Paleo Diet: Raw Paleo Diet and Lifestyle Forum
Raw Paleo Diet Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: achillezzz on September 25, 2011, 04:02:28 pm
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I am thinking about adding more fats to my diet and I want it to be from coconut butter!
But whats so special about the coconut? coconut oil? coconut butter? coconut in general?
How much omega3 does it has whats the ratio is it good to eat lots of it??
I'm thinking about mixing cold pressed coconut butter with raw honey and eat huge ammount everyday of this mixture!
I just need more information on coconuts to know what Im doing here.
Thanks -\
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I know coconut meat has anti-parasitic properties as well.
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It seems really toxic to me. It just makes me feel sick. You know it contains a lot of lauric acid which is not found in meat?
I tried the 'coconut oil detox' as it seemed a possible way to kill and restructure gut bacteria, but by the end of it I never wanted to touch coconut oil again.
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Coconut oil sucks for me as well, gives me the runs and doesn't level out my energy like coconut butter does. I haven't had any issues at all with coconut butter. I am currently out of coconut butter and have tried eatting bits of dehydrated coconut, but its not much good. I seem to thrive off of the carb and fat mixture within coconut butter.
I have spent the last three days on zero carbs without any coconut, and have managed well, by substituting it with more brains and organ meats. I have eaten three lamb brains in the past three days.
The store will have it back in three days so I will just use this time to continue my ZC experiment.
I have tried mixing honey with it, but I don't tolerate honey in general too well. I eat about three tablespoons of coconut butter with each meal ,usually, and it has worked wonders. I go through about two jars a week.
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I am thinking about adding more fats to my diet and I want it to be from coconut butter!
But whats so special about the coconut? coconut oil? coconut butter? coconut in general?
How much omega3 does it has whats the ratio is it good to eat lots of it??
I'm thinking about mixing cold pressed coconut butter with raw honey and eat huge ammount everyday of this mixture!
I'm sorry to tell you, but this is a perfect example of a wrong (modern) way of thinking. Instead, just get some coconuts in their different states of ripeness, take the smell and taste of their unmixed, unprocessed water and flesh and see what you like and how much of it you currently like.
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Raw whole coconut has too much of a laxative effect for me to be able to consume enough of its fat and carbs to give me the maximum benefits that I recieve from eatting the butter. I am very much on board with the philosophy that{ in general} paleo foods in their whole unprocessed state are optimal. But from personal experience I must contend that the coconut butter is better.
(at least for me)
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Raw whole coconut has too much of a laxative effect for me to be able to consume enough of its fat and carbs to give me the maximum benefits that I recieve from eatting the butter. I am very much on board with the philosophy that{ in general} paleo foods in their whole unprocessed state are optimal. But from personal experience I must contend that the coconut butter is better.
(at least for me)
how much is enough? did you have the pecans and raisins waiting to tell you? the durian?
paleo man knew nothing about fats and carbs
or how to open jars
you eat processed food with every meal thus confuse your body when eat whole coconut
Paleo man would buy 5-6 coconuts..eat part of a coconut, get diarrhea and throw the rest in the garbage..and then call on the phone and get lean section animals to eat then eat figs. all natural unprocessed and sustainable.
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Of course early HUmans knew about fats and carbs.. They just didn't call them 'fats and carbs'... I guess the earliest didn't call them anything, but they would still recognise them.
Through trial an error over generations, if early HUman found he could improve coconut by processing it to a butter he would. He could also store it for lean times then, like bees with their honey. What's early though? They wouldn't have been able to come of with anything like that before the language-explosion.
Processing food is natural, but... when it is bad is when the way things are processed has no functional purpose. When it is only to increase profit by reducing labour; to make it easier pack; to make up for poor health of produce or damage done by previous pointless processing; to comply with regulations or cultural norms etc... In this case the effect on health is overlooked for profit. Processing to make something better is another matter.
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heh.
I believe alot of the pro-cooking folks are correct in a sense, with many of the advancements of humans perpetuating differnt developments that would have not happened without sequential mastery of such things. On the physical level some of these were not perhaps great, but had certain necessities and results.
