Dr. Aubrey de Grey, a scientist in Cambridge (England) claims that humans can live 1,000 years, and offers $20,000 to anyone who can refute his claim. DeGray believes that if different types of cell damage (such as cell loss, and mutations to chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA) can be prevented or fixed, then there is no upper limit on human longevity. He is focused on strategies to prevent and cure aging.

A very interesting longevity article from The BBC News is reprinted below…

The increase in life expectancy enjoyed by many societies is a triumph of modern science.

Our understanding of the human body and how to repair it when it breaks down have continued to push "old age" into the distance – and researchers intend to keep pushing. But the claims made by Dr Aubrey de Grey, a scientist at the University of Cambridge, UK, that lifespan can be increased by over 1,000 years, have proven too much for some; and a dispute has now broken out within the gerontology community.

The argument, which has been played out through academic journals, and most recently at a "life extension" conference, has culminated in the unusual step of a cash prize on offer for anyone who can disprove de Grey's science.

Difficult science

Dr de Grey's claims for long life centre on SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence); essentially, strategies to prevent and cure ageing. SENS is based upon repairing the molecular and cellular damage that accumulates throughout life; so as to prevent age-related illness and frailty. It focuses on addressing seven different types of cell damage, including mutations to chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA, and cell loss. He argues that once these can be fixed or prevented, the sky's the limit for lifespan extension.

His assertions have made headlines around the world, but some gerontologists are not convinced that the science behind SENS is sound, and they spoke openly about their views at the Tomorrow's People International Conference on Life Extension and Enhancement held at Oxford University. "Aubrey is trying to generate enthusiasm for a commitment and programme that, in a sense, sidesteps the practical challenges that the science faces," explained Professor Tom Kirkwood, co-director of the Institute for Ageing and Health, University of Newcastle.

"There are really big challenges and we are all aligned in hoping that we can harness the science to improve and extend quality of life, but it doesn't serve any useful purpose to try to extrapolate so far beyond the immediate challenges." Twenty-eight scientists working in the field took the step of submitting a rebuttal to a paper published by Dr de Grey in the journal EMBO Reports in 2005. The strongly worded paper says that: "Each one of the specific proposals that comprises the SENS agenda is, at our present state of ignorance, extremely optimistic… "A research programme based around the SENS agenda… is so far from plausible that it commands no respect at all from within the scientific community."

Professor Richard Miller, associate director of the Geriatric Centre at the University of Michigan, US, told the BBC News website that he became involved with the rebuttal because he felt it was important to have on record that so many gerontologists felt that the ideas were without merit. "I wrote the article and we sent it around to 30 or so of our colleagues, expecting that only half would sign it, because scientists really do not like to take a public position in opposition to someone that they know. "I was amazed that we found no-one who refused on the grounds that they agreed with Aubrey; a couple of people said they didn't want to sign anything about his work because they didn't want to draw attention to it. We got 28 people who astonishingly were willing to say in public that they had evaluated the science and had found it to be worthless."

Money challenge

In response to this and other objections from the scientific community to SENS, Dr de Grey has fought back by launching the "SENS Challenge" in the Technology Review magazine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's essentially an offer of $20,000 (£11,000) to anyone who can write a demolition of my ideas that are sufficiently powerful to demonstrate that not only are they wrong but they are so wrong that they are unworthy of learned debate," explained De Grey to the conference delegates. "This is open to anyone who has credentials in molecular biology of any sort, and the important thing about it is that it is judged by a review panel."

At the conference, Dr de Grey announced that he had a five-person-strong panel to review submissions, including Dr Craig Venter, who led the private effort to decode the human genome, and Dr Nathan Myhrvold, a former chief technologist at Microsoft. "I essentially felt that it was critical for me to smoke out the opposition," Dr de Grey told the BBC News website. I had to move things along to an on-the-record opposition so that people would be forced not simply to say what they thought of these ideas, but why." So far, there have been very few submissions to the challenge, and none of these from the scientists involved with the EMBO rebuttal.

