How to eat raw vegetables and enjoy them (without making your health worse)

 

Many truly love eating fruits, nuts, and seeds in raw form. Not so much vegetables though. Here I summarized a couple methods how to eat raw vegetables the good way… without spoons of fat and salt and still enjoy them.

You should avoid submerging vegetables in loads of fat, whether it is virgin olive oil, raw nut butters, raw dips and sauces. For one reason – lots of fat is bad. When it comes to raw fooders, they eat staggering amounts of fat. The fact that it is raw doesn’t help a lot, it is still fat. I remember reading somewhere that raw fooders indulge on more fat than those sitting on regular meat-and-bread diets. Less fat, more health. In healthy Japan, for example, fat is less than 20-30% of daily calorie consumption.

Salt and spices pose less problems but too much of wrong kinds is not ideal either.

So, here are some methods to turn veggies into yummy meals, without side effects.

 

 

Dry them in the sun

 

Sun is a source of heat. Just like an oven, but the temperature rarely rises above 50℃  (120°F). That’s approximately the cut-off temperature when the goodness in raw veggies starts to wander away. In the past and today, sun is quite frequently utilized to dry diverse foods, not just plants.

In the Bible, there is a mention of bread being dried in the sun (that’s by ancient Israelites). Other foods that are traditionally sun-dried are dates in Saudia Arabia and figs in Greece.

There is something unusual about sun-dried veggies. Your can almost sense the energy of the sun in their smell and taste. Without doubt, sun-dried food must acquire some unique, health-promoting characteristics just like the sun-charged water. Who knows, need to look into that.

Just slice vegetables into thin pieces and put them out into the sun on the hot day.

During cold, a dehydrator will have to replace the sun. You can also dry them in a stove, turn on “keep warm” mode, if there is one.

 

 

 

Season them with raw biological salt

 

You can make your own raw biological salt from celery. Celery is high in sodium, organic form of sodium. Because the source of sodium is celery, a plant, which is organic matter, it is called “biological salt”.

In contrast, regular table salt, sea salt and Himalayan salt have inorganic version of sodium. In this case, the source of sodium is a mineral, a rock, non-organic matter.

The difference between the two is huge. Inorganic sodium is not properly absorbed by the body. It is analogous to trying to eat a piece of iron metal in hopes to raise iron levels in the body. Not only that, widely-used table salt is chemically refined, bleached and often aluminium is added.

Dry celery in the sun or dehydrator. Then grind it in a coffee grinder. It has a mild salty taste.

If you really need something saltier then make biological salt from seaweed.  Dulse, in my onion, is a winner here. Kelp is the next one.

Sea vegetables are naturally covered with sea salt crystals here and there, so that’s why salt made from them is salty for real. A good place to check for seaweeds is Maine Coast Sea Vegetables. The company’s team of 40 people sustainably harvests sea veggies from the waters of Atlantic Ocean and dries them on the sun or with warm air. Meaning the raw goodness is preserved plus their veggies are certified organic. I especially like their dulse, it’s delicious to eat plain, right out of a bag.

 

 

 

Ferment them

 

Raw fermented vegetables is quite a savory treat. Not that complicated to prepare too. Overall, procedure looks like this. First, you make a bacterial culture, for that you will need to sacrifice one cabbage. Then you use that culture over and over again to ferment your vegetables. As long as you don’t drink a lot of this sour liquid, which is quite pleasant, it can last you a long time. Store it in the fridge.

I will soon make a post on how to make a bacterial culture using just two ingredients, water and cabbage.

 

 

 

Buy them organic

 

That’s self-explanatory. Organically grown tomato smells from half a meter away and is a feast for the tongue. I think, just by switching to more organic vegetables is enough to start loving them plain raw. Also, I noticed that you tend to get satisfied by eating less of them.

 

 

 

Season them with dried herbs

 

All herbs except garlic and onion will do. Celery, cilantro, dill, parsley, basil, oregano… Throw a little bit of cayenne pepper as well for a little excitement.

I exclude garlic and onion because they are irritants to the human body. Their smell already tells something. And the taste… just a tiny piece in a mouth and in a matter of seconds there is lots of saliva, tears and on that same day, smelly sweat. These are all evidences of body trying to get rid of that garlic and onion. There must be a good reason behind that. And the reason is simple – they are natural antibiotics. Just like lab-made antibiotics, they can help with several conditions but at the same time kill friendly bacteria, although not to the same degree. They are okay a few times per months, in small amounts, but definitively not everyday. Spicy herbs such as black and cayenne pepper don’t cause such severe reactions so I think they are the better choice when in desire of some sort of stimulation.

Dry a bunch of your favorite herbs, or buy them already dried, grind them and they are ready to be used.

 

 

Good luck testing all of these!

 

 

 

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Main references:

www.raw-food-health.net

Mosher A. (2009). Your Health = Your pH: How To Reverse Illness & Gain Vitality. Live Life Well Info