Now we have the luxury to assess which things yield negative or positive results, or what tools we can use to reverse certain problems created by having so many processes, chemicals etc..
Of couse meats and fruits tend not to need any processing (some argue meat does but whatever) but if people are to need other nutients or fuel sources from other things found in nature - because they are not comming form a place of health or a variety of other reasons- often these have to be processed. Juice, fermentation, or cooking of herbs/vegetables to juicing,fermentation, processing of coconuts.
coconut oil/butter: I'm not a big fan of it personally, but the idea as I see it is to eat more than one would be able to get in nature. More calories of fat from coconuts... as fat from animals is sometimes hard to come by and/or provide additional concentrated nutrients. Perhaps the people who lived in the tropics had the time and metabolism and existing health to eat a high saturated fat diet that is high in carbs, but most people do not, so for them eating some non-100% ideal food that works as a fat is better than eating some non-ideal diet that is unprocessed.
Common sense says avoiding everything potentially harmful would be the best move..but not eating one thing means inevitably eating something else which also has its own consequences. Even if one can prove a certain kind of process is bad through some kind of isolated experiement or trends there is always going to be someone using that process to some effect that they find positive. Eating nearly all tallow and ground animal parts..thats certainly processing. yet 99.9% of the all raw unprocessed diets seem to have less results. Obviously certain things are more important than others. go figure
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Good post KD.
eating nearly all tallow and ground animal parts..thats certainly processing. yet 99.9% of the all raw unprocessed diets seem to have less results
I think Lex had good results because he stuck with his diet for long periods of time so his body could adapt, not changing on a whim, and also because of the variety of organs in the diet. I don't necessarily think he'd get worse results eating whole organs, meat etc in the right proportions if that were convenient to do (which it can't be in this day and age really)
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Good post KD.
eating nearly all tallow and ground animal parts..thats certainly processing. yet 99.9% of the all raw unprocessed diets seem to have less results
I think Lex had good results because he stuck with his diet for long periods of time so his body could adapt, not changing on a whim, and also because of the variety of organs in the diet. I don't necessarily think he'd get worse results eating whole organs, meat etc in the right proportions if that were convenient to do (which it can't be in this day and age really)
heh, yeah in most cases...there isn't going to be problems with eating only whole foods, except if it includes alot of foods that generally can't be assimilated well raw or there are other compromised issues. So youre right its more an issue of what takes most importance, not necessarily an issue of the processing being beneficial per se. The mindset that one is definitively getting everything they need from what will inevitably be a modernized limited sampling of the nutrients to those found in nature - and dismissing other sources is another thing. I personally believe some people might in fact need those nutrients and minerals from those 'fractured' or processing of foods, even if our ancestors did not, but thats somewhat less important to what I was saying. Although its worth keeping in mind that all known humans on the timeline process some type of food...and usually quite a bit, so in the least some processes are clearly more disease forming than others and some diets no matter how raw or whole are going to be ineffective if they don't deliver the right nutrition for the current state of health.
So what I was saying was that you can find countless people over the internet claiming their raw whole foods diet is the natural human diet and all that is needed for a modern person - blasting any type of processing as unhealthy - and yet be presenting a diet that is not only ineffective but likely unnatural itself in its types and groupings of foods.
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how much is enough? did you have the pecans and raisins waiting to tell you? the durian?
paleo man knew nothing about fats and carbs
or how to open jars
you eat processed food with every meal thus confuse your body when eat whole coconut
Paleo man would buy 5-6 coconuts..eat part of a coconut, get diarrhea and throw the rest in the garbage..and then call on the phone and get lean section animals to eat then eat figs. all natural unprocessed and sustainable.
Now you are talking out of your rear. Or maybe I misinterpret?
Coconut butter is not processed in the way that many people think about processed foods. Its whole coconut that has the laxative liquid mechanically removed through cold pressing. It contains all the elements of a raw coconut without the laxative enzymes. Its not much different from drying or aging meat to make it more easily digestible.
