This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni’s Renegade Roundtable, which can be found at http://www.RenegadeRoundtable.com. In this excerpt, Joel Odhner shares raw food tips for busy families.Renegade Water Secrets with Joel Odhner, restaurant owner, chef, and raw food chef with clients from Delaware to New York.Kevin: So let’s get onto today’s guest, Joel Odhner, is a raw food prep chef who has quite an interesting story which I’ll let you, I’ll actually let Joel explain his story. I’m not going to go into it. I think it’s great that he’s got the story that he does have and he’s made a massive transition and he provides raw and vegan meals to a bunch of private clients along the east coast. And when I asked Joel what his range was, I was actually kind of shocked because he drives all from…?Joel: Delaware to New York.Kevin: Delaware to New York. He’s got a huge range of clients and a lot of them are just really great people and what’s even better is he’s just now been recently been in Dr. Oz’s most recent DVD preparing food which is really cool. So without further ado, I want to welcome Joel Odhner to the call.Joel: Well, thank you, Kevin, I appreciate it. Hello, folks, and I guess as Kevin said, I’ll give you a little quick history of where I came from, probably about eight or nine years ago, I was running a restaurant, a good old standard American diet restaurant. And I also decided that I would be doing more partying than working.
So what I did was I quit doing that because I realize that that was other than the best type of lifestyle. And right after I quit that I got introduced to raw foods. I actually went through a Victoria Boutenko talk and she ever talk about raw foods and it kind of really made a lot of sense to me and I said I’m going to do this. She, her last statement in her talk was to try it for two weeks.
So, as they say, I’m still trying it, eight going on nine years now. Trying raw foods in different ways and after I was just planning out to do it myself, I started a business called Raw Lifeline and we ship raw meals all over the country including Hawaii, too. We have a couple clients in Hawaii that would get food. And then I decided I really wanted it to be more personal and go more creative, so about a year or so ago, I moved into the private chef area and so now I have private clients from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. And what I do is I go to their homes and make them delicious raw vegan and vegetarian meals and lasts about, depending on how much they eat, you know, three to five days with the food and I really enjoying it. So that’s a little bit of background and I’m up for some questions.Kevin: We’ve got a ton of them and there was a theme, my friend, that I think kind of echoes through every single one. And we’re going to start right with the big elephant in the room here. It’s how do I fit my busy schedule and how do I prepare raw foods with what I’m doing. That’s seems to be the bar-none question that we got the most of. So I think this will answer a lot of peoples’ questions. Right here, what are some tips, tricks and techniques that you use to really break through the time barrier?Joel: Okay, well, one of the things that I want to say is that some of that is kind of a mental thing. People have it that it’s going to take long and there’s a lot of steps and what I’ve learned over the last seven or eight years is that there are some shortcuts of which I will talk to you about. But I remember one of the questions was just even about washing, when you’re getting your produce, whether it’s organic is ideal and if not, about washing it and a couple times people ask me about that. The quickest way is literally to just fill up your sink with water, put in a capsule of hydrogen peroxide. Soak your veggies in there for maybe three to five minutes. Wash them around, get all the dirt off and everything and then pull them out and let them dry off. And that shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. And my feeling and my experience is that you’re not going to get it much cleaner than that. If you really want to take it and scrub it and go for it that’s a choice you can make. I just don’t think that you’re going to get much more off, either. If you’re not using organic and you are only able to get non-organic, you’re only going to get the outside pesticides off anyway. Anything that it is in the produce, it isn’t going to come off no matter how hard you scrub it.Kevin: Right.Joel: So there’s that. And then, the other thing, another trick is, what I’ve learned is there’s a handful of items that you can make that will last three and four days. And when I say that, clearly, in raw foods optimally you want to make it and eat it. That’s the optimal solution, but we have lives. A lot of people are busy. They either have kids, they have jobs and all these different kinds of things and they don’t have two hours, three hours a day to be making an individual meal. And I’ll be honest with you. Even me, personally, I hate making food for one person. I mean it takes just as much time to make it for one as it does for eight if you really think about it.Kevin: Right.Joel: So some of the tricks are to make things in larger batches. And making food easy, so you can make like a burger base, which is kind of like a carrot and nut base which will last an easy three to five days. You could make a kale salad. That’s like one of my number one favorites, kale with basically, just lemon-lime and olive oil, salt and pepper. And you massage that in and if you’ve got two or three heads, chop it up, put it in your fridge. It will last literally three to five days. In fact, it’s actually better the second and third day. So if you make a large batch of that, grab a handful, you’re all set rather than having to slice and dice every single day.Kevin: When you talk about the washing the vegetables, are you talking about when you buy them. Just bring them home and wash them and then dry them and store them?Joel: Yeah, okay. Yeah, unless you’re going to make them right there and then, yeah, just bring them on back, just everything you have right out of the bag, wash them up and then store them in your fridge. And that is one less. It’s easier to do en mass than individually every time you’re going to make it.Kevin: Got you. And you mention the burger base. I think a lot of people would be interested in what are the kind of things you put into a burger base and do you sprout, if you’re putting lentils or any sort of grain in?Joel: Sure. No, I don’t use grains. The basic one I was thinking of is I take raw almonds put them in the food processor, chop them up as fine a consistency as you want, relatively fine. A couple carrots, do the same thing, grind them on up and then that’s what I consider sort of the base and then I will dice some peppers, celery, onion and then mix that in. And if you want to put in, like, maybe, some fresh parsley or something like that, that’s great. And that’s what I consider sort of a base. It’s pretty plain and the advantage to that is you can take that base, that you made the large batch of it and then tomorrow you take a handful and make a burger out of it and maybe you want to sprinkle a little bit of chili powder on it so you have like a chili flavor on it or the next day you could sprinkle a little Italian seasonings and fresh herbs and stuff a pepper with it or you could roll it up in a collard green or romaine leaf. If you’re not totally raw, you could roll it up in a in a tortilla, like a sprouted tortilla wrap. So there’s lots of different options or just take a handful and throw it on your kale salad or any other type of salad you’re having. So the nice part about it is you can literally change the flavors each day with that base. You’ve only had to make it once. Another great thing is to stuff a Portobello cap. You can put that with a little slice of tomato, a little slice of onion on it and you have a great, great burger. Ideally, if you do that do it in the morning, by the time it’s lunchtime, the moisture from your burger has sort of soaked into your portabello cap and it’s sort of like an open-faced bun.Kevin: Oh, wow. Now you are making me hungry.

