FRESH, crunchy salads, juicy ripe tomatoes, sweet tropical fruits – healthy eating is never so easy as it is in summertime. It takes little effort to clock up your five a day and to avoid the starchy foods and puddings we crave during dark winter days. Even so, few of us could imagine doing without comfort food entirely, and it probably wouldn't take long before the cravings kicked in if all we were allowed was raw fruit and veg.
But what if the effort was rewarded with the promise of losing weight, looking younger and feeling fitter? Those who have stuck to a raw-food diet over months and years say the signs of physical and mental rejuvenation are incredible. The theory goes
that heating food above 38°C destroys the enzymes, causing it to lose much of its goodness. So, although technically there can be some cooking or gentle heating involved, the diet is what most of us would consider raw – and restrictive.
Not so Emma Couttie, who was a contented carnivore before she was bitten by the raw-food bug in 2007. Now the 30-year-old HR adviser from Strathblane, near Glasgow, considers herself 95 per cent raw. "I was reading a book that talked about how some people just eat raw food, and I remember thinking, 'That's mental, I could never do that.' But it directed me to a seven-year blog outlining one woman's raw journey, and afterwards I was completely hooked."
To begin with, she just dabbled, but the more raw food she ate, the more she realised this was a lifestyle she wanted. "There's the physical benefits," she says. "I lost excess weight, my skin got softer, my eyes brighter, my hair shinier – all that kind of stuff. In another sense there were unlimited amounts of energy. Also clarity of thought, concentration levels improved. I also felt healthier as well; I never felt sick or tired.
"A few people thought I'd completely lost it," she adds. "Let's face it, it's not entirely mainstream. Raw food – nobody had heard of it when I was talking about it. My mum and dad just thought it was a phase. In fact, I think my mum still thinks I'm going through a phase, three years down the line."
Her diet typically consists of fruit, vegetables, seeds and nuts. She also eats grains, sprouted seeds, seaweed... and raw chocolate, which is minimally processed and dairy and sugar free. "That's the great part of it, I still get to have my cake and eat it. And it never gets boring," she insists.
"People think I just sit at home with carrot sticks and apples, but you can make an endless variety of food: curries, soups, salads obviously. You never need to feel you're missing out. And it's amazing how quickly you get used to eating your food cold. After you've done it for a few weeks it feels alien to eat warm food."
Unlike many of the people who get into this way of eating – beginning as vegetarians, then turning vegan and raw seems the next logical step – Couttie was always a full-on meat-eater. "I loved steak and chicken, but after I stopped eating them I stopped craving them," she says. "Now, on the occasions I do eat cooked things, I feel it physically affects me. I can't be bothered doing anything, I feel tired, maybe my digestion alters. And it's good sometimes that I feel that so I appreciate the high even more."
Going out for dinner can be problematic though. "I'll sit there with a pen and paper and scour the menu for raw items, write them down and hand them to the waiter, saying, 'Can you give me a salad with all this in it?' Or on occasion I'll sneak things in my handbag, like an avocado or a dressing, so it can be quite embarrassing for my friends."
And she does have to be organised – there's no nipping down to the local takeaway when she gets peckish. "I work away quite a lot for my job and I end up taking more food in my bag than clothes."
The first most of us heard of the raw-food revolution was when mother-and-daughter team Leslie and Susannah Kenton published the book Raw Energy in 1986. It preached that eating between 50 and 75 per cent raw food could help people lose weight as well as slow the ageing process and reverse the effects of illness on the body.
Kate Wood, the author of three books on raw living, says the lifestyle can take a bit of getting used to, but it's far from restrictive. "I've been doing it for 16 years and I'm still not bored," she says. "It's like learning a new language: when you don't speak that language it seems confusing and you don't know what's going on, but as you learn the grammar – for instance, how to make raw soups, raw puddings, raw cakes, sweets or lasagnes – then it's just as varied and infinite as any diet. You just have to learn different ways of doing things."
One essential piece of kit for anyone serious about going raw is something called a dehydrator, which looks like a microwave and heats food at low temperatures over long periods of time. "You can make things like crackers and breads and all that kind of thing," says Wood. "People sometimes make pasta with buckwheat or flax.
"It takes a while. I would say it takes at least five years for people to stop craving certain foods, but I always advise people to do it really slowly and add a few things and drop a few things gradually."
She has brought up three boys – now aged 11, nine and six – on a raw diet, and insists they love it. "They still have treats – sweets and cakes," she says, "so they're not missing out at all."
And if you can't face giving up all your favourite foods, she says you can still get the best of both worlds. "Usually 70 per cent is a level most people feel comfortable with, because they get all the benefits but aren't missing out on going for meals with their family or having their favourite foods. And if you're alienating yourself from your friends and family, that's not healthy."
• For more information on going raw, see
www.rawliving.euRaw risksNot all foods are entirely safe when eaten raw, so there is a risk of food poisoning if you don't know what you're doing. As a result, particular care should be taken when eating the following foods.
Kidney beans are toxic when eaten raw, due to the presence of the chemical phytohaemagglutinin, which is destroyed during cooking.
Raw buckwheat greens have been shown to cause photosensitivity and other dermatological problems if consumed in large quantities by those with fair skins.
Potatoes contain glycoalkaloids solanine and chaconine, naturally occuring chemicals that can be poisonous if eaten in large quantities.
Alfalfa sprouts contain the toxin canavanine.
Raw parsnips contain furanocoumarin, a chemical produced by plants as a defence mechanism against predators, many of which are toxic.
Eating certain types of raw peas can cause lathyrism, a neurological disease that results in weakness of the lower limbs.
Raw, unpasteurised milk may contain mycobacterium bovis, which can cause non-pulmonary tuberculosis.
Some raw-foodists also eat raw meat, which can contain harmful bacteria, parasites and viruses such as toxoplasma and rotavirus that are normally killed during the cooking process.
