Transcript: Carol Alt Talks About 'Eating in the Raw'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," Jan. 11, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Back of the Book" segment tonight, what we eat is a huge topic in America. and many believe food is directly tied to some illness.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In 1996, model Carol Alt was not feeling very well. She had a variety of ailments, and, in '99, she was diagnosed with cancer. To try to improve her health, Ms. Alt radically changed her diet and has now written a book called "Eating in the Raw: A Beginner's Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier and Looking Younger the Raw Food Way."
I'll just buy the book for the cover. I don't...
CAROL ALT, AUTHOR, "EATING IN THE RAW": Unretouched. Unretouched.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: All right. I want to explain to everybody now if you're going to do this raw diet, you've got to get a physician...
ALT: Of course.
O'REILLY: ... and work in conjunction with that doctor. Now you recommend getting a doctor who understands what this is all about.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ALT: Exactly. Of course.
O'REILLY: What is it all about?
ALT: Well, it's all about enzymes, and it's all about feeding the body, and, if you're telling me that feeding the body is wrong, I have to completely disagree with you. And cooked food does not feed the body, yet people want us to eat cooked food because it lasts longer on the shelf and there's more money on the bottom line.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: And it tastes better, doesn't it?
ALT: Absolutely not. I should have brought you some raw brownies and stuff, but I've run out.
O'REILLY: Raw brownies.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ALT: Everybody's eating all my — brownies, granola, anything you eat cooked, I can find you raw.
O'REILLY: OK. So you basically don't want to put anything in the oven?
ALT: No, you dehydrate it instead, which is the same idea except it doesn't get hot. It just — I mean, all the oven does is quickly draw the water out of something so it congeals and becomes hard.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}So, when you do that in dehydrating, it does the same thing without heating it. So the enzymes are still alive, the mineral and the vitamins are still in it, and, you know, it...
And just one word in terms of illness and what happened. The reason I didn't write this book about cancer is simply because I didn't want to lose the little guy, the guys who have the sniffles and the coughs and are popping pills here and there for little things.
O'REILLY: Yes. You didn't want to make it an event.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ALT: I didn't want to make it an event.
O'REILLY: But you had cancer, it was very serious, and now you're in remission or it's gone, right?
ALT: And the doctor who wrote the book with me, Dr. Gonzales, is unbelievable. He gets amazing results with pancreatic cancer, which is a death sentence, so — and his protocol involves raw food.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: All right. Now I want people to look at your book, so let's go through it. When I think of raw food, I think of celery. Now do you eat celery like you're a little rabbit or something?
ALT: No, I don't eat celery. I don't eat celery. I eat raw milk, cheeses. I eat...
O'REILLY: Where do you get this?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ALT: Whole foods.
O'REILLY: Whole foods?
ALT: They should be paying me for that. Whole foods.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: OK. So you go into any store...
ALT: Or your international cheese market. Just tell them you want raw milk cheeses, not cooked cheeses.
O'REILLY: What about people who are afraid like of undercooked food and it's got bacteria in it and all of that?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ALT: If they're selling it in a store, they're representing that it's still good. Now, granted, anybody can get sick. My doctor got sick the other day on cooked shell fish. You know, I mean, you can — you can believe the people eating meat and getting the mad cow disease are not eating organic raw meat. They're not.
O'REILLY: So you never eat a raw burger or...
ALT: Oh, Bill, I cheat, and that's what the book is about. It's...
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: OK. Once in a while, you'll have...
ALT: You know, it's 70 percent raw. I have, you know, popcorn at hockey games, OK...
O'REILLY: But...
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ALT: But, on the whole, if you can eat 70 percent raw or introduce raw into your diet, it will help your health.
O'REILLY: In the morning when you get up, what do you eat?
ALT: I'll have cheese. I'll have...
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: Cheese?
ALT: Yes, I'll have cheese.
O'REILLY: Like a little mouse. Cheese.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ALT: No, no. I'll have — I'll have raw milk cheese. I'll have sprouted bread. I'll have sometimes salmon, like lox but grava lox.
O'REILLY: Salmon?
ALT: Grava lox.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: No bacon and eggs? That doesn't happen.
ALT: I can't digest it. It makes me sick immediately.
O'REILLY: OK. All right. So you've got a little cheese, a little bread, a little salmon for breakfast. Then in...
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ALT: Yes, but I'll do — during the day, I'll have a steak if I want it. I'll...
O'REILLY: Cooked steak or tartar?
ALT: Sered. Sered, tartar, carpachio. I'll sere it.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: All right, but you're not going to...
ALT: We're talking 70 percent raw.
O'REILLY: You're not John Madden. You're not throwing it on a grill.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ALT: No, man. I'm not going down to the barn and killing a cow and chewing on its leg. No, Bill, I'm not.
O'REILLY: OK, but you're not a vegetarian, though.
ALT: I'm not a vegetarian.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'REILLY: You'll eat meat.
ALT: And I'm not a vegan. I will eat meat. I will eat fish, dairy.
O'REILLY: OK. And then you'll go out to dinner at a swanky New York restaurant because I know you hang with the swells, and you'll have what?
ALT: Well, at Sushi Scampi, I'll have cerviche and tartars and traditos (ph).
O'REILLY: I can't even pronounce this. I'd starve to death.
ALT: No, you go to the...
O'REILLY: I'd be dead. I can pronounce that food.
ALT: ... say I want this, I want this, just point to the menu if you don't pronounce it well.
O'REILLY: All right. But Carol Alt — she's in her mid 40s. You know, it works.
ALT: Oh, you had to say that.
O'REILLY: Well, look, it's good for the book!
ALT: It's good for the book.
O'REILLY: It's good for the book. If you're eating — whatever you're eating, people are going to want to eat to look like you.
ALT: And I can't eat enough to gain weight.
O'REILLY: But we can't guarantee that, all right. And consult your doctor if you do it.
Carol, nice to see you. Good luck with the book. We appreciate it.
ALT: Nice to see you, Bill. Thank you so much for having me.
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