• **■ T Page 4 n .• r- - ■ » ww •- *v • ■ « » (Tlie ÿorthuth ffibeerwer November 24,1999 Raw gourmet cooking A historically correct first can change your life Thanksgiving B y J oy R amos and C huck L arsen for the Eating raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds has helped tne aoutenso family reverse their chronic health conditions and feel vibrant. The family members pictured from left to right are Valya, Igor, Victoria and Sergei Boutenko. P ortland O bserver For almost a century, w e’ve been taught the “sugar-coated” half-truths about the First Thanksgiving. Its h isto ry has been b la ta n tly ro m a n tic iz e d , m ythed and stereotyped. Why? T hanksgiving was declared a national holiday in the late 1800’s as part o f a socialization program. Our country was trying to pull together with so many diverse peoples into a common national identity. Public education began and the first Thanksgiving fellowship was chosen as a symbol o f Christian charity and interracial brotherhood for youths B y V ictoria B oltenko _______________ _____ __________________________________ ro« T he P ortland O bserver Why raw? To me, it is not even a question. Everybody knows that fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds are the healthiest food. The question now is How to get o ff cooked foods? How to enjoy actually staying raw? I mean continuing to be social, going out, sharing tasty dishes with family, and so on? Is that possible? When our family o f four became began eating raw foods five and a half years ago, we were given no instruction on it. We were all suffering from chronic health problems. I weighed 280 lbs. and had severe heart problems. My husband Igor had surgery and was scheduled to remove his thyroid. Our son Sergei had juvenile diabetes. Valya, our daughter was choking from asthma. Doctors couldn’t truly help us regain our health. There was a hope for us in raw food so we decided to try it for two months. It was very hard because we were addicted to sugar, coffee, poultry, dairy, pasta and other cooked foods. If you don’t believe that cooked food is addictive, simply try not to eat it for a couple o f days and see what happens. Eating raw vegetarian was very hard for us, but we didn’t have any other choice. Within the first two weeks o f eating this way, our major symptoms disappeared! All four o f us were really puzzled. Were we hallucinating feeling better or were we really on the right path to better health? I called Sergei’s doctor and told her that his symptoms were clearing. She was alarmed and replied, “It has nothing to do with your new diet, you’re just lucky.” When I called Igor’s doctor to postpone his surgery, he talked to me as if I were mentally crazy. We continued the raw foods diet because we felt healthier. In fact, we had so much energy that we all began a fitness program. My doctor advised me to stop immediately. Instead, we continued eating the same way and on Memorial Day, our family ran a very popular 10-K race called “Bolder Boulder”. The biggest problem with our newfound diet was the unavailability of information on it. We didn’t even know where to look for it. We knew that a raw food diet worked forus, but information on it was scarce. In a matter o f months, we had collected hundreds o f recipes from books and bought juicers, blenders, and dehydrators for cooking tools. Our family traveled wherever we could to meet other people who were eating the same way. In the Bahamas, we once placed an entire group of churchgoers (70 in all) on raw food cooking for ten days. From that experience, we have learned how to make delicious raw food meals in a way that even those on the standard American diet would love the taste. With all the health benefits and wealth o f knowledge that we had acquired by doing lots o f raw food cooking, it became more pleasurable and simpler to do. We like to share with others through classes and seminars on how to prepare raw food gourmet dishes and keep to this healthy lifestyle of eating. Victoria Boutenko and her family offer raw gourmet cooking classes in Portland every Monday at SE Civic Center (Holgate and Foster). For more information, call 541/488-8865. E E P r v a lu e s that completely overthrew the King and Parliament in 1649 and willfully imposed their “Rule of Saints” (strict Puritan orthodoxy) on the rest of the British people. After being forced from England, the Pilgrims (a sub-sect ofPuritans) headed for North America on the Mayflower and a hundred other ships. Their sole purpose was to establish their prophesied “Holy Kingdom” by taking lands away from the Native people. Based on the Bible’s book o f Revelations, they saw themselves as the “Chosen E lect” to “purify” anyone not aligned with their beliefs. Their means o f religious conversion was through deception, treachery, torture, w war and gcn genocide. loriuic, ai