The below information is adapted from the study materials provided by the Viva La Raw, where I had my training as a raw vegan chef in 2012.

What are Living and Raw Foods?

Adapted from:  http://www.living-foods.com/faq.html

Raw and Living foods contain enzymes and nutrients in their natural state, unadulterated by heat over 116° F. A "living" food is the highest standard of energy, the freshest, considered "living" up to 3 days after being picked, or in the process of growing. A "raw" food is considered older than 3 days after being picked, or one that is dormant (like a seed). All living foods are raw foods, but not all raw foods are living. A fresh-picked raspberry is living, but becomes a raw food when it is blended with other foods or frozen. Sunflower seed is living when it is sprouted, but raw when it is blended or dehydrated. Enzymes begin to be destroyed at 106° F and are completely destroyed by 126° F. All cooked food is devoid of enzymes, most vitamins, and minerals. Furthermore cooking food changes the molecular structure of the food and renders it toxic. Many scientific studies prove that living and raw foods have enormously higher nutrient values than cooked foods.

What is Raw?

Raw food diets can be a great way to not only lose weight but also lead a much healthier, natural lifestyle in general. Most raw food diets are plant-based, with at least 75% of the diet composed of fresh organic plants. Food examples include living and raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, and seaweed. But, for the strict raw food diet, nothing is heated over 116 degrees Fahrenheit.

Benefits of Raw

Here are just some of the awesome results you can experience on a healthy raw vegan diet: improved digestion, normalized weight, avoidance of hunger or deprivation, reduced risk of degenerative disease, increased energy, better sleep, great hair, smooth, soft skin, healthy teeth and gums, mental clarity, feeling lighter, greater overall well-being and so much more!

Raw Food is More Nutritious

Cooking food, whether you steam or fry it, removes much of the water from the food. This water is necessary for both hydrations of the body and the assimilation of many important nutrients by the body.

Raw food contains all its original phytonutrients. They are important for a strong immune system and for preventing cancers and other chronic diseases. Common examples include antioxidants (anti-aging) and cancer-protective nutrients, chlorophyll, carotenoids, chlorophyll, and lycopene. Phytonutrients are sensitive to heat… they are destroyed or damaged when heated above 130 degrees.

Vitamins are either water or fat-soluble and both are affected when exposed to heat. Cooking methods that use water may cause these vitamins to seep out of the vegetables.

Raw food keeps the original enzymes intact. They help start the digestive process… breaking down raw foods, increasing vitality and slowing the aging process. They are the most heat-sensitive of all nutrients, destroyed at temperatures above 118 degrees. The more enzymes present in your food, the more energy is left over for you to feel healthy and vital.

The proteins in raw food are the perfect building blocks. When proteins are heated, they are damaged, causing amino acids to congeal. They can cause inflammation and other problems.

Fiber in raw foods has many other beneficial properties in addition to “bulking up” food and decreasing calorie density: blood sugar regulation, lowers cholesterol, keeps everything moving. Fresh raw and living foods also contain an abundance of fiber to “mop up” or bind to any excess cholesterol, thus keeping cholesterol levels appropriately low.

Raw Food has the Right pH Balance

The human body’s cells function better when alkaline. Being acidic weakens the immune system. 

Processed food, cooked food, meat, dairy, sugar, pollution, and stress are acid-forming. 

Raw fruits and vegetables are highly alkalizing. 

Grains are acid-forming, except for millet, quinoa, amaranth, and buckwheat. 

Almonds are the least acidic nut. Raw foods are high in alkaline minerals – good for bone health!

Protein Content in Raw Foods

Only 10% of our calories need to be from protein. Our society has a cultural bias toward high-protein foods, i.e., meats, dairy, etc. Vegetables and fruits contain about 15% protein. The human body is able to absorb more protein from raw foods. Some of the rich protein sources in the raw diet are: nuts, seeds, nut/seed butters, dark leafy greens, sprouts, and algae.

