Review: 12 Steps to Raw Foods by Victoria Boutenko

While an entirely raw foods diet may not be for everyone, there is little disagreement even amongst omnivores that increasing the proportion of fresh fruits and vegetables in our diet is something that can benefit any of us (for example, see Michael Pollan's Ominvore's Dilemma or In Defense of Food).  But is cooked food an addiction?  This is author Victoria Boutenko's contention, and while you may or may not agree with this premise, her use of a "12 Step" inspired model does provide a some useful approaches for those who are trying to eliminate or decrease their consumption of cooked foods and increase their consumption of whole, unprocessed fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.  Pair this with the some basic, approachable raw foods recipes and it is a book that could benefit everyone, even those who would not remotely consider themselves "raw fooders."  

Some of the steps that will benefit even those who hope to just eat healthier without necessarily giving up all cooked food include:

• Nourishing Your Body to Eliminate Cravings
• Acquiring Skills and Equipment
• Avoiding Temptation
• Gratitude and Forgiveness
• Embracing Other Healthy Habits
• Searching for One's Spiritual Mission
• Giving Support to Others
  

 12 Steps to Raw Foods: How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Foods (North Atlantic Books)  is a significant revision and expansion of the earlier edition.  So much so, that even if you already have the first edition (from Raw Family Publishing), you will still want to purchase a copy of the new edition.  For those familiar with Boutenko's works, this book contains material that will be familiar -- Part 1 contains some of the same information found in Raw Family and Green for Life in condensed form -- but there is also new information such as chapter four's review of scientific studies that support Boutenko's contention that cooked food is damaging to the human body.   For those new to Boutenko, this is a great introduction to her ideas, methods and life experiences, the latter of which includes the inspiring account of how she healed her families illnesses through healthful eating and exercise.

Review: There is a Cure for Diabetes

Gabriel Cousens’ book There is a Cure for Diabetes: The Tree of Life 21-Day+ Program is a comprehensive guide – not to living with diabetes but for learning how to live without it.  It is, as the author explains, about embracing a culture of life rather than a culture of death.  In reading this book, do not expect an approach of moderate changes to your lifestyle – adding this, or subtracting that – this is about total physical and spiritual transformation.  Are you ready?

The first half of the book looks at the medical science of diabetes to establish the basis for the Tree of Life 21 Day protocol.  It is rich in information to help you understand the why and how of this method.  This scientific grounding will no doubt also assist you later when you need justify to the world around you why you are taking such a radical approach, eliminating most, if not all, cooked foods and thereby seizing control of your own wellbeing.  The second half of the book shows you how to do it.

If you are skeptical that this method works, I urge you to watch the movie Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days.  The movie takes place at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona and follows six individuals with type one and type two diabetes under Dr. Cousens’ care.  By the end of 30 days, all who stuck with the program have either eliminated medications and insulin use completely or dramatically reduced them.  This book is a further refinement of the treatment these individuals underwent, enabling you to take charge of your health at home.

The program itself can be daunting to tackle on your own without the support of the Tree of Life’s medical and culinary staff, but if you begin by implementing even a few of the changes recommended (some of the easiest are on pages 285-288), you will see such a dramatic improvement it will no doubt inspire you to begin the journey, which as all journeys do, begins with the first step.

Days Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-One

I've been mostly raw for three weeks now. The more I do this, the less cooked food appeals to me. Today, for example, I had lunch at Macaroni Grill with my husband and daughter (the name of that place makes no sense: they don't serve macaroni, and if they did, would they grill it??). When I began this regimen, I told myself I'd have some meals be vegan but not raw. I did this for two reasons:

• I feared if I didn't allow myself some wiggle room I'd be too tempted and fail utterly
  
• I wanted to make it easy to socialize with friends

Today at the restaurant I had whole wheat pasta with veggies and pine nuts in a tomato basil sauce and it tasted fine, but it did not compare with my fabulous raw pizza:


Flax/sesame/buckwheat/sunflower crust, italian herb "cheese" spread, marinara from Everyday Raw, chopped organic basil and organic yellow bell peppers

The flavors and colors of raw food are just so vibrant! They're, well, alive.

The cheese experiment inspired by this blog post at the Sunny Raw Kitchen turned out rather well. I started with her recipe for the base cheese, substituting 1/2 tsp. of probiotic powder for each probiotic capsule and using water instead of Rejuvelac. I then cultured it for 24 hours. I divided the batch in half and seasoned as follows:

Italian Herb "Cheese" Spread Mix together: 1/2 batch cheese base 1 tsp. nutritional yeast 1/4 tsp. onion powder 1/2 tsp. oregano 1/2 tsp. parsley flakes 1/4 tsp. celtic sea salt Dust 4" springform pan with more parsley flakes, fill with cheese mixture and chill until firm.

Cheddar "Cheese" Spread Mix together: 1/2 batch cheese base 1/4 c. nutritional yeast 1 Tbsp. raw tahini pinch of turmeric and paprika sea salt to taste (about 1-2 tsp.) Fill 4" springform pan with cheese mixture and chill until firm.

