Help! I need a detox! Help is at hand at The Raw Food Centre

PUBLISHED February 11th, 2014 01:41 am | UPDATED April 17th, 2016 09:50 pm

If you’re like me, or my friends, you might refer to this mythical health regiment as a means to get ‘back on track,’ maybe after a weekend of heavy drinking, an indulgent holiday season, or a stressful trip abroad.

And yet despite our best efforts, our glorious plan of starting afresh with a water fast or all-juice diet usually fails quite miserably, ending with us feeling starved and hence stuffing ourselves with Pringles in a moment of weakness. We feel as if we need to go to a retreat to do a proper detox, yes, this must be why we’re so unsuccessful.

Lucky for us, the Raw Food Centre, commanded by Chef Sunita, has come to rescue us from the violence of unrealistic ‘juice cleanses’ and other dangerous and unhealthy means of rejuvenating our bodies. The Raw Food Centre is all about ‘living food,’ which means that the vegetables, fruits, nuts, and spouted wheats have not been heated over 50°C (118°F). This insures that the food retains all of its nutrients, and therefore, serves the body in a healing process much better than cooked foods. Many famous celebrities have gotten on the ‘raw food’ wagon, showing off low-fat bodies, pretty hair, and an all-over better quality of life.

With her 3-Day Living Foods Detox, held in Singapore, Chef Sunita facilitates a safe, healthy detox regiment than anyone could do, without the necessity of traveling to a retreat. Chef Sunita teaches her students how to prepare raw food dishes that are not only delicious, but also filling and nutritious.

The days start with students preparing fruit and vegetable shakes (recipes courtesy of Chef Sunita) at their respective homes before meeting at Sunita’s house for midmorning snacks, meal demonstrations, detox and raw food talk, followed by lunch prepared by Sunita. Some of our favourite dishes were sprouted wild rice with bell pepper and seasoned mushrooms, savoury zucchini hummus, shammi kebabs with mint chutney, and a chocolate mouse dessert (yum!).

After lunch, the students are sent off with a yummy snack to enjoy in the afternoon, and recipes for soups and salads they can prepare for dinner. The soups are a delicious blend of vegetables and spices that support the body’s detox and simply blended with hot water to maintain the ‘living’ nutrition. The 3-day detox concludes with a celebratory lunch on the fourth day – ours was a raw Mexican fiesta, complete with tortilla soup, lettuce wrap tacos, and flan.

Sunita offers her support for the whole duration of the detox and makes sure all of her participants are surviving the body’s healing process of shedding toxins stored in the body, as sometimes this healing process can produce some negative symptoms. It’s important to rest and take care of oneself while going through a detox, and Sunita makes sure to share this with all who take the course.

Personally, I was amazed with the flavours and quality of the meals on this course. There are so many different ways to incorporate raw foods in your diet that I had never even thought of before. We learned some great healthy ‘cheats,’ such as using nutritional yeast as a replacement for cheese and carob powder as a replacement for chocolate. We also got some great tip offs on organic food stores and now have a personal cache of raw food recipes to incorporate into everyday meals.

The detox itself came with some emotional ups and downs, so we would recommend anyone doing the detox to read up about some of the symptoms that might come up during the healing period. Sunita is happy to provide this information as well. Also, it may be a good idea to take a few days off work, as the body uses a lot of energy going into healing mode, which can cause drowsiness!

Apart from the 3-day Living Foods Detox held monthly, Chef Sunita holds raw food ‘cooking’ classes on weekends.  Trust me, this stuff is worth tasting and worth learning how to make. The desserts that this woman can make from raw foods are shocking!

If you’re interested in joining a detox course, cooking class, or a Bali detox retreat by The Raw Food Centre, visit their website here.

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Written by Wanderlush