‘It’s something to incorporate and get the benefits… but not to an exclusion’
You describe yourself as an intuitive chef. What’s that about?
It’s tuning into food choices based upon seasons food availability nutrients required by the body as I feel. Basically tuning into the energetics of food and creating food from that space rather than following recipes to a T.
Where did you learn to become an intuitive chef?
I’ve done my own personal study over the last 12 years. I did take nutrition school for a year and then studied at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona getting chef and nutrition training. My other chef experience comes from doing a lot of volunteering at yoga and mediation centres cooking at retreats.
You focus on raw and organic foods. What happens when food is cooked?|
Primarily everyone understands that each nutrient has a certain heat tolerance. Fat even within the mainstream realm there’s an acknowledgement that sometimes too high of a heat the extreme example being something that is deep-fried damages the fat and you get rancid or trans fats. It’s better to choose coconut oil which has a higher heat tolerance than olive oil. Depending on the food you’re going to lose some of the integrity of the oil. You’re going to lose some enzymes vitamins and minerals. You can also lose phytonutrients which can be seen when you’re steaming broccoli. It goes from a bright brilliant green where those nutrients are released or let it go too long and you can see it lose its essence.
Do you only eat raw food?
No. I did that as an experiment for a couple of years. It’s essentially a great cleanse. One can get a massive amount of benefits by doing it. It’s not the point to do it 100 per cent. It’s something to incorporate and get the benefits and understand the principles but not to an exclusion.
How do you incorporate it into a regular diet?
It really depends — on the time of year where your body is at and if you feel drawn to it. If you’ve grown up on a standard American diet and been eating a lot of foods and meat it might take a little bit longer. Or if you have a lot of weight to lose or a disease to reverse or heal it might be a couple of months or years at most. If you feel pretty good and on track it might be a meal here or there or even just incorporating raw foods into your meal or part of your day. A lot of people get hung up on this 100 per cent type of concept. That was me for a while but I’ve come to find a middle ground.
What are five foods that people should incorporate into their diets?
Raw chocolate goji berries fermented foods such as sauerkraut medicinal mushrooms and blue-green algae.
What are medicinal mushrooms?
Things like reishi changa lion’s mane cordyceps. Some of the more common ones like shiitake and maitake people might have heard of those. There are many different kinds. I think medicinal mushrooms are one of the greatest allies one can add in for their immune system. Also there’s a disconnection people have — not only from themselves but to the Earth — and it helps re-establish that.
We’ve moved away from eating seasonal foods and can now eat tropical fruit in the middle of winter. What effect does that have?
I know some people who have taken it to the extreme of only eating things like bananas and they lose their ability to adapt to the cold weather. Regional foods help you adapt to your environment. Fungus for instance we’re most closely related to fungus than any other plant. They get a lot of the same diseases we do so digesting mushrooms helps get information for our own immune system to build resistance to bacteria and viruses.
What are superfoods?
Superfoods are like the goji berry which you can consume every day. You can eat them as food and get food value calories vitamins minerals but you’re also getting unique and special properties. For instance the goji berry is a complete protein has a full spectrum of amino acids phytonutrients and is also considered a herb and has herbal properties. Contrast that with say echinacea which is completely a herb. You can’t consume that as a food or even every day whereas goji berries you can.
You teach people how to make raw chocolate?
Chocolate tends to be full of refined sugars and rancid oils. So if you start with some really high-quality chocolate in its raw natural form you create it yourself and then use the best ingredients choosing better sweeteners add in different herbs and superfoods to create a medicinal and nutritious chocolate. And chocolate by itself is quite a wonder food in terms of its nutrition.
When did you turn to making raw chocolate?
About four or five years ago. There’s a saying that chocolate is one of the most widely consumed nuts in the world that no one ever eats. It’s something that we’ve all grown up eating and there’s been this movement towards whole foods which I was part of for a number of years. Not wanting to eat things out of a package wanting to create things myself — except for chocolate. It was the one thing I never clued into that I could make myself.
What are some of the immediate benefits people will get from eating raw chocolate?
Primarily even without health benefits it just tastes better — the freshness and the quality when you make it yourself. Another key benefit is that you can customize it.
You’re also big on fermented foods. Why?
One of the reasons that people get into raw foods is the whole idea of enzymes and probiotics and how they influence health. There’s a difference between a raw food and a living food. Raw foods would be an apple — it’s ripe it’s uncooked — versus a living food which is activated with more life force more enzymes more probiotics to give to the body in and excess of just a regular food. And fermented food is one of those.
