Raw Food & Weight Loss With Angela Stokes

YOUR top 10 Questions About Raw Food Answered

YOUR Questions Answered...
In this special free e-report, I am going to share with you my
responses to the TOP 10 Questions people tend to ask when
they’re starting to eat more raw food.
To me, eating raw is all about simplicity and getting back to a
more natural way of life. Simply put, no other animal in the
wild eats cooked or processed food and no other animal deals
with the kind of illnesses humans do. No wild animal seems
to count calories either, fret about nutritional analyses or
intellectualise food in any way, like humans often do...
Fortunately, we can take simple steps to get back to a more natural
life...and that is what I’m going to be sharing with you here…
First of all though, I’d love to give a quick summary of one very important
principle to consider on your journey:
It’s all about what you LEAVE OUT, not ADD IN…

The reason a 100% Raw Food Lifestyle is such a
GREAT way to live is because you leave out everything that is
damaging to the body and just keep in the stuff that helps nourish
us.
It is critically important to understand that:
What you leave out of your intake completely without
exception is the way to ultimate health.
What you don’t eat is actually more important than what you do eat.
When people think about eating more healthily, they often think in terms
of ADDING IN something – maybe more broccoli or a handful of goji berries, even a vitamin supplement maybe? In truth, you can eat Raw
Foods until you are blue in the face and you’re not going to fully heal
UNLESS you simultaneously LEAVE OUT the cause of the illness, which
means omitting certain damaging foods, COMPLETELY. It’s not so much
about what you add in – it’s what you leave out that really helps... ;)

If what we leave out of our intake completely without exception is the way
to ultimate health, then it makes sense to first eliminate the food groups
that are most damaging to the body. The two most damaging food
groups are the refined sugars and processed starches. THAT IS THE
SECRET! That is what all those other diets do. Their plans usually require
that you leave out the refined sugars and processed starches, without
exception. If you can do that one thing, you are on your way to ultimate
health; you can live a very healthy life. In my own experience, my health
could not truly move to the next level as I started to lose weight, until I
had COMPLETELY removed the processed starches and refined sugars
from my intake.
I also highly recommend staying away from cooked (red) meat and
pasteurised cows’ dairy products. Those can all seriously undermine our
health.

A raw food lifestyle can seem SO different to the way most of us are
accustomed to living, that we tend to have many questions at the start of
this journey... Here are some of those top Qs to muse over… I’ve focused
on the 10 most common areas I’m asked about as a raw lifestyle
coach…and I’ve kept the answers brief, as these are topics which are
covered many times over in raw literature…my hope is that by the end of
these, you either have a good idea what raw foods are all about, if you
didn’t already, or you pick up a few more choice tidbits to help give your
own answers… ;)

Number 1: Where do you get your Protein?
Ahhhh, but of course…the all-time favourite question for raw
foodists…this one just had to go at the top ;)
In our societies, we’re ‘brainwashed’ into the idea that we need large
quantities of protein, especially from meat and dairy produce. This is all
designed of course to support that industry. The suggested daily
amounts of ‘protein’ are far in excess of what humans actually
require for optimal health. Protein is no more or less important
than other nutrients. Take a look at any gorilla or ox for
confirmation. Those animals are huge power-houses of energy,
muscle and strength and what do THEY eat? Steak?
Hardly…they thrive on primarily simple, green plant
foods…whereas in our societies, humans often seem to
struggle just to survive. Most people never make that
connection and believe they ‘need protein’ in huge amounts. As David
Wolfe puts it:
“The truth is, no-one ever suffers from a protein deficiency - and certainly
no one ever dies from one. But people die of protein poisoning en masse
every day. Heart attacks, strokes, cancer, etc. are all the inevitable results
of overburdening the body with cooked animal proteins.”
The key point to understand, is that our bodies don’t use protein from
'heavy' protein sources, like cooked meat, efficiently. When meat is
cooked, the proteins ‘coagulate’ and become unrecognisable for the
body. These dense foods require breaking down into amino acids, before
they can be reconstructed into something we can use. That takes a lot of
energy. Our bodies build proteins from 20 amino acids, which are most abundantly available in GREENS. A raw vegan diet, rich in leafy green veg,
will therefore more than provide for your protein needs. Greens are the
key to vibrant health. If you're concerned, you can also supplement with
an ultra-rich protein source such as hemp protein powder.

