Most parents would worry that if they keep their children from eating those fatty foods that they love, and only offer vegetables, that the children will starve, or have nutritional deficiencies.  These parents feel that the kids will just not eat the food.  If you think about it this way, how much nutrients are they receiving from the fatty, processed foods now?  If their diet consists of French fries, mashed potatoes, apple sauce, chocolate pudding, and maybe chicken fingers, how could it be worse if you only offer fruits and vegetables?  Sure, maybe they will demand to have the foods they like, and not eat.  They will eventually get hungry and if you keep offering fruits and vegetables and do not give in, you will see that they will begin to enjoy it, especially if they see everyone else in the family eating healthier.

Incorporate bean soups, such as yummy lentil soup and if that doesn’t work make your lentil soup into a “lentil burger”.  You may have to gradually change their eating styles.  Try making fresh bean and/or vegetable soups with some cheese sprinkled on it.  Make sure it is tasty, and not too spicy.  Make homemade pancakes with wheat and only sweeten it with pure raw honey.  Make fruit shakes and throw in a carrot or romaine lettuce. Make tasty salads with homemade dressings….and also make faces out of the tomatoes and cucumbers and carrots.  Make tasty salmon and have them try it. 

There are so many possibilities and recipes that you can try.  Do not give up on your child because they have shown a dislike for a vegetable or fruit.  Just eat it around them and watch them ask you for a piece.  Keep offering it to them at dinnertime and ask them to eat a couple of bites. 

If children eat plenty of fruits and green leafy vegetables, they are also getting their calcium requirements.  But you could also include some almond milk or rice milk if you want.

The focus is to keep introducing them to new foods so that they develop a taste for natural foods that we as humans were meant to eat.

Eating raw fruits and vegetables isn’t the new fad diet, or the new South Beach Diet.  Believe it or not, humans have been eating this way long before they were eating processed junky foods.  We didn’t have access to most types of foods.  We were scavengers, picking fruits and eating vegetables were a delicacy.  Nuts were also eaten for protein.  It was either that or starve.  Humans ate these fruits as is, no additives, no cooking.  One and a half million years ago we learned how to cook.  So for a half million years we ate the food raw, as it was intended.  We are the only animals on the planet that cook their food.  Eating meat doubled the caloric intake of man, which made it easier to hunt and have enough energy to do what needs to be done. 

Today, we have access to every type of food we want at our fingertips.  We can order Oolong tea (which must be handpicked on cliffs in china) from the internet.  You would think that since we have come this far, we would be super human, so healthy we would be living 500 years.  No so unfortunately.  In fact, in some ways we actually have worse health now.  Some of us are developing cancers at an early age.  Some of us are dying of heart disease or obesity.  We are not eating correctly.  We are stuffing our face with hydrogenated oils, fake products, high sodium and sugary foods.  It is simply disgusting.  We are gaining weight at an alarming rate and looking horribly.  It shows in the skin, sags of fat, sluggish attitude, depressed look, lack of sexual drive, etc.  I wonder how long we would live if we adapted the diet of the Japanese. 

What people need to realize is that eating fat free or sugar free foods isn’t going to help.  It isn’t going to help if you stuff your face with snack wells instead of Oreo’s.  What will help is to completely change what you eat.  Remember, you are what you eat, so eat the right things and it will show in your body, mind and spirit.

When we change over to eating raw foods it can be quite expensive. The ultimate is to grow your own garden. If you have a back yard you can grow a pretty decent sized one. Otherwise, get a few planters and grow a couple of tomato plants along the patio wall, and put a couple of eggplants inside the porch door with one large circular planter. Make each vegetable plant its own design with surrounding works of art. I put a little garden here of one type of veggies and then another one on the south side of the yard. The sky is the limit what you can do.

