Blackbook Mag, 1998: Raw! Some Are Getting Hot Over Eating Uncooked Food

[Guest guest]

" Raw! Some Are Getting Hot Over Eating Uncooked Food. Some Think

It's Just Cold Comfort "

 

Blackbook Magazine - Summer 1998

By Keith Hurwitz

 

Sushi and raw-food bars are " on the scene, " says Joseph Boyer, head

chef of New York's Atlantic Grill, " everyone's getting on the wave. "

To some, raw food means sushi bars and late-lunch oyster binges with

tu amante, climaxing with a spontaneous reservation at the Pierre.

Others, however, are committing to raw-only diets -- not for the

foreplay factor -- but in their pursuit of greater wellness and nude-

food nirvana.

 

Trinna Moore has been preparing food since she was ten. She's owned

a live-food catering business, worked as a chef at Miami's only live-

food restaurant, and recently took over as master chef at Ozone, New

York City's only live-food restaurant. She has stopped wearing her

glasses; she doesn't need them anymore. She's been 90% raw for

almost twenty years, eating only fruits, greens, nuts, some

fermented foods -- anything grown naturally from the earth. " The

sun's already cooked [the food], " Moore expalins, " When we pick it,

it's ripe; it's ready. "

 

" We're fighting a lot of things now, " emphasizes Moore. " Scientists

are trying to play with our food. "

 

Stephen Arlin, co-founder of Nature's First Law (www.rawfood.com)

and a raw-food practitioner for 3 years, says, " A raw-foodists isn't

really something you become -- it's something you already are. We

start eating cooked food. We addict ourselves to substances. We just

want a stimulant. On some conscious level, people know this. "

 

Live-foodists contend that more popular diets force the masses to

ingest extra pollutants. In addition, cooking food destroys vitamins

used to supplement digestive enzymes in our body that convert sugar

and fats into energy, and amino acids into proteins. Many on the

hibachi-hazing set point to the Pottenger cat study, which found

that cats (and their offspring) who were fed raw food turned out to

be much healthier than the test group fed cooked meals.

 

Borrowing enzymes, " is basically the process of aging, " says Annie

Jubb, who, along with her husband Dr. David Jubb, run Excellence

Incorporated, a nationwide live-food support group. The two also own

the Raw Experience restaurant in San Francisco, and are preparing to

launch their raw-food television show nationwide.

 

Jubb has been a raw-foodist for over a decade. In that time, she's

seen tumors shrink, ailments disappear, skin clear up, and people

become luminous. " A raw-food diet stops people's bodies from

constantly trying to deal with all these pollutants. Most people are

eating completely dead foods. They eat so much mucus-forming food

that their entire brain is bogged down with toxins. "

 

Aside from blaming a medical system that common cures over personal

prevention, Jubb also emphasizes that " a capitalistic

society...doesn't have to be interested in your welfare, [just] your

money. " The consumer in this scenario is also guilty in the eyes of

raw-wranglers. " Most people don't want to admit that they've

actually had a hand in creating their own wellness, or lack of it. "

 

Everyone like Jubb has their counterpoint in someone like Anne

Dubner, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, who

says there is no scientific backup for the enzyme theory. A raw-food

diet, explains Dubner, would not be balanced, lacking calcium,

protein, iron, and vitamin B-12.

 

Les Kaplan, a holistic health practitioner, kept losing weight

during his three years on a raw-food diet. Kaplan became painfully

aware of the very arguments that Dubner warned against when a friend

who also followed the diet died of a B-12 deficiency. Much like his

counterparts in the scientific community, Kaplan realized that a raw-

food diet wasn't ideal for every body-type, but he came to his

realization through ayurvedic study.

 

In response to the opposition, Arlin contends that the scientists

don't understand. There can be weight and digestion problems, but

raw-foodists claim that only excess weight is lost, and that all

nutrients are available with juice and the right food. As far as the

added danger of bacteria and pesticide intake that comes from a raw-

food diet, advocates call for the development of more organic farms.

Practically the only argument raw-foodists don't have an answer for

is the pleasure/pain threshold. Registered dietician Patricia Pace

points out that a raw-food diet means a reduction in the variety of

foods a person can eat, and -- in turn -- satisfaction with eating.

 

The best advice for the well-done-wary, though, may come from those

who point to the relationship between mind and body. Kaplan and his

partner Susan Joyce Proctor, whose clientele now includes medical

professionals, agree that the power of the mind is the most

important factor in a good diet. " When somebody's system is in a

state of balance, then they have access to the body's intelligence

in terms of what is right for them. That's the principle of life-

force -- when it is in place and flowing, that permeates the whole

being. "