I repeat, the results are freaking amazing, my health and vitality are at an alltime high and I have the pictures, blood work, and athletic vitality to prove it. I care not for any purist philosophical ideals expoused here, in regards to coconut butter , I Use my sense of well being to guild my decisions now, and I instinctively feel that eatting jars of coconut butter is fine. Personally speaking
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how much is enough? did you have the pecans and raisins waiting to tell you? the durian?
paleo man knew nothing about fats and carbs
or how to open jars
Now you are talking out of your rear. Or maybe I misinterpret?
Coconut butter is not processed in the way that many people think about processed foods. Its whole coconut that has the laxative liquid mechanically removed through cold pressing. It contains all the elements of a raw coconut without the laxative enzymes. Its not much different from drying or aging meat to make it more easily digestible.
I repeat, the results are freaking amazing, my health and vitality are at an alltime high and I have the pictures, blood work, and athletic vitality to prove it. I care not for any purist philosophical ideals expoused here, in regards to coconut butter , I Use my sense of well being to guild my decisions now, and I instinctively feel that eatting jars of coconut butter is fine. Personally speaking
was 100% sarcasm. I tried to modify it after the more 'serious' conversation started..but the edit is well under 24 hrs now it seems.
of course not only did ancient peoples know about how such things worked in their bodies, but also had huge limitations in terms of what types of things were available which led to making the best use of those things. Being far more natural than ranges/proportions of foods that would not exist.
Obviously the OP just wanted a sign off on whether it was ok to eat as a staple food, not philosophy as you say.
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Its not just the ancients that were unaware of how foods worked on the body, many people of the modern era are plagued with the same ignorance. I currently am forced by economics to make huge gambles with the dietary choices for my family. They eat much of their food from the local Kroger's and a good deal of it is commercially produced and processed. Much of humanity still has huge limitations when it comes to the availability of the most rawsome foods.
Ignorance about what is optimal is a universal phenomenon that all of humanity is subject too. In regards to religion, science, and food.
That being said I use all that I have available to insure that my children receive a balanced diet. My little ones love coconut butter, and they swarm me at meal time and would hog it all if I let them. Its supprizing how well young ones can thrive if you can add large amounts of quality fat to their diet. Even children who eat a fair amount of grains can do well if they also have access to a fair amount of paleo friendly food. I will add lamb fat or butter to much of what they eat.
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If they're going to eat grains and legumes and stuff you should learn to prepare it in a traditional way, such as making sourdough bread.
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I am thinking about adding more fats to my diet and I want it to be from coconut butter!
But whats so special about the coconut? coconut oil? coconut butter? coconut in general?
How much omega3 does it has whats the ratio is it good to eat lots of it??
I'm thinking about mixing cold pressed coconut butter with raw honey and eat huge ammount everyday of this mixture!
I just need more information on coconuts to know what Im doing here.
Thanks -\
Coconuts are magic!
After years of raw paleo low carb dieting I tend to believe that fresh raw coconut cream is better than ANY other fat, including all animal fats.
But coconut oil and all coconut convenience products (including the raw versions) are completely useless IMO.
Aloha!
Löwenherz
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If they're going to eat grains and legumes and stuff you should learn to prepare it in a traditional way, such as making sourdough bread.
IMO the best grains and legumes dishes are either dosas or idli (fermented mixture of mung or adzuki beans with brown or red cargo rice) or rice and optional beans first fermented a bit with whey and then cooked slowly with meat broth.
Nourishing traditions and Cure tooth decay have very good advice for making the SAD diet better. Weston Price said that one good meal a day improved tooth health I think 95%, even when the rest of the day's meals contained white flour and white sugar products.
Really the best bet for cheap food IMO is potatoes. Wouldn't be hard at all to grow your own in your own back yard either.
Oh and it's very possible to get a dairy farmer to give you large quantities of raw milk for rather cheap. Gotta find a good pasture based one though or it probably ain't worth it.
You could always get your own dairy cow!
I won't argue whether raw meat or raw milk is a better product, I really don't know personally. The reason why I chose to consume more milk than meat is because of the ease, because I like it better (though not all of the time, variety rules) and because milk is far superior in the economic department. I could keep one beef cow and raise her offspring for meat and get less than 600 pounds of meat a year or I could keep a dairy cow and get 10k pounds of milk a year + less than 400 pounds of meat a year, but just as much bones and guts as a beef cow.
