sarahfae | Get active! Move around in your kitchen!

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Get active! Move around in your kitchen!

A recent post in the raw veganisim community has sent me into a flurry of web research in regards to Agave nectar actually being a raw, "living" food.

(This may be old news to you - if so I apologize for my newbie-ness!)

What I've learned thus far is: There are NO raw food regulators that oversee natural food manufacturing companies and those products that are marked "RAW".

What does this mean? Well, these wonderful companies that produce such things as Agave, Coconut Oil, ect., can throw the word "RAW" on a label just as easily as a baby can shit in a diaper --- and in my opinion neither one of these things is appealing, nor raw.

What does it really mean when you see "RAW" on a label at your local grocery store? Nothing. Unless of course you know for a fact that the company producing has not exceeded in heating said product above the 118F mark...but then again, they don't have to even tell you that. Unless of course you ask.

So, for the first time in my life I'm really getting active - I've got a number of emails out to various natural food companies that produce and distribute in my area - these are the companies that have "RAW" marked on their products, but don't have any specifics noted anywhere else on the label.

Now, I should admit to you that this has me frustrated - mainly because I've never really cared enough in the past to send emails to companies, drilling them for direct answers about their products, but I'm really quite a bit peeved. In a away this recent realization has me yet again acknowledging the sad, but true fact that buying pre-made products is rarely a good idea - especially when there are SO many resources out there that enable you to make basically anything you could/would buy (on a grocery store shelf) in your own home.

So what does this really mean for me, and possibly you too?
I'm going to start making my own liquid and dry sweeteners (a few different versions) - and screw those idiots trying to fool me into buying their "raw" products. I'm not gonna! I'll also be experimenting more with making "at home" healthy raw food versions of mass produced, and more often than not bad for you foods and products that I'm sicksicksick of buying because it "makes life easier". 'Cause you know what? With a little bit of preparedness just about anything you want to make can be really easy, and not intimidating!

The end.

Or is it?

P.S. I'll keep you all posted on any responses that I get back from the companies that I've emailed.

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This is great. I look forward to seeing what you come up with as far as homemade sweeteners! =)

Also, if you ever feel so inclined, I'd love to read a write-up of your findings on agave. I've read mixed opinions/reviews but admit I've never done the heavy research.

Love your journal and all your creativity!
~Sayward

Thank you so much!! I'm working on gathering information on my findings in regards to Agave...and I actually *just* recieved my first response back from one of my many emails...and it's exciting! I'll make a post about it soon.
Thank you again for the kind words :)

The OP commented both in the post and the comments that date syrup would make a suitable alternative. I've kept the leftover soaking water from dates and used it in my muesli (which is obviously neither raw nor vegan but it is very yummy), but I'm not sure how it would work by mixing dates and water together. I guess I'm hesitant because I can't think of how to mix the two without ending up with lumpy mush. I like agave because it's kind of a glue as well as a sweetener. I know that by grinding up flax seed into a powder and then mixing it with water, it can become egg-like and is used in a lot of vegan baking recipes as an egg alternative. Maybe flax-water could be the glue so that we don't end up with crumbles, and the date-water could be the sweetener? Or maybe raisin or fig-water?

Since dried fruit is usually quiet sweet, maybe also something like dried strawberries and water could be mixed if the dish is a strawberry-centred one? Or rasberries? Apricots maybe? Don't think you can dehydrate rockmelon or watermelon, but if you could (and I think I'll have to give it a try sometime), they'd totally be awesome sweeteners.
I don't know, just thinking (typing?) out loud here.

I'm totally intrigued by the maple sugar mentioned in the post, but I'm just wary of all of my food having a maple flavour, because I think my tastebuds would get bored.

I don't know why I feel this way, and it's probably not fair, but I find myself skeeved out by stevia. Mentally I can't help putting it in the same category as Nutra-sweet and those other chemicals masquerading as 'sugar', and I'm really seriously anti-fake food.

