From the Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel… 50-year old woman finds a cure for Epstein Barr, mononucleosis, and hypoglycemia with raw foods…

Rx For Raw Recipes
by Peggy Townsend

Robyn Boyd says her symptoms began when she was 10 years old. She would have debilitating headaches that required shots of Demerol to calm. Then came bouts of hypoglycemia, Epstein Barr and mononucleosis that left her weak and exhausted, she says. Anxiety attacks followed and, finally, after a day spent painting the baseboards of her house with oil-based paint, she collapsed, poisoned by the volatile fumes it gave off, she says. Barely able to pull herself out of bed, the petite, sandy-haired woman turned to a cure that didn't come on any prescription pad: Food. Specifically, raw food.

Nine years later, Boyd is a cheerleader for the benefits of raw foods and the author of a cookbook called "RawSome Recipes," which is in its third printing. Standing in her modern, Soquel kitchen with its red birch cabinets and green quartz-style counters, the woman who says she was raised on junk food smiles and explains that while a strict diet of raw food saved her life, a person doesn't have to be a fanatic to reap the benefits of this way of eating. Simple changes in the way a person shops and eats can lead to more energy and a healthier immune system, she believes. "I like to teach people how to take everyday foods and make them fun and pretty, but doable," she says.

Going Raw

The 50-year-old former massage therapist and aerobics teacher has set out a mini-party of raw foods on her dining room table. There are Banana Fingers made up of slices of sweet bananas and chocolate pudding that she fashioned from avocados. There is a ranch-pesto dip made of soaked almonds and a yam salad that tastes like old-fashioned potato salad. She pours a cup of Rooibus tea from Africa, sweetens it with agave nectar and almond milk, and settles in to talk. Technically, raw food is never heated past 117 degrees, preventing damage to the enzymes that help us digest and assimilate food, she says.

But as a wife and mother in a world full of restaurants and fast-food joints, taking a hard line on raw foods doesn't always work, she says. "I want to be more practical," Boyd says. "Nourishment can come from cooked food, too." That's the reason her cookbook is named "RawSome." It has recipes with both raw and cooked foods and even includes recipes kids will like. For breakfast, Boyd says, she will make a smoothie out of almond milk, brewer's yeast, spirulina, flax seed and a banana. At lunch, she'll have a whole coconut or a lettuce-leaf wrap filled with guacamole, grated carrots and pine nuts.

Dinner will be a huge salad and maybe a warm soup or stew. Boyd doesn't even shy away from meat. She'll eat salmon and lamb. Organic, of course, she says. Food, she believes, shouldn't be a religion, but rather an intelligent way to nourishment and health. Filled with an easy energy, Boyd whacks open a coconut with a knife and offers the liquid to sip. Coconut, she says, is good for weight loss and has antifungal and antibacterial properties. She opens a cabinet and demonstrates how to make "spaghetti" out of raw zucchini, then zips to a storeroom to bring out crackers that she made herself.

Largely self-taught, Boyd talks about the hazards of cooking in a microwave, of storing food in plastic, of the benefits of spirulina. This month, she'll be teaching a class on how to ease raw foods into your diet and make an appearance at the Capitola Book Cafe. "People hear raw food and think it is scary and boring," she says. "But it's vibrant and exciting and good food."

Boyd will teach a class on her eating style from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 18, 2006 in Santa Cruz, CA. The $130 class will include making and eating 14 recipes, a full sit-down lunch and a copy of "RawSome Recipes." Call 689-0609 or visit Rawsome Recipes

Interesting article on how to stay on a Raw Food Diet.

Staying on Raw & Living Foods: How to Avoid/Minimize Backsliding
by Tom Billings

Following a raw or living foods diet can be difficult, given the general stress of living in modern times, and the prevalence of junk food and cooked food. One is often tempted to take the path of least resistance, which is usually junk or processed foods.

Additionally, raw and living foods are cleansing diets, which means the body is slowly cleansing itself of toxins, which can cause cravings for inappropriate foods previously eaten. Also, other physical symptoms of detox, like headache, stomach pains, can make the dietary transition uncomfortable, which may (indirectly) enhance cravings for the temporary "comforts" of inappropriate foods.

Listed below are some things [you] can do to avoid backsliding. Others are invited to comment on this list and make additional suggestions.

A. Direct Actions

1. Avoid temptation:
Avoid temptations whenever possible. If you are going to the store for produce and you feel a craving for candy, then stay away from the candy section! Don't read, watch, or listen to anything that tempts you to eat inappropriate food (to the extent possible).