"Most scientists, and I was among this group, took the position that any sort of response to de Grey was just feeding the fire," said Professor Miller, explaining why he had chosen not to enter the challenge. But while the debate continues, all involved do agree that life extension is within the realms of possibility for science; but how exactly we do it, how long we can postpone death for, and whether modern society can handle the burden of an increasingly aged population is still being debated. "I think we will hopefully be able to get some means to make a significant impact on processes of ageing. These will not necessarily result immediately in substantive life extension, but they may change the profile of health that people experience as they go through [old age]. We haven't begun seriously to discus what should be our priorities and how we should develop strategies," explained Professor Kirkwood at the conference.

"Most medical research is done by trying to prevent people dying. And Aubrey says we should simply extend this into ageing. Actually, now, we are in a situation of being able to harness what comes from the basic biomedical research to try to devise a better way to age. And if that leads to life extension, that's great. But it's difficult to see the path to make that happen."

A recent article, published by DailyIndia.com (out of New York) describes eating raw for both humans and pets.

The Raw Food Diet
by Sylvia Riley

The raw food diet is as much a lifestyle as an eating plan; a naturalistic approach which excludes, in addition to cooked and animal foods, processed and refined ingredients. In the ever-hungry quest for new fads and health panaceas, the raw food diet, with adherents such as Woody Harrelson and Donna Karan, is growing in mainstream popularity. Unlike many other bandwagons however, raw foods (also referred to as 'living foods'), offer unarguable health benefits and one can reap rewards even as a 50% dabbler. To be a 100% extremist takes commitment, discipline and education and is best introduced gradually to avoid the overwhelm of inevitable detoxification.

A food is essentially 'raw' if it is kept below 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature above which enzymes are destroyed. Eating raw food ensures an opulent intake of nutrients, fibre, healthy oils and life-giving enzymes. Raw food is much more easily digested, taking half to a third of the time of cooked food, around 24-36 hours compared to 40-100 hours. Raw vegetables and fruits, are also predominantly alkaline so help to optmize the pH balance of the body (around 60-80% alkaline foods being recommended for an internal environment resistant to disease).

Whole foods, sprouts and raw juices are favoured in a raw food diet, and dehydrator 'ovens' effectively concentrate the flavour of certain raw foods to assist in the creation of a mind-boggling array of as-cooked dishes. I've eaten a raw food pizza that unbelievably contained no wheat, no cheese and no cooked ingredients! It tasted delicious and I was stumped to figure out what it was actually made of!

Raw Power

Raw plant foods are healthy, regenerative, cleansing, energising, predominantly alkaline, and packed with vitamins, minerals, healthy oils, enzymes and antioxidants that promote health, beauty and longevity. As well as enhancing digestion and protecting against aging and disease, a raw food diet has noted weight loss benefits and promotes clear, beautiful skin. The benefit of raw food becomes even more apparent in view of the effects cooking can have on constituents in food.

The Effects of Cooking

Arthur Baker writes in Awakening Our Self-Healing Body, "Overly cooked foods literally wreck our body. They deny needed nutrients to the system since heat alters foodstuffs such that they are partially, mostly, or wholly destroyed. Nutrients are coagulated, deaminized, caramelized and rendered inorganic and become toxic and pathogenic in the body."

The indigestible end products of cooked foods can linger in the gut, clogging the intestines and interfering with healthy elimination. They can cause a build-up of toxins, mutagens and carcinogens. Carbohydrates ferment, proteins putrefy and fats become rancid, creating free radicals that enter the blood stream. Lipufuscin, the 'aging pigment', is an example of a waste product created from damaged proteins and fats. It accumulates in the skin and nervous system and is visible as brown 'liver spots' on the skin and eyes.

Toxic by-products and excess free radicals from cooked foods can weaken the immune system and accelerate the aging process.

Enzymes

Cooking destroys enzymes in our food. These delicate, heat sensitive proteins can destabilise at temperatures as low as 115 degrees Fahrenheit, hence even light steaming can render them inactive. Enzymes, so abundant in a raw food diet, are highly functional catalysts involved in various health-regulating tasks in the body, such as breaking down food in digestion, delivering nutrients, carrying away toxic wastes and strengthening the endocrine and immune system. All living cells contain enzymes which function in cooperation with other minerals. As there is not an unlimited supply of enzymes, eating them in our food lifts the burden off organs to produce digestive enzymes which allows a greater use of enzymes for other metabolic purposes, freeing up more energy for the performance of other tasks.

More Bio-available Nutrients in Raw Foods

In cooking food we can loose up to 97% of water-soluble vitamins (B and C) and 40% of fat-soluble vitamins (namely A, D, E and K).

Proteins

Heat denatures proteins, modifying their molecular structure and rendering them unusable. The bacteria in the gut feeds upon undigested proteins that tend to putrefy, giving rise to toxins. Raw foods provide healthy, readily available protein in greater supply without undigested residue.

Fats

Oils are heat, light and air sensitive. Heating can destroy the goodness of an oil and alter molecules generating toxins and free radicals. Unrefined oils that are cold-pressed contain all their natural healthy substances (olive oil for example is rich in phytonutrients, flaxseed oil a great source of omega-3 fatty acids and so on). Oils should be kept refrigerated in dark sealed containers.

Fibre

Fibre is essential for health and helps to flush out the intestines, scrubbing them clean and aiding elimination. With cooked food fibre becomes a soft substance, loosing its brush-like quality. It can partially rot, ferment and putrefy in the gut, causing toxins, gas and heartburn.

Raw Superfoods

Eating superfoods enhances a raw food diet even further. Superfoods are the most potent, antioxidant rich, nutrient dense, disease fighting, anti aging, beautifying, mood enhancing, immune boosting foods on the planet. Raw superfoods ensure an optimum intake of nutrients and phytochemicals for optimum health.

Raw Food Diet For Your Pets

A raw food diet for dogs and cats is both natural and species-appropriate. Not only does it provide a rich supply of nutrients, antioxidants and enzymes, but ensures a move a way from the low grade, inappropriate, highly processed and toxic ingredients found in commercial pet foods that can damage your pet's health. If embarking on a homemade raw food diet for your pet (sometimes referred to as BARF–biologically appropriate raw food), thoroughly research the area first as nutritional balance is essential.

In the article below, a Nottingham woman explains how a raw food diet cured her rheumatoid arthritis which she had suffered from since 13. Interestingly, the arthritis developed after a rubella immunization. (The more I read about vaccinations, the more opposed I become to the practice of immunizing children.)

From The Mirror, a U.K. based publication.

Exclusive: Raw Food Diet Has Cured My Arthritis
By Claire Collins

As the Daniels family gathers round the dinner table it resembles a scene played out in many households. An evening meal shared with loved ones, a time to eat and talk together. But there is one significant difference. All the food laid before mum Jatinder, husband Derek and their three children, Raman, 17, Priyanka, 13, and seven-year-old Mohan is raw. And this unusual diet has been credited with saving Jatinder's life and turning her family's fortunes around.

"I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 16 and doctors said my future was bleak," says Jatinder, a healthy 45. "They said I could be in a wheelchair by the end of my teens, that I would be in varying degrees of constant pain for the rest of my life and, due to aggressive drugs, may not be able to have children. It was like a death sentence.

"But look at me now! I'm a mum of three, perfectly mobile and free from the agony I endured for years. And it's all down to my raw food, low-toxin lifestyle." Jatinder's teenage years in Nottingham were dogged with frustration and confusion over her stiffness and pain until, after endless tests, she was diagnosed.

"I was a healthy until 13 when I was vaccinated against rubella in school," Jatinder recalls."My health deteriorated rapidly afterwards. Suddenly I couldn't do any sports at all. I was persistently tired and regularly in terrible pain. There were days when I couldn't walk, dress myself or bathe. Sometimes my jaw was so stiff I couldn't eat at all or just manage soup." Jatinder went to hospital once a week for six months for injections into her joints yet the arthritis intensified and her knuckles and knees began to deform. She became suicidal.

She says: "The injections offered no immediate relief. I felt alone, angry and full of resentment. I was trying to do my A-levels but I couldn't even carry my own books. "My condition worsened during the winter. The cold wind went straight to my bones and was agony. I became very depressed and often thought about throwing myself into the River Trent."

Despite being in constant pain, Jatinder was determined to live life to the full and at 21 went to London to study computing. She says: "I needed a walking stick by the time I went to university but I refused to use one out of pride. I felt so vulnerable. I was adamant that I was going to be independent." Derek, a 43-year-old computer programmer, remembers the difficulties his bride-to-be faced when they met while studying. He recalls: "She couldn't walk for more than five minutes without pain. I felt helpless and desperately wanted to ease her discomfort.

"It was clear to us that the anti-inflammatory drugs she was taking made very little difference to her discomfort. In fact, the side-effects of stomach ulcers and blinding headaches made her feel worse. I fully supported her decision to stop taking them five years later." The couple married the year after she stopped taking the drugs and Jatinder summoned every bit of grit to walk down the aisle unaided. She says: "The days when I couldn't walk at all were becoming more frequent and I was limping more often than not. "But there was no way I was going to let my illness get in the way of a perfect wedding. "I blocked out the pain, held my head up high and slowly walked to join my future husband. It was very emotional."

Jatinder and Derek set up home in London and Raman was born later that year. But with their new baby came new hardships for Jatinder. She explains: "The doctors had warned that I would have difficulty conceiving because of the drugs I'd been taking, so Raman was extra special. But caring for him was the biggest challenge I'd ever faced. "The normal duties that new mums take for granted like bathing their child was like climbing a mountain. But I had no choice but to cope." Their second child Priyanka was born four years later and developed chronic eczema and asthma at eight weeks. The lack of sleep and stress that caused only made Jatinder's condition worse. She said: "I was beginning to think I couldn't go on. I couldn't see myself reaching my 40th birthday and if I'm honest part of me didn't want to if it meant living with constant pain. "I believed it was only going to get worse."

It was during these dark times that Derek discovered the raw food way of life on the internet. He read claims that nature intended us to eat raw, who le food and that it is unnatural to consume cooked or processed foods. Jatinder explains: "Long-term consumption of processed food will lead to toxicity or toxaemia – when the body is overloaded with poisons. These harmful toxins are found all around us – in our environment, treated water, non-organic fruit and vegetables and cooked food.

"Raw foodists believe that major illnesses like cancer, diabetes and arthritis are often a result of toxaemia and can be prevented and greatly helped by a raw food way of life." Jatinder says she realised the importance of food in relation to wellbeing years ago but the idea of eating only raw food seemed impossible. "I had stopped eating wheat years earlier noticing that wheat flour made my joints flare up and I had become vegan the previous year for similar reasons," she says.

"I put the fact that I wasn't already in a wheelchair down to my healthy diet and generally positive mindset. "I believed that food could have a miraculous effects on health, I just didn't believe I could take such drastic measures." When Jatinder conceived her youngest son Mohan, at the age of 37, she knew something had to be done to improve her health. So, at two months pregnant, she changed her diet to 100 per cent raw for one week. She says: "I had diarrhoea but felt the benefit and the pain reduced. "I went back to 50 per cent cooked until the following summer when the whole family began to detox."

The family moved to Spain four years ago where Jatinder is a raw food consultant. They live in beautiful whitewashed mountainside village on the Costa del Sol and the children attend the local school. "We wanted the children to grow up in a natural environment and I believe sunshine is another key to good health," she says. And the family insists the raw food diet is fun and tasty. "Now the kids love it," Jatinder laughs. "There is so much variety. I make biscuits, crackers, sweets and some really tasty desserts. Friends are amazed when I tell them what they are eating is not cooked.

"Just like you learn how to cook, you can learn how to uncook. It is amazing what textures you can achieve by using a blender or the food you can create simply by dehydrating it. It may sound complicated but once you've got the hang of it, the preparation time is actually less.

"Friends who come around for lunch are amazed when I tell them what they are eating is in fact raw." Jatinder is keen to stress that to truly detox, your whole lifestyle has to be adjusted. She says: "Detoxing is not as simple as just eating raw food — it includes being aware of your environment.

"It means changing you hair gel, your toothpaste, the chemicals you use around the house, chlorinated tap water — even your negative thought patterns. They all introduce toxins into our bodies."

After 12 months of raw food, Jatinder's arthritis all but disappeared. She smiles modestly: "I can now walk and ride a bike for miles, prepare amazing meals and look after my family. And I am pain-free. "We are all so much healthier. Neither myself of Mohan has been treated by a doctor since he was born. I don't believe a doctor will treat me again for my arthritis. I am healing myself.

When Jennifer Pittman moved to Forth Worth, Texas and discovered a lack of organic food providers, she decided to create her own source of raw food produce and products. Pittman started an organic co-op called Blueberry Market…

Beyond the Chains, Local Options Limited
by Amy Culbertson
Star-Telegram Food Editor

When it comes to organic options outside supermarkets and natural-foods markets, Fort Worth and environs aren't exactly overflowing with options. Where in other cities, farmers markets are primary sources for local organic produce, you won't find any organic farmers at the Cowtown Farmers Market, the group of local farmers selling produce on Wednesday and Saturday mornings at the Benbrook Traffic Circle.

Ben Walker, president of the North Central Texas Farmers Market Corp., which operates the Cowtown market, says his group has just one organic farmer, who sells only at the Grapevine Farmers Market. The dearth of organic-food providers was what motivated Jennifer Pittman to launch a fledgling organic and raw-food business from her home near Texas Christian University several months ago. Pittman had been running an "environmentally safe cleaning business" in Austin before she moved here and found the options for her goal of a raw-food diet suddenly limited.

Through her Blueberry Market Organic Rawfood business, Pittman brings in organic produce, seeds, grains, nuts and nut butters, oils, herbs, teas and skin-care products for pickup every two weeks. She gets most of her items from several national distributors but has recently added some produce from a local organic farmer. She's looking for a storefront to offer a retail location in the future and eventually would like to be involved in the growing end of the organic-food business. For now, however, her business is mostly e-mail. Pittman joins a short list of local organic co-ops that includes Monica Brown's Your Health Source co-op, probably the area's largest.

Your Health Source, which Brown started four years ago, provides organic groceries for about 825 families. Brown lives in Weatherford, but her co-op is based in downtown Fort Worth, from which groceries are delivered to a network of "host" sites — homes or small businesses — for pickup within a two-hour radius. At the host sites, members "sort the food and get it ready for the people to come pick up," Brown said. Each member family pays $25 to join and gets a basic box of fruits and vegetables — some weeks include local produce — every other week for $40. Members can order extra shares or whole cases of produce; many members split cases. Other groceries available for order include local pastured meats, eggs and dairy products, along with dry goods such as bulk grains, seeds, nuts and nut butters; local honey; and oils.

Members also have access to e-groups to discuss health issues and share recipes, and Brown does frequent cooking demonstrations at various sites. All the co-ops operate a little differently — some have fees to join; some require that their members work a certain number of hours sorting food or doing other tasks. But all buy in bulk to offer price advantages over retail outlets, and most deliver a basic box of produce at set intervals, usually every other week.

Fort Worth Raw Food Related Co-ops

Blueberry Market
TCU area of Fort Worth: Specializing in vegetarian, vegan and raw-food items. Every-two-week pickup; individual orders; no joining fee. www.blueberrymarket.com. e-mail: blueberry@blueberrymarket.com

Joyful Living
Aledo: Kristy Bell specializes in organic grains and mills. Also produce, grocery items, dry goods. Every-two-week pickup; pre-assembled produce box $25; individual orders and on-site sales. No joining fee or minimum order. (817) 441-7074.

Wonderfully Made
South Fort Worth: Produce; frozen, refrigerated and dry goods; grain grinders and mills. Every-two-week pickup, produce box $20-$36 with a onetime $5 box deposit. No joining fee or minimum order. (817) 294-1873.

Your Health Source
Fort Worth: Produce, dry goods, groceries. Every-two-week delivery, produce box $40. $25 joining fee. (817) 793-3509; (888) 280-0494.

Bradley Saul, a former pro-cyclist, raw vegan and founder of Organic Athlete was recently profiled in The Arizona Daily Star. According to its website, Organic Athlete organizes bike races called Tour d'Organics in which participants race from farm to farm to promote organic foods and athleticism. Upcoming races are planned in Austin, Texas, Portland, Ore., and Santa Cruz, Sebastopol and Santa Barbara, Calif.

Excerpt below from The Arizona Daily Star…

On Pace: Can Vegan Diet Fuel an Athlete? He says yes.
by Jennifer Duffy

What did you eat yesterday? Bradley Saul, a former pro-cyclist and founder of Organic Athlete, stopped in Tucson last week to talk about his organization and told me what he had munched on that day: half of a case of strawberries, two heads of lettuce chopped into a salad, some oranges and about 50 small dates.

