Raw Food Simple?

Image: M4tik's Photostream

I was first drawn to this article in Impact magazine because of the delicious sushi roll on the front page. Title “Taste the Spark of Life” increased my interest in the article but with a closer look the subtitle reads “win the Race with Raw Food”.  My mind immediately went to raw vegan, oh boy.

Being a vegetarian I can understand the difficulties with eating, especially in Alberta. It is not very often I can go to a pub and find something I can eat or would like to eat; yam fries can get boring rather quickly.  My reasoning for becoming vegetarian after eating meat most of my life was easy because I was vegan for months before. I still think vegan is a great way to live your life but it does not go without saying it is a demanding lifestyle.

When people hear vegan a perplexed look on their face usually follows. I could feel this look on my face while reading this article. The only thing harder than being vegan is being raw vegan. This article “spark of life” is proposing a very difficult concept of transitioning to raw vegan through a few convincing words and recipes.

The author starts out with explaining just what raw food is cleverly without using the word vegan once. The health benefits are obvious, if you eat vegetables, fruit and grain your health will improve. This means no meat, dairy or any product from an animal. Not only is there a major restriction of food but how the food is cooked, it must not be heated past 118F. This to to prevent the killing of living enzymes, also called the spark of life.The author describes this concept in a much more sophisticated manner, but ultimately that’s how it measures up. 

The article provides information about super foods and their benefits along with a recommendation for a cookbook.  The recipes indeed look enjoyable but the problem is the preparation time and the rare ingredients, these are not simple dishes to make nor are they cost efficient.

This mini guide to promote veganism is great to someone who has a grasp on nutrition however without that understanding I think readers could misinterpret eating all raw food as simple. The idea behind eating raw food is 100 percent a benefit to anyone. I think this article provides convincing information on these benefits but little practical tools for eating raw food.  


Here are some resources I found helpful and informative
1. Forks over Knives 
2. Meatout Mondays
3. PETA'S