Going green

Someone gave me a raw food cookbook the other day. No, wait, cookbook is not the right word! Perhaps manual or reference book would be correct. It is written by the couple who have introduced the superfoods to our health shops and what a convenient thing it is too. I have had a juicer on the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard for about a year now, and moved it down to the middle shelf after reading this book. I gave it some thought, then a week later, moved it out of the cupboard and plugged it in. I have started to make juice in the morning, as they suggest this is the best way to ease into a raw food diet. They don't recommend an overnight switch, nor giving up your current eating habits. Rather, ease into it gently so as not to upset your system and start off with juice then move on to smoothies and fruit and nuts, then experiment with making your non-dairy butters with various nuts. The book is filled with delicious recipes that are not at all unappetising, but it would certainly require quite a lifestyle adjustment, particularly if the whole family does not buy into health.

For some years now I have been eating mainly raw foods anyway, and consuming as little dairy, wheat and sugar as possible, so for me this is not a huge step. I will just cut back on the cooked foods which I have always considered to be nutritionally deficient anyway. "Cooked" means too hot to touch, so there are things that can be heated and here I am also fortunate in liking my food more at room temperature than hot.

The important thing is not to leap into this and abandon your old way of life. That is the way to completely demotivate yourself, as the green juicing takes some getting used to if you have a sweet tooth and if you have too much, your body will rebel and put you off vegetables for life!

I went shopping for food for the weekend today, and was I impressed with what I brought home! Different lettuces, cucumber, pomegranates, Bulgarian yoghurt, radishes, oranges, bananas, apples, fresh coriander, parsley, avocados, Brussels sprouts, yellow peppers, broccoli and butternut. This isn't unusual or brought on by the raw food book, it's what I normally eat, with the addition of chicken, fish, eggs and occasionally red meat, but those are on the wane as I feel better and better on an easily digestible, non-acidifying diet. In the fridge I have a 2-litre jug of water with cucumber, lemon and mint leaves steeping overnight for a refreshing vitamin drink for tomorrow. So much tastier than plain water!

An interesting tip: if you want ice cream, freeze a few bananas, blend them and voila! Fancy that!