Oklahoma Library Held Raw Foods Talk and Buffet Meal

It's great to see raw food events in small towns in the middle of the country!

The Tahlequah, Oklahoma library featured a talk recently about raw foods and many raw dishes, as part of its monthly "Books Sandwiched In" series. Here's an excerpt from what the Tahlequah Daily Press reported about the event, quoting the organizer, George Kilmer:

People also should encourage the produce managers in their grocery stores to stock more organic fruits and vegetables, he said. “It’s not only the health of our bodies, but the health of the planet that’s at stake,” he said. Among the benefits of raw foods is that they contain their natural enzymes. Cooking destroys these enzymes. “They’re little proteins, and proteins are heat sensitive,” he said.

Kilmer plans to organize a local farmer's market next.

Utah's First Raw Foods Restaurant

Kudos to Salt Lake Tribune writer Kathy Stephenson, on a beautiful, inspiring story (Raw Foods: Earth to mouth, March 7, 2007).

I'm delighted to hear that 27-year-old Omar Abou-Ismail left an intense career as a geophysical engineer to become a raw restaurateur! How awesome is that! And to think he started his business with a minuscule $3,000 loan!

Restaurants are known for being very risky businesses, even for experienced restaurateurs, so a big "Bravo!" to Omar!

Here's an excerpt from the article:

John Sroka, of South Jordan, is one of the many regulars at Living Cuisine. He was diagnosed with m yasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune neuromuscular disease that causes weakness, often in the muscles that control eye and eyelid movement, facial expression, chewing, talking and swallowing. "Eating raw foods is the only thing that I've found that helps me with that," said Sroka, as he dined on a falafel salad recently. Sroka said for several months he ate an entirely raw diet. "It seems like a strange thing," he said. "But it's cleansing, energizing and a great way to lose weight because you can eat as much as you want."

We're with Peta That Gore Should Go Vegan for the Environment

PETA's written a letter to Al Gore offering to have a chef teach him how to go vegan, for the environment. This is a fine idea! Peta's timing is right-on! What better a way could there be to draw attention to this topic?

In February 2006, my magazine, www.RawFoodsNewsMagazine.com published an article by a Ph.D. about why switching to a vegan diet does more to prevent global warming than switching to a hybrid car.

Last year I created an online store with t-shirts, totes, caps, bumper stickers, magnets and more saying:

STOP GLOBAL WARMING,

GO VEGAN

(And once Gore goes vegan, he can then discover how wonderful raw vegan is.)

Dean Ornish Explains Why JAMA Dietary Study is Flawed

In a Newsweek online column, M.D. Dean Ornish explains why he disagrees with a new study that compared four diets, including his. Hear, hear!

Here are two excerpts:

1. March 6, 2007 - A study came out today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) claiming that you can lose more weight on an Atkins diet than an Ornish, Zone, or LEARN (Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships and Nutrition) diet and—ta dah!—(drum roll, maestro), it’s even better for your heart! I imagine that a lot of people are going to be saying, “You mean I’ve been eating fruits and vegetables for all these years for nothing when I could have been eating bacon and eggs? What was I thinking!”

2. [In the study of the Ornish diet] There was a direct correlation between how well people adhered to the diet and how much blockage there was in their coronary arteries. There were 2.5 times fewer cardiac events such as heart attacks, and 99 percent of these patients stopped or reversed the progression of their heart disease. These are actual measures of heart disease, not just risk factors such as changes in cholesterol levels. So, for the study that came out today in JAMA to say that the Atkins diet is just as good for your heart as an Ornish diet makes me a little crazy, since they didn’t measure heart disease, only risk factors.

Darryl Hannah's Raw Foods Video

Darryl Hannah has a cool video on her blog about raw foods.

A List of Raw Restaurants

A list of raw restaurants in the US

A Raw Foods Way to Use Gumball Machines

Blanc writes the following:

Thought I'd share this with you all:

For several years I've had a gum-ball container (the kind they sell at those candy stores where they also provide all those many-colored round candies) that I didn't know what to do with, since I don't consume anything which would work well for dispensing through that little opening. I tried nuts, but they don't work so well, either. I finally found something I could use it for: goji berries!

I had bought a large bag and had been snacking on them like crazy. It occurred to me that I could put them in the gumball container and pour a small handfull as I walked by. Kind of amusing to me, but I'm glad I kept the container and could put it to good use.