If you can find someone who has an organic garden, offer to help them in exchange for food items. Most people need help, and the larger the garden the more help they will need. You could weed, take care of the greenhouse, monitor customers who need assistance, and prepare plants for reselling.  Very few people refuse good honest labor; I know I wouldn’t! Working in a garden all spring, summer and fall is exhausting work; someone to help us would be a blessing.

If you can find sales on organic or fresh vegetables toward the end of the summer seasons, buy them at bulk and either freeze or can your favorite dishes.  If you have a large deep freeze you can freeze quite a bit of items. Otherwise, get a dehydrator and dry your food items. These do not need special storage and can be added to soups and stews, casseroles, or just eat by the hands full in the middle of winter as it is snowing outside.

Look around and see what you have in your neighborhood or local city area. There are many, many opportunities that are waiting for your attention and skill, but they won’t come knocking on your door!

Good luck with your new raw food ways!

Christmas is a time when we think of family get-togethers and abundance. It is memory lane for most of us, enjoying friends, memorable times and good comfort, traditional foods. But the weeks after the holidays are usually weight gains, health problems from too many sweets and food. 

Today white sugar, white flour, dairy products, trans and saturated fats, refined cars and excess calories are on the “no-no” list … and with the holiday times it feels as if the cakes, cookies and candies will become obsolete. And we begin to feel deprived and panic stricken. After all, it is a long-time tradition.

One answer is to make some raw food desserts and take them to get-togethers and family meals. Use nuts, dried fruits, and avocadoes instead of white flour and white sugar. They have a lot of flavor, looks and are good for you. Oh yes … and they are easy to put together.  Jenny Cornbleet has a book out called “Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People”. In it there are desserts – cakes, cookies, fruit crisps, pies, tarts, puddings, mousses, shakes, and ice cream recipes all raw – for holidays and all meals.  Guess what?  They taste better than their sugar laden counterparts.

One recipe is for a “Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce” which calls for 1 ½ cups raw walnuts, dash of salt, 8 pitted medjool dates, ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa or carob powder, ½ tsp vanilla extract, and 2 tsp water.  For the raspberry sauce you use 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries (thaw and drain if frozen) with ¼ cup pitted medjooy dates, soaked for 30 minutes and drained.  Place the walnuts and salt in a food processor with the S blade and process until finely ground. Add dates, cocoa powder, and vanilla … process until mixture becomes sticky. Add water and process briefly.  Transfer to a serving plate and form a 5 inch round cake. Place the raspberries and dates in a blender and mix until smooth, pouring over the cake just before serving.

You do not have to give up all your comfort foods, just find a healthier recipe for it.  You will find the dessert to be much tastier.  But should you choose to nibble on a few old foods, do so in moderation, do not go overboard, and remember to wait and let your stomach digest properly before the next meal.

With today’s massive cultures in our country, it is almost impossible not to see several ethnic restaurants in today’s towns.  Block after block of one ethnic food group after another are choices we have the luxury of today with so many ethnic groups within our country. No matter where we go in our country, we have choices of restaurants, cafes and coffee shops to choose from with most of them ethnic.  The immigration policy lately has been eruptive, but we are a wonderful example of being the melting pot of the world. We see this in the small “cities” within the big cities throughout the suburbs of where we live.

Food areas are clearly defined; many of them in the inner suburbs, and many are clearly ethnic, drawing from different cultures. Tables and chairs sit outside in patios as compared to the old world of being inside; we have outdoor food areas that are similar to those in other countries.

When an ethnic restaurant is found, try to avoid fried, high sodium/sugar foods and processed foods because of the high grease content that is high in animal fat, and preservatives.  If you must eat flesh, stay with broiled or baked fish.  Steamed or baked vegetables, along with tossed salads, are the chosen side items that are considered safe in most ethnic restaurants today.   Bring your own dessert (raw chocolate treat), or wait until you get home.

Many large cities have combined sight-seeing tours with walking tours en masse that visit these ethnic food courts. People and tourists visit areas that allow them to enjoy different foods and surroundings. Normally, these tourists or visitors would never venture into some of these areas to eat different food types. But the walking tours have opened up avenues of experimentation and adventures of new countries within the old.

