What is whole foods?

The lovely Angela Stokes-Monarch and Matt Monarch.

http://www.therawfoodworld.com 

These people are amazing. They are my superstars. If I were to just be able to talk with them for an hour, I would have to wear depends because I would poop my pants from excitement. I wanted to share this with you seeing as they talk about the fact that you don't have to eat 100% raw diet in order to be healthy. So I have found their whole foods list which may, at first, seem limited but it really isn't! Do you feel like a burger and fries? Make a black bean burger with a whole wheat bun and a side of homemade sweet potato fries made with olive oil and BAM, craving satisfied! Do you feel like something sweet. Take some dates, cashews, and pitted cherries and make yourself a Lara bar. Whazzam, sweet tooth craving gone!

Whole Foods List

Food Combining Rule: don't mix animal protein with any starches such as baked potatoes, brown rice or other grains.

Quinoa (Steamed or Sprouted)
Millet (Steamed or Sprouted)
Buckwheat (Steamed or Sprouted)
Amaranth (Steamed or Sprouted)
Quinoa pasta or other whole grain, gluten-free pastas
Steamed legumes (lentils, garbanzo beans, etc.)
Peas
Brown rice
Brown rice products (pasta, rice cakes, etc.)
Non-GMO corn products
Beans
Cooked whole potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Yams, squashes, pumpkins
Whole grain bread (preferably gluten-free)
Egg yolks
Egg whites
Chicken
Fish
Turkey
Goat's cheese (preferably raw)
Goat's milk (preferably raw)
Goat's sour cream (preferably raw)
Goat's cottage cheese (preferably raw)
Steamed vegetables
Fruit
Nuts
Seeds
Dried fruit
Vegetables
Avocados
Olives
Flax crackers
Natural nut and seed oils
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Apple cider vinegar
Seaweeds
Sprouts
Legumes
Fermented foods
Preserved vegetables in oil
Bee products (honey, pollen, royal jelly, etc.)
Dehydrated foods
Superfoods (goji berries, maca, acai, etc.)
Algaes
Raw cacao
Salt (e.g. sea salt, Himalayan salt)
Whole spices and herbs


And when in doubt, check the ingredients. If there's a bunch of stuff that you can't understand, your body isn't going to understand it either. I feel that this lifestyle is pretty easy to follow because you can basically eat whatever you want.

I love how I feel and I love how I look and I am so thankful that there are people in my life who were brave enough to go out and find what healthy eating was because without them, I would still be overweight, eating the standard American diet, depressed, and probably sick.

Now, let me just say, I'm not 100% the best at ONLY eating foods on this list. I try my best with the budget that we have which means that occasionally, I will put cow's milk in our waffles or cow's cheese on our homemade pizza but it's pretty rare that I do that. Once we actually have an income (like, more than $15,000 a year) then I can focus even more on doing better and eating healthier.

I don't want to be all "I'm better than you, and you should follow my example", but if I can eat a healthy whole foods diet on a college student's budget, than anyone can.