GOING RAW, THE RAW COST, and RAW FOOD EATS SICKNESS

GOING RAW

A raw food diet perhaps sounds cleaner and healthier, but how convenient is
it really? Leiman says that for her it was a largely instinctual journey, but at
the moment there is a lot of information out there that can help people make
their own decisions about their diet. ‘I think the best is just to try and
reconnect with one’s instinct and look at food, just allow yourself to look at
what you are eating. When you open a tin, think about what is in that tin.

How can food that has been sitting bottled up in a tin have any presence of life
in it?’ It is because of this that she believes many people are putting substance
and volume into their food, but none of it is providing the body with life
force.

Even for the Kentons, the idea of a high-raw food diet initially sounded
extraordinary – unusual, hard work and extreme. ‘But,’ they explain, ‘what
most people don’t realise is that by eating raw food you gradually come to feel
that the high-raw diet is not just what’s good for you, but what you like best.

Living foods vibrate with a special quality of energy. This energy, when
regularly taken into your body, changes you physically as well as mentally,
bringing you strength, clarity of mind, confidence and a sense of well-being
which makes you want to do what is best for your body.’39

Having coached a variety of people on raw food over the last six years,
Marten says that, while everybody is different, many are embracing the
thought of introducing more raw food into their diets. It can also be quite an
exciting change when it comes to preparing food.

Leiman says that while it does take a bit more time to prepare, it is worth
it. In fact, she argues that besides the food we are exposed to, it is the fast pace
of our lives, overpopulation and the need for convenience that are having an
adverse effect on our health. ‘The focus of life is to look after yourself and to
enjoy your life and make sure you do things in the day for yourself that you
want to do; I don’t know how many people honour that any more. And then
they wonder why they aren’t happy.’

Taking great pleasure in preparing her raw meals, as well as entertaining
others with raw food feasts, Leiman follows a diet that sees her completely full
and nourished throughout the day. She starts her day off with a cup of warm
water with either a slice of lemon or a piece of ginger. Then she makes herself
a green juice (you will find the recipe on page 151), which she says is very
important as it neutralises the acids in the body.

After a morning session of yoga, she has breakfast, which usually consists
of fruit in season and some chia seeds. She also has nut milk made from
almonds, which is very high in protein. She snacks on an apple mid-morning
and then makes a different type of salad for lunch each day. Avocado features
prominently in all of her dishes. In the middle of the afternoon she might
have a bit of seaweed blended with organic brown rice, kelp noodles, spinach
and avocado. For supper she makes sprout or nut patties with a salad and
maybe has a beetroot and carrot juice. She also makes her own chocolates
with raw cacao, honey or organic maple syrup and natural vanilla pod, which
she treats herself to as dessert. ‘If you spent a week with me, you would be full
and good full. When you’re good full, you don’t crave. You only crave
because your body is starving for nutrients and minerals. These are what our
body wants more than anything.’

Leiman works a lot with superfoods, believing in supplementing her body.
Juice cleansing also plays a role in her diet – a process whereby you drink
fresh fruit and vegetable juices throughout the day for one day a week. She is
very strict when it comes to the type of water she drinks, saying that the
chlorine in tap water ‘kills our antibodies and actually disempowers our
immune system’. She only drinks filtered water that she supplements with
mineral salts and trace minerals. ‘I make myself a two-litre bottle and I drink
that and you can feel it. Initially you hardly urinate because your body is
soaking up all of the water because it actually recognises the minerals and
salts.’

In South Africa, she admits, eating out at restaurants can be difficult.
‘There aren’t a lot of raw restaurants yet in this country so eating out has lost
its charm, but I’m fine with that. I prefer entertaining because I put on an
entire spread. For me, to have people over and really put a lot of time into a
beautiful meal where I know that everything that goes into their mouths is
going to do them good, I just find that so much more pleasurable.’