2. Think of the consequences:
If you are feeling cravings or being tempted to eat something bad, stop and think about the negative effect the bad food will have on your health, and your peace of mind. Often you will conclude that the bad food tastes good, but it's not worth the discomfort or suffering that will follow if you eat it. A relevant suggestion here, esp. for those who maintain a journal or diary: when you backslide, write down the negative side effects, then re-read those sections when you feel cravings. This approach works best after you have been on raw foods for some time.

3. Substitute good raw foods for cravings:
If you are feeling cravings for bad foods, eat snacks of natural foods instead. If you are hungry for sweet food, eat fruit instead; dried fruit is a substitute for candy. If you are hungry for salty foods, you can eat sea vegetables or drink celery juice instead (celery juice with a little bit of lemon/lime juice added is delicious and soothing) or eat raw tomatoes, provided you find them agreeable. Cravings for inappropriate fatty foods can be resolved with avocados or soaked/sprouted nuts (also raw sesame tahini). One caution here – when one eats good foods as a response to cravings, there are risks: overeating, psychological dependency, and, in the case of dried fruit, sugar addiction. Substitution may be a good short-term strategy, but is less attractive in the long term.

4. Consider modifying your diet if you have long-term cravings:
If you have an extremely restricted diet (e.g., mostly fruit), and cravings are a long term problem for you, then you should seriously consider changing your diet, to one that is more diverse. High fruit diets are notorious for their associated sugar (and salt) cravings. Consider adding more veggies, sprouts, nuts, to your diet. After all, if you have cravings all the time, can you honestly say that your "perfect" diet really works well for you?

B. Indirect Support Actions

5. Eat sensibly
Eat moderately, at regular times, and don't overeat. This is standard common sense, and it can reduce opportunities for cravings.

6. Eat mindfully, slowly, with no distractions
Food that is eaten this way will remove hunger and be more satisfying (reducing cravings), than food eaten in a hurry, under stress, or while distracted (TV, reading, etc.)

7. Seek the company of other raw fooders when possible.
Join or start a local support group for raw fooders in your area. Starting a group is easier said than done – running SF-LiFE, our local group, is a big effort for those involved. However, a small group that meets at homes, is much less work to set up. SF-LiFE actually encourages small, special interest groups, in the form of meal clubs, which meet in member's homes.

8. Have a regular exercise program
Have a regular exercise program that is appropriate and suited for you. Exercise reduces stress, improves your health, is cleansing, and helps reduce cravings. Hatha yoga is an excellent form of exercise; it has considerable healing power. The meditative forms of tai chi can be very helpful also. However, yoga or tai chi won't help if you don't do them, so choose an exercise program that appeals to you, and that you can follow.

9. Positive affirmations and meditation
Positive affirmations and meditation may help you develop a positive mental attitude which can make you significantly more resistant to cravings.

10. Be careful about fasting.
Fasting is very healing and cleansing, and is one of nature's most powerful curatives. Through its cleansing power, fasting can (eventually) reduce food cravings. However, fasting can also cause a psychological sense of deprivation, which may lead the faster to overeating and/or binge eating after the fast is over. If your reaction to fasting is a cycle of overeating-fasting, then it is not doing you any good! Those fasting "experts" who suggest very long fasts, often ignore this problem.

11. Develop a spiritual or ethical foundation.
For the religious, this means being fully "grounded" in your religion. The non-religious (including atheists and agnostics) can adopt or develop a guiding philosophy of life, or a system of ethics. The benefits of this are in stress reduction, which makes one more resistant to cravings.

If you do backslide and eat something bad, simply resolve to avoid the mistake next time. Learn from your mistakes, but don't dwell on them unnecessarily, as guilt is a negative emotion. A tiny amount of guilt, if used only to motivate you to avoid backsliding, is OK. A large amount of guilt is bad for you as it is negative, and negative emotions are harmful to your body and mind.

Cravings can be a major problem during the transition to a raw/living foods diet, and may take more than a year to dissipate. After you have been on such a diet long enough, the cravings will usually dissipate. However, if you are 75+% raw, and are having severe problems with cravings in the long term, then you should evaluate your diet — raw and cooked portions, to see whether changes are appropriate. Although the goal of 100% raw is advocated by some raw-fooders, the reality is that raw food diets are not for everyone. Be kind to your self — do what is best for your body, whether the diet you follow conforms to raw- fooder dogma or not.

A new raw food restaurant in Los Angeles called Leaf just opened its doors. Leaf serves raw vegan, organic, kosher cuisine and has two locations, one in L.A. just off the 405 freeway, and one in Sherman Oaks, CA. The founder is Rod Rotondi, who has a background in Italian and French cuisine, and previously worked at Juliano's Raw restaurant in Santa Monica. The menu looks great; wish it was closer to me.

