• Forthcoming Events: RawforLife Classes
• Feature Article: How Raw? How Soon?
• SUPER Food of the Month: Courgette (Zucchini)
• Recipe: RawforLife Ratatouille
• 'Pick of the Blog': How to Make Nut Milk & Three Great Shakes
• Shop Around: Cuisinart Food Processor
• Book of the Month: 'Raw Food Real World'

NEW DATES!

As the 24th April class is now sold out, I've added some new dates. Still weekdays only at present, but possibly a weekend date later in the year.

Please note that, whilst the Alissa Cohen classes are £70, BOTH RawforLife Experience classes will be charged at £50 for bookings pre May 15th, but after that date the introductory rate will cease and the class will be charged at £70.

Each class is suitable both for those at the start of their raw food journey, and for those more experienced raw fooders who would like to chat with others about raw, enjoy a selection of delicious raw food, and perhaps come away with some new recipe ideas!

Recipes (variable by class) include soups, main courses, desserts, crackers, breads, sauces, juices and smoothies. For pictures of food typical of that served, see 'What is the Raw Food Diet?'

Please don't worry that you won't know anyone - groups are small, informal and friendly. And, although all food served will be raw vegan, everyone is welcome, whether following a raw, cooked, vegan, vegetarian, or omnivore diet.

Follow this link for class and booking details:

How Raw? How Soon?

Should 100% be the goal?

Yes. I'm not going to tell you anything different, because I'm in the business of wanting everyone to maximise their chances of feeling brilliant, rather than fairly brilliant. But to those readers who now feel like skipping the rest of the article, please...bear with me.

Gabriel Cousens: 'Without doubt, 100% live food is the best diet as it supports spiritual life and compassion and turns you into a superconductor of the divine. It's the Olympic approach.' (Well...I think I want some of that!)

Does a 100% raw food diet make us 100% healthy? Debatable. What I am certain about is that a cooked food diet won't ever deliver 100% health. With the exception of young people (as they can look terrific whatever they eat - it's time that's the test...!) I don't know anyone on a cooked food diet that's 100% healthy. Raw? There have been countless accounts of people claiming that raw has cured illness, and I know people who have been attracted to raw food because of the appearance and good health of raw fooders they know. We all know there are factors that can adversely affect our health apart from food. To what extent the raw food diet may protect us against the harmful effects of these has also been debated, and this article would be even longer if I went into this here. But there are many influences on our health that we can't control. We CAN control, pretty much, what goes down our gullets. And, if we follow a 100% raw food diet, at least we have taken care of one major variable affecting our health, and can then look at other aspects of our lives. And of course to give raw food a fair test, we do need to eat 100% raw. Cooking changes food and creates toxins. All the time we retain even a little cooked food in our diet, we can never be sure that it's not that cooked food that's responsible for health problems - minor or major - that we may have. And we can never be sure that toxins from cooked foods aren't gradually accumulating in our bodies, ready to strike us later with one of those diseases considered 'normal' in old age.

BUT I hope I've made it clear that there are many different paths to being successfully raw. The raw journey can take a day, months, years or even a lifetime. But, as Chris Carlton says, 'Keep your eye on the main prize.' As Chris went 100% raw, in steps, he lost 12 stone and transformed his health dramatically. Read his story at purelyraw.com

'I eat an 80% raw diet. I consider that a healthy diet!'

For practical purposes let's call 80%+ (roughly speaking!) a 'high-raw' diet.

There is no doubt that most people will see significant health benefits from a high-raw diet. Gabriel Cousens: 'When leading experts in the field got together to discuss this, the consensus was that 80% is the minimum intake of live food for a healthy lifestyle.' When I was eating high raw, lots of minor health ailments cleared up. Those on a high-raw diet should look better, and feel better - physically and psychologically. Gabriel again: 'One of our Masters students at The Tree of Life did a study of people who had been on at least 80% live foods for two years. Most reported that they had a better spiritual life, better health, less depression and so on.'

Lots of people in the raw food world follow a 'high raw' diet, and indeed may have tried 100% and for various reasons prefer to include a little cooked food. Whether you see the 'high raw' diet as a 'resting stage' before the move to 100%, or whether you feel no desire nor need to eat more raw, I would simply suggest that you consider whether there is any cooked food that you feel you would find difficult to give up...'your favourite foods may be the root cause of your greatest pains!' (Walter Bagehot).

'I'd like to be 100% - I'd like even to be 'high raw' - but I keep falling off the wagon!'

Do you feel unhappy when trying to be raw and you eat cooked food? It's great news that you feel unhappy! Why? Because that feeling is evidence that your wiser self knows what's best for you. So celebrate that and use it! Remind yourself how fortunate you are that you care about what goes into your body. Remind yourself that you have had a glimpse of a good place some people never see, and you can visit that place again! Think Eckhard Tolle 'Power of Now' and don't continue to beat yourself up for something you did yesterday. Tell yourself 'today's a new day' and treat yourself to some delicious fruit - perhaps a ripe, juicy mango, or a papaya sprinkled with lime juice! Indulge!

What is success?

Success is...a 100% raw food diet (but there's always room for improvement - don't overeat, and eat as simply as you can for smooth digestion and lots of energy.)

Success is...an 80% raw food diet. You're now at the level Gabriel Cousens feels confers a 'healthy lifestyle' and many benefits.

Success is...a 50% raw food diet, if previously you were eating 25%. You should feel the difference, and you're way ahead of the average UK diet!

Success is...a 25% raw food diet, if previously your only raw food was the lettuce in the Big Mac. Build on it.

Success is eating MORE RAW. If you are eating more raw than you were a year ago, that's success! And even if you're not - if you're eating more raw than yesterday, THAT'S SUCCESS!

