Originally published September 2 2009
Cherie Soria Part II: Raw Foods and Grains, Legumes, Breads and Scones
by Kevin Gianni
(NaturalNews) This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni's Rawkathon, which can be found at http://www.Rawkathon.com. In this excerpt, Cherie Soria shares on grains, legumes, breads and scones in a raw food diet.
Rawkathon with Cherie Soria . Cherie Soria teaches raw food "cooking" classes and is the author of The Raw Food Revolution Diet.
Kevin: Do you prefer legumes to grains or grains to legumes? Because I've heard a lot of people don't like to eat sprouted legumes just because they're...
Cherie: Legumes, a lot of people when they first go raw really feel a need...they have a fear of not getting enough protein. And so having some legumes just helps them to alleviate that fear and feel like they're getting enough protein in their diet.... A lot of raw fooders stay away from nuts because they think they're too rich; they stay away from legumes and they stay away from grains. And all of those do have protein so they've got to make sure they're getting plenty of grains in order to meet those RDA requirements. Now, plenty of raw fooders don't do that and they get along just fine.
So it's kind of like weaning people. In the beginning we give them cereal, raw, sprouted cereal but still cereal, with a nut milk and fruit and everything.. Later on that's not something that we would be giving them because we would teach them that that's not the best food combining. Yes, they're used to that; their bodies have become accustomed to it but as they lighten up and detox and listen to their bodies and recognize how their bodies speak to them when they're eating foods that are harder to digest, and some of those of kinds of things could just be a little bit less clear in their thinking or a little bit more tired in the afternoon or needing a little more sleep than they would really have to if they had eaten lighter. Doesn't necessarily mean they would get sick.
There are a lot of levels of health and the first one is staying without symptoms, not being symptomatic with disease. But the next one would be how much vitality, how much energy do you have, how much work can you do, how much can you accomplish and how happy are you and how connected are you to the world around you? As you lighten up and as you detox more and more you feel that connection to yourself, to your needs, to the world around you and all your relationships to nature, to animals, everything.
One of our goals is to meet people where they are. We don't make any judgments about how raw people are. To me, raw is not a religion. It's a choice that we make. Yes, it can help us to be more spiritual beings but it's not God...
I'm 61 years old which is... most people are surprised to hear that.
Kevin: Yeah, I'm surprised.
Cherie: I've been on a primarily raw food diet; I hate to say percentages because I'm 100% raw most of the time but not 100% 100% of the time. When I travel I might be 50%, so it's hard to say. But I'm certainly primarily raw and have been for 16 years. So that motivated them enough to give it a try in their own lives and they felt a difference. Vicanto came to the school and did the whole training and she got to meet people and watch their journeys and she journalled it and she heard their stories about why they were there also. That's still all anecdotal, but that made her want to find that research and we did some lab studies of our own. We studied a green smoothie and a green
drink and we were able to analyze... They have all the computer programs so they could analyze my recipes and put them together in menus to see exactly what we are getting.
We didn't use some of the new studies that haven't yet been in the peer review journals, like what happens when you soak almonds for example. The word right now is that when you soak almonds, because of what happens in the transition between the fats becoming amino acids that are easier to digest, that they're not as high in fat. Well, we didn't use those studies because they're not peer reviewed yet. So when we said almonds, we said almonds in their raw state before they've been germinated and therefore they're this much fat. So we had to really work with all of that. So we worked with the normal what they say this amount of nutrients for kale, whether it's organic or not. If it's organic, I believe and I've read, that there's more nutrients in organic but there's not enough peer reviewed study for us to prove that.
It's not a diet really, it's a lifestyle. But if you need to lose weight quick and you need to heal, here are some guidelines that can help you to do that...how to set up your raw food kitchen and how to buy your produce and how to rotate your fruits and vegetables so they're always ripe and how to store them, and all that kind of stuff that I mentioned that we can't possibly get into in a one-hour interview.
Kevin: We're going to try! You mentioned breads and breads to me are something that we don't experiment with at all. We do sprout some buckwheat and some sunflower seeds and make a little almost granola out of them, but how would you turn something like that into a bread that's actually hearty and something that's real tasty?
Cherie: Well, the ancient Essenes did it over 2000 years ago. They took the sprouted grains. It was wheat or some relative or hybridized wheat, and they sprouted it; they soaked it; they ground it; they formed it into loaves, and they put it on the hot rocks of the desert, and they baked their bread that way. So it was moist inside and has a crust on the outside. And that's what we do but we use a dehydrator. And rather than using rocks to grind the sprouted grain we use a food processor and we pulse it. So we do it a modern way. We can add other things to it if we want, if you want to balance out the sweetness of it, because it's actually quite sweet when you sprout wheat. And I actually prefer kamut; they're a sprouted unleavened grain bread that has been slightly ground,
not totally pulverized because then it would be too gooey and mushy and not so great, but still has texture. And then you put it in a dehydrator, turn it up enough, maybe an hour at about 135 just so it gets a nice crust on it; then, you turn it down to 105 for about another 5 to 6 hours. So you can break it and it's chewy and you can spread yummies on it. [Laughter] Whatever you like to spread on your bread or make a sandwich out of it and it's quite delicious.
Kevin: Oh.
Cherie: [U]sing kamut, and you can put all kinds of herbs or onions or anything that you want in it. Spread it out almost like you would a cracker but a little bit thicker, and then just dehydrate it for a few hours and slice it. Cut it and you have bread that looks like slices of bread, an unleavened, pumpernickel kind of bread.
Kevin: Like a German bread.
Cherie: Yeah, like a German pumpernickel, and it's quite delicious. But..also make breakfast breads out of it like scones. You want to add some pecans and dates and orange peel or orange zest or something like that or cranberries in it and make scones. And those are delicious. You can make cinnamon rolls. It's basically the same thing, but you just shape it any different way you want and add any other ingredients that you want.
For more from this excerpt of the Rawkathon, plus 14 other amazing raw food interviews, please visit http://www.Rawkathon.com.
About the author
Kevin Gianni is a health advocate, author and speaker. He has helped thousands of people in over 85 countries learn how to take control of their health--and keep it. To view his popular internet TV Show "The Renegade Health Show" (and get a free gift!) with commentary on natural health issues, vegan and raw food diets, holistic nutrition and more click here.
His book, "The Busy Person's Fitness Solution," is a step-by-step guide to optimum health for the time and energy-strapped. To find out more about abundance, optimum health and self motivation click here... or you're interested in the vegan and raw food diet and cutting edge holistic nutrition click here. For access to free interviews, downloads and a complete bodyweight exercise archive visit www.LiveAwesome.com.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml