Raw
Rules
By Abby Weingarten
Beth Pratt's home page: www.deliciouslyfit.com
Permission to reprint article from Beth Pratt
Catalysts for self-change can come
in many forms.
Mine was food.
For years, it was my addiction, my ultimate safety. Even in
kindergarten, I would hide Halloween candy under my bed and
sneak it out by nightlight. I'd forage through my friends'
cabinets and scarf down whatever pops and puffs of sugared
cereal I'd find on the shelves.
By the time I could drive, it was McDonald's and I all the way.
It tasted good. And I was hungry. I was always so hungry.
Hungry for something, and never full, no matter how many double
cheeseburgers I could fit in one sitting. I was tired,
depressed, and just sick.
It wasn't alcohol. It wasn't illegal drugs. I didn't need ID to
do it. I didn't even have to reach a certain age.
But I could treat my body like a trash bin with no
repercussions. So I took full advantage.
No one teaches us in school that this is wrong, that it affects
every facet of our psyches, to the point where we literally
prove that old maxim: You are what you eat.
Seeking guidance
I needed help. I couldn't do it alone.
The more labels I read and the more opposing facts I downloaded,
the more I yearned for a logical filter. I'd start a diet
regimen only to discover, through my own skeptical research, how
unhealthy it was. Search after Google search brought me to the
raw food movement.
The little I knew about this was from a "Sex and the
City" episode, in which the girls head to the Manhattan
restaurant
Raw, where one of the show's characters, Miranda Hobbes,
describes a cold summer vegetable soup as "a lawn in a
bowl."
I was quick to assume raw foodists were monklike renegades who
lived off wheatgrass shots and barley smoothies.
Then I met Beth Pratt, who debunked all those myths and helped
me reshape my eating habits.
In a culture of quick fixes -- get in, get out, pop a pill,
starve, purge, put the weight back on, listen to the audiobook,
watch the infomercial and buy more products -- her mentoring
stood out. It was almost unfathomable that a real person could
come to your house, teach you how to prepare meals, retrain your
muscles and map out your lifetime goals.
"I've always been a truth-seeker, wanting to help people
cut through the fat," Pratt said. "I've been on every
supplement there is. I've tried Suzanne Somers' diet. I've tried
Atkins. And what upsets me with the fitness field is that
there's so much conflicting information out there. People don't
know what to do anymore."
Pratt is a chef and teacher certified by Living on Live Food
with a background in structural and postural therapy. At San
Diego State University, she majored in athletic training and
exercise physiology and was an anatomical functionalist at the
Egoscue Clinic in Del Mar, Calif.
For more than 14 years, through her holistic-focused company
BFiT Biomechanics Fitness Therapy, she offered nutritional
consultations and assessments throughout Boston, Scottsdale,
Ariz., Las Vegas and San Diego.
In May, she moved to Sarasota, changed her business title to
Deliciously Fit, and began holding raw classes at Whole Foods
Market and her Bradenton home.
I enrolled in her "2-Week Fitness & Raw
Challenge," in which she took me grocery shopping,
introduced me to decadent recipes, improved my body's alignment
and showed me the art of dining well.
"I've always been on the 'why' path. I was always trying to
get fit and healthy and be the best I could be," Pratt
said. "It's challenging to say, 'Where can I take it?
What's that top level?'"
Learning to change
Simply put, going raw is going back to Earth's natural
resources: nuts, fruits, sea and land vegetables, sprouted
grains, beans and legumes (though some diets include raw meat,
eggs and unpasteurized milk). Alone, these ingredients sound
unappetizing and bland, and they often are. But creative
combinations yield mouthwatering results.
"Getting down to the basics of fruits and vegetables and
what comes from nature, you find out what's real," Pratt
said. "Just eating an apple is boring to me. You can do so
much else with it, and that's what makes it exciting."
Consider a chocolate mousse made of avocado, almond butter,
dates, almond milk, cacao powder and agave nectar. Or a torte
made of raisins, walnuts, dates and fresh lemon juice.
A common question about the raw food diet is: Where are the
protein and calcium sources? Almonds are rich in both, as are
sesame and sunflower seeds, raw carob, Brazil nuts and green
leafy vegetables.
"We are programmed to believe that the only source of
protein is from animals," Pratt noted, "but actually,
plant-source foods contain a good amount of protein and calcium
that is actually easier for the body to utilize and
digest."
When food is cooked above 118 F, essential nutrients like
vitamins, minerals and enzymes are lost, raw food advocates say.
Amino acids, the building blocks of protein, begin to
deteriorate at that temperature and are completely destroyed at
160 F.
Raw protein is considered to be more digestible by the human
body because the amino acids and digestive enzymes are intact;
heavily cooked foods are devoid of these enzymes, making them
more likely to sit in the colon and increase the risk of
disease.
Victoria Boutenko's book "Green for Life" explains
that, because plants contain chlorophyll, which is similar in
composition to human blood, humans are more able to process it.
The amino acids in animal proteins are not as readily available
to the bloodstream.
In her book "Living on Live Food," Alissa Cohen, one
of the main proponents of the raw diet, explains:
"It can take years for our bodies to begin to break down
from the dietary abuse we have heaped upon them. Our youth can
cover a host of progressive, diet-related problems, which, when
they do surface years later, we simply assume that they are part
of the 'aging process.' It doesn't have to be that way!"
In every diet I attempted, something was always forbidden.
Switching to raw, from my perspective, was more about indulgence
than abstention.
"For so many years in fitness, it was about what you can't
have," Pratt said. "Now I can eat as much as I want of
this, without any guilt, and it's healthy for me!"
Feeding my soul
There was something far deeper than food in this for me. When I
learned to be aware of everything I put into my body, I found
myself more conscious of everything in my life. The environment
seemed to matter more. Spirituality made sense. The less toxic I
was on the inside, the less irritable I felt. I didn't have to
physically recover from my meals or the self-inflicted effects
of junk bingeing. But I had to truly look at myself and figure
out, "Why do I really need this?" and "What void
am I filling?" And then, I could move on.
"I think, sometimes people don't really want to take on the
challenge. They would rather take it in a pill or a drink,"
Pratt said. "I made a conscious decision that I'm not going
to talk anybody into anything anymore. People that come to me
have to be people that are ready to hear this information."
I was ready.
Copyright
© 2009 by Living Whole Foods, Inc.
All rights reserved. Permission granted up to 100
words in a review when proper credit is
given. Proper Credit = website reference: www.wheatgrasskits.com
and article citation.
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