The courgette (known as 'zucchini' in Australia and the US) is a small type of summer squash ('courge' is French for squash, and 'zucca' Italian). Everyone will be familiar with the long green ones, but courgettes can also be found yellow and/or round. In culinary terms it's a vegetable, and botanically a fruit, containing useful amounts of folate, potassium and vitamin A.

Whilst the squash has its ancestry in the Americas, the courgette itself is believed to have been the result of a mutation occurring in Italy in the late 19th century. The first records of 'zucchini' in the US date back to the early 1920s; I'm not sure when the 'courgette' arrived in the UK but I don't remember them being widely-eaten (at least not where I lived!) in the Sixties.

Courgettes, as well as being good simply sliced or shredded into salads, feature in all sorts of raw recipes. They are one of the easiest vegetables to 'spiralise' into 'courgetti'(and in fact this forms the base of the Italian-style main meal at the RawforLife Alissa Cohen Level 1 class). I've also used them in kebabs, koftedes, wrap-ups and bread.

Now...courgettes are really easy to grow, if you have enough garden (the plants grow quite big - up to a metre across). You can grow them from seed, but an even easier way is to buy little plants from garden centres, put them in the ground, do nothing (except water in dry weather) and...watch them GROW! I grew some last year. At first they seemed a little fragile -'things' were eating them, and there didn't seem to be many. But after that - bumper harvest, all through the summer.

Alternatively, get on down to the supermarket or wholefood co-op and buy organic courgettes - the smaller the better for flavour - and try the RawforLife ratatouille!

The main RawforLife website, at www.rawforlife.co.uk is the 'base' - full of information about raw food, 'before and after's', and details of classes. The RawforLife Blog, at www.debbietookrawforlife.blogspot.com, is the 'newsy' site - updated 2-3+ times a month with news, articles and occasional recipes. As the e-zine and Blog subscriber lists are not identical, I do hope those who do subscribe to both will not mind my reprinting one Blog article here each month. If you would like to see all past Blog articles and receive articles by e-mail as soon as they are published, do visit the Blog site, enter your details in the Feedblitz panel on the Blog site, then follow very carefully the instructions for subscribing.

How to make nut milk & three great shakes!

(Recipe makes more than four cups of nut milk, so more than enough for you to try at least two of the shakes that follow!)

• 1 cup nuts (soaked 4+ hours - aids digestibility)
• 4 cups water Blend until thoroughly blended. Strain into a jug or bowl.

Cuisinart Food Processor

(brushed metal model)

Please note this information is partly to help you decide between different suppliers, but also to provide information with which to go to your favourite supplier and ask for a 'price match'.

• Beststuff.co.uk - £235
• Juiceland - £239
• Barmey.co.uk - £245
• Fresh Network - £249
• Style Cookshop - £259
• John Lewis - £259

'Raw Food Real World' (Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis)

I'll give it to you straight: for the first few months, this book, which I bought with great anticipation, lay gathering dust annoying me. Because...it's really not 'real world' at all, in that the recipes are sometimes complex, often include exotic ingredients that can be difficult to obtain,and ingredients that are either not raw or not possible to obtain raw in the UK.

But, a year later, I have to admit that this raw food classic has now earned its place on the raw bookshelf. If you're looking for an 'everyday' raw recipe book, this is not the one (try Ani Phyo's 'Ani's Raw Food Kitchen'). RFRW is not about the simple raw food diet, and I wouldn't advocate anyone (who wants a smooth digestion!) to live daily on meals made from such long lists of ingredients. But if you'd like to see the book that has inspired thousands of raw fooders, including raw chefs, you were a confident and keen cook pre-raw, you like to make dishes to impress, and have equipment such as a dehydrator (or the funds for it), this is definitely the one for you (and I've got round the non-raw ingredients - probably around 5-10% of ingredients) by substituting, or simply avoiding recipes where substitution wouldn't work).

Let's give you an idea...Occasionally (as it takes a while to prepare!), I've made the 'Blue Sunset' smoothie for my family. It's a feast for the eyes (layers of creamy yellow and dark blue) as well as the tastebuds, with pineapple, banana, mango, brazil milk, vanilla and blueberries. They love it - particularly the 'custardy' flavour. One of my husband's favourites is the Warm (but not above 115 F :-)) Cherry Tomato and Sweet Corn Salad. I enjoyed something very similar to the Red Beet Ravioli (cashew 'cheese' with tarragon between shavings of beet) at a vegan restaurant 'raw food night'. The Tortillas have been the inspiration for many a raw food teacher's tortillas/tacos, the desserts are sumptuous, and, last, but definitely not least, this book contains, in my opinion, one of the best-ever recipes for flax crackers - Spicy Flax and Herb Crackers.

Aware that this is sounding somewhat like a restaurant rather than a book review (and Sarma does own the world-famous New York raw food restaurant 'Pure Food and Wine') I'll stop at this point, but would certainly recommend its purchase if you're thinking of giving any 'raw food dinner parties'!

• Wild beetroot has a sugar content of less than 4%. According to David Wolfe ('Sunfood Diet Success System'), hybrids were developed from wild strains which increased the sugar yield to 17%. Interestingly, biologists have never managed to increase the sugar to beyond 17%. David suggests that that is a barrier that the species has set, so that it remains a beetroot.

• Goji berries can be grown in the UK. Plants can be purchased from Thompson-Morgan

• Arnold Ehret, after suffering bad fortune, became very depressed and decided to starve himself to death. After 10-11 days of not eating, he felt amazingly healthy and energetic. He then went on to spread the word about the benefits of fasting and raw food!