What does a raw food vegan eat to stay warm in the winter?
Both chinese and indian medicine identify foods that are warming or thermogenic. These are great for helping you stay warm.
Using spices in the food. (thermogenic spices)
Add warming spices to your salad, dressing, soups and dehydrates.
Most of the herbs in chai are considered warming (cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, and cardamom). Also Cayanne, cloves, cumin, turmeric sweet basil, oregano, thyme, mustard seeds.
Dandelion greens and nettles too.
Warm foods
Well, lets start with warming up the food you eat.
Drink warm water and don’t eat right out of the refrigerator.. warm it up or at least let it get to room temperature. You can blend your salads with some warm water but remember to still chew!
Yes, we drink our tea and that’s good. But what about making soup with hot water, and/or warming our foods.
You can warm your foods by using a double boiler or just putting it in a pot on the stove and using your finger to tell when it gets warm. If its not liquid, you can put it in the oven set on 100 to warm it.
Keep your dehydrator going
I personally, keep my dehydrator going. I make crackers from left overs, so I have a tray of savory vegetable crackers, I have a tray or two of wrappers, and one of sweets like cookies. They are ready to eat, warm!
Get up and move!
Get your circulation going! Get some exercise to warm yourself. up.
Wear extra clothes, socks, booties, and put on extra blankets.
Avoid getting chilled.
Take a hot bath!
Use a space heater.
Adding some cooked food
If you eat some cooked food, then hearty stews with a base of blended steamed yams with cinnamon, cardamom and curry is great!
I also like to sprout beans and cook them into a bean soup. I add a red miso at the end. The red miso is more warming than the white miso. Barley miso is warming and also drying, so good for the damp constitution.
Sources:
(1) http://www.raw-foods-diet-center.com
(2) http://www.botanical-online.com
(4) http://www.naturalfoodbenefits.com
(5) http://pharmacologyonline.silae.it[PDF]
(6) http://www.herbalextractsplus.com
(7) http://www.livingfood101.com
(8) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Katharine Clark, RN 