I recently attended the 2011 Calorie Restriction Society Conference in Las Vegas and had occasion to discuss with Dr. Luigi Fontana (MD, Ph.D, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional Sciences, Center of Human Nutrition, at Washington University) some exciting studies he has been involved in. Read the rest of this entry »

I fret when I see a TV commercial touting some cleansing product in a Here—pop this pill kind of tone that reminds one of diet pills and miracle foods, perpetuating the notions that, first, you must buy something in order to get digestive health, and, second, achieving that health can be easy and instant. Read the rest of this entry »

I got an interesting e-mail a while back: I thought you might find this interesting, Tonya. In the Ladies Home Journal (Christie Brinkley on the cover, July 2009, page 141), a study is quoted…’in fact, there’s evidence your body is less efficient at filtering out toxins when your water intake is higher.’ That, Tonya, is what you say in your books!!! Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been many years since I took the first few tentative steps on my raw food journey. Since then, I’ve experienced one exciting transformation after another, both physically and mentally. My health, looks and state of mind have continuously improved over the years. Just when I thought things couldn’t possibly get better, they did! I firmly believe this is because I took special care early on to transition slowly to raw foods, and to incorporate all of the lifestyle practices so essential for creating genuine, lasting health. Read the rest of this entry »

My readers challenge me. Good! One e-mail responded to a recipe of mine which featured nut cheese topped with persimmons. My reader wrote: Food-combining charts say that the combination of fruit and nuts is not ideal due to differing digestion times. I’m surprised, Tonya, that you’d eat nuts and fruit together… Read the rest of this entry »

People write me, sometimes, to say: You post raw food recipes every month and you even have a book on recipes, but at the same time you stress again and again that a raw food diet must be very simple and “recipes” will have to be left behind. Seems like a contradiction…I do understand. You may feel like you had to buy new appliances, learn how blend and mix all these recipes, only not to use them later. Read the rest of this entry »

Our entire culture has embraced supplements, indeed is leaning increasingly toward them. How many people do you know who start off their days with a multivitamin, a calcium tablet, an iron tablet, perhaps separate doses of vitamins A, B, C, D and on down the alphabet? Maybe you’re one of these people. Vitamin dosing is a normal practice for many who consider themselves “health conscious.” Read the rest of this entry »

“Impossible!” some people challenge me: “You can’t live on so few calories.” But quite clearly, I do.

On average, one burns 750–850 calories in a 90-minute Bikram yoga class. Since I often take two classes a day, I may well burn 1500 calories a day just from yoga classes, before we begin counting up everything else. I consume approximately 1200 to 1400 calories daily, and my weight stays constant. This might seem impossible to a nutritional scientist. Some nutritionists would calculate that I must be wasting away. However, in the words of Mr. Churchill, “The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.” I’m not only living but also thriving on a calorie-restricted diet. Read the rest of this entry »

In my local gym I frequently see these two lanky youngsters who constantly climb onto the scale. They weigh themselves, do a few sets, then immediately head straight to the scale to weigh themselves again. Some raw foodists just as badly want to gain some muscle. We all know that muscles are gained in a gym, laboring hard at the weights, not in a kitchen. But what you eat, and especially when you eat it, can be powerful determining factors in your success in gaining muscle—acutely so for raw foodists. Read the rest of this entry »

Those of us who’ve gone 100 percent raw eventually start to look at others in disbelief: How can these people, we wonder, consume steak, pizza and ice cream, and still live? We know we’d be miserable if we partook of even a morsel of those foods. The same thing will eventually happen with the amount of food you eat. Read the rest of this entry »