Raw Food Transistion

According to Victoria Boutenko, I am right on track.

If I have an addiction it is buying books. I love books. I believe I am part of a dying breed. Fortunately, in my humble opinion, I have passed this passion onto my daughter. My daughter, Emma, consumes books the way most children consume french fries and ice cream sundaes - with pure delight and total absorption. But that is another topic. I was talking about my love of books and Victoria Boutenko.

Yesterday I bought the book, 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko.

This book is a very basic, step by step guide for "How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Foods." Now, I am not encouraging you to go all raw and stop eating cooked foods entirely. My husband eats cooked foods, my children do and from time to time so do I. I just want to see how good I can feel and then share that with you.

In 12 Steps to Raw Foods, Victoria talks about the transition period from cooked to raw. My husband calls it the "I'm in denial that I love cooked foods" stage. During this period it is very common that people create a lot of "gourmet" type dishes, crackers, breads, nut and seed spreads. These are foods that help replace the heavy, satisfied feeling that cooked meals often provide.

And I have been doing just that. In fact, before deciding to go raw I ate a lot more salads. Once the mind realized what was happening, my desire for salads diminished and I began uncooking all sorts of meal type foods. Like the one below, which I LOVE (and so does my husband).

I took a nori roll (in place of a tortilla) and on it I put some beet greens and lettuce (you can use whatever greens you have around), avocado, homemade salsa and herbed cream cheese. Then I just rolled it up and ate it. Sooo good. And so simple. Especially if the cream cheese is already made.



This, apparently, is exactly what Victoria is talking about. The next stage for many raw foodists is to transition to more simple meals, a lot of salads and smoothies. Eventually this leads to the final stage of whole foods in their most basic form - a cucumber, carrots, leaves of kale. Now, of course, each person will walk their unique path but there does appear to be a common trajectory and it looks as if I am on it.

Just a word about the cream cheese. This cream cheese is made with Brazil nuts. While not an inexpensive nut (unless you have amazing neighbors like I do who just so happen to have three pounds of Brazil nuts they aren't using and are looking to pass on), it is a wonderful choice as far as nuts go.

Brazil nuts are a great source of monounsaturated oil and selenium. According to Dr. Mark Hyman, a favorite doctor of mine, selenium helps with thyroid problems and monounsaturated fat "is considered to be among the healthiest types of fat." Brazil nuts are the fourth best source of monounsaturated fat, after extra virgin olive oil, hazelnuts, and almonds. (Ultra-Metabolism)

So if you find yourself craving nuts, breads, and heavier type meals, know that you too, are right on track.