Fat Content in Raw Foods

Higher-fat raw plant foods, such as coconuts, avocadoes, nuts, and seeds, contain relatively healthy, unsaturated fats such as Omega 3′s. These fats require less bile to emulsify them, so less cholesterol needs to be produced. Contrary to popular belief, though these foods are high in fat, the fats they contain are healthier than those found in animal products, and in some cases are essential to our health.

Raw Food is Not Altered

Cooking food completely changes the chemical makeup of the food. For example, heating proteins fuse the basic amino acid chains together in a process called denaturing. The human body cannot dissolve these unnatural bonds and so the food becomes useless to the body, not to mention toxic. Also, cooking carbohydrates results in the caramelization of the sugars, and heated fats quickly become rancid. Substance formation that can be toxic, i.e., acrylamide, heterocyclic amines, and nitrosamines.

Raw Food Contains Fewer Calories per Bite, Yet Very Satisfying

A pound of bananas contains only 400 calories with 3% fat. Compare that to the same amount of broiled steak and you get a whopping 1251 calories, 64% of which is fat! And that’s with the excess fat trimmed off. Calorie Dense foods have a high water and fiber content and low-fat content. These foods “fill you up” so you feel full and satisfied without too many calories that lead to weight gain. Various studies have shown that when people eat foods low in calorie density they can eat as much as they want and still achieve their optimal body weight. A stomach full of raw salad made of vegetables and sprouts would contain about 200 calories. That is not enough for most people, so adding some avocado, nuts and seeds, or dehydrated foods increases the calorie density to a more appropriate level.

Because raw foods retain their water and fiber, they are higher in volume. Therefore, you will need to eat less volume to be satisfied, and you can eat a very large amount of food and you will still lose weight! Okay, so raw foods are inarguably better for us.

Why Eat MORE Raw, Living, Plant-Based, Organic Foods

Your Health

What would you give for fewer colds/allergies, more energy, a slender body, a sharper mind, clear skin, better digestion, and a slashed risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, gallstones, infections, and premature death? No drug or surgery or supplement can give you all these. But a natural diet and lifestyle can.

The scientific evidence supporting a plant-based diet is so overwhelming that the meat and dairy industries have resorted to billion-dollar image campaigns to boost sales. But slick ads and misinformation cannot make us numb, dumb, and glum forever. Americans are turning away from drug-and-cut medicine, as they learn that vegetarians need it less.

The scientific evidence supporting a raw diet is less extensive, but growing. For example, scientists have known for years that cooking destroys nutrients (vitamins, antioxidants, enzymes) and creates toxins (trans fats, cross-linked proteins, heterocyclic amines). But new studies show that cooking starchy foods creates acrylamide, a potent carcinogen.

Think about it. Our species is the only one on Earth that energetically alters its food with heat. Animals that eat and live wild and naturally don’t get our epidemics of chronic disease.

Your Earth

If everyone shifted to organic plant food, the destruction of our planet would slow to a crawl. Chemical agriculture causes massive erosion, water, and air pollution, and fossil fuel consumption. Animal agriculture is the number one cause of vanishing aquifers, poisoned groundwater, huge coastal “dead zones”, vanishing rainforests, and mass extinction, and is a major cause of global warming (floods, droughts, and ecosystem collapse).

Many people are concerned about our fragile blue-and-green home. They want something left for their children and grandchildren. They don’t realize that the most powerful single action they can take, according to environmental scientists, is to change what they eat.

Your fellow creatures

Modern factory farms are not like the idyllic barnyards in storybooks. Billions of cows, pigs, and chickens are now treated very badly and suffer greatly throughout their lives. Overcrowding, filth, mutilation, appalling diets, drugs and hormones, sped-up production, and other abuses (even of “free-range” animals) make them sick and constantly terrified. Roughly 50% of dairy cows have mastitis (infected udders). When slaughtered, 70% of pigs have pneumonia, and 90% of chickens have leukosis (cancer).

Some people say that bringing the dark energy of tortured animals into our bodies brings misery into our spirits. We know that animal food definitely brings a greater risk of infection with deadly bacteria, cancer-causing viruses, and prions (Mad Cow disease).

