When psychotherapist Judy Landon suddenly developed joint pains six years ago, she explored an unconventional remedy.
Landon, 51, had long favored salads and fish and never ate much red meat, but then a nutritionist suggested her body might feel better if she tried something more extreme–a diet of only raw vegetables and nuts.
“Once I started doing it, I just felt so much better,” said Landon, a part-time dancer who lives in Westchester County, just outside Manhattan. “My pains went away, I felt so much lighter and cleaner.”
So Landon joined the growing number of Americans who in recent years have turned to the latest trend in cooking–which is, not cooking.
They’re on raw-food diets, which have one basic rule: Food must not be heated over 115 degrees. Raw-food fans believe that cooking vegetables destroys almost all beneficial enzymes, nutrients and vitamins. Meat and fish are no-nos. Instead, those on this diet get their protein from nuts. Raw dishes are sometimes referred to as “living food” because some consider uncooked vegetables alive because they still contain enzymes.
The raw-food diet is not just a West Coast phenomenon or a revival of the hippie lifestyle of the 1970s, but it is definitely a fad of urban populations. Today’s raw-food fans say they have chosen the diet out of frustration with the plethora of processed foods on grocery-store shelves and in restaurants. Some, like Landon, tried it as a panacea for aches or allergies. Most say they just want to return to the basics.
And this time around, there are online support groups, Web sites with information and even raw-food restaurants that have sprung up to support this trend.
As with the broader vegetarian movement, raw-food restaurants draw diners who aren’t on the diet. Celebrity chowhounds underline its fashionable status.
“There is a huge interest in raw-food diets,” said Suzanne Havala Hobbs, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina’s school of health policy. She also is a nutrition adviser for the Vegetarian Resource Group, based in Baltimore.
In Chicago, Karyn’s Fresh Corner serves a raw-food menu on North Lincoln Avenue, and Roxanne’s Raw Food in Larkspur, Calif., has taken the concept upscale. Charlie Trotter is collaborating on a book on the topic.
“Some of this emanates from celebrity interest in raw-food diets,” Hobbs said, who is conducting a study on the attitudes and practices of people on raw-food diets. “But part of the reason that raw food has become trendy is that vegetarian diets have become widely accepted, and this is just an extension of that.”
Aging Baby Boomers have also been a factor. Loren Lockman, founder and director of the Tanglewood Wellness Center in Bethesda, Md., said he’s noticed in recent years an increased interest in raw diets among those 40 to 55.
“Baby Boomers are getting older, and they’re starting to fall apart,” said Lockman, 41, who lectures on the raw diet and teaches food-preparation classes around the world. “We’re starting to see all kinds of people with failing health who are looking for solutions.”
Brian Clement, director of the Hippocrates Health Institute, an alternative healing center in West Palm Beach, Fla., said he’s placed many cancer patients on the raw diet and seen improvements in their health. He emphasized that raw food doesn’t cure illness. Rather, it builds up people’s immune systems.
“When you eat foods that haven’t been tampered with or processed in any way, there are four elements that you don’t get in cooked food: enzymes, oxygen, phytochemicals and hormones,” said Clement, who has been on the raw diet for 31 years. “When you consume these elements, you increase your immunity, which is really the way we stay healthy.”
Such statements wander away from substantiated mainstream nutrition research and into the arena of unproved theory. Cynthia Finley, clinical dietitian specialist at the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, cautioned against doing the raw diet as the sole cure to a serious illness.
“Phytochemicals are protective against cancer and heart disease,” Finley said. “But phytochemicals aren’t necessarily destroyed through cooking.
“There are benefits to eating raw vegetables,” she said. “When you cook something, you break down the fibers, so something may not have as much fiber in it and there might be some loss of heat-sensitive vitamins like vitamin C. But any diet that narrows things down too much might eliminate things you really need. If you’re just eating fruits, vegetables and nuts, you’re not getting B-12. That’s necessary for proper nerve function and it’s found only in eggs and meats.”
Above all, she recommended consulting a nutritionist before drastically altering your diet.
Most raw-food faddists, though, don’t do a diet of 100 percent uncooked food. Hobbs said her research so far is showing that most on the diet still consume cooked greens, mashed potatoes or rice. Few are like Tanglewood Wellness Center’s Lockman, who usually eats just fruit for a meal, whether it’s three mangoes, five oranges or four bananas. He supplements them with nuts and seeds for protein.
But even if you aren’t 100 percent with the program, the raw life can be lonely. Up until about five years ago, there were only a handful of restaurants that served raw entrees. Today, there are almost 20 raw restaurants across the country, including Karen’s in Chicago.
Dan Hoyt, chef and owner of Quintessence in New York, said he and his partner, Tolentin Chan, opened their first restaurant in December 1999, because they saw a need for a place for raw-food fans to go to dinner with friends.
“You get tired of having to make food for yourself every day,” said Hoyt, who has been on a raw diet for four years. “We figured other people must feel the same way.”
Which brings up another disadvantage: Raw cuisine can challenge cooks to come up with varied dishes to satisfy taste buds that grew up relying on the many flavor-intensifying talents of heat: Caramelizing onions, for instance, or reducing broths into a sauce, or the basic melding of multiple ingredients into a harmonious whole.
At Quintessence, the Italian pasta marinara pulled off that feat. The “pasta,” of thinly sliced squash, was slightly crunchy and absolutely delicious with the marinara sauce. And its “meatballs” (made with nuts) were just as yummy.
The key to enjoying a raw dinner seems to lie in not even subconsciously expecting the raw version to taste like the real deal.
Joseph Orlando, who lives near the Upper West Side Quintessence, said he’s not a raw-food fan or even a vegetarian. “I’m very careful about what I eat — one has to be these days,” said Orlando, as he dug into a plate of “ravioli,” which was thinly sliced turnip stuffed with seasoned squash.
Gazpacho
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Here’s a raw-food dish that everyone from Argentine steak lovers to Berkeley, Calif., vegans can agree on. Adapted from Loren Lockman of the Tanglewood Wellness Center in Bethesda, Md.
1 large cucumber, peeled
2 large tomatoes
1 each: red and yellow bell pepper, cored
1 avocado, peeled, seeded
8 oil-packed dried tomatoes
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 lime, quartered
Place 1/2 of the cucumber, 1 of the tomatoes, 1/2 of each of the bell peppers, 1/2 of the avocado, 4 of the dried tomatoes and the cilantro in a blender container; blend until finely chopped. Dice remaining cucumber, tomato, peppers and avocado; stir into mixture; add salt and pepper to taste. Divide gazpacho among 4 bowls; squeeze a little lime juice on top.
Nutrition information per serving:
145 calories, 51% calories from fat, 9 g fat, 1.4 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 335 mg sodium, 17 g carbohydrate, 3.5 g protein, 6 g fiber