Oh this thread is about coconuts! Sorry to take it so far off topic!
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I was gifted several old coconuts. How would you recommend that I utilize the fat that is in the coconut? I have a blender and a juicer at my disposal but would prefer a raw, simple technique.
In the Philippines I asked how does one enjoy the coconut meat and the most common reply was to use it in cooking.
Although this requires cooking, I was thinking about just tossing the meat in a bone broth and allow the fat to slowly separate and join with the animal fat. Doesn't that sound yummy? :)
I'm in need of some recommendations from the coconut eaters!
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And more questions for anyone... what's the total idiot-proof way of opening coconuts? Cause I had the hardest time with it last time I had them, and online videos are confusing me. Bang it with a hammer? I basically have no tools and grew up clueless in the suburbs.
Also, Lowenherz, I assume you include my cans of Native Forest coconut milk as a "convenience product"- what's so bad about canned coconut milk?
I'm just looking for a simple way to use coconut as a salad dressing.
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And more questions for anyone... what's the total idiot-proof way of opening coconuts? Cause I had the hardest time with it last time I had them, and online videos are confusing me. Bang it with a hammer? I basically have no tools and grew up clueless in the suburbs.
Either bang it with a hammer as the coconut is wrapped in a towel or use some sort of machete like blade to cut it. If you have a weak/dull blade you can use a blunt object (such as a hammer) to smack the back the of the blade driving it deeper into the coconut until it splits.
Also, Lowenherz, I assume you include my cans of Native Forest coconut milk as a "convenience product"- what's so bad about canned coconut milk?
Although Native Forest claims their cans are free of BPA, they may contain several other chemicals that consumers are not familiar with. The safest bet is to avoid foods in unsafe packaging which may leach into the food. This is just one concern among a few.
This raises the question of the necessity of the coconut in the diet of people living outside of tropical climates in general. In my opinion, if you aren't living in Thailand or the Philippines, you truly shouldn't be eating such foods in any shape or form. Try substituting it with something locally sourced. Although coconut made do you wonders, eventually you'll have to give it up and not recognizing so is just a crutch.
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I'll try the hammer and towel....
I'm not clear why I should give up coconut just because it doesn't grow locally. You think we should totally exclusively eat local foods? I don't think there are any plant fats around here that will nourish me. I don't see why I can't buy avocados and coconuts from Florida. ?
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And more questions for anyone... what's the total idiot-proof way of opening coconuts? Cause I had the hardest time with it last time I had them, and online videos are confusing me. Bang it with a hammer? I basically have no tools and grew up clueless in the suburbs....I'm just looking for a simple way to use coconut as a salad dressing.
You might try these three ingredients raw: tomatoes, cilantro and coconut. Don't add water. Leave this paste a thick consistency. Eat it on salad. I'm not sure how healthy it is, but some find it tasty.
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Also, Lowenherz, I assume you include my cans of Native Forest coconut milk as a "convenience product"- what's so bad about canned coconut milk?
Raw fats are much better than cooked fats..
Canned coconut milk doesn't work for me.
Löwenherz
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I'm not clear why I should give up coconut just because it doesn't grow locally. You think we should totally exclusively eat local foods? I don't think there are any plant fats around here that will nourish me. I don't see why I can't buy avocados and coconuts from Florida. ?
Enjoying these fruits from time to time for special occasions seems rational to me. However, making these foods a staple of your diet which are unnatural to your local environment seems foolish. Just think about it: These fruits travel all the way from the Philippines (or even Florida, in the case of avocados) creating all sorts of pollution along the way just for your enjoyment and are only accessible because of transportation. Doesn't this seem extreme? We Americans tend to think that this process is natural because we are raised in a culture of exuberance and convenience. Also: What will you do when suddenly you can't receive your beloved coconuts or avocados?
This perspective may be extreme but it is my sincere opinion and I thought I might share just to offer a challenging perspective.
