What is Raw Vegan?

People ask us this all the time. We couldn’t even pronounce vegan when we first learned about it (hint: “vee-gun.”).

It’s not complicated at all, open-minded person that you are, reading this menu. In a nutshell (pun intended), we don’t eat anything that’s been cooked over 112 degrees Fahrenheit and we don’t eat any animal products. Now is when a lot of people say “Oh, so you eat a lot of sushi?”

Not so!

While sushi gets all the press for being “raw,” it’s actually not--in the way that we define “raw,” and it’s definitely not vegan (unless it’s a California roll or something that doesn’t include fish).

But instead of defining raw vegan by what we don’t eat, it’s much more fun to talk about what we DO eat, which is the best, most vibrant, most delicious, and most energizing food ever.

Just about every single thing that you’ve eaten cooked, we can create raw at The Prana Raw Café. That’s why it’s not about restriction at all, but about ADDING IN the best, healthiest, most vibrant, and energizing ingredients ever, to make the same things you’ve always loved—and will continue to, but while shedding unwanted pounds, having more energy, and reversing the aging process. (Yes, Sister, you heard me right. Go ahead, re-read that last sentence.)

How do we make our food if we don’t cook it and if we don’t use animal products?

We use super-cool high-speed blenders, super-fast juicers that maintain all of the minerals and nutrients, and dehydrate some foods in lieu of baking, broiling, frying, toasting, roasting, broasting, or microwaving (gasp!) them.

But none of this really matters so much as how the food tastes. And we’re here to tell you that it’s the best food ever. Ever!

But you’ll soon see that…what did you order?

We often joke that we could never go back to eating cooked food—and not because eating raw vegan gives us unlimited energy, vitality, patience, and a spring in our step; not because we sleep 2 hours less a night, are more creative than ever, and our yoga practices feel amazing; not because we lost weight effortlessly, our skin looks better, and we’re reversing the aging process; but because the food tastes so good!

Have the best day ever!
Namaste!
— Taylor & Philippe

About Raw Food

Raw food cuisine is about creating delicious dishes with minimal processing.

It's also referred to as Sun Food, High Vibration Food, Living Food, and High Life Force Food.

  
 


The first thing people think about when they hear raw is:  not cooked. While that’s obviously correct, raw food is about more than just not cooking. It’s about minimal processing. That’s why the labels High Vibration or High Life Force actually give a better sense of the Raw Food philosophy.

Raw Foodists believe that processing food depletes its nutrients. Heat from cooking is an obvious processing step, but in today’s packaged food industry there are many other processing steps we’re not even aware of: steam blasting, peel exploding, hexane extracting, water gun slicing, spray drying, compressed ammonia freezing, high hydrostatic pressure processing, flavor enhancing (naturally or artificially … they’re both basically the same), and the list goes on. Even these names are scary!

After all of those steps, very little of the nutritional value remains in processed foods. In his movie Super Size Me, Morgan Spurlock conducted an experiment with French fries, by placing them in a glass jar in his office.  After 10 weeks (when even the Big Mac had gone moldy), the French fries looked like they had just came out of the deep fryer. There was not enough nutrient availability to support any type of living organism.

Raw foods contain tremendous life force. If you eat fruit, berries, grains, and nuts, you are eating foods that can grow a plant, a shrub, even a tree. These foods have a lot of life force. It’s easy to see that.

Raw foods are also easy to digest. Cooking, for instance, denatures proteins. The function of a protein is not just determined by the amino acids from which it is built, but also by the shape the protein molecule takes. A protein is actually a long chain of amino acids that folds and curls itself up on itself. The function of that protein is determined by its structure (not by the amino acids it is made up of). Messing with that structure (by cooking and denaturing it) is not a good idea and messes with our health in the short and long run.

This all relates to the ease of digestion.  When we cook our proteins before we eat them, we’re not ingesting functionally active proteins. Instead we’re just shoveling in denatured amino acid chains. This makes it more difficult for our body to digest the protein fully.  Our body does not recognize the denatured proteins, and needs to take extra steps to digest them.  More energy going into digestion means less energy available to us. Period.

In addition, a denatured protein that is harder to digest is also less likely to be broken down into amino acids and more likely to be absorbed into our blood as a protein. Then the protein is called a foreign protein (since it has entered our blood stream), and it can lead to food allergies or even anaphylactic shock (which can cause sneezing, skin rashes, headaches, nausea, etc).

As you can tell by now, the theory behind Raw Food is actually a huge topic. All we’re doing here is giving a brief overview of the metabolic and digestive chemistry that lead us to understand the value of Raw Food.

But for us, the biggest selling point for Raw Food is not any of the theory behind why it is the best way to eat. No one eats theory. It’s the taste itself that sold us. We believe that we’re naturally wired to be drawn to those foods that are best for us. This wiring that tells us what we need to eat--without needing to read labels. And this wiring is called taste.

We ultimately eat Raw Foods because they taste best. We think there is an evolutionary reason for that. If our tastes draw us to the foods that are best for us, and that have the most nutrition, we are much more likely to be successful in the evolutionary sense. Basically, if the foods that taste best to us also happen to be the foods that nourish us most, our chances of being healthy and happy are much higher.

In our experience, this is absolutely true.  Once you get over the addiction to high fat, high salt, high sugar foods, the foods that taste best are Raw Foods--foods that are either freshly harvested or minimally processed. They have the cleanest, lightest, freshest, and most enticing taste of any foods.

