SOUP – A POPULAR, BUT MOST OFTEN OVERLOOKED RAW FOOD DISH

Outside of blending a smoothie, or juicing with a juicer, making soup is one of the easiest meals to prepare. If you are a person looking to improve your health this is a sure method. Within minutes (usually less than 15!) you can create a highly nutritious, low calorie dish that can cool you in the hot summer months and warm you when the temperatures drop.

Soup is so versatile – it can be thin (as in a Consommé or stock) to thick, like a gumbo; consumed cold or warm – heated to a warm temperature or ‘heated’ with warming spices (such as chili, red pepper, etc). Keep your soup smooth or serve it ‘chunky’ style. Soup can be served as a snack, a course, or the entre’ itself. Dress up your soup dish with garnishes (e.g. croutons, bread, crackers, veggies, or greens) or not. Soup is a great ‘take out’ meal as well, just pour it into a cup or a thermos and you’re ‘good to go’.

If you’re looking for a way to drop the calories, lose excess weight, and gain bounds of energy while still consuming a nutritiously dense meal, SOUP is your answer. Soup is classified as a ‘liquid’ food or ‘blended’ meal and is typically made with a variety of veggies. Easy to digest, soups can easily supply you with nutrients you may be missing. By not heating soup over 118 degrees, all the nutrients and enzymes remain intact. You get more ‘bang for your buck’ with every nutritious sip of soup! Also because of its high water content, soups prevent dehydration which is not only aging but can cause low energy among other things (e.g. dizziness, feeling hungry, blood sugar disorders, cramping, etc)

Soup is a GREAT way to keep you from ‘over-eating’, something we are all guilty of. Consuming soup before a meal will give you a full feeling due to its high water and fiber content and nutritional concentration (assuming the soup is vegetarian/vegan). Starting your biggest meal of the day with a cup of soup is a ‘sure fire’ way of lowering your calories while boosting your immune system. It also ‘fires up’ the digestive enzymes in your mouth allowing for easier digestion of the food to follow.

On the raw food diet, preparing soup is extremely easy. There are several ways to make it. You can blend all the ingredients in a high powered blender at once, or you can blend the ‘stock’ until warm then pour over veggies in a bowl; or you can prepare the ‘stock’ (using warm to hot water is the fastest and easiest way) then ‘top’ with garnish or veggies. Adding sprouted beans, peas, lentils, and grains makes for a more condensed, thicker soup.

Even being a raw food consumer, warming soup is easy. If you warm your soup in a pan on the stove keep a careful eye on it to see the soup doesn’t heat over 118 degrees – a thermometer is a handy tool or you can check the temperature with your clean finger to see it is not getting too hot. You can also warm your bowl of soup in the dehydrator 1-2 hours at 135 degrees (the safest method), or in a high speed blender. Yes, the Vita-Mix blender and those other high speed blenders can ‘boil’ water if left on for a length of time. I personally find it faster and easier to warm the soup on the stove while maintaining a watchful eye on the temperature, use a double boiler if you’re not confident you can remove the pot when the soup starts to warm.

If heating a soup that has an avocado in it, bring the soup up to the temperature you desire and then blend in the avocado last. Remember to make preparing warm soup easier, bring your veggies to room temperature helps simplify preparation and warming time.

Warming spices and seasonings will give you a ‘warm’ feeling when the temperature outside drops. Hot peppers, Cayenne pepper, ginger, wasabi, horseradish, black and white pepper, coriander, and turmeric are all considered warm, energy enhancing spices and/or seasonings that make great additions to your soup dish.

So lets not forget the power of SOUP and just how easy and versatile this dish is! Experience just how energizing, healing and delicious soup is.

Bon A Petite
Beth Wilke, Raw Food Chef

I’m craving warm apples, apple cobbler, apple pie, caramel apples, apples….apples…..apples!

This morning I jumped out of bed, only to jump back in again when I realized just how chilly it was! Burrrrr! How quickly the temperatures start to drop in October! A glimpse out the window only added to my feeling of ‘being cold’ as a cluster of dark clouds dotted the grey sky. There was no getting around it though, I had to get up. I was going to conquer the world today, or at least, my part of the world.

If you’re like me, you wake and bless the Almighty for being alive and feeling alive with new energy pushing you out of bed. If you’ve been eating the raw food diet, you discover you don’t require as much sleep as you did when you were eating the standard American diet. With fewer toxins to clean from your system and with a more efficient system your body enjoys a higher level of energy and well-being!

I’m fully awake now, but still feeling the chill of the fall season and crave a warm breakfast! Most people think that when you eat raw that you can’t eat anything heated, they’re quite surprised to discover they’re wrong. A food is still considered ‘raw’ if it isn’t heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit; all the nutrients and enzymes remain intact. Eating heated foods is highly desirable when the temperatures drop!

I’m craving warm apples, apple cobbler, apple pie, caramel apples, apples….apples…..apples! Apples are in season now and everywhere I look their bright colors beckon and memories of childhood favorite apple dishes surface. Did you know that there are over 7500 varieties of cooking and dessert apples? They range from very tart (crab apple) to deliciously sweet! You can eat them out of hand, prepared in a raw dish or a heated one. If you’re like me, you want lots of options particularly when you’re transitioning to a high raw food diet. As a Recipe Club Member I share my favorite apple recipes with you – recipes I know will satisfy and delight you for both how tasty they are and with how easy they are to prepare.

Learn more about this wonderful healthy fruit on my website: www.sensationalrawfooddiet.com.