THE RAW COST

Organic and raw, with a couple of superfoods thrown in, can, however, be
intimidating for the average consumer when price is considered. Marten says
that eating in a clean and healthy way can be more expensive, but he has
found that he actually spends less money on food. He also eats less because his
body is getting the minerals it needs, reducing cravings. ‘If you walk into your
average supermarket and you spend R500 in the processed food and the meat
aisles or R500 on packaged and convenience food, you are probably going to
be able to carry that out in a few packets. But if you spend that in the fruit and
vegetable section, you are not going to be able to carry that out. If you actually
look at kilo per kilo the amount of food that you get, if you are buying fresh
fruit and vegetables as your main supply of foods, which we do, it actually
works out a lot cheaper.’ He adds that while superfoods may be quite
expensive, it does balance out. Moreover, it may save you thousands of rands
at the doctor at a later stage. ‘It’s a personal choice in life and everyone has to
decide what is important to him or her,’ he says.

RAW FOOD EATS SICKNESS

Modern diets packed with sugar, laced with preservatives and soaked in transfats
contribute significantly to diseases like cancer. The ACS has stated that
people who eat more processed meats, potatoes, refined grains and sugary
drinks and foods are at a higher risk of developing or dying from a variety of
cancers.

‘I think our modern model of eating has gone really, really horribly
wrong, particularly in the last sixty years, and I think it’s actually got quite a
lot worse quite recently,’ comments Marten, ‘I would personally class
probably a large portion of what people eat everyday as not even being food
any more. If you actually look at the definition of food, it is something that
provides energy and nutrients in various forms – macro and micro – to
sustain the body in an optimal health.’

For Leiman, diet has become completely warped, as has society in
general. ‘How can you give a chicken so many hormones that instead of
taking fourteen weeks to mature, it takes four weeks? The chicken can’t even
stand on its legs any more because of the presence of so many hormones that
are used to develop the breast because it is the most popular part. This is what
they are allowing human beings to do and eat – I think we’ve just totally lost
the plot.’

Having said that, as someone who often tries to guide cancer patients
through a cleaner and raw way of eating while they undergo treatment,
Leiman says she has noticed in the last few years that people are paying a lot
more attention to their diet. ‘People are getting scared because sickness is
going rampant, serious sickness. People are eager, and at the same time also
desperate, to make some changes because they don’t want to get diabetes or
cancer or any of those illnesses.’ She has noticed that people are starting to
realise that what is on the supermarket shelves is just so far from nature.
Adopting a more natural and raw way of life can bring one back to one’s self.

‘There is not a cell in my body that doesn’t believe diet contributes to
cancer. It’s the preservatives, it’s the metals, it’s the poisons, it’s food that is
so refined that there is nothing in it. It creates a tremendous acidic presence in
the human body. When the body creates that kind of acid, it enables the seed
of the disease to get a life,’ Leiman says.

Her view is that cancer already exists in our bodies. If you do not
encourage it by eating food that may trigger the cancer to grow, then there is
nothing for it to feed off. To cancer patients, she recommends a raw diet that
is specific to their type of cancer and their body. She encourages them to
drink a lot of green juice as it neutralises the acidity of the toxins from
chemotherapy. ‘You get so bilious when you are on chemo, and some say you
should eat whatever you like, but I recommend that they rather don’t eat and
if they can get anything in their body, they get green juice into it. And they
can feel the benefits.’

Leiman describes raw food as a blessing to people’s bodies, especially
when they are suffering with illness. ‘Very often, you get very desperate when
you are looking at yourself in the mirror and you are seeing that your days
could be numbered; there’s a mental shift that happens. The instinctual desire
to live becomes very, very strong in most people.’

Living in a way that is happy and wholesome extends to more than just
diet, however. Leiman, for example, makes sure that every single day she
gives herself time to do something purely for herself – be it walking on the
beach, painting a picture or doing some gardening. ‘I don’t know why people
don’t just put some more activities or vacant space in their day for
themselves, I don’t know why they just don’t do it. Who do you need to get
permission from? Don’t let something dictate your life to the point that you
are so wired you can’t even sleep at night. For what?’