Foodists go for raw materials

July 26, 2008

http://www.adn.com/life/story/475835.html

NUTRIENTS: Preparation takes time, but results, they say, are healthier.

By JULIA O'MALLEYjomalley

Published: July 26th, 2008 02:15 AMLast Modified: July 26th, 2008 04:59 AM

It could have been any Friday-night potluck in the little duplex off Muldoon. People arrived with dishes swathed in plastic wrap. They made airy conversation about ingredients and recipes. Only one thing was out of the ordinary: On the banquet table full of dishes, not a thing had been cooked.

The guests were local raw foodists, drawn together by the Internet and a shared commitment to raw fruit and vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains. On the menu: dehydrated balls of jicama puree, raw cacao cookies, "cheese" made of nuts and oil, and soft frozen cashew ice cream with blueberry syrup.

The Southcentral Alaska Raw Food Potluck, organized through the social networking site MeetUp.com, mingles regularly with members of AlaskaVeg, the vegetarian/vegan MeetUp group, at gatherings in living rooms and kitchens around Anchorage. AlaskaVeg has 92 members. Raw Food Potluck, 42. The numbers seem to grow daily.

Today they're holding a "Conscious Living Festival" on the Delaney Park Strip to bring together like-minded healthy-eaters, New Age spiritualists, alternative parenting enthusiasts and others interested in stopping "the pollution of the environment and their minds," said Stephanie Duboc, one of the organizers.

As a movement, raw food's been around for decades. Larger cities have raw food restaurants and cooking classes. Alaska's group is a little more homespun -- hunting ingredients online and in the organic sections of local grocery stores, suffering through wintertime produce droughts, eating out potluck-style. Raw is not just about naked veggies. Raw foodists do what they call "uncooking," mostly chopping, pureeing, grinding, mashing, dehydrating, and freezing -- creating sometimes very elaborate meals.

They say cooking kills the enzymes in food that aid in digestion. Avoiding processed foods also removes toxins. More than that, each uncooked bite is a tiny political statement, a rejection of American overconsumption and the treatment of animals in the meat and dairy industry, they say. Many eat raw for the spiritual transformation, seeking what raw foodies call "the glow," an inner warmth and outer dewiness similar to what happens to pregnant women, Duboc explained.

"The glow is, like, it's actually an energy," she said. "We have less food weighing us down so we just have this energy glow about us."

BEYOND VEGAN

At the potluck, Duboc, 24, stayed in the kitchen, whipping sodden oat groats, banana and cinnamon in the food processor into a raw version of oatmeal. She's been a vegan -- meaning she doesn't eat meat, eggs or dairy products-- for three years, though she got interested in nutrition as a pre-teen and hasn't touched a donut since she was a high school freshman. She went raw after attending a raw potluck in February. Now she's also on a raw, low sugar diet. That meant she couldn't taste the raw oatmeal, because it wasn't low enough, so she sniffed the inside of the food processor to see if it smelled right before putting it out for guests.

"I wasn't feeling at my optimum level just being vegan," she said. "I was having a massive amount of bloating. Sometimes I would look like I was, like, four months pregnant."

Once she went raw, "all the bloatingness went away." And, "Your bowel movements are just, like, insane. You thought, like, you know, going twice a day is cool. You'll go, like, a lot."

Raw foodists talk about converting to the raw lifestyle like junkies talk about getting clean: The change is both spiritual and physical. People feel cleansed; but letting go of certain foods, like macaroni and cheese or bacon, can cause withdrawal symptoms and emotional behavior. People also usually quit caffeine too, which can make them moody.

"My detox (from cooked food) was like insane 'cause I went raw, like, in the winter, and I was, like, always cold, always cold, so I am wearing, like, four sweaters but I am like, 'I'm gonna do this and I don't care what it takes and I don't care I'm always cold," Duboc said.

People get antisocial because they are suddenly dealing with their emotional attachment to cooked food, she said

"Some people have emotional breakdowns, but you just come to, like, a euphoria and you are like, 'Whoa I don't have this attachment to food.' "

Crystal Hutchens, provider of the raw cacao cookies, chewed some dehydrated flax seed crackers as she sat on a La-Z-Boy. She was wearing a "vegans taste better" T-shirt. She'd been raw for three months, inspired by a dream about having cancer.

"Most people on the American diet have a yeast overgrowth," she explained, sticking out her tongue. "You look in the mirror, you can make a tooth print in the layer of film on your tongue. Your tongue should be pink and shiny."

People don't realize the ways eating cooked food make them gross and stinky, she explained.

"Everything that you have that seems like a normal part of being a human is not normal," she said. "Like odor, foot odor, fungus, dandruff, runny nose. Your sweat should not smell, it should just be fluid being released."

Hutchens thought she had a small bladder, but not anymore. It was a toxin issue. Another raw foodist at the potluck, John Peck, thought he had back pain, but it evaporated.

"I had things I didn't even know I had go away," he said.

There was one raw food guru, Hutchens said, and people asked him if he felt any pain, "he almost started crying because he realized people are in pain all the time and he never feels pain."

DATING AND CHEESE

Stirling Amacker, 37, came a little late, bringing "ice cream" made with pureed raw coconut and cashews that he put in his ice cream maker. He also brought a raw blueberry syrup and sticky chopped nuts. He wasn't vegetarian or vegan before he went raw, he said. He'd always been a healthy eater and had worked as a chef, but he wasn't opposed to the occasional burger or greasy breakfast.

Three months ago he was doing a yearly cleansing fast when he decided he'd try to eat raw after reading about the movement. He began to experiment with raw food and found he could create lots of things he liked to eat. He made smoothies with coconut milk for breakfast. He ate handfuls of raw cacao nuts and goji berries. He tossed huge salads and experimented with making "pasta" by pushing zucchini squash through his pasta maker and tossing it with cheese-less pesto.

Being a raw eater does raise some social issues, he said. People who don't eat raw tend to judge him. No salmon? they ask. No cheese?

"People are very emotionally attached to cheese," he said.

There are practical issues as well. Amacker's single. What can he eat when out on a date? He doesn't want to sit there with just a salad. He decided he'll order the cooked vegetarian option without cheese, if he has to. But, then, he'd have to get a date first.

"It takes so much time to eat this way, I've become slightly reclusive," he said.

The biggest surprise has been the weight loss. He's down 20 pounds and he wasn't fat to begin with.

"That was kind of startling. My clothes didn't fit," he said. "I'm glad to be this light. This is part of the way I ought to be."

Find Julia O'Malley online at adn.com/contact/jomalley or call 257-4591.

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