Raw Awakening: A Simple Guide to the Raw Diet for Renewal, Vitality & Happiness [Kindle Edition]

Nothing terribly new, if you have any knowledge of the raw food lifestyle. Her blog is better and I was hoping this book was along those lines. I'll give you three better books than this one, Practically Raw by Amber Crawley, Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet and Ani's 15 Day Fat Blast by Ani Phyo. There was the absolute minimum info about losing weight in this book, regardless of what the cover said. Also alot of referencing back to her store on her website. This book was a let down on many levels, including the recipes. The books I mentioned have much better recipes and info regarding this lifestyle.

If you follow the author's blog, you will learn that she hasn't been vegan for quite a few months, and she has not been living a consistent raw lifestyle for a few years. She writes about easy ways to quit coffee, but she admits that she still drinks coffee. She rates an all-raw diet as being an A+, but in her blogs she admits to eating bean burritos at Chipotle Grill. Now I understand that changing a diet isn't easy. I also respect people's choices when it comes to eating all raw vs. cooked. To me, food is like religion and politics. I try not to push my opinions onto others. However, I can't come up with any reason to purchase a book from an author who is making money off of a lifestyle that she doesn't even support herself. If eating raw isn't working, why continue to sell books promoting the lifestyle? For those of you who are really interested in a raw and vegan diet/lifestyle, I highly recommend Douglas Graham's 80 10 10 diet and The Raw Cure. These are books written by actual vegans / raw foodists. I especially like The 80 10 10 diet because the author does not try to sell or push supplements, powder, superfoods, etc. He also includes the importance of non-food requirements for health (sun, water, exercise, etc.)

Wow...I'm not sure where to begin. I've been dabbling in the vegan and raw food diets now for a little over 6 months and I hadn't had too much success in sticking with these food lifestyles, that was until I read this book. The information Kristen presents on the raw food diet and science of it are well researched and well put without being boring or inconclusive as other books on the topic have proven to be. I actually really enjoyed reading that section of the book. And now I'll bring up my favorite part of the book: the recipes!! The recipes are amazing...I haven't tried them all yet (but probably close to it) and I was amazed at how good the food tasted. Everything was light and fresh and had so much taste for being uncooked...I was totally in awe. The cheezy hemp nacho sauce is one of my favorites. I loved the recipes so much that I'm planning on becoming a hi-raw vegan and I'm going to purchase her other e-book cookbooks! As soon as I finished reading the book I tested this out by eating vegan/hi-raw for a week (mostly all recipes from this book) and I never even had an urge to eat processed or heavy non-vegan foods (this is saying a lot for me!) I highly recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in eating delicious raw foods in their diets. Kristen is an amazing role model for the raw food community and I look forward to reading her new books in the future.