe involves mesclun (wild greens) and tomatoes with a basic avocado and nutritional yeast dressing.

The trick to a good salad is to keep it simple. Don’t try to add every vegetable on earth into one salad. Keep it simple and enjoy just two or three flavors per salad.

Watch Nathalie make her Simple Raw Salad Recipe on video here.

4. Raw pasta and sauce

I love creamy tastes, and I absolutely love raw alfredo sauce served with zuchinni or kelp noodles.

Here’s my favorite alfredo sauce recipe:

• 2 cups unsoaked cashews
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon thyme spice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Simply combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth! This recipe keeps in the refrigerator very well.

5. Green smoothies

I drink green smoothies for breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, and dessert! They are one of the quickest and easiest meals to prepare, and they can be altered easily to fit your mood or what you have in your refrigerator.

I usually start my green smoothies with one banana, a heaping cup or two of baby spinach, and then I get creative from there. Lately, I’ve been loving making raspberry lemon green smoothies. They are so tangy! If you’re looking for tips on green smoothie making, check out 13 witchy ways green smoothies make you feel great.

And, of course, any proper raw meal should be followed by a raw vegan dessert! Try pumpkin pie, raw ice cream or a plate of divine, crisp, fresh fruit. Want more raw dessert ideas? Grab Nathalie’s free e-book 28 Desserts You Can Eat Every Day.

Photo Credit

Laura-Jane the Rawtarian is a raw fooder who loves eating simple, satisfying raw food recipes and inspiring others to change their lives with the raw food lifestyle. Looking for ways to help friends and family go raw, she recently launched a comprehensive raw food diet plan to make going raw easier than ever. Laura-Jane loves eating raw chia pudding, and she always keeps a wide variety of nuts and fruit stashed in her purse!

In the last few weeks I’ve been hinting at the big epiphany that has been changing the way I think about health and diet.

My realization came after I adopted Millie (pictured above, sticking her tongue out like she knows more than we do about healthy living). You see, feeding her made me realize how unbalanced our relationship to food can really get.

That’s why I believe we can all learn from dogs. I’m not saying we should lick our butts or chase cars, but that maybe the way a dog’s diet is structured has a lot to teach us.

In the wild a dog or wolf might hunt, eat grass, and find leftover scraps to eat. Domesticated pets have a much more regimented way of eating, and that’s what we can learn from.

Come to think of it, a dog’s life is pretty awesome: lots of chasing of squirrels, long afternoon naps, and dog treats.

Isn’t that what we all want to be able to eat? No, not squirrels but human treats! Having a strong nutritional base with the freedom to treat yourself every now and then.

Just Because Someone Else Eats It, Doesn’t Mean You Should

In my previous post I talked about how you can’t trust your tastebuds. Dogs can’t either, really. They don’t know what’s good for them.

They watch everyone around them eat and think that this food must be good if everyone else is eating it. (Sound familiar?)

Take for example grains, grapes, or chocolate. All toxic or mildly allergenic for dogs. Yet dogs will happily eat these up if you or someone around them are having any.

That’s why as pet owners we need to keep these harmful foods out of a dog’s reach. So why don’t we do it for our own harmful food cravings?

The Pareto Principle

Looking at my dog’s diet, I noticed she was eating about 80% main food, and 20% treats. Now don’t get me wrong, these treats aren’t deep-fried Mars bars, they’re quite in line with her diet. (She’s a raw dog, and you can see what she eats here.)

So what can we learn from eating by the 80/20 rule?

My big realization is that if we all adhere to an 80/20 way of eating we won’t fall off the wagon, beat ourselves up, or feel deprived.

I also think that it’s important to recognize that 100% percent raw is not ideal for everyone. So this is a much better way to regain your health and vitality, without feeling like a loser if you eat something cooked.

Preparedness Trumps Spontaneity

I don’t look at my dog each morning and wonder what to feed her. She would probably starve if I didn’t have a plan and some prepared food on hand at all times. That, or she’d get all kinds of human food “leftovers” that aren’t any good for her.

So why do we fail to have planned or prepared food for ourselves?

When we don’t have a plan or any prepared food in the house, we reach for instant food and take out… which we know isn’t good for us. (This is different from treating ourselves, by the way!)

