An Interview with Ian Elliot, Raw Foodist Teen
By Angela Elliot
"What made you decide to go raw? I went raw because I saw how great my mom was doing on the living foods diet. How do you like being raw? I love it now. At first, I couldn't stand it because I was still so addicted to cooked foods. Raw food tasted terrible to me. I wanted all my favorite cooked foods every day! I would drive my mom crazy telling her I had to have a bag of chips or spaghetti..."

Is it important to be all raw?
By Victoria Boutenko
"There have been lots of discussions lately on whether it is important to stay all-raw or not. In his thorough and sincere article, “The Hallelujah Health Tip (SM) Issue #404: Why Not All Raw?” Reverend George Malkmus presents an overview of the reasons not to eat an all-raw diet. While I strongly agree with Rev. Malkmus on the psychological side of his perspective, where he states that, “Most people find it extremely difficult to go ALL-RAW,” I would like to comment on the two main reasons he gave for not eating 100 percent live foods..."

The Luscious Strawberry
By Sheila O'Neill
"Everyone seems to love the mouth-watering strawberry, our most popular and widely grown fruit. It has a history that goes back over 2,200 years and grew wild in Italy as long ago as 234 B.C. Throughout the centuries the strawberry has been studied, cultivated, reported upon, and simply enjoyed by millions..."

Fear of Raw Food
By Victoria & Valya Boutenko
"As a result of the dietary habits I acquired as a child, I went through a lot of pain and despair in my life. It took me almost 50 years to discover a healthy way of eating. Even though I now feel vibrantly healthy, I still realize that too much of my life force has been wasted on fighting un-necessary illnesses caused by wrong eating habits set up in my childhood. I often wonder how I would look and feel if I had led the lifestyle I lead today from the beginning of my childhood. .."

Green Smoothies: An Easy Way to Love Greens
By Victoria Boutenko
"My husband, our two younger children and I have been on the raw food diet for more than eleven years. We were able to heal all of our incurable, life-threatening diseases. However, after several years of being raw, each one of us began to feel like we had reached a plateau where our healing process stopped and even somewhat began to go backwards..."

Culturing Your Foods - As Easy as ABC
By Angela Elliot
"In a society overrun by antibiotics and sickness, it appears we've forgotten our roots. Let's travel back in time to when small farmers made their own yogurts and mountain people made kefir..."

Kiwi
By Cheryl Tallman & Joan Ahlers
"Kiwifruit is a berry. Originally grown in China and sometimes referred to as the Chinese gooseberry. In 1906, it was brought to New Zealand and cultivated throughout the country. New Zealand is credited with introducing the fruit globally. Thus, it carries the name of New Zealand's' national bird, the Kiwi..."

The Raw Valentine
By Angela Elliot
"While everyone is out running around in a mad frenzy, here are some ways to celebrate Valentine's Day a bit more romantically and creatively. Last year for Valentine's Day, I made my son and Husband each a box of chocolate truffles. I decorated an old cigar box with hearts and I love you's, and on the inside I put candy paper wrappers filled with truffles. Here's the recipe, so you too, can give your loved one a gift, they are not likely to forget!"

It's a New Year! Why not try Living Food?
By Angela Elliot
"My son Ian has been a vegan his whole life and went 100 percent raw in July of 2003. My hubby went 100 percent raw last July, so we are referring to our raw family as San Diego's Premier Raw Family! Molly and Bunker, our two dogs are 100% vegan raw food dogs (raw vegan food I developed for them) and have been for close to five years. They were 100 percent vegans before that. They are nine years old and actually appear to be getting younger every year..."

Can we eat raw food in the cold climate?
By Victoria Boutenko
"This is one of the most frequently asked questions about eating raw. People commonly believe that without a bowl of cooked food on a chilly winter day they would not be able to stay warm. I know many persons who quit the raw food lifestyle because they were afraid that they would become too cold during the winter..."

Baby Greens By Lynn and Chrisemer
A Book Review by Mona Harris
"Baby Greens is a delightful and informative book on adding raw foods into the diet of children. In the introduction, author Michaela Lynn describes her search for answers about raw foods first for herself and later for babies and kids. She makes it clear that Baby Greens is not meant to promote a rigid diet but rather to help families of all dietary persuasions add more living foods to their repertoire..."

The Sun-Loving Berry
By Sheila O'Neill Lobdell
"It doesn't take long to open your refrigerator in the morning and pour a nice glass of orange juice. However, it took oranges a long, long time to get to your kitchen! The orange first appeared about 20 million years ago in the tropical jungle of southern China..."