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Many Pit Bull owners are choosing to feed their pets a raw food diet rather than use the commercially formulated mass produced feeds. Others have never heard of the raw diet, also known as the bones and raw food diet, but are seeking more information about what this type of diet can offer their pet.The raw diet entails feeding your Pit Bull or other pet mainly raw meat and meaty bones. The raw meat diet also includes some vegetables be added in as well. Leafy greens mixed in with the raw meat helps give your Pit Bull a nutritional meal. As an added bonus, finely chopped garlic can be added as a natural way to give added protection against fleas.In the wild dogs are omnivores, which means they eat both meat and plant material. If you choose to try the raw diet, you?ll need to be sure and balance his diet by adding some vegetable material into each meal. Some owners who are fans of the raw diet like to add additional proteins like cottage cheese or eggs into the meat and veggie mixture.It has been reported that dogs on the raw diet tend to lead healthier lives. Proponents of the raw diet say that canine allergies as well as dysplasia and a wide range of other canine ailments are mainly due to the commercial dog foods with their non-meat proteins and additives. The commercial market has also been accused of using the grain content in their feed simply because they are cheap fillers, and aren?t there for the true benefit of the pet.Those who choose the raw diet also say that they feel they are giving their dog the diet that nature intended, and that commercial dog food kills any real benefits of the proteins in the cooking process. This in turn, they say, can cause problems to the animal?s immune system and cause other health related problems.Raw diet advocates also state that the commercial dog food makers put special additives into the food which makes the food more appealing to the dogs so they get addicted to the commercial foods.Of course the commercial feed makers state that there?s no difference in cooking a dog?s food as there is to cooking a human?s food, and that the nutritional value is still there. Commercial feed makers claim that dogs have very sensitive digestive systems and that the raw food diet can cause vomiting and diarrhea.As a responsible pet owner, it?s up to you to decide on how your Pit Bull gets his nutritional needs met. If you have concerns about your Pit Bull?s nutrition, or before you change your Pit Bull?s diet, talk to your veterinarian. Your veterinarian can give you more information on the raw diet, as well as recommend any changes which may need to be made.

