The American Enterprise, Mar/Apr 1998: From Half Baked to Raw

[Guest guest]

From half-baked to raw

The American Enterprise

Mar/Apr 1998

 

Because happiness is knowing that the opposition has gone looney, we

at TAE do our best to keep you filled in on new developments at the

frontiers of political correctness. But, boy, it's getting harder

every year to follow the trail.

 

The latest wrinkle on vegetarianism, the Associated Press recently

reported, is the " Raw " movement. " After giving up meat for

vegetarian cooking...and sugar for macrobiotic cooking, 70 New

Yorkers have gathered to get serious about the way they eat: They've

given up cooking. " Yup: No boiling, no baking, no stoves.

 

These pioneers are devotees of socalled " live " foods. They refer to

the cooked foods other people eat as " dead. " A movement spokeswomen,

who goes by the single name Rhio, explains that " foods start losing

some enzymes and life energy at 105 degrees. By 118 degrees, that's

it. You've killed all the life energy. This is the way we're really

supposed to eat. This is the way the animals eat. "

 

There are now live-food support groups, a newly opened restaurant in

New York called Ozone, and a raw-food cable TV show. Dr. Ann

Wigmore, a mother of the movement, founded livefood centers in

Boston and Puerto Rico before she died in 1994 (in a fire).

 

Devotees don't just eat endless carrots out of the bag, mind you.

Raw food chefs (probably best not to call them " cooks " ) do process

food-but through soaking and chopping instead of using heat. " You

could take a drinking straw to much of the plate, like a vegetable

Slurpee, " notes Ellen Knickmeyer, a reporter who attended a live-

food potluck in a Tribeca loft. On the menu at the event:

A " lasagna " made of sprouted buckwheat, almonds, mushrooms,

tomatoes, and figs. A " cheese " of pulverized almonds. A " champagne "

of " something sprouted and fermented:'

 

In an interesting twist, there are livefood omnivores who have no

problem with eating meat, so long as it isn't cooked. Other raw

advocates have gone the opposite direction-there are " fruititarians "

(who eat only raw fruit), and " sproutitarians " (live sprouts

solely). There are even non-violent fruititarians " who eat only

fruits off the ground, not those that have been picked. "

 

That may seem to be the final climax of vegetarianism. But there is

one higher twist. Rhio reports there are " breatharians " who aim to

get " all the nutrition they need from the air.... I've met some

people doing it occasionally, but they're not at 100 percent. Yet. "

 

Copyright American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Mar/Apr 1998