Rod Rotondi - Raw Food for Real People: Living Vegan Food Made Simple

Rods down-to-earth approach and his ability to simplify raw-food preparation are outstanding. Raw food is healthy and delicious, and as Rod clearly demonstrates in Raw Food for Real People, its for everyone.

Ive been enjoying Rods delicious raw foods for years. Its a true win-win good for my health and good for the environment. Rod has inspired me to adapt a good portion of my diet to raw.

Rods food philosophy provides a guide to conscious eating for real people.... Rod is revealing the next evolution in raw food, and the possibilities are limitless. I invite you to enter a delectable adventure in raw dining.

The time has come for us to love ourselves enough to take action to heal ourselves. This book gives us the skills to do so.

The solution to our countrys health problems is simple and well within reach: eating a raw, alkaline, electron-rich diet as outlined in this book can ensure a consistently healthy, fit body free from all sickness and so-called disease, or dis-ease.

Copyright 2009 by Rod Rotondi

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, or otherwithout written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

The material in this book is intended for education. No expressed or implied guarantee as to the effects of the use of the recommendations can be given nor liability taken.

Text design by Mary Ann Casler
Typography by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rotondi, Rod.
Raw food for real people : living vegan food made simple by the chef and founder of Leaf Organics / by Rod Rotondi ; foreword by Michael Bernard Beckwith.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-57731-673-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Raw food diet. 2. Vegetarianism. I. Title.
RM237.5.R685 2009
613.26dc22 2009027733

First printing, September 2009
ISBN 978-1-57731-673-2
Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper (exclusive of photo insert).

New World Library is a proud member of the Green Press Initiative.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Preventing and Healing Diabetes with a Raw-Food Diet
by Rabbi Gabriel Cousens

First off, I wish to thank Marc Allen from New World Library for his support and the incredible company he has built. I greatly appreciate Georgia Hughes and Kristen Cashman, my fantastic editors, who went way beyond the call of duty in bringing this book to fruition.

I wish to thank my whole family for their love and support, but especially my dad, Roger Rotondi, for his unwavering support and for sharing his love of food and family. What a great heart!

I thank Jeannette Rotondi for being an amazing mother to our daughter, Lilli, and for her help with some of the scientific background for this book. And Lilli, thank you for joining us on this journey, putting it all in perspective, filling my heart with love, and making me laugh.

I also want to thank all my colleagues at Leaf Organics, especially Ray Gonzales, who has completely owned our mission to Make it easy for people to eat healthy food.

It truly takes a village.

Raw Food for Real People delivers on its promise. It offers a way of nourishing ourselves that delivers vibrant health and vitality. It also takes into account the emotional comfort we derive from food that satisfies both body and spirit. Rods food philosophy provides a guide to conscious eating for real people.

People routinely comment on how healthy and energetic I am. One of the things I attribute my well-being to is that I prepare many of Rods recipes at home the recipes that are most frequently requested in his restaurants: amazing salads, savory sauces, smoothies, nourishing soups, desserts, dressings, and more. Rods food aesthetic, as well as his ethics and concern about how the Earths resources are inextricably intertwined with how we grow, prepare, and eat our food, reminds us that eating is a sacred act, an art, and a spiritual practice of inner joy and satisfaction.

Ever since I began going to Rods restaurant, Leaf Cuisine, four years ago, I have known I could trust him not only with my taste buds, but also with feeding me in a conscionable way. His preparations are in accord with my belief in placing sunlightfed, organic foods into the body temple while respecting the environment by keeping it free of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. The vision Rod presents of quality, purity, and enjoyment of our food is inspired by his commitment to the benefits of the raw-food lifestyle. My family and I have benefited so much from Rods knowledge and love of foods that I extended an invitation to him to set up an outdoor food booth each Sunday at the Agape International Spiritual Center, the community I founded in Los Angeles in 1986. Upon experiencing Rods cuisine, many individuals have changed the foods they eat and tell us regularly how their health, vitality, and well-being have greatly improved.

Today people are realizing that there are new choices to be made about food, as evidenced by the increased popularity of farmers markets and the range of organic foods now available in traditional grocery stores. Americas unhealthy relationship with food is evidenced by its expanding waistline as well as its increased incidence of childhood diabetes and other health issues. Today more than 50 percent of Americans admit to having been on a diet at one time or another. Increasingly we realize: