Raw Food: Mimi Kirk, Vibrant At 73
If raw food diets sound crazy to you, they won’t after you take a look at Mimi Kirk. This 73-year-old mother of four and grandmother of seven looks decades younger than her age and, more importantly, radiates youthful energy and joy—all things she attributes to her raw food, vegan diet. She was named PETA’s “Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50? in 2009, and recently published the book Live Raw: Raw Food Recipes for Good Health and Timeless Beauty. When I saw pictures of Mimi I was dying to learn more about her diet, not only because she looks so much younger than her years (though there’s that) but because she seems so damn happy and young at heart. Here’s what she had to say:
When and why did you go vegan?
“I first became a vegetarian back in my early 30s, when people barely knew what that was. I had been meditating a lot and it made me very sensitive to everything, and one day when I was working at Mary Tyler Moore’s stand in I went to pick up lunch for us, and as I was driving back to the set I took a bite of my roast beef and thought I took a bite out of the back of my hand—I really realized that it was flesh and it didn’t feel right to me. I went home and told my kids that we were going to be vegetarians from then on. At first it was just about animals, but then I got educated about the health reasons to avoid animal protein and then I moved on to being vegan. I’ve been vegetarian or vegan for the better part of 40 years.”
So most people think of a vegan diet as very healthy, what made you take the extra step to go raw?
“About four years ago, when I was 69, I found out that my blood pressure and cholesterol were up, and I was starting to get arthritic aches and pains. But I didn’t want to go on prescription drugs, so I started to think about raw food. I’d tried it in the past and hadn’t liked it, because I’m such a foodie and I hadn’t had great raw food. But I did a detox and I felt great, so I decided to go raw. It made a huge difference right away. My cholesterol dropped 26 points, my blood pressure regulated, my arthritic pain went away and now I feel like I’m in my 20s.”
Of course it’s not as important, but you look amazing for your age, for any age! Do you attribute that to raw food?
It was the funniest thing, when I first started this I went on a detox along with one of my daughters, and after four days of it I called her up and said, I swear that my teeth look whiter! And from there on I noticed a tremendous change. My skin certainly does not look my age, I’d say the skin on my arm looks as good as that of a woman in her 30s. Plus I lost about twenty pounds. I had gained weight, mostly by cooking a lot for my boyfriend, and I had a bunch of clothes in the garage that I couldn’t fit into. But when I went raw that weight dropped off and I could wear my own clothes again, without worrying about calories. Before I started this I was losing hair, but when I went raw my hair got thicker than ever. My hairdresser said, “Look at all this new hair!” My nails are strong my teeth are spectacular. But most importantly, my energy level shifted immediately. I no longer get tired around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and I truly feel like I’m in my 20s.
Was it hard to go raw?
“It was easy for me, because I had something motivating me to do it. I felt, ‘I’m in my 70s now and I want to be here for my grandkids and hopefully great-grandkids.’ For most people it’s hard to learn to fulfill cravings, so that’s why I wrote my book. I’m a real foodie, so I didn’t want to sacrifice the things I love, so I came up with raw dishes that satisfy the craving for Italian food, for Mexican, for bagels and lox.”
What steps to you recommend for somebody who thinks they want to switch to a raw foods diet?
“I would recommend you go gradually. The first step is to fix a green drink every morning, either a smoothie or a fresh juice. Even if you’re in a hurry, it’s not that hard to throw things in a blender. If you just do that, it’s going to change things for you. I’ve seen it happen over and over and over, you start to feel the nutrients from that, and it will give you so much energy that it will become sort of addictive and you’ll want to take the next step.”
And it’s important to make it yourself, not buy it in a store?
“The juice in the store is pasteurized, which kills the enzymes, so don’t bother with that. Depending on where you live you might be able to buy fresh green juice at a juice bar, but you won’t find it at one of those smoothie chains. If you don’t want to invest in a juicer you can put raw vegetables in a smoothie, like the Vitamix. I often do a mix of juice and smoothie—this morning I made green juice in the juicer and then I put it in the blender with mango and banana.” {The New York Times recently ran a series of smoothie recipes involving vegetables.} “During berry season I usually make a berry smoothie with my fresh juice, and often I’ll add goji berries and maca, wich is great for hormone regulation.” {You can read more about maca here.}
So what should we do next?
“Once you’ve made that commitment to yourself and are drinking your green juice in the morning, start having a big salad for lunch, then eat something cooked for dinner, something made with healthy, whole foods. At that point you’re eating close to 75% raw, which is a huge change, and helps a lot. Then you might start to notice that when you eat cheese your allergies act up, or when you eat a big pasta dinner you might feel sluggish afterward, and you might decide to go all the way. And I am not saying that everybody has to eat all raw, all the time—I do think it’s the best thing to eat, but if you are doing just 75% raw you’re doing yourself a big favor.”
A lot of your recipes involve a dehydrator—what is that?
“A dehydrator heats food to a low temperature that doesn’t destroy its enzymes. You don’t produce enough enzymes after 30, and while you can create them by mixing food with saliva, we usually don’t chew our food for as long as we should. So the dehydrator warms raw food—it’s important to realize that a raw food diet doesn’t mean a life of cold salads! The Excalibur is a great dehydrator. If you have great equipment—a dehydrator, a great blender, a juicer—then eating raw is not so hard, because you can easily make versions of the cooked food that you used to enjoy. I make crackers, bread, granola, a zucchini lasagna. I used to love sushi, so now I roll things in nori leaves and cabbage leaves that recreate those tastes.”
Do you take supplements?
“Recently I’ve started taking vitamins D and B, but not very consistently. Doctors don’t always check your D and B levels, but the older you get the harder it can be for your body to absorb D well, so it’s important to have that checked. I was tested and my D and B levels were right on the border of being low, so I started putting some liquid vitamin D in my smoothies and I take sublingual vitamin B, which is easier to absorb than a pill. But I would recommend checking with your doctor before you take anything. You really can get almost everything from your food if you manage it right.”
Have you converted your family and friends to the raw lifestyle?
“I raised my kids vegetarian, and now one of my daughters is mostly raw and the other is a ‘flexitarian’—she’s a real foodie and a little more lenient, but she does eat a lot of raw food. My two sons try to eat healthy, one less so than the other, but he does try to get the fresh juice in, and he knows that this is the way to eat when he needs it. I’ve also influenced friends and neighbors to eat more healthfully because I’ve brought raw dishes to parties and things so they realize how good it can taste. Plus they see that I have a tremendous amount of energy and still look good, and I think that that’s inspiring.”
What else would you say to somebody who is thinking of making a change to more raw foods, or a healthier diet in general?
“You have to make a commitment to your own health. Some people don’t want to know about this stuff because they don’t want to change, and it can be hard—if you’ve made food one way your entire life it’s hard to accept a new way of doing it. But isn’t it easier than being sick? People in my family have had cancer, diabetes, Parkison’s, and I’ve avoided all of that. My two sisters have both had cancer, one is overweight, one is on lots of drugs and doesn’t feel comfortable walking without the security of a walker. I don’t have any of my family’s health issues, and I swear by the raw food diet. But to commit to this you have to really love yourself, and take care of yourself the way you would a child or a loved one. What you put in your mouth should nourish you. Treat yourself like somebody else who you love.”
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