The Italian herb cheese turned out great, and the cheddar wasn't bad but still needs tweaking. The foretaste was a bit too yeasty, but the aftertaste had just the right cheddary bite. I think I may play with the proportion of nutritional yeast to tahini next time.

The crust for the pizza also made crackers for the cheddar:

Flax/Sesame/Buckwheat/Sunflower Crackers Grind into a flour (I use a coffee grinder for this): 2/3 c. flax seeds Mix flax seed meal with: 1 1/3c. water Process with S blade in food processor: 1 c. sunflower seeds, soaked and drained 1 c. buckwheat, soaked and drained 1/4 c. sesame seeds, soaked and drained Mix flax mixture with sunflower/buckwheat/sesame mixture and: 1/2 tsp. unpasteurized apple cider vinegar 1 tsp. Spike seasoning 1 tbsp. parsley flakes Spread mixture onto teflex sheets, score into squares or triangles, and dehydrate at 105 degrees. When top is dry, flip onto dehydrator tray and remove teflex sheet. Dehydrate until crackers are crisp. Note: if you plan on eating these plain, you may want to sprinkle them with salt before dehydrating.

In the past few days I also tried a recipe for Creamy Carob Mousse from Carol Alt's book Eating in the Raw. I made a few modifications as I went, reducing the raw carob powder from 1 cup to 2/3 cup, substituting 1 tbsp. agave for each date, and adding a bit of almond milk. The base of the mousse is actually avocados, and I know that sounds gross, but believe it or not it tastes really good -- the only complaint I have about it is that the carob is a bit grainy.


Alt's book is a bit different from most raw books in that she's not vegan or even vegetarian: she eats raw dairy products and even raw or lightly seared meat and fish. There's also some ingredients in the recipes, like sprouted bread and rolled oats, that aren't raw. The book isn't the best that's out there by any means, but I'd recommend it for people who aren't vegetarians who are looking for suggestions on how to eat healthier. I just wouldn't recommend it to someone serious about becoming a raw vegan.

Here's what I've been eating for the last several days:

Day Seventeen:

• 2 pm (I did eat before 2, but the rest of my day is in an earlier post): Lunch at Walter's Restaurant in Claremont with Sporksforall and Teresa (black beans, rice, salata, bread, water)
  
• 4:30 pm: homegrown tangerine (from Sporks and Teresa's tree)
  
• 6:15 pm: homegrown tangerine, Everyday Raw vegan macaroni and cheese
  
• 7 pm: Eating in the Raw Carob Mousse

Day Eighteen:

• 9:15 am: banana, raw granola, almond milk
  
• noon: Larabar, cinnamon bun flavor
  
• 4:45 pm: Papaya
  
• 5 pm: Green smoothie (6 oz bag organic spinach, wheatgrass, spirulina, 1/2 banana, organic apple, 2 tangerines)
  
• 8:30 pm: Mango
  
• 9:30 pm: Raw snack mix
  
• 10 pm: almonds

Day Nineteen:

• 9 am: Green smoothie (2 bags of organic spinach, juice of 3 homegrown tangerines, 1 banana, Spirulina, water)
  
• 10:30 am: 2 FSBS Crackers with Cheddar "Cheese" spread
  
• 12:30 pm: 2 open faced sandwiches (raw raisin bread, 1 sliced pear, almond butter)
  
• 4 pm: Salad (1 organic romaine heart, avocado, organic plum tomatoes,1/4 red bell pepper, a few organic broccoli florets, and homemade sesame dressing
  
• 7 pm: Earth Cafe Pumpkin Spice of Life Pie (yummmmmmmmmm)
  
• 10 pm: Pecans and raisins

Day Twenty:

• 8:30 am: Green smoothie (6 oz. bag organic spinach, tsp. spirulina, banana, juice 3 homegrown tangerines, 2 1/2 tsp. maca, water)
  
• 2 pm: Larabar, cinnamon bun flavor
  
• 4 pm: 2 slices of raw pizza and some crackers with cheddar "cheese" spread
  
• 6:30 pm: 2 raw autumn squash cookies
  
• 8:40 pm: organic pear
  
• 9 pm: Raw granola with almond milk
  
• 10 pm: Raw cinnamon roll

Day Twenty-One:

• 9:45 am: Green smoothie (juice of 1 homegrown lemon, banana, organic pear, 3/4 bag of spinach, 2 Tbsp. hemp powder, 2 tsp. maca, 1 tsp. spirulina, water)
  
• noon: Lunch at Macaroni Grill with family (whole wheat penne with tomato-basil sauce, asparagus, pine nuts and spinach; water)
  
• 2:30 pm: 1/2 mango, organic kiwi, couple of sections of homegrown oranges (from a neighbor)
  
• 4 pm: almonds
  
• 5:15 pm: 2 slices of raw pizza, 1 cracker with cheddar cheese spread, lemon sparkling water
  
• 6 pm: Eating in the Raw Carob Mousse

Days Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen and into Sixteen

I'm racing the clock to finish this entry this morning. My husband is out of town so I'm taking care of our daughter alone. I'm writing this while she sleeps.

