March Is National Nutrition Month

March is national nutrition month. Incorporate more raw foods into your diet as a means of improving your overall diet and health.

A raw food diet focuses on increasing the consumption of raw foods. Raw foods are eaten in their natural, unprocessed and uncooked state. This maximizes the amount of vitamins, minerals and nutrients consumed. Raw foodists, or people practicing a full raw food diet, get 75% to 100% of their overall food consumption from raw foods.

Cooking foods can decrease their vitamin and mineral content by up to 70% to 80%. Instead use a food dehydrator to beneficially warm foods without heating them too much and destroying nutrients.

Don't want to commit to a full raw food diet? No problem, any increase in raw food intake is worthwhile and good for your overall health.

February Is National Fiber Month - Eat Dried Fruit

February is national focus on fiber month. Dried fruit contains large amounts of concentrated fiber. Because a food dehydrator removes water from fruit and lowers its weight, a half ounce of dried fruit will have substantially more fiber than a half ounce of fresh fruit. Fiber helps lower cholesterol, promote regularity, makes you feel fuller longer and regulates blood sugar. Use a dehydrator to make dried fruit and eat more fiber.

Cherry & Plum Fruit Leather - February Is Cherry Month

Make some cherry fruit leather to celebrate national cherry month.

Ingredients - 1.5 cups of plums and 1 cup of cherries. Puree the fruit.
Dehydrate - Spread the pureed fruit out to a 1/4 inch thickness on a non-stick drying sheet or parchment paper. Dry in a food dehydratorat 130 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 9 hours. You can flip the leather over half way through.

When completely dry, the fruit leather should be firm and flexible with no moist spots. Enjoy!