The raw-food diet, once the exclusive domain of ’70s food faddists, is making a comeback for the same reasons it flourished 30 years ago: health and politics. Many find it helpful in relieving a variety of maladies—including allergies, fibromyalgia, obesity, gum disease, and mood swings—while others see raw food as a way to resist the unhealthy products of an industrialized food system. No matter how you slice it, excitement about a diet of uncooked food is running high.

"Anecdotally, there’s been a definite rise in interest in raw-foods diets," says nutritionist Suzanne Havala Hobbs, adjunct assistant professor at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill’s School of Public Health. "There’s been a lot of information out about celebrities that are eating raw foods, and naturally many younger people are interested in trying it out. There’s also been a wave of raw-foods cookbooks and restaurants." Hobbs, who also serves as nutrition advisor to the Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group, is currently conducting a research survey on the topic, called the Raw Foods Project.

A raw-food diet consists of foods that have not been processed or heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit. These might include fresh fruits, vegetables, cold-pressed oils, sprouted grains, nuts, seeds, and even organic wine—but not meat or fish. According to June Butlin in Positive Health (Aug. 2001), a proper raw-food diet provides high levels of natural, essential nutrients such as fiber, essential oils, antimicrobials, plant hormones, bioflavonoids, vitamins, minerals, chlorophyll, digestive enzymes, and antioxidants.

Just how hip has raw food become? In Dead Prez’s song "Be Healthy" from their 2000 debut album Let’s Get Free, hip-hop’s radical duo encourages would-be revolutionaries to forgo fried chicken for juiced greens. They’re even bringing food issues to their live shows, notes Debra DeSalvo in the anthology Best American Food Writing 2001(Mcarlow & Co.). In her essay, which originally appeared in The Village Voice, she reports that Dead Prez roused a young crowd at New York’s rock club CBGB by asking if there were vegetarians, vegans, and, finally, raw foodists in the house. When a few whoops rang out and hands shot up, Dead Prez’s Stic.man shouted, "Yeah! That’s the shit!"