Rod's story…

Growing up in an Italian-American family, Rod Rotondi, founder of Leaf Cuisine, learned to cook as a child, learned table service and Italian cuisine in Rome at the American Ambassador's Residence (his grandfather), took French cooking courses in Paris as a teenager (where his family lived), and worked in restaurants to pay his way through college and graduate school. Through 15 years of world travels (including working for the United Nations), he picked up culinary lessons from around the globe.

In 1996, Rod discovered raw and living foods and first introduced them in his restaurant in Egypt. Upon returning to the U.S., he opened "Rod's Wrap and Juice Bar" in Marblehead, Massachusetts and won the "Best of Show" and the "Best Theme" awards at the prestigious Marblehead Culinary Arts Festival. But California was calling, and Rod moved out to Los Angeles where well known raw foods chef Juliano hired him to set up, manage and chef at his new restaurant, "Juliano's Raw" in Santa Monica.

In 2004 Rod created Leaf Cuisine in order to offer "truly clean, delicious and affordable food in a convenient and relaxed format."

Why Raw Food?
An article by David Wolfe of Nature's First Law (published on Alive Foods).

Many have spent lifetimes wondering what caused humanity's "fall from grace." What has caused humanity's disconnection from living in a natural paradise? Why is civilization out of balance with Nature? These thoughts are often triggered by a study of the classical, legendary, or religious stories of a former perfect age. Every culture seems to have a story about how human life began on Earth. Most describe a place where people lived in harmony with the plants and animals. While living this way, the stories indicate that, people experienced happiness and peace.

These stories often indicate that everything was in harmony until something happened. Some stories tell of a great flood, others tell of humans gaining an understanding of good and evil, still others tell of a shift in Earth's alignment, a few even tell of some godly or spiritual powers that drastically changed the state of life on Earth.

Those of us who follow a balanced, thoughtful raw-food diet, believe that we have found the major piece of the answer to humanity's obvious disconnection with Nature. A multifaceted collection of scientists, spiritual leaders, researchers, and grassroots raw-food enthusiasts, have come to understand through experience, that the great change in human life occurred after humans discovered fire, and then began cooking food.

The obvious separation created by putting fire between our food and our mouth, the tremendous amount of time and energy people spend to cook food, the use of massive resources to create today's cooked-food culture (with its billions of kitchens and restaurants), the construction of factories and shops all churning out cooked and processed foods, the packaging and wrappers involved in the whole cooked-food process, and the lack of life energy in cooked food are all major contributing factors in humanity's fall from paradise. Subconsciously, we know this, as our picture of paradise usually involves sun, beaches, mangoes, and coconuts; not gloomy cities, restaurants, and cooked animals for dinner.

All animals living in the wild eat their food raw and, almost always, fresh. Raw is Nature's First Law. Only humans and domesticated animals eat cooked and processed foods. The cooking and processing of foods has become so common that most of us do not even question it. The assumption that cooked and processed foods are as good as raw foods is just an assumption. Most people do not know for sure, because they have never tried a balanced raw-food approach. Einstein once said: "The essential is to get rid of deeply rooted prejudices, which we often repeat without examining them."

Here is a visual experiment to consider: Feed a tribe of gorillas a diet of coffee, donuts, and other processed human foods for a few years. Let us watch what happens. Or consider, a herd of deer who, instead of eating their grass raw, decide to collect it and boil it in a giant cauldron. Picture what would happen in that situation!

What is it that constitutes the basis of human nourishment? Is it refined sugar flowing out of the roaring jaws of factories? Is it the flesh of animals being churned out by combinations of torturous factory farms and horrific slaughterhouses? Is it the milk of factory-farmed cows naturally intended for baby calves? Is it cooked and processed foods containing dyes, flavors, and preservatives?

No. The basis of human nourishment is obvious: it is raw plant foods. And Nature presents this to us in abundance. Raw plant foods are simple, easy to find, fun to eat, enjoyable, contain thousands of health-giving nutrients, and conform to the biological design of the human digestive system. The sun is the source of all life and raw plant foods represent the purest form of transformed sun energy. When one eats an orange, the wrapper (peel) becomes compost. When one follows a raw-plant-food lifestyle, the amount of trash produced by that individual decreases to almost nothing. Test for yourself and see.

