By Juli Cragg Hilliard, correspondent
With increased access to organic produce, more restaurants serving uncooked organic cuisine, and a Meetup group numbering more than 1,000 members, Sarasota is sprouting as a center for the raw food movement.
The Paleo and low-carb trends far outpace the raw diet. But it’s easy to find locals who say a focus on eating uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds balances their weight, boosts their energy and wellbeing, and alleviates symptoms from health issues like cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and inflammatory pain.
Ionie Bergs, owner of Ionie ~ Healing Center & Raw Food Café, second from left, shares entrees with her friends, from left, Angela Valentine, Gina Iovine, and Lisa Stuart. STAFF PHOTO / DAN WAGNER
The raw diet contends cooking decreases nutrition and enzymes. Preparation techniques include sprouting, dehydrating, marinating, and fermentation. It’s possible to include nonvegetarian foods, such as sashimi and raw cheese.
Jim White, a registered dietician and spokesman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, says more research is needed to support raw diet claims.
“Even though people may say they feel better and the diet improves their health, if not followed correctly or modified it can lead to shortages in Calcium, Vitamin D, and B-12, to name a few,” he says — adding that any time people consume raw foods such as unpasteurized milk, they put themselves at risk of foodborne illness.
Ionie Bergs, owner of Ionie ~ Healing Center & Raw Food Café in Sarasota, was vegan vegetarian when she read “Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine” by Gabriel Cousens, M.D., 10 years ago. She has eaten vegan raw food ever since.
“Live food gives life,” Bergs says. “That just made sense to me.” She experienced “a wonderful rejuvenation. My energy level skyrocketed. My skin got clearer. Areas where I had lost enamel on my teeth remineralized.”
In 2011, Bergs’ older sister, Rachel, was dying in England of lung cancer. Bergs stayed with Rachel the last six weeks of her life, preparing raw foods for her. She believes the diet relieved her sister’s pain and coughing.
Bergs opened the café in June 2012, with an organic vegan menu free of dairy, gluten and GMOs (genetically modified organisms).
“We try to do things that people wouldn’t want to do at home,” Bergs says. “If it was just a salad, anybody could do that.”
A Garden Wrap is served at Ionie Raw Food Cafe. STAFF PHOTO / DAN WAGNER
Sarasota physician Dan Watts has The Renewal Point integrative medicine practice. He was diagnosed 12 years ago with lymphoma cancer. He selected a nontraditional regime that included making his diet 60 to 80 percent raw food.
“I was able to have it go into remission,” he said. He believes changing his diet helped. “You want to make an environment where cancer does not want to grow,” says Watts, whose training includes a master’s in nutrition and metabolic medicine. His intake now is 40 percent raw organic fruits and vegetables, and he tries to stick with organic meats and wild fish. “I’m 69, and I feel better than I did 15 years ago.”
Testimonials abound Gina Iovine of Sarasota, a saleswoman for Armour Tight Concrete of Bradenton, credits a raw diet and hot yoga with decreasing the daily insulin shots she takes for Type 1 diabetes from five to two or three. She is a pescaterian — fish and produce — about 90 percent on raw foods, and stays away from sugar and GMOs.
Lasagna is served at Ionie Raw Food Cafe. STAFF PHOTO / DAN WAGNER
Iovine changed her diet 2½ years ago after seeing the effect of putting her dog, now 14, on organic raw meat.
“I watched the clock turn back,” Iovine says. “She jumped in the car. She wanted to play.”
Iovine read “Raw Food and Hot Yoga” by Tonya Zavasta and started patronizing Ionie’s café and buying organic produce.
Iovine said she regained mobility in a frozen shoulder and lost 15 pounds. She also says she’s noticed wiry gray hair growing in smooth and brown.
Tony Souza of Sarasota, a Realtor with Premiere Sotheby’s International and former president of the Downtown Alliance, said in the three months since he started a raw vegan lifestyle he dropped 30 pounds and his blood pressure decreased so much his doctor cut Souza’s medication in half.
White pizza is served at Ionie Raw Food Cafe. STAFF PHOTO / DAN WAGNER
“When I was eating the wrong food I’d get heartburn sometimes, and I haven’t had heartburn in three months,” Souza says. When he can’t get raw cuisine, he stays vegetarian. He doesn’t feel deprived by the raw diet: “I’m not hungry whatsoever.”
Jenna Norwood of Sarasota was a selfdescribed “junk-food vegetarian” who ate processed carbs and few fruits and vegetables. In 2005, she started the raw diet and recorded the first three weeks in a documentary, “Supercharge Me!”
Norwood says she lost weight, and experienced healing of chronic Achilles tendon pain from an old running injury and of a sprained thumb for which immobilizing surgery had been recommended.
She changed careers from public relations to motivational speaker, health advocate, life coach and raw food chef. She’s cut back on speaking for now to work with cancer patients through a physician.
Ten years out, she says her diet is all vegan and mostly raw. She’s seen a growth in awareness of the raw food movement, she says: “I’m completely committed to spreading the word about it, all over the world.”
Norwood says Sarasota is leading the way. More restaurants have raw vegetarian cuisine available. Organic produce is accessible through Whole Foods and farmers markets. Raw Sarasota, a Meetup group founded by Norwood, has more than 1,0000 members who meet for potlucks and classes.
She knows people who were into raw food in the 1970s, when it was introduced into the United States.
“The problem was the food wasn’t tasty,” she says. “And since then we’ve had some fantastic chefs who have come along.”
Plenty of people in the movement ferment their own sauerkraut and prepare other recipes, she says, but in general once someone transitions into raw food they’re more satisfied with simplicity and search less for gourmet dishes.
“The average person would probably just eat raw fruit and salad, and go out to restaurants,” she says.
Raw food resources
Ionie Raw Food Café: 1241 Fruitville Road, Sarasota, ionie.com
Beauty of Sprouts restaurant: 1472 Fruitville Road, Sarasota, beautyofsprouts.net
Raw Sarasota group: meetup.com/rawsarasota
Tips, recipes and videos: jennanorwood.com;
