The Raw Food Miracle Diet

In the United States, raw foods arguably grew to some prominence as a healing diet during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It found a notable home with the development of raw food pioneers Dr. Ann Wigmore and Viktoras Kulvinskas' creation of the Hippocrates Health Institute, based in West Palm Beach, Florida. Wigmore herself was a victim of colon cancer. During her quest to heal, she became an advocate for a living foods diet.

The significant contributions of other raw vegan champions, such as David Wolfe of Nature's First Law and Gabriel Cousens, founder of The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, have helped build a core of raw-food enthusiasts and it continues to grow. Happy oasis, founder, chief visionary officer and ceo of the raw spirit festival in sedona, arizona has witnessed the expansion of the movement by observing the number of attendees at her festival, which is currently the largest raw, vegan, organic food gathering event in the world. Oasis says they enjoyed a 100% increase in participants last year, from 250 in 2006 to 2,500 in 2007. Moving into their fourth year, they are expecting to double last year's record.

The magic of raw foods, according to its proponents, is the fact that the "life force" of the food remains intact because it has not been subjected to temperatures over 114-118 degrees Fahrenheit (the ideal number is disputed). The concept suggests that consumers enjoy the maximum nutrients, minerals and live enzymes that aid proper digestion. Health benefits reported from converting to a raw vegan diet range from the more cosmetic,such as having more radiant skin and experiencing profound weight loss, to the more life-altering event such as healing from chronic fatigue syndrome and various cancers. The raw food diet consists of uncooked fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, sprouted grains and beans and sea vegetables.

"This very natural diet . . . makes a person seem supernaturally young, beautiful, fit, healthy, glowing, vital and energetic – as in the case of Demi Moore. But you have to realize that this is our natural state. Demi should be the norm for a 40-year young woman. We're now just comparing her to a society that is radically unnatural and unhealthy, where we eat about 90-100% cooked and processed (denatured) foods," says, thegardendiet.com.

Part of the allure of raw foods stems from the significant weight loss associated with incorporating a living foods diet. Clearly, the need for the average American to select a more health-conscious plate is obvious. According to the Weight-control Information Network (WIN), approximately two-thirds of American adults age 20 and over are either overweight or obese, which equals a whopping 133.6 million people. The win data, taken from 1960-2004, indicates about a 20% increase in the overweight/obese population, with obesity rising mostly since 1980. Though diet is not solely accountable for the skyrocketing rate of obesity, a clear correlation exists between a heavy population and the rise of the "fast food nation" that the U.S. has become. As Eric Schlosser, writer of "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal," details, "Over the last three decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society".

"In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2000 they spent more than $110 billion" 

Oasis adds, "The junk food industry is catapulting people, due to the onslaught of disease that it fosters, to almost having to make a choice between death or adopting a raw, vegan, organic-friendly lifestyle, which includes; exercising, doing what we love and getting sufficient rest."

Not surprisingly when given the statistics on Americans' burgeoning bellies, a criticism of the raw roods lifestyle is that raw vegans appear underweight or in some way malnourished. Still, Oasis notes, "the majority of Americans are overweight. Therefore their perceptions of normal weight are not natural." 

Skeptics of the diet also contend that raw foodists may not get enough protein, B12, or other vital nutrients. And while Oasis acknowledges that fruitarians may not get enough B12, she feels that "raw vegans who eat dark leafy vegetables, which are the highest in minerals, protein and B12 per weight, experience optimal health."

Among the other concerns raised by the diet is the fact that not eating what everyone else is eating may be socially isolating or stigmatizing. In National Public Radio's raw food segment that aired just after Thanksgiving 2006 (listen here), a raw foods practitioner gives voice to the initial sense of alienation from mainstream society, but concludes that community may still be found among the like-minded.

While the entire concept of a raw vegan diet may seem new or radical to some, Oasis maintains the diet is far from new, "For the first several million years, since the advent of humankind, raw foods was the only diet. Really the question is not when did the raw foods movement begin, but when did humanity start to cook? Illnesses stemmed from this addition and today, with the added complication of pesticides. The myriad of other added chemicals and most recently, genetically modified organisms. This situation has compounded to such an extent that a large percentage, perhaps even the majority of people worldwide are chronically unhealthy. Due to this epidemic, raw vegetarian foods are reemerging as a wide-spread solution."

Perhaps not everyone is ready to throw out the microwave and start drinking raw sesame milk with bananas for breakfast, but conventional wisdom has always suggested that a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables is healthy. Regardless of how the raw foods movement continues to grow and change, the heart and basis of it seem pure. Oasis muses, "If it is true that we are one organism, and we are part of the living skin of Gaia, the living organism known as Earth, then each individual's health affects the planet's health and the planet's health affects each individual's health. Cooking requires fuel, which robs forests of wood and pollutes the air needlessly. Purchasing packaged goods from afar requires transportation, natural resources, including petroleum, while we could instead choose to grow our own gardens and fruit trees and supplement our diets with fruit grown by our neighbors and sold at local farmers' markets. Eating raw, vegan, organic foods and adopting the raw foods lifestyle is the least damaging to the environment."

For today, just because, eat the apple. Skip the chips.