This interview is an excerpt from Kevin Gianni’s Renegade Roundtable, which can be found at http://www.RenegadeRoundtable.com. In this excerpt, Nomi Shannon shares on strategies and tips for starting a raw food lifestyle.Renegade Water Secrets with Nomi Shannon, raw food chef and author of The Raw Gourmet and a new book, Raw Food Celebrations. Kevin: Let’s talk about raw and let’s talk about percentages here, because there’s a few questions about percentages. What’s the difference between 70-90% raw and 100% raw?Nomi: OK, yeah. There’s actually a big difference between 70, 80% and 100%. Not to say that…I am a very middle-of-the-road raw-food person. Because I really believe, I’ve seen people go all just gung-ho, all raw and three weeks later, for whatever reason, they feel like a failure. Whether they just jumped into it too fast or can’t handle the detoxification they think is there or whatever, really not good in the kitchen. So, they’re almost like a rubber band, they bounce back and in three weeks or six weeks or two months they’re back at whatever, McDonald’s.
I’d honestly rather see someone just have 50% raw for the rest of their life than be a 100% raw for three weeks because that is going to make a profound difference. Now, I personally decided that 50% was like the tipping point. But, honestly, if there are people out there and they’re eating 100% cooked food and they start eating 25% raw, that’s better than 0% raw. I do think though that, and I think we all understand the phrase the tipping point, now, I do think that tipping point where you truly notice a difference in your health is going to be at 50%. I really think it’s quite a rare person that’s 100% for a really long period of time. And that’s another thing, people beat themselves up. They go, “Oh, I was 100% for a year and then I ate a Rice Krispie and I felt like such a failure and so I stopped completely.” I mean, that is really undesirable thinking.
So, if you want to be raw and you were trying to decide on a percentage, it’s a really great idea for anyone who can to work their way up to 100% and stay at 100% for as long as they can. So, say three months, let’s say six months, because that’s going to give your maximum amount of sort of self-cleansing, especially if you include juicing, all right? And then settle somewhere where you’re comfortable and where you’re happy. It’s not like philosophy or like religion. It’s not like you’re converting and you have to buy the whole package and the way you celebrate this religion in order to be accepted, this is really just the food you’re eating. And once you allow yourself to get over the hump, there’s even the question of people saying, “I hate the way greens taste.” Or, “I don’t like this or I don’t like that. Literally your palate changes.
Most of us who are eating the standard American diet are addicted to the stuff they put in the food. It just tastes delicious. It takes a while for your palate to get used to simple greens, simple salad, plain almonds, that kind of thing. So you have to give yourself the chance to do that. If you are never a 100%, so what. But it would be good to be a 100% in the beginning, work up to it for as long as you can, because that is the ultimate, wonderful thing to do for yourself. If you are ill, again, if there are people listening that have a serious illness, whether it’s obesity or blood pressure issues, or cholesterol issues or cancer, you would be very well advised to get yourself to a 100% level as soon as you can and stay there for as long as you can.
I personally know literally hundreds of people who feel that they’ve cured themselves of the incurable simply by eating raw food or taking wheat grass juice and that kind of thing.Kevin: And you have seen it at Hippocrates.Nomi: Yeah, that’s one of the beauties of working in a place like that. You see it over and over and over and over.Kevin: I think that’s what makes what you say a little… it weighs it more than someone else who talks about this or that or this type of program or that type of program. Whereas you’ve been literally in the trenches seeing this happen, which is a lot different than reading the book and then talking about it.Nomi: I’ve seen it happen a thousand different ways with a thousand different issues and I’ve experienced it myself. I wasn’t looking at it when I was there as anything but a really profound experience for myself. But looking back I realized I have engaged in a lot of conversation. This was a wonderful program, really, really. First of all, the food is delicious and they really, really show you how to make your food when you get home. And literally every person, as they were walking out the door, was going, “Oh my god, what am I going to do when I get home?” And I’m sitting there going, “Are you kidding? They’ve just shown you everything.” But some people are better in the kitchen than others. So I followed through with a lot of people.
And that is also where I learned what people want to know, and what then I based “The Raw Gourmet” on. I really knew what people wanted to know.Kevin: Let’s talk about some of “The Raw Gourmet” tips and information that you give in that book, because there are a lot of questions about prep. Let’s start first with washing your vegetables. Let’s talk about it. Not only washing them, where do you store them, how do you store them to keep them fresh for the longest and what’s the best way to do that?Nomi: Wow! I think there are a gazillion different ways to wash your veggies, there is no one right way. I used to use a product called Botanic Gold and I’m going to actually start to carry it. It’s now called Enviro One. It’s just made out of plant stuff, it’s like soap. You dilute it very highly to soak your veggies in or to brush your teeth with, or clean the house there are different dilutions. And I really loved it and I actually haven’t used it in a while and I miss it terribly. It’s hard to say, other than to say it’s a good idea to wash off your produce. You can’t wash everything off non-organic produce. But you just have to do the best you can with that.
Storing it, the big thing about storing it is don’t overbuy. Have a good refrigerator, if you have a 15 year old refrigerator you might want to start saving up for a new one, because the newer ones are more efficient. I go to many people’s houses and they often don’t utilize the drawers in their refrigerators well enough. But if you can’t fit it all in the refrigerator from one shopping then you’re buying more than you can eat before the food starts to go bad. It’s unrealistic to think you are only going to shop one time a week for all your produce. You need to go out at least twice a week.

