RAW FOOD DIET

By SARA KENNEDY

skennedy@bradenton.com

A Sarasota filmmaker’s life-changing discovery

Jenna Norwood confesses to having been a “junk-food vegetarian,” someone who snarfed down high-calorie, high-fat meatless fare.

That was before her conversion to raw foods.

Today, she’s 30 pounds lighter, and a confirmed healthful eater and chef who celebrates food in its natural state. She’s made a documentary about it and has just opened a gourmet raw food cafe in Sarasota.

What interests her is the personal transformation she has experienced from eating dishes that are made from fresh, raw ingredients.

“There’s nothing like experiencing something first-hand to be convinced,” she said. “What happened to me was visually remarkable.”

The 41-year-old Sarasota resident was a self-described “junk-food vegetarian.”

“I didn’t eat meat; (but) . . . lots of pizza and pasta, french fries and desserts, not preparing food for myself, not really thinking much about the fact I wasn’t eating fresh fruits and vegetables. . . . Besides the weight, I had chronic aches and pains, was wearing glasses for astigmatism, was low-energy, wasn’t sleeping well, not great mental clarity,” she said.

At the beginning, she had hoped to lose a little weight, but was surprised to find her whole life had changed after a 30-day “detox” stint at a California health institute dedicated to raw food.

With her new regimen, she lost more than 30 pounds over three months, dropping from a size 12 to a size 4. Her aches and pains went away.

She documented her transformation in a movie called “Supercharge Me!” The documentary is a take-off on “Supersize Me,” by Morgan Spurlock, a popular film that featured the filmmaker dining exclusively at McDonald’s and suffering health consequences from its fatty fare.

Norwood’s documentary has won numerous awards. It was chosen as an official selection of the Sarasota Film Festival and the Utopia Film Festival; declared “best motivational film” at the Hollywood Raw Film Festival, and “best documentary”at the Tofino Film Festival.

“I just thought it would be interesting to show an opposite take to “Supersize Me,” said Norwood. “He (Spurlock) made the devastating effects of fast food clear, but it left people wondering, ‘Well, what should we eat?’ “

Another screening is slated for Dec. 12 in Sarasota.

Eating raw

“I love any kind of fresh raw fruit and vegetables, nuts, sprouted greens,” she explained. “Get creative, how to prepare things, how to do it raw.”

“It’s so more beneficial because its vitamins, minerals, and enzymes are intact – they are still present in the food,” she said.

Once food is heated above about 105 degrees, its delicate contents begin to degrade, robbing the body of subtle benefits, Norwood said.

“It’s taxing on the body to process it,” she said. “It actually is acting rather than as a fuel as a burden for the body to digest and deal with it. We have a finite amount of digestive enzymes in our bodies and when we are eating food devoid of enzymes, it becomes more difficult to digest food.”

She does short cooking demonstrations on her Web site called “Jenna’s Healthy Kitchen,” and next month, can be seen discussing raw food on the Health Care News Network, broadcast at 35 hospitals in Florida and expanding nationwide next year.

She also teaches cooking classes at Whole Foods Market and with a partner, Evona Poplawski, just opened a new restaurant, Veggie Magic, also in Sarasota.

“We do a lot of gourmet raw foods there,” she said. “You can eat really simply with this lifestyle. You can eat an apple or you can eat a raw apple pie. We’re all raw chefs. With the cafe, I’m eating the more gourmet variations.”

“We do veggie burgers, organic, raw made with nuts, we have a Southwestern version. The Veggie Magic patty – mushrooms, carrots, walnuts, veggies and formed into patties.”

She uses low heat, less than 105 degrees, to blow warm air over the food with a dehydrator.

“We have really great soups, a mock-tuna salad, marinated kale salad which is delicious. We have cranberry-pumpkin crumble for the season, starfruit pie, fresh-picked starfruit,” said Norwood.

“We make pasta noodles out of raw zucchini, thinly sliced just like pasta noodles. You get same sensation as eating pasta, we have a sauce that goes over it, pesto, tomato, you get all the flavor and all the sensations of eating the cooked variety.”

Foods that are not cooked are more satisfying because the “flavors are more intense with raw food as well,” said Norwood.

In addition to her busy life as a filmmaker and a chef, she has also been making video shorts that appear on various Internet sites, and plans to hit the road in February. She wants to travel to universities and health festivals marketing “Supercharge Me!”

“I’m into eating simply and I love the gourmet stuff, too,” she said. “For breakfast, it’s fresh fruit. I can eat as much as I want, it’s so delicious, so satisfying. I like to have a green smoothie in the morning, too.”

The smoothie sounds less than appealing – its green color comes from spinach, romaine or kale mixed with water and bananas. But Norwood swears it’s delish.

“It’s amazing, you don’t taste the greens at all, can add other fruits in there, but the greens are one of the best things for us to be consuming, they provide amino acids. It’s an easy way to get more greens into your diet.”

“I love salads with avocado, walnuts, sun-dried tomatoes. I make great dressings with sesame paste, tahini, olive and fresh squeezes lemon juice and garlic.”

So, what’s next for Norwood?

She has written a recipe book and hopes to get it published. And she’s enjoying being in demand as a health educator and speaker.

“It’s taken on a life of its own, it’s become my life,” Norwood laughed. “I didn’t expect it would become my life. I’m a health educator asked to speak on radio shows and do all these things, and now, there’s the raw food cafe. And now, it’s just like, my life is completely different now.”

“But I love this life, I love educating people about the benefits of eating this way.”