What does a raw foodist actually eat?
The majority of raw foodists in the current movement seem to be raw
vegans. There are some, however who eat raw dairy, meat and so on.
There are many different ways to eat raw; the main point is removing
toxic, addictive, unnatural cooked and processed ‘foods’ from our intake.
Raw vegans tend to consume the following foods:
The ‘staples’: fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, dried fruits,
sprouts, herbs, spices, natural salt, seaweeds, oils,
flowers, fermented foods.
The ‘extras’: raw carob powder, sweeteners like yacon,
mesquite or lucuma, green powders and nutritionally
dense ‘superfoods’ such as goji berries, maca and cacao.

The only current exceptions for me
are bee pollen and honey. I tend to consider myself ‘raw vegan’, yet some
people seem to feel upset about that, so the term ‘raw bee-gan’ has been
suggested instead ;) I’m happy with that…as I’ve said since I first went
raw, I eat ‘like me’, not to fit any frame of reference. My primary focus is
my health, rather than ‘ethics’.

Five pieces of guidance about what to eat:
• Switch to a whole, natural, raw salt product, such as Himalayan
crystal salt, Celtic sea salt, your own dehydrated celery salt etc.
Standard ‘table salt’ is like poison - it is refined and stripped of
nutrients, whereas natural raw salts retain vital nutrients.

I wouldn’t rely on the
store workers for guidance. I suggest buying from people you
KNOW have raw goods and avoid products that seem hazy.

• Sweet foods are one of the easiest things to replace when going
raw. People often fear ‘giving up’ chocolate/cakes etc, yet there are
so many raw alternatives. I frequently wonder why anyone would
eat cooked/processed sweets when they could have delicious raw
treats, that are life-sustaining and nourishing…

• There’s been great excitement recently about cacao, or ‘raw
chocolate’. While it’s certainly delicious and also exciting that
going raw doesn’t have to equal putting down chocolate,

Cacao is extremely bitter and in the wild, apparently no other
animal eats it. It is used in traditional medicine as a bitter, in small
doses. Now, people take that strong bitter and combine it with
intense sweeteners, like agave syrup, making it more palatable, so
people eat much larger quantities of raw cacao than they’d
otherwise find palatable without sweetener. This stimulates the
body (hence the nickname ‘cracao’ ;). Cacao is noted to have highly
potent antioxidant properties, yet so too do many poisonous
mushrooms and we don’t eat those, just to get antioxidants… I
would recommend that if you eat cacao, you add some cardamom
into the blend, as it’s said to help balance out the effects of the
chocolate. (Another favourite ingredient of mine in raw chocolate is
the seaweed dulse – sounds odd perhaps, yet adds an amazing
richness and many minerals.) I see raw chocolate as ‘fun’ food, for
occasional enjoyment and a possible tool for easing peoples’
transition to a healthier, raw lifestyle.

Is it necessary to be vegan to be raw?
Most who go raw tend to become raw vegans, believing this is the
healthiest, natural eating pattern for humans. Indeed, for most,
transitioning to raw seems to follow this pattern: omnivore to vegetarian
to vegan to raw vegan. However, it is not necessary to be vegan to feel
the benefits of eating a high percentage raw.
The way I see it, the main issue for optimal health is getting
cooked/processed items out of the food chain.

It’s eye-opening to note that wild carnivores who are fed cooked meat
quickly develop diseases and die. There are also human societies who
have thrived on raw animal products, pickled vegetables and so
on for generations.

Some reasons why you might consider not eating
meat/fish/eggs include:
• Humans don’t really seem to have suitable teeth or
digestive tracts for flesh foods. We have more ‘grinding’
teeth than ‘ripping’; animal foods acidify our systems and our long
intestines leave remnants putrefying inside us.
• We rarely seem to have the ‘instinct’ to kill and eat prey. Young
children for example don’t tend to pounce on rabbits and bite into
them.

