Kate Magic - Eat Smart Eat Raw

I first embarked on a raw food diet in September 1993. I had found myself instinctively wanting to eat a lot of fruit and salads, and had heard from friends how health-giving an all-raw diet could be. As the kitchen of the house I was staying in was out of action for three months while it was being renovated, I decided to try it for myself. I took the plunge, and lived on fruit all day, with a big salad and Essene bread and tahini for dinner (neither Essene bread nor tahini are strictly raw, but I didnt know that then). By the time the kitchen was back in order, I was hooked on my new diet, and have stuck with it ever since. Of course, I have had my ups and downs it is a huge challenge to stick to 100% raw, 100% of the time. Raw fooders often talk in percentages, claiming to be 70% raw or 90% raw but just to achieve 50% long term can make a vast difference in your life.

Although I was convinced of the health benefits, and had experienced for myself how much better I felt, at first the idea that I would stop eating cooked foods altogether was too much, and I would binge on biscuits and crisps. But gradually, I came to recognise that eating these foods didnt make me feel as good as when I made my raw food choices. However much I would think that I loved a cooked treat, even one as harmless as apple crumble, when I indulged I would be disappointed, as the cooked dishes came to taste lifeless and dull to me. My body was adjusting to the new levels of energy and the sense of liberation that raw foods gave me, and cooked foods left me on a downer. I began to realise that of course I could eat whatever I wanted but what I really wanted was to feel good all the time. The cleaner my system, the more cooked foods left me with a hangover; feeling sluggish and irritable. Gradually, the redundancy of cooking food became a reality to me, and the desire to eat it slipped away completely. Anyone who has become a vegetarian, given up smoking, or overcome any addiction in his or her lives, will understand that feeling of a part of your daily life becoming an anathema.

As a teenager I had experienced a very rocky relationship with food. Some people say that raw food diets encourage or even create eating disorders; for me it was the reverse, as discovering raw foods helped me to overcome my problems with food. Since adolescence I had been trapped in a binge-fast cycle, where I would fast for days, and then overeat to compensate. I believe this was due in part to my instinctive recognition that the foods I was eating werent right for me: I would reject them, only to be eventually overcome by hunger and greed, which would then be followed by repulsion at all the rubbish I had put into my body. Raw foods were a revelation: at last I could eat as much as I wanted, and not feel terrible. Eating half a dozen biscuits made me feel sick and tired; eating half a dozen apples left me feeling overfull, but not ill. Over time, as my body got used to being fed, nurtured and respected, the desire to overeat slipped away. As food no longer disturbed my internal balance, my fear of it disappeared.

Now I am astounded at how little I need to eat. I rarely feel ravenously hungry, and feel satiated after relatively small portions of food. Because on the raw diet all our foods are nutrient-dense, the bodys requirements are met quickly and efficiently. This in turn means that the body needs less energy for digestion, fighting toxins and excreting poisons, so it is much less demanding in its requirements. If you want to lose weight then stop counting calories and start counting nutrients! Over-eating happens when the body is searching for nutrients the brain is waiting for the signal to say that the body has what it needs, and it never comes, so you keep ploughing your way through that packet of biscuits, unconsciously looking for the vitamins and minerals you will not find there. In addition, I used to find it very difficult to wake up in the mornings, and needed eight or ten hours of sleep a night otherwise I felt terrible. Now, because my body is working more efficiently, I dont wake up feeling fuzzy, but fresh, alert, and ready to go, and average just six hours a night.

When I adopted the raw food diet, I found, in common with many others, changes happening on all levels of my life. Primarily, I experienced a great leap in energy levels: my body was no longer expending such huge amounts of energy on digestion, and so I felt an immediate improvement in my vitality. Also quickly apparent was a greater mental clarity and focus. I felt sharper, more alert, and after a long time on the diet I am really conscious of having the resources to be constantly on the go without flagging. Along with these more obvious changes, I also became aware of changes on a deeper level; I am now much happier and lighter, as the positive energy of raw foods fills my being. I am less prone to bad moods and depression, and more satisfied and content. I have a greater tolerance of difficult people and situations, but at the same time know better where my boundaries lie, and what I am prepared to put up with. I notice things in nature that I never did before: the trees look more green and alive, and the changing of the seasons is more apparent to me. All these elements combine to increase my zest for living hugely, leading to a more positive and productive lifestyle. Because I am eating food that is pure and undamaged, I feel whole more at one with myself and the world around me.

Over the years, Ive experienced all the different angles on being raw. At the start, I jumped straight in at the deep end, 100% raw, including a two-week apple fast just before Christmas. Then Christmas came, and I went 100% cooked! After a few months I stabilised at about 50%, then gradually built it up over the next few years until I was 100% again by 1995. In 1996 I did nine months on fruit only, which was amazing at first, but difficult to sustain. At the end of that year, I found out I was pregnant and it was back down to 50% again, gradually building back up to 90%. I stayed there for a while, only eating cooked foods on social occasions when I felt it would be too impolite to refuse. Once Id been raw about ten years, I noticed all cooked cravings had disappeared, and for the past decade I have been fully raw. I dont like to say 100%, because Im sure I must eat some things unintentionally sometimes, such as raisins which have been heattreated, and I also consume some superfoods, herbs and seasonings which are not raw. But the last time I sat down to a cooked meal must be well over ten years ago. I can say hand on heart that I feel amazing, and every year it just gets better. Every year my levels of vitality grow, and I experience more and more bliss bubbling through my cells. Its remarkable to be feeling that my life is still beginning and everything is opening up before me, and though I wouldnt claim to be reversing the ageing process, I definitely seem to be holding back the years.