Raw food diet gets even sweeter with tasty desserts

Perception is everything.

This is especially true for those who investigate the raw food lifestyle for the first time — an approach that consists of eating whole fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds that have not been heated above 115 degrees.

'Most people when they think raw they think salads and they think they will always be hungry,' says Jessica Huebbe of Cedar Rapids, who has been following the raw food lifestyle since October 2014. But Huebbe says that 'there is so much more to raw food.'

For fellow Eastern Iowa raw foodist Laurie Moritz, it's all about dessert. Moritz of Cedar Rapids discovered the raw food diet seven years ago after she ran a marathon and was looking for something that would help give her the same stamina and energy her marathon training gave her without having to rack up all the miles on the road. She also was hoping going raw would enable her to back off her hormone replacement therapy (which it did).

'When I heard it had dessert,' says Moritz, 'I thought, I am all in.'

In fact, her love of dessert propelled her to start her own raw dessert business called Sweet Raw Joy, which can be found at all New Pioneer Coop locations and had its official launch June 6. Moritz also recently taught several raw food workshops at both the Cedar Rapids and Coraville co-ops and at the NewBo City Market.

Those who follow the raw lifestyle believe that by cooking food you are stripping it of much its vitamins and minerals along with destroying the enzymes that help your body digest it properly.

'Raw food is the kind of food that supports life. It is eating foods that are still active and alive,' Moritz says.

Huebbe, who is a licensed massage therapist and owner of Brightside Wellness Spa, discovered eating raw when she went to Living Light Culinary Institute in Fort Bragg, Calif., to become a raw food certified chef.

'I went 100 percent raw vegan at school,' Huebbe says. 'Within a month's time I lost around 20 pounds and my energy level sky rocketed. I started running and I had never before been a runner. That spoke volumes to me — the changes that I saw in my own self.'

Eating raw is a practice that is slowly emerging in its presence in Iowa. This is in part due to Des Moines resident and raw foodist Sheree Clark, who started her own holistic health and nutrition coaching business, Fork in the Road, in 2009 as a way to help others 'achieve maximum health.' She also hosts a television show that airs in central Iowa called Fork in the Road with Sheree Clark in which she shares raw and vegan recipes and began The Des Moines Raw Food Meetup Group, which now has more than 1000 members.

Clark became a vegetarian in 1992 but slowly made the progression to being a raw vegan in 2004. While she believes wholeheartedly in eating raw she knows 'that it isn't the only game in town.' 'I am a health coach and I don't make anybody eat raw,' Clark says. 'I don't think everybody should be raw by any stretch. Sometimes it works for somebody in a certain point of their life. We are constrained by not just our food preferences but our work schedule, our lifestyle, who we live with and our own biological needs.' Clark is quick to admit that she is not 100 percent raw. 'I say I am 100 percent raw 95 percent of the time.'

Going raw for many truly is a lifestyle change but what that change looks like varies for each person. For Moritz she found that being 100 percent raw wasn't exactly right for her. While she does try to eat mostly raw, she incorporates a few cooked foods like hummus into her diet.

'What I've found,' says Moritz, 'is that different things work for different people and I've just found a balance that works for me. I encourage other people to do that as well.'

Huebbe found her balance in eating a diet that is 70 percent raw. 'I had been searching for a while to find different paths for optimum health and so it was in that that I found raw foods.' She offers raw food cooking classes through her business and finds that once people learn the proper food preparation techniques they are impressed with how easy it really is to incorporate into their daily lives.

Moritz believes the raw food diet 'can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.' 'That's one of the other beautiful things about,' she says. 'You can take this so far or you can be really, really basic and really, really simple.'

If people are interested in dipping their toe into eating raw, Moritz naturally believes everyone should start with dessert as most people cannot tell the difference between a raw and cooked dessert. She also suggests changing your breakfast to a raw food like a smoothie. 'When you start your day off with something really healthy, delicious and satisfying and it stays with you, it sets you up for success.'