Some raw foodists enjoy having raw dairy products.That
being said, here are some points to consider about dairy:
• Humans are mammals. The definition of a mammal is that it weans:
it stops drinking milk from the mother at some point. Adult
humans don’t usually try to breastfeed from other humans. Does it
not then seem bizarre to cease feeding from the human mother
and begin drinking milk from a different species…??? No other
animals do this.
• Mainstream dairy products are part of the intensive, heavily
subsidised, mass-marketed factory-farm machine. The dairy and
veal industries are closely linked, with animals under huge stress
and medication.• People tend to use cows’ dairy products. Yet cow milk is designed
to raise calves into enormous bulls and heifers. Their structure is
very different to humans. Goats are much more similar to us.

Isn’t it boring eating raw?
People often imagine that being raw means it’s all carrot sticks from then
on. Yet you can make raw food as gourmet as you choose…it’s all about
your choices. Being raw can feel as exciting or ‘dull’ as you choose, like
everything in life. It’s all about perspective and outlook – if you CHOOSE
to see what you’re doing as positive and abundant, you’ll likely enjoy it
much more.
In the beginning, people usually want to replace complicated
cooked/processed foods with equally complex raw dishes – gourmet raw
pizzas and pies for example. This helps to avoid feelings of
‘deprivation’/boredom.

Be aware though too, that the longer one eats predominantly
or totally raw, the body moves ever-more towards simplicity and the more
complicated meals fall away…

My whole outlook has flipped since going raw -
the things in boxes and cans, which were once the only things I was
really interested in, no longer even look like food to me, whereas the
salads I used to mock as ‘ridiculous’ are now my much-loved staples – it’s
all just a matter of perspective ;)

Don’t you get cravings for cooked/processed
foods?
Cravings naturally wane, the longer you’re abstinent from processed
foods, as they’re cleansed from your system. Coming off
cooked/processed foods (in particular, refined sugars and processed
starches) is like coming off anything to which you’re addicted. The
kindest path you can choose, overall, is to put down these
‘foods’, immediately and totally. If you continue to eat them even
a little, your system remains hooked-in, asking for more. These
foods are highly addictive.
If you do go ‘cold turkey’ and come off these foods completely,
you’ll likely experience quite intense detox

Especially in the beginning, cravings may come strongly in certain
situations, around certain people or at certain times – evening-time for
example tends to be tricky for many. Help assist your own recovery by
being prepared – have a good supply of foods available that feel
nourishing to you. Realise that while you’re experiencing withdrawal from
toxic substances, cravings will come and go, whereas the actual reintroduction
of these addictive foods will simply keep you addicted.
Eating these foods again re-activates cravings and can possibly also be damaging physically, if you’ve moved into increased internal cleanliness,
from eating raw.
If/when you DO experience cravings, try any of the following top ten tips
to stay on track:
• Remember, cravings, like emotions, come and go – if you breathe
into it and let go, this too will pass.
• Use a trigger list and daily food plan,
• Remind yourself that what the mind wants isn’t necessarily beneficial for
the body. The physical body works always towards optimal health. The
mind however seems more interested in habits, patterns and experiences
and may insist that you ‘need’ a doughnut, for instance ;)
• Don’t keep your cravings secret – talk about them, share them with
someone you trust. There is nothing shameful about having
cravings.
• At least in the beginning, try to avoid people, places and things that
trigger your cravings. When in doubt about going somewhere or
meeting someone, don’t do it – protecting your recovery is priority.
there’s always a choice about the action you take in response to
cravings. Take responsibility for your choices; avoid creating
situations where you reason ‘there’s nothing else to eat, I’ll just
have to eat this sandwich’. If you’re committed to what you’re
doing, you’ll find a way for it to work – it’s just a matter of choice.
• Create a ‘tool-box’ of other things you enjoy, to use as distraction
from cravings. Go kite-flying or rock-pooling; call a friend, do some
journaling to release emotions…dance, sing

• Channel your energy and focus into something beyond the craving.
Being present for someone else tends to be highly effective for
getting ‘out of your own stuff’ and regaining perspective, when
eating that piece of cake/chips seems to be THE most important
thing. ;)
• If/when cravings come, keep your outlook positive. View your
transition to raw as a big gift to yourself. You’re getting a better
quality of life, a healthier body and possibly a longer life span. Do
you really want to abandon that, to eat a doughnut? Imagine how
you’ll feel a few hours later if you DO eat that doughnut. How will
you feel if you don’t eat it and choose something that feels
healthier instead?

• Consider also a few practical questions that may hold the answer to
your cravings. Are you actually thirsty, rather than wanting food?
(Most people are chronically dehydrated.)

I no longer get cravings for cooked/processed foods – they don’t even
LOOK like food to me – they look toxic. Why would I put something that
looks toxic to me, in my body? It was a journey to get to this point
though. I experienced some intense cravings/binging with cooked foods
at the start of my raw journey, mainly because I didn’t cut out refined
sugars and starches completely. I recall sitting with a friend who’d
stopped eating refined sugars and was helping me do the same. We were
at a café and the waiter served us complimentary foil-wrapped chocolates
with our tea. I felt immensely frustrated, as I really wanted to eat them
and so much of my attention was focused on them. I looked at my friend,
sitting calmly and asked her if she wasn’t frustrated too, to see the
chocolates and not eat them. She gently smiled and said ‘no, I look and
see they have pretty pictures on the wrapper…I don’t desire to eat them’.
At that point, her perspective seemed so far away from mine that I almost
couldn’t imagine feeling that way towards these blocks of processed
dairy/sugars/cocoa ;) These days, however, I don’t feel any effort in
avoiding my old trigger-foods, like doughnuts, for example, as they
simply don’t interest me anymore and are so far from the spectrum of
foods I now choose.

Why would someone choose a raw lifestyle?
There are numerous benefits that encourage people to eat raw. These
include: weight loss, increased energy, detox,
looking younger, eyes brighten, skin clears,
illnesses heal, prevention of degenerative diseases,
requiring less sleep, better focus, more longevity,
feeling happier, a simpler life, sharper spiritual
connection, more in tune with nature and so on.
Think about it – no other animal on this planet eats
cooked food (except the ones we feed that way)
and no other animal has diseases like us. People
rarely seem to make the connection however that
the foods they eat are hugely influential for their
health – there is a major disconnect. (Just take a
look at the food served in most hospitals if you
need any ‘proof’ of that… ;)
You really are a product of what you eat, drink and
think. So, that being considered, are you surviving,
or thriving? People can and frequently DO live on standard cooked/processed fare – yet your health and well-being can be
so much more vibrant if you eat raw. Most cooked/processed foods are
very toxic and deficient in terms of enzymes/nutrients. The body simply
cannot recognise these grossly denatured, addictive ‘foods’ and draws
little nutritional value from them.
Many people go raw to deal with major health crises such as
cancer/diabetes/heart disease. Humans seem to often let their health get
into a dire state before seeking healing. It’s been noted that humans
frequently seem to treat their cars with more reverence and care than
their own bodies.

The reason I love the raw lifestyle is that for me, it’s all about simplicity
and getting more in connection with nature. There’s SO much conflicting
dietary/nutritional info available – raw foodism, in contrast, is so
straightforward: just eat natural, raw, whole foods. Simple. There’s no
pharmaceutical company profiting from you eating raw – food truly
becomes your medicine and your body heals itself. The people making
money from your new habits are likely to be organic farmers – well,
GOOD ;) This is a sustainable way to reduce your impact.When you eat a high raw organic diet, you eventually end up
needing less food by volume, as the foods are so nutrient rich and your
assimilation is so vastly improved that you simply need less food to fuel your body efficiently. Naturally this means that going raw can become a
cost effective change.* Aside from the personal benefits, being raw is also the ultimate
sustainable, ecologically sound diet - less of EVERYTHING is required. Just
think about it - fewer pots, utensils, barbeques, pan scrubbers,
supermarkets, commercial drugs and remedies, less packaging,
transport, mind-twisting advertising, pollution, environmental damage -
the list goes on and on...

At the start, you might eat 70% raw and 30% standard junk food and still
see healing. As you move along on your raw journey though, the more
you leave the ‘junk’ out completely, the faster your detox progresses.
The first few months raw can feel like an incredible journey into the
unknown – there is so much ‘new-ness’ to explore. It might verge
between exhilarating to confusing and even outright painful, depending
on your detox.

