100% RAW

[Guest guest]

100 percent raw Toss the oven, microwave and grill. Raw foodists

live well on vegetables and nuts.

By Jan Norris

 

Palm Beach Post Food Editor hursday, February 08, 2007 PDATED:

12:07 p.m. February 15, 2007

 

Slaving away in a hot kitchen is never a problem for Cynthia

Aymerich. The 48-year-old West Palm Beach personal trainer hasn't

fired up her stove or oven in five years. She doesn't cook anything.

 

" I don't even heat tea, " she said. " And I use the microwave for

storage — it's got Mason jars full of nuts in it. "

 

 

 

Jan Norris muses on the foods, people and places that inspire her as

food editor.

 

But she's not lazy, nor does she depend on restaurants or takeout.

Instead, everything she eats is raw.

 

It's the same in Rene Oswald's home in Palm Beach Gardens. The 48-

year-old nurse eats only raw foods, and her husband, Allan, follows a

mostly raw diet.

 

" I've been 100 percent 'raw' for three years, " Oswald said. " But

since '98, I've been eating 75 percent raw, which is, by our

standards, considered a raw diet. "

 

These people are part of a movement that in some areas of the country

is taking off, said Brian Clement, head of the Hippocrates Institute

in West Palm Beach. The institute, a health and wellness retreat with

a cafe that serves raw foods to the public, has promoted a raw-food

diet for more than 30 years. Clement says he has seen interest boom

in the past four years.

 

" It's huge, " he said. " Around the world, hundreds of thousands are

eating a raw food diet. It's huge in Europe — Sweden in particular.

In Hollywood (Calif.), it's the No. 1 diet there. And it's not a fad —

it's here to stay. "

 

It's a drastic diet, a total upheaval from the typical American meat

and starch studded plates commonly found in most homes. But no one on

it complains of the limitations of eating only combinations of raw or

dehydrated fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and herbs.

 

" I can make almost anything from a standard menu on the raw food

diet, " said Kipper Lance of Palm Beach, a new convert to the

lifestyle. " I don't miss anything, really. "

 

Nut " neatloafs, " pastas made from julienned zucchini with raw

marinara sauce, or lasagnas layered with spinach leaves and a cheese-

like paté made from nuts are popular. Tacos with salsa and guacamole

fit the diet; the taco " shells " are made with a dehydrated nut or

seed mix. Party appetizers such as raw sushi-like wraps, and ground-

nut crackers are a big hit with even non-raw foodists, Lance said.

 

" My parents ask me all the time, when are you going to make those

crackery things again? " she said. " And I make these great nut cookies

every week. They're delicious. "

 

Most people eat some raw foods — salads, of course, as well as

salsas, guacamole, pesto and hummus. But sauces, crusts and wraps are

cooked, so raw foodists must get creative to prepare versions of

these foods.

 

" Dressings are the key to success, " Aymerich said. They're like

sauces for the raw foodists. " You know you're going to be eating the

same foods every day, but you can get as creative as you like with

them. "

 

Like most others on the diet, she has a high-speed blender for

juicing. A " green drink " made from celery, wheatgrass or spinach is a

big part of the diet; it's a type of detoxing solution for the body

and can be found on many raw foodists' morning tables. Sprouts and

living plants are essentials, as well.

 

Aymerich and Lance both have dehydrators in their homes to make basic

foods such as flaxseed crackers, pizza crusts and taco shells from

seeds and nuts.

 

They swap recipes, and get ideas from recipe books for raw foodists

(don't call them " cook " books).

 

The diet goes gourmet

 

" There are a ton of raw food books out there, " Aymerich said. " Some

are really over the top, but there are solid basic ones, too. "

 

" You can't get all wacky, " Clement said. " Raw foods have gone upscale

and gourmet, and some of them are turnoffs because they're

complicated. You have to have a balance. Some of the books and Web

sites out there are really bizarre, " he said.

 

He and his family, including four children, have been on a raw food

diet for more than 20 years and still eat fairly simply. " I don't

even like all the gourmet stuff. All that glop and schlock they put

on it — it's usually too sweet. "

 

The number of books and classes available has exploded. It's a trendy

element to California life, where the bulk of U.S. raw food

restaurants and stores have found success, but it's gaining ground in

other metro areas.

 

Becoming popular here

 

A new raw food restaurant in Jupiter has local raw foodists excited.

The Silver Tray Cafe converts on the weekends to Raw Food

Underground, a raw food restaurant with mostly takeout, but with some

seats.

 

Vinnette Thompson, former chef at the Hippocrates Institute, turns

out the raw food pizzas, tacos and other foods — including desserts

whose recipes she guards — for enthusiastic diners who have learned

about the diet. It's new, but already packed, according to owner Judy

King.

 

" We're so busy, running food and helping people, and we're really

small, " she said. " People are coming in from everywhere. They've

found us. "

 

Susan Lerner, a freelance photographer in Royal Palm Beach is a

touchstone for raw foodists looking for others on the plan through

the Web meeting site, Vital Longevity Raw Foods Meetup Group at

www.meetup.com. Every month, Lerner hosts a potluck dinner in Royal

Palm Beach. The group has grown from a handful to more than 60

enthusiasts. " I'm looking at other places to host it now, since the

group has expanded so much. "

 

Why raw?

 

Lerner, a five-year raw foodist and longtime vegan, does consulting

work with the Hippocrates Institute. She sets up kitchens for groups

or individuals to make the foods.

