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Forget Your George Foreman: The Raw Food Diet Gains Popularity

by Meredith Roberts
09/18/2007

Sixty three year old Linda Ramirez offers a new, ground breaking cooking technique before an Earth Fare demo on Raw Foods Wednesday, September 12 – “Stick your finger in it,” she says. “If its too hot to put your finger in, its probably been cooked too much.”

Like Ramirez, Foodies across the nation are seizing their thermometers as a relatively new eating and lifestyle trend, the raw food diet, gains popularity. The emerging trend seeks to fill the diet with enzyme-rich, organic foods, with the new magical number at 116 degrees.

Followers of the raw food movement believe that heating food above the coveted 116 degree mark kills enzymes that assist in the absorption and digestion of food. Without these enzymes the body relies on its own metabolic enzymes for digestion, consuming energy and often leaving diners to feel sluggish. Seventy five percent or more of the diet must be made of raw or living food in order to experience the health benefits that leave diners feeling lighter and more energized.

But increasing interest in the raw food diet does not mean chefs nationwide will be laid off the payroll, for there are a number of “cooking” techniques and processes associated with adding variety to the raw foodist’s diet, which go farther than simply grabbing an apple on your way out the door. Methods include sprouting - with ingredients such as seeds, grains and beans – juicing, soaking, blending and dehydrating.

Ramirez and her husband Joe, 67, have spent time experimenting in their Athens home with their juicer – often combining apples and carrots, or sneaking in the occasional piece of broccoli, and drinking it. Ramirez says she has also made a milk substitute out of almonds and poured it over her cereal. When asked if she could tell a difference she laughed, saying, “No, It was kinda watery, just like skim milk.”

Dishes often combine several of these methods in order to create a complete dining experience like those experienced by both vegetarians and meat eaters. Earth Fare’s September 2007 calendar highlighted raw food dishes including almond milk, cream of zucchini soup, zucchini noodles marinara and chocolate mousse.

Typical ingredients found on the recipe cards of raw food dishes include fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, seaweed and dried fruit, though it is important to know how to prepare certain foods: kidney beans and buckwheat are both toxic when raw.

Such natural ingredients lead to higher fiber contents and increased ingestion of health promoting plant chemicals, linking the diet to a reduced risk of diabetes and cancer.

While the diet does have its critics, proponents of the raw food diet list a number of health benefits such as increased energy, weight loss, reduced risk of heart disease and improved skin appearance – benefits that cannot be gained by cruising through the drive through and ordering a Number One with a side of fries. Those first starting the diet may experience detoxification as their body goes through withdraws due to the sudden absence fried foods and trans fats, among other things.

Avoiding the sluggish feeling that often follows heavy meals is exactly why people across the nation, such as the Ramirezes, are investigating the new raw food diet. The Athens couple said they frequently attend lectures for inspiration and admit the raw food diet is a rather large commitment. The couple even drives to Atlanta’s Living Foods Institute during the Institute’s graduation – because where there are graduates of cooking school there is often free food. Delicious, free food. Ramirez’s favorite raw dish so far? Sweet Potato Soufflé. And yes, the finger trick works with this one.