Healing Foods—Living in the Raw

By Lisa Turner

I went raw once, and I did so with a great deal of enthusiasm for the health benefits I would accrue. Certainly, eating only uncooked food seemed easy enough. Make a bunch of salads, gorge on apples and oranges, sprout some nuts and beans—piece of cake, I thought. After three weeks, all I wanted was a piece of cake. And bread. And hot, hot soups. Slowly but surely, after two months, I returned to my old eating habits, and to my beloved stove. I didn’t know what I know now: that with a few simple tricks, you can conquer your cooked-food cravings, as well as other common obstacles to the raw foods diet.

The payoff for eating raw foods makes it worth it. When you cook food above 114 degrees, it destroys the enzymes that help you digest and assimilate the food. High temperatures also alter the chemical structure of vital nutrients. Overall, “You lose 50 percent of the protein, 80 percent of the vitamins and minerals, and about 95 percent of the phytonutrients,�says Gabriel Cousens, MD, author of Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine (North Atlantic Books, 2003).

By enhancing nutrient absorption and making digestion easier, raw foods allow the body to spend its energy on other important functions. “If the body’s working on trying to digest heavy, difficult-to-process food, it can’t focus on healing,�says Natalia Rose, author of The Raw Foods Detox Diet (Regan Books, 2005). The potential benefit of going raw? More radiant health. Says Cousens: “A live foods diet decreases inflammation, slows the aging process, increases immunity and energy, and results in increased mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.�

Scientific research also supports the health benefits of raw foods. In a review of 11 studies examining the relationship between vegetable intake and cancer risk, for example, nine of the studies found that eating more raw vegetables lowered your risk of breast, lung, and colorectal cancers. The study’s authors suggest the reason for the correlation may be that cooking food reduces the availability of some nutrients and makes the food harder to digest.

Keep in mind though that cooking your food does carry some advantages—besides the yummy taste. Heat actually makes some nutrients, like lycopene in tomatoes, more bioavailable by breaking down the plant’s cell wall. Cooking also destroys so-called “anti-nutrients,�for example, phytates in grains and legumes (which block mineral absorption), as well as trypsin inhibitors in nuts and legumes (which hamper protein digestion). However, soaking and sprouting raw food, helps destroy these compounds, too.

More importantly, raw foods don’t work for everyone. Both Traditional Chinese Medicine and ayurvedic traditions teach that uncooked foods cool the body and may actually require more energy to digest. Thus, people who naturally tend to feel cold or dry should avoid them. “For certain body types at certain times of year, a raw food diet could be the best medicine,�says John Douillard, DC, PhD, author of The Three-Season Diet (Three Rivers Press, 2001). “But during cold winter months, for certain body types, it can cause trouble.�nbsp;

In general, however, most people can eat raw foods with glowing results. Plus, the regimen doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Depending on your constitution, you can choose how raw you want to go. “Most people won’t do a 100 percent raw diet because it’s too painful,�says Susan Schenck, LAc, author of The Live Food Factor (Awakenings Publications, 2006). “Most people do better on an 85 percent raw diet.�Whether you go all the way or take the middle path, try these seven surefire tricks to make going raw easier:

1. Constant cravings. Overcoming our hunger for bread, cookies, pasta, chips, and most candy doesn’t come easy. The raw solution: “If you’re missing carbs, you can make satisfying substitutions from raw foods,�says Brigitte Mars, author of Rawsome! (Basic Health Publications, 2004). “Dates stuffed with almond butter, or cookies made from raw, ground nuts and dried fruit can satisfy a sweet tooth. You can have flax ‘crackers�instead of chips or bread. And you can make ‘rice�out of cauliflower or rutabaga, and ‘pasta�from zucchini strips.�

2. Social support. Food provides more than physical nourishment. “It’s tied up in all kinds of social cues, holidays, mother’s love, and childhood memories of being loved and nurtured,�says Schenck. Foregoing those comfort foods can make you feel alone and isolated. The raw solution: Get support. Tap into the raw community in your town or city. Check local newspapers for notices of raw foods potluck groups, or start your own.