It’s no fun to think about the suffering in the world, especially when you can do little about it. But you can do something about what you eat. You can satisfy your nutritional needs and eating pleasure with plant foods, and reduce the torture of creatures with feelings much like ours.

Joy

Around the world, people are waking up to the benefits of a natural diet - including the joy of raw and living foods. There is deep satisfaction in giving your body the highest-quality nutrients for which it is well designed . . . aging slower instead of faster . . . getting healthier instead of sicker . . . and making the world a little better instead of a little worse.

You need not sacrifice taste, familiarity, beautiful presentation, or social acceptance. Gradually, learning new culinary basics with a vast bounty of different flavors, vibrancy, and presentation - all forms of sunshine energy - will help you realize you are what you eat.   

How to Transition

Start slowly

Your body needs time to adjust and clean itself. Start including more fresh fruit, green salad, and green juice in your meals. Cut back on meat, dairy products, and cooked starchy foods. Try eating all raw one day per week, then two days. Or go for a 10-day raw challenge. Or eat only two cooked foods per meal, then only one. You’ll feel the difference, even immediately.

Stay balanced

You need a balance of three basic food groups as most of your diet: 

1.  Fruits (apples, oranges, berries, melons, etc.)
2.  Green leaves (dark lettuces, kale, collards, spinach, etc.)
3.  Raw plant fats (avocados, coconuts & their oil, nuts & seeds, durian)

Eat lots of sweet fruit, lots of green leaves, and some fat (as dressing, pâté, hummus, etc.). Add vegetables as desired, and sprouted grains and legumes occasionally. Try fruit for breakfast and snacks; greens, veggies, and fat for lunch and dinner.

Eat whole, ripe, raw, organic & wild

Organically-grown food costs more, but you get what you pay for. It is 2-10 times richer in minerals, contains no pesticides, and tastes better. It is better for you, your planet, and your palate. Wild unhybridized food is what your body was designed for before our ancestors started messing with Mother Nature. Take it easy with highly hybridized fruits (bananas, anything seedless) and vegetables (carrots, beets, white potatoes).

Be patient

If you are sick, you might feel sicker temporarily, as your body dumps stored toxins (heavy metals, drugs, cooked-food residues) that overwhelmed it and accumulated over a lifetime. This is called detoxification. Take it slow—eat more raw fat or cooked starch to slow down detoxification, if needed. Your body has tremendous healing power. Give it time (months or years) to fully recover from years of abuse.

Get support

Marching to a different drummer is not always easy. But you’re not alone. All around the world, people are learning the benefits of eating as Nature intended. Read raw-food books, visit websites, have dinner parties, and go to meetings, potlucks, and classes.

Live more naturally

Good food alone cannot make you healthy and happy. You also need sunshine (for vitamins and vital bio-information), fresh air, exercise, pure water, relaxation, balancing, spiritual awakening, and love. Daily walks outdoors will give you the first three. Use a water filter and nontoxic household products. Get mercury fillings out of your teeth. Avoid drugs and manmade chemicals whenever possible. If your health remains poor, find a doctor who will search for the root causes, not suppress the symptoms with drugs and surgery.

Believe in yourself

Change can seem overwhelming. It’s easier to stay in old ruts. But you deserve better. You are the masterwork of 3.5 billion years of evolution (or of God, depending on your point of view). You have the power to think, to plan, to take control. Don’t let fear and habit stop you. Small steps each week are enough. Then one day you’ll look back, and see how far you’ve come.

Clean House

It makes sense to stop throwing the dirt back into the house while you're cleaning it with a better diet. A gentle system of cleanses results in improved nutrient absorption, detoxification, a clearer mind, loss of excess weight, and healing effects. Suggestions: juice "fasting" (liquid nutrition only). Water fasting is more tolerable and useful after you've already done juice fasting. Do under practitioner supervision.

LIVE FOOD F.A.Q.s

Adapted from:  http://www.living-foods.com/faq.html

What are Enzymes?

