12 Steps to Raw Foods or Guide to Healthy Restaurant Eating

12 Steps to Raw Foods: How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Food

Author: Victoria Boutenko

Why do we overeat time and time again? Why do we make poor diet choices while we want to be healthy? What makes losing weight so difficult? These and many other vital questions are addressed in 12 Steps to Raw Foods in an open and sincere dialogue. Based on the latest scientific research, Victoria Boutenko explains the numerous benefits of choosing a diet of fresh rather than cooked foods. This book contains self-tests and questionnaires that help the reader to determine if they have hidden eating patterns that undermine their health. Using examples from life, the author explores the most common reasons for people to make unhealthy eating choices.

Rather than simply praising the benefits of raw foods, this book offers helpful tips and coping techniques to form and maintain new, healthy patterns. Learn how to make a raw food restaurant card that makes dining with co-workers easy and enjoyable. Discover three magic sentences that enable you to refuse your mother-in-law’s apple pie without offending her. Find out how to sustain your chosen diet while traveling. These are only a few of the many scenarios that Boutenko outlines.

Written in a convenient 12-step format, this book guides the reader through the most significant physical, psychological, and spiritual phases of the transition from cooked to raw foods. Embracing the raw food lifestyle is more than simply turning off the stove. Such a radical change in the way we eat affects all aspects of life. Boutenko touches on the human relationship with nature, the value of supporting others, and the importance of living in harmony with people who don’t share the same point of view on eating. Already aclassic, this enhanced second edition is aimed at anyone interested in improving their health through diet.

Table of Contents:

Foreword by Dr. Gabriel Cousens . . . xi
Author’s Note . . . xv
Part 1 Why Raw Food?. . . 1
Chapter 1 Where My Search Began . . . 3
Chapter 2 What Was Missing in Our Raw Food Plan? . . . 13
Chapter 3 Ode to a Green Smoothie . . . 15
Chapter 4 Modern Science Studies Un-Cooking . . . 25
Chapter 5 What Is Life? . . . 36
Chapter 6 Your Body Never Makes Mistakes . . . 41
Chapter 7 What the First Humans Ate . . . 49
Chapter 8 Convenience versus Health . . . 59
Chapter 9 How My Family Eats . . . 65
Chapter 10 Bacteria–Nature’s Brilliant Invention . . . 70
Chapter 11 What About Insects? . . . 76
Part 2 Human Dependency on Cooked Food . . . 83
Chapter 12 Is It Really a Dependency? . . . 85
Chapter 13 How Important Is It To Be 100% Raw? . . . 90
Chapter 14 The Addictiveness of Common Foods . . . 96
Chapter 15 Looking for Comfort in Cooked Foods . . . 107
Chapter 16 Feeding Inner Hunger . . . 112
Part 3 How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Food. . . 117
Step 1: Becoming Aware of the Problem . . . 119
Step 2: Nourishing Your Body to Eliminate Cravings . . . 130
Step 3: Acquiring Skills and Equipment . . . 134
Basic Formula for Delicious Soup . . . 146
Basic Formula for Delicious Nut Burgers . . . 147
Basic Formula for Delicious Candy or Cake Dough . . . 147
Formula for Delicious Dressing . . . 148
Basic Formula for Delicious Nut or Seed Milk . . . 148
Step 4: I Love You No Matter What You Eat . . . 149
Step 5: Avoiding Temptations . . . 161
Step 6: Getting Support . . . 169
Step 7: Gratitude and Forgiveness . . . 175
Step 8:Actualizing Dreams . . . 181
Step 9: Embracing Other Healthy Habits . . . 189
Step 10: Gaining Clarity . . . 202
Step 11: Searching for One’s Spiritual Mission . . . 207
Step 12: Giving Support to Others . . . 213
Part 4 Recipes . . . 219
Raw Family Green Smoothies . . . 221
Apple—Kale—Lemon . . . 221
Peach—Spinach . . . 221
Mango—Weeds . . . 221
Strawberry—Banana—Romaine . . . 222
Pear—Chard—Mint . . . 222
Raw Family Green Soup . . . 222
Valya’s Stupendously Magnificent,
Outstandingly Exceptional,
Green Spinach Soup . . . 223
Real Rawssian Borscht . . . 223
Chowder . . . 225
Chili . . . 226
Gazpacho . . . 226
I Can’t Believe It’s Just Cabbage . . . 227
Igor’s Crackers . . . 228
Live Garden Burgers . . . 229
RawFoods.pages.07 2/26/07 2:25 PM Page ix
Live Burgers, Low-Fat Version . . . 230
Live Fries . . . 231
Tomato Basil Sauce . . . 231
Live Pizza . . . 232
Nori Rolls . . . 234
Nut or Seed Cheese . . . 235
Valya’s Spicy Almond Cheese . . . 236
Sunny Spread . . . 236
Sergei’s Hummus . . . 237
Generic Cake Recipe . . . 238
Sergei’s Young Coconut Dream Cake . . . 239
Un-Chocolate Cake . . . 240
Sergei’s Amazing Truffles . . . 241
Alla’s Cranberry Scones . . . 242
Sergei’s Butternut Squash Cookies . . . 242
Sesame Cookies . . . 243
Morning Cereal . . . 244
Nut or Seed Milk . . . 244
Notes . . . 245
Bibliography . . . 257
Index . . . 259

Book review:

Guide to Healthy Restaurant Eating

Author: Hope S Warshaw

Eat in restaurants with confidence with this updated guide

This bestselling and indispensable guide contains the most complete and user-friendly restaurant nutrition facts for people living with diabetes. Reflecting the most recent additions and deletions to the restaurant industry’s ever-changing menus, this revised and expanded edition covers more than 5,000 menu items from more than 60 chain restaurants.

Hope W.Warshaw, MMSc, RD, CDE, BC-ADM has written previous books, including Diabetes Meal Planning Made Easy.