Raw food,also called living food, is food that has not been microwaved, radiated, heatprocessed or cooked above certain temperatures (usually from 92º F to 118º F).There are a number of different raw food diets, each with their own guidelines,but, in general, raw foodists believe uncooked foods contain enzymes that aidin their own digestion, freeing the body's self-made enzymes to regulate allthe body's metabolic processes unimpeded. Heating the food degrades or destroysits enzymes, transferring the burden to the body's own enzyme production.
Each “Cooking Raw”episode follows a loose theme that includes a demonstration on how to preparethree to four dishes, with an occasional guest appearance by an expert on thatparticular topic or genre. For Carter and Ray's second episode, “Italian,”Carter adapted a recipe for spaghetti marinara that she inherited from hermother. Rather than use pasta that needs to be boiled, the mother-daughter teamopts for fresh zucchini that is sliced like long strands of spaghetti using akitchen tool called a spiralizer. A tight overhead camera angle captures thebeauty and color of fresh Roma tomatoes, purple onion, and green celery,peppers and basil leaves as they are chopped, sliced and thrown into a foodprocessor to make a thick marinara sauce.
While helping her motherprepare the Italian meal, Ray includes a short history of how zucchini, as weknow it, developed from wild summer squash originating in the area between Mexico and Guatemalainto seeds with which Portuguese and Spanish explorers returned to Europe. Carter confides that she was once obese, but saysthat she lost 80 pounds by incorporating raw foods into her diet and lifestyle.Viewers might recognize Carter and Ray from their appearances at local farmers'markets, where they sell their Eden'sMarket line of raw and handmade flax seed crackers and granola chunks, as wellas salsa, dressings and dips.
“Cooking Raw: Italian”leaves the confines of the MPTV studio to show interviews with localnutritionist Laurie Meyer, Shawn and Rae Rediske of Water House Foods in LakeMills, and Pat Sturgis of Beans & Barley to get their take on raw foods.
“We've been eating rawfood since we've been on this planet, and so the new food is really the cookedfood,” Meyer explains. “In raw food, the majority of it anyway, you're keepingyour vitamins, minerals and enzymes intact. As soon as you cook food, you'regoing to lose enzymes, vitamins, and you alter the minerals so they won't beabsorbed and utilized as well.”
While MPTV's “CookingRaw” lacks the rehearsed scripting and premium production values of the cookingshows on the Food Network, it is a well-executed, informative local programthat provides viewers with a free lesson in cost-effective and easy-to-preparemeals using fresh, nutrient-rich raw foods.
“Cooking Raw” airs onMPTV 10.1 HD on Saturdays at 11 a.m., and repeats on Fridays at 6 p.m. Theseries also airs on MPTV 36.1 on Sundays at noon.