An individual who eats the typical foods found in so-called "civilized society" who then changes to a raw-plant-food diet can discover energy they have never known. Eating a balanced mix of raw plant foods restores the body on a molecular level, building strong cells, radically naturalizing the body, raising alkalinity, and grounding the person in the natural world. Of course, the body resists shocking changes and everyone should ease into the raw-food approach at an appropriate pace. Also, everyone should educate themselves on this amazing subject (by further exploring this website, reading raw-food books, chatting on-line with other raw-foodists, and attending lectures), so that the common mistakes are avoided.

As the months and years pass, a person switching to a raw-plant-food approach may notice a greater awareness of the spiritual world, become more intuitive, and feel natural powers they have never experienced (or did not know they had). One will find oneself having more fun in a garden than a movie theatre. A profound new connection will arise with plants and animals.

Every person is a work of art in progress. Either one can become progressively more beautiful, or one can follow the fate civilization has set out (miseducation, wage slavery, decay, illness, and an untimely death). Each action one takes determines which of these two destinies will be achieved. What we eat helps to guide our path. Eating determines what level of health our body will experience. Every bite of food put into the body should add to our strength, spirituality, and beauty. Each meal becomes part of who we are at the deepest level.

"You are what you eat" is a cosmic law. Everybody knows that saying–everybody! It is a concept that has been known in every culture and civilization throughout history. It is written into the fabric of the universe. It is a simple law of Nature that should be remembered each day, and at each meal. Those who wish to heal themselves and the planet, should eat the most healing foods.

What are "Healing Foods?"

"Healing foods" are quality, organic, homegrown, or wild foods and/or superfoods in their raw natural state. Following this principle is not only the simplest way to choose what to eat, but is simply the best way to bring about good health and spiritual transformation. Because of this, this website is dedicated to helping as many people as possible succeed and prosper with the raw-food lifestyle.

We encourage anyone who wishes to experience the bounties of Nature to delve into eating what Nature provides to us. That is: raw plant foods. We encourage people to learn about superfoods, garden foods, and wild plants (herbs), to learn a new way of living, to experience the incredible energy Nature will give to you by accepting the foods she provides, and to live life in a melody with the plants and animals. By doing so, you may experience and reclaim your own little bit of paradise!

This is interesting. There was a Chocolate in the Raw class taught last Saturday by Jeff Rogers, of Naughty Vegan in Seattle. Recently, there seems to be a lot of controversy over whether raw cacao is healthy and beneficial for you. Everybody seems to be promoting cacao (also known as "raw chocolate") as "healthy."

Opponents claim that raw cacao produces an acidic residue (thus, not an alkaline ash) in the body and that it's addicting because it contains theobromine. David Wolfe and Shazzie are in favor of raw cacao, since they just published a book together called, Naked Chocolate. Paul Nison and Frederic Patenuade, on the other hand, seem to think that raw cacao can be dangerous.

In his most recent newsletter, Paul Nison had this to say about raw cacao…
"And while I’m on the topic of my new book, I will expose the truth about the cacao craze. BOTTOM LINE: CACAO IS DANGEROUS! It is another addicting food that is setting people up for a big down fall.

Adding fuel to the fire, Frederic Patenaude writes this about cacao and raw chocolate…

Many of my readers have been asking me what I think of the whole raw cacao craze. For those who don't know, raw cacao beans are now sold by different raw-food companies as the latest 'superfood.' Cacao beans are traditionally roasted and used to make chocolate. Now, raw-foodists have found a raw version of the beloved bean and are apparently using it for its magical properties.

First, let me start by explaining what my own personal use of cacao is. I've known for a long time that cacao is a stimulant. Not as strong as coffee, but its stimulating 'qualities' are easy to spot when your body is not used to eating such foods. Because of this, I often used carob powder in my recipes. Carob powder is made from a fruit and has a taste that reminds of chocolate. It is naturally sweet. Instead of being a stimulant, carob is a mineral rich food and has a calming effect. So, like most raw-foodists, I used carob powder in my recipes. But, then one day, I decided to use cacao powder. I figured: if I'm going to make something that tastes like chocolate, why not use the real thing? I've noticed that cacao has a stimulating effect, but since I was using it occasionally (i.e. less than once a month) and just for fun in some recipes, I was not too bothered by that little indiscretion. However, I never considered it to be a health food.

Now, cacao beans are sold to us at an exorbitant price under the assumption that it's one of the best things we could ever eat. I couldn't disagree more.

