FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions on my Raw Diet

What is your daily diet?

You can find my current diet (as at 2nd March 2011) here: My daily diet – what a raw fooder eats

Can you recommend any books and information on wild foods?

The classic British wild food books are Food For Free by Richard Mabey and Wild Food by Roger Phillips. Food for Free comes in several versions; with colour photos, with hand drawn illustrations and a pocket version (with less plants). I have the edition with colour photos, some of the photos are good, but many are not clear. This edition also devotes a lot of space to recipes (cooked, so of no interest to me).

The Neighborhood Forager by Robert K Henderson is an American book which has a lot of useful detail about a smaller number of wild foods but not great images for identification. Most of the information is relevant for the UK.

Wild Flowers of Britain by Roger Phillips is an excellent identification guide. Each plant is photographed on a plain background so you can see it clearly. This book is not specifically about edibles, although it does mention that some plants are edible. This book can be used in conjunction with the PFAF website to find out if a particular plant is edible or not.

Wild Flowers by Neil Fletcher is very good for identifying plants, but has no information on edibility, so must be used in conjunction with other books or the PFAF website. To help with identification, each plant has a photo of the plant, a photo of the plant in it’s habitat, a closeup of the leaves and a closeup of the flower plus text explaining identifying features.

Do you own a dehydrator? Are they necessary?

No, I don’t own a dehydrator. They are by no means essential for a raw diet and I personally find most dehydrated food hard to digest.

How do you recommend I transition to a raw diet?

I recommend that you take it slowly. Just keep adding new raw items to your diet. Don’t think about stopping eating cooked food, that will happen naturally as you add more and more raw. Start by adding fresh fruit to your current breakfast. Add a salad with (or before) your evening meal. Replace any unhealthy snacks with healthier ones – fresh fruit, raw chocolate, nuts or dried fruit.

Where can I buy raw dairy produce?

In the UK you can only buy unpasteurised milk direct from the farmer, either at a farm shop or farmers market. Cheese made with unpasteurised milk can be purchased in many health food shops, although some cheese is cooked during the manufacturing process (even if made with raw milk) so you need to contact the producer to confirm, or make your own if you want to be certain it is raw. In the UK you can get raw milk from Hook & Son, Carpenters Hill Farm or Gazegill, and cheesemaking supplies from Moorlands Cheesemakers.

If you have a question, email me on website@rawrob.com