If there’s one trend that’s gained momentum in massive proportions over the past few years, its raw food. Popping up on menus in cafes and restaurants alike, there has never been a better time to embrace the movement in your own kitchen for the ultimate in healthy eating.
We know raw food is good for us, but what it really all about? What foods should we be putting in our body, and what should we be leaving on the shelf? Enter Megan May: food guru, regular contributor to Taste Magazine and author of The Unbakery. Her book filled with recipes and clean eating tips is creating a cultural movement about eating well and consuming better foods.
To gain an insight into the world of raw, we sat down with Megan to get the dirt on how we should change our relationship with food:
RESCU: Can you share your diet philosophy with us?
MEGAN MAY: My main food philosophy is quite simple, eat lots of fresh whole plant foods that you enjoy & make you feel good.
And what works for one person might not work for another so don’t rely on others to tell you exactly how to eat, use information for others as a guide and then tailor it to what resonates with you. It’s like a coach from the voice would say – take it and make it your own, so cheesy but true.
RESCU: What was the catalyst for you looking into different ways of eating?
MEGAN MAY: The main catalyst was my health, it was not in a good way, I was physically and mentally at a very low point and had been unsuccessful following the advice of specialists in both conventional and alternative medicine, it seemed that my whole body was out of kilter with all sorts of bodily systems not working; adrenals, hormones & gut were the main ones, specialist being specialists were only concerned with one particular aspect of it rather than treating the whole system.
I had been sick for a long time, spent every penny we had on healthcare and was unable to work, needless to say I was very frustrated with the situation, it felt like I had nothing to lose. I took what seemed like a bold move and gave up my dependency on getting other people to fix me and just focused on the food I was putting in my body and learning what foods worked for me. It wasn’t an overnight fix but it started to work gradually and I didn’t look back.
Now that I have a much deeper understanding of my body and health I’m able to work with specialists and practitioners to develop ways that work for my body and not just rely on them to heal me, I think no matter what situation your in with your health taking time to know your body more and how food effects it enables you to take more ownership of your health and this can help you with whatever healing or health process you are experiencing.
RESCU: And with all the different diets out there, what was it about raw food that made it stick?
MEGAN MAY: It makes you feel good! And that’s addictive. When you get into a place with raw foods that works for you, you feel amazing – your version of raw might look totally different to mine so there is no one way that will work for everyone, I really can’t stress that enough. You should know when things are working for you, you will have more energy and have a clearer head, the best marker for me was waking up in the morning with lots of energy, that’s the best feeling.
There are so any diets at the moment and raw food as a label is getting swept up in the diet fads of the moment, eating whole fresh organic food is, I hope, not a fad for many people. It’s something that makes sense – to eat food mostly plants in their whole fresh state is hardly radical or shouldn’t really be considered a ‘diet’. Isn’t that what most cultures have been eating for 100s of years? It’s only in the past 70 years we have been making the move to processed food and it’s killing us!
I hope that through trying out a more raw food based, un-processed way of eating people will move away from processed food, calorie counting and the idea of dieting and instead focus on what makes them feel good, which usually includes an abundance of eating good fresh wholefoods.
RESCU: In your quest for health, you’ve become a bit of a raw food guru! In your expert opinion, what exactly makes a food raw?
MEGAN MAY: Raw food is by definition food that’s not cooked above 46 degrees C, I think this could be broadened to be more about foods that are in their optimal nutritional state, raw foods are about getting bang for your buck, getting the most nutrition from each mouthful so that your body can thrive.
There are a few foods like honey that loose nutrition at lower temperatures and there are other foods that can go to higher temperatures, as a general rule though 46 degrees is a great guide line.
Fresh whole foods are the ultimate raw foods and the dehydrator is a tool for making yummy things to supplement a raw diet focused on lots of freshness.
Its important to remember that raw food is not a diet where you’re counting points or calories, its definitely more a way of life that helps you develop an intuitive way of eating and living, (incidentally through eating this way it often opens your eyes to many other things in your life that you might be doing that are not serving you well).
RESCU: If you were dealing with a raw food first-timer, what would be your top three tips for making the transition?
MEGAN MAY:Most important tip is go slow, while the all or nothing approach works for some people, most can’t cope with such potentially drastic changes. It important that for any change to stick you must ‘own it’, that it’s something that you’ve developed a good relationship with and that generally happens over time, changing your diet drastically can have an impact on the people around you and how you socialise, taking it slow allows everyone to adjust to your new way of eating (including yourself), they will probably join you eventually, but don’t get caught up on this being the only way to eat.
If you are new to eating an abundance of veggies and had been eating a lot of fast food you will probably experience some detoxification effects as your body begins adjust to your new diet, changing your diet gradually will allow your body to adjust at a comfortable pace.
As your body changes to eating this way so will your taste buds, at the unbakeries & in the book we have a detox smoothie that at first taste might seem a little too green. But over time that’s the sort of flavour you’ll probably will crave because it makes you feel great. Have fun exploring new eating experiences and watching your body thrive.
Have some delicious raw snacks you can easily prepare at home or snack on when you’re out, if you get hungry and don’t have something on hand that’s when you end up going and eating out of desperation and not many great choices come from desperation.
When out and about having a few nuts (or make your own savoury trail) and a couple of pieces of fresh fruit around can help you out in a tight spot or if you went to lunch and had a meal somewhere that thought raw food meant you didn’t like feeling satisfied.
And while it’s great to have raw snacks available don’t stress out when you can’t eat your perfect diet, enjoy having something you wouldn’t normally eat or used to love, it’s fun eating things you used to and seeing how different they taste & make you feel than the used to.
At home I try to make sure I always have some raw crackers, avocado, sprouts and kraut around, in a few mins I can have a plate of delicious nutrient filled food that will satisfy me.
Smoothies are another great thing to make when you in a hungry tight spot, having frozen bananas, pineapple and berries in the freezer makes it easy to create a quick smoothie when you need to.
Organisation. I’m not the most organised person so don’t worry you don’t need to change your personality, but it does help to be organised if you’re going to be creating breads and crackers on a regular basis, they are not difficult to make but you do need to get things done ahead of time so you don’t run out.
To start out find a repertoire of recipes that you enjoy which use simple ingredients and techniques, it takes a little trial and error to develop a range of foods you like preparing and that works for what produce and ingredients you have available in your area, you want to be able to go to the fridge after a busy day and create something delicious without having to use 20 specialty ingredients. If you are new to eating an abundance of veggies and had been eating a lot of fast food you will probably experience some detoxification effects as your body begins adjust to your new diet, changing your diet gradually will allow your body to adjust at a comfortable pace.
Enjoy it. Play around with new tastes, try things that sound a bit crazy without judgment as to whether they might be delicious or not. See how you enjoy new tastes and flavours you may have previously passed on.
RESCU: What are some of your favourite swaps in raw cooking? (e.g. pasta for zucchini?)
MEGAN MAY: My favourite swap is the use of nuts, seeds and coconut instead of dairy products, having been very intolerant to dairy since I was a kid and the only substitute available being heavily processed and not so great tasting soy options, these fresh nut based versions make a very welcome and delicious substitute.
In particular Cashews & Coconut, we make yoghurt, milk, ice cream & cheeses from them that are so good you totally forget about the foods you cant have – now that there is a whole new range you can.
You can easily substitute many of our non-dairy cheeses, milks and sauces we have recipes for book with some of your favourite diary based recipes raw or not, brilliant for if your intolerant to dairy, want to try something new or are having friends for dinner that are vegan.
RESCU: Are there any particular kitchen gadgets or tools that are invaluable to a raw foodie?
MEGAN MAY: You don’t need a lot of tools but there are a few that make life a lot easier, in particular a good blender it’s pretty indispensable in the raw food kitchen, its saves you a lot of time.
Even if you’re not going full throttle into the world of raw food a good blender is a great investment for making, dressings, sauces, smoothies and deserts.
The other is good knives, having good quality sharp knives makes food preparation a lot more fun, if you see a chef on tv chopping through a carrot like there a ninja they certainly wouldn’t be able to do that with a crappy blunt knife. It makes sense if you’re going to be chopping a lot of veggies to save time and invest in a good chef’s knife.
RESCU: What does a day on a plate look like for you?
MEGAN MAY: I’m not a very habitual person so my plate changes on a regular basis depending on how I feel, having just had a baby I’m reaching for slightly different foods than I would have before.
I start the day with a big glass of water when I wake up, it will have either lemon, ACV or some mineral drops in it, then we almost always start the day with something green, a fresh green juice is usually the order with what ever greens & herb we have in the fridge with some lemon and ginger in it, otherwise it’s a detox green smoothie when I get into work or when I’m travelling some green superfoods powder.
Secondly depending on how hungry I am, its either a smoothie with loads of superfoods if I’m in a hurry or some fresh fruit with coconut yogurt and sprouts or a chia pudding and if I’m going savoury its avocado & kraut with sprout’s on sprouted bread which I’ve been having quite a bit lately.
Lunch is often a big fresh salad with avocado and some fermented foods like our raw cheese or kimchee with raw crackers, nori or courgette bread if I’m at home. When I’m work it will be something from one of the cafes where the menu is always changing, we are pretty spoilt now, I used to prepare every everything we ate so its nice to have other people make the food you love for you.
If I haven’t had a smoothie in the morning I will have one in the afternoon, often with a bit of cacao and some reshi & other medicinal mushrooms in it, mushrooms provide a great immune & cacao an energy boost that help keep me functioning well in the afternoon at that time when I can start to feel a bit foggy if it’s been a busy day. I love raw cacao and tend to have it mostly in drinks which is how it was traditionally consumed.
Dinner in summer is often something more complex but still fresh and delicious than my lunch meal like a raw pasta or Mexican flavoured meal to take advantage of all the tomatoes around! In winter or if I’m feeling like something more hearty it’s if the one meal I would usually have something not raw like lentils, tempeh millet, quinoa or sweet potatoes (kumura in NZ). And mix them up with an abundance of fresh vegetables and a delicious raw dressing or sauce.
If im cooking I will always sprout/soak my grains or legumes to make them more digestible and increase the nutrition in them.
I don’t have any hard and fast rules with the amount of raw I eat or feel like I’m not doing it right if I’m not 100% raw – I’ve been there and done that! Being obsessive about your good is not healthy, even if the food is healthy. Generally I eat a lot of raw because that’s the food that makes me feel good.
At the moment if I had to put a number on it, that would be around 80% with having slightly heavier foods with having a new baby to feed as well, it’s more important to me to eat an abundance of fresh whole foods that make me feel good and sometimes that includes some cooked food other times it doesn’t.
In the evenings we will often sip away on herbal teas and have been known to a few raw cookies.
