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.

You can’t lose weight. You can’t gain weight. You have acne. Liver spots. You’ve aged prematurely. You don’t sleep well. Naturopathic Medicine traces all these issues back to the condition of your digestive system. Most health-oriented people know they need to cleanse. And digestive cleansing is all the rage nowadays. Read the rest of this entry »

More Water=Less Efficient Filtering?

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.

Food is Just the Beginning

Our western culture is all about diets, all about pills—things you consume. The truth: Food is only the beginning! I get many emails from people confused and disillusioned because they’ve been eating raw foods exclusively for a time but still feel constipated, still have skin issues, haven’t lost enough weight—the list goes on. A common thread runs through many of their pleas. It’s simple: The “food thing” is all they’re doing! I can’t figure out what’s wrong…I haven’t experienced the ‘butterfly-cocoon effect’ like you…and I’ve been raw for months! Sometimes, the trouble might be medical. And I do not, cannot give any medical advice. I can, however, offer some common sense from one who has walked the path for many years. Read the rest of this entry »

Fruit and Nuts Together?

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 »

Vitamin Dosing Culture

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.

My Personal Experience

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.

To maximize growth, you must activate the hormones that stimulate growth. Hormonal stimulation is the switch that turns on the anabolic process, and this very switch gets flipped whenever you fast. 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 »

The food we eat on the raw food diet has been appropriately called by many different names: living food, sunfood, plant-based nutrition, raw vegan, and similar terms. Recently, one reader commented on how much she enjoyed the ‘waterful’ raw diet. What a delightful and refreshing image it brings to mind! It makes it an excellent synonym for “whole.” Find a definition for whole food. It should state that the water is intact. Read the rest of this entry »