And I'm totally with you on homemade things being invariably better than pre-made things, both in taste and in health benefits. And I totally enjoy my food SO much more when I know that it was ME that made it!

Hope most of the companies respond -- I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to say.

why is muesli not vegan?

I totally should've been clearer -- I meant 'my muesli', which has whole milk, yoghurt and honey (in addition to other yummy goodness). It's totally not at all obvious to anyone who isn't, well, me, despite my claim that muesli 'obviously not raw or vegan'.
I'm glad you mentioned that though, because I assumed that muesli was always a dairy thing (with some people using only milk or cream instead of yoghurt). Apparently it can be used with fruit juice or even water. I'm still getting used to this whole raw vegan thing, so thinking outside the omnivore box is not my forte.

I'm dumb and live in my own little world sometimes!

Yeah, I went muesli shopping the other day and a lot aren't vegan because of honey, but I haven't seen yoghurt...? I haven't heard of anyone putting on yoghurt or cream on their muesli either.

I'm not raw, but I've used water in my cereals when I ran out of soymilk. It's really not that bad. :p

I've made a couple raw vegan cakes and such, but I really want to find out more, and I am so impressed by

sarahfaes recipes. Ze makes raw look like more than salads and green smoothies, as seems to be the case in a lot of raw vegan blogs and communities.

I think putting yoghurt and/or cream might be an Aussie/European thing, since everyone I knew growing up seemed to add it to their muesli, but hardly anyone does here in the US (actually, hardly anyone here even seems to know what muesli is, but maybe that's a DC thing?).

And I'm totally with you on the love for Sarahfae's recipes. I always discounted raw veganism because it looked gross and boring, but I would challenge anyone to look at the things she's made and not want to try it themselves! I haven't even intentionally tried to become raw vegan (or even vegan or vegetarian), but I'd say that 75% of what I eat is raw vegan thanks to this journal (25% being my daily cup of tea with milk and semi-regular bowl of muesli). I'll stop gushing, but yeah, her food is amazing.

I'm Australian, and have never encountered it.
I was a little taken aback when you said muesli, since, as you said, it doesn't seem many people in the US know about it (and I assumed you were from the US).

Indeed. I need to get a dehydrator though. I was set on making a carrot cake ze made, but it called for a dehydrator. :(

I'm actually thinking of bringing my dehydrator with me when I move back to Aus, since I love it so much. It really is simply a godsend and I'm constantly amazed at how much you can do with it.

I used my oven for a bit before I was comfortable with using my dehydrator, but it's so hard to keep it constant but at a low enough temperature. I'd also love to try making a solar oven (obviously slightly inefficient, to keep the temps low) in the hopes of being more eco-friendly, but that's one of those projects in the 'some day' box.

I love yoghurt and muesli. And fruit. And honey.

And walnuts and sunflower seeds and rolled oats and flaxseed and coconut and sultanas and apples and cinnamon and . . . and I'm definitely craving muesli now. Sigh.

Though I just realised you're in Aus, so maybe it's a QLD thing. Or maybe I just know really weird people. The mystery deepens . . .

Crazy Queenslanders.

Meh, mexicans! ;-)

(Actually, I'm originally from Penrith but now call Brisbane my true home, so I'm kind of a mexican myself. Shhh, don't tell anyone.)

O rly? I lived in Penrith for 2.5 years. I moved from there about a year ago.

Is it still as, uh, bogan as it used to be? I haven't been back in ages, and I always fear that I'll go back and find it so completely different to my fond childhood memories. Such a lovely place.
I do mean that sincerely. Okay, so it's not near the beach, but being in between the Blue Mountains and Sydney is not a bad place to be. I still think the Nepean River is one of the most beautiful rivers in the world, but people always look at me funny when I say that.