First of all, cacao beans are not really food. If you found them in nature, you wouldn't eat the seeds. You would eat the fruit, which is apparently delicious, and throw away the seeds. Even if you wanted to eat the seeds, they would not taste like chocolate. In order for the cacao seeds to taste like chocolate and become the cacao beans that we know, they have to be fermented first. They are fairly bitter, indicating the presence of a poison. And when I say a 'poison,' I'm not making this up. Just do a little research and you'll discover that cacao contains many chemicals with a stimulating effects, such as theobromine and caffeine.

A popular article on raw cacao beans claims that cacao "increase(s) your focus and alertness and contains nutrients to keep you happy." My answer to that is the same as has been said and is being said about coffee. The fact is that what people actually confuse with "alertness" is actually an adrenal response to the stress that the body has to deal with when eliminating the toxins found in cacao beans. What you get is NOT energy. What you experience as energy is actually your body working hard to establish balance (homeostasis) again! It's like whipping a horse. Eventually, it will fall down.

Here's an excerpt from Neal Barnard's book, Breaking the Food Seduction…

Researchers at the University of Michigan brought out the truth about chocolate. In a research study, they gave 26 volunteers a drug called 'noxalone.' They then offered them a tray filled with Snicker's Bars, M&Ms, chocolate chip cookies, and Oreos. Normally, these snacks would have quickly disappeared. But, the drug knocked out the desire for chocolate. A candy bar was not much more exciting than a crust of dry bread.

Noxalone is an opiate blocker. That is, it stops heroin, morphine, and other narcotics from affecting the brain. And, it blocks the effects of chocolate, too. This research study showed that chocolate's appeal does not come from its creamy texture or deep brown color. Chocolate stimulates the same part of the brain that morphine acts on. For all intents and purposes, chocolate is a drug — not necessarily a bad one and not a terribly strong one, but strong enough, nonetheless, to keep us coming back for more."

Many people would argue that when cacao is not cooked, these chemicals do not have the same effect on the body. But yet, those same people actually admit to eating cacao beans for their stimulating effect! Many people have reported not being able to fall asleep if they eat cacao beans late at night and that they are still looking for the "best" time of the day to eat them. Others tell me that when they eat cacao beans, they get so much energy, but then have a 'down' later on. Does that remind you of something?

If you like the taste, you could use some cacao once in a while in a recipe. But don't fool yourself into thinking that there's somehow something really good about this. Personally, I would consider using cacao when making a special desert for a special occasion. I don't recommend eating cacao otherwise. I don't find anything special in it. I don't buy the whole raw cacao craze and I don't think it is worth the price that is charged for it.

Remember: A rose by any other name is … just as thorny.

***

So, who should you believe? Well, you'll have to make your own decision. However, be careful if you choose to eat cacao. Try only a small amount first, and make sure you have no negative reactions to it.

Looks like there's a new raw food energy bar for those who live on the West Coast (U.S.). From the press release…

SmartMonkey Foods, the West Coast's premiere gourmet raw food company, is launching a new line of energy bars packed with the fresh, organic, raw materials your body needs to excel. “Our bars are never dehydrated or cooked,” says SmartMonkey Foods co-founder and executive chef Ani Phyo. “SmartMonkey Bars contain all their original water content to support active enzymes, along with amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.”

While market shelves are overflowing with energy bars of all shapes and sizes, SmartMonkey Bars stand out as a unique alternative. Organic, vegan, and gluten-free, SmartMonkey Bars are whole food at its finest with no refined sugars or highly processed ingredients of any kind.

While other nutrition bars can sit on store shelves for up to two years, the unrefined ingredients in SmartMonkey Bars require them to be fresh. “We have to run smaller batches that stay fresher,” says Phyo. “It's more work than running a two-year supply all at one time, but the taste of freshness makes it all worthwhile!”

Created by Phyo and partner Ede Schweizer — both chefs trained in natural culinary arts — SmartMonkey Bars offer something else consumers look for in an energy snack: exceptional flavor. Their Sesame Snap Bar is decadently delicious with sesame, poppy, pistachios, and dates to provide twenty-five percent of our daily recommended calcium requirements. Their Cacao Cookie Bar is rich with cacao, hailed for it's antioxidant benefits, and coconut for electrolytes. And their On-The-Trail-Mix Bar is packed with nutrients from raisins, dates, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, and sea salt. Other flavors include Carob Brownie, Ginger Snap, and Pecan Pie Bar, and all products are certified organic by Oregon Tilth.

SmartMonkey Foods' commitment to sustainability is evident in every aspect of their products, from sourcing the finest organic ingredients available to wrapping their bars in the ultimate green packaging. The ecologic PLA and PVdC coated Cello in which SmartMonkey Bars are packed is 95% percent biodegradable and compostable, yielding carbon dioxide (CO2), water, inorganic compounds and biomass at a rate consistent with other compostable materials and leaving no distinguishable or toxic residue.

