The Truth - Health and Fitness

GOSHEN -- "Don't eat it unless it will rot, and for heaven's sake, eat it before it does."

That's one of the mantras of a growing movement of local raw foodists, who share a lifestyle centered around eating raw, unprocessed and mostly organic foods for holistic health and environmental reasons.

"If it's not going to spoil and decay, I don't bother, because it's not real food, it's a chemistry set," says local raw foodie and yoga instructor Darlene DeChant.

In December, DeChant joined a multigenerational group of diet and health-conscious people for a raw food retreat hosted by Maple City Market and held at "The Chouse," a historic downtown Goshen church home owned by Lon and Judy Miller.

Retreat participants made raw, soft gingerbread cookie dough, dehydrated nut loaf -- a cooked meat substitute -- and lingered over lunch. Also served: mini pizzas on sesame seed and flax dough and topped with marinara sauce, tomatoes, and cashew "cheese"; and Caesar salads with romaine lettuce and spinach, sun-dried Peruvian olives and local organic sweet onion. After lunch, the group rolled out yoga mats for a deep breathing and stretching class, watched a documentary about raw food as medicine and walked a few blocks to Maple City Market.

HEALING HERSELF?

Elaine Cowden and her husband, Larry, traveled to the retreat from Buchanan, Mich., to meet other raw foodies and share stories and recipes. Three years ago, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Half of her colon was removed, but at first, doctors diagnosed her debilitating gastrointestinal pain as a bad case of constipation, Cowden said.

"I thought I ate healthy. I ground my own flour to make bread, but I was addicted to sugar. That was my downfall," she said. "After I was diagnosed with colon cancer, it seemed like everywhere I turned I learned that sugar feeds cancer."

After her surgery, Cowden was still in severe pain with a cancerous growth blocking her colon so food could not pass. When talking with her surgeon about chemotherapy, his advice was a relief, she said. "He told me, 'You can do whatever you want, but I wouldn't have chemotherapy if I was you.'"

NO MORE SUGAR

Cowden, 55, canceled chemotherapy treatments and began researching holistic diet and lifestyle changes while praying for direction on natural healing methods, she said.

She replaced sugar with sweet agave nectar, dates, raw honey and dried fruits while adopting a meat-free, vegan diet and "gradually going raw."

Cowden took nutrition classes at Morning Glory Market in St. Joseph, Mich., and now hosts raw food retreats. She says her husband, a pharmacist, "got all sorts of flack from everyone in the medical profession," but he supported her choices and is now a dedicated raw foodie himself.

The couple's daughter also adopted the lifestyle. Today, the slim mother and homemaker walks 3 miles a day, cross-country and downhill skis and feels no symptoms of illness.

"Maybe I'll go back to the doctor and have it checked again, just out of curiosity, but I just don't see how I could feel this great and still have cancer," Cowden said.

IN THE RAW

Mariya Voytyuk is a certified, private raw food chef and grocery manager at Maple City Market. She has a business degree from an Austrian university in Ukraine and spends time in other people's kitchens, and teaches the philosophy and practice of raw foodism at retreats and classes.

"It's based on food that has not been modified or tampered with and therefore has all the nutrition, enzymes and life force intact," Voytyuk said. "It's the quickest and easiest way to extraordinary health and well-being because it's about eating as close to nature as possible."

"Food is supposed to be our medicine," she said.

Much of the food is not eaten in a fully raw state, she explains. Voytyuk teaches cooking with food dehydrators at temperatures below 115 degrees. When food is cooked at higher temperatures, it is depleted of many vitamins and minerals, she said. In turn, the body and mind seek to make up for inadequate nutrition by subconsciously leading people to excessively overeat, she said.

"When food is cooked above 118 degrees, the natural enzymes die, which makes it hard for the body to digest," she said. "The body then has to use its own metabolic enzymes, which leaves you feeling sluggish."

The raw food diet is a close cousin to the vegan way -- which excludes all meat and animal byproducts and emphasizes a variety of fruits, vegetables, sprouted grains and legumes, seeds and nuts.