Seems to be quite bogan still. I was not too fond of it. I wanted out. I'd prefer to live in the Inner West. Newtown feels more like home to me (though I've never lived there)

I'm convinced that one day I will move back to Penrith and have everyone voting Green by the end of it (stop laughing). I don't know, I find something attractive about suburban blue-collar areas (but simultaneously want to make then Green blue-collar areas). Though I say this from upper-class high-density Arlington Virginia, so take that as you will!

You two are great! and making me want to visit Australia very badly. i'll trade a stay at my house (food included) in cloudy cali, for a floor to sleep on in Aus.

Usually reputable raw food sites done the homework for you. I'm sure you know "raw" almonds are usually not raw. I get mine from Spain. This means, a lot of raw almond butter isnt raw. There is a brand made with truly raw almond butter made with spain almonds. A lot of cashews arent truly raw either. You just have to know your source. If you buy online you have to know that they have done all the leg work for you.

FYI there is a similar debate about Braggs Aminos though there are even more charges against it aside from simple raw nonraw ie comparing to MSG

http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13049

http://www.essentialoilcookbook.com/html/fascinating-braggs.htm

http://welikeitraw.disqus.com/bragg_liquid_aminos_history_repeats_itself/

http://acidalkalinediet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=402

Eeesh! I had no idea it had MSG! Ahhhhh!

In a vaguely related note, one of the comments from the second link kind of bugged me: 'If it was so toxic, I would be sick by now.'
Personally, I think this is why people are so happy to consume processed junk and hormone-infested meat instead of healthy organic fresh produce. 'Surely if it was really harmful, we'd all drop dead immediately and the cause would be totally obvious.' I'm no scientist, but I can't help thinking that illnesses caused by the toxins we ingest aren't exhibited until years down the road, and often by that time, it's too late. Add to the the fact that there's no way to isolate one product in a human to conclusively prove that said product causes (or doesn't cause) cancer, and you've got people fooled into thinking that factory-farmed beef is totally healthy to eat.

I checked the wikipedia entry for soy cause, which includes this alarming snippet: 'Many cheaper brands of soy sauces are made from hydrolyzed soy protein instead of brewed from natural bacterial and fungal cultures. These soy sauces do not have the natural color of authentic soy sauces and are typically colored with caramel coloring, and are popular in Southeast Asia and China, and are exported to Asian markets around the globe. They are derogatorily called Chemical Soy Sauce, but despite this name are the most widely used type because they are cheap. Similar products are also sold as "liquid aminos" in the US and Canada.

Some artificial soy sauces pose potential health risks due to their content of the chloropropanols carcinogens 3-MCPD (3-chloro-1,2-propanediol) and all artificial soy sauces came under scrutiny for possible health risks due to the unregulated 1,3-DCP (1,3-dichloro-2-propanol) which are minor byproducts of the hydrochloric acid hydrolysis.'
I don't know how I feel about 'Liquid Aminos' being alternately known as 'Chemical Soy Sauce'!

I tried looking up homemade soy sauce as an alternative, and it might be intersting to try, but none of the options are raw vegan. Most seem to include beef bullion and/or molasses, and involve boiling for a bit.

The next best thing might be nama shoyu (http://www.rawganique.com/Food1.htm), though according to one board, nama shoyu shouldn't be substituted for Bragg's, although the other way around is fine (http://goneraw.com/forum/liquid-aminos-vs-nama-shoyu), though I can't see why that would be.

Yeah I think it's a very slippery slope to claim the "i'm not sick now so it's okay" argument.

I've been using Nama Shoyu ever since I heard about the Bragg's thing a few years ago. It works fine for me & I never need to use very much. Also, South River brand Miso is high quality, I use that now and again for the same flavoring too.

Oh that makes me so happy! A raw vegan alternative that isn't laced with MSG and is still yummy! I will buy some asap! :-D

this is really interesting, illumealli.
while i didn't know this, i've actually (as of recent) been phasing braggs aminos out of my kitchen. i'm now inclined to just toss what little i have left in the garbage.i seem to rarely use salt anymore, and if i do it's just sea salt. man how taste buds can change along with a new eating-lifestyle.

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