In this day and age, everybody wants to improve their looks with a thinner waist line. For that, people may need some directions for finding healthy solutions to lose weight. The best choice someone can make in order to lose weight and gain health, energy and vitality is switching to a raw food diet.

People discover each day the benefits of raw food recipes. When switching to a raw food diet you will see improvements to your daily behavior like improved sleep, some anti-aging benefits, increased vitality and health. Owing to such advantages, the popularity of raw food diets is bound to increase, because we all want to improve the way we look and the way we feel about ourselves, don’t we?

In the beginning people didn’t cook their food and they consumed it raw. Eating like this helped them keep very healthy. Our bodies are built so that we can consume raw foods. The only thing we need to do is to rediscover the way we were in the beginning and enjoy all that nature has to give us. Consuming raw foods helps our bodies because they contain enzymes that help digestion. These enzymes are destroyed if the fruits and vegetables are cooked. Our body digests the foods through its own enzymes, but the enzymes in our body also give us energy. Therefore, when we use the enzymes in our bodies for digestion and not the ones in fruits and vegetables, it means that our energy levels and vitality are decreased.

Basic guidelines for planning your healthy raw food recipes recommend that you should include in your diet mostly fruit and vegetables, which are our most biologically conducive meals. Something that can help you in planning your raw food recipes is the categories in which fruits and vegetables are divided.

Fruits can be divided in sweet fruits (tropical fruits, persimmons, sweet grapes), acid fruits (lemons, citrus), sub-acid fruits (apples, pears, tart grapes) and fatty fruits (avocadoes, durian). Melons constitute a separate category of fruits. Some of the vegetable categories are non-starchy greens (spinach, cabbage), fruit vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes) and root vegetables (carrots, celeriac). Another category of vegetables includes lettuce and celery. The vegetables named here can be found as items on a list of raw low carbohydrate foods. All these fruits and vegetables are the common components of raw food recipes.

Now that the categories have been established, here are some rules of combining them in order for you to avoid fermentation in the intestines, indigestion, water retention and toxicity. Sweet fruits are to be eaten with other varieties of sweet fruits only or with sub-acid fruits. Don’t eat acid fruit with anything other than celery and lettuce. Avocadoes and olives should be eaten with non-starchy vegetables. Melons should be eaten alone or not eaten at all. These are combinations that you should try. But there are a few combinations that you should try to avoid like starch and acid (tomato and potato), protein and protein (avocadoes and nuts), sweets and starch (maple syrup and rice). Think about these combinations when you are developing your own raw food recipes.

Raw food diets are not all about fruits and vegetables. Organic foods can also be included in the diet. Organic cheese is very nutritious and can be included in raw food diets because it does not involve a cooking process that destroys enzymes. You should make sure that the organic cheese you buy is organic, and not a scam. The process that is followed by farmers to obtain organic cheese consists of letting nature take its natural course, from harvesting the milk from the cows and letting it coagulate with no help from additional catalytic agents. Incredible products made from raw ingredients and that may include organic cheese can be found here, on rawbakery.com.