Fortunately for those of us newly interested in eating organic and raw foods, there are lots of products out there. Natural and organic foods used to be found only in natural food stores, and those could be few and far between. While not as ubiquitous as McDonald’s, there ARE many more stand-alone stores. And the grocery chains are catching on too, with more organic selections than ever before. If you don’t see them in your grocery store, just ask. You’re probably not the only person in your neighborhood who’d like to see more of these options.

Many grocery stores now feature sprouts and other living foods in the produce aisle. Of course, if they don’t, there’s nothing easier to grow yourself than sprouts!

There are also tons of sites on the Web where you can order raw and living foods. Just do a search on raw foods and you’ll come up with a lot of different places to order the foods you’d like to buy. Many of these sites are also full of useful information, to help you learn about eating raw foods, and help educate you on the specific food values.

What else? Experiment with what you like. Take the time to learn a little about what the different nutrients in foods do for you. A few examples:

Cabbage – High in Vitamin C; important for healthy cell function

Shitake mushrooms – contain essential fatty acids and antioxidants to support a healthy immune system

Kale – Rich in fiber and helps reduce calorie intake with less hunger. We like that!

Barley – Loaded with niacin, fiber and iron and is important for healthy blood sugar.

Pumpkin – So rich in fiber and vitamins; helps reduce appetite by filling the stomach with indigestible fibers

You might agree on an intellectual level that eating raw foods is a good idea. But does the thought of abandoning a lifetime of eating habits for the sake of what seems like a good idea seem like more than you can do?

So don’t! That’s silly and the surest way to guarantee you won’t even give a raw foods diet a fighting chance. “Everything in moderation” and we think that applies to even the healthiest notions. It’s not healthy if you won’t do it!

Don’t think of trying a raw foods diet as taking anything AWAY. Try adding them in. We think if you add in things like raw vegetables, sprouts, fruits and juices, you won’t be as hungry and when you’re not hungry, you won’t give into impulsive eating. If you want that steak, or even a McDonald’s hamburger, plan for it and enjoy it. Once you start eating raw foods though, and notice how good you feel on them and how much more energy you have, that hamburger just won’t look as good to you.

You do want to be sure though, that you’re getting enough of the right kinds of nutrition. Eating raw foods doesn’t mean eating only the raw foods you like. Watermelon is good for you, but it’s not enough. The same with most foods. You’ll need to do a little research into which raw foods have the essential proteins, or what combinations of food you need to eat to get enough protein. Raw food eating is intended to nourish your body in a completely different way, but just being raw isn’t enough. You want to do this to be in balance, and you need to balance the raw foods you’re eating for proper nutrition.

One way to ensure that you are getting enough nutrients is to incorporate a new vegetable every week. Buy something you have never heard of, like a “leek”, or “swiss chard.” You will find a whole new world of tastes and textures open up to you. You will feel more and more deterred by fast food. I guarantee it.

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.

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.

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 for 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!

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.

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.

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.