Interview with Kate Magic of "Raw Living"

By Shannon Leone

Kate is the most experienced raw food promoter in the UK. She has sixteen years of experience of raw eating, and is raising a family of three boys on a predominantly raw diet. She is the author of ‘Eat Smart, Eat Raw’, the UK’s best selling raw food recipe book; and ‘Raw Living’, a recipe book and guide to the raw lifestyle. Her third book, ‘Raw Magic’, a ground-breaking book of superfood recipes, another UK first, was published by Rawcreation in 2008, and is receiving rave reviews. She is a Managing Director of the Raw Living website which offers advice and information on the raw diet, as well as an online shop, and she is the proud parent of the Raw Living range of chocolate bars and cakes. She was the editor of Get Fresh magazine, the world’s most popular raw food magazine, for three years. She currently divides her time between being with her children, private consultations, public speaking, and working on her next books “Ecstatic Beings” (co-authored with Shazzie) and “88 – the Untold Story of a Revolution” (about the original London acid house scene).

Kate has been featured in most of the UK’s national press including The Independent, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Daily Express, Metro, Vogue, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Red, Zest , Closer, Reveal, The Green Parent, Lifescape, Juno, Get Fresh, and Funky Raw. She has made a number of national media appearances including BBC TV and radio, ITV, Channel 4, Passion for the Planet digital radio, and Radio Reverb. She has spoken at numerous festivals and events around the country, primarily on raw foods but also on superfoods and on natural parenting.

Kate is driven by a passionate desire for change in this world. Everything she does is fuelled by her vision of humanity living together in peace and unity, and restoring our mother earth to a garden paradise. She believes raw foods and superfoods to be an important tool to unlocking our inner potential and empowering ourselves as individuals to create the revolution that is so urgently needed at this time.

I personally enjoy her sense of FUN!  I actually painted a portrait of her  and the astonishing thing was that I LATER discovered she had dyed her hair the same fuscia pink like in my painting, though neither one of us was aware of this synchronicity!  But mostly, what I really admire in Kate is her connectedness to her self, and to her kids.  She makes up her own rules, which probably means no rules- just tuning-in to herself, and her kids. What a great living lesson for her children. Teaching by example isn’t the best way to teach your kids…It’s the ONLY way!

Tell us about your first experience of hearing about raw.  Who inspired you?  How raw are you, and how do you maintain it (ESPECIALLY with kids)?

I was a vegan eating a lot of fruit and salads, and a friend said to me, “You’re like a raw fooder.”  So I found out what a raw fooder was, and it all made sense to me!  I think the first book I read was Viktoras Kulvinskas Survival into the 21^st century, and then Leslie Kenton’s Raw Energy.  This was in 1993, so there wasn’t the Internet to look everything up on.  There weren’t David Wolfe lectures to download.  There weren’t classy raw restaurants to visit.  It was very hard finding things out.  There wasn’t even Amazon to order books off!  So really, for me it was all about listening to my body’s wisdom, I didn’t have any role models, it was about learning to trust the voice within.

I don’t like to say I am 100 % raw.  Nature doesn’t like perfection, there are no straight lines in nature, you have to have the yin & the yang!  So I am 99 % raw.  I never consciously eat cooked food, but I allow for real life to happen.  I never crave cooked foods now, have no desire for them at all, but it took many years to get to that point.

Would you share a few of your favorite recipes with us?

I can do better than that.  Here is a link to my website recipe archive where you will find dozens!

Why have you chosen to homeschool your kids?  How does it work?  Do you think the kids would ever choose to go to school in the future?  What about bedtime, do you have an evening ritual?  What do you think is so important for moms to know about kids?

Well I could write a book here!  I think homeschooling chose me!

We wake up naturally, and have cuddles and giggles.  We have breakfast,  get dressed, and do our tidying up and household chores together.  That can take all morning!  Any mother will tell you, everything takes twice as long with a child around.  And with three, it takes three or four times as long.  The mundane aspects of sleeping, shopping, preparing food and eating it, playing with friends, reading, walking along the beach, going for bike rides, swimming, keeping our space clean and tidy, drawing & writing cards to send to friends and family; laughing, cuddling, watching a little YouTube or Dr Who, asking questions about life, challenging the perceived boundaries, falling over, crying, and picking ourselves up again – all these things fill our days in a natural and fulfilling way.  How would we ever fit school in?

