Certified clinical nutritionist, VegNews contributor, and blogger at Choosing Raw (www.choosingraw.com)
If you spend any time in the nutrition and wellness world, chances are you’ve heard of the raw food diet. Traditionally, raw foodism has been envisioned as a way of eating that seeks to preserve enzymes in food. Enzymes, which are proteins, are involved in the activation of biochemical reactions. Most of the enzymes used in the human body are denatured—or rendered inactive—at temperatures higher than 115°F (46° C).
The food we eat is rich in enzymes, but our bodies also produce digestive enzymes to break it down. One of the major tenets of the raw food philoso-phy is that if you preserve enzymes in food by never heating it above 115°F (46°C), those enzymes will go on to participate in food digestion. Your body will need to produce fewer enzymes of its own, and the energy it might spend on enzyme production and digestion can be directed elsewhere—to healing, assisting all metabolic processes, and building strong immunity.
Sounds pretty intuitive, right? Unfortunately, the science behind enzyme theory is murky at best and lacking at worst. Enzyme theory fails to account for the fact that enzymes are denatured by the heavily acidic environment of the stomach (a pH of about 3). They’ll then be broken down into amino acids and digested like any protein would be. Ultimately, the body’s digestive enzymes will be called upon to aid in this digestive process, whether you’ve heated your food or not. Some vegan health practitioners claim that certain enzymes may survive the digestion process, but if this is true, it is likely to be only a small amount.
If the central tenet of raw foodism is not supported by science, then why eat raw? As it turns out, there are tons of reasons. Part of it is aesthetic. I love the simplicity, color, and freshness of raw cuisine. When I first discovered raw foods, I had been on a steady diet of rice, beans, tofu, and cooked veg-gies. I was bored and uninspired. Raw foods presented me with bright hues, crunchy textures, and endless culinary creativity. It takes a lot of imagination to create satisfying cuisine without cooking; not surprisingly, raw food chefs are known for their innovation.
Although enzyme preservation may not be so ultimately important, there is good evidence to show that eating foods raw can preserve some of their vital micronutrients (minerals and vitamins). Vitamin C, in particular, is suscep-tible to diminishment through cooking. So are certain phytochemicals—the plant compounds that may be so helpful in fighting cancer and free radical damage. And mineral loss from cooking has been estimated in some studies to be as high as 30 to 40 percent. It’s important to note that not all foods are best eaten raw; the cancer-fighting compound lycopene, for instance, is released when tomatoes are cooked.
But variety is important. Before I began eating raw food, it was easy for me to cook virtually all of my vegetables except for my salads. Today, I’m mindful to create raw slaws, marinated vegetables, and other dishes with raw and cooked ingredients. As a result, my diet has become more nutrient dense, more variable, and a lot more interesting.
The final reason raw foods appeal to me is more complex than aesthetics, taste, or nutrition. Raw foods force us to be involved with our food prepara-tion, to pay attention to the quality and integrity of our ingredients. They encourage us to showcase food in its natural state; they are the earth’s raw materials (pun intended).
There’s no one right or wrong way to get started with raw food. You can begin by adding a green smoothie to your morning routine. You can swap a standard lunch wrap or sandwich with a big salad, packed with nuts, seeds, avocado, and some sprouted or cooked legumes. You can make a batch of cashew cheese and layer it between zucchini, tomato, and basil slices for a quick and easy raw lasagna. A lot of people find that raw entrées such as this
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may not be filling enough on their own. To make your raw dish heartier, serve it with cooked legumes, cooked root veggies, or quinoa. Remember, the goal is not to be exclusively raw, so it doesn’t matter if you mix raw and cooked foods in the same meal. In fact, because variety is so beneficial, a mixture of raw and cooked foods is ideal. My favorite high-raw dishes include the following:
Breakfast:
• Green smoothie
• Raw fruit/nut bar and salad
• Sprouted lentils, vegetables, and avocado
• Banana wrapped in romaine lettuce with almond butter
• Chia seed pudding
Lunch:
• Large salad, packed with fat and protein
• Raw nori sushi rolls with a nut “paté” filling
• “Rice” made from jicama or cauliflower, tossed with mixed veggies and some lentils or (cooked) chickpeas
• Sprouted grain bread (I like Ezekiel or Manna bread) with avocado and a salad
• Raw soup and salad
Dinner:
• Raw parsnip rice with cooked butternut squash and creamy cashew sauce
• Zucchini “spaghetti” with raw tomato sauce and lentils
• Raw marinated portobello mushrooms with raw “mashed potatoes”
(made from cauliflower and cashews!)
See? It’s not quite as exotic as it may sound. If you pick the right reci-pes, raw foodism can be easy, fun, and stress free. As a full time pre-medical student and blogger, I have relied on “uncooking” to fuel my hectic lifestyle.
Just play around with a few raw recipes, paying close attention to the beauty of your food as you go along. I hope you’ll be as inspired and excited about this brave new world of food preparation as I always have been.