Vegan 101: The Higher Raw Diet

Standard / by / April 25, 2011 / 18 Comments

I am thrilled to bring you an interview with raw vegan chef Kristen Suzanne for the Vegan 101 series.  When I started reading food blogs last year, I found myself reading a lot of raw food blogs.  For no real reason.  In fact, “raw” sounded rather scary to me.  But it sure didn’t stop me from purchasing a dehydrator.  With no clue what to do with said dehydrator, I picked up a copy of Kristen Suzanne’s EASY Raw Vegan Dehydrating and started making raw breads and crackers.

In January I decided to try to incorporate more raw foods in my diet (some refer to it as “higher raw”) and turned once again to Kristen and downloaded her latest book EASY Raw Vegan Transition Recipes to my eReader.  Since then I’ve somehow added Kristen Suzanne’s ULTIMATE Raw Vegan Hemp Recipes to my library, as well.  I think you get the point. I trust Kristen and respect her as a raw vegan chef and advocate.  I was delighted when Kristen agreed to an interview for this series!  Enjoy!

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Kristen Suzanne, owner of Kristen’s Raw, is an accomplished raw vegan chef and author helping people succeed with the raw food diet.  As a former competitive bodybuilder, she’s been studying nutrition, fitness and food preparation for more than 15 years. Kristen is the author of 12 raw vegan recipe and lifestyle books, and maintains her popular blog.  You can follow Kristen on Facebook and Twitter.
Kristen, why might a new vegan consider going higher raw?
If a vegan isn’t getting lots of fresh uncooked produce in his/her diet, then going to a level of higher raw can be a great choice. Most people feel  a lot better when eating a large percentage of their diet as raw. For example, the following can be better… sleeping, energy, digestion, and an overall sense of feeling excellent. This can be done with fresh smoothies or raw nut milk with granola for breakfast, a big salad before a cooked lunch/dinner, and/or exchanging cooked desserts for raw desserts.

What benefits have you personally experienced eating mostly raw?
When I eat more raw, I notice a lot of changes. My sleep is better, my energy is through the roof, my skin improves, and I feel on top of the world… unstoppable… it’s almost hard to describe in words how awesome you feel when you eat a lot of fresh, raw plant-based foods as the bulk of your diet.

Some raw chefs advocate 100% raw diets and others advocate raw with every meal, but not necessarily 100% raw meals. Where do you fall in this range of some raw, higher raw or all raw?
Personally, I go back and forth between being all raw and high raw. Sometimes I go weeks (or months) as all raw and sometimes I eat a cooked meal 5 days a week with the rest of my meals as raw. It depends on many things from my mood to my schedule to the season, etc. I advise people to follow their own body’s cues. A lot of people do wonderfully on an all raw diet for a period of time, and then change it to a high raw diet for a longer term plan.

As you know, I purchased your book– EASY Raw Vegan Transition Recipes–when I decided to go higher raw. Do you have a few transition tips you could share with my readers?
The premise of that book is to incorporate cooked plant-based foods along with raw foods in the same meal (or recipe). This offers new flavors and textures alongside familiar ones. It’s an excellent way to find your way into a higher raw life. Other general advice and options are: 1) Take it easy and do so with baby steps so you don’t get frustrated and give up before giving the raw lifestyle a chance. 2) You could have raw food delivered to your house and/or see if any restaurants in your area serve raw foods – become a regular there and try everything on the menu. 3) Consider a transition by making all breakfasts and lunches raw, and having a cooked dinner… basically, it’s “raw til dinner” and then follow it with a raw dessert. 4) Hire a raw food coach or go raw with a buddy to incorporate accountability and motivation.

Finally, for the reader who may decide to give higher raw a shot, what key foods or ingredients are important to have on hand?
Keeping your kitchen stocked is the best way to accomplish this. Stocked with fresh fruit on the counters and in the refrigerator, as well as plenty of veggies. Almonds are always in great supply in my house so I can make raw organic almond milk twice a week which is great alone in a glass or with raw granola (another great pantry staple), as well as using it in smoothies or raw soups. I also recommend having a protein powder on hand (my faves are Sun Warrior’s chocolate rice protein and hemp protein powders) for those times you’re not in the mood for nuts (fat) or fruit (sugars).

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Thank you, Kristen! You’ve given me a few new tips and ideas for my own higher raw diet.

Readers, what are your thoughts?  Are you eating a raw vegan diet? Higher raw?  Somewhat raw? Toying with raw?  One of the great things about the Vegan 101 series is the exchange of ideas– I would love to hear your thoughts on a raw, vegan diet.

