How to Transition to a Mostly Raw Food Diet

1. Start with breakfast. Have a smoothie. An example recipe is ½ cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, 1 cup water, ½ bunch kale and/or 3 T hemp seed protein powder, 1 T coconut oil. If you care for some melon, eat it 20 to 30 minutes before anything else as it doesn’t combine with other foods. Pack an apple for a snack. You are now eating about 25% raw.
2. When you are ready, pack a salad of organic vegetables for lunch with some homemade dressing of raw apple cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and a bit of raw agave or unheated honey. (There are plenty of raw dressing recipes; this happens to be one of the easiest.) Add some raw nuts or seeds that have been soaked overnight to get rid of the enzyme inhibitors. (Be sure to rinse them.) Also make your own sprouts to add to the salads. You are now eating about 60% raw.
3. For a snack have the apple and some raw trail mix: organic goji berries with raw nuts and seeds, any sundried fruit, and shredded coconut. Be creative. Now you are eating about 70% raw.
4. When you are ready, switch dinner to raw. There are many free recipes on the internet. Simple ones include raw soups, kelp noodles to make pad thai, and Chinese stir “fry” with various raw sauces. Dinner is when most people are tempted to eat cooked food. If you are, have some lightly steamed vegetables sprinkled with walnuts ground up in your coffee grinder or Vitamix.

You won’t feel deprived. When you eat 80-100% of your calories in raw foods, you will feel so much more alive! When we eat a cooked food diet, we use about 85% of our energy digesting the food.

Susan Schenck, LAc, MTOM, is raw food coach, lecturer, and author of The Live Food Factor, The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet. Go to

www.livefoodfactor.com to check out more free articles.