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There are entire diets based completely on eating only what you can get locally and is in season. Macrobiotics is a good example. Then there is Susan Weed that says that eating wild plants from your environment is the best food possible and that one leaf of a local plant will do you more good that bowls and bowls of farm grown leaves. The idea is that plants that grow in your native environment are adapted to the same environment that you are in and will help you to adapt and be strong to survive there like they do. The plants and animals in a place evolved together so another way of looking at it is that the plants that evolved in your area are the ones that created themselves to be best for the animals (you) that live in that place.
Then as Zeno says, it's environmentally more responsible and if you eat what is local your food source will be more stable if supply lines breakdown.
Those are the theories and reasonings. I still eat some tropical fruits, but what these people say I think is valid. I'm not living fully in-tune with my environment and am not as adapted to it as I would like to be and probably not as strong and healthy as I could be because of it.
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Another argument against eating imported foods is that you will never be a part of the creation or preparation process (for example: growing food or hunting game). This is the most magical part of eating and few modern people understand the beauty of being a part of this life and death cycle and the strength it offers. It furnishes respect, moreover.
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Yes Zeno, I have started to garden and the joy of going out and picking produce I grew myself is more than what anyone would expect - and getting eggs from my chickens never ceases to make me down-right giddy. Foraging though creates a feeling hard to describe. The connectedness, gratitude and reverence for the food I find in the wild is even deeper. I long to do that again.
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It sounds very nice, and I respect you all doing it, and I do buy tons of local veggies, because the soil around where I am is great, and there are lots of farms... however, I don't buy the extreme localist arguments, I don't think that in the biggest picture my avocados traveling from Florida are doing any harm (this is what we're worried about when we're living under rising fascism?), and I don't buy the "Peak Oil" line that says someday very soon the whole energy system's going to crash, and there will be no avocados.
I do wish that my government subsidized wind and solar power, instead of Big Oil, and that my avocados traveled in a way that didn't have anything to do with Earth-destroying oil. But I wish a lot of things, such as the overthrow of the military-industrial-complex that runs the country and the world.
And I'll work for that, but if I starve myself with no avocados or decide with a purist motive to spend all my time on hunting my food, even though I don't prefer to eat mostly animal food, I won't have any time nor energy to do the political work I do and live the life I love.
So I'm going to take the avocados from Florida and the persimmons from California. They taste wonderful and make me feel good, and that to me is the truth.
One love, though. I have lots of friends who are farmers, and I have no doubt that being deeply connected to your food by growing our raising it is a profoundly spiritual way of being... however, there are other aspects of spirituality and life which one must nourish and follow.
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I agree, Balancing-act!
Where I live, in Wisconsin, NOTHING pretty much grows here in the winter, and the winter is LONG.
I eventually hope to move somewhere warmer and grow and preserve fruits and veggies for over the winter, but that just isn't possible for me now. Someday!!! : D
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Ha ha - Balancing Act - why bother with diet at all or think or talk about any of this stuff with so many of the massively important, towering and ominous things happening around us? :P
You just asked why people give up foods that they like in order to go local - I think - didn't you? Whether you do it or not obviously is up to you and your own priorities socially, politically and health-wise. Did someone say peak oil and I missed it? When I said "if supply lines break down" it could mean so many things - even just a weather catastrophe of some sort. Like I said, I still eat tropical fruits and it's pretty obvious if nothing grows where you are, buying local won't work for you. Since introducing raw animal foods though, the amount of tropical fruits I eat has decreased a lot - and I actually like that idea myself. I also LOVE gardening. Foraging is very hard here though. I miss it.
Just talking about general ideas. You're quite lucky to have your own panorama worked out so nicely.
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And more questions for anyone... what's the total idiot-proof way of opening coconuts?
More detailed answer:
For a hard coconut: How to open a coconut - cooking tutorial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbJv9VnkB8Y#ws). Alternately, you can drain the water as shown and take the coconut out to a concrete surface and drop it a few times.
For a young/green/Thai (some alternate names) coconut: How to open a coconut quickly without making a mess (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfo5BYR9yE0#)
There are other youtube videos if you need more details. Just make sure you are using the method matched to the type of coconut you are opening.
