It is not as easy to buy raw food as you might think when you start out on a raw food diet. Many items on the supermarket shelves appear raw when really they are not.
Some, like cashews and many other nuts, may even be labeled raw when in fact they have been subjected to very high temperatures in the process of extracting them from their shells.
Buying Raw Food Online?
The good news is that it is possible to obtain many of these items in their truly raw form. You may find some things in your local health food store, but it is often easier to order online.
It is so easy these days to buy items like this on the internet and you can find many sites that will cater to people wanting to buy raw food to get the benefit of a non cooked, non processed diet.
Online Sites For Raw Foods
There are many online raw food suppliers in the USA and a quick search on Google for whatever you are looking for will quickly produce some online stores.
David Wolfe’s sunfoods.com specializes in raw cashews, chocolate/cacao and superfoods. In the UK, detoxyourworld.com provides most of the ingredients you could need to stock your raw kitchen. In Australia you can use getprice.com.au to find suppliers of just about anything.
As we have said, there are many foods that you might need to buy from a specialist raw food supplier if you want to be 100% raw. These include olives. Raw olives can be bitter so most of the olives that you find in the store have been cooked.
However, there are a couple of varieties that taste wonderful in their raw form and you can find these online. Order plenty because you might find they disappear very fast!
Buying Raw Almonds
The law now requires that all almonds produced in California must be pasteurized. This means most of the almonds sold in the USA and Canada, so check packaging and order from overseas if you have to.
In other countries, almonds are extracted from the shell without using heat. However, of course you want to buy them with their skins on.
White, skinless almonds, including chopped and ground, have been blanched in boiling water to remove the skins. And if you don’t like the skins, you can remove them quite easily after soaking the almonds overnight.
Buying Raw Dairy Foods
If you are not planning to be a raw vegan you may want to find a source of raw dairy foods to add enzymes and calcium into your diet.
Unpasteurized milk is illegal to be sold in stores in many jurisdictions although you can still often buy it direct from the farm. Unpasteurized cheese is usually easier to find since many specialty cheeses are traditionally made raw.
Be aware that as well as extra enzymes, raw dairy products can contain unwanted bacteria. Pregnant women in particular are usually advised not to consume raw dairy products.
You Can Even Get Raw Toothpaste
Finally, have you thought about toothpaste? OK, you probably don’t eat it, but you must be ingesting some of it and if you buy any kind of commercial brand it will not be raw, even if it is fluoride free.
Many people who go raw switch to Toothsoap which is free of undesirable chemical ingredients. It may take a few days to get used to the taste but it is not unpleasant and it is getting rave reviews.
So that is something to add to your list when you go online to buy raw food.
