Can you eat anything raw??

[Holli]

Hi everyone!

I am very new to eating raw...I've heard that it dangerous to eat some grains raw. I am trying to transition my family and I'm having the hardest time with breakfast. My 2 and 3 year old just aren't satisfied with fruit or smoothies when they have been accustomed to cereal or waffles or eggs every morning. On a whim, I tried mixing raw oatmeal (quaker whole oats) with almond milk, some raisons, diced apples, and cinnamon and it is their new favorite breakfast! It is okay to eat raw oatmeal, right?? Can they eat it every day? That's all they ask for now. I vary it up with different fruits, but they love the cold oatmeal! I just want to make sure it is a healthy breakfast if they are going to be eating so much of it.

Any other breakfast for small kids (and big husbands)?? :)

Thank you!

[Rawkinlocs]

Hi Holli and welcome!

Well, Quaker oats (and most oats sold in stores, even oat groats) may be raw in the sense they are not cooked on the stove, but they're not raw because they steam-treat them to avoid rancidity for longer shelf-life.

However, Alissa sells on her site some truly raw oats that you can do the same with the almond milk, etc. I LOVE raw oat cereal! But, I did make the conscious decision to buy oat groats from my food co-op and consume them. My family and I do not have a problem with them to date, so I still use them though they are not "truly" raw and we have a hand-cranking grain flaker that I use to roll them myself (figure at least they aren't DOUBLY-steamed that way! ;)). That is a personal choice you have to make. But again, if you want the truly raw oats, then you can order them from Alissa.

Other raw grains are also available such as barley, rye, wheat berries, spelt berries, and the one "grain" that really ISN'T a grain and is gluten-free, buckwheat. You can soak and sprout those and use for various things as well. If you don't have a copy of Living on Live Food, I highly recommend getting a copy!

As for other breakfast ideas, there are MANY recipes in our recipe section! You could give them some raw apple pie and a scoop of (frozen) banana ice cream on the side (or on top) if you wanted to! With raw, you don't have those confines of "breakfast foods", "lunch foods" and "dinner foods". Sometimes I'll have a strong craving for salad in the morning, so I have a salad. Sometimes I may want a slice of left over raw pizza, so I'll have that. It's pretty much "anything goes"! :)

But again, in our recipe section, there is an eggplant "bacon" recipe, a Spanish "egg" scramble recipe, a raw, banana-based "pan"cake recipe, a cinnamon roll recipe and more. Some things require a dehydrator and some do not. But search around in there and you'd be amazed at what you find!

[exurb]

sorry to burst your bubble, but Quaker oats are not raw. They are processed. Steamed when rolled flat like that. An oat groat looks something like a kernel of wheat.

Hopefully others will be by soon to answer your other questions.

[exurb]

Rawkinlocs posted just as I was posting. You can blend the buckwheat groats she mentioned into a nice oatmeal-like cereal. Delicious with apples, cinnamon, pinch of salt, squirt of lemon, and whatever else you want to add.

[mikeshafer]

I'd avoid grain. Grain should only be used if you are in a famine or drought. Most of the ancient civilizations only used grain when they had no other choice.

It preserves forever--I don't know if this is a good thing. Hell you can open up ancient Egyptian tombs and still eat the grain inside them.

[Bobbie]

If you soak barley for 24 hours and then blend it, with a sweetener such as banana, its like cooked oatmeal. It goes off very quickly though.

[Holli]

As far as barley is concerned...are the bags of pearl barley in the grocery store raw??

[Rawkinlocs]

No, pearled barley isn't raw.

[Holli]

Okay, so how do I know if something is raw if it doesn't stipulate on the package that it is raw? Where can I get raw barley and raw oats (a health food store)? I just moved to San Luis Obispo county in CA. There are no Whole Foods or Wild Oats here...must be a health food store somewhere, I just haven't found it yet!