The sun is peaking through the clouds now, and I’m off to get breakfast. I wonder, “Why would anyone wish to eat a boxed cereal with milk when there are warm sweet apples beaconing?”

Have a terrific day!

Bon A Petite
Beth Wilke

OFTEN NEGLECTED MINERALS, AND HOW TO GET THEM

SEA VEGETABLES:   DULSE

Dulse is just one of the numerous edible sea vegetables that is easy to come by and is packed with very rich nutrients, phytochemicals, chlorophyll, fiber and minerals (e.g. sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, iodine and many other trace minerals).  Dulse, like all sea vegetation, is low in fat, and has a significant amount of omega-3 fatty acids.  Omega 3 fatty acids help lower cholesterol and raise HDL levels.

Other benefits of Dulse and other sea vegetables include their ability to help prevent aging and chronic disease, solve mineral deficiencies, help detoxify your body (from heavy metals, environmental pollutants and carcinogens), help control growth of viruses, bacteria and Candida, balance the thyroid function and fight constipation.

One third cup of Dulse provides up to 30% of RDA for iron, which is four times the amount in a serving of spinach.  It is packed with approximately 22% protein – higher than chickpeas, almonds or sesame seeds.  One handful of dried Dulse provides more than 100% of the recommended daily intake of B6, iron and fluoride and 66% of the recommended daily intake of B12.

Add to salads, pate’s, and roll-ups Dulse (as most other sea vegetables) are an easy, cost-effective, way to add those much needed, often missed minerals to your diet.

Dulse is available in whole stringy leaves or powdered (as a condiment).  Dulse, reddish brown seaweed, does not need to be soaked as some seaweeds do; it can be eaten directly from the package.    It has a rich taste, a slightly chewy texture and is a little salty which easily provides an excellent substitute for regular salt and satisfies the person craving salty foods. 

Sea vegetables do not need to be refrigerated and can easily be stored in your cupboard or desk at work.

Start to develop a taste for these nutrient dense, alkaline, whole foods and see and feel the difference in your body!  Your skin, hair, nails and internal organs will THRIVE!

Bon A Petite’

Beth Wilke, Raw Food Chef

What is the best way to get calcium in a raw diet?

I received this question on my blog that I thought would be of interest to everyone so rather than just answer the question for one person, I thought I would make it a post to the blog.

Question:

What is the best way to get calcium in a raw diet? I’m at risk of osteoporosis.

My answer…

CALCIUM:

Most people believe osteoporosis is caused by a lack of calcium and by increasing the intake of calcium (including direct supplementation) osteoporosis will be avoided.  This does little to reduce the incidence of osteoporosis or to counteract the effects of a predominantly acid forming diet and lifestyle. 

The actual cause of osteoporosis is typically due to excessive calcium loss from an overly acid bloodstream.  Animal proteins, tobacco inhalation, caffeine and drugs contribute to an acid bloodstream.  The body maintains a blood pH that is slightly alkaline and when the blood is too acidic, the body brings it back to a more alkaline state by leaching calcium (an alkaline mineral) from the bones and boron from muscle. Boron helps prevent calcium loss and is found in raw fruits and vegetables, milk has little, meat and eggs have none. 

Studies have shown a direct correlation between eating animal proteins (e.g. meat, eggs and dairy) and calcium loss.  Fruits and vegetables are alkaline foods which help maintain your blood at the correct pH.  Easy to assimilate calcium (and boron) is found in abundance in most leafy greens (e.g. romaine lettuce, spinach, dandelion greens etc), in seaweeds (e.g. Nori, Arame, Dulse) and in sesame seeds (1 oz. has 276 mg).   By eating large, green leafy salads with dressings made from Tahini (ground sesame seeds), you’ll get more than enough calcium (along with all the other elements your bones and muscles need) to satisfy the body’s need. 

Most raw fooders eat mostly fruit and vegetables and have no bone weakness.

Beth

RAW FOOD DIET – WHY ELIMINATE DAIRY

Dairy is one of the most mucus forming food we can consume – mucus is the body’s way to protect itself from unwanted toxins. 

Cow’s milk is meant to grow a 2.5 ton calf!  One of the elements in cow’s milk is casein, a major ingredient in one of the strongest wood glues on the market!  ………..and THIS is meant to make us ‘healthy’?!

The surface of the digestive tract that is designed to absorb the nutrients from the food we eat becomes covered with a mucoid plaque (film) that protects our blood from toxins that would make us severely sick if absorbed.  Our body tries to rid itself of these toxins through whatever outlet it can.  It uses the nose (allergies and sneezing), the lungs (asthma and other bronchial conditions), and the skin (rashes, outbreaks, soreness) as outlets for these toxins. 

Unfortunately this same film doesn’t allow us to absorb any nutrients.   Over the years the mucoid plaque gets thicker and harder and we become under-nourished.  Do you ever question why you feel more tired as you age, and why the need for more vitamin/mineral supplementation escalates?

By eliminating dairy, numerous health conditions (e.g. asthma, allergies, rashes etc.) clear up quickly and completely. 

If we stay on a raw food diet this plaque can dissolve completely and our assimilation of nutrients, minerals and amino acids increases substantially!

Some people do not want to eliminate dairy all together and for those people who fall in this category, exchanging cow’s dairy for raw goat dairy is a healthier choice as goat’s milk is easier to digest and doesn’t have the same make-up as cows dairy – the make-up that makes us toxic.  Unpasteurized, raw goat cheddar style cheese is an excellent exchange for normal cow’s milk cheddar cheese……and a HEALTHIER choice. 

Bon A Petite’

Beth

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