Raw Vegan 3-Week Transition

It has been nine months since I decided to go vegan. And already then I got a bit familiar with the idea of raw foodism and was persuaded that this was the way to go - the very best way of eating and living. But at that time it had still seemed a faraway goal, quite complicated and frightening. Which is all very normal since the first steps of going vegan also seemed a bit intimidating and very exciting. It was a lot to handle for a beginner, especially being the only vegan I know in this town (and in this country actually), I simply wasn't ready to take on the raw adventure.

By now the whole vegan thing has become just so natural that I'm only rarely reminded of it, for example when friends ask me to go eat French food in a restaurant with them (which basically means that the only vegan option on the menu will be the wine and even that is doubtful). Or when I see people eating their jambon-fromage sandwiches and wearing fur and leather coats in the streets... Most of the time I completely forget about it so that it starts seeming unnatural to me that I can not get non-dairy latté or milkshakes or vegan pizza when I'm out on town. How is it possible, I catch myself thinking, that no-one provides it when it is all so easy to make and all the substitutes are completely available?!

So lately I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and reading things on the internet that have made me think about raw foodism again. But let me explain a bit about what raw foodism is:

Vegan raw foodism is a lifestyle promoting the consumption of un-cooked, un-processed, and often organic foods as a large percentage of the diet (I'd say at least 75%). Typical foods include fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains and legumes that have not been heated over 40°C. Heating food destroys the enzymes, which assist in the digestion of foods and are known to be the "life force" of food. Researches prove that cooking not only destroys nutrition and enzymes, but chemically changes foods from the substances needed for health into free-radicals and poisons that render food unrecognisable to the organism and therefore toxic. Living and raw foods have enormously higher nutrient values than the foods that have been cooked. There are several different subcategories of raw foodists like fruitarians, sproutarians,  juicearians, but I prefer regarding the subject in a general manner for now.
As raw foodists claim all over the web, after an initial detox where the body ejects all the toxins that had been stored during all the years of eating cooked, follow the great benefits like weight loss, higher energy levels, clearer skin, overall improved health and many more. Soon the body will require much less food than before because everything it gets is alive and thus much fuller of energy. Eventually the organism starts regulating its needs a lot more efficiently by craving only the foods that contain the nutrients it is running low on.

All this sounds super great to me, although this is only the very surface of raw foodism. It is far from being just a diet; it is a whole lifestyle and a way of thinking. For example, as I see it, it also includes a more conscious and spiritual way of regarding life, the universe and everything: being more aware of myself and my surroundings, living in greater harmony with nature...

I will be posting updates and thoughts as I go through my transition, as well as links and further information on raw food during the next three weeks. Hoping that the detox period will pass quickly and that my addiction to cooked foods (it might sound like I'm over-dramatizing it but believe me, we really are addicted to cooked food just as we can be to nicotine, alcohol, sugar, cheese etc.) will pass without huge withdrawal cravings.

I've survived the fist two days pretty well, making myself a yummy eggplant lasagne, listening to Raw Vegan Radio podcasts (if you are interested in this subject I really advise you to listen to this episode) and being encouraged by Jenna Norwood's experience (hey, if she did it, why can't I)...

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Raw Vegan Eggplant Lasagne

• 1 medium to large eggplant (aubergine)
  
• 2 cups of water
  
• 1/4 cup nama shoyu, or tamari sauce
  
• 1 tsp. sea salt

Peel the eggplant and cut it thinly lengthwise. Marinate in water, nama shoyu, or tamari sauce and sea salt for at least 3 hours, and up to 12 hours - the longer the better. Dry the eggplant slices with a paper towel. 

Tomato sauce:

• 1 cup (cherry) tomatoes
• 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes (soaked for 1-2 hrs)
• 1 tsp. tomato concentrate
• 2 dates (soaked for 2 hrs), or some agave syrup
• 3 tbs. olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tbs. fresh parsley, 1 pinch fresh oregano,
1 handful fresh basil,
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp. sea salt 
  

Blend everything together, add the soaking water from tomatoes for better consistancy if necessary.

Cheese sauce:

• 1/3 cup tahini (sesame purée), or chickpea purée
  
• 1/3 cup olive oil (I used half of it and half of water)
  
• 2 Tbs. nama shoyu, or tamari sauce (unless the tahini is already well salted)
  
• a pinch of tumeric powder (curcuma) or light curry powder for the extra zing

Mix together in a bowl until smooth.

