We Like It Raw - Raw Food Goodness

More important than peace of mind?

How could your diet be more important than your peace of mind? FYI: emotional stress takes a far deeper toll on the body than food stress.

If you're trying to eat raw and loosing peace of mind in the process, do your mind and the world a favor and stop. Take a break from the excessive mental noise (aka mind chatter) and just let things be.

When the time is right, you'll know when that is, simply begin to notice why you are loosing your peace of mind. Most likely it is because you've turned your version of health into an image with HUGE attached expectations. The stress, therefore, is coming because you are worried about not following through with that image of yourself you have in your head. Thus you try hard.

I don't know anyone who has peace of mind & true health that actually "tries hard" to be healthy. In fact they do what they do because they don't have to do what they do.

Think about that one for a bit, actually take that back, don't think about it.

Not All Cacao Is Made Equal

This weekend I bought a bag of cacao nibs from the Whole Foods in Union Square (NYC). When I was making a smoothie later in the day I tasted the cacao (before I put it in the smoothie) and it tasted totally rancid. The distribution company was eatraw.com, but I'm not saying it is their fault. I've had eatraw.com cacao before and it tasted fine.

This has happened a few times now (with multiple companies) and I'm just curious to see if anyone else had issues with rancid cacao.

This isn't a plug, but this has never happend with rawfood.com cacao. Is it because they have a higher turn-over being a bigger company? Therefore the cacao nibs aren't sitting around as long exposed to the air?

Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section.

Interview with Sarma Melngailis

Very interesting interview with Pure Food & Wine's Sarma Melngailis. (via rawguru.com)

Some topics covered:

• What are some quick tips or hints for raw newbies?
• Where do you see the raw food movement heading?
• How do you come up with a recipe?

Tasting in LA w/ SmartMonkey Foods

Smart Monkey Foods is hip, creative and of course fantastically nutritious. They'll be in LA for the next few weeks so be sure to check out their up-coming tastings.

Monday October 31st, 12noon-2pm
Co-opportunity (Directions)
1525 Broadway
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Tuesday November 1st, 12noon-2pm
Whole Foods Markets (Directions)
1050 Gayley Ave
Westwood CA 90024

Friday November 4th, 11.30am-1.30pm
Whole Foods Markets (Directions)
2201 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90403

More From Smart Monkey Foods

• Smart Monkey Events
  
• Smart Monkey Products

More on the Raw-Food Tipping Point

This past Tuesday I opened my local (un-hip) Delaware paper, The News Journal, and found a front page story on becoming vegetarian with multiple references to raw-food.

Yesterday morning I flew to Orlando, Florida to spend time with my uncle. I got a little hungry so I went shopping at mainstream health food stores that had a good amount of organic produce. While there I found two different types of raw-chocolate, two types of raw-agave, and at least five types of raw-food bars. When I went to checkout my cashier, who wasn't anywhere near a hippie, told me she loves raw-food and had experimented making flax crackers on several occasions. We joked a bit about Juliano and both left with smiles.

Yesterday afternoon my uncle and I were hanging out at Blue Springs State Park and a woman named Natalie randomly swam up to us while we were sitting on the dock and started talking about her "kinda weird" diet. Natalie was inspired by Kevin Trudeau book, Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About, and started eating organic which eventually led to more raw.

Today morning my uncle told me that owner of the local pet food store is a vegetarian who only feeds her cat raw-food aka the BARF Diet. After she saw the amazing effects the diet had on her cat, she started to research more about humans eating raw-food.

More and more of these events are happening each week. I know I'm the editor of a raw-food blog, but are these isolated coincidences or something bigger? Now one can be sure, but it just feels something is huge is happening. Food is meeting consciousness.

My bet is that the next biggest leap in the world raw-food will come from pet owners. It is much easier to feed your pet raw than working up the discipline to do it yourself. But once you see how your cat's leukemia is reversed through diet, you start thinking twice about that hamburger you ate for lunch.