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For a hard coconut: How to open a coconut - cooking tutorial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbJv9VnkB8Y#ws). Alternately, you can drain the water as shown and take the coconut out to a concrete surface and drop it a few times.
In my honest opinion from the land of coconuts, this video method takes too long.... (the first video)
To open a hard coconut, just strike it with a big heavy knife in the middle while holding it with one hand (like the hammer portion) and catch the water with a basin.
To get the hard meat, use a hand coconut scraper if it is soft enough, or with a sit on stool scraper.
Show my text to the nearest Filipino store and they can give you the tools.
I'll shoot a video and post it.
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Coconut grater: http://sukitospoon.wordpress.com/tag/kudkuran/ (http://sukitospoon.wordpress.com/tag/kudkuran/)
and http://carinderia.net/?p=188 (http://carinderia.net/?p=188)
(http://carinderia.net/images/kudkuran.jpg)
(http://sukitospoon.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/kudkuran-ng-niyog.jpg)
Grating a dry coconut (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUw-El6UqrY#)
If this girl practices, she'll get faster at it.
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In my honest opinion from the land of coconuts, this video is dumb and stupid and takes too long.... (the first video) (and I may be too harsh)
For someone who is unaccustomed to wielding a knife in manner you suggest, the first video is not dumb and stupid, merely cautious. Balancing-act clearly confessed to inexperience in this sort of thing. There is no need to insult someone's inexperience, nor any need to flaunt your expertise.
Show my text to the nearest Filipino store and they can give you the tools.
Filipino stores are not ubiquitous in the US. The ones near me sell tools, they don't give them to customers.
I'll shoot a video and post it.
Save your time. Videos abound on youtube, with all sorts of skill levels.
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For someone who is unaccustomed to wielding a knife in manner you suggest, the first video is not dumb and stupid, merely cautious. Balancing-act clearly confessed to inexperience in this sort of thing. There is no need to insult someone's inexperience, nor any need to flaunt your expertise.
Filipino stores are not ubiquitous in the US. The ones near me sell tools, they don't give them to customers.
Save your time. Videos abound on youtube, with all sorts of skill levels.
I'm sorry you caught the first comment I made. (within 5 minutes)
"In my honest opinion from the land of coconuts, this video method takes too long.... (the first video)"
I edited my post beforehand but you caught it.
It was the first thing that popped in my mind kind of thing.
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I love coconut and I aspire to eat local and that may mean very few vegetable, but aspire is not an act for today. I ate coconut today and it was so good. I haven't dug my juicer out of the garage yet so I just ate the chunks, with the brown skin and all and I loved the sweet creamy fiber.
I just read AV's book We want to live, He seems to eat a lot of coconut cream, and to use it for healing, but he said not to use it for cream if it was soured at all. This supprised me, I'm going to look for more stuff from him. Maybe I just misunderstood, b/c he seems to like every thing as soured as he can get it.
Anyway I opened the coconut with his method and I liked it.
Hard coconut:
Take any sharp instrument (I used a meat tenderizer for the hammer and a clean philips head screw driver, in the past I have used a butter knife and just jabbed it into the eye, but that was much harder) and gently poke the eyes of the coconut until you find the softest one, but don't make a hole. Go to either of the firmer eyes and puncture one of those go all the way through the meat and then do the same for soft eye, widen the hole as best as you can, so the water drains better. turn the coconut over in a wide mug or bowl and let the water drain, it will drain better the wider the hole.
when all of the water is out, tap the coconut with a hammer, for a minute or 2, this lossens the meat from the shell inside and makes the shell easy to break. the go to the side opposite the eyes and give it a good whack. It is surprisingly easier than any other time I have tried to open a coconut.
As much as I look forward to eating completely local one day. I'm just not in that place yet. So, I am grateful today that I have the choice and I am enjoying it.