Movie "Supercharge Me" To Show at Raw Film Fest in CA

Supercharge Me is a feature-length documentary about Jenna Norwood's experiment with eating raw food for 30 days. It will be shown at the first-ever Raw Film Festival in Hollywood, CA from March 15-18. We wish Jenna the best of luck with her film!

Grow Your Own Goji Berry Plants

As you may know, goji berries are loaded with antioxidants. They might not be so easy to find in a store, depending on where you live, although you can get them by mail-order.

Here's a company that sells the plants that you can grow on your own.

Fox News' Dr. Manny Gives Good Health Award to Raw Foods

Inspired by Hollywood's Oscars, Dr. Manny Alvarez of Fox News gave out his first annual Good Health Awards, and one of them goes to raw foods!

Here's what he writes:

The Raw Foods, Raw Power Award
More and more people have been trying to get back to basics when it comes to food and nutrition. Buying organic foods is one way to eliminate the additives in processed foods, genetically-modified ingredients and insecticides, from your diet. Take it one step further, and you've got a raw foods diet.

Heating food causes the natural enzymes in food to break down, so the goal of the raw foods movement, according to its advocates, is to preserve the enzymes in food by eating only foods that have not been heated above a certain temperature--typically, 118 degrees. Food rich in enzymes is not only healthier, say raw foods advocates, it is also more easily digested and will help you feel more energetic and even look younger.

Raw foodists consume fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and nuts, though some also add fish, meat and dairy products. There are concerns that individuals might not get all the nutrients they need from a diet that eliminates meats, fish, dairy, and processed foods, but having people think about the health benefits of foods in their more natural states might have more people making healthier choices with their cooked foods.

This Dr. Manny Award is to be shared between former super model Carol Alt and Woody Harrelson. These two celebrities have probably been the most visible in spreading the word on raw foods.

Raw Vegan Radio's Latest Interview

Raw Vegan Radio's latest interview (available as a podcast) is of Cory Churko, who's had a multi-faceted career in music for more than 20 years and who switched to raw foods last summer. Cory's worked as a musician, producer and audio-engineer, with such people as Elton John and Shania Twain. In this interview, he talks about touring the world as a raw foodist.

Raw Foods Restaurant Opened Recently in New Haven, CT

Ahimsa, a mostly-raw restaurant, opened a few weeks ago in New Haven, CT. A recent article in the Yale Daily News that mentions it says there's also a raw restaurant called the Alchemy Juice Bar Cafe in Hartford, CT. It's great to see restaurants opening outside NYC!

NJ's Only "Almost" All-Raw Restaurant

I haven't been to East Coast Vegan, in Toms River, NJ, but will check it out next time I'm in the area. In this newspaper review, owner Michael Pollack says when he first opened, the menu featured cooked food, but since he switched to "almost all raw," his business has increased three- or four-fold.

Dragon Fruit

I've never had the pleasure of finding dragon fruit to buy and eat, but it sure is pretty!

Let me know if you've tasted it and what you think of it!

Buttery-Colored Dressing

I just created a dressing and I love the way it came out! It tastes great and is a captivating light yellow color.

Here's my recipe:

Judy's Buttery Colored Dressing

(These are the amounts for one serving; multiply according to how many people you're serving.)

The freshly squeezed juice of half a lemon
1 clove of garlic, grated
1 tablespoon raw sesame tahini
2 tablespoons flaxseed oil (I used Barleans, high lignan)
Celtic salt to taste

Whisk ingredients together in a small bowl. Pour into salad.

My salad today consisted of bite-sized pieces of turnip, turnip greens, kale leaves, and tatsoi, with a sprinkling of Zingerman's Wild Tuscan Fennel Pollen and the above-mentioned dressing. I was too hungry to take a picture so you'll have to imagine it.

Le Nozze Di Carlo Salad

Inspired by the the idyllic weather and the vibrant produce at the farmer’s market this morning, I came home and made a beautiful salad. I took this picture of it before it jumped into my mouth:

By the way, those aren’t sticks of dynamite—they’re French Breakfast radishes. When you stand them up, with their long tails resembling wicks, they make good stand-ins for birthday cake candles.

Serving suggestion: While eating this salad, why not listen to a lovely CD by a NYC band named Le Nozze di Carlo, the current band of Bob Goldberg, who was my former band-mate in the 1980s. This CD (same name as the band) is the perfect thing to listen to on a day when you’re feeling happy. And if you’re not feeling happy, its celebratory music might just change your mood. Listening to it is like being on a European vacation. I’m naming this salad after the band, because I created (and ate) this recipe while listening to their album.