“We're about treading lightly on the planet,” says Phyo, whose passion for the raw foods lifestyle goes beyond taste and nutrition. Both she and Schweizer discovered the power of raw foods while working in San Francisco's high-intensity high tech marketplace during the dot com explosion of the 1990s. They found that a diet of organic, raw, living foods allowed them to maintain optimum physical performance and mental clarity even under intense working conditions and a fast-paced lifestyle.

Phyo and Schweizer founded SmartMonkey Foods in 1999 to introduce others to the power of living foods. “I created this company because I know from first-hand experience this way of eating can have a profound impact on personal health and wellbeing,” says Phyo. They also wanted to prove that raw food can be delicious! Today, SmartMonkey Foods is the premiere resource for high-quality, organic, living foods, including nutrition bars and Flax Crackers.

SmartMonkey Bars will make their worldwide debut at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California, March 24 to 26 (Table #4706, Organic Hall D). Look for them in West Coast natural food stores beginning this spring. Find out more about SmartMonkey Foods or visit them at Expo West in Anaheim, California, March 24 to 26 (expowest.com, Table #4706, Organic Hall D).

Columbia News Service just published an article questioning whether children should be fed an all raw food diet. The article mentions the Talifero's, Gabriel Cousen's Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, and the Boutenko's. The recent controversy over whether children should be fed a raw food diet was sparked when a 6-month old girl in Florida died in 2003, after her parents fed her a diet composed only of wheat grass and coconut milk. The article, in its entirety…

Raw Food Diet: Half-Baked Idea For Kids?
Columbia News Service

At mealtime, the Talifero family's kitchen is abuzz with the sounds of the blender, juicer and nut grinder, but there's no whir of a microwave or heat from a stove. Raven, 11, and Jome, 8, may be lunching on spaghetti made of spirals of raw cut zucchini with a sauce of avocado, sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil and salt. Shale, 5, has simpler tastes, preferring plain fruit or whole avocado. Adagio, at 21 months, is fed primarily breast milk, nut milks and mashed fruits and vegetables. But while their home is filled with a brightly colored raw bounty, including desserts made of crushed nuts, blended fruits and raw honey, there is no cooked food to be found.

Jinjee and Storm Talifero have chosen a raw, or "live foods," diet for their Pine Mountain Club home in California's Los Padres National Forest. They say that their children are thriving without meat, dairy, cooked, canned or frozen foods. "A few years ago at a party, Raven said she didn't want to be all raw anymore," recalled her mother, Jinjee, 38. "So we gave her a choice and said, 'OK, you can go ahead and eat whatever you want.' She loaded up her plate with bread, pastries and cupcakes. But two weeks later, she decided that she wanted to eat raw again."

The Taliferos, who sell their eBooks, documentary, workout DVD, music CDs and digital magazines on their Website, thegardendiet.com, want to help other families go raw. By ignoring the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food pyramid, which includes cooked grains and beans, dairy products and other sources of animal protein, they believe they can protect their children from diseases ranging from the common cold to diabetes and cancer.

Although it is difficult to estimate the number of children being raised on a raw diet, the Vegetarian Resource Group, a national meat-free advocacy organization, said that based on its 2005 Internet survey results, the United States has more than 450,000 vegans (those who abstain from meat, dairy and eggs) between the ages of 8 and 18. Talifero estimates that one in 10 of those follow a primarily raw diet, adding that her family's Website receives about 1,500 hits a day.

The Taliferos and other raw families expressed support for Lamoy and Joseph Andressohn, a Florida couple put under legal scrutiny after the 2003 death of their 6-month-old daughter, Woyah, who was born with DiGeorge Syndrome and fed a diet of coconut milk and wheat grass. The Andressohns were acquitted on manslaughter charges in November 2005 but were given suspended sentences and probation on charges of neglect, and have appealed.

"It is pretty sad that people's children can be taken away if they are sick on the raw vegan diet, but obese children who get sick on a standard American diet won't be taken away," said Talifero, whose children see a doctor for regular checkups. In order to combat some of the concerns that followed the Andressohn case, the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, a retreat for raw food education in Patagonia, Ariz., is studying the impact of such diets on babies and children.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens, the founder and director of the center, created a raw baby formula and is conducting a long-term study of the height, weight and health histories of babies fed all-raw diets. Educational manager Susan Miller-Madeley, who piloted the study, said she was surprised to find that some parents were nervous about the consequences of including their children in the study in the wake of the Andressohn case.

