FOOD FOR THOUGHT. Author and raw-food chef Ani Phyo visited Portland recently to promote and sign copies of her new book, Ani’s Raw Food Desserts. (AR Photo/Pamela Ellgen)

By Pamela Ellgen

The Asian Reporter

Ani Phyo is pure sunshine. The raw, vegan chef’s glowing skin, radiant energy, and gracious outlook bespeak the inner health she has found eating a raw, plant-based diet. She has written two recipe books and recently visited Portland to share more from her newest publication, Ani’s Raw Food Desserts.

"Raw foods are rocket fuel for our bodies," she said to a packed house at Powell’s City of Books on Sunday, May 31. She began with a health lesson on antioxidants, shared her inspiration for going raw, and opened up about her upbringing in the late ’60s and ’70s.

Phyo described her Korean parents as prehistoric raw foodists. They were the early pioneers of a movement in the United States toward eating a whole-food, plant-based diet. When she was young, Phyo and her brother suffered through many mornings drinking "sludge," a concoction of whatever happened to be ripe that day in their parents’ organic garden. Celery, spinach, green bell pepper, whatever — they were all thrown into a juicer.

"Growing up in a Korean household, I just wanted to be normal," Phyo said.

During high school, she was extremely active in sports and would sneak away between practices to get ice cream or pizza. College provided even more opportunities for dietary deviance, so much so that she ended up with an extra 15 pounds and cholesterol levels prompting doctors to put her on medication.

That’s when Phyo’s mom intervened, said no to the meds, and reinstated a strict, raw, vegan diet. The pounds fell off and her cholesterol plummeted. Nevertheless, to Phyo, the food was uninspiring and suffered on taste and color.

A few years later, Phyo discovered gourmet raw food at a little restaurant called Juliano’s in San Francisco. It inspired her to the culinary possibilities of raw food, to be more creative with fewer ingredients, and to focus on the colors and flavors in her recipes.

Like most vegetarians, Phyo fields the question, "But what about protein?"

"It’s really only in this country where we’re so concerned about protein," Phyo said. "In Asia, the main dish is the rice."

For example, in a Korean meal, rice is surrounded by 15 to 20 side dishes — most of which are vegetables such as marinated tofu or mung beans. Sometimes there’s only one tiny side dish with just a few bites of fish. It’s certainly not a protein-centric culture, she said. Furthermore, calorie for calorie, green vegetables actually have more protein than animal products.

However, it’s not protein or lack thereof that interests Phyo and other raw foodists; it’s nutrients such as vitamins, healthy fats, and antioxidants that are present in raw, whole foods. So why are these things important? As Phyo explained to the audience at Powell’s, antioxidants clean up the oxidative damage caused in our bodies by stress, pollution, and poor nutrition.

"When we’re younger, we’re taught how to clean our rooms, but we’re never taught how to clean our bodies," she said.

She’s talking about internal cleansing, and not in that 10-day detox sort of way. Inviting a lifestyle rich in whole, raw foods with plenty of clean water and physical activity allows our body to clean itself. And a body that’s healthy on the inside shows up on the outside. If Phyo herself isn’t testimony enough to the virtues of raw foodism, she invites people to incorporate even one raw recipe into their menus.

"It’s not about perfection," she said. "It’s about doing the best we can."

* * *

Makes 4 tartlets

2 cups shredded coconut

1/2 cup cashews

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup agave syrup