There is usually a lot to adjust to and it may take a few years
before you feel fully relaxed and comfortable with your raw lifestyle.
Eating raw is very different to eating cooked/processed, complicated
meals – you might find, for example, that you don’t feel ‘full’ in the same
way anymore after eating. This is something to adjust to; raw foods are
so nourishing that you can fuel yourself on much smaller quantities than
you previously ate. This might sound great financially, yet from an
emotional/psychological viewpoint, it can be very challenging to adjust to
smaller meals.
You might find that in the beginning you also obtain
various appliances, like a dehydrator,

When people first go raw, they typically lose a lot of weight, as the body
clears old waste from every cell. It’s like wringing out a dirty sponge.
People often become very skinny-looking, as the toxins are being really
‘wrung out’ from their cells. Then they re-build to an appropriate weight
for their structure – like the sponge springing back to form after
squeezing. There may be much concern from others during this ‘skinny’
stage. It is advisable to get support at this time from others who
understand what you’re experiencing. Try also sharing info with your
loved ones about this typical pattern of detox weight loss, to calm their
fears.

When I started a healthier lifestyle, I had many ‘perfectionistic’ ideals
about being raw and felt totally overwhelmed by all the new info I felt I
‘needed’ to learn. (I have a large amount of ‘perfectionist’ Virgo in my
chart… ;) This often led to bitterness, frustration, self-pitying and anger.
Questions arose like: why wasn’t I brought up like this from the start?
Why do I have to learn everything now for myself? How am I going to
remember/have time daily

If you’d rather avoid such mind spaghetti, I
suggest going easy on yourself. Remove the expectations and pressure of
trying to change everything at once and ‘forever’ and just embrace your
new lifestyle gently, one day at a time.
* Going raw is like entering into massive detox, finally giving your body
the time and correct fuel it needs to thoroughly house-clean, clearing out
the old debris from every single cell. Weight loss is therefore more or less
inevitable for anyone switching to raw from a standard diet, even if they
are already slim, as the body always takes the opportunity to clear out all
the old toxins first, before levelling out at a healthy and natural weight.

Don’t you get cold in winter/cold places?
There are many things you can do in cold places/winter time to feel
warmer. You might drink hot or warm drinks, like herbal tea or water
with lemon juice. You might warm your soups.If you want to make a
cooked soup, you can still get the benefits of some raw vegetables by
adding them in just before serving. Warmed foods, straight
from the dehydrator are great during winter too. Use
naturally warming herbs and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg,
garlic, cloves, ginger, mustard, coriander, caraway, cumin,
fennel, cardamom and chives. Try to eat plenty of
‘heavier’/fatty foods in the wintertime, like nuts, seeds,
avocadoes and so on. Avoid eating foods cooled from a
fridge or freezer – try to eat at room temperature or above.
Aside from food, exercising is another key that people often
overlook for keeping warm in winter.Also be
sure to dress very warm in the winter if you feel sensitive to the cold and
are not yet willing to increase your resistance to it. Be sure to keep your
head and feet warm in particular, as these are two of the main areas from
which we lose heat. Activities that raise the body’s core temperature,
such as infra-red saunas or long hot baths can also be very useful in cold
places.
It’s often reported that the longer you are raw, the more your body is
able to deal with temperature extremes and regulate itself. Think about it
– deers survive the winter out in the woods, eating grass. We can adapt to
colder environments too. I‘ve experienced this myself, to my surprise.
During my first winter of being 100% raw, I was in the UK. It was a cold,
wet winter and I was living in an old, cold, damp house. I was also
working in the daytime in a raw household where no heating was used.It
seemed like a potentially miserable situation…and yet, I was fine: I
survived the winter, 100% raw. I could see how my tolerance to heat
extremes was shifting and that, along with using the tips outlined here,
got me through the winter. (Incidentally, I rarely enjoy being in cold
places these days and avoid it as much as possible. It seems to me that
humans started off round the middle of the planet, then spread ourselves
out everywhere. Just because we are able to live in far-flung, freezing
places, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s optimal for our health and
personally, I tend away from such places.)