Having said that, Reuben is 11 now and he’s just gone back into a Steiner School.  He was in Steiner kindergarten when he was younger.  He’s loving it.  At 11, I did feel he’d got to a point where I couldn’t offer him enough stimulation, and he was ready for something else.  And I totally trust him to go out into the world making the right choices and being a good person, because we’ve had so much quality time together.  I value him as a person, and I know he values himself because of that.  He has a lot of self-awareness, he’s very in touch with his inner wisdom.

What tricks or tricks do you have for moms trying to get their kids to eat more raw foods?

Don’t give up!  It may take years to get them to eat greens, but don’t give up.  All of my boys have gone through fussy periods, but I’ve persisted and now they all eat an exemplary diet.

Bartering is my number one tip. They can have what they want if they eat what you want first e.g. if you eat your cucumber sticks, you can have some chips.  Just make sure they are eating more cucumber than chips and you’re winning!

Any advice for women trying to entice their men to go raw?

There’s a whole chapter on this subject in my book Raw Living.   Let him eat what he likes.  Just keep feeding him raw alongside whatever else he’s having.  Your food tastes much better, he’ll soon work it out for himself. And one day you’ll hear those famous last words, “I don’t want cooked food anymore” !!

Any raw beauty secrets?

Cold baths!  I love cold baths and showers.  I’ve been having cold showers everyday for 16 years, and cold baths once a week for about 8 years.  They are great for the skin and the circulation.  And the mind!

How much sleep do you get, and what hours do you keep?

I average about 6 hours a night.  I’m a night person, I don’t go to bed till after 2 am usually, and don’t get up before 8 am.  I like working at night, it’s better for me as a creative person because it’s quieter and I can tune in easier.

How much water do you drink daily?

2-3 litres.  Water is very important, I think.

What is a typical breakfast like for you?  Lunch?  Dinner?  Snack?

I’m really happy with my routine right now.  Breakfast is a litre of chia milk. I usually have a wheatgrass or aloe shot in the morning too.  Lunch happens about 2 or 3 pm.  It’s invariably very green, heavy on the seaweeds, and involves a spicy creamy dressing.  Next pit-stop is a nori roll crammed with alfalfa sprouts and a mayonnaise mixed with green powders like barleygrass and spirulina.  Evening meal is around a litre of green juice.  I drink lots of herbal teas that I make in the pot.  Snacks are usually raw chocolate or cake.  I eat tons of algae, tons of seaweeds, tons of flax and hemp, drink loads of liquids, and a little chocolate, and that sorts me out!

How late in the evening do you feel it is okay to eat?

I try not to eat after 8 pm, just liquids. We usually have dinner around 6 pm.

Who do you admire most (or who most inspires you) in the raw food movement today?

You!  All the mums who live it, day in, day out, despite sleepless nights and endless breastfeeding.  Not the gurus standing on stage getting their egos massaged, but all the women at home, who, in their own quiet and humble ways, are building solid foundations for the next generation.

Would you care to share anything about your spiritual practice?

I try to meditate every day, which in reality means about four or five times a week.  I do a 16 minute kundalini yoga meditation for loving yourself and the world at the same time.  I also do 11 rounds of sun salutations and a headstand.  I’ve been practicing yoga for 18 years; it’s as important a part of my life as raw foods.  I try and do a full session once or twice a week, either at home or at a local class.

What projects or interests are currently inspiring you?

I’ve just finished my fifth book, which is called “88 – the untold story of a revolution.”  It’s primarily about the acid house scene in London in 1988, but also about the power of dance music to change people’s lives.  It’s about trying to encapsulate the feeling of dancing at a party or in a club or in a field with people you love and feeling like everything is possible, and heaven on earth is real.  It’s about what you do with that feeling, how it changes you as a person, and how you try to translate it into everyday life.   Now I’m sharpening up my DJ skills, I’ve always done a little DJ-ing here and there, but I want to take it out more, get more professional work, not just friends’ parties and my living room!

Anything else you’d care to share, dear?

I believe this is a tremendously exciting time to be alive.  I believe if we look and listen with our hearts, we can see very clearly now the emerging new paradigm based on love, unity, peace, prosperity, abundance, hope, change, harmony, sustainability.  All we have to do is keep that vision clear, not fall prey to the fears and worries that easily beset us in these tumultuous times.  I’m bringing my children up for a world that is going to be unimaginably different from the one I grew up in.  Really, how could I know what to teach them, what skills they will need?  So all I can do is to empower them to be themselves, to teach them self-knowledge, self-awareness, and self-responsibility.  To trust that they have all the answers they need inside of themselves.  Or in their words, to become Jedi Knights!!

(My kids want to be Jedi Knights too!  Gosh, maybe I should see the movie…)

WONDERFUL interview, thanks Kate!

xoShannon

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