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18 thoughts on “Vegan 101: The Higher Raw Diet”

  2. At the beginning of the year I was doing a lot of reading about nutrition, food quality, food security etc. with an interest in improving my diet. Many of the sources I was looking at the all pointed at the raw food diet. I jumped in with both feet and went 100% raw for several months. As Kristen noted, my energy level also went through the roof. My cravings for processed food also stopped, as did my usual need to snack through the day. After about 2 months though, I hit a bit of a slump where I was feeling totally “empty” or “flat”, and started suffering from some stomach issues. I did a lot more reading, and it can be quite confusing. There are competing “camps” that advocate different approaches (e.g. 80/10/10 high fruit vs. high fat/raw gourmet). There is also fanaticism from some raw advocates that I found rather off-putting (e.g. cooked food is poisonous…). Kristen answered a few questions for me to help sort through this, and ultimately it comes to listening to what your body needs.

    I learned that sometimes low fat for longer periods of time can really energize me, but then my body asks for a higher percentage of fat. I learned that too much raw food seems to send my stomach for a loop, and cooked vegan meals can settle that out. I learned that my body doesn’t like raw spinach and sweet potato, but cooked is fine. I’m now pretty much raw until dinner. Eating more raw food gave me a renewed appreciation for food, as many of the recipes are just clean, simple, quality ingredients (like Kristen’s Harvest Soup – a favourite and lunch staple). And, the new food preparations have been a lot of fun. I’m sprouting on a regular basis, and dehydrating things like juice pulp crackers, breads and granola on the weekends so I’m stocked for the week. If you get caught up in the gourmet recipes, raw food can seem a bit time consuming and daunting. However, if you take it back to the basics, I find eating raw is often simpler and faster than regular cooking.

    1. Oh, one additional thought… I have been to several raw restaurants and have found their menu offerings interesting. In my experience, they will always serve a side salad with the entrees, but other than that their offerings are light on actual vegetables. Many of the dishes are very heavily nut based (e.g. pizzas with nut cheeze, nut pates, nut based cheesecakes, nut based soups). I get that these are maybe dishes that the average person might not make themselves. However it seems that in order to attract people towards raw food, these restaurants feature food that is rich and creamy, and similar in texture to non-raw food. I enjoy a bite of this type of raw food, but overall it is just too much. It would be nice to see more emphasis on the full range of raw food, not just the heavy fat “comfort” type foods.

    2. Thank you so much for this thoughtful comment. I agree that listening to your body is key. There are days when I simply crave nothing but raw — and there days when it’s all cooked, cooked, cooked. But it all mostly evens out to the point where I’m certainly eating higher raw. And I feel great. I’m looking forward to the spring and summer produce — I think I’ll enjoy higher even more then. And you’re right, keeping it simply really is important.

  3. Thanks – great interview! I have noticed some benefits to increasing my raw food intake, however I also like warm, cooked foods especially since I live in place where it’s cold and rainy for 1/2 the year. I try to strike a balance. 🙂

    1. Me, too, Amy. You’ve seen my love for my pressure cooker and rice cooker on Twitter 🙂 My balance is this; tonight I’ll warm up three left-over raw dishes in the dehydrator at 115 degrees. It will be warm and raw!

  4. great post! I recently purchased all of Kristins books at once (except for the transition book which was not included) and I also love Ani Phyo’s books.

    For me my interest got really sparked after following the cleanse from Kriss’ book ‘crazy sexy diet’ and found I loved eating high raw, and how simple it actually was! I did experience some raw food blues after a while though- things like raw soups and ‘breads’ just dont sit well with my stomach, I get nauseous every time. same goes for raw burgers. this got me frustrated as I was looking around to having more options than salad for both lunch and dinner. this resukted in me eating only partly raw (but still way more than before) for a while, and now I am looking into giving it a try again- moderate to high raw that is. I juice every day, I drink a green smoothie everyday and I enjoy a big salad most days. also, my favorite breakfasts are now raw, and I love raw desserts and treats. it’s just the dinner time I need to find a good solution to. maybe raw until dinner is something I could try, although I think I’d prefer to have raw as part of every meal (considering leukocytosis cooked foods have shown to induce…).

    1. Sabine, I’ve pretty much been a raw ’til dinner gal but am now trying to get creative about my dinners. Right now I have some avocado fries, mashed “potatoes” and veggie “pasta” warming in the dehydrator. I made each dish over the weekend so it would be easy to grab and eat this week. I’m not aiming for 100% raw anyway, but I know I feel better with a higher raw diet.

  5. JL, thanks for this post. I’m toying with going raw (or at least high raw, like you) and am so thankful for all the tips I can get during the process. This was definitely helpful.

    1. I’m so glad you found it helpful! Kristen’s book and website have been really helpful to me as I go higher raw and I learned much from her post, too!

  6. Thanks for the interview! I’ve been researching and experimenting with raw for a couple of years now, but I’m still probably considered low raw. 🙂

    1. I took a raw class and the chef suggested that it’s really not about all raw or what percentage of raw. Her philosophy was always have something raw with every meal. I think that’s pretty good advice. Then, if you’re like me, you’ll start to see that suddenly your meals are far more raw (or all raw!) than usual.

  9. Wow, wonderful interview, thanks! Lots of great advice on going higher raw, I noticed a lot more energy when I started getting into it.

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