What is living food?

Basically, it is anything that still looks like it did when it was collected from the earth!  We say it is living because of the life force within it - if you look at Kirlian photos of fresh fruit and vegetables, you'll see that they look completely different to cooked fruit and vegetables.  There's also a huge difference between organic produce and that sprayed in pesticides.  See below...

Why do we need living food?

Our bodies are at their best when the life force (call it energy, flow, well being) is at its highest.  Over the years, we've learned to survive (note the word!) on a whole range of foods that provide us with calories but are low on life force.  We live, but in a less than ideal way, with aches, allergies, poor mouth health, digestive difficulties, weight problems and other "minor" ailments as being a regular part of our lives.  However, if we change our diets to include at least half by weight of living foods, and avoid the most draining of the processed foods (additives, GMO, white sugar, white flour, fizzy drinks) we start to find our bodies are supplied with more of the natural living energy they need and our health dramatically improves.

How can I eat more living food?

Simply eat more fruit, vegetables, soaked nuts and seeds, in their natural, raw (uncooked) state.  This last bit is important!  If you heat anything over around 40 degrees C, the life force that includes the enzymes needed to digest the nutrients that are in the food, is damaged.  The best way of including these foods is just as if you'd picked them from your garden, but you can also "process" them without spoiling them by dehydrating, chopping, grinding and blending them.  In fact, some foods are easier to digest if you blend them because the cell walls are crushed and more nutrients are released.

Where do I start?

Please read my blog Live Life Love Chocolate that is telling the story of how I am eating more living, raw food.  I also visit forums and other websites for help - The Raw Divas is a site aimed at women wanting to accommodate more raw food into a family diet. 

How do you manage?

I've always been a grazer and tend to eat smaller quantities little and often...  I'm always changing what I eat and set no rules so if I feel like eating cooked food I do, although this tends to be cooked vegetables and organic fruit/oat snack bars during the week when I work!

Breakfast:  pHresh greens always, then later an avocado or snack bar.

Dinner:  I don't stop during the week, so pick at raw nuts, fruit, raw chocolate.  I drink pHresh greens during the day, plus lots of lemons squeezed into water and this keeps me alert and feeling balanced.

Tea:  Always a salad with what is in season, lots of olive or omega oil, olives, seasoning and Himalayan salt to make it taste delicious.  I often make half-raw houmous (mixed chick peas and courgette or red pepper), or cauliflower pesto (raw cauliflower with pesto sauce blended).  Sometimes in winter when I'm cold, a stir fry vegetables with lots of ginger, garlic, spices and always served with half a plate of salad or I may just cook vegetables and make a soup.  Sometimes I just eat a bag of Biscru or crisps with olives because they taste nice and I like them.

Snacks:  Biscru, raw coleslaw, raw gomasios from France, goat's cheese, sheep's cheese in small amounts, coconut oil, almond nut butter on apples

I don't each much of: Fruit (only in season during summer), goat's/sheep's milk products, crisps (one bag a week on Fridays!)

I never eat: Meat, fish, dairy, sugar, wheat, additives, GMOs, fizzy water, coffee.  I do drink wine but infrequently.  I NEVER say never so if I feel like eating something I will.  I just don't feel like eating these foods but I don't feel deprived as I have no rules!

Average daily intake:  10 - 15 portions mainly organic vegetables and fruit including an avocado, 1-3 lemons, 15 - 20g chocolate each day, 3 tablespoons oil (either coconut/olive) and one snack bar.  3 litres filtered, alkaline water.  This is an example and varies hugely depending on season, so during summer no cooked food and at least 6 - 8 portions fruit in season, eaten alone and just one variety at a time (because I prefer it).

We are all so different; this is what works for me and makes me feel good, energetic and healthy.  Please don't feel the need to copy this - just be inspired to know that you don't have to set rules or follow a diet rigidly to feel good; it's about achieving balance and a mix of foods that your body loves.

For my children who eat very little raw food because they want to be like their friends, I try to add in superfoods when they don't notice after their food is cooked, or make banana and chocolate smoothies and ensuring that everyday they get some raw food as a side salad with their main meal.  Eating is a social activity too and I've no wish to become a social recluse or to make my children completely different from their friends, so we live a continual compromise between what I know is really the ideal diet and what I think we can realistically achieve!