So what is RAWking? RAWking is my name for "Cooking" in the Raw! Since there isn't a designated term for raw food preparation, I thought I'd say "RAWk" instead of "Cook"! Also, as a music lover, "RAWkin' out" was pretty funny. Or "Kraut RAWk". "RAWkies" instead of "Cookies". You get the idea: just another way of replacing syllables with RAW as in "RAWvioli", "MarinaRAW", "RAWvolution", "RAWsome", etc.
RAWking uses preparation methods that you're used
to like slicin' & dicin', chippin' & choppin', marinatin' & tossin' (yay for salad, one of
the only RAWked foods most people eat!). Nicer Slicers like Mandolins (no, not the musical instrument!), Spiral Slicers, Shredders/Graters, Zesters, and even your handy "potato peeler" all make wonderful new textures for all kinds of vegetables and fruit. Equipment such
as a blender and a food processor come in very handy and you might
already have those in your kitchen! Another favorite of raw foodists is
the dehydrator, which is like a raw "oven"! Some enzymes and
water-soluble nutrients are lost in this way, but far, far less than
are lost in traditional cooking/baking/frying, etc., YET very similar
textures can be obtained. When you think about cooking, it is all about
changing the texture of food, although flavor is lost, resulting in a need for more oil, salt, and seasonings. When RAWking,
it is also about changing the texture...but also maintaining the flavor AND
the nutrients! Double Bonus!!
In addition to using equipment for a texture change, there are also numerous ways to make your food more digestible than cooking! Some of these include: soaking, sprouting, and culturing/fermenting. Generally speaking, all seeds and all nuts with brown skins should be soaked to remove their "enzyme inhibitors" which keeps them in a dormant (sleeping!) state so they don't just start sprouting any old time. BUT, if you soak the little guys, they think they've been planted ;) and release these bitter acids resulting in a sweeter, softer, and more digestible seed or nut! All they need, like some people, is a good long soak to be sweeter and softer! Overnight soaks are most convenient, but I can teach you all about this at one of my classes (see "Why and How to RAWk!" for details of the next class and "Feel Great in 2008!" for a year-long class calendar) or personal consultations (email me at ChefSteffySue@yahoo.com)!
When preparing food, I make sure to soak and sprout for appropriate amounts of time to enhance nutritional value, and my kraut is RAWkin'! There will be a special fermentation class in the autumn. My entire class schedule can be viewed on "Why and How to RAWk!"
Here are just a few of the many great websites where you can learn more about raw food:
http://rawfoodlife.com (newsletter and information) http://sunfood.com (high-quality raw products & great information by David Wolfe) http://www.living-foods.com (links to many raw food sites and so much more) http://www.treeoflife.nu/ (Dr. Gabriel Cousens' raw healing center) http://www.giveittomeraw.com/ (a raw food online community) http://eat.rawfood.com/ (David Wolfe's Sunfood Nutrition online community) http://www.rawguru.com/ (more information about raw food & online community)
RAWking is THE most nutritious way of preparing food!
How so? Because when food is heated above 105 degrees, it begins to lose vital enzymes and nutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.). In fact, cooked food loses ~ 80% of it's nutrient content, which is why we often don't feel satisfied, or even worse--tired & sluggish, when we eat it.
With raw food, we feel energized, light, refreshed, hydrated, and like we just did our body good! Without enzymes, which are completely destroyed at around 115 degrees (water boils at 212), our body has to reassemble its own enzymes which could be used for other important activities. These include keeping our immune systems functioning optimally, repairing sun-damaged DNA before it turns into cancer, and every single other chemical reaction that occurs in our body, from typing on this keyboard to blinking an eye. Raw foods have all their own enzymes, in the perfect form to digest what that particular food is made of, and these enzymes do a much better job than using our own body enzymes.
The result? Antacids are the #1 over-the-counter drug. Digestive ailments are the most common complaint. It's a hard fact to face, but cooked food is just not what our bodies are designed to eat. Matt Amsden of RAWvolution came up with a great analogy: eating cooked food is like running a broken vacuum cleaner over the carpet. You are simulating the productive activity yet it is ineffective because it is not actually functioning as it should.
Yet we eat cooked food because we are used to it. It makes us feel relaxed, which is our body's way of saying "okay, slow down, I have to work on digesting now" and because it makes us feel "full" which is another way of saying, it is "filler". We eat it because it is the most readily available form of food (for now!). And we don't feel quite satisfied because of all those missing nutrients.
So we eat more and more and more. And guess what? We have more and more and more overweight people with all types of eating-related illnesses such as Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Cancer than any other country. Even the National Cancer Institute says that more than 60% of cancers can be prevented by diet. Processed foods (white flour, white sugar, white rice, white pasta, corn everything, potatoes, cooked oils, etc.) that are mostly to blame. This is why almost all diets that eliminate these products alone, no matter what else they incorporate, are effective in weight loss. With a raw food diet, your body's ideal weight can be reached and maintained. If you are a little (or a lot) overweight, you will lose weight, and if you are underweight, you will gain weight to reach your body's best potential. Have you ever seen an overweight animal other than our domesticated pets which we are now feeding cooked, processed food? Their bodies aren't equipped to handle cooked food and neither are ours. Of course, we animals CAN survive on a cooked-food diet, but not at optimal health. Think about all the diseases that we AND our animal-friends develop!
