�A lot of women, when they see my chocolates, the first thing they thing is 'I'd love to, but I can't'. But really, its the sugar, the fat and the high temperature processing that does the damage. My chocolates don't have any of those elements�
So says Natasha Czopor�s of Natasha's Living Foods. In fact, once you take these elements out, and use raw cacao, chocolates nutritional benefits, such as flavonids magnesium and potassium, come to the fore.
Raw food may have an image puritan abstinence, but with a little effort, it can actually be about improving the flavour and fun of food.
More than anyone living in Ireland today, Natasha Czopor exemplifies this. Her business involes making a range of raw foods with natural and organic ingredients, including chocolates and confectionary. These chocolate treats include varieties like baby fig and sundried apricot, or hymalian crystal salt and black pepper. She also makes cakes, like the raw ganashe tart, and savouries such as raw vegetable and seed crackers.
Her stonybatter kitchen actually has no cookers: �It's all very clean and fresh � There is no moisture or smells in the air. So your clothes don�t smell of the kitchen at home. The only noise in the fridge and the dehydrators.�
The key to raw food is avoiding cooking temperatures over 42 degrees centigrade. Above this, proponents argue, food start to loose some of their natural and essential vitality, freshness and nutrition.
Soaking and sprouting are also important. �You germinate the seeds, by soaking them in filtered water. That way, you are tapping into the foods essential nature. Seeds want to be plants. They relase all their vitality through the sprouting process. So you work with the natural aspect of the food.�
She gives an example: �when I make my vegetable and seed cracker, all the cooking I do is soaking, blending and dehydrating. That makes the nutrients more available, as the gentle extracting of moisture allows the food to retain its goodness�
New research suggests that many cooking styles, including heating, pasteurisation, drying, smoking, frying and grilling, harm foods to some degree. According to research just published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, using less harsh cooking styles such as poaching, stewing, steaming or of course eating raw, may reduce inflammation and help boost the body�s natural defences.
There is something of a raw food revolution going on in Ireland at present. Once, all raw food information came from California, and seemed a million miles away from this cold, wet little island off the north west coast of Europe.
Now, along with Natasha Czopor, foodies like Veronica O' Reilly and Gaby Weiland are showing people how to go more raw. Both have very creative cookbooks published in Ireland, full of ingredients available here.
Veronica O Reilly's book is actually called Raw in a Cold Climate, and is full of wholesome recipes. While many require some soaking or sprouting, there are still quite short and easy to do.
Advacado, carragheen, honey or agarve, soaked seeds and nuts, and coconut milk seem to be the secret helpers to get taste and texture into many of the dishes.
Gaby Weiland's book is more an easy entry to raw, as it combines raw and cooked dishes, from flapjacks and smoothies to pickled cabbage and soups.
Interestingly, both work in places full of like minded and very organic foodies: O' Reilly in the Servants of Love, Wicklow, a Christian spiritual community in Wicklow, and Weiland in the Organic Centre in Leitrim.
I asked nutritionist Valarie Kelly about raw food. Quite supportive of the idea and practice, she pointed out that �raw fruits and vegetables do generally contain higher levels of vitamins that cooked varieties, with the exception of carotenes � cooking improves absorption of carotenes.�
While she claimed that �fat soluble vitamins are not as sensitive to heat�, she did recommend cooking approaches like steaming to help retain foods nutrients.
To end, here's one I featured some years back: the sexy bitches who like it raw. (more and newer vids at link btw) Oh Yea.
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