Rawlicious

When I first heard of the raw food movement, the initial image that popped into my mind was one of a tree hugging, bark eating, hippy clique.

As a faux-veggie, my family already thinks I’m beyond repair, so when they heard I was going to a raw-food vegan course their stomachs curled in horror, “What? A diet with no meat, or diary, and nothing is cooked?”

Uh huh -I must admit, I was slightly nervous as I arrived.

I was greeted by a fresh faced, shiny long-haired and barefoot (allowing your feet to absorb the Earth’s minerals) Peter, who introduced me to his equally shining and exuberant wife and partner Beryn.

Not a diet
A raw food diet, is not a diet, it is a choice to eat all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that are provided for us by mother nature and not add to them the ‘poisons’ of man made products, with their unnecessary additions into our diet.

I found I wasn’t the only person in the room that was sceptical. There were a lot of husbands dragged along by their wives. There were mothers trying to find new ways to give their children healthy meals, and there was even one woman who just came because she was curious.

Peter shared with us a quote from the Jungle Book that encapsulated the mindset of their course, “if you go along and live without it, just go along not thinking about it, I’ll tell you something new, the bare necessities of life will come to you.”

So why raw food?

“Hunger is the bodies search for minerals” – we eat a meal of burger and chips, yet still feel hungry, why? We haven’t given our body the minerals and nutrients it needs, so we eat more and the cycle continues.

We are so spoiled by choice everyday – our bodies and minds are seduced by adverts and shop advocating and selling products that we don’t really need, we have just been conditioned into eating unhealthy food because of the pleasure we think it gives us.

It introduces us to a change in lifestyle and acceptance of a different world view or paradigm.

You learn about the choices you make about what you put into your body and the results of those choices.

Happy to be healthy!

While Peter talks Beryn prepares the meals:

Beryn demonstrated a number of delicious, colourful and vibrant recipes, that are as much fun making as eating. Half the fun is in the preparation; you feel like a kid in a toy shop with the liquidizer, spiralizer, juicer and dehydrators.(Visit my blog for more pictures.)

We were delighted with so many incredible meals such as the Superfood smoothie, gourmet pizza, sweet potato pasta with coriander pesto, sushi handrolls made with turnip rice, chickpea salad and let us not forget the desserts – mango and gooseberry cheesecake and dark chocolate mousse. Yum!

I left the course feeling healthy, full and vibrant, and I feel that the lessons I learned and the food I tasted will become an element of my life’s menu, though I still think that cheese and wine will be to.

Would you consider going raw?

For more information on the Superfood course visit their website or why not try your hand at a couple of the recipes with Peter and Beryn’s book Rawlicious.