We often hear people say “But Taylor and Philippe, I’m a foodie, I love food, I can’t possibly eat Raw.”  And while we understand what they are trying to say, we smile when we hear it because raw food tastes so much better than anything we ever ate cooked and we enjoy our food even more now than we ever did before we chose this path.

Once you give Raw Food a try, you will quickly understand that someone who truly appreciates foods and flavors--someone who really, truly is a foodie--can’t deny that Raw Foods are amazingly delicious, vibrant, and irresistible.

Our Philosophy:

We believe that you are pure potential.

You have an incredible life force (“prana” in Sanskrit) flowing through your body right now that is available to use to create and be anything that you want in your life.

One way to connect with this life force is through moving the stuck energy in your body and mind, which we do by practicing Prana Power Yoga (just three doors down from the Café!). Another way to connect with and utilize this life force is by putting high energy/life force foods into your body on a regular basis, which we also enjoy doing, and which you are about to do right now at our Café—rock on!

We believe in adding in the most high energy/high life force foods ever. We don’t believe in restriction. Restriction doesn’t work and we all know that on some level. The minute you take something away, some part of you is figuring out how to get it back. It’s human nature!

By adding in more raw living foods to your lifestyle, you ignite the life force that’s already inside of you, giving you more energy, joy, creativity, and focus…and you didn’t have to give anything up! You just had a raw brownie or a smoothie or maybe a juice. Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?

No, it wasn’t hard, because we don’t believe in trying hard. We believe in trying easy. Trying hard doesn’t work—in the long run. In the short run perhaps, but we’re talking about what will work—easily--for a lifetime.

There is no “downside” to eating more live (raw) food. There is only the “upside”: more energy, joy, creativity, patience, and life force.

Immediately!
Unwanted pounds melt away effortlessly, joy escalates, creativity increases, and your energy goes through the roof. “Just from eating certain foods?” You ask, weary from the promises made by oh-so-many diet books. Yes, just by eating certain foods.

We assure you of this with confidence and with integrity, and with the lives that prove it.

You have no idea how powerful what you put in your mouth is—what choosing high vibration, high nutrient-based real food will do to shift your entire life. Until you start to shift what you put in your mouth on a regular basis, and see the results—immediately.

Day one!
We believe it’s what you do most of the time that matters. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about intention--and consistency. And again, it’s about adding in the good stuff—not taking anything away.

If you love burgers—have a Prana burger! If you love chips, have some kale chips. If you have a sweet tooth, eat raw dessert for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—while losing weight and gaining energy and vitality.

Throw away the calorie charts, the carb counters, and the scale. Those are all about suffering, and we are all about joy. This is our philosophy. This is what we live. We recommend that you always take a look at the person giving you advice. Really take a look at them, both physically and energetically. Are they living the life they are espousing for you? Do they embody what you want to live and be? Take a good hard look, or, rather, an “easy” one, and then have a sip of green juice and smile. You’re on the right path.

About Taylor & Philippe

Taylor and Philippe transformed their bodies, minds, and lives with their yoga practice and intuitively knew after their first practice that it was their dharma to spread the light of yoga to others.

They left the rat race in 2002 to found Prana Power Yoga in Newton and now own, direct, and teach at their four Prana studios while co-parenting and homeschooling their three children, Madison (11), Sage (5) and Phoenix (2).

On Mother’s Day 2008 Taylor launched Super-mom.com, a celebration of Moms--a place to find support, insight, inspiration, humor, advice, and connection. She blogs daily to Super-people around the world.

Taylor & Philippe learn a lot every day on their mats and from their yoga students; however, their biggest teachers are Madison, Sage, and Phoenix.

Taylor & Philippe have been Raw Vegan for five years and their two-year-old son (Phoenix) is also a 100% Raw Vegan (his two sisters are on the path—making their way at their own pace). Their Raw Vegan lifestyle completely transformed their lives. They are happier, healthier, calmer, more focused, more loving, more creative, kinder, more energized, and more excited about life. All health and sleep issues are gone. Every day they wake up with joy and excitement and know that they can create anything that they want in their lives. They only put pure positive energy into their body, and that reflects in their lives. After all, “you are what you eat!”

Because of their Raw Vegan lifestyle, Taylor & Philippe have even more energy to spread light and Prana and co-parent and home-school their three kids. They lecture on the raw food lifestyle regularly at their four studios and around the city and teach the Prana Cleanse^™ around the world. Taylor consults with local celebrities, students, Super-mom.com readers, and people in her community, teaching them how to create and live the best life ever. She is available for consultation and can be reached at taylor@pranapoweryoga.com.

The Kids Corner

THE KIDS CORNER at The Prana Raw Café:
If you have little ones, how many times have you actually chewed your food when you’ve gone out to dinner? How many times has your meal been relaxing?  How many times have your kiddos not been bored?

We have three kids (ages 11, 5, and 2), and we get it. Years ago we used to go to a restaurant that had a kids’ play area filled with plastic toys, not for the food (which was mediocre at best) but so we could actually have a conversation while we ate. :)

So at The Prana Raw Café, we created THE BEST KIDS CORNER EVER. Nestled in a pink house (modeled after our very own in Newtonville), your kids can play with wooden toys, do arts & crafts, read, relax on a bean bag chair, and/or watch on-going age-appropriate movies playing on a projector. There are pink, green, & white flower light fixtures climbing up all of the glitter-kissed walls of THE KIDS CORNER. Because, when you get down to it, it’s all about glitter and flowers.