Is this raw?

[Amii]

I went out and bought some "condiments" today so I could try out some raw recipes. One of the things I bought was a packet of mixed dried fruits, and after carefully scanning the ingredients list and only coming across one "unraw" addition (a preservative which I figured was inevitable) I thought it seemed fine so I bought it.

When I got home and had another look I saw something that must have slipped me previously: "Candied lemon peel". Candied?? Is this raw?

In addition on the front of the package it says they've been "glazed".. god help me. Is THIS raw?

After this annoying blow I said to my parents "where the hell are you meant to buy genuine ingredients in this city, ones that haven't been processed or anything?" My dad just about laughed, shook his head and said "You can't really, hun, there's not enough people wanting organic and raw food. There's no where to really buy it around here apart from the ethnic shops."

For anyone living in England, I live in Nottingham, if you know anywhere I could go that'd be great :D

So... in the meantime... what do I do and, what can you tell me about what I said about the dried fruits? :(

[Rastadawta]

Greetings.
I reside in Brooklyn, NY but will try to help. Try to Google Russell James (www.therawchef.com) and Karen Knowler (www.therawfoodcoach.com) since they both reside in England. Try www.fresh-network.com for Get Fresh, a magazine I truly love. Try to buy fruits and veggies for yourself and become intrigued with your food. Touch and smell it to know the differences with regular fruits and organic/local fruits. For nuts, buy unprocessed nuts in a shell if possible and make your own mixed versions with raisins, pumpkin seeds whatever. Good luck!

[Tsurugi_Oni]

I'd get a refund.

Candied fruit peels are usually "boiled" in a sugar syrup.

[kaybee]

yeah def take it back...glazed usually means glazed with sugar (check the ingredients again, i bet you'll find sugar in there...?)

also, its not inevitable to have preservatives in food, even dried fruit. look for the ones that do NOT have SO2 (sulfur dioxide) as an ingredient. there shouldnt be any ingredients other than the names of the fruits. i think you might have better luck getting pure fruit if you buy it in packages that sells one kind at a time (dates, etc); those mixes they tend to add sweetner to. i could be wrong but i think if you get organic dried fruit it wont have preservatives in it, or at least is less likely to. You could probably get organic dates at Tesco...they have some other dried fruits as well but probably not organic. much dried fruit isnt actually "raw" anyway unfortunately as its often dried at high temps. even better, if theres any chance of getting a dehydrator, dehydrate your own.

best bet=
1. dry it yourself
2. find organic dried fruit and dont stress to much about whether or not its really "raw"/i.e. low temperature dried. in the scheme of things, you need enough variety in your diet or you wont be satisfied staying raw, and a bit of "maybe not really raw" dried organic fruit here or there isnt going to make or break the benefits of the lifestyle. If i can only get something that im not sure whether that specific pacakage/brand is raw (like olives), but thats all thats available to me, and i know that raw olives ARE available, maybe just not to me right now, ill still allow myself to sometimes have those olives in the meantime, with the intent of eventually obtaining the really raw ones, because i figure that at least im not developing a taste for something that cant be obtained raw, as would be the case with some things that are ALWAYS cooked.

also, maybe give this place a call: http://www.thehealthstore.co.uk/ its in nottingham. its a wholesaler, which means that it sells in bulk to health food shops, but i know that the distributer like this that is near where i live allows the public to come in and buy on saturdays. so ask them if they have any days that are open to the public. you have to buy in bigger amounts, but you will save a bit of money off the health shop prices in the long run. If they dont have a public open day, ask them if they could refer you to a health shop that stocks their products near you.

kaybee

[SevenKindsOfCookie]

My girlfriends mother brought me this huge bag of mixed dried fruits and nuts back from one of her trips. She thought it would suit me "since I only eat fruits and nuts". Well, it was kind to think of me, but I quickly looked at the back of the bag and realized that everything in it was either boiled, coated in sugar, fried or roasted. There was also a huge number of chemical flavor enhancers, dyes and preservatives.
I was speechless. And to think that the content in that bag was once fresh and healthy food just made me sad.