Enzymes assist in the digestion of foods.  They are known to be the "Life-Force" and or "energy" of food.

From the dictionary: Any of the various complex organic substances, such as pepsin originating from living cells and capable of producing certain chemical changes in organic substances by catalytic action, as in digestion.

Why are Enzymes Important?

Enzymes are important because they assist in the digestion and absorption of food. If you eat food that is enzyme-less, your body will not get maximum utilization of the food. This causes toxicity in the body.   (Can you guess why >75% of Americans are overweight?)

Doesn't the acidic ph of the stomach destroy enzymes?

Viktorus Kulvinskas, one of the world's foremost and most experienced active researchers into enzyme nutrition has information showing that stomach acid merely deactivates food enzymes.  The enzymes are then reactivated in the more alkaline small intestine.  Many people who eat all raw foods sense a world of healthful differences in our energy, digestion, and connectedness with nature by eating enzyme-rich living foods. When we stopped eating cooked protein foods which require large secretions of stomach acid (which is not healthful for several reasons) our stomach doesn't produce much stomach acid.  Many people who eat raw foods eat a low-protein diet and are free from stomach acid secretions and have much more energy and a lighter disposition.

Is there a difference between living foods and raw foods?

Living and Raw foods both contain enzymes. In living foods, the enzyme content is much higher. Raw, unsprouted nuts contain enzymes in a "dormant" state. To activate the enzymes contained in almonds, for example, soak them in water for just 24 hours. Once the almonds begin to sprout, the enzymes become "active" and are then considered living. In the context of this website, the terms are used loosely.

Why eat only Organic Foods?

When juicing or eating foods, it is very important to choose only organically grown produce. "Conventional" or "industrial" produce are grown with pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, and other chemicals that are toxic and/or harmful to your body. Organic foods are grown without the use of these harmful substances, taste better, and are more nutritious.

Will rinsing wash off the pesticide from industrially grown produce?

Rinsing with cool water will remove some surface pesticide residue, but not the pesticide that was absorbed into the produce as it was grown. Some of the most severely tainted types of produce are strawberries and bell peppers. Some of the least tainted: are carrots and avocados.

Is this a "new" fad diet or something?

Not at all! Consider the following: during the vast majority of our existence on this planet, what choices did we have for food? What COULD we have eaten during the first 10-50,000 years (or more) before we discovered fire, tools, and implements to kill animals? The original diet of homo-sapiens MUST have been vegetables, fruits, and nuts! What other choices did we have? Clearly, a raw, plant-based diet is the main food staple throughout the vast majority of the history of Humankind! Before Humans started killing and eating a dead animal carcasses, we ate fruits, leaves, nuts, berries, etc...

Is this just another vegetarian or vegan diet?

Yes and NO! This is the ULTIMATE vegetarian/vegan diet. It should be the goal of all vegetarians, vegans, and SAD - [Standard American Diet] eaters to eat raw. The benefits are out of this world! Once you embrace an all-raw and living food diet, you are more living, have more energy, better health, think more clearly, and become more in tune with your body! This type of diet even gives you a "competitive edge" over people that eat life-less food. 

What is the difference between a raw/living foods diet and a vegetarian one?

Vegetarians and vegans believe in only eating a plant-based diet. Living and Raw Foodists believe in eating only an UNCOOKED, UNHEATED, UNPROCESSED, and ORGANIC plant-based diet.

What is a Living Foodist or Raw Foodist?

A person who eats 75% or more living/raw food.. The more, the better.   Optimally one should eat 100% raw and living foods if it feels right for them.

Is there just one type of living/raw foodist?

There are many subcategories of living/raw foodists. Some include: 

* Fruitarian - People who consume mostly fruits.

* Sproutarian - People who consume mostly sprouts. 

* Hygienists - People who consume mostly simple meals without complicated food combining. 

Why would someone want to eat a raw and living foods diet?

There are many reasons why people eat a raw and living foods diet.

