Five tips for managing your raw food diet from day to day

Here goes:

1) Don’t think of it as a ‘diet’, more as a way of eating with unlimited potential for interesting tastes and textures….and wellbeing. Diets tend to be things that people tend to do strictly for a while and then give up. It doesn’t have to be that way because there are so many raw choices and you don’t have to worry about counting calories.

2) Have good raw ingredients to hand. I make plenty of suggestions in Good Raw Food Recipes, but for a start, with a jar of raw nut butter or tahini in the fridge, organic lemons and vegetables and some tamari soya sauce you have the makings of a salad with a delicious dressing. With a wider range of spices, oils, seaweeds, nuts, seeds and the like you can rustle up interesting new meals day after day.

3) Make more than enough. Sprouted buckwheat tabouleh? Thai coleslaw? Have some the next day with whatever else you make fresh. Raw food dishes keep well, without as many health risks from sitting in the fridge.

4) Collect up left overs (for example, any or all of these: tabouleh, coleslaw, savoury sauces, green veggie juice and grated carrot salad) and turn them into soups with interesting textures. One simple way to do this is to make some miso soup with warm water and unpasteurised miso and then to stir in some leftovers and sprouts such as mung bean and alfalfa. If you wish you can warm your soup gently by stirring it in a saucepan with a clean finger until it is comfortably warm. Unless you let it get burning hot it won’t damage the enzymes.

5) Start or keep up with regular green vegetable juices and shots of fresh wheatgrass. These contribute so much to wellness and the better you feel the easier it is to be enthusiastic about making delicious raw meals day after day.

With an understanding of the basics and a few good recipes in your apron pocket you have what you need for this wonderful way of eating.