Advice on Meatless diets! w00t!

[Rachel]

Hello dear Nerdfighters,

Recently, my bio class received a challenge to go "raw" for a week, that is, go without cooked or processed foods and drinks. (correct me if i'm wrong). I thought this was a very intriguing and worthwhile idea, and I plan to give it a go very soon. It made me think of what a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle would be like, so I'm thinking i will try one of those for a period of time as well.

My purpose with this thread is to get some ideas as to how to go about it. I'm not really sure what counts for what, so any tips on what works would be nice. For those Nerdfighters familiar with vegan/vegetarian lifestyles, please tell me what are your favorite things and what enovironmentally friendly foods/drinks i should be sure to try that differ from a diet of everything (and holy heck i mean everything).

Also, (& i do realize this is getting long) any kinds/brands of food that anyone has found to be particularly made of awesome and fits into the raw/veg./vege. diet, please share. i really want to do this the right way. thanks for being awesome, DFTBA

[Rachel]

*echo......echo*

[sabelmouse]

you don't just want to go vegetarian or vegan but raw?
i did this a long time ago. i went through different stages from eating only raw vegetables,fruit, fresh and dried and nuts to an elaborate setup with fresh sprouts and raw cereals ground and soacked and eaten as a sort of muesli.
i am actually thinking of going back to this as a sort of cleansing diet.
here are two books i want to recomend, though they are not about raw food they are about protein.
most non animal foods don,t have complete protein, they have 1 or 2 aminoacids missing. it's important to know how to combine grains, seeds and beans to get complete protein.
diet for a small pl;anet by francis moore lappe
recipes for a small planet by ellen buchman ewald
there is probably lots online by now, when i started we just had books.
tofu is great stuff. it actually has complete protein and you can even make desserts with it.

[Rachel]

awesome! i'll definitely check it out.

[Marilyn]

fruit and veggies! Try peppers, they are amazing raw! or asparagus! But, be sure to get protein, so nuts or beans.

[Mara]

Wow! From omnivore to raw-vegan in one go- very impressive my dear, and very worthwhile.

Your basic raw-veg diet is composed entirely of fresh fruits and vegetables that have not been cooked-although some people "cheat" and "indulge" in wild or brown rice that's been cooked. Basically, you'll be eating a lot of salads (without dressing) and smoothies (without dairy). Remember, that means no honey or white sugar as well.

Here is a good website for reference:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/12/raw-foods/

Just for the record, in my (decidedly biased) opinion, being a raw vegan for very long isn't terribly healthy, and not much better for the environment than being just a plain old bread loving milk drinking vegetarian like me. If you can pull it off, kudos, but you get most of the benefits of veganism by simply giving up meat- and you can still eat cheese! (I was vegan for the better part of a year, and it was the cheese that made me crack.)

Best of luck to you!

[Rachel]

haha thanks! cheese would be a weakness for me too...it will be interesting to see how well this goes. Because of the bio challenge, i'll only be doing the raw thing for a relatively short period of time (and i really really don't want to cheat), but i am hoping that i can pick up some healthier habits from going vegan/vegetarian for a while...it's something i've been interested in for quite some time. thanks for the help, and for the luck. i'm sure i'll need it ^^

[Emma Kate]

A raw diet? I'd get bored of that 3 days after I started. Although I don't know any recipes off the top of my head visit Videojug.com they have loads of how tos and some great ideas.

The only other thing I can suggest is to buy a juicer and make fresh juices every morning.

[Rachel]

hmmm....a juicer....that's a really terrific idea! :D

[Katie]

Wait, wouldn't juicing it be processing it?

Not trying to be nitpicky, just trying to help.

[sabelmouse]

don't get a juicer, get a blender. a good, strong one so you can put anything in there, even carrots and beetroot.
those go very well with fruit.
with a juicer you lose a lot, the fibre, all sorts of vitamins. with a blender or smoothiemaker you get everything.
inhave smoothies everyday now, experimenting with all sorts of fruit and veg.
you can add yoghurt or soymilk or groung nuts and almonds.
it's fun.

[Rachel]

I think a juicer would be acceptable, beacuse it just extracts the juice. It may seem more acceptable if you imagine juicing an orange by hand...to me that doesn't seem processed, but i'm not an expert.

A blender is a great idea, especially because (as sabelmouse mentioned) it does not rid the results of beneficial nutrients. i'm curious as to how the texture works out though...depending on what ingredients you use, does it become stringy? or pulpy? i wouldn't think so, since you seem to enjoy them...but i'm asking because i've never tried it...and a blender is a somewhat large investment for me ;)

...and beetroot?! sounds intriguing....

[sabelmouse]

it can be a little pulpy. i am used to it now. you have to experiment with the amount of liquid added, to much makes it harder to mush, to little nothing works.

i really enjoy finding out new combinations.

i was very lucky with this blender. it was 35 euros on sale, it has a stong motor and heavy blades and a glass jug. much better than plastic. a lot of smoothy makers are more expensive and not as good.

great investment. i use it everyday for my liver detox diet and naomi loves them too.

great if you are not a breakfast person but need something healthy to keep up the blood sugar.