frozen? freeze dried? green smoothies?

Comments

• Zoe Raw Newbie

  Personally I wouldn’t touch freeze dried food, I don’t use frozen food either. Nutrients do get lost when food is frozen, and it seems to be too processed and messed with for me to feel like it is good for me. Dehydrated food have only had one process – the drying. Freeze dried food is frozen then dried. It’s just one step too far for me!

  A lot of frozen food is flash boiled before it is frozen. Corn is, peas are, fruit isn’t normally, but do check with the manufacturer, or just stay away from it. Basically anything that comes in a package is suspect, fresh is best ;)

  Also most commerially available nut milks are pasturised, and cooked too, so again check, but they’re not likely to be raw.

  Freezing your own fresh food would be a good idea. Then you can buy in bulk when the fruit is in season and save some money.

  You can drink your green smoothie whenever you feel like it. Most rawies have theirs in the morning coz we usually don’t feel like eating till later in the day. Put whatever fruit you like in it. I like orange juice and spinach, or apple and kale.

  Food combining is a personal choice. Personally I don’t follow it and never have, I feel it is more for cooked people and people who have digestion disorders. I couldn’t do with restricting myself especially when there are so many amazing and delish recipes to try. And I don’t think I would have lasted through the transition if I had been doing food combining.

  The main thing is to make your raw journey as enjoyable as possible, find recipes you LOVE and really want to eat. That is what will keep you going and make it work for you.

  I hope that helps, let us know how it goes…
• mamak

  Thanks so much Zoe!

  I’m going to see if I can investigate the frozen fruits a little more. In some cases (ie organic strawberries and blueberries) I’m finding that the frozen is cheaper than fresh. I’m not really comfortable with conventional berries since they have some of the highest pesticide load. And since I’m going to be sharing my smoothies with my little guy I am trying to be concious of the pesticide issue too. (As they effects kids the most.)

  I am trying to ballence some raw changes and our family budget too. :)

  I can’t wait to go shopping tomorrow and try some green smoothies! mmmm
• bitt Raw Newbie

  I have some of the same questions, being new to raw as well. I love berries and don’t want to give up frozen ones just yet. When they get in season, I am sure I will buy lots to freeze, but also eat lots too. :-) I don’t have an extra freezer either, and it’s pretty packed. Personally I would rather buy local berries that are frozen than “fresh” fruit shipped in from mexico. But that’s just me. And I realize by buying bananas I do sometimes get Mexican fruit as well. We all have to make trade-offs I suppose. I have heard that blanching does not kill many of the nutrients, but I may be wrong…
• pianissima Raw Newbie

  bitt—cooking doesn’t kill all the nutrients either if i am not mistaken. it’s not so much nutrient loss that raw foodists are concerned with as enzymes. many cooked veggies still have nutrients and vitamins left in them, depending on the degree of cooking, but having experimented with how i feel eating “lightly cooked” foods and all raw, i know which “vitamin-vehicle” i prefer. whatever goodness i’d get from the cooked food my body would have to cope with “cleaning up the mess”... i intuit that there are less trade offs with natural, whole, raw foods.

  of course, your body gets more sensitive to this sort of thing the more you’ve been eating this way… i ate a lot of frozen fruit my first few weeks too (mostly because i thought it was raw).
• debbietook Raw Master

  Hi Mamak

  I wrote an article on freezing and raw recently.

  It’s at:

  http://debbietookrawforlife.blogspot.com/2008/0…

  Hope it’s of help.

  Love, Debbie Took