Buying food items in cans lack in nutrition and are usually loaded with salt and preservatives in today’s food markets. The process of freshness goes from fresh fruits and vegetables, to frozen foods, and down to canned foods. Last on the list, these canned items are slowly becoming a thing of the past.

When the canned foods go through the cooking process, this heating process destroys about one-third to one-half of the vitamins A and C, riboflavin and thiamin. And then the sit on the shelves as they are stored, losing an additional 5% to 20% . But the remaining vitamins only decrease their values slightly.

A lot of produce when picked for harvest will begin to lose some of its nutrients. If it is handled properly and canned quickly, it can be more than or as nutritious as fresh fruit or vegetable.  This fresh produce will lose half or more of its vitamins with the first two weeks: but if not kept chilled or preserved, the fresh vegetable or fruit will lose nearly half of its vitamins within the first few days.  The average consumer is advised to eat a variety of food types each day as compared to only one type of food.

The thing to remember is everything depends on the time between the harvesting and the canning and freeing process. Generally, the vegetables are picked immediately and taken to canning or freezing divisions when their nutrient contact is at its peak. How the food is canned affects the nutrient value also. Vegetables boiled for longer than necessary and in large amounts of water lose much of their nutritional value as compared to those only lightly steamed.

When we pick fresh vegetables or fruit at the farm, they are always more nutritious than canned or frozen – this is a fact. If you cannot buy fresh, at least buy frozen.

Alternative seasonings are becoming very familiar in the kitchens in today’s world.  Rows after rows of organic or alternative spices now line the cupboards in our kitchens as compared to the few we grew up with. We had salt and pepper, and maybe some garlic or onion salt. Slowly this changed to garlic powers or onion powders. We learned that the corn cooking oil we used was bad for us, and moved to olive oil and canola oil. We learned to educate ourselves on a daily basis.

Organic kelp granules are a wonderful salt alternative with low sodium and have iodine in it.  Low temperature dried and untoasted kelp granules spice up the kitchen dishes in a healthy way with a unique flavor. I like to boil spinach pasta and add it as a flavoring.  There is only 45 mg of sodium per ½ tsp that is very good for me also. The main ingredient is organic raw kelp.

Butters are becoming a thing of the past we have all grown up with. High fat content, it possibly contains residues of pesticides along with environmental toxics which both tend to concentrate in the fat.  When we walk down the dairy counters at the grocery store, we have many choices available to us. At one time it was a choice between butter and margarine; now neither is totally good for us. Peanut butter is now made from whole peanuts, as compared to the original peanut butter made from sugar and salt.  This healthy peanut butter avoids hydrogenated fats, which will add years to our life and our heart can maintain its low blood pressures along with normal pulses.

Red wine vinegarette dressings on salads and honey as sugar are just a few of the changes in the alternatives we have today for our kitchens.  The old fashioned meals we ate at our grandmother’s table are gone – what is available are meals with health in mind.  Even pancakes made out of wheat  is covered with pure maple syrup instead of the sweetened corn Karo syrup we grew up with.

Probably one of the best desserts you can eat yet is tremendously good for you is Sorbet. It is a frozen dessert made from iced fruit puree and any other ingredient you would like to add for a light dessert.  It is sort of a gelato that has no milk in it so is very good for lactose free individuals or milk allergies.  Some sorbets contain alcohol that lowers the freezing temperature and makes it slightly softer.  It is very dense and flavorful, matching ice cream for quality and taste.  The Villa Dolce, makers of Italian gelato, are one of the best producers of sorbet on the web.