Is it important to eat organic?
I feel it is important to choose organics whenever I can. Non-organic
produce is often heavily sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides
and many other chemicals, which are toxic and poisonous to our health.
Organic fruits and vegetables are protected by farmers, to ensure no toxic chemicals are used in the soil or on your food. Because such care is
taken with organics, they have a much higher nutrient and enzyme
content than the less expensive, non-organic produce. Not only is using
just organic produce MUCH better for your health, but using non-organic
is actually HARMFUL FOR YOU. That’s a point that few people seem to
realise. Ingesting all those chemicals means they become part of you,
corrupting your tissues. Aside from being harmful for the consumer, all
of those chemicals of course have a devastating effect on the
environment too. Soil becomes weakened and toxic, rivers get polluted,
farm workers develop diseases (especially cancer), animals get disturbed
by the chemicals, eco-systems are thrown out of balance and so on.
Massive scale ‘Agri-farming’ methods are extremely damaging and go
against the rhythms of nature. Organic farmers tend towards working
with nature, rather than indifferently.I recommend using only organics whenever possible, especially with
water-rich produce such as lettuce/celery/strawberries. These foods don’t
have skins to remove and have such high water content that any
chemicals present will be in the entire plant. If you do eat
non-organic foods, aim for those with thick skins, such as
avocado,

Many people feel they ‘can’t afford’ to eat organic. Thankfully in recent
years, the organic movement has grown tremendously and these days
you’ll find much more availability and lower prices than a decade or so
ago. Yes, the prices tend to still be a little more expensive than
conventional produce, yet consider what you’re getting for your money:
food that has a higher nutritional content, has been grown with more
love and care, will not fill your system with toxins and has (most likely)
not added as much to global pollution. By buying organic, you encourage
smaller organic farmers to keep on growing, rather than the agri-farmers.
You can also consider the slightly higher cost right now as an investment in your future – you’re less likely to be dealing with disease if you avoid
foods full of chemicals.

Are certain food combinations better avoided?
The simpler you keep things, the easier it is for digestion.The high enzyme content of raw/living foods helps digestion enormously,
meaning raw foodists can afford to make more ‘mistakes’ than cooked
food eaters. Particularly for those starting out raw, it can be much more a
case of ‘anything goes’. If you’re coming from a background of processed
junk foods, just the fact that you start eating mostly or all-raw means
your digestion and health will improve. There is more ‘margin for error’
in the beginning. As time goes on, your cells get cleaner and tighter and
your body lets you know it would prefer simpler combinations. Then you
can start refining things, as feels good to you. That’s really what it comes
down to – do you feel good after you eat a certain combination? Nobody
knows your body better than you. In moderation, most raw foodists find
they can eat ‘less-than-optimal’ raw combinations and feel alright
afterwards. Eat complicated recipes to excess however and you’ll unlikely
feel great. (Taking digestive enzymes at such times will help.)

If you’re transitioning to 100% raw, be aware that the more of a meal
that’s raw, the more you can afford to have combination clashes. This is
good news if you find eating salads challenging, for example. Making
salad dressing with whatever ingredients you like (raw or not), not only
makes the salad more attractive to you, but the enzyme-rich veggies also
help you digest the non-raw foods.

There are also reasons why someone may want to deliberately not eat
‘good’ combinations. For example,fruits and nuts don’t
really combine well. HOWEVER, for a diabetic, or someone dealing with
blood sugar irregularities, eating these two foods together slows sugar
absorption into the bloodstream. The heavy nuts interfere with the much
swifter digestion of fruits, so, a diabetic can use this to their advantage,
to be able to eat fruits, increasing the range of foods they can eat.
Other raw foodists may choose ‘less-than-optimal’ combinations like this
to actually hold themselves back from rapid cleansing/detox. A raw
lifestyle is highly cleansing and the more we eat simple combinations and
mono-meals, the more we press onwards into cleansing. The body always
works towards optimal health - every chance it gets to move more into
cleansing, it takes.After months or years of simple eating, it becomes
very uncomfortable to eat raw pie for example, as the digestion’s become
so unaccustomed to such mixtures. While some people love being in that
space of feeling so ‘clean’ inside, others don’t want to go there yet. They
want to still enjoy raw gourmet foods if they choose, so will eat more
complicated things sometimes – perhaps on ‘special occasions’ - to stop
their body from moving further into cleansing.
You don’t HAVE to do anything, or be ‘perfect’ with combining. Just do
the best you can, while enjoying yourself. A less-than-optimal
combination’s unlikely to leave you in hospital – this isn’t a critical matter
– it’s more about tweaks that can take your health to the next level,
whether you’re 40, 80 or 100% raw.

All excerpts taken from http://www.therawfoodworld.com/filedownld/RawReformFreeReport.pdf