RAW Beginning

My exploration into the world of RAW began with Mair - my gal friend who had a fabulous RAW food experience for a couple weeks when her husband was out of town and dropped 16 pounds. That sounded good but honestly, RAW didn't have instant appeal. In my mind, I imagined drab, boring food with unending chewing. Plus - I didn't have a dehydrator. But Mair poo-pooed my reluctance and loaned me her dehydrator and a couple of RAW Cookbooks. Like a petulant child, I eyed them for about a week until I finally cracked one open and read a bit. The first one was LIVING ON LIVE FOOD by Alissa Cohen. She tells her story with the predictable bounciness of a convert - which further put me off - but when I studied the chart on sprouting nuts and grains, I was reminded to my college days when I used to sprout mung beans in my dorm room - along with culturing my own yogurt. RAW was not much of a leap from that. And, by the way, I had recently sprouted some mung beans - and liked it. So I set aside my skepticism and began to experiment with sprouting. First mung beans, then wheat berries, then flax seeds and soon my counter top was cluttered with glass jars of soaking nuts and grains. Why soak nuts and grains -- because the water releases the outer coating so our bodies can access the enzymes and nutrients inside. Otherwise, they provide fiber but the nutrients pass through our bodies. Very interesting information, I thought, and read some more.