Raw Food Diet: Quick and Easy
Fruit and Nuts Together?
My readers challenge me. Good! One e-mail responded to a recipe of mine which featured nut cheese topped with persimmons. My reader wrote: Food-combining charts say that the combination of fruit and nuts is not ideal due to differing digestion times. I’m surprised, Tonya, that you’d eat nuts and fruit together …
Rule of Three
Fair challenge. As much as possible, I follow the “rule of three”—to mix no more than three items when eating a meal. When I follow this rule and all items are raw, I don’t experience digestion problems. Food-combing charts are generally designed for cooked food diets. With raw foods … things are a little different.
No, you can’t throw caution to the wind just because you’re eating raw. Combinations do matter. And many people do great following precise food combining rules. But being a long-term strict raw foodist—thirteen years, now—I’ll offer my experience: As long as you keep your mixing of ingredients to a reasonable minimum, most likely you’ll have no digestive issues.
Simple Options
Throw just two or three things together in a Vita-Mix or a food processor, blend them, and you have a meal. If you blend green leaves and fruits in a Vita-Mix, then you have a green smoothie. If it’s nuts and fruits, thrown in a food processor, you have a delicious dessert. Or perhaps you have some vegetables and nuts. In that case, just grab a big leaf of lettuce, roll the blended veggie-nut mixture in the leaf, and you’ve built a tasty, original, “wrap” style sandwich.
Beautiful On Raw
UnCooked Creations
Quite a few people have this kind of attitude: Feed me. Now. I don’t want to cook. No, I don't much care about variety in recipes. Recipes bore me” ... So the cool thing about this eating program is: Raw means easy. Personally, I don’t like spending time in the kitchen or keeping track of what I can combine with what. Where once we might have microwaved a high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium TV dinner, we can, in about the same time, create something natural, nutritious, and delicious.
Quick n' Easy Shopping Experience
Once you begin to go raw—and especially when you’re fully “there”—you’ll find this ease reflected in your shopping experience. No more three-page grocery list. No need, now, to cruise every single supermarket aisle. You’ll notice your trips to Kroger, Albertson’s, Ralph’s, Safeway or even Wild Oats take much less time. You’ll bypass whole aisles, strike whole categories off the list. No need to go to the meat department anymore (unless to reminisce). No need to stop for cheese, bread, chips, soda, cereal, or virtually anything that comes in a can or a box.
Give Your Digestive System a Rest
Another vital factor in building a superb digestive system … give it a rest. A long rest. A long rest every single day. Read my Quantum Eating for more guidance. The single best slice of advice I can hand you: Quit eating early. For me, it’s about two o’clock in the afternoon. But, then, I’m well advanced in the program. If you’re not there yet, and particularly if you’re a nighttime eater, try stopping at six. No late night dinner with your friends or family, which at first might seem like a downer. But consider when you’re at home … no more doing dishes at eight o’clock at night. You can sleep … exercise … loaf … play with the kids … have a great conversation with your spouse … or read or write a book.
Quantum Eating
The Ultimate Elixir of Youth!
So whether you’re talking technical issues of food combination, or don’t want to deal with complicated recipes, follow my rule of three … and the “raw diet” has never been easier!