Everything starts with having a solid plan and foundation in place. Without proper grocery shopping skills or a nicely varied menu plan, you’ll start reaching for all those unhealthy instant meal fallbacks. And that would just skew the 80 to 20% balance.

What’s in the 20%?

Let’s look at what’s in the fun 20% food category. I recommend keeping to a gluten-free diet, so if you are going to have baked goods then keep them gluten-free.

Ideally you will want to eat raw desserts since they taste so good and are so low in sugar.

So what’s left to treat yourself with? You can treat yourself with some of the savory dishes that you miss. Think of including some cooked veggies, warm soups, steamed sweet potatoes, or cooked grains of the gluten-free variety.

These might not sound like treats to you, but it’s such a nice way to balance out an otherwise high raw diet that you’ll feel a lot more grounded and fulfilled.

If you’re coming from a conventional diet you can also use your 20% for meat, fish, or dairy products you aren’t ready to let go yet.

This doesn’t mean you can run out and buy doughnuts, chow down on doritos, and eat peanut butter sandwiches on white bread everyday.

The 20% is meant to give you more flexibility, in a way that doesn’t hurt your progress and health.

What’s in the 80%?

In the 80% food category we want to include lots of green juice, green smoothies, green salads, and some seasonal fruits like berries, apples, or peaches.

The trick here is to be honest with yourself about how much of the “treat foods” you’re really eating. So if you’re just having one apple per day and the rest of your meals are processed, then this is not going to work.

I’m not recommending that the 80% be uber healthy, while the 20% is completely unhealthy. Rather, both are healthy foods but you just don’t want to overdo the 20% ones.

What’s Does it Mean for You?

Well it means that this winter you can enjoy some warm soups, cooked squash, or warm millet, and still feel amazing in your body and mind.

It means you can be more inclusive with friends or family members who don’t quite get the whole “raw” thing.

It also means that you can be nice to yourself and stop all those longing looks at what other people are eating.

It means you can finally stop obsessing about food and live a little.

You might also wake up really early and ready to go for a walk in the park every morning. Maybe.

How I’m Going to Help You Do This

I never thought I’d say that I’d help people eat like a dog, but here goes! After asking you and other readers what would help you stay on the healthy eating path, and in line with my big epiphany I’m creating something free to help you.

I know you’re looking for simple & quick meals that are nutritious, presented in a way to save you time. You might also like a produce guide that focuses on the changing seasons.

So that’s exactly what I’m putting together, and you’ll be able to get your copy free if you’re on my newsletter.

If you’re not yet on the newsletter, click here to sign up for free. Expect some goodness in your inbox next week!

Woof, woof.

Photo by Andrew Hill

Look from side to side to make sure no one’s reading over your shoulder. Is the coast clear? Good.

As I write this I’m leaning in, because what I’m about to say might shock some people.

“You know how you automatically react when you see someone attractive?”

“Um.. yeah, I guess?” you shrug, shifting uncomfortably.

“Sometimes it’s the flush of your cheeks, or a less obvious rush of blood in more obvious places.”

You nod quickly, “Get to the point Nathalie, what’s this got to do with healthy eating?”

“Well the way your body’s reaction betrays you when you’ve got the hots for someone is exactly how your body will sabotage your healthy eating efforts.”

Stick with me for a second while I explain.

Your Tastebuds React Whether You Like it or Not

Just like our basic human biological reactions to an attractive person, our body reacts to certain types of “attractive” food.

Why do our tastebuds and bodies seem to crave foods that we know with our minds aren’t good for us?

Just like we know that bad boy with the motorcycle isn’t going to stick around after he gets what he wants… we know that donut isn’t going to make us feel good in an hour after we’ve had our fun.

It comes down to a little evolutionary device that was actually put in place to help us survive.

Back in the day we wanted the tough alpha male so our babies would have strong genes. (Reverse this for men and having many beautiful offsprings.)

Similarly, back in the day it was hard to find foods high in fat, salt, and sugar. These were scarce resources that we weren’t able to get our fill of, so we evolved to seek them out for survival.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) today we’ve got more than enough sources of fat, salt, and sugar. In fact we’re practically drowning in them.

So that evolutionary pull that our tastebuds create for foods that contain lots of fat, salt, and sugar is an antiquated tool.