3. Dining-out dilemmas. Nibbling on crudités at a restaurant while your fellow diners cozy up to burgers and fries tempts even the most devoted raw-foodist. The raw solution: Schenck suggests printing small cards that say, “I’m a raw foodist; please prepare a large salad for me, with fresh, raw vegetables, nuts, seeds, and avocado.�Ask the waiter to deliver your request to the chef. At cocktail or dinner parties, call the host, and ask if you can bring a dish to share. Then whip up your favorite, most tempting raw foods dish. You’ll be less likely to succumb to temptation—and you may introduce someone to raw foods.

4. The salad rut. If your raw foods diet consists mainly of lettuce and grated veggies, you’ll get bored fast. After all, you can only do so much with a bowl of Romaine. The raw solution: Get creative. Invest in a few great raw foods recipe books. Or seek out raw foods classes, where you’ll learn techniques for preparing a variety of dishes—and meet new friends in the process.

5. Needing the heat. When the weather’s cold, we crave warming meals, like soup and creamy foods. A plate of sliced apples just doesn’t have the same comforting appeal as a slice of warm apple pie. The raw solution: Eating foods raw doesn’t mean eating them icy cold. You can warm most foods to 110 degrees without damaging their enzymes. Other ways to satisfy your need for heat: Eat high-fat raw foods, like avocados and nut butters, and add warming spices, like cinnamon, ginger, and garlic, to dishes. As for the apple pie conundrum, try grating apples, tossing them with cinnamon and ginger, and warming them slightly in a dehydrator. Yum.

6. Time crunch. The raw foods diet does take longer to prepare, at least initially—and that alone sends many people back to the microwave. The raw solution: Spend a couple hours on weekends making enough food to last several days. Focus on easy raw dishes, like blended soups or nut pates, and take advantage of time-saving equipment (see “Kitchen Essentials�on page TK). Also, find a raw buddy for a meal-exchange program: Each of you makes double or triple quantities of raw dishes to share.

7. Commitment phobia. Following a raw foods diet requires discipline in terms of time, energy, and attitude, which challenges most of us. The raw solution: Lighten up. “Remember that the raw foods lifestyle is a choice, not a religion,â€?says Renee Loux, author of The Balanced Plate (Rodale, 2006). “There isn’t one thing that works for everyone, and part of the journey is learning to listen to your own body.â€?And if you can’t live without one or two goodies, like Aunt Marge’s chocolate truffle cake, have a tiny bit, mindfully and moderately. We won’t tell. 

Lisa Turner is a nutrition writer, personal chef, and food coach in Boulder, Colorado.

[PQs]

High temperatures alter the chemical structure of vital nutrients.
“If the body’s working on trying to digest heavy, difficult-to-process food, it can’t focus on healing.�BR>Raw foods don’t work for everyone.
“Most people do better on an 85 percent raw diet.�/P>

Kitchen Essentials
Just because you’re not heating up a stove to prepare raw food doesn’t mean you don’t need the proper kitchen equipment. A blender and standard knives would probably suffice, but a wider variety of tools allows you to prepare a wider variety of foods. Good starters include:

�A great knife. You’ll be slicing and dicing a lot, so invest in a chef’s knife, small paring knife, and serrated knife, all of which should comfortably fit your hand. Wusthof, Henckels, and Shun are good, long-lasting choices.

�Food processors work better than a blender for grinding nuts and seeds and making soups, sauces, and spreads. Opt for a high-quality one (Cuisinart is always a safe bet) that has attachments for shredding and slicing vegetables. A mini food processor also helps for chopping garlic or grinding nuts and seeds.

�A dehydrators isn’t a must, but you’ll be glad you have it. With it, you can make raw cookies, crackers, breads, fruit leathers, and even ersatz burgers. The Excalibur dehydrator has a fan to distribute heat evenly and a temperature gauge so you can control how hot the food gets—important with a raw foods diet [www.excaliburdehydrator.com].

�Spiral slicers allow you to cut long, thin strips of butternut squash, zucchini, or other vegetables to decorate salads or make raw “pasta.�Joyce Chen makes a good, simple version [www.joycechen.com].

�A juicer. You can get a basic juicer for $100 to $150. Or go for the gold with a Green Star juicer [www.greenstar.com], a high-end model that actually presses, rather than grinding, the produce. This creates less heat, which increases the juice’s quality.