Kids Go Raw

Theirs are taste buds in training.


Parents and children don't typically have their napkins in a row when it comes to eating. Kids make "mac-and-cheese" their mantra. Moms and dads dangle carrots: second helpings of this if you eat that, dessert to members of the Clean Plate Club, and the highly suspicious "Try it, you'll like it."

The quest to instill healthy habits can too easily make what should be a time of soulful and stomach-full nourishment—mealtime—into a contest of wills. Pure Market Express co-founder and executive chef Rebecca Irey has a third title: mother of six. The Ireys' is an enlightened kitchen—no sugar, dairy, eggs or white flour—but a 100-percent raw family they're not.

"I want my children to eat raw because they want to, because they feel better when they do, not because Mom says they should," says Rebecca. "To me, it's about educating them to make their own good choices."

Up to a half of the family's meals are raw foods "education." The kids can help themselves to raw anything, including desserts, anytime. On those occasions when the family has gone entirely raw, Rebecca notices in her children fewer tummy aches, more stable moods and better sleep patterns.

Teen-aged daughter Rachel observes, "Eating cooked food weighs me down; it sits like a rock in my stomach, especially before playing hockey." The family's resident baker, Rachel converts favorite recipes into raw replicas, key lime pudding and "Reeses" peanut butter cups among them. Younger sister Julia is a fan of Buckwheaties cereal with nut milk, while brothers Quentin, Jr. and Noah happily gulp down Green Sweet Tart juice and cacao bean.

"This isn't a religion, people. It's just eating better," says Rebecca. It's living and learning. Rachel remembers when her mom first announced they were going to start eating living foods: "My brothers and sisters and I thought, 'Yeah, right. That's going to work. We're all going to die.'" It worked and everyone lived. As parents far and wide have been known to intone, "Case closed."

Enough about us. Find out what others have to say!