"There really is a need for more education around raw food diets," Miller-Madeley said. "Parents are definitely getting intimidated because of lack of information. There are some things that your baby will need supplements for, and it is not that you can go by the seat of your pants." Many in the mainstream medical establishment have been critical of the diet. "Children fed raw foods at weaning are likely to develop protein malnutrition and iron deficiency," said Dr. Robert Karp, a professor of pediatrics at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. "These conditions are precursors to developmental delay and a lifelong learning deficit."

Even some vegetarian doctors have questioned the necessity to go all raw. Dr. Joel Fuhrman, whose recent book "Disease-Proof Your Child" suggests that parents can prevent childhood illnesses through diet, said he did not necessarily mean no cooking. "These people have their heads buried in the broccoli," Fuhrman said of devotees of a strictly raw regimen. "Raw food should be mostly what we eat, but clearly if you are raising your child on an all-raw food diet, there may not be enough vitamin B12, enough vitamin D and enough calories." Fuhrman fed his own four children raw and cooked vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, beans and occasionally eggs.

But a 2005 study in Archives of Internal Medicine found no major deficiencies when comparing the bone health of adults on raw diets with those who ate a typical cooked diet. While the raw food group had lower weights and bone mass, they had normal vitamin D levels.

Some raw food families say they could not reap the same health benefits from eating cooked foods. After Victoria Boutenko and her husband, Igor, emigrated from Russia to Ashland, Ore., they suffered from arrhythmia and hyperthyroid conditions. In 1994 the parents turned to an all-raw diet for themselves and their diabetic son, Sergei, then 10, and asthmatic daughter, Valya, then 9. "Sergei's blood stabilized right away and Valya stopped having asthma attacks," said Boutenko, 50. Since that time, she and her family have stayed on a raw regimen and have remained free of disease, she said.

"Once in a while I would have panic attacks, worrying if they were missing nutrients," Boutenko said. "But my other choice was asthma and diabetes, so we didn't really have a choice."

The San Francisco Chronicle just published an article highlighting raw food "cooking" and Cherie Soria. Excerpt below…

Cooking School in the Raw
by Olivia Wu, Chronicle Staff Writer

Like all canny cooks, Cherie Soria knows how to hook her audience: with desserts. But Soria doesn't pull out the stops with butter, sugar, eggs and flour, baking them into fluffy confections. She makes her magic with avocado and agave syrup — and no baking at all. By the time her students taste her creations, they don't mind that those unexpected ingredients are the major components of their chocolate mousse. As Soria would say, "If you can make a raw vegan cheesecake better than regular cheesecake, why would you eat regular cheesecake?"

In no time, she has her students dipping into a layered pesto torta that relies on a cheese made from almonds to replace the usual ricotta, and digging into a lasagna-type dish with a noodle-like layer of pureed cashew nuts stretched over mushrooms, spinach and a killer marinara sauce. Soria is the pre-eminent teacher of gourmet raw food preparation, and founder of Living Light Culinary Arts Institute in Mendocino County. Now, she's established the country's first cooking school devoted to teaching raw and vegan cooking to home cooks and professional chefs.

A Place of Their Own

After nearly a decade of giving classes on the fly, in whatever facilities she could find, to some 800 students, she and her husband, co-director Dan Ladermann, have a place to call their own. The school is now housed in the 6,000-square-foot Company Store on Main Street in Fort Bragg. With the school, Soria and Ladermann aim to take raw cuisine mainstream. Classes are both demonstration and hands-on; the business also includes a production kitchen and takeout deli. There are no stoves or ovens; instead, dehydrators, high-speed blenders and special climate-controlled rooms for growing sprouts signal this is a raw-food operation.

Power Point presentations are part of the lectures and demonstrations, and six fully equipped stations are set up for hands-on classes. Roxanne Klein, whose eponymous, exclusively raw restaurant in Larkspur opened to critical acclaim in 2002 is Soria's most famous student. Klein's restaurant and takeout deli closed in 2004, but restaurants such as Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco and Berkeley, and Alive in San Francisco, are continuing the trend. Raw foodists believe that the greatest nourishment comes from food that is not heated beyond 115 degrees.

One reason, they believe, is that antioxidants and phyto-chemicals remain intact. They also believe that heat can transform some ingredients, notably oil and salt, into toxins. While these claims are controversial, Soria, 58, a radiant, small-framed woman who looks much younger than her years, may be the best advertisement for the cuisine and lifestyle. She has been cooking and living the raw food diet for 14 years, teaching classes at retreats such as Harbin Hot Springs in Lake County, and traveling the circuit of vegetarian and vegan national conferences.