 

" It's easy once you start doing it, " she said. " I love cooking and

tasting. I can be around cooked foods and appreciate what everyone

else is eating, but I wouldn't go near it. There's nothing that would

take me back to it now. "

 

Health benefits are touted by everyone on the diet.

 

" We're the only animal that cooks its foods, " Lerner said. She feeds

her dogs a raw diet, and says that's as nature intended for humans,

as well.

 

Clement lectures on the science behind it all.

 

" The University of Oregon is doing a huge major study on

phytochemicals, " he said. " Every day, we hear about all the anti-

disease benefits and anti-aging properties phytochemicals provide.

Each and every vegetable and fruit has them. They're only just

beginning to unlock their benefits. "

 

Oswald explains the theory simply: Cooking fruits and vegetables

above 118 degrees kills the enzymes in them, and the body can't

absorb nutrients from so-called " dead " food.

 

Aymerich takes it further. " You have to get your body to an alkaline

state. Diseases can't live in an alkaline environment. A typical

American diet makes our stomachs and digestive system acidic. And our

digestive systems are so long — we have 5 feet of intestines — foods

actually become toxic inside the body. They putrefy before we

eliminate them. It makes us sick. "

 

A healing diet?

 

Most of the raw foodists find the diet as the result of some extreme

disease that forced them to take stock of their food lifestyles.

 

" I was diagnosed with mastocytosis, " Oswald said. It's a rare cell

disorder that left her with painful hives, and it affected her

stomach and intestines. She put her nurse's training to work for a

remedy, because, she said, the many medicines the doctors doled out

hadn't helped.

 

" I started searching for information about diets, and kept running

across people who had battled all kinds of disorders with a raw foods

diet.

 

" I had tried everything up to that point — acupuncture, all kinds of

homeopathic treatments. "

 

She learned about raw foods at the Optimum Health Institute in San

Diego — but only after a rocky start did it work for her.

 

" I came home and thought, 'This is helping me.' I started feeling

better, and then went back to my old vegan diet. As soon as I started

eating cooked food at all, I got sick again, " she said. After that,

she said, the choice was clear.

 

She claims that after months on the diet, her mastocytosis

disappeared. Her husband, who was eating a healthful diet with mostly

fish and vegetarian foods, now has joined her regime and eats a 75

percent raw food diet.

 

" He plays tennis, and had joint pain in his knees, " Oswald said. " We

both were playing on soft courts, just figuring that after you hit

40, that's the way it was going to be. Now, neither of us has any

joint pain, and we have plenty of energy. We're both playing on hard

courts again. "

 

A healthy diet

 

Lance, 38, is the marketing and communications director for the

Norton Museum in West Palm Beach. She heard about raw foods through

her brother, an actor in Los Angeles.

 

" He's been raw and vegan for two years. When he called and first told

us that he was going raw, we thought he was crazy — another one of

Declan's crazy ideas. Little did I know I'd be joining him. "

 

Lance was feeling fatigued and started looking at her diet as the

culprit. " I was eating mac and cheese at 10 at night, and making a

Saturday night run to Sloan's Ice Cream. I knew there was a better

way to eat. "

 

A former Olympic-trained figure and speed skater in her teens, she

had worked with nutritionists before. " My mom was ahead of her time

with nutrition and performance.

 

" But I had fallen, broken my vertebrae, stopped skating, and gotten

into a bad-girl diet — burgers, fries, pizza. "

 

As an adult, she cleaned up somewhat, and had better eating habits,

but would fall back into the comfort foods on long work days.

Finally, she says, she got tired of " being droopy all the time. "

 

Six months ago, she read the book Skinny Bitch. " It's an in-your-face

kind of read, that says you need a lifestyle change, and part of it

is getting rid of the garbage in the typical American diet and

particularly, animal-based proteins. But it's not a raw foods book. "

 

She continued to study, then learned about the Hippocrates Institute

where she signed up for a week's " life-change " program.

 

Part of it is " detoxing " the body by eating only raw foods and

drinking specific green " living foods " drinks, like wheat grass and

sprouts juice.

 

" That really changed my life. It was like an overnight switch, " she

said. " I stopped eating any animal-based foods, I started juicing,

and cut out all but just a little cooked foods. I still have brown

rice now and then, and a cooked sweet potato, but I'm considered a

raw foodist since 75 percent of my foods are raw. "

 

A life-long diet

 

Lance doesn't miss cooked foods.

 

" I love to cook, and I still do for other people. But I make foods I

can eat, too, for dinner parties and potlucks. I've introduced a lot

of people to this diet. They all love my foods. I made a pecan pie

with my niece at Thanksgiving, and my sister and her family just

loved it. They ate the whole thing. "

 

Aymerich and Lance both have taken classes in raw food preparation

from Oswald. She teaches raw food dieting, with lectures and recipe

demos at Nutrition S'mart in Palm Beach Gardens.

 

" It's so exciting, " Oswald said, " getting others to just try these

foods, and to see they're really delicious. Once they try them, most

of the time, we can at least spark their interest. "

 

But it's not an easy diet to convert to, Clement said. " It's hard. We

have a social break-bread mind-set. It's a social and psychological

addiction, a pattern we have to analyze. But the rewards are so

great, once you benefit from the diet, you never go back. "

 

Blissed be, Annie