Yesterday after dropping my husband off at the airport, I swung by Borders to get us a treat. I tried to steer my daughter toward a really cool non-Disney Cinderella pop-up book, but she chose a My Little Pony puzzle book instead. At least it was half the price of the other book. For myself I chose Matthew Kenney's Everyday Raw.

The clincher was that while I was flipping through it I spied a recipe for raw vegan macaroni and cheese. This was my first attempt at "pasta" made from sliced squash. I don't have a spiralizer, so I used a regular ol' vegetable peeler. I think the wider "noodles" were more appropriate for mac and cheese anyway. Still, I don't think veggie "pasta" will ever successfully emulate real pasta (I've also tried take-out meals from Leaf Cuisine that substituted squash for pasta). The mac and cheese sauce, however, was utterly amazing. I would never, ever guess that this didn't have cheese or dairy in it. Somehow this recipe captured just the right balance of pureed cashews, nutritional yeast and other seasonings. This recipe, and some of the most interesting in the book are credited to one of his restaurant chefs, Kristen Reyes. I hope she comes out with a book of her own.

The book itself is gorgeous: filled with full-color photos and bright colors that make the food look irresistible. My main complaint about it is that it doesn't live up to its promise about being "Everyday Raw." In the intro, Kenney states that "The type of raw food that is best at home is unfussy and is made up of very satisfying ingredients, with far fewer components and fewer steps; and it's easier to prepare in a shorter amount of time." Very little of that rings true for these recipes. Still, I'd recommend it because it includes techniques for things I'd never think you could do raw, like wonton wrappers (called coconut wrappers in the book) and chocolate chips.

One of my favorite online sources for recipes is goneraw.com. People share their personal experiments and recipes, post photos of the results, and the comments others leave often provide useful modifications and suggestions. The other day I tried this recipe for cinnamon rolls and it turned out really well -- my daughter scarfs them down. Because I didn't have almond meal, I took a commenter's suggestion and substituted the pulp leftover from making nut milk. Next time I would double the amount of filling -- not only to make the dish itself a bit sweeter but also because it wasn't quite enough volume to make my Vitamix run efficiently. To approximate a cream cheese frosting, I mixed together some of my raw vegan sour cream (which tastes somewhere between sour cream, cream cheese and yogurt and can thus be tweaked with flavoring in a variety of directions) with a couple of heaping tablespoons of coconut butter and some agave.

Here's what I've been eating for the past several days:

Day Thirteen:

• 11:30 am: 2 Autumn Squash Cookies and a green smoothie (1/2 banana, 1/2 bag organic spinach, 1/2 head romaine, juice of 1 homegrown lemon, homegrown satsuma, organic apple, squirt of agave, water)
  
• 3 pm: Salad (avocado, 1/2 organic tomato, cilantro dressing leftover from Kale chips), a banana, mashed potatoes, sparkling mineral water
  
• 7 pm: Green smoothie (1/2 bag organic spinach, banana, mango, water)
  
• 8 pm: Couple of bites of cinnamon roll (shared with husband and daughter)

Day Fourteen:

• 7:30 am: 2 Autumn Squash Cookies
  
• 9:30 am: Larabar Apple Pie Flavor
  
• 10:30 am: Green smoothie (1/2 5 oz. box organic spinach, banana, juice of 1 homegrown lemon, tsp. spirulina, some wheatgrass, water)
  
• 1 pm: Larabar Apple Pie Flavor
  
• 2:15 pm: Salad (1/2 bag organic mixed greens, 1/3 red bell pepper, avocado, sunflower seeds, almonds) with homemade sesame dressing (equal parts apple cider vinegar and organic cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, a little sesame oil - probably not raw, squirt of agave). Lemon sparkling water.
  
• 4 pm: Shared a cinnamon roll with daughter
  
• 9 pm: Shared a green smoothie with daughter(1/2 box organic spinach, wheat grass, 2 bananas, juice of 1 homegrown lemon, 2 stalks of celery, 1 organic apple, tsp. spirulina, water)
  
• 1 am: Raw snack mix

Day Fifteen:

• 9 am: bite of daughter's banana
  
• 9:30 am: Raw granola with almond milk
  
• 11:30 am: Shared an open-faced sandwich (raw raisin bread, bananas, raw almond butter)with my daughter. Lemon sparkling water.
  
• 1 pm: Shared a green smoothie with my daughter (5 oz. box of organic spinach, wheatgrass, spirulina, wter, juice of 1 lemon, organic apple, banana)
  
• 4 pm: Raw vegan macaroni and cheese and an open faced sandwich (raw raisin bread, bananas, raw almond butter). Lemon sparkling water.
  
• 9:30 pm: Mango
  
• 11 pm: Shared a cinnamon roll with my daughter
  
• 1:30 am: Salted peanuts (not raw)

Day Sixteen:

• 10 am: Green smoothie (6 oz. bag organic spinach, banana, juice of 1 lemon, wheatgrass, spirulina, water) and raw granola with almond milk.