A MUM-of-two who claims her family’s health has been improved by eating uncooked fruit and vegetables is launching an Oxford raw food group.

Martha Lindsay says she and her husband Fraser have lost 17kg between them and she has stopped needing to use expensive skin creams.

She will hold her first raw food open workshop at Cheney School in Headington on Saturday, February 7, from 2pm-4.30pm to show off some of her favourite recipes and top tips.

Mrs Lindsay, 35, from Charlbury, said: “I’m not sure of the scientific evidence, but for me the proof is in the pudding – it worked for us.

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“I bought a lot of fruit and veg, cut down on sugar and we ate food that was either raw or cooked to a lower temperature so enzymes in it are not destroyed.”

She said she bought a high-speed blender to make a variety of fruit juices and smoothies and scoured the internet for recipes.

She added: “My husband and I lost 17kg between us, I have better skin and I’ve stopped buying expensive creams I used to use.

“Fraser says he hasn’t weighed so little since he was 15.”

The NHS says that water-soluble vitamins such as Vitamin C and B can be destroyed by cooking vegetables, especially boiling. It recommends the best way to keep as many vitamins as possible is to steam or grill foods rather than boil them.

Mrs Lindsay is a follower of American doctor and raw food campaigner Joseph Mercola, who says cooking food destroys precious nutrients.

The mum-of-two created an Oxford Raw Food Group on website meetup.com last summer to gauge interest, and already has 34 members.

She said: “I found it so overwhelming at the beginning not to know what I could eat, and had no support, so I wanted to create a group for like-minded people.”

Mrs Lindsay had a trial ‘meet-up’ in Headington in December, serving up samples and advising on vegetable delivery services, and 16 people came along.

She said: “People were really happy. We had one girl who came all the way from Swindon, which was really encouraging.”

Mrs Lindsay’s raw food journey began in January 2013, when her son Jeremiah contracted an undiagnosed skin condition just two weeks after he was born.

For the next year she searched in vain for some treatment, trying skin creams and a host of diets, cutting out dairy and processed foods.

Just when she was losing hope, she discovered the raw food diet that seemed to cure him completely.

She was still breastfeeding her son, and she said within weeks of cutting cooked food out of her diet, Jeremiah’s rash had gone.

To find out more, search for Oxford Raw Food Group on meetup.com

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