1. Health: Persons embracing this type of diet invariably experience improvements in their general physical and mental status, including more energy, better health, more energy <smile>, weight loss, detoxification, and a sturdier immune system that better resists and recovers from just about any kind of disease... and the list goes on...

2. Energy efficiency: Since you no longer have to cook, you don't waste electricity, and save the environment. 

3. Since you eat organic agriculture, you help to save the planet. Most become more in-tune with their body; many report definite spiritual improvements.

4. No animal products are used, so the animals appreciate it. 

5. Humans are natural Frugivores (eating mostly fruits)

What do raw/living foodists eat?

Raw and Living Foodists eat all fruits, vegetables, sprouts, nuts, seeds, grains, sea vegetables, and other organic/natural foods that have not been processed.   In some instances, there are special ways to prepare the foods (for example most raw and living foodists soak/sprout nuts, seeds, and grains before consuming them).   

How can you tell if something is a raw/living food?

Most foods that have not been processed in any way, shape or form are raw and living foods (until cooked). Processed foods (canned, bottled or prepackaged) are most often adulterated, (changed from their original state) by heating, additives, preservatives, colorings, salt, and sugar. Don't think this is all for your benefit; the benefactor is the manufacturer's profit margin, NOT YOU. Try to purchase foods that are in their natural state. 

What do raw and living foodists drink?

Water (purified water or natural pure water - never tap water), Freshly made juices (made with your own juicer - and consumed immediately), coconut milk (from a young coconut), are some of the liquids living and raw foodists drink. Most all drinks purchased at the store have been processed (Including: soda, bottled juices, coffee, alcohol, and most others) and are not included in a living / raw foodist diet.

Where do raw and living foodists get their protein?

The WHO (World Health Organization) says humans need about 5% of their daily calories to come from protein to be healthy. The USDA puts this figure at 6.5%. On average, fruits have about 5% of their calories from protein. Vegetables have from 20-50% of their calories from protein. Sprouted seeds, beans, and grains contain from 10-25% of their calories from protein. So if you are eating any variety of living plant foods, you are getting more than adequate protein. Numerous scientific studies have shown the daily need for protein to be about 25-35 grams per day. So if you ate 2,000 calories per day, and ate raw plant foods that had an average of 10% of their calories from protein, you would get 200 calories worth of protein, or 50 grams. This is more than adequate to support optimal well-being. 

Other studies have shown that heat treating a protein (such as with cooking) makes about half of it unusable to the human body. So raw plant food protein is even a better source than cooked plant foods or animal foods. There is still a huge, foolish, misguided idea that plant protein is not "complete". This is based on studies done on rats in the 1940's. This false conclusion was drawn before we discovered the bodies protein recycling mechanism and its ability to "complete" any amino acid mix from our bodies amino acid pool, no matter what the amino acid composition of a meal consumed. This false idea is still perpetuated by the meat and dairy industries, in an attempt to influence people to continue consuming their truly health destroying products. 

Can we eat raw food in the cold climate?

by Victoria Boutenko  victoria@rawfamily.com. www.vegetarianbaby.com

Raw Family Newsletter, December 2004, www.rawfamily.com

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.

Let us take a closer look at this situation. Would a quarter pound of rice physically keep a 160 lbs body warm? In order to get warmed by it, one would have to fill a bathtub with warm rice and sit in it for 20 minutes.

So why do we feel warmer after consuming cooked food?

A hot meal, a cup of coffee or an ice-cold shot of vodka warm our bodies in the same manner. When any impure substances get into our blood through the walls of the intestines, they irritate our adrenals, the endocrine glands located above the kidneys. The adrenals immediately begin to produce epinephrine, norepinephrine and a variety of steroid hormones. These hormones stimulate our sympathetic nervous system, which is why we feel awake at first. 

They also force our heart to beat faster and to pump larger amounts of blood through our body, which makes us feel warm. This feeling doesn't last long and we pay a high price for it. After 10-15 minutes our body gets exhausted from performing extra work, the heart requires rest, the nervous system becomes inhibited, and we feel tired, sleepy and even colder than before. However, we remember only the feeling of getting warmer after eating cooked food and repeat such stimulation again and again. This harmful practice wears the body out and by the end of the winter many people feel exhausted and depleted.

