Raw Food and Superfood: Less is More

Hello Tonya,

I've written to you in the past and was very pleased to see one of my questions answered in your latest book [Raw Food and Hot Yoga].

Thanks for the inspiration. I feel compelled to write to you again, not to ask a question but to share some revelations I've had by eating more of raw food.

For the past five days, I've increased my intake of green smoothies and also decided to give up my vitamin C powder, wholefood multivitamin supplement as well as a herbal tincture I purchