The Raw-Food Lifestyle :: Food and Nutrition :: Diets

The Raw-Food Lifestyle
by author Rhody Lake

Ann Wigmore is credited for having championed the raw or living food lifestyle in the 1950s. But there were others. People like Viktoras Kulvinaskas, John Tobe, Arnold Ehret and Norman Walker, to name a few. The more recent proselytizers of raw foods are George Malkmus of Hallelujah Acres, Steve Arlin, Rose Lee Calabro and Susannah and Leslie Kenton.

The living food lifestyle is catching on and this magazine has been part of the new wave. Alive books published Living With Green Power by Elysa Markowitz in 1997 and The Raw Gourmet by Nomi Shannon in early 1999. Our own chef and food stylist, Fred Edrissi, did the food styling for Raw Gourmet, and it’s become a best seller in the US, far outstripping our predictions in popularity. Both of these authors proved that raw food does not have to be boring, unattractive or hard to swallow. It’s delicious! More than that, raw food has become a new dietary revolution as people catch on to its healing power.

This year we celebrate a raw food energy milestone. A group of raw food gurus have co-operated to sponsor a ground-breaking event in Jamaica, August 20–25, 2000: The First Annual Raw Food Masters Culinary Showcase. Fred Edrissi will be there, along with our photographer, Edmond Fong. (See Health Events Calendar p 116)

Certified organic food is the food and medicine of the 21st century. The fortunate who hear this message will be able to use all the necessary tools to build strong defense systems against the chemical onslaughts of this new century.

Raw food is living food. It’s food that has not been processed or heated above 118°C (244°F). It’s food that contains the enzymes necessary for digestion as well as all the natural vitamins and minerals inherent in the specific vegetable or fruit. Raw food is probably the only basis for optimum nutrition. Even nutritionists like Dr Paavo Airola and others always cautioned that an optimum diet must be at least 75-percent to 95-percent raw. That doesn’t leave much room for packaged snacks, folks!

Dr Edward Howell wrote the definitive book Enzyme Nutrition. He said, "The human race is at least half sick...there are no completely healthy people living on the conventional diet. Even young adults who feel fit have health defects."

He blames this national state of disease on malnutrition due to the consumption of cooked and processed food. This food destroys all enzymes and therefore makes it impossible for the body to metabolize nutrients. More than anything, the raw food revolution is about enzymes.

The Food Enzyme Concept

There are three classes of enzymes: metabolic enzymes, which run our bodies; digestive enzymes, which digest our food; and food enzymes in the raw food itself, which start food digestion.

All of our organs and tissues are run by metabolic "worker" enzymes. These enzymes take proteins, fats and carbohydrates (starches and sugars) and structure them to make healthy bodies, keeping everything functioning in order. Dr Howell says nothing must interfere with the body making enough metabolic enzymes. Good health depends on it. A shortage means trouble!

The digestive enzyme group includes proteases (to digest protein), amylases (to digest carbohydrates) and lipases (to digest fat). We are all given these enzymes at birth, but in a limited supply. So the master plan is that we do not exhaust that supply by forcing the body’s digestive enzymes to carry the whole load of digestion. When food enzymes do some of the work, your enzyme potential can allot less activity to digestion and have more energy to give to the hundreds of metabolic enzymes that run the entire organism, which is you!

According to Dr Howell, the enzyme potential of almost all North Americans is facing bankruptcy. We are on a minus diet–food minus its enzymes. This is a strain on all organs, especially the pancreas. No wonder there’s an epidemic of diabetes!

Raw Food Function

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Source: alive #211, May 2000

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