Some musings on how to do this successfully, from someone who hasn't been doing it long enough to be blase about it yet!
I'm interested in going raw, but isn't it expensive?
NO! I spend literally half as much as I used to spend on food. Far and away the most expensive thing I buy is raw nuts, but I eat so little of those that a small bag goes a long way. Nuts are super delish and good for you, but if you're doing an 80/10/10 you can eat about 20 a day tops or else you're going to really mess up your stats.
TIP: walk around your neighbourhood, head for the main strip. If you live in a major urban city (I live in Toronto) you'll have a local greengrocer. I've lived all over Toronto and never been more than a 10 minute walk from one. Buy your fruit and veggies there, for the love of little green apples. DON'T go to your local huge chain supermarket. Here you can easily pay 89c/lb for bananas, 99c/lb if you want organic. I can buy bananas regularly for 39-59c/lb at any one of the three green grocers by my house- and sometimes as low as 29c/lb if they're trying to clear some older ones.
TIP: if you're buying fruit to juice, it doesn't have to be super fancy. It's ok if it's a little bruised. Especially apples- we got a huge stack of enormous apples that aren't the greatest eating texture, but are super juicy and have an amazing flavour when put through the juicer-99c/lb! Compare to our local supermarkets at $1.29-$1.69/lb. Madness.
TIP: buy often. Firstly, you'll get a nice walk to the green grocer every second day. Exercise is happy making. Secondly, you can get stuff that's on sale that's way marked down that will only last a few days in your fridge with impunity- as you'll be eating it within 48 hours or so. Also the green grocer sales often change by day, so you'll get some crazy deals. I got 3 lbs of strawberries for $5.00 this afternoon.
Isn't there a lot of time-intensive food prep involved?
There can be if you choose to make complicated meals, definitely. If making food that replicates cooked food is your bag, expect to spend an couple of hours every day having fun with your food processor and dehydrator! It's good to plan a day in advance of when you want to eat things- the dehydration time of food can be as long as 12-18 hours, or as little as 2. But things also will have to marinate, often overnight. It's no more complicated than making a fancy cooked meal, it's just different and takes some getting used to.
TIP: many many raw recipes online rely really really heavily on nuts and seeds for thickness, richness, creaminess and as a binder. If you eat a lot of fancy gourmet raw meals, be aware that your diet will run very fat-heavy (and more expensive)! Fat is delish and helps bring out the flavours in other ingredients AND, of course, is necessary to the body in moderation. Just be aware that raw does NOT always equal low fat.
TIP: blend things the night before, or in larger quantities and freeze 'em. Dips and sauces and such are always better the next day, anyway. Always make more dip than you'll need.
TIP: always have something going in the dehydrator. You never know when you will want kale chips, flax crackers or zucchini snaps- and 6 hours is a little long to wait for a snack attack.
Of course, you can also grab a plate of fruit or veggies and dip and be fed and full in under 10 minutes! Fruit and veggies must be the only fast food that's not bad for you, haha.
more thoughts to follow as I process this more. Next time I'll ramble about tools you'll need and tools you don't need and are fun to have anyway.
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