When she began Living Light nine years ago, she kicked off with conventional raw dishes. "I taught raw without saying so by making gazpacho and olive tapenade," she says. Those dishes, followed by raw desserts, she says, won people over. The menu board of Living Light Cuisine ToGo, downstairs from the school, shows what draws: banana ice cream, carrot apple kuchen, chocolate mousse cup, chocolate cheesecake and frozen fudge bites. Juices and smoothies are listed, but so are entrees such as nori rolls, green burrito, zucchini angel hair pasta and a boxed mezze meal. All of them are made with 95 percent organic and 98 percent raw foods.

At the school, students begin with a required fundamentals class, then advance to associate chef and instructor training levels for professionals. As the classes progress, the format moves from a demonstration to hands-on format. In the past year, most of her fundamental classes have been at the capacity enrollment of 30 students. The hands-on classes are usually full, with 24 to 30 students per class. Soria says the school enrolls students from an international field, including Lebanon, South Africa, the Philippines, Thailand, Europe and South America.

Raw food techniques are different enough from standard cooking that even chefs — many of them private chefs for Bay Area families — take her classes, says Soria. Google, the Internet giant in Mountain View, recently hired a chef who graduated from Living Light. Soria knows what it feels like to be labeled a cultist. "I went from the standard American diet to vegetarian to vegan to raw," she says. When she began a vegetarian diet in the carnivorous '60s, "people thought I was going to die."

She was a vegetarian for 19 years before she attended a workshop in 1992 at the clinics of Anne Wigmore, founder of the Hippocrates Health Institute in Boston, a wheatgrass and raw food discipline with an emphasis on using foods to rid the body of toxins. Wigmore's regime failed in one respect, Soria says — "Her food had no flavor." Clients might feel better after a regime of juices, wheatgrass, salads and sprouts, but "they go back home and are bored" with the diet, Soria says.

A Mind at Work

Soria set her culinary intelligence to work. She based her cuisine on raw vegan "cheeses," and began — as she did by teaching desserts — naming her dishes after mainstream comfort foods, and making them look like lasagna, pizza and sandwiches. She created raw dishes with cooked textures, such as her "stir, not-fried" vegetables. She searched for sophisticated cutting gadgets such as a spiral slicer to create long pastas such as angel hair and linguine out of zucchini, and used high-powered blenders to make smooth and creamy textures, such as vegan mayonnaise and aioli.

Nuts and seeds are sprouted, because a tenet of the raw food movement says that eating "living" food is the source of energy. By sprouting nuts and seeds, the living components are activated. Soria ferments pureed nut milks with beneficial intestinal flora such as probiotic and vegan acidophilus cultures and Wigmore's invention–Revjuvelac, fermented wheat and rye juice. All this adds flavor and nourishment, Soria says, which helps people feel fuller quicker. During the course of a weeklong class, Soria says, students feel sated and still lose an average of 10 pounds.

Jean-Marie Fayat is such a person — he had tried everything to lose weight. Fayat is executive pastry chef at Draeger's Market in San Mateo. A chef who came up the ranks of professional trade school in France, he came to the United States in 1976. Like many chefs, he had gained quite a bit of weight. He tried a three-day raw foods workshop and found "those foods were very appetizing." Like other individuals and some private chefs in the Bay Area, he learned that with raw food, "You can make a great, excellent meal." And, he says, "I lost 22 pounds in three weeks. It was very dramatic for me. I'm a French chef, and I like my cheese and wine."

Obesity Strategy?

Like Soria, Fayat predicts that raw food will become mainstream because it addresses obesity and tastes good. Soria admits that a raw diet can be challenging: It's ideal to eat 80 percent raw, but she says that most people will benefit from 50 percent raw. Many of her students, she says, strive to maintain a close-to-100 percent raw diet, but will drink hot tea, and revert to the occasional mashed potatoes.

Trying not to sound extreme, Soria says she and Ladermann do eat out, perhaps once a week, and when they do, they have "a nice vegetarian meal" at a local conventional cooked-food restaurant.

Living Light Culinary Arts Institute
301-B North Main St., Fort Bragg
(800) 816-2319 or (707) 964-2420
Raw Food Chef

A new raw food website for Australians has just been created by Paul Benhaim, a living food lifestyle coach.

According to the website, Alive Foods is Australia's information portal to everything RAW.

The site includes information about detoxification, detox and health retreats including meditation, relaxation, nutrition, raw living food preparation, seminars, lectures and raw food cooking schools.