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Lisa Smith displays a sample of gourmet raw foods she made recently: lasagna, stuffed mushrooms and a vegetable tray with bean dip. For dessert there were fudge brownies. Though the planning and preparation require time, organization and the right appliances, Smith said it is all worth it when the end result is good health. |
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
By MARLENE WOODS - Bulletin Accent Writer
Lisa Smith might be considered an advanced cook. She knew how to cook when she was 7, took professional cooking classes at 12 and boasts about 100 cookbooks in her collection.
Yet, Smith, 37, rarely does cook. However, she prepares her family’s meals according to a raw- and living-foods lifestyle that she said has changed her family’s life.
In fact, her husband, Lee, has lost 180 pounds and both have overcome numerous health problems since the lifestyle switch.
“If you are trying to live, (then) fill yourself with living foods,” Smith said of the organic and enzyme-rich diet. Healing of diseases, weight loss, energy and mental clarity are a few of the reasons she cites for the lifestyle change.
Smith, of Collinsville, described the diet as consisting of raw, fresh foods (fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, unpasteurized dairy products, meats and honey), which have not been heated above a certain temperature, between 92 and 118 degrees fahrenheit. Enzymes essential to the body’s digestion and metabolism, which normally are depleted when foods are cooked, are preserved when foods are cooked gently or not at all. Freezing is permitted since it aids in preserving the nutrients.
A juice from freshly squeezed fruits or vegetables and barleygreen powder also is one of the strong components of the diet. Barleygreen powder is organic barley grass which is thought to help boost the immune system.
The holistic health lifestyle has attracted movie stars and people on the West Coast, where raw-food restaurants are common. People who are concerned about their health, whether it be preventative or to rebuild it after a major health crisis, also have made the switch, according to Smith, who talks with other “raw-foodists.”
The idea is to consume as many raw foods as possible. Smith doesn’t take it that far, though; she calls herself an average raw-foodist.
However, a raw-food menu takes serious commitment, research and planning from start to finish, she said, including soaking, blending and mixing, and all without cooking. To keep her family well-nourished, Smith keeps about three days ahead in her menu-planning. She shops at natural food stores where she can buy fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts and barley powder.
Specific appliances also are necessary for preparation: a juicer, a dehydrator, a Vita-Mix (a powerful blender for making smoothies) and a food processor. Smith has made juice from between a bushel of apples a week to 25 pounds of carrots. One pantry is overflowing with just seeds and nuts.
Recently Smith prepared a meal of lasagna, flax seed crackers, bean dip, mushrooms and fudge brownies. They are recipes from one of her friends, Linda Lagos, who is a raw-food chef. She shares those recipes with this story.
For breakfast the family generally eats raw granola or oats. They have a salad every day with homemade dressing and eat salmon occasionally. They drink bottled water and rice milk. Also, Smith and her husband make and drink fresh juices and take supplements. For snacks, Smith cooks popcorn in coconut oil on the stove or makes carob brownies.
The nutrition aspect of the diet attracted Smith since she faced cancer about a decade ago, followed by her husband’s bout with kidney disease.
Within a matter of two weeks in 1997, the Smiths were bombarded with tragedies. Lisa Smith had a stillborn baby; her younger sister died from complications of multiple sclerosis; and Lisa was rushed to the hospital where she was diagnosed with carcioconoma or cancer of the placenta, a rare and rapidly spreading cancer, which had already metastasized to her lungs. The next stops would be her brain and liver.
Her doctor ordered chemotherapy and permitted her to try alternative health options. During the five months of chemo, Smith drank fresh carrot juice, which she said help stave off the nausea.
The Smiths decided to examine everything about their lives, including their eating habits. They sought advice from an elder in their church, Dr. Larry Rawdon, in General Assembly and Church of the First Born in Hohenwald, Tenn., where they were living at the time. He was a holistic healer who specialized in the raw- and living-foods lifestyle, also referred to as Health God’s Way. Lisa tried the regimen first and then Lee followed.
By May 1998, Smith’s health stabilized, and two and a half years later, she became pregnant with David Josiah, now 7.
Smith has been cancer-free since 2003 and has lost 50 pounds. Lee Smith has lost about 180 pounds.
Reflecting on the hardships and recovery, Lisa Smith said they were “at the right place at the right time,” living in Tennessee, close to good hospitals and to open-minded doctors who permitted holistic healing in combination with medical treatment.
The Smiths, who were married in 1990, returned to Collinsville last summer. Lee Smith, who is from Collinsville, is a food and beverage account manager for Eco Lab and Lisa, an Ohio native who previously lived in Martinsville, homeschools their children.
“God took us there to live,” her husband Lee said of their time in Tennessee.
For more information about the raw- and living-foods lifestyle, visit www.rawfoodinfo.com or wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_food.
For recipes, visit www.rawfoodforlife.com. |
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