Rawsome Recipes by Robyn Boyd
Reviewed by Melanie Wilson
"Robyn Boyd advocates eating "simply, purely, wholly, and 75-80% raw." Whether or not you're into raw foods doesn't matter; this book is for all families wanting to transition to a healthier eating. That's why she calls it RawSome Recipes - 75 percent are raw recipes, while 93 percent are vegan..."

*The Amazing Raw Food Hike-a-thon:
By the Living Light Institute
"A 3000-mile fundraising hike along the spectacular Continental: The idea for the Raw Food Hike-a-thon started with two emails 6 months apart that I sent out to hiking friends about various hiking adventures. "

The Study of the Effect of a Live Food Diet on Preadolescent Children
By Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D. (H)
"The Tree of Life is a nonprofit foundation that is currently doing research in healing depression, on healing diabetes naturally for all groups with a particular focus on Native Americans, and the affects of a live food diet on the growth of pre-adolescent children as determined by height and weight..."

Conscious Eating by Gabriel Cousens, M.D.
Reviewed by Melanie Wilson
"I had the honor of sitting down with Gabriel Cousens at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center this summer, and we had a discussion about eating consciously and what that means in the greater scheme of things. For me, going vegetarian, then vegan, then raw has been all about spiritual development and growth through a change in diet, so this book really spoke to me..."

Daily Juice
Reviewed by Melanie Wilson
"This past summer (2004), I was in Austin, TX while traveling around the state doing a speaking tour with my vegetarianbaby.com partner, Lucy Watkins. We knew Austin would provide us with a wealth of veggie places to dine, but we were surprised to find this little hole-in-the-wall place. Driving down the street a sign jumped out at us: "VEGAN ICE CREAM"! We made a U-turn..."

Dr. John's VitaCrisp Crackers
Reviewed by Melanie Wilson
"One of the things that has helped me to stay raw is crackers, made with sprouted nuts, seeds, veggies, spices, and herbs and dehydrated to a crispy texture. I've made many myself but none as delicious as the ones I tasted at the International Festival of Raw Foods this year! Among my favorites were Dr. John's VitaCrisp Crackers in three flavors..."

Raw Family Raw Veggie Burgers Product Review
Melanie Wilson
"I recently reviewed Victoria Boutenko's 3-video series entitled 12 Steps to Raw Food, and when I opened the package there was included a little gift from her husband Igor - raw wraps. These are dehydrated sandwich wraps, and they were delicious!"

The Perfect Fruit
Sheila O'Neill
"Around a thousand years ago, Christian missionaries discovered an odd fruit in a North African marketplace. It tasted delicious and yet strange. One of them wrote his Bishop in Rome about this wonderful fruit and told him if you slice it, you will see a reminder of their faith, a cross..."

The Tree of Life Café
By Anna Hays
"The Tree of Life café is more than just a raw food restaurant. It acts as a central point of communion for staff members, guests, and visitors to spend time together, enjoy amazing food, laugh, smile and feel their true essence. It is a place where people gather to connect, share with each other, and nourish the body, mind and soul with nutrient dense, completely live, vegan food..."

Shanti Golds-Cousens on Yoga and Raw Food
By Anna Hays
"Shanti Golds-Cousens was my very first yoga instructor, and she taught me much more than yoga. She taught me how to flow with the current of life, and live joyously and effortlessly. She introduced me to a completely different realm of being, embracing the ultimate love for Self. She is an inspiration, and I will always look up to her as a mother in my life..."

Living Tree Coconut Oil
Reviewed by Anna Hays
"I was determined to find the best coconut oil on the market, something that really smelled and tasted like the real thing, because it WAS the real thing. And then suddenly, as if by magic, in walked a jar of Living Tree Coconut Oil…Holy Coconuts! Where oh where have you been all my life??"

Five Kitchen Utensils I Can't Live Without
By Melanie Wilson
"OK, there is truly nothing on this list that I really couldn't live without, but having them makes my life so much easier. It also makes eating healthfully a whole lot more fun! These utensils range in price from very inexpensive to pretty pricey, but I'll give you some hints for finding them cheaper! Many of them are easy enough for children to use..."

Getting to Know a Raw Vegan Family
By Tracy B. McGinnis
"With several e-books to their credit, ranging in topics from Raising Raw-Vegan Children, to The Raw-Vegans Holiday Survival Guide, Storm and Jinjee Talifero of The Ekaya Institute have made it their life's passion to educate, and motivate both young and old on the benefits of raw vegan diets and how to live a healthier life. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Storm and Jinjee about their books, their programs, and what they see for the future of future of raw-vegan diets..."

