If you really want to go raw, now is the best time to do it.
Why? Because summer’s here!
Festival of Fruit
Summertime is the absolute best time of year to start eating raw foods There are just so many delicious fruits available! Here are a few of the fruits that are ripe right now in my neck of the woods:
- musk melon
- watermelon
- honeydew melon
- mangoes
- peaches
- blueberries
- cherries
- raspberries
- blackberries
- tomatoes
- cucumber
- zucchini squash
- yellow squash
Make sure to source out all of your local farmers markets and pick-your-own farms so you can get the best quality produce (not to mention deals) .
Speaking of deals…
Cheap
During the summer months, I alaways tend to spend less money on produce . That’s because I shop in season and buy the vast majority of my produce at farmers markets and local farms. And because I visit the markets and farms so regularly, I often get substantial discounts, too.:)
In fact, the only fruit I buy in an actual store are bananas and mangoes!
Even if I did not visit farmers markets and farms and only shopped at nearby grocery stores, I would still be spending less money on food. I can find delicious seasonal fruits like muskmelon for $1.50 per pound, peaches for $1.40 per pound, and ataulfo mangoes for $.91 each at my local supermarkets.
Bananas and oranges are the only inexpensive fruits during the winter months Everything else – grapes, persimmon, kiwi – are usually over $2 per pound.
Warm Weather
The cold weather of the fall/winter months can make going raw during that time pretty difficult .
If you grew up eating cooked food like 99.9999% of us, cold weather = hot comfort foods. The first thing you want on a cold winter’s day is a big bowl of steamy soup and some warm bread. The last thing you want is cold (or at best room temperature) fruit.
During the summer, following a raw food diet is easy. Having a big bowl of mangoes or a whole musk melon or some blended bananas is just so refreshing.
Stress
This may be idiosyncratic, but I find summertime to be much less stressful than the rest of the year. It may just be all the warm weather and sunshine, but I generally am more good-natured and less stressed during the summer.