Shadyside Juice Café Helping To Promote Benefits Of Eating Raw

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Let's face it, most of us don't eat as healthy as we should.

Getting the right amount of veggies and other good foods into our bodies can be a challenge.

If you're dieting, saying no to the foods that aren't good for you is tough too.

Have you considered eating raw? Do you even know what that means?

We all know that fruits and vegetables should be part of our daily diet. They're essential for good health, but they aren't always what we eat.

What if you considered drinking your fruits and veggies - nothing more, with no additives, just fruits and veggies.

That's part of eating raw.

"The juices are important because your body doesn't have to do anything to break down the juice to get the nutrients, because there's no fiber, so if you want to get all your nutrients, your greens for the day, you can just grab a green juice and you have all the nutrients from pounds of greens in one juice," Living Juicy Raw Café Co-Owner Sidney Rawlings said.

Living Juicy is a raw, organic juice café in Shadyside. Rawlings, with her sister, Kelly Protho, opened the business because there weren't a lot of options for eating raw, when she moved back to Pittsburgh.

Now, the sisters begin each day preparing the fresh fruit and veggies for the smoothies, salads and cold-pressed juices- washing kale, breaking down apples, and opening coconuts.

"We believe fast food doesn't have to be unhealthy food. This is...you can grab a juice and a salad and you have your lunch. It's convenient. We say living juicy, where health meets convenience," Rawlings said.

Eating raw, as it's defined, is increasing the amount of raw food in your diet and decreasing the amount of cooked food. Rawlings said it's not a trend, but a healthier lifestyle.

"I just think that it's important to know that it doesn't matter what your diet is, you can be vegan, you can be a meat eater, a vegetarian, it's important to get as much raw food in your diet as you can," she said.

Food that isn't processed or heated over 112 degrees, maintains more of the vital enzymes that we all need. As food is processed or cooked, not as many enzymes are retained.
"There's garlic, there's fresh garlic that we press, there's olive oil, apple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast and liquid amino, so it gives it a really tasty savory flavor, without any dairy and it's all raw," Protho said.

But, you don't have to have only juices for a raw diet. Salads are also an option and they sell out of them every day.

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