California Salad. Photo: The Skinny Chef

A heat wave has hit the East Coast and I cook every day, sometime four to five hours straight. Unfortunately, as the temperature rises, my small air-conditioning units can't compete with the oven heat. My solution -- I'll bake during the morning, let the oven cool down and go raw for dinner. While eating all meals raw can be a challenge -- I tried it last summer for a week -- eating raw one meal a day can be easy.

The raw diet consists of natural, unprocessed foods that are not heated above 114 degrees Fahrenheit. Most raw foodists eat mainly plant-based foods, such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, grains and legumes. They believe that the raw foods provide energy-charged nutrients that are killed during cooking, mainly enzymes that not only fuel the body but can provide other astounding health benefits.

Read more about the benefits of a raw food diet and a cool California salad recipe after the jump.

A diet that consists solely of raw food can be intimidating and a little jarring if you're not used to it. But despite its associations with body "cleanses" and hippy-dippy living, it's really a welcomed change from the overly-cooked, overly-fussed with food many of us are used to.

This month, Domino Magazine features a days' worth of raw food recipes (minus dinner) that are heavy on taste and light on pretension.

The menu?

Breakfast: Blueprint Pudding atop Manna bread and adorned with fresh berries
Lunch: Nori Lettuce Wraps spiced up with pickled ginger, garlic and minced jalapeno
Snacks: Crudites with Sesame Dip and a luscious Chocolate Mousse

These dishes are simple and satisfying, whether you try them for a day or make them a permanent part of your diet.

In an experiment filed for BBC2, nine volunteers were moved in a tented enclosure at Paignton Zoo in Devon, England to live on an ape-like, hunter-gatherer type of diet for two weeks to see what effect a mostly raw, low saturated fat, plant-based diet would have on their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

The volunteers ranged in ages from 36-48 and they are up to 5kg of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and honey a day. Typical foods included: Broccoli, carrots, radishes,cabbage, tomatoes, watercress, strawberries, apricots, bananas, mangoes, melons, figs, plums and hazelnuts. Clearly the food was from all over the world and not just one region, but the meal plan did meet the daily nutritional and calorie requirements recommended for adults. Volunteers also drank water and, in the second week, were given "standard portions of cooked oily fish... a nod to a more hunter-gatherer lifestyle" of humans.

Volunteers did not report any loss of energy overall as a result of the diet, although there were "moments unhappiness and grumpiness" due to the living situation and there was a noticeable gas (farting) problem. Aside from that, the participants were in good spirits for most of the experiment and, to top it off, they experienced a number of health benefits. They lost an average of nearly 10 lbs, improved both their blood pressure from an average of 140/83 to 122/76 and decreased their cholesterol levels by 23%.

The raw food movement is based on the idea of eating nothing that has been cooked, or even heated about 110F. For some who follow the diet, this might mean that they also eat uncooked meat products, like raw fish, or unpasteurized dairy. Many raw foodists are also vegetarians/vegans and refrain from cooked food and the raw animal products. Raw Food/Real World: 100 Recipes to Get the Glow falls into the latter category, with no meat. The book is written by two NY chefs who wanted to share the "glow" (of good health) they feel they gained after they switched to a raw food diet. Not just nuts and berries, the recipes include shakes, cookies, noodles and even pizza.

Like many raw food books, more than a few of the recipes call for using dehydrators and other appliances, so this book might be best for people who are interested in trying a raw lifestyle, as opposed to those who simply want a little more variety in their diet. That said, there are recipes that don't call for a dehydrator or special equipment, so if you are a curious or adventurous cook, don't be put off by that fact.

In my never-ending quest to find the right sports food, this week I stumbled across Probar.

"Probar?!" you ask. "Isn't that something you menace someone with?!"

No, dear reader, that's a crowbar. I'm talking about Probar, the Utah-based whole food nutrition bar.

Founded by high altitude food coach Chef Art Eggertsen, Probar is an all-natural alternative to the isolate- and mineral-infused bars eaten by runners, cyclists, backpackers, swimmers and other exercise masochists. With over 70% raw foods, Probar insists on keeping it real by taking real food -- peanut butter, raisins, sunflower seeds, coconut, cashews and so forth -- and putting them into an energy bar.

The result? Something that's incredibly good for you when you're working hard, but doesn't taste like it came from a test tube.

For me, it made the difference last Saturday between riding my bike the ten miles home and walking it home. So while it's no crowbar, Probar definitely packs a wallop.

Would you eat at a restaurant when the purveyor of the foods says “food is overrated”? Not that he is referring to his food, mind you, but to food in general. “Restaurateur, nightlife mogul and celebrity dentist," Dr. Tim Hogle is the man who would rather not eat than eat something that isn’t on his very strict diet, though he owns a series of Miami Beach restaurants. afterglo, his newest venture, does not serve health food per se, but functional foods that are intended to have beneficial effects on the body and not simply to sustain life. Plying food to the body-conscious and sun-bleached crowd can be challenging and the restaurant serves foods that are wild, raw and, of course, organic. Hogle calls it “beauty cuisine,” though the irony of marketing supremely natural foods to a population of plastic people will not escape the notice of some. “Everything has a low GI, is highly alkaline (which reputedly helps regenerate cells) and packed with enzymes, minerals and antioxidants” according to the Independent.

Certainly sounds purposeful, but does someone who eats only for functionality sacrifice taste at his restaurant? Apparently not, since the restaurant has received good reviews. One does have to wonder whether or not Hogle will actually eat everything on his menu.

[Image of afterglo's raw "sushi" via Click Clack]

Just about any diet will work if you stick to it, even if your diet consists of eating only banana bread. The problem with diets is that people do not stick to diets and even if you love banana bread, there are so many other good things to eat out there that it would just be too boring. Not to mention, of course, that very restrictive diets are not usually the healthiest ones.

Forbes has worked out their list of the top 10 diets that work. They correctly point out that restriction is the reason that many diets fail. Because most people will only have enough willpower (or interest) to stick to a diet for a short time, a very restrictive diet will produce maximum results quickly and is more likely to be selected by someone looking to lose weight. This is not the right way to lose weight. Diets are also a multi-billion dollar business, so there is a question as to whether the originators of some diets actually want people who try them to maintain their weight loss.

Having not even met you, let me say this: you don't eat enough vegetables. Yeah, sure you eat loads of salads -- if you call a handful of watery lettuce dipped in oil a "salad" -- but according to the health professionals, you need three to twelve cups of broccoli and spinach a day just to be "average!" Those damned smug holistic nutritionists! Do you think even they eat that much? Do you think they spend half their day holding their nose and quaffing down carefully measured cuploads of soggy broccoli? And no, a tofu burger doesn't count as vegetables. And yes, I too hate even thinking about satisfying my hunger at the diner with a side order of sautéed spinach when everyone else is having cheese fries.

Don't think that slamming one of these $3 green juices at the deli is going to satisfy that measuring cup-crazed nutritionist in the back of your mind. And here's something else: raw fresh vegetables and fresh fruit don't mix. Eat them at the same time and you are asking for trouble… gastric, gaseous trouble. I remember temping at this ad agency about ten years ago; it was lunch time and I was about to eat my random assemblage from the Chinese salad bar deli next door: fresh strawberries, big vegetarian sushi roll, and fresh, raw broccoli. A visiting hippie chick friend of mine, the sort who has read Diet for a New America all the way through, gave me a look of concern as she and my co-worker went out to lunch. When they came back she took one look at my pale, agonized, bloated face and told me she had been worried about my mixing all through her lunch, and that I should never mix raw fruit and vegetables in the same meal.

She was a hippie nutritionist chick, and she knew.