I borrowed this from a friend and now I'm converted. I used to be very leery of most things raw, aside from carrot sticks, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Now I "cook" with confidence and have broadened my horizons to new and flavorful recipes. Half the battle, as the book explains, is keeping the essential vitamins in the foods you choose. Often, the cooking process removes these beneficial features, leaving us with dull food matter.

This book is a no nonsense guide to the raw diet. I have actually lost weight using this guide, but still have the energy to bike 10 miles a day and go out at night. I wish I had started this sooner.

On a side note, this also tends to be a greener option since many vegetables and other ingredients do not need to be refrigerated, and the use of fossil fuels to prepare food is removed! It's healthy for all!

Raw food must certainly have "arrived" now that it has its own "complete idiot's guide!"

The raw lifestyle is exploding. More and more people are not just adopting a vegan lifestyle, but a raw vegan one. It's become so common I've ran into other raw foodists in all sorts of places, even my town's little country grocery store (in the produce department, of course).

This book is so user friendly that it could help just about anyone who is or wants to go raw. This book covers the basics, such as sprouting and soaking, as well as giving simple but tasty recipes. It's full of practical tips on everything from how and why to soak nuts to why raw can be so healthy.

Of course, no one is going to stay in a lifestyle if the food doesn't taste good. And this book has a lot of delicious recipes that are simple to make out of commonly available ingredients.

Okay, let's be honest. Raw food gets a bad rap. It's too confusing, too time consuming, too limiting to be a practical diet for anyone. I mean, I'm a vegetarian and I found myself a bit intimidated by the concept.

But this book is a fantastic resource. It boils down eating raw to the essentials, and then explains what you need to do to incorporate a raw diet into your every day life. While there are still some time consuming elements- food dehydration for instance- the sheer number of basic recipes for beginners helps keep you interested as you learn the basics. I mean, how can you go wrong with chocolate orange pudding?

So if you're interested in the raw food lifestyle, this is definitely a great starting place. I'd suggest buying it in conjunction with another everyday raw cookbook so you've got some varieties and some choices for easy meals, but if that's not feasible, this is fine to be getting on with.

My sister has gone through a lot of dietary changes on a whim in the last year. From becoming vegetarian, to going completely vegan, and then onto a raw food diet, it has been nothing short of stressful for my parents trying to get her food and prepare meals for her. While I don't pretend to know or understand eating a vegan, raw diet, I wanted to be able to help my parents prepare food for my sister, or know about things to make for her if they went out of town.

My own dietary needs are the opposite, and for health reasons I have to eat virtually all meat - but I have tried a little of all the things I have prepared with my sister out of this book and I did find them all to be VERY delicious. I thought everything was pretty easy to make too, and having her prepare them with me has taught her not only to be less afraid of the kitchen, but how to prepare food herself so my parents don't need to hassle with it!

I purchased this book because I had been wanting to incorporate at least one raw food meal into my daily diet and it seemed less intimidating than other raw food cook books. I have been very happy with almost all of the recipes I have tried. This book has some great granola and dressing recipes (especially the tahini-yum!).

The one negative about this cook book is that many of the recipes do require dehydrating foods which can take a really long time and is just a bit too much for someone who just wants to try some basic raw food recipes.

Overall, I really like this book and it has definitely inspired me to be more adventurous and creative with all of my meals. I am more interested in raw food cuisine and think that this book definitely gave me a positive first experience with this type of meal preparation!