Salad recipe provided on behalf of Nomi Shannon

Baby Greens
Endive
*Raw sheep milk Gorgonzola cheese (leave this out of yours if you don’t want to eat it)
*Candied pecans
1 very ripe pear per every 2-3 people
Nomi’s Signature Salad Dressing (below) (continue reading…)

From LivingNutz.com

Raw and Living Foods are foods that contain enzymes. All cooked food is devoid of enzymes. Cooking food changes the molecular structure of the food. In general, the act of heating food destroys enzymes in food. Living and raw foods also have enormously higher nutrient values than the foods that have been cooked.

This belief is based on the work of Artturi Virtanen, a biochemist, and on the research of Dr. Edward Howell, an Illinois physician born in 1898, who researched how enzymes played a role in a person’s diet. He concluded that eating cooked food leads to health problems. In 1985, Howell published a book in which he claimed that laboratory rats fed cooked foods had an overly large pancreas size. Some raw food diet proponents believe that Howell’s book shows that the pancreas is forced to work harder on a diet of cooked foods and that food enzymes are just as essential to digestion as the body’s self-generated enzymes.

Professor Karl Eimer, director of the Medical Clinic at the University of Vienna studied the effect of a 100% raw diet on athletes. He placed his subjects on a two week program of intense physical training while they continued to consume their usual cooked diet. Their athletic performance was monitored and evaluated. They were then put on a 100% raw diet and continued their training. Without exception the athletes demonstrated improvements in reflex speed, flexibility and stamina. Eimer, and his colleague Professor Hans Eppinger, concluded that raw foods increase cellular respiration and efficiency. Their findings were reported in the July, 1993 edition of Zeitschrift fur Ernahrung entitled Klinik Schwenkenhacher.

Anthropologist Peter Lucas of George Washington University in Washington, DC, was reported in NewScientist magazine on 19/2/2005 as having the theory that man being the only mammal with chronic poor dentition and the only mammal to significantly process and cook his food, are causally linked. He believes that the adoption of food processing and cooking reduced the size of our jaw through evolutionary processes, but not the size of our teeth. Hence the expanding science of orthodontics. Conversely, the research suggests that a diet of unprocessed and uncooked food is more likely to promote health.

The benefits of going raw-vegan are boundless. Raw foods are easy to digest, and they provide the maximum amount of energy with minimal bodily effort. Studies have shown that living foods have healing powers that can alleviate many illnesses from low energy, allergies, digestive disorders, weak immune system, high cholesterol, candida, to obesity and weight problems (weight normalization), etc.. Research and real life experiences have also shown that a person can prevent a body’s healthy cells from turning into malignant cancerous cells by consuming mostly a raw food diet and whole organic foods!

©iStockphoto.com - SharonDay

For a quick healthy meal, try this delicious spinach salad with figs and walnuts.

Spinach is a green leafy vegetable with abundant vitamins. It offers many health benefits with its rich nutrients like iron and fiber. It also contains very good amounts of magnesium, potassium, iron and calcium. Copper, phosphorous, zinc are all found in good amounts in spinach. (continue reading…)

After a long winter of eating root vegetables the first greens of spring are a breath of fresh air. Dark leafy greens are also one of the most nutritionally sound foods that people can add to their diets. Just one cup of kale provides 6% of the recommended daily value of iron, 9% calcium, 134% Vitamin C, and 206% of your daily dose of Vitamin A!

Kale is a hearty plant; it can be found in most regions from June through November, can withstand cold temperatures (even frost) and is easy to grow in a home garden. Whether you grow your own or buy kale from the grocery store or farmer’s market, it’s an amazing food to incorporate into your meals. It’s great sauteed, braised, made into chips, or stirred into soups. One of my favorite ways to prepare it is raw in a salad. Take it to a potluck or barbecue and improve the health of your family and friends one salad at a time! (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - Fertnig

Seasonal eating in winter tends to be heavy on potatoes and starches, which store well in colder climates where nothing actually grows outside in January, but winter’s seasonal produce include root vegetables and citrus. Winter-stored carrots and fresh orange juice combine in this tangy-sweet salad to provide a light, sunny flavor to counterbalance many of the heavier vegetables and starches in winter seasonal eating. Raisins add a jolt of sweetness and color interest that make this salad suitable as a side dish or dessert. By grating the carrots in a food processor, you can have this salad ready in less than five minutes.

Golden raisins, dried with a different process, have a brighter flavor than their black counterparts that complements the orange flavor of the dressing; however, golden raisins are harder to find as organic produce than black raisins, since the process to make them generally includes sulfur dioxide treatment to preserve the lighter color, which is not allowed in certified organic produce. A few companies produce organic golden raisins available through online retailers and some health food stores. If you’re worried about using raisins that aren’t certified organic, use all black raisins. (continue reading…)

ⓒiStockPhoto - BVDC

By Kelley Herring from Healing Gourmet

It’s time to give up the bottle! Not the wine bottle; that’s a pleasure you should enjoy in moderation, as long as it’s organic.  I’m talking about bottled salad dressing.  Almost every brand is made with vegetable and seed oils, rich in omega-6 fatty acids, which promote inflammation, and ultimately cancer and heart disease.

But not to worry… with just one drizzle of this bright vinaigrette, you’ll gladly put the bottle in your past. (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - kati1313

With summer drawing to a close, grapes are starting to come in season just as the season for melons winds down. This colorful seasonal salad made of all round ingredients resembles a bowl of marbles. The recipe makes a lot of fruit salad, suitable for a Labor Day picnic. Since it keeps for several days in the refrigerator, I like to make a batch up for handy desserts throughout the week.

Look for grapes with sturdy, green stems. Withered, brown stems indicate older grapes that are more likely to go bad quickly. Many loose grapes in the bottom of the bag, where they have fallen off the stems, also indicates less fresh grapes.

(continue reading…)