Raw Rag™

Article: "Raw food diets gain popularity" (Another person asks the to-cook-or-not-to-cook question)

Excerpt:

Having experienced a popularity surge in recent years, raw food diets have gleaned praise from practitioners, though many caution a completely raw diet could be detrimental.

Also referred to as "living diets," a raw food diet consists of eating what the Earth has provided in its natural state: uncooked fruits and vegetables. These are plentiful in vitamins, as one health professional said, but should be handled like everything else: in moderation.

Janet Draves, a certified nutritionist based in northern Dutchess County, said while fruits and vegetables are undoubtedly healthy, some raw foods, such as fiber-rich broccoli and cauliflower, should be cooked to aid digestion.

"The raw-foods people are under the misconception that if you cook food, you destroy enzymes, which in many cases is true," she said. "But some foods, it's much better to have them cooked because the body can break them down further."

If food is not properly digested, the body cannot absorb the nutrients the consumer intends to benefit from, she said. Draves said it's a good idea to have some raw foods with each meal, which can be easily done by tossing some fruit into your oatmeal and adding side salads later in the day.

But be mindful of everything you're consuming ... .

Click to read the rest of "Raw food diets gain popularity" (Poughkeepsie Journal).

Next up: Learning how to ferment foods

If what is said in the article I will link to in a minute is true, fermenting vegetables is becoming more popular. Because I plan to give fermenting a try, waiting for me at the library right now is Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods. (My branch of the Denver Public Library is not open much these days due to budget concerns so I won't get the book until Tuesday.)

From "Back to basics: Workshop participants learn how to ferment vegetables" (Madison.com):

“Fermenting vegetables is definitely becoming more popular and it’s something that people can do at home,” said [Adrienne] Fox, 44, taking a rare break from her busy sauerkraut-making business, where she sold at least 4,000 pints of her trademark Powerkraut last year. She also produces kimchi.

...

“They can preserve their own vegetables through fermentation in their n home and have fresh local produce through the winter, which is really wonderful, plus have the probiotic benefits year-round,” Fox said.

Probiotic bacteria grow through the fermentation process and many people, including Fox, claim that probiotics have health benefits but so far they have been unsubstantiated by the medical community.

“There is considerable interest in the potential positive health impacts of fermented foods, although in most instances the scientific basis for these health claims are lacking,” said Jim Steele, a UW-Madison professor of food science and an expert on food fermentations.
Steele said the increase in interest in fermented vegetables is related to an increase in consumer interest about where their food comes from and how it is made.

Click to read the rest (including a recipe). Do you ferment?

Somehow I don't think this writer likes raw foodists much

Jay Rayner, writing in Guardian's The Observer, makes some good points (e.g., a few of the raw-food gurus are "self-satisfied and smug," even condescending and at least one is downright arrogant) but the reason I read his whole column was becuse his railing and ranting is very funny. From "Why raw food fanatics make my blood boil":

I'm a big fan of evolution. Among the fantastic things it has gifted me – the ability to walk without dragging my knuckles, central heating, Sky Plus – my favourite is the silver cupboard with the knobs on that I keep in the kitchen. It's called an oven, and the mere fact I own one is proof that I am no longer a hairy-bummed ape, who nests in trees and pulls flies out of his mate's hair and eats them (unless she's been really sweet to me and asks nicely).

We are humans, ergo, we cook. ...

Which brings me to the raw foodies, those swivel-eyed enemies of all that is edible who swear that the route to human salvation lies in taking an evolutionary step backwards and not cooking. God, but I hate them. I hate their self-satisfied, smug mien. I hate their dippy thinking and their delusional, anti-science worldview. Hunting the web for quackery is a little like trying to get wet by jumping in a river: unavoidable. Still, a few minutes scanning the rubbish spouted by raw foodies can be useful, if only to give you an extra jaw work-out from the grinding of teeth.

They will tell you there is a nut, the eating of which, will instantly cut your risk of developing cancer by 50%. This is bollocks. They will tell you a raw food diet will increase your energy levels, when it will do the opposite. They will tell you it will make your skin glow, your asthma subside, and bring world peace. I wish I could tell you I made the last one up but I didn't.

Click to read the rest.

109 years old (and world's oldest blogger) still going strong: How does he do it?

Listen to Bernando LaPollo to learn about his secrets to longevity. In his opinion, diet is very important for a long life. His fare includes fruits (especially blueberries), vegetables, barley soup, nuts, and rice and black beans. Plus something called Superfood. He also exercises daily, and has a strong faith. LaPollo is a delight, as you will see when watching these videos: 1, 2, and 3. (2 and 3 each are the first of three; it is clear how to watch the other two parts at YouTube.)

Image credit: Raw Spirit Festival.

This article is a bit extreme, but the author makes some good points about the raw-food frenzy

To say that fruits and vegetables are food, and the rest are condiments, is extreme, don't you think? That is the conclusion drawn by Dr. Douglas Graham. Nevertheless, I do recommend that you read his blog post titled Everything About Nothing (Foodnsport). He talks about some of the people holding themselves out as experts in the nutrition of raw food. Excerpt:

In today's raw food movement, ... [u]ntrained laypeople, dedicated to helping others by sharing their miraculous health recovery stories, take to the stages. They are so enthusiastic, they write books. The number of questions they are asked encourages them to start parroting scientific-sounding information to back their stories.

In an effort to make a living, they begin creating terminology to set them apart (high raw, green diet, superfood, and detox, for example) and selling a line of product. Vitamins begot supplements, which begot superfoods, which begot whatever new moniker could be devised for the next hot product.

Cleanses, flushes, enzymes, refined oils, angstrom minerals, sea "vegetables," algae, and rare exotic herbs, fruits and vegetables—everything salable is being sold. Elixirs, potions, pills, powders, frozen and dehydrated substances, and a wide array of bottled caplets abound in the movement now. This, from a group supposedly educated about the benefits of eating fresh raw foods, demonstrates the degree to which the salesmen have taken over. Misinformation has become the rule rather than the exception.

Raw Food Show and Tell

Just as medical science and practice keeps progressing, leaving older methods in the dust of antiquity, in its small way so does the raw food movement. Very few leaders/speakers/teachers in the raw movement have actually been following a raw diet for more than a decade. None, to my knowledge, still follow the program they were on a decade ago. Most do not follow the program they were on even one year ago. Their lectures are no longer teaching, not science, but simply show and tell. It has become nothing more than a sharing of experience, the semisighted leading the semisighted. ...

Click to read the rest. What do you think? Is there some merit in what Graham says about the raw-food gurus?