Raw Foods & Nashville!

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Wednesday, 03/14/07 - The Tennessean

 

Raw foods find spot on Nashville's menu

Enthusiasts may not sell us on whole concept but do tempt us with

some tasty dishes

 

By JIM MYERS

Staff Writer

 

 

We are what we eat.

 

Not necessarily, says Laura Button. For her, we are, more important,

what our bodies can assimilate.

 

 

 

 

However, it's exactly what Button does eat, namely a 100 percent raw

food diet, that puts her on the leading local edge of a movement that

continues to creep out of shadows of the hippie fringes, inching

toward the light of greater public acceptance.

 

The majority of raw food enthusiasts hold fast to a true vegan diet

built around fresh, raw, organic fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and

grains. The principle argument against cooking is that when foods are

raised to temperatures above 118 degrees, the essential enzymes that

aid digestion are broken down. According to raw foodists, that makes

the body work harder and rely on its own enzymes to process foods

into components that it can readily harness. Reduced further, raw

foodists think in terms of net energy gains and losses.

 

Is it sound science or silly?

 

In many ways, the raw food diet is a natural step along the organic

continuum. It encourages eating locally grown foods in season,

because you're getting them as fresh as possible and you know where

they're coming from.

 

Not everyone, though, is quick to buy the dynamic claims of enzymatic

benefits.

 

" It just a bunch of wooey, " says Jill Melton, a registered dietitian

who is the editor of Relish magazine and spent 15 years at Cooking

Light.

 

" There's really not any scientific basis for any of the enzyme

claims, " says Melton, who says the body readily produces the enzymes

it needs for digestion. Biochemists also argue that the acidic pH of

stomach acid makes short order of any plant enzymes, which aren't

designed for human digestion in the first place.

 

While Melton recognizes there are some benefits to eating raw foods

and vegetarian diets, especially the fiber, she's quick to caution

that it's not necessarily a low-fat or low-calorie approach,

especially given the reliance on nuts and oils as food binders for

many of the dishes.

 

" Can you get the nutrients you need? Probably, but the raw food diet

requires a lot of thought, energy and attention. How many people with

busy schedules have the time to fool with (the amount of

preparation)? " Melton continues. " I also wouldn't recommend it to

anyone with colon issues. "

 

Indeed, many of the celebrities who promote raw food diets, like Demi

Moore, also employ personal chefs to help them hunt, gather and

prepare their meal, a luxury average folks don't have.

 

'You don't have to go 100 percent raw'

 

Still, Button remains an adamant advocate for a lifestyle she has

followed since she was a student-athlete in college in Las Vegas,

where she first learned about raw foods in 1980.

 

" Well, I'm mostly raw food, since beer isn't raw, " she jokes, saying

she'll enjoy some tofu from time to time as well.

 

Button offers intensive workshops for people interested in the

movement, teaching techniques for soaking nuts to make nut cheese, as

well as juicing, processing and dehydrating foods.

 

She does admit that it can very complicated at first. " It's not easy,

but once you get used to it, it becomes intuitive.

 

" You don't have to go 100 percent raw to enjoy the benefits of a raw

food diet, " she says, a large reason behind her business of selling

packaged raw dishes at local markets.

 

One of her most popular and accessible items is the Cake of Peace.

Beginning with an almond-based " crust " with orange rind and sweetened

with agave nectar, it rises 12 to 15 layers, alternating swaths of

cashew cream with kiwi, strawberry, blueberry, dried mango, dates and

pineapple. It's " iced " with more cashew cream and topped with coconut

and sprays of edible flowers.

 

" I've signed a contract with Whole Foods to offer prepared raw foods.

They wanted a local vendor who would also teach workshops at the

store, " says Button, who is already working with more than a dozen

local farmers to provide her with the fresh produce she'll need to

meet the growing demand.

 

It remains to be seen whether raw food diets will join the now

mainstream movement of eating organic foods, or whether people will

still hanker for the toothsome pleasure of removing barbecued pork

from a rib bone. Certainly diets rich in fruits and vegetables offer

us all a healthy approach. Where we fall along that scale of cooked

and raw will remain a matter of degrees.

 

Blissed be, Annie