Sunday Times UK, 7/15/00: Give your body a break - chuck out your cooker

[Guest guest]

Give your body a break - chuck out your cooker

 

BY JENNAI COX

 

ALONGSIDE the proliferation of food in the West have come less

appetising developments: less nutritious meals and an increasing

rise in diet-related diseases. Brought up to believe that by way of

cravings our bodies tell us what to eat, how come we are apparently

so out of touch with what we need to thrive?

 

Susie Miller and Karen Knowler, co-authors of Feel-good Food,

believe they have the answer. In eating what is essentially an

unsuitable and often nutrition-free diet, our bodies become so

clogged with debris that we are no longer able to distinguish our

true dietary needs from those associated with emotion, social

pressures or addiction. We are eating for every other reason but our

health.

 

Both former junk-food and chocolate lovers, the two women found

dietary salvation in turning gradually to eating nothing but raw

food. Miller founded the support network for raw foodists that

Knowler now runs and together they argue that by relearning how to

eat according to our intuition, we instinctively eat a diet high in

fresh, raw food better suited to our lifestyles, budgets,

environment and wellbeing.

 

Neither demand an immediate cessation in consumption of fried chips

and crusty white bread or even the use of will-power. By explaining

how gradually to wean ourselves off less nutritious foods and what

to expect as the change inside our body takes place, Miller and

Knowler hope to persuade by demonstration that eating raw is right.

 

Having explained how and why the human body is built for a raw-food

diet - we chew rather than rip our food, an indication of a mouth

not designed for the demands of eating meat - the authors show

readers how to change their habits by explaining what happens if

they do not.

 

The squeamish should look away now. The colon, for example, becomes

so full of matter it can neither use nor eliminate that over time

its passage reduces from 6.5cm to just a few millimetres, leading to

constipation. No surprise then that the UK has the highest incidence

of bowel cancer in the world, with 20,000 cases reported each year.

 

Promising an increase in confidence, self-esteem as well as a

healthier digestive system, chapter three explains how to reawaken

our inbuilt " knowing " of which foods are best. Though the word is

never used, this is done by choosing from a pick and mix of

meditations: while sitting quietly, they suggest listening to

soothing music, writing down personal thoughts or drawing or

painting to express feelings.

 

Within two months of regular daily practice we should, without even

trying, be turning naturally to fruit instead of pizza when hungry

and analysing how we feel after either.

 

But we can also expect and must allow for lapses, the results of

which can be as marked as the body's detoxification as the diet is

changed.

 

Many find they are so exhausted and nauseous after returning to more

processed food that they are soon back on to a diet which is

expelling toxins, leaving them with better skin, brighter eyes and

much more energy. Odour-free excreta and perspiration are other side-

effects as, for some women, are shorter, pain-free periods.

 

Useful advice on living on such a diet in the real world, such as

coping with weddings, eating out and holidays take up most of

chapter five and, following another section on raising and nurturing

children on raw food, the authors conclude with a guide to what to

buy, how and where.

 

Food should be selected on the basis of its rich, dark colour and

chosen after pinching and smelling, and equipment, including

dehydrators which warm food without killing essential enzymes needed

by the body, is available for those who wish to experiment.

 

The book ends with recipe suggestions, including some for sweets

such as fudge and apple pie, a reading list and some useful

contacts. Along with the accolades from fellow raw foodists it is a

book with enough to inspire even the most sceptical to at least give

this elementary way of eating a try.