The International Raw Food Restaurant Directory
Customer Reviews
Rank: Excellent
from Yvonne Spence via Hub Pages
The International Raw Food Restaurant Directory - A review
63
rate or flag this page
By Melovy
All Lettuce Leaves and Aching Jaws?
Knowing that I’m a vegetarian and that vegetarians eat vegetables and that this particular vegetarian is renowned not only for eating organic vegetables in large quantities, but also for enjoying the occasional salad or two, a friend gave me a copy of the recently published International Raw Food Restaurant Directory.
Phew, that sentence was quite a mouthful – which is probably not what most people expect to get when eating raw food. Or maybe they do, since lettuce takes a lot of chewing, possibly even using more calories than the lettuce provides.
Some Facts About Raw Food
And now that I’ve got the myths out of the way, here are a few facts about raw food:
Cooking destroys some vitamin C – how much is destroyed depends on how you cook and for how long.
Many fruit and vegetables in their raw form will provide you with more nutrients. For instance, 100 grams of raw broccoli contains 47mg of calcium, while boiled it has 40mg.
Raw food includes food heated up to 115°F/46°C – “raw foodists” prepare bread, biscuits and falafel in a dehydrator, and also use it to dry fruit and vegetables.
115°F is the temperature above which enzymes in food are destroyed.
Buy The Directory on Amazon
International Raw Food Restaurant Directory International Raw Food Restaurant Directory
Amazon Price: $18.32
A Valuable Resource
While researching this article, I found that the more I delved into what appeared to be facts about raw and cooked food, the more I found vague statements or opinions – on both sides. Some people report massive health benefits after changing to a raw food diet, others find some vegetables easier to digest when cooked. What suits one person may not suit another, so there is no right or wrong here. Thankfully, The International Raw Food Restaurant Directory does not try to persuade you to convert to a raw food diet, and in its introductory pages Paul Appleby gives a balanced view of the debate, concluding that variety is the key.
However, given that everyone in the developed world over the age of six must by now have heard that we need a minimum of five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, I am often surprised by the meagre portions of vegetables served up in many restaurants – even in a vegetarian meal. This makes The International Raw Food Restaurant Directory a valuable resource for any healthy eater who likes to eat out, especially when travelling. What you are pretty much guaranteed in a raw food restaurant is plenty of healthy fruit and veg. It would also be a great for anyone with a health condition that makes eating out difficult. Raw food restaurants won’t be using hydrogenated fat, excessive salt or MSG so you are far more likely to find something a heart or stroke patient could eat than you are in a burger joint or pizza palace!
The directory is laid out by country – 45 in all – and while you probably won’t be remotely shocked to learn that the United States has by far the highest number of entries you might be surprised to know there’s a raw food restaurant in Liechtenstein (a tiny country sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland) and there’s even one in Iceland, which is probably more famous for its legendary devouring of puffins than it is for its raw vegetable eating habits.
In countries where raw food restaurants are plentiful the directory entries are further divided into regions or states. In the USA 46 states are represented. (Try the quiz at the end of this article to see if you can guess which don’t have raw food restaurants!) Of the States, California has by far the highest number of entries, and of the individual cities, New York wins hands down. New York has so many restaurants its entries are categorized by district.
As the publisher acknowledges in the introduction, the nature of guides of this type is that they are prone to change. To combat this the publisher has sensibly included a website where readers can read amendments and post corrections.
One criticism I have of the guide is that scattered throughout the listings for restaurants, it also lists other resources, such as a yoga institute or a food co-operative. While this information could well be useful, I think the directory would be easier to use if the additional resources were listed separately from the restaurants. And sadly, there are no raw food restaurants in my hometown, so I will have to wait until I next go travelling to try it out.
Quick Quiz on
The International Raw Food Restaurant Directory - A review http://melovy.hubpages.com/hub/The-International-Raw-Food-Restaurant-Directory-A-review
Submitted on: 21/09/2011
0 of 0