Raw-foodists believe that diet works miracles

Before fire, there was only raw food.

In recent years, a number of Americans have embraced this diet.

A diet of raw foods, sometimes called living foods, involves eating whole, unprocessed raw foods. Most raw foodists are vegans, but some may eat meat, fish or dairy products.

Some may even eat a little cooked food, but most strive to get three-quarters of their food raw.

The diet is environmentally friendly because the produce is typically organic. It’s also energy efficient, because it doesn’t require stoves or ovens. But the main benefits are health and well-being.

“Energy is the No. 1 thing,“ said Sandee Hamrick of Belews Creek, who started the diet seven years ago. “It also helps your mental awareness. And your skin is so much clearer.“

Raw foodists often lose weight and believe that the diet reduces the risk of heart and cardiovascular disease.

Breast cancer runs in Hamrick’s family, and she used to make frequent trips to an oncologist. “I had all these cysts, and every three months they had to drain some cysts just so they could check the cysts behind them,“ she said.

Within a year, she said, all of her cysts disappeared. “My doctor said, ‘I can’t say that what you’re doing is helping with this, but keep doing it.‘“

At the heart of the raw-food beliefs are the enzymes in foods. Enzymes are organic substances that act as catalysts, often with vitamins, in biochemical and metabolic reactions in the body. Cooking destroys those enzymes. Foods that are not heated beyond 116 degrees retain enzymes, and raw foodists believe that the enzymes assist in the digestion of food and absorption of nutrients.

The diet is controversial.

Barb Andresen, a local registered dietitian, disputed the idea that people need the enzymes in raw food for proper digestion and nutrition. That is not scientifically sound, she said. The body creates its own enzymes.

“This kind of extreme diet is not necessary to be healthy, and I wouldn’t recommend it,“ Andresen said.

“It’s good that this encourages fruits and vegetables, but they don’t need to be raw. It’s not that people are eating unhealthy stuff; it’s just that they are missing some stuff.“

Of particular concern, she said, are possible deficiencies in protein, vitamin D and B12. The diet can also be low in calories.

Meghan Prior, the owner of New Planet Yoga, eats mainly raw food. “When you eat live foods, you feel the effects almost instantaneously,“ said Prior, who has eaten this way for five years. “You feel lighter. You feel the energy coming from the food. It is the anti-aging diet,“ she said.

But Prior gets extra protein and nutrients from cooked grains and other food, and she takes supplements.

“It’s a challenge to do all raw. It takes some time to prepare it,“ she said, noting that raw seeds and nuts are typically soaked for hours to revive dormant enzymes.

For breakfast, Prior may have soaked raw buckwheat groats with fruit or chopped nuts, topped with almond milk. Lunch might be an avocado sandwich on (cooked) sprouted-grain bread with other vegetables. Dinner is often a pate of ground seeds, nuts and a salad to which she adds cooked legumes or brown rice.

Juicing is popular with raw-foodists. Hamrick said she often has carrot or other vegetable juice for dinner. “Believe it or not, it really fills you up,“ she said.

Her breakfast is often a green smoothie of spinach combined with fruit and coconut oil, and she usually has a salad for lunch.

Tricia Willard became interested in the diet while working at area spas. This summer, she spent a month in Chicago learning how to prepare raw foods with Chef Mehmet Ak, who owns a raw-food restaurant.

The raw-food diet is an extension of her interest in alternative medicine. She also thought that the diet might help her 8-year-old son, Travis, who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

“My son’s teachers wanted to put him on Ritalin, and I didn’t want that,“ she said.

Since starting the diet, Travis’ behavior has improved, and she, too, feels better. “I have more energy. I need less sleep,“ she said. “My eyes are brighter and clearer. And I’ve lost 20 pounds.“

Now Willard is looking into the possibility of opening a raw-food restaurant. And she will give a raw-food class at Whole Foods Market on Oct. 29.

Though raw-foodists may eat a lot of salads and juices, Willard has learned how make raw facsimiles of spaghetti and meatballs, chili, cheesecake and more. She uses a heavy-duty blender for grinding nuts and seeds into dips. And she uses a dehydrator to simulate the baking process for cookies and pizza crusts.

Though Hamrick is mainly sold on the health benefits, Willard and Prior said that a raw-food diet is about more than that.

“You are what you eat, and I want to eat consciously,“ Prior said.

Willard said, “I personally have never felt so much more grounded - artistically, emotionally. It’s about eating healthier. But it’s also about staying connected to the earth.“