Winter after winter of eating quantities of cooked food doesn't help the human body to withstand cold weather better. On the contrary, weakened adrenals eventually won't be able to work properly even at warm temperatures. For example, most older people feel cold even in the middle of the summer. Wool socks and sweaters become necessity to them.

Another reason why it is hard for many of us to tolerate cold temperatures is because eating a cooked food diet severely impairs our capillary circulation. According to Dr. Alexander Zalmanoff, author of "Sacred Wisdom of Human Body" (Paris, 1961) 80% of all blood in any human body is located in the capillaries and only 20% in arteries and veins.  Tiny capillaries get clogged easily by unnaturally large particles of cooked food, and the blood no longer circulates adequately.

If you truly want to feel warm during the cold season, a raw food lifestyle is inevitable choice for you. During your first "raw" winter you may experience some cold due to the weakened adrenals, so put on an extra sweater, take a hot bath, or do some pushups. If you will continue staying raw, your adrenals will rest and recover, your circulation will improve, your nervous system and your heart will naturally strengthen without any artificial stimulation.

In a year you will tolerate cold better than ever before. My family is going now through our eleventh "raw" winter. We do not feel any discomfort from cold. We jump in icy-cold mountain rivers year round for enjoyment. In fact that is how we celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve. We always sleep outside under the rain or snow. Sergei, my son, goes snowboarding sometimes wearing only shorts. My daughter Valya rarely wears socks. Igor, my husband, loves to take snow baths. We strongly believe that staying on a raw food diet has helped us to feel comfortable in any weather and not to feel the cold.

From Paul Nison, author of Raw Knowledge

http://www.rawlife.com/q-a.html 

Q. I live in a cold climate. Do I need cooked foods to keep my body warm?

A. No! In fact, eating cooked foods in cold weather will make you feel colder. If it is cold outside and your warm body goes into that cold, you will feel colder. Why do you think that when you see people drinking hot liquids, they look so cold? Your body will handle the cold weather much better on a raw diet. This is something many people, including me, have noticed since switching to a 100% raw diet.

• Warming Foods increase Circulation, Cleansing, Digestive Fire (agni)

Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cayenne, cumin, ginger, garlic, fennel, chives, green onion, dates, honey, carrots, beets, radishes, tomatoes, mustard, onions, nut and seed sprouts, corn, flax, millet, rye, buckwheat (exceptionally warming), watercress, parsley, wheatgrass, turmeric, durian, cauliflower, broccoli, arugula, bee pollen, cabbages, hot peppers, horseradish, kale, radish and nasturtium flowers, pumpkin seeds, spirulina. Green foods balance the agni and make it burn clean, and cleanse the liver and blood. Liver is the furnace of the body. Maintain body heat with earth elements such as nuts and seeds  hold heat in the body to bulk up the stool. Extreme hot spices cause looser stool and release of water, thus releasing heat. That's why larger stools are more desirable in winter.

Avoid mucous-forming foods - rice, bread, pasta, all animal products, cooked oils

Avoid capillary constricting foods such as alcohol and caffeine

Avoid overeating (douses digestive fire), cold water, ice cubes, frozen treats 

Avoid microwaving (denatures structure of the water)

Avoid overly hot spices, safflower oil

Reduce intake highly cooling foods

Increase intake of sulfurous foods (most of above)

Increase intake of vegetable juices

Increase intake of mucous dissolving foods such as radishes, beets

Apply mustard oil (if you are really cold) or sesame oil before showering or steamroom

There is nothing wrong with eating a pineapple in Minnesota in the middle of winter. It might be very cold outside, but inside your house, where you are eating, it is warm and cozy as in a tropical climate.

