Raw Foods

We live in in stressful world these days. People are getting more and more health conscience with every day. Many people who wish to live healthy life swear on raw food menu or raw food diet if you wish. This is not such a bad idea if you really think about it but you have to be careful that your diet is well organized and well balanced. In most cases fruits and vegetables are considered as healthiest raw foods. Of course you can try other things as well. With this diet you have to be very careful, because you must enter enough proteins into you body, so that you can function normally and stay healthy. Without proteins you won't stay strong and healthy for long. that's way a raw food diet is a bit more complex then you might think.

There are many ways how to make a raw food meal. The most simple way is to make salad. Chop some lettuce and tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots, mix them up and you have a nice healthy salad. Add any kind of vegetables you like. there are no limits at all. You can also make fruit salad. It is the same procedure as when making a vegetables salad. Get some fruits that you love, or just get fruits that you will love to try, but you haven't a the chance to try them until now. These kind of raw foods can be very satisfying and filing. You just have to make sure that you are getting a big variety of different raw foods.

This kind of raw foods, like salads, can become boring after a while. No matter how hard you will try to be unique and original preparing raw foods I am positive that you will get bored after rather quickly. It is the same with every type of food not just with raw foods. I mean if I had to eat pizza every day I would eventually get sick and tired of eating pizza. I know some people who are eating raw eggs. This is what many athletes do every morning. This is how they get their shot of proteins for the day so that they can work out or practise. but you wanna be careful with this. You can get infected with a bacteria that can make you sick. But if you are a risk taker, you can try it. If you get infected you will probably throw up and get diarrhea. The chances of getting sick aren't that slim. My advice is to avoid raw foods like eggs if you don't want to get sick.

I know some vegetarians. Some of them decided one day to become vegetarians and I heard them say they won't eat meat anymore. This is not healthy way to do it. Before you quit meat you have to find replacement for meat. Meat contains several very important proteins that are found only in meat. So if you decide to quit meat, you have to find a replacement, you have to find something that contains B12 for example. So you have to say I won't eat meat anymore, but i will have this and that instead of meat, so that I will gain those vitamins and proteins that I need. This is the way to do it.

Raw foods can become or stay the biggest part of you diet. but I recommend you add some cooked food anyway. Get some lean piece of meat like chicken or turkey breasts or a nice piece of fish. Cooked them and mixed them into your raw vegetable salad. This way you will get you daily proteins very easily. Now you have more choices available and you might not get bored so quickly after all. Boredom is the biggest diet killer out there. It can go well for a while but you will get bored eventually. I am sure. I know i would. So every time you feel like you are getting sick and tired of one diet or raw foods, or whatever try to add something new. Just go on the Internet and look up for something interesting. information is just sitting there and waiting for you to read it. Do that before you find your self sitting on the sofa with one pound piece of chocolate cake and a gallon of coca-cola. Every food gets boring if you eat it every day. neither pizza nor raw food are not immune to this. Raw foods are healthy. Just watch out that it doesn't become boring.

African Food

Africa is a continent that impersonates regional diversity. It's also rather poor continent but it sure does have some common, staple food. African food is a mixture of original dishes and the imported food from colonizing countries and immigrants. In the West, we're most familiar with Northern African food, especially through Moroccan restaurants that are known world wide. African people (African Americans) also introduced many ways of cooking to the American South that are familiar today in grits, flat breads and fritters. This is all original African food that was just customized a bit by local population.

Africans like to eat game and fish and also a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. They use root vegetables such as cassava and yams in large quantities. African people use many different marinades and spices to give that little extra to the vegetables which are mostly steamed. Chicken or some other poultry is usually main ingredient in their stews. Melons and particular watermelons also take part in Authentic African Recipes. Groundnuts also find their place in African food. Every African region has it's own specific food and agriculture. Many African villages use a lot of curd, whey, cereals, yams and milk. The coastal regions tend to use a lot of fish. This is quite normal if you think about it. Everywhere in the world coastal regions are known of it's fish dishes. African people use chillies, cayenne pepper and ginger to spice up their food. Fish is marinated in this spicy mix and it's very popular. Africans didn't marinate their food, which was brought into Africa by French people. West African food is also known by their stews and soups. They add okra or black eyed peas into the soup. It is fantastic. Sometimes they mix fish and meat together when they are making a soup or a stew. Method of marinating wasn't the only thing the French brought into many African countries. They also brought many herbs and spices such as scallions, garlic and lime juice. Coconuts and bananas are indispensable and also very popular African food. Ethiopian dishes are also very known in the world. There are many Ethiopian restaurant in the US. Ethiopian food uses hot peppers, hard cooked eggs. bread and a lot of meat, some dishes contain even raw meat. It is not something we are used to eat.

Dutch and British settlers together with Bantu traditions had their influence of South African food. Many don't know that Africa also has vineyards. They were brought to Africa by French. I guess French had the biggest influence on Africa altogether. The British sent workers from India to work on the railway construction. After effect was that also Indian cuisine left it's influence on African food. There is not much meat involved in East African food. Cattle is used rather for trading and not for food. The only influence on East African food was left from Arab settlers who brought saffron, cloves and rice pilafs. African countries that were colonized by Portugal, tend to use a lot of citruses such as oranges, lemons and limes. Other fruits such as pineapples, bananas and coconuts are also used.

African food is very often combined with alcohol. Only Muslim countries in North Africa don't consume or use alcohol. South Africa is world famous for its first class red and white wines. This wines are legacy of the French who started vineyards in South Africa. Kenya has a local beer called Tusker which is also exported. Who would have thought that Kenya is a beer exporter. The Tusker goes particularly well with African food. There are many bee keepers in Ethiopia and they make a drink called Tej. This is a drink made from the honey which is similar in taste to mead. Ethiopian coffee is also well known in the West. If you decide to try it I recommend you to try whole bean coffee. Africa is very specific continent and so is African food. You can find many many different and very tasteful dishes. Influence of various colonizing European countries, such as France, Italy, Portugal, UK, Spain etc... gave African food an eccentric taste.

In Italian cooking article Jessica asked me if two cultural tastes can be successfully combined? My answer was and still is YES. Not only two cultural tastes can be combined. More tastes combined the better. Now this may not be always true but in most cases it is. We should open our selfs up to the world and experiment as much as we can. This is why I love to taste all kinds of different food and dishes. African food it self wouldn't be what it is today if there wouldn't any cultural combinations.