The tall and lean but strong-looking cyclist is a vegan, and a raw foodist. He promotes organic living for athletes to ensure personal and environmental health. (Being a raw foodist who eats only whole foods, he doesn't touch things like whole wheat bread or tofu, but will eat some brown rice in a pinch, he says.) Chowing down on a few heads of lettuce for lunch and avoiding all cooked and processed foods sounds a little extreme, but the principles of his vegan raw food diet are based on eating whole, organic foods that provide the vitamins, minerals and fiber that we all strive for in our diets.

Everyone's first question: Where do you get your protein? "Where don't you get protein if you're eating whole foods?" said Saul, who started Organic Athlete when he was living in Tucson in 2003 and now resides in California. "Human mother's milk has only 5 to 6 percent of its calories from protein. And that's for babies growing at a much more rapid rate than we are. We get enough protein if we eat whole foods, fruits and vegetables." He eats nuts and seeds in small amounts because they're high in fat.

Fruits and vegetables have a bit of protein per calorie — some more than others — so as long as you're eating whole foods, you can't not get enough protein, Saul says. These foods aren't as high in protein as meat, of course, but that protein is more difficult to digest, according to Saul. But this guy isn't just munching on heads of lettuce and lounging on the couch — he's an athlete. Doesn't he need supplements or a chicken breast once in awhile?

Nope.

He doesn't use supplements when he races, and when he recently ran a marathon he just ate dates for fuel during the 26.2-mile race. "I was fine." I can't even imagine a long run without chocolate energy gel, but Saul's minimalism is inspiring. Celery blended up in water provides the precious electrolytes athletes are always fretting over, although Saul says he really doesn't worry about whether he gets enough electrolytes. "I used to come out of a race all covered in salt. I'm not like that anymore," he said. "Since I've started this, I can say my recovery times are better. I wake up in the morning ready for the day, and I don't need stimulants or caffeine to keep me going."

He says he went through a transition period for a few months, moving from vegetarianism to veganism (no animal products at all), to eating raw, organic foods. "I had always known fruits and vegetables were the healthiest food and I ate a lot of them, but I had never heard of people that just ate them," Saul said with a laugh. Now he does, although he was raised on "traditional American food — but all made from scratch," and his mother still eats the way she did when he was growing up. "We had homemade birthday cakes, meat and potatoes. His friends were eating a lot of processed foods, but I just made everything from scratch. It wasn't necessarily healthy, though," said Molly Savitz.

"I'm surprised at how simple what he does is," said Savitz, of South Carolina, who will prepare food for as many as 700 cyclists at one of the Tour d'Organics race, put on by her son, this year. I'm a vegetarian, and Saul's principles of eating lots of fruit and veggies appeal to me — but I'm not giving up my organic tofu any time soon. What I am going to glean from his purist lifestyle is a focus on organic produce, locally grown foods and choosing nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables over processed snacks.

The Ottawa Citizen, a Canadian newspaper, recently published an article profiling a 45 year-old woman who says she has eaten raw (almost exclusively) for the past 14 years. Story excerpt below…

Dining in the Raw
by Louise Crosby

Natasha Kyssa is lean, fit and glowing. At 45, she is a picture of youth and vitality. She says it's the raw food. For the past 14 years, this Ottawa woman has eaten "living foods" almost exclusively. In the vegan raw foods culture, this means only fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes and grains, much of which is made more digestible by soaking, sprouting, blending, juicing and fermenting. That means no meat, chicken or fish, obviously. No dairy foods, sugar, coffee or tea. No canned fruit or vegetables or commercial fruit juices that have been heated or pasteurized. No bubbling macaroni and cheese, wood oven-fired pizza or sizzling stir-frys. No steaming, roasting, grilling or baking.

It sounds restrictive, but raw foodists have come up with clever and imaginative ways of turning raw ingredients into gourmet masterpieces.American celebrity chef Charlie Trotter, a huge fan of raw foods (although he is not a vegetarian), has added raw dishes to the menu of his fine-dining restaurant in Chicago. His 2003 cookbook, Raw, has recipes for Bleeding Heart Radish Ravioli with Yellow Tomato Sauce, and Salsify with Black Truffles and Porcini Mushrooms.