We Like It Raw - Audio Post

The following message is a 'We Like It Raw' audio post. Your editor, Dhrumil Purohit, has not yet had a chance to add a text description. So don't go wild and start cooking up a storm. As soon as we get internet access we'll be sure to clean things up.

In the mean time stay raw and enjoy the audio.

Is It Organic? Well, Maybe

This NY Times article is getting tons of circulation on the internet today, (thx tipsters Mamta Jain. & Ami Bhatt).

According to this article, many "organic labeled products" are less than 95 percent organic, but are still claiming the organic title. But have no fear, "Dr. Bronner's, the maker of soaps with organic oils, helped force the Agriculture Department to apply its organic foods standards to beauty products."

Is It Organic? Well, Maybe (Needs Registration)
NY Times - By Jessica Merrill

HUNDREDS of soaps, shampoos and skin creams call themselves organic, but their labels have long been confusing, even misleading. A moisturizing cream might be made with organic kiwi, strawberries, jojoba oil and aloe vera, but then mixed with synthetic preservatives. No government agency checked whether the ingredients were truly organic.

But now the Agriculture Department is applying its strict organic food standards to personal care products too. Two months ago, after years of wavering, the agency's National Organic Program declared that cosmetics can also be labeled with the familiar round, two-tone "U.S.D.A. Organic" seal.

Keep reading at NYtimes.com

Top 25 Raw-Food Websites?

I'm looking for the top 25 Raw-Food resource websites. Shopping carts are okay, but I'm looking for websites that have solid information!

The reason I'm looking is because RollyYo.com has created a tool where you can create a custom search engine. We Like It Raw is creating a custom search engine on the subject Raw-Food and is looking to include only the top 25 Raw-Food resource websites.

Please feel free to share and make your vote public in the comments section.

Joel's Carob Mousse Pie

Nutritious, amazingly tasty and quick! Thanks Joel!

Crust

• 2 c shredded coconut
• 11/2 c pitted dates

Place in food processor unit mixture holds together. Place filling in a pie pan and press it against  the bottom of the pan to form a firm crust.

Filling

• 2 avocados
• 1 c carob
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• pinch of salt
• 1/2t cinnamon
• 1/4 cup coconut

Place all ingredients into a food processor. Process until smooth. Place the filling in the crust. Refrigerate for three hours and enjoy.

Morning Rituals for Health Abundance

Having a proper morning ritual, (even if you don't eat rawfood) can do wonders for your health. This particular ritual was taught to me by rawfood All-Star, David Wolfe.

1. Wake-up. Half of success is just showing up!
   
   
2. Center yourself. Whether you call it presence, God, the universe, Atma or anything else, center yourself by connecting to the source. A simple 10 minute mediation focusing on the breath is enough. Nothing fancy needed.
   
   
3. Brush your teeth with natural tooth paste like Tooth Soap or an extremely diluted solution of food grade hydrogen peroxide and water (mix 3 drops of food grade hydrogen peroxide with 8 ounces of water and then dip your brush inside of the solution).
   
   
4. Drink 16 ounce glass of water with a little lemon, pinch of sea salt, 1/2 tea spoon of MSM and 2 drops of food grade hydrogen peroxide. This helps to flush the system.
   
   
5. A good sign of a healthy system is having a bowel movement first thing in the morning. Get in the habit of drinking your energized water first and then having your bowel movement.
   
   
6. As Frederic Patenaude mentioned on his blog, exercise is key! Don't even miss a day. Walking, push-ups, swimming ...anything will do - Just Do It.
   
   
7. Shower! Check out a few products here to help you get the glow, or feel free to Ask Sarma. I personally am a fan of dry brushing.
   
   
8. Without discipline, I usually feel a lack of hunger till about 12:00 noon, (more on this later). Around noon sometimes I'll have a morning super-food smoothie or some light fruit. If you are just starting out on the rawfood approach or are detoxing/ill, I recommend having green vegetable juice instead of a superfood smoothie.
   

What about you? How does your morning ritual/routine look? Open for comments.