Adora
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I don't have that kitchen cleaver tool, but I have gotten young thai coconuts that I wanted to open. A regular knife (even a really good well-sharpened one) just can't do it. I tried throwing them on cement - doesn't work. Using a big rock just smashes them to pieces and so does a hammer - not very useful. Then I remembered that in the shed from my tropical days I had a machete! I cleaned it up and used my good knife sharpener on it. Me, my machete and I went outside - the machete up over my head and down on that poor unsuspecting coconut and swoosh - sliced right in half. :o No digging out the meat from a tiny hole for me!
But alas, the coconuts here taste so differently from when I got them in the tropics that my beautiful machete that sits on top of my fridge (now instead of the shed) is used only for winter squashes - and what a great tool it is for those. Swoosh. I bet if you had a samurai sword it would work too. ;)
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Dorothy--do you cook winter squashes? If so, how?
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Yes Indigo. I've changed my entire diet in order to work with my husband into a better diet with him. He's not all raw or all paleo yet... so neither am I being all raw either. I will be raw again when he is... which I sure hope doesn't take toooo long! ;)
Winter squashes are not something I have ever eaten raw, but when eating any cooked food at all I find that cooked squashes help me in winter. If all raw - they are not needed for me.
The way I cook them is to machete (or sharp knife) them in half, scoop out the seeds, make them be able to stand flat (acorn squashes especially need this) by slicing off little bits for balance and then put them in the oven on a tray filled with water and bake them. Some say to put oil on them so they don't burn but who needs heated oil?! I just bake them at 300 longer and they don't burn because of the water I think.
I dehydrate the seeds and save them to grow or to eat.
Put raw butter on them if you have it.
Sorry for the foray into cookedom there for a moment. Hope it has caused no offense.
Does anyone here eat raw winter squashes?
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That's what I was wondering--is it even possbile/good to eat them raw? That is a good idea to cook them at a lower temp with water. Thanks! : )
My husband doesn't eat raw either, yet, but does eat paleo. I'm hopefully going to slowly ease him into eating raw : ) He does like sashimi, so I really wish we had access to more quailty fish, but all I can find around here is wild alaskan salmon, frozen.
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Sile, the indians did eat squash/pumpkin raw. I don't remember where I read that but they assuredly cooked them also.
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Oh, really! That is interesting. Do you know if they processed them in any other way when eating them raw?
I'm just really curious, because I really want to eat as much raw food as possible, but we got SO many squahses from our garden. But if they aren't optimal food for me, then Oh Well, I guess ;-)
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The hard pumpkin-like winter squashes ARE eaten by raw vegans - but they mince and mash them and add seasonings so that you barely recognize what they are. I think they are also hard to digest so grinding them up takes a way a big energy saving step that is normally done by the body with a lot of effort. If you are into food processing things then you have options and there are recipes out there. I feel like there are so many much more easily digested raw vegetables that I don't bother with winter squash - as they don't taste or feel very good to me unless cooked or very heavily processed and seasoned. I really can't even tell you if they would be "good" for you or not if you have other options. It's a bit like eating raw sweet potatoes. Those kinds of tubers are eaten by hunter gatherers but they are far from their first choice.
Maybe they would provide some things that if eaten occasionally are worth the difficulty of digestion - I don't know. They are definitely better than starving though. ;)
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Sile -
I like winter squash raw. I'm trying AV primal right now, but I have eatten all kinds of winter starchy vegetables and they're all good to me. I just cut them and scoop out seeds if they have seeds and eat till I'm done. I like them with olive oil. I have also started putting animal fat in my food processor with pepper, lemon (and/or the rind), and avocado, or ho-made soft cheese. Then I scoop it up with slices of winter veggies. I tried parsnips (the only one I didn't like at all), cabbage (which I made into slaw with the fatty mix, and I used curry, coriander, and fennel seeds - it was very good).
- Also some liked a lot with out anything: are pieces of spaghetti, butter nut/cup squashes, celery root, turnip, rutabaga. I really liked the little pie pumpkins. I can't see how trying these things would be bad, but I don't know how good for you they are either. I may have had too much fiber, b/c my tummy grumbled often. I didn't hurt, but now I chew my vegetables, and salad greens and spit the pulp out. I don't know if this is healthier, but my tummy is totally quiet. I also eat a little high meat every day so maybe that' s quieted my tummy.