Wednesday, 03/14/07 - The Tennessean

Raw foods find spot on Nashville's menu
Enthusiasts may not sell us on whole concept but do tempt us with some tasty dishes

By JIM MYERS
Staff Writer


We are what we eat.

Not necessarily, says Laura Button. For her, we are, more important, what our bodies can assimilate.




However, it's exactly what Button does eat, namely a 100 percent raw food diet, that puts her on the leading local edge of a movement that continues to creep out of shadows of the hippie fringes, inching toward the light of greater public acceptance.

The majority of raw food enthusiasts hold fast to a true vegan diet built around fresh, raw, organic fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and grains. The principle argument against cooking is that when foods are raised to temperatures above 118 degrees, the essential enzymes that aid digestion are broken down. According to raw foodists, that makes the body work harder and rely on its own enzymes to process foods into components that it can readily harness. Reduced further, raw foodists think in terms of net energy gains and losses.

Is it sound science or silly?

In many ways, the raw food diet is a natural step along the organic continuum. It encourages eating locally grown foods in season, because you're getting them as fresh as possible and you know where they're coming from.

Not everyone, though, is quick to buy the dynamic claims of enzymatic benefits.

"It just a bunch of wooey," says Jill Melton, a registered dietitian who is the editor of Relish magazine and spent 15 years at Cooking Light.

"There's really not any scientific basis for any of the enzyme claims," says Melton, who says the body readily produces the enzymes it needs for digestion. Biochemists also argue that the acidic pH of stomach acid makes short order of any plant enzymes, which aren't designed for human digestion in the first place.

While Melton recognizes there are some benefits to eating raw foods and vegetarian diets, especially the fiber, she's quick to caution that it's not necessarily a low-fat or low-calorie approach, especially given the reliance on nuts and oils as food binders for many of the dishes.

"Can you get the nutrients you need? Probably, but the raw food diet requires a lot of thought, energy and attention. How many people with busy schedules have the time to fool with (the amount of preparation)?" Melton continues. "I also wouldn't recommend it to anyone with colon issues."

Indeed, many of the celebrities who promote raw food diets, like Demi Moore, also employ personal chefs to help them hunt, gather and prepare their meal, a luxury average folks don't have.

'You don't have to go 100 percent raw'

Still, Button remains an adamant advocate for a lifestyle she has followed since she was a student-athlete in college in Las Vegas, where she first learned about raw foods in 1980.

"Well, I'm mostly raw food, since beer isn't raw," she jokes, saying she'll enjoy some tofu from time to time as well.

Button offers intensive workshops for people interested in the movement, teaching techniques for soaking nuts to make nut cheese, as well as juicing, processing and dehydrating foods.

She does admit that it can very complicated at first. "It's not easy, but once you get used to it, it becomes intuitive.

"You don't have to go 100 percent raw to enjoy the benefits of a raw food diet," she says, a large reason behind her business of selling packaged raw dishes at local markets.

One of her most popular and accessible items is the Cake of Peace. Beginning with an almond-based "crust" with orange rind and sweetened with agave nectar, it rises 12 to 15 layers, alternating swaths of cashew cream with kiwi, strawberry, blueberry, dried mango, dates and pineapple. It's "iced" with more cashew cream and topped with coconut and sprays of edible flowers.

"I've signed a contract with Whole Foods to offer prepared raw foods. They wanted a local vendor who would also teach workshops at the store," says Button, who is already working with more than a dozen local farmers to provide her with the fresh produce she'll need to meet the growing demand.

It remains to be seen whether raw food diets will join the now mainstream movement of eating organic foods, or whether people will still hanker for the toothsome pleasure of removing barbecued pork from a rib bone. Certainly diets rich in fruits and vegetables offer us all a healthy approach. Where we fall along that scale of cooked and raw will remain a matter of degrees.

Blissed be, Annie

<<whether people will still hanker for the toothsome pleasure of removing barbecued pork from a rib bone.>>

wellll..

i'll be DARNED!

"toothsome PLEASURE"??

whoooooeeeeeEEEEEEYYYYY!!

removing pig fatty remnants from its skeletal structure

sounds like a horror movie
starring

CUJO

arrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhh ruffffffff
grrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRrrrr......!!!!!

don't throw bones at me if that's your pleasure

if yer gonna do that

just pick the bone CLEAN

cuz i don't want any pig fat decayed flesh
sticking to my blouse

it would interrupt my day
to have to go home and pick out another fresh blouse

la_veronique wrote:

"removing pig fatty remnants from its skeletal structure

sounds like a horror movie
starring

CUJO"


LOLOL YOu do crack me up la_V

and, you know? You are absolutely right!

Ugh and double ugh!

I've got my hands over my eyes cuz I can't bear to look!

But the Nashville thing, that's cool. Seems a little faddish though, doesn't it? Cork soles, wedge heels, skinny jeans and raw food is IN this season.

I guess that's the way of the world.

khale