Easy Sexy Raw: 130 Raw Food Recipes, Tools, and Tips to Make You Feel Gorgeous and Satisfied [Paperback]

This book has recipes for raw foods, that is, foods not heated past around 115 degrees F, to preserve natural enzymes and keep proteins in their natural, undenatured state. According to some, this provides the maximum health benefits from "live" foods and cooking deadens foods.

I have to say, I'm on the fence if a raw diet is "the thing" though I know for myself that pasteurized and especially ultrapasteurized dairy is indigestible for me. And I prefer my fish raw, no two ways about it and most of my veg as well. However, grains and beans must be soaked at least and in the case of beans, sprouted or cooked to remove natural compounds that are actually toxic (and one bean, red beans, apparently are bad even sprouted.)

What recipes will you find here? Cold and warm soups, a few smoothies, gravlax (cured raw salmon), lassi (yogurt drink from India) and the like. The raw pasta is a recipe I'm familiar with from Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet. This is my go-to raw book. Carol Alt also has a raw hummus, but hers varies from Cornbleet in that she uses sprouted chickpeas (or raw cashews or macadamia) to replace the cooked chickpeas. I'll go with zucchini, maybe it's less protein but it's also better tasting, to me and easier; I have no time to sprout chickpeas.

Since this book is not vegetarian or vegan, I put forth this warning because many raw foodists are also in that camp, so this book is not for you. However, if you enjoy fish and dairy, you might prefer Carol's book as it has recipes for yogurt and fish. When I was able to get raw milk from a local farmer, I did eat a lot of yogurt but now, as the herd is gone, I've stopped milk myself. As to fish, I don't make raw fish at home--no fishmonger here is good enough to satisfy me about health concerns. So for me, this book is not as useful as Cornbleet's. But there are good recipes here (a raw broccoli soup, for example) and if you do eat animal-sourced foods, you may enjoy this book a lot.

The first raw food book I ever read back in 2008 was "Raw 50" by Carol Alt. The first raw food dish I made from her book I thought, "I could eat this way forever". Because her writing was my very first exposure to raw food, I read more and more and tried different methods of raw food (Natalia Rose, Norman Walker, etc). I realized how fortunate I was to pick up her fun, wise and uplifting book and quickly collected everything written by her. She's a minority voice in the raw food world advocating raw dairy and raw meat and god bless her for it:) Kefir (made with raw goat or cow milk) is amazing and my kids (ages 19 months and 5 years old) absolutely love it. Carol's writing is so intelligent and packed with information and down to earth - her books are just such a wealth of information and positivity. All this and she's just stunning to boot - who doesn't want to look like a knock-out just by changing the way you eat?

Just finished reading this excellent clear and concise book that is full of tips and treats. Carol has done her homework and the recipes I tried have been delicious and healthy. I strongly recommend this book.