• Water   

More important than food, Best water is in fresh foods

Alternatives are suncharged water, distilled, spring

Drink separate from meals and on arising in morning (add lemon to clear mucous)

Temp from 65F to 105F

• Warming foods to 105F - Dehydrator, Double boiler, Sun teas

• Exercise - Plenty of it, oxygenates tissues, deep yoga bellows breathing to warm body before eating

• Sunshine - Plenty of it, expose as much as possible, source of all life. Bask don't burn.

• Sleep - at least 8 hrs, restorative function, before midnight when liver cleanses, use warm covering

• Warm Clothes - Don’t' chill out. We are tropical creatures.

• Warm Thoughts, Warm Heart

Meditation, Yoga, Qi Cong, and other mind/energy controlling techniques

Elimination of fears, they can be chilling

• Keeping Skin Moist in Cold Climate

Flax and hemp oils and seeds, borage and primrose oils rich in Omega 6 and gamma-linolenic fatty acids

Eat sufficient fat in diet from sprouted or soaked nuts, seeds, avocado 

Avoid very dehydrating foods such as coffee, alcohol, starchy carbohydrates like rice, bread, pasta 

Consume coconut oil to repair tissues

• According to traditional culinary wisdom, foods are hot, warm, neutral, cool or cold. Spices tend to be warming and fruit tends to be cooling. Sweeter fruits are better insulators than sour fruits. To assess a food's thermal properties use the following guidelines and proper combination.

• Growth

More cooling - Foods that grow quickly, like bean sprouts, cucumbers, summer squash

More warming - Foods that take longer to grow, like cabbage, carrots, winter squash. 

• Color 

More cooling - blue, green, or purple colored 

More warming - red, orange or yellow. 

Thus, a lime cools more than a lemon. 

• Region 

More cooling - tropical and sub-tropical foods like coconuts, mangos and pineapple.

More warming - temperate-zone foods like berries and apples  

• Water content

More cooling - High water content foods like cucumbers, watermelon, and lettuces

More warming - Lower water content foods like soaked nuts, squash, root crops, cabbage

• SELECTED HERBS FOR WINTER

ASTRAGALUS

Chinese families regularly add astragalus, Huang Qin-yellow energy builder, to the family stewpot during the cold season, so that everyone can get a daily immune boost. Used as a maintenance tonic and to assist healing, astragalus increases stress adaptation and amplifies the efficiency of just about every type of immune function. Astragalus can be used for acute cold and flu symptoms, and in just about any case it will produce improvement.

CINNAMON BARK

Native to Sri Lanka and India, Cinnamon Bark is a sweet tonic that increases general vitality, warms and energizes the body as a whole, counteracts congestion, stops diarrhea, improves digestion and relieves abdominal spasms. It increases circulation to the joints and kills bacteria and viruses.

GINGER

Recognized as "the universal medicine" in Ayurveda this zesty herb is a time-tested remedy for stomach upset. It aids digestion and is one of the best herbs for nausea. Ginger helps to regulate blood sugar both by stimulating pancreas cells and by lowering lipids (cholesterol, triglycerides) in the blood. Ginger increases peripheral circulation so it warms cold hands and feet.

MULLEIN

Mullein is a common wildflower that grows almost anywhere. Herbalists recommend mullein for coughs, sore throats, and other respiratory irritations. Mullein is most effective when combined with herbs of similar qualities, such as slippery elm bark and elecampane root. Mullein is also an immune enhancer, active against respiratory disorders.

RHODIOLA

For centuries Siberians have been using rhodiola, also known as golden root or arctic root, to thrive in their cold climate. Popular as an adaptogen, it relieves fatigue and increases the body's natural resistance to stress. Rhodiola appears to promote a comprehensive resistance to physical, chemical, and biological stress. It strengthens the nervous system, immunity, exercise capacity, energy levels, curbs depression, and may even lengthen lifespan. Rhodiola perks up mental function and memory by enhancing blood supply to the brain.

THYME

Thyme is a powerful herbal antiseptic. It's also an expectorant, loosening the phlegm, and antispasmodic. It is used for upper respiratory infections, especially for dry hacking coughs. Its active ingredient Thymol is one of the most powerful antimicrobial substances well known as one of the strongest antibiotics.