Taking This Analogy Further

If we just listened to our bodies all the time we’d end up in a sex-crazed, overpopulated society.

(Okay, you might say that we’re there already, but I’m an eternal optimist.)

Add to that the fact that the foods we crave so much are now highly available. Vending machines, street vendors, and refrigerators mean you’ve always got unhealthy foods at your fingertips.

I often hear that we “should just eat what tastes good to our bodies, in moderation.” And although I believe in the concept in general, I think that it doesn’t apply in our world of caffeinated beverages, salty crackers, and sweetened dried fruit.

Alas, our body’s natural “balance” mechanism has gone completely out of whack. Some studies were done on young kids, where the kids could choose what they could eat at will. At first all of them went for the “bad” foods that were sugary, salty, or fatty.

Photo by Dan Foy

But eventually the kids balanced this out by eating vegetables and fruits. By choice. It was natural for them to want to eat something different.

The problem began when they started testing older children, who didn’t feel the need to balance out their consumption of salt, fat, and sugar.

Sound familiar? It’s not your fault, it’s all in the body’s mechanisms.

Our Bodies Are Just As Confused As We Are

We are constantly being bombarded with information regarding nutrition: you should avoid these foods they are bad for you, and you should eat more of these foods they’re good for you.

We get so gosh darn confused with all this conflicting information!

If you think our minds are confused, what about our bodies?

After eating a diet of standard American fare, our bodies lose their ability to recognize foods that it can digest.

As a child, our bodies know that fruits and vegetables are easy to digest. They also know that pop tarts and diet coke are not normal: we experience different side effects when they’re ingested.

The more processed food you eat growing up, the more confused your body gets. As you grow up, you loose your ability to trust your body’s original balanced instincts about food.

Everything Has Salt, Sugar, Corn, or Soy

All of the different packaged and processed foods contain certain ingredients: salt, sugar, oils, corn, or soy.

Manufacturers used these ingredients because they are addictive, make things taste good, and are cheap fillers.

Of course what makes good business sense for manufacturers, doesn’t necessarily make good health sense.

What about when moderation means that manufacturers put sugar, salt, and other “additives” in just about every since store bought product?

It’s much harder to eat these substances in moderation when they’re in pretty much everything you find at the store. Except produce, of course.

Trust Your Eyesight

It would be a bit cynical for me to say “trust no one”. But, there is someone you can trust, and that’s you and your eyesight.

Read the labels.

If there’s something you can’t pronounce, or where the first ingredient is one of the main culprits (salt, sugar, hydrogenated oils) then step away. You don’t have to buy these products, you can buy fresh produce or an organic alternative that doesn’t include all of these tricky ingredients.

Good luck, we’re all in this together.

Stay Tuned…

Next week I’ll be back with something that people have been asking me for a lot. I’ll be sharing my big epiphany, which goes hand in hand with this article.

In my article on healthy foods vs. unhealthy foods I mentioned that there are certain foods that we all agree to be healthy. Desserts tend to fall in the unhealthy food category.

Photo by Klaus Post

Somehow we inherently know that eating too many desserts and sweets is not good for us. Either we’ve been told this growing up, or we just don’t feel so good after we overindulge our sweet tooth.

Why do we crave sweets and desserts?

Since I’ve got a wicked sweet tooth, I thought it would be interesting to investigate why it is that we crave sweets and desserts. (Or at least some of us.)

Sweetness is an Indication that Food is Edible

I was speaking to my dad about this the other day and he mentioned reading an article about sweets that said sugar is an indication that food is not a poison.

This made sense to me, if something tastes sweet then it is probably safe to eat. Think of eating bitter unripe fruit, you immediately get a bad taste in your mouth and push it away. However if the fruit is ripe, it is sweet and edible.

I’m sure this doesn’t apply across the board, and that there are exceptions to this rule. But I can accept the fact that we use our taste-buds and the sweetness factor of a food to determine whether to eat it or not.

The Bacteria/Yeast Connection

Another reason I believe we are big on eating sugar and sweets is the connection between bacteria and yeast. I don’t want to get too deep into this topic, but I have observed it in my own body.

At one point the balance of beneficial bacteria in my gut had been broken and there was an overgrowth of yeast. I’m not talking about female yeast infections here, because anyone can have too much yeast and not enough beneficial bacteria.