Raw foods are also turning up at the world's most luxurious spa retreats, along with the detox and yoga. And at the monthly raw vegan pot-luck hosted by Natasha and her husband, Mark Faul, at St. Giles Presbyterian Church in the Glebe, people bring everything from lasagnas and sushi rolls to mango pie and carrot cake.

Why raw food? Raw foodists say enzymes — catalysts that aid digestion and the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream — are destroyed at temperatures higher than 118 degrees F (48 degrees C). A raw food diet, along with other good habits like getting lots of sleep, fresh air and exercise, contributes to exceptionally good overall health, increased energy, a strengthened immune system, resistance to colds and flu and better concentration and mental clarity.

Natasha's earliest influence in the whole-foods department was her Austrian-born mother, who for many years ran The Pantry, a mostly vegetarian tea room in the Glebe Community Centre. Today, Natasha and Mark run SimplyRaw, which offers personalized healthy lifestyles coaching and workshops on preparing raw foods. They recently gave a presentation to medical staff at Elizabeth Bruyere Health Centre.

Adopting a completely raw food diet is a serious commitment and not for everyone. But if you'd like to increase the amount of raw food you're getting every day, you may want to re-stock your pantry and invest in a few essential pieces of equipment: a high-speed blender and food processor; a jar with a mesh lid for sprouting beans and seeds; a spiral slicer for making "noodle" strands out of zucchini, beets and other vegetables; fine mesh bags for making nut milks; a dehydrator, which gently removes the moisture from foods and turns out things like crackers, pizza crust, granola, cookies, dried fruits and vegetables. Natasha and Mark sell many of these products through their website.

A few weeks back, Natasha whipped up this Angel Hair Pasta with Marinara Sauce in my kitchen. It was room-temperature but tasty, with strong, bold flavours. I made the almond milk and it was quite delicious in banana-strawberry smoothies. Despite long soaking and prolonged blending, however, my dates didn't puree successfully. If you don't like chunky bits of date in your smoothies, but want to stay "raw," use a couple of tablespoons of wild raw agave nectar instead. It's made from agave cactus plants and rates very low on the glycemic index.

Angel Hair Pasta with Marinara Sauce

Serves 6
For the marinara sauce:
2 cloves garlic
1 cup (250 mL) sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in water until soft, drained
4 dates, soaked in water until soft and drained, or 2 tablespoons raw agave
4 to 6 medium ripe tomatoes
1/2 red bell pepper
1/4 cup (50 mL) minced fresh basil
2 tablespoons (25 mL) fresh oregano, or 1 teaspoon (5 mL) dried
1 teaspoon (5 mL) dried thyme
1 teaspoon (5 mL) onion powder
4 tablespoons (65 mL) cold-pressed olive oil
1/4 cup (50 mL) lemon juice or unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Celtic sea salt, or 1 tablespoon (15 mL) Nama Shoyu or Nama Tamari, to taste
1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) black pepper
Pinch, cayenne

For the topping:

1/2 cup (125 mL) pine nuts
Fresh basil
Olives

For zucchini pasta:

4 to 6 large zucchini

1. In a food processor or blender, chop garlic. Add soaked sun-dried tomatoes and dates; blend. Add all remaining ingredients; blend, adding filtered water or the sun-dried tomato soaking water for a smoother, thinner consistency, if desired. Season to taste.

2. Slice the zucchini crosswise into quarters. Use a spiral slicer, shred zucchini into thin "noodles." Place noodles in serving bowls and top with marinara sauce. Garnish with chopped pine nuts, basil and olives.

Vanilla Almond Milk

Makes 3 cups (750 mL)
1 cup (250 mL) almonds with skins, soaked overnight
3 cups (750 mL) filtered water
6 dates, soaked until soft
1-inch (2.5 cm) piece vanilla bean, or 2 tablespoons (25 mL) wild, raw agave nectar
Blend almonds and water at high speed until creamy. Strain using a nylon nut bag or fine sieve. Return milk to blender, add remaining ingredients, and blend again. Serve over cereal, in smoothies or alone.