You'll also need about 2 cups of shredded zucchini (courgette). Create different layers, alternating: tomato sauce, eggplant, cheese sauce, shredded zucchini, tomato sauce, etc. Finish with shredded zucchini, and decorate with a few thin slices of red onion. (source)

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For more information check out also:

Steve Pavlina's 30-day raw food diet trial

The Living and Raw Foods F.A.Q.s

Raw foods educator Angela Stokes talks about how to survive food cravings

More About the Fish

To all you fish-eating "vegetarians" out there:

Step Three (Why Stop Eating Meat?)

Your Health: it has somehow become a general acknowledgement that eating meat is vitally important for a healthy and varied diet. It's what I would call one of the greatest myths of the capitalist society. First of all because we don't need to consume meat, in fact - we're not even physically built for that. Our stomach does not produce enough acid, our intestines are very long (about 10 times our body length compared to 3 times the body length for carnivores). It takes us a very long time to digest meat - it basically stays rotting in our system for several days and all the unnecessary substances like saturated fat and cholesterol get absorbed by the body, whereas a carnivore "ejects" it much faster, having absorbed only the necessary. You can get more information on this subject here.
Factory farms use a lot of antibiotics on the animals, not as much to treat illnesses but to make them grow faster or prevent their death before arriving to the slaughter house. Some of those “growth promoters” are used to treat serious human diseases. Animal products transmit them to humans and lead to the increase of treatment resistant bacteria and thus - more incurable diseases.

Chicken, as “white meat”, has often been considered being healthier and containing less fat. Since chickens are bred and drugged to grow very large, their flesh today contains three times as much fat as it did just 35 years ago. The most toxic form of the poison arsenic is used in chicken feed because it promotes faster growth. This cancer-causing chemical is then ingested by people.

Fish is considered to be health food by many. In fact, the oceans are now so polluted that fish flesh contains a lot of toxins, especially mercury. Eating fish even just once a week can increase your mercury level over 30% above the safe limit. This can lead to many health issues including coordination problems and depression.


The Environment: Livestock grazing transforms fertile land into desert, and thus affects a great number of threatened and endangered species. More than 50% of forests and rainforests has already been cleared to use the land for grazing or animal feed crops. As for the crop – a great majority of it is fed to farm animals, while it could be used to feed hundreds of millions of hungry people. Same thing goes for water: an estimated 15 000 liters of water is needed to produce just one day animal-based food supply (for one average meat-eater), whereas a one day plant-based food supply requires about 13 times less water.
Factory farms produce thousands of tons of manure every day. This often finds its way into the groundwater supply, the lakes, the rivers and the oceans, polluting drinking water and killing aquatic life. Here’s an interesting story for those who want to find out more about factory farm manure “lagoons”.
Livestock rearing also produces gases known to contribute significantly to global warming. See here for more detailed information on this subject.

Seafood consumption is driving many species to extinction. In fact, overfishing is responsible for the depletion of about 70% of fish populations worldwide. Tens of thousands of marine animals (like dolphins, sharks and turtles) get stuck in tremendous fishing nets and are killed and thrown back into the ocean each year.

Even if dolphins aren’t accidentally trapped in nets, they are still killed intentionally by tuna anglers because they prey on tuna.Fish farming, like livestock farming, damages delicate aquatic ecosystems, polluting water with run-off containing potentially hazardous chemicals, drugs and pathogens. Plus, farmed fish is usually fed with wild fish and it takes approximately 2-3 kg of wild fish to grow 1 kg of “farmed” shrimp or salmon.

Shark finning (consists of removing shark fins and discarding of the carcass at sea) annually kills over 100 million sharks and has decreased worldwide shark population by 90% over the last few decades. Experts estimate that within a decade, most species of sharks will be lost because of longlining. This could have devastating impact on marine ecosystems. For more precise information watch the film Sharkwater.

What about protein, iron and fatty acids?
There are numerous great plant-based protein sources. You can get enough protein from legumes like beans, peas and lentils; grains like rice, oatmeal and wheat; vegetables like potato, tomato, cucumber, cabbage, onion, broccoli, spinach; fruit like apple, banana, orange, grape, strawberry, peach and many many more…
Plant-based iron sources are for example ginger, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), lentils, spinach, prunes and raisins. It is best to consume them along with a source of vitamin C for better absorbtion.
Nuts and seeds (for example pumpkin and sunflower seeds, walnuts and almonds) contain good fatty acids, but are also great protein and iron sources.