Sorbet has a history behind it that says the Roman Emperor, Nero, invented it during the first century AD.  The story said Nero had runners along the Appian way, passing buckets of snow to the mountains to his banquet hall, where it was mixed with honey and wine.  Other countries also laid claim to the original invention, but the mixture of snow, juice and fruit pulp is delicious.  The French served it traditionally between the starter course and the main course, and is served as a non-fat and vegan alternative to ice cream.

Sorbet is made from water, and fruit puree.  It is an excellent source of Calcium and Vitamin C, and is naturally fat free and low in calories.  They make excellent fruit smoothies and are good for you in health aspects. They would be similar to fruit whips where you put ice, fruit, and some light flavoring in a blender to whip a light and airy, non dairy drink.  Very tasty, natural, and healthy.

Most milk is mucous forming.  When a cold develops or pneumonia sets in, the last thing offered should be a milk product due to the mucous in it. Soy is still milk, even though it is called a “vegetable milk.” Children under two years of age are being advised not to drink cow’s milk due to the high protein in it. Yet soy milk is high protein also, and is seriously being promoted for children today, especially those who have had milk allergies.  The soy milk is curdled and hung in a cheese cloth, this forms a sold curd which is called tofu or soy cheese.  Processed soy products is the most mucous forming food on the planet!

It has been proven in Japan that soy has goitrogens in it, which depresses thyroid function. It also is high in phytic acid and is 99% genetically modified, plus having one of the highest percentages contaminate of pesticides there is.  Scientists are beginning to agree that grain and legume based diets high in phytates are helping spread mineral deficiencies in 3^rd world countries. 

Soy has come to us from the Orient where it is called “the meat without a bone.”  Tofu is a very natural protein based product from soy that replaces meat in the Orient. Traditionally, it was eaten by the Japanese as part of a mineral-rich fish broth.  Recent studies show vegetarians who eat tofu and bean curd as meat substitutes for dairy products and meat, are at risk for mineral deficiencies. Supplements need to be added to compensate for this deficiency.  Vegetarians who consume tofu and bean curd as a substitute for meat and dairy products risk severe mineral deficiencies.

The Chinese did not eat soybean as other legumes and lentils. They felt that the soybean contained large amounts of harmful substances.  Many reasons are cited for it, but soy products continue to grow in the United States at an alarming rate. Chocolate soy milk and vanilla soy milk are just a few products that we find in our grocery stores today.

Many people are firm believers that cow’s milk is the “perfect food” and you will never be able to change their minds. But parents need to educate themselves about milk allergies and lactose intolerances with their children in mind to be forewarned. One main reason why cow’s milk isn’t that great for you is that it was made for cows, not humans.  Secondly, if you are not consuming magnesium along with cow milk, you are not benefiting from the calcium.  Thirdly, if you consume something with iron in it, your body also cannot uptake calcium at all.  So, red meat and a glass of milk, is not a great idea.

The reaction of the immune system to milk proteins and milk products is a milk allergy.  These are signs and symptoms that will appear while the child is an infant.  This affects the digestive system along with skin and airways.  Milk allergies can be life threatening to infants if not recognized and something done about it.  Infants who develop milk allergies are usually put on soy milk by the family doctor.

Lactose intolerance shows up a couple of years later and is caused by the body not being able to break down the milk sugar lactose.  This affects the digestion only, and causes symptoms such as bloating, gas and loose bowels. This occurs only after drinking milk or eating dairy products.  This is not a serious intolerance and many people can still drink milk or dairy products in small amounts and not really feel any symptoms.

If a child or adult is found to be milk-allergic, it is best to know that not all “milk-free” labels are misleading, and they still can have milk protein in it.  Some of the soy cheeses that are labeled as milk free can still have some milk in it, so read the labels very carefully.

Many nondairy foods can be substituted for milk or milk products. Be aware, however, that just because a food is labeled “nondairy,” it does not necessarily mean that it is milk free. Even a “milk-free” label can be misleading. For example, some soy cheeses claim to be milk free but may still contain milk protein. That’s why it’s always important to read all food labels when you have a milk-allergic child.