Avia Collinder, Outlook Writer

Ray Tyndale displays ackee, a favourite on his raw food menu. - Contributed

The raw food diet excludes cooked, processed or otherwise refined foods. But is it possible to exist on 100 per cent raw foods?

Last week, we arrived in Ocho Rios with the attitude of sceptics, but returned fully convinced.

Who wouldn’t, after a brunch of curried plantains, green salad with coconut cream, fruit pies and papaya ice cream?

The sight of Dante, two-year-old son of raw food chef Ray Tyndale champing on his favourite snack - raw ackee - was the beginning of our introduction to the Ocho Rios chef’s stove-less kitchen.

Dante has been 100 per cent raw since birth Tyndale claims. His partner Yahneen Toombs is also a 100 ‘per center’.

The raw food diet has become popular with such adherents as actor Woody Harrelson, model Caro designer Donna Karan, and Chicago-based celebrity chef Charlie Trotter. The diet is based on unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed.

According to Ray Tyndale, who has been producing salads, pies and ice-cream which are completely based on unprocessed foods, it is possible to not only live on raw or ‘live foods’ but enjoy doing so too.

Well, we left his home with the opinion that, were we living in the same house, we would also be 100 ‘per centres’.

Tyndale’s creations are yummy and highly edible.

We sampled a ‘guilt free’, banana coconut cream pie with naseberry jam and a mango papaya and jackfruit jam pie’ which magically disappeared from our plates.

There was also akee and curried plantains, but, the best was the high iron content callaloo dish with spinach, kale, lettuce, pakchoi, garlic, vinegar, thyme and ginger, served with coconut cream.

Tyndale’s recipes have been finding favour with resort owners and local restaurants who periodically ask him to come in and prepare food or buy is succulent pies.

In his immaculate kitchen there is a stove which he does not use. He comments, “Individuals today live off processed, refined and cooked foods - foods which have the life taken out of them. But, we are living beings who need living foods.”

According to the raw food chef, the leaves and fruits of plants store the solar energy which we need. A sun ripened fruit and the green plant leaf is already ready for eating.

Eating raw foods gives the body an electrical charge, providing the enzymes and energy which we need. Adding fire reduces the nutrient properties in food.

“Eating cooked food is like eating a shirt, forcing the body to produce its own digestive enzymes and starting a process which saps the body of energy,” the chef says.

Researchers note that heating food above 116 degrees F is believed to destroy enzymes in food that can assist in the digestion and absorption of food.

Cooking is also thought to diminish the nutritional value and “life force” of food.

Proponents of the raw food diet believe it has numerous health benefits, including: increased energy, improved skin appearance, better digestion, weight loss, lowered cholesterol and reduced risk of heart disease. The raw food diet contains little or no saturated fat and trans fats.

It is also low in sodium, high in potassium, magnesium, folate, fiber, and health-promoting plant chemicals called phytochemicals which are associated with a reduced risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Based in a community called Farm Hill in Exchange Ocho Rios, Tyndale says that his chosen life path pays for itself. It is more expensive to buy these foods and the equipment - including a dehydrator, food processor - to prepare them is costly. But his career as a chef is one way of paying the piper.

All his health food supplies are easily available he notes. He personally purchases his supplies at General Foods in Ocho Rios and Natural Health on Constant Spring Road in Kingston.

Tyndale states, “Eating processed and cooked foods leads to enzyme exhaustion, weak immune system and disease.”

Noting that his Mom died from diabetes, says that he is glad that he has turned his life around.

Partial information source: www about.com. Ray Tyndale can be reached at stoveless1@yahoo.com