Pamela's Raw Organic Candy
"As a raw foodist, vegan, or vegetarian it becomes a little harder to choose the right gift, especially something like candy, which is often highly processed and full of unhealthy additives. You want your gift to be not only an expression of love, but one of compassion for animals, the Earth and Self..."

Essential Fatty Acids: What they are, how they work, and where to find them
By Anna Hays
"Essential fatty acids are one component of a healthy, well balanced diet. Healthy fats seem to be getting more press lately, especially in the vegan/vegetarian world, as many people find that they don’t feel their best eating a low fat, high carbohydrate diet. This may be because many people, even vegetarians, are healthy-fat deficient. .."

Living Tree Community Raw Foods
By Anna Hays
"If you’re at all like me, you like variety in your diet. Living Tree sells many different varieties of raw nut butter. You’ll never get bored or go hungry! They sell the staples: almond butter and tahini, which are by far the best I have tasted. I must admit, I have quite a few Living Tree products in my fridge, but for the sake of this review, I will focus on their raw almond butter, original white sesame tahini and California sun-dried olives..."

Dr. Ruth Heidrich Interview
By Amy O'Neill Houck
Dr. Ruth Heidrich keeps moving. A highly decorated runner, when she's not busy competing she has a breathless speaking schedule sharing her knowledge and inspiration about the benefits of a plant-based diet. We were lucky enough to catch up with her for a brief chat.

The Secrets for Raw Beauty
By Angel(A)
"True beauty comes from within. We've all heard this statement many times before, but do we really know what it means? To me it means true beauty comes from what I put into my body. I have been a raw foodist for nine months, and in that time I have become more beautiful than I was before. People who have known me for years ask me, 'What have you done? Have you been to the spa or something?'"

Raw Family
By the Boutenko Family
"In the morning, while holding on tight to my heavy cup of strong coffee and digging my teeth into a warm bagel with my favorite cream cheese, I was trying to imagine having a raw breakfast. I asked myself, When should we start eating raw food? And how? 'Tomorrow I will start.' But the next morning I had my coffee in my hands before I was even able to think..."

Raw Parenting Creates Healthy Children
By Karen Ranzi
"Just prior to this pregnancy, I changed from a vegetarian (lacto-ovo) to a vegan diet. I ate mainly whole grains, beans, oils, tofu, seaweeds, and cooked vegetables (macrobiotic) with some processed foods, such as whole grain pastas, breads and rice cakes. I ate a minimum of raw fruits and vegetables, feeling at the time that raw foods were not that important and not as healthy as the protein from cooked grains and beans..."

What is the Living Foods Diet?
By Angel(A)
"The Living Foods Diet is a lifestyle that is about health, longevity, anti-aging, disease prevention, and much more. Through eating foods that are of the highest living quality, we give our bodies the fuel they need to heal from disease, to prevent disease, to have an abundance of energy, and to look and feel great..."

First Year Journey of a Raw Teen
By Rick Kump
"For every raw fooder, there is an experience, and each is unique. For a teenager trying to find his way in the world, I have come across many challenges and much resistance. Not only have I overcome most of these, I have used them to my advantage. Raw foods have made me stronger in every way I know..."

A Safe Haven Under the Desert Sky:
Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center
By Anna Hays
"The Tree of Life is a rejuvenation center created and run by Dr. Gabriel Cousens, M.D., M.D. (H) diplomat in Ayurveda, and his beautiful wife Shanti. A main aspect of The Tree is its focus on a living foods diet. This diet consists of raw, fresh vegetables, nuts and seeds. The diet also incorporates the spiritual and emotional aspects of food, creating blends of flavours and spices sure to satisfy anyone’s need for delicious food..."

Durians
By Rick Kump
"The taste from heaven, the smell from hell, it's the durian! One of the highest respected fruits throughout Southeast Asia..."

A Two Minute Soup to Rejuvenate Your Body
By Dr. Donald Schnell
"When you are having a salad for lunch or dinner in warm weather and don't necessarily crave hot soup, this innovative recipe for uncooked miso soup will be especially pleasing..."

What do raw people eat during festivals, birthdays, etc?
From Waldorfhomeschoolers.com
"To illustrate how very lovely and festive raw special occasion cakes can be, I have asked our friend Victoria Boutenko, raw chef & author, to enlighten our readers & visitors. Below are two different recipes for a 100% raw cake which could easily be used as a special occasion festival cake or even a birthday cake..."

The Fruitarian Diet
By David Wolfe, from VegParadise.com
"Fruit is the most beautiful food on the planet. The variety of fruits on Earth is so massive it boggles the mind. Often people ask me if I feel limited eating a raw-food/fruitarian diet. I always respond by telling them 99.9% of all food on Earth is raw plant food!"