Let's Make a Raw Deal: The Benefits of an Uncooked Meal

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (0)

WITH THE EXCEPTION of the grill, few food-heating appliances seem appealing during the summer. So, go raw, suggests Tania Mercer, who will lead a "Cooking in the Raw" workshop at the U.S. Botanic Garden (Usbg.gov) tomorrow.

"It's eating as nature intended us to eat," says Mercer, a D.C.-based certified living foods chef who runs the health counseling service Nourishing You (Nourishingyou.com). "Once you start eating this way, you'll feel differently, you'll have more energy, and you'll lose more weight," Mercer says, explaining that leaving foods untouched preserves their natural enzymes, which aid in digestion.

The result? The body is left with more energy to fulfill essential functions such as rebuilding muscles and fighting diseases, Mercer says. Another side benefit of raw foods is a glowing complexion. "What you eat affects how your skin looks," she says. "If you're putting in good stuff, what's coming out is good stuff."

Eating more naturally isn't as difficult — or as blah — as you might think. Sushi and smoothies, for example, are raw staples for some. Mercer doesn't think the average person needs to follow a strictly raw diet, either. To go "50 percent raw," Mercer says, you need eat only two salads per day. Throw in two servings of fruit for breakfast, and "you'd be doing really well."

And if you're not into eating raw meat (or worried about the dangers of E. coli), stick to nuts, seeds, buckwheat, wild race and quinoa, which can also serve as raw protein sources. Those who do eat meat and dairy usually stick with minimal amounts of raw cheese, sushi or carpaccio, Mercer says.

Experimenting with recipes is, perhaps, the most interesting element of a raw lifestyle. Mercer says there are plenty of unexpected ways to use uncooked ingredients — take, for example, her "Magical Chocolate Pudding." She says nobody "ever guesses or even comes close" to identifying the nutritious base ingredient in the indulgent non-dairy dessert: avocado.