But we drive on to the task at hand - DETOX! Natalia Rose's book - Raw Food Detox Diet not only has five different levels of diet to get you closer and closer to a completely raw diet she also has a five step plan for detoxifying your insides so that you move closer to optimum health.
The first step is: Stop Poisoning Your Cells! This make a ton of sense, hmm? One of the ways to do this is to not only stop eating junk foods but to also read the labels of anything that you eat that is a processed or boxed food. She gives some recommendations of brands of foods like bread, pasta, granola that you might prefer to buy vs. make yourself that she feels are reputable and free of the bad stuff that our bodies don't have a method for using or eliminating.
The second step is something she calls: Eat Quick Exit Foods. This is exactly what it sounds like - food that don't hang around inside you have less time for you to absorb breakdown products that could be harmful. In this area she gets into a philosophy called by many "Food Combining" wherein certain foods when mixed together are either compatible or incompatible. They also can either speed up or slow down the digestive process. Some of this is completely physiologically sound and some of it has a touch of "magical thinking" thrown in for good measure. Suffice it to say that the more you mix up different types of foods the longer your digestive process takes. If you have something easy to digest mixed with a hard to digest - well chances are excellent the easy stuff will hang around longer than if you'd eaten it alone. I suppose we could re purpose the phrase "Never Mix, Never Worry" here.
The other thing that really slows down the digestive process is fat. As we all know - from our Never Mix, Never Worry days - that a slug of fat before a night of drinking will slow down alcohol absorption. Seemed like a good thing then. Well - in contrast - a bunch of fat in your meal will slow down your food transit and increase exposure to some potentially bad actors travelling with your food. See how much physiology you were learning as a young'un during your drinking days? So - keep the fat out of your diet - for a bunch of reasons!
She gives a hierarchy for quick exit foods. 1 - is the best group....down to 11 being the worst.
- Raw fruits and veggies.
- Lightly-steamed, low-starch veggies; pure maple syrup, agave nectar
- Raw nuts and seeds
- Raw stone-pressed or cold-pressed plant oils - olive oil especially.
- Cooked starchy veggies
- Raw unpasteurized dairy products
- Whole grains
- Pasteurized dairy and animal flesh
- All non-whole grain flour products, sugar, etc..
- Cooked animal fats/ hydrogenated oils; soy products
So - what was on yesterday's menu?
Morning: Fresh fruit
Mid-Morning: Green Lemonade
Lunch: Guacamole Salad
Mid-Afternoon: Green Lemonade
Dinner:Thai Coconut Bliss, Cranberry-Beet Medley Salad
Dessert: Raw Chocolate Ice Cream
Chemicals, artificial coloring and sweeteners.
For the morning things were just like yesterday. Although it's boring to read about I know that for me - eating the same thing pretty much every morning keeps it simple and do-able. How many of you just ate whatever cereal was in the cupboard each morning for breakfast for years and years? I know I did. Kept it simple until the rest of you actually woke up and could think about the rest of the day.
Lunch was a lovely Guacamole Salad with several firm, ripe tomatoes in the avocado with some garlic and cilantro. Pretty typical guac. This is served on some greens. It could also be rolled up in a nori sheet or collard leaf as well and be really satisfying. I give this a solid B rating.
So now for the dish we've all been waiting for -Thai Coconut Bliss! Ms. Rose prefaced the recipe by stating this is her favorite soup recipe. It will rank highly in my recipe box from now on as well! This terrific soup starts out by marinating some thinly sliced mushrooms with lime juice and chopped basil. The the soup is made with coconut meat, minced ginger, dates, some soy sauce, ginger, EVOO and coconut water. Once all this is blended it is served either over the mushrooms or with them used as a garnish on top. It taste spectacular! Since I didn't slice my mushrooms that thin they were not terribly marinated so I opted to put everything back into the blender and pulse it a few times to mix it all up. This was the complete ticket for me, now! I could probably down a gallon of this stuff. Hopefully - if you like coconut even a just a little you will try this recipe. A+ from me - enjoy! 
The soup was served with a Cranberry Beet medley salad. A Beet, some fennel and a parsnip were very thinly sliced and marinated for a few hours in her salad dressing called "Liquid Gold". This was then served over a bed of greens and garnished with dried cranberries. This is a really wonderful salad with a lot of flavor and crunchy texture. I want to give it a B since it clearly pales next to the Coconut soup but since I'm sure I'll make this salad again I think I'll give it an A so I don't forget about it in the future! 
Let me sing the praises of the Mandolin for thinly slicing food as well as making julienne slices as well. Such a simple tool but so useful! If you are considering making vegetables your main staple for food I highly recommend purchasing one. Here's the spreadsheet:
| Name | Category | Diet | Day | Page number | Rating | |
| Green Lemonade | Drink | Raw Detox | one | 48 | B | |
| Raw Rainbow Salad | Salad | Raw Detox | one | 125 | B | |
| Raw Chocolate Ice Cream | Dessert | Raw Detox | one | 164 | A | |
| Guacamole Salad | Salad | Raw Detox | two | 128 | B | |
| Thai Coconut Bliss | Soup | Raw Detox | two | 156 | A+ | |
| Cranberry Beet Medley Salad | Salad | Raw Detox | two | 158 | A |
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