Eternal Cheesecake

I keep getting questions about raw food, especially after my latest Facebook update:

I’m in sensual bliss mode!

I just returned from a raw food potluck and the tastes and textures were so suprising and decadent and vibrant that I ate and ate and ate. The pleasure of eating has never been so heightened in my life. I now know I can’t go wrong with “my” cilantro pesto. The cool thing is that it is observed to removed heavy metals from the body. Ridiculously tasty yet functional??? Sounds geeky to me.

When a friend read that, she asked, “Where on earth do you find this food?? Is it really good?”

Is it really good?

I wish you could’ve seen the expression on our faces as we all were enraptured in sampling what everyone brought. Raw food is a completely different way of looking at this otherwise unconscious act of putting things into ones mouth, but it’s one well worth getting over the inertia to seek out.

Where do you find it?

Well, it helps to locate a group who’s already into it so that you can “get it” quickly. They’ll have potlucks and will welcome you with open arms because the benefits are so many and they want to share how wonderful it can be. (To be honest, some of it is bland, but that’s only because they do not yet know how to make it great; that comes soon enough once they’re hooked on what it can be.)

Otherwise, there’s books at your book store and video tutorials, some free, some as part of a course, that teach you what is easy and tasty to put together. Some emphasize the weight loss aspect, some the bodybuilding aspect, some the cellular healing aspect, and some the full-on taste aspect. It depends on what you want to get out of it.

To each his own

I find that it comes as an answer to a personal desire for something more, and is therefore unique to each searcher. For me, it was Brendan Brazier’s book “The Thrive Diet” that won me over because he’s winning vegan triathlete, he’s very clear, and he promised me that it would give me more energy. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that all of his recipes are winners.

Now approaching Planet Yum

If the raw food world seems foreign, it’s because it is. However, there’s a vegan/raw analog to anything you’re used to eating, and chances are that the tastes and textures are more vibrant than what you’re used to. I find the remaining benefits to my body and planet are just the “icing on the cake.”

I get requests for this recipe all the time, and with good reason: it’s so creamy, so chocolatety, so comforting, so easy to make, and from plants to boot!

People have come to associate this recipe with me, as if I invented it… no… I’m just the messenger. It’s from the book, “Health By Chocolate“.

Even though after yesterday’s discovery about chocolate not being the “super food” as it was touted to be by marketers, I still have a soft spot for it. I’m even thinking of making a surprise batch for a friend’s birthday present.

What is it? It’s called “Quick Creamy Chocolate Avocado Custard”, or as I’ve been referring to it as my “Chocolate Avocado Mousse”. (Click for the full size view)

My heart sunk…

I started to read that chocolate isn’t a superfood as was claimed to be, by marketers, of course. That it wasn’t healthy. That it is actually a toxin for the liver, a stimulant for the heart.

Bleah.

But I read it all, and took it in, starting with Paul Nison’s post, “Raw Chocolate–Harmful for Your Health“, that goes into details.

Bleah.

Well, I have been going at the chocolate powder added to my daily plant-protein puddings pretty hard lately. Like 3 Tbsp a day. Plus some unsweetened callebaut chocolate that I like to transmute into my own nightly treats, as I’ve blogged previously.

It’s said that chocolate makes it harder for the body to detox, and so what I’m going to do is kick the chocolate, substituting carob instead, and see how I feel, and if my head gets sharper in the meantime.

I also discovered that agave nectar, one of my favorite sweeteners, isn’t what I had thought it to be due to its high fructose content. So I’m going to drop that too. See if I can find some good stevia, not the white stuff which I had been taking before, and also some honey, and play with sweet fruits more.

Maybe this will help me to get “The Thrilling” feeling back…. but damn… chocolate… wonder if I’m addicted to it…