Blog

As the weather is getting colder some of you who are still new to raw foods may be wondering how stay warm and raw in winter.

What do you do on these cold days when snuggling under a blanket with a hot drink or bowl of hot soup sounds too tempting. Salads and smoothies are definitely not our first choice when trying to keep warm.  Do we abandon our raw food diets whatever level we are at in favour of warm soups, casseroles, pizza, lasagna and hot porridge?

Well I have a few other ideas. I would like to inspire you with living raw foods this winter and challenge you to stay mostly raw with some helpful hints and tips that will make it easier to eat living raw foods in winter. A common misconception that most people have is that raw foods are cold foods. In winter we can still create warming foods in a different sense by using ingredients that warm the body from both a thermal and energetic perspective. Confused??

Well let me explain. When we think about warm or hot, we usually associate it with temperature.  In Chinese medicine the bodies metabolic temperature is affected through the foods we eat. Metabolic temperature is different from body temperature which is measured using a thermometer. Metabolic temperature is the heat energy generated through all your organ systems from the food that you eat and that your digestive system burns. Still confused??

Let me put it into perspective. Ginger and cayenne are both energetically warm. They have the ability to push the deep energy and blood up and out to the surface of the body, thus raising the metabolic temperature, even if served as part of a cold salad for instance, the effect is still the same.

So if you are wanting to stay on a mostly raw or exclusively living raw food diet this winter, but are not looking forward to cold salads, read on for a variety of practical tips for making body-warming raw food dishes. The good thing to know is that heating anything above 44˚C will destroy the enzymes, vitamins and denature the proteins resulting in food that is less nutritionally beneficial. Fortunately we can enjoy warm foods and still maintain the life giving properties of the foods at the same time. Living foods can be comfortably heated to 44˚C and still maintain their nutritional integrity. Once heated to this point the food should be eaten straight away as it cools down much quicker than cooked foods.

These are some of the many ways to enjoy living foods in winter:
Creamy soups and smoothies can be heated by using warm liquids or simply running the blender for longer. This may take a couple of minutes. Monitor the temperature as you go to ensure that the food doesn’t get overheated. Alternately soups can be heated over a bain marie or in the dehydrator or even in a saucepan on the stove, as long as the temperature is monitored. There are fancy cooking thermometers these days with extension probes
that can be used to monitor the temperature. Once you get a sense of what 44˚C feels like the first few times you will then be able to just use your intuition.

Wash your refrigerated produce in warm water or place them in a warm water bath for a few minutes to take the cold edge off them.

Use a dehydrator to warm dishes like casseroles, pizza, lasagna. The wonderful thing about the Excalibur dehydrator is that the shelves are large enough to fit a casserole or baking dish. You will be surprised to see that the dishes can even come out looking virtually cooked.

When heating foods in the dehydrator, the temperature can be set to 60˚C for up to two hours initially without overheating. If you don’t have a dehydrator you can simply warm your food in your oven at it’s lowest setting with the door slightly ajar. This technique works quite well too.

Dehydrated crackers and breads can be very warming and comforting on cold days. Make a variety and always keep them on hand, preparation is the key to the success of a raw food diet.

Herbs and spices can be used to create internal fire. Nothing gets the digestive fire going like a sprinkle of ginger or cayenne pepper! If physically warming your foods is not an option then the liberal use of warming spices can create internal warmth. The warming herbs and spices are: Chili peppers, cinnamon, clove, dill, fennel, garlic, onion, parsley, rosemary and wasabi.

The Chinese medicine approach to classifying foods as warming can be used to create raw winter meals that are soothing and nourishing.

Most root vegetables are classified as warming as they take longer to grow. Corn and most nuts and seeds are also warming. Grains tend to be a warming food as well.

Grains can be sprouted and made into hearty crackers, breads, casseroles, cereals etc.. Be careful to choose the grains which are most alkaline forming - buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth are the most alkaline and nutritious of all grains.

Warming vegetables as classified in Chinese medicine are cabbage, cauliflower, watercress and mustard greens.

Warm beverages are very soothing and satisfying in the cold weather. Warm apple cider can be made by juicing apples and spicing with cinnamon, cloves and ginger and warming using any of the techniques described above.

Hot cacao also makes an amazing supercharged beverage. Made with nut milk, cacao powder, sweetener of choice and even a spice such as cayenne would make an amazing Mexican spiced hot chocolate drink.

Also worth a try is Loving Earth’s  Raw Chocolate Coconut Butter blended with warm water for a truly satisfying hot chocolate in seconds.

Warming up to Living Raw foods should now be a breeze!