Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me get started on the raw food diet. I've been vegan for a few years now and would like to experience the benefits of eating whole uncooked foods. I've been eating more fruits and vegetables to allow myself to get used to eating this way, but I still like to eat oatmeal and soy burgers. Does anyone know of any recipes I can prepare without a food processor or dehydrator? Also, I was wondering if there are any other college kids who are raw foodist and how they are getting by.

Thanks, hope to hear from someone soon
-Sarah

You can eat oatmeal without cooking it. You can make muesli from it. Put the oatmeal in juice. You can also add dried fruits and walnuts (walnuts are a way to get omega-3). Let it sit overnight in a refrigerator.

But you might object to the fact that oatmeal undergoes some cooking in the processing. The oats are steamed and rolled.

Hey, Sarah! It's great you're taking an interest in raw food.

There is actually a little challenge that is going to start on the 8th. You should check out the "Who wants to go raw for 3 days" thread.

I posted some really helpful links in there, information links as well as good recipe sites.

You don't even need any equipment to get started eating raw - all I have are a cheap blender and food processor and then I bought my dehydrator secondhand. But if you do want to have burgers and heavier foods like that (which is what most people need in the beginning, to get that 'full feeling'), you can purchase a dehydrator. They are great for making pizza wraps, fruit leather, burgers, crackers, warming up soups, etc.

There is a fantastic raw food forum at http://www.rawfoodtalk.com

Welcome to VB! This book is very basic but it might be a good starting point for you...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1570671753/sr=1-1/qid=1139167484/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1479048-0215904?%5Fencoding=UTF8

I was 100% raw for a year and a half and now I'm about 80% raw. I feel much more balalnced and not so deprived. Raw foods are great. Defnitely make sprouts a major part of your diet. They have 30 times the nutrition of other vegetables. I eat probably 50% sprouts.

Or you can have lightly warmed oatmeal in almond milk! mmmmm...

There are those who believe that one has to be absolutely 100% raw, for some value of "raw", for it to make a difference. I submit that quibbling over types of salt (if you insist on using it at all) and olive oil is splitting hairs. The more uncooked, whole fruits & veggies you eat, the better. If you have a vegan burger or two a week, I can't see it being disastrous.

That said, I recently turned a vegan onto rawness, and she says it's made a big difference in her life -- not sure yet what she means by that, but she's so happy about it that she's invited me to a personal meal that she won at a benefit auction, prepared by one of the people mentioned in Howard Lyman's latest book.

It's interesting that No More Bull advocates eating a lot of raw fruits/veggies, I think a target of 50% calories is mentioned at one point.

You're right. Some people are so hung up over percentages and somehow you're not as good if you're not totally 100% raw. 99.999% won't do. That's a bunch of bull. In fact, I feel better on 80% than I didn on 100%! I mean it's like God forbid if you should eat a little bit of steamed veggies or millet or something. As long as you're mostly raw and the cooked foods you eat arent' junky stuff, but whole foods, then you're doing great I think.

Yeah. I don't see the point of people beating themselves up over tiny things or not being totally100%withoutadoubtraw. None of my seasonings are raw, so my dishes aren't 100%, but I don't see it as a big deal.

Any sort of funky diet is rough in college.

If I was going to do the raw food thing, I'd get a dehydrator. I might get one anyway. I ate at a live vegan restaurant for 3 meals a day, 5 days straight and my entire body felt better.