Le Nozze di Carlo Salad

By Judy Pokras

Radicchio
French Breakfast radishes
Dulse
Broccoli microgreens
Arugula
Fresh dill
Parsley
Cilantro

You could also throw in grape tomatoes and clover sprouts.
Hell, feel free to throw in anything you like, because recipes are like that; they’re not autocratic!

Vinaigrette Dressing

Freshly squeezed lime juice
First-cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil (from a dark glass bottle)
Celtic salt

Toss and serve.

I photographed the salad on a plate for aesthetic reasons, but then I dumped it all into a large stainless steel bowl, which is how I prefer to eat my salads. Jay Leno says he won’t eat anything in a bowl because he doesn’t like ingredients to touch each other. Well, in that case, my salad is an orgy. But really, it’s much easier to eat salad from a bowl. With a plate, the ingredients can go zooming off onto the table or your lap.

Enjoy!

Raw Food Diet Heals Diabetes

Here's a low glycemic breakfast cereal recipe from a great DiabetesHealth.com article by Aimee Perrin, Why One Woman Stopped Cooking: The Raw Story, about how a raw foods diet helps people overcome diabetes:

Low Glycemic Breakfast Cereal
1 T flax oil
1 T flax seeds
1 T hemp seeds
1 tsp maca powder
2 tsp shredded coconut, unsweetened
1 tsp raw cacao nibs
Salt & sweeten with stevia to taste, then mix thoroughly in bowl.
Protein 6 g; Carb 10.2 g; Fat 28.9 g; Calories 325

Seattle Guy's Organicize Me

Seattle Weekly reporter Michael A. Stusser took an assignment to eat 100 percent organic for a month, and to write about it. The piece he wrote has some excellent information in it, such as this:

For plenty of families, buying organic produce is less of a priority than simply putting fresh food on the table. For those who must pick and choose, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has established a "dirty dozen": produce that, due to high pesticide residue, absolutely should be purchased organic. Apples and nectarines top the list, followed by cherries, peaches, pears, raspberries, imported grapes, strawberries, bell peppers, celery, potatoes, and spinach. If you can't go 100 percent organic, certain fruits and vegetables—due to how they're grown and ease of cleaning—are less likely to be contaminated, including bananas, mangos, pineapples, corn, onions, avocados, peas, and cauliflower.

The surprise is the conclusion he comes to at the article's end, to eat only raw food!

Freeze-Dried Durian, Anyone?

If you've ever eaten the exotic fruit called durian, you'll know it's got some mighty strong cons, namely that the sweet taste is cancelled out for many people by the unpleasant fragrance. Fresh durian is said to be worlds better than the defrosted stuff that's shipped frozen, but most people can't find or afford it.

So I was delighted to come across the following posting by a Seattle woman named Nora to the yahoo e-group called RawSchool:

Hi everyone,I discovered something new today. While I was waiting for a fresh case of durian to be brought out from the freezer at a store in the International District of Seattle, I noticed something on the shelf called "freeze dried durian". I noted that it said on the package it was "all natural" with no additives or preservatives, so I decided to buy a small package. Wow, what a taste treat. It reminded me so much of candy (it's like a malted milk ball without the chocolate coating) that I basically just ate it and waited for the pain! But it was surprisingly easy to digest, or at least there were no negative effects as of about 2 hours after I ate it, when I ate some frozen durian. Frozen durian always gives me a bit of a hangover the next day, so if I feel badly tomorrow it will be hard to tell if it was the frozen or dried durian.I googled 'freeze drying' because I was curious about it and found the description below. According to this info, there is less cellular damage than what happens during dehydration. Very interesting! I probably won't make this a staple or even eat it frequently but I think it would be a fabulous way for someone to experience durian for the first time because the taste is very similar to fresh durian (even more similar than frozen) and there is no smell, no mess, and no wondering how to pick one out or defrost it, etc. Plus I'm sure it can be ordered on line by people in rural areas who don't have access to durian in any other form. In fact, I found this link, although the prices look quite a bit higher than I paid today ($3.45 for a 30g pkg, which I paid $2.09 for, same label).

Raw Food As Mating Signal

From Saveur Magazine:

In certain parts of Italy, male suitors wear basil in their hair to signal the seriousness of their intentions.

I hope this catches on in the US!