The rise and rise of RAW Food

Christina Agnew, director of Raw Fairies, talks raw food

Who remembers the cabbage soup diet? The various incarnations of the zone diet? The South Beach (2006) or the Hamptons (2007) diet? The ‘eat three raisins a day and you will lose weight’ (really?) type of diet? You must at least have heard of the Atkins diet (perhaps better described as the heart attack diet). Should the raw food diet be added to this list?

There are certainly those who think eating raw is just the latest health craze sprouting up amongst carrot crunching celebrities keen to fit into size zero dresses. Others believe in the fundamental principles said to be behind eating raw – that raw food contains energising enzymes that are destroyed when food is cooked, as well as higher nutrient levels, and eating food in its most natural state is the healthiest way of eating for mind and body - but think that following a raw food diet is just not sustainable or practical in the long term.

There seems to be a general consensus among nutritionists and other health professionals that including more fresh fruit and vegetables in the diet is fundamentally a good thing, provided that the overall diet remains balanced and varied. In this respect, the advice to those who wish to follow a raw food diet isn’t any different to that given to those seeking to eat what is considered to be a more traditional balanced diet. Just as eating the same pasta dish every night for supper could lead to nutrient deficiencies, eating the same five fruits or vegetables on a daily basis would not provide optimum nutrition. It’s all about variety. We know that it’s important to eat a good range of colours and choose vegetables from a number of families (broccoli and cauliflower are “cruciferous” vegetables, for example, while carrots and parsnips are “root” vegetables). With that in mind, it’s not hard to see why choosing raw options might be healthier - if you fancy a treat, it seems fairly obvious that a raw chocolate cake made with antioxidant rich raw cacao, nuts packed full of brain boosting good fats and berries containing high level s of Vitamin C would be healthier than the average slice, and quite possibly tastier too.

It’s perhaps not surprising, therefore, that the number of raw food offerings in the UK is growing. Moreover, the new proponents of raw food are giving it a fresh, contemporary edge. In some respects, this can be seen as a progression from the gourmet vegetarian and vegan food that began to appear about a decade ago (although eating raw does not necessarily imply being a vegetarian or vegan). So now we have Raw Fairies’ good-for-you but still glamorous daily delivery service in central London (helping address the practicality issue). And serious raw food clout is on its way in the form of the raw vegan restaurant scheduled to be opened in the East End in April by the LifeCo, an international lifestyle company. The executive chef is Chad Sarno, arguably America’s best known raw food chef, who is at the forefront of avant-garde healthy dining. The restaurant will be combined with a tea room and an organic wine, martini and juice bar overseen by celebrated ‘mixologist’ Joe McCanta (biodynamic wines need more than just a bartender).

That’s all very well, you may say, these things will always catch on in an image-conscious, wealthy city like London. Is anyone outside SW1 eating raw food? Steve Monygomery, raw foodist co-founder of Red Sugar, Edinburgh’s new superfoods cafe, says some are, and he’s passionate about encouraging more to do so. “We’re really big on education”, says Steve. “I try to talk to all of our customers, to give them a little nugget of information about raw food – nothing overwhelming or invasive, just something to get them thinking. Once people taste the food and get to know a bit more about it, they come back, sometimes several times in one day!” Red Sugar’s staff members are knowledgeable about raw food too. And as with many businesses operating in the raw food world, Red Sugar aims to be as green as possible - the cafe was fitted out from sustainable organic sources and most waste is recycled or composted. For the moment, Red Sugar focuses on raw chocolate (who’s going to turn that down?) but the plan is to branch out into savoury raw dishes too.

Whether raw food will ever become conventional is not yet clear, but it does seem to be more than just a fad. This may be partly due to the fact that it has strong links with other principles and activities that increasingly feature in natural lifestyles: yoga is an obvious example and there is also the minimum environmental impact ethic typified by Red Sugar. At any rate, in the context of a general decline in the health of the population and a loss of the knowledge of how to cook for and feed ourselves, it’s encouraging to see any form of healthy eating being promoted in an innovative and educational way.

www.rawfairies.com
www.red-sugar.co.uk

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