Packed with all the nutrients nature intended, a raw food diet may be as healthy as it gets-and is surprisingly tasty, too.
Raw Recipe: Cucumber Summer Rolls
Raw food. The term is simple enough, but the preparation can get pretty complicated. And the fact that there is debate among raw food experts as to exactly what a raw food diet is or should be and how it works doesn't help matters.
The general idea is this: Heat kills off enzymes and nutrients in food, making it less nutritious. In addition, raw foodists believe that most natural foods come complete with all the enzymes our bodies need to digest them, so by destroying enzymes, we make it more difficult for our bodies to digest food. As a result, we miss out not only on the nutrients that are eliminated by heat but also on those that remain, which can no longer be effectively absorbed by the body.
Whether you buy into the idea or not, it's hard to deny that people who stick to a raw food diet tend to be very fit and glow with health (think of Demi Moore in Charlie's Angels).
Interested in giving it a try? The rules are pretty simple, starting with leaving your oven out of the equation. Some set the temperature limit at 120° F, others at 110° F, but either way there's no cooking going on in a raw food kitchen. Which isn't to say that a raw food diet consists solely of fruit, vegetables, seeds, and nuts. In fact, as the movement has gained in popularity, more and more chefs have gotten into it, setting up high-end raw food restaurants throughout the country.
To elevate raw meals to the level of gourmet cuisine, you may want to add a few new tools to your kitchen (the most useful being a juicer, a food processor, and a dehydrator, which helps fruits and vegetables last longer and gives nuts and seeds a smoky, roasted flavor).
Even if you're not ready to commit to buying new equipment just yet, you can still whip up a filling, tasty meal with just two simple skills: chopping and sprouting. The ability to chop efficiently is crucial to cutting down on the prep time of any raw food meal and can be learned with practice. Sprouting is actually incredibly easy although somewhat time consuming. Just follow the simple instructions below, and you'll be able to add at least a touch of raw food to each meal.
How to Sprout We have used alfalfa seeds as our example here, but many nuts, seeds, and beans can be sprouted. See any of our recommended books or living-foods.com for more details.
- Place alfalfa seeds into a bowl and cover with filtered water.
- Allow to soak for 4 to 6 hours. (Different foods need to soak for different amounts of time. At the extreme ends of the scale, for instance, are wild rice, which should soak for 9 hours, and flax seeds, which only need half an hour. In general, though, grains should soak for about 6 hours and beans should soak for 8 hours.)
- Transfer to a colander to drain; rinse and leave in colander overnight.
- Rinse the seeds again the next day and let them sit in the colander overnight.
- Continue rinsing twice daily until a sprout appears (about 2 days; 6 days for longer sprouts).
- Once sprouted, place the seeds in the refrigerator. They will keep for 3 days.
Recommended Raw ReadingFor great recipes, tips, and additional information about the history and philosophy behind raw food, here are some of our favorite books on the subject.
- Raw by Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein (Ten Speed Press, $35)
- Raw: The UNCook Book by Juliano with Erika Lenkert (Harper Collins Publishers, $35)
- Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine by Gabriel Cousens, M.D., and the Tree of Life Café Chefs (North Atlantic Books, $30)
- Living Cuisine: The Art and Spirit of Raw Foods by Renée Loux Underkoffler (Avery Press, $22)
- Eating in the Raw by Carol Alt (Clarkson Potter, $16)
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