I noticed that whenever I ate lots of sugar, I had a huge rash on my stomach. That was the yeast flourishing. Yuck much? Luckily, I knew there were alternatives to traditionally high sugar sweets and desserts.

Can Healthy Desserts Really Exist?

The short answer is yes! Why else would I “give up” my old favorites, if I couldn’t have something equally delicious?

Healthy Desserts That Taste Good

Healthy desserts get a bad rap. Think of desserts made without any sugar, and these seem bland, granola, a little boring.

But what if you could get the richest, most decadent of desserts without all the junk that most processed desserts come with? It’s totally possible with raw, naturally sweetened desserts.

A Healthy Dessert Doesn’t Mean Just Fruit

Okay, you might be thinking that the only thing raw foodies can eat for dessert is fruit. Fortunately, there’s a lot more to raw desserts than fruit.

Take a look at these:

• raw chocolate puddings
• raw apple pies
• raw fudge
• raw ice cream
• raw cup cakes
• raw brownies

28 Desserts You Can Eat Every Day

I’ve put together free a downloadable ebook called “28 Desserts You Can Eat Every Day”. Yep, that’s right I’m giving it away for free!

Grab your free copy of the 28 Desserts You Can Eat Every Day ebook now.

Feel free to share this ebook with all of your friends and family. I really want as many people as possible to experience these healthy desserts.

Because it’s time for us have our cake and eat it too. After all, health is wealth and what would our life be without a little treat now and then?

Get your dessert fix here.

Photo by Gordana A. M.

One of the reasons people turn to raw food is because they are looking to eat more healthy food. That’s definitely one of my main reasons for giving raw food a try. (Remember that when I say raw food, I don’t necessarily mean 100% raw.)

Lately, I found myself giving out this little piece of advice: eating raw food doesn’t mean it’s necessarily healthier than other ways of eating.

Hear me out…

There are a lot of other things that go into your health, other than just the “label” you apply to your food. Maintaining healthy diets, for most of us can be tricky. So for instance, you might be eating raw food, but eating too much of it. Or you might be eating raw food, but eating too much of one category and not enough of another.

Neither of these scenarios is very healthy.

Or, you might be eating raw food but not drinking enough water, sleeping enough, or exercising enough. And then there’s your emotional and mental well being, all of which play into your overall health.

Now, let’s take a closer look at what healthy foods are.

The Healthy Foods List

Here is a basic list of healthy foods that most people can agree on:

• Fresh fruits and vegetables
• Fresh leafy greens
• Cold pressed extra virgin oils
• Raw nuts and seeds
• Sprouts
• Seaweeds and sea vegetables

Now we can split hairs and argue that we should include other foods, depending on what lifestyle you follow. For instance some may want to add superfoods, others may want to add in raw dairy or meat, you get the idea.

But I think we can all agree that these are basically healthy foods. Especially fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Unhealthy Foods List

• Processed “white” foods like white breads, white pastas, etc.
• Refined white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame
• Addictive substances like MSG, and other “taste enhancing” chemicals
• Processed, denatured fats and oils that the body cannot deal with

Alright, so the unhealthy foods list is incomplete. That’s partly because it would take too long to include everything that might potentially be unhealthy. But it’s also because we don’t all agree on what’s unhealthy.

Some people go around telling themselves that they’ll be healthy if they eat “Everything in Moderation“. And while the adage that eating everything in moderation probably held true 100 years ago, it certainly doesn’t hold today.

There are more chemicals and ingredients that I can’t pronounce on a label for dried raisins than ever before. Dried raisins!

Imagine what’s in super processed junk foods for a minute. It’s not pretty.

How to Include More Healthy Foods and Less Unhealthy Foods

I honestly believe that in order to eat more healthy foods we need to leave some of the unhealthy foods behind. If you’re too full from eating an entire bag of chips and a 1L bottle of Coke, then you’re not going to be inspired to eat an apple. Let alone a salad.

Letting go of foods that aren’t good for you is a lot more complex than it might seem at first. Why? Cravings. That’s why.

I’ve been eating healthy foods for over 3 years now, and I’ve learned a thing or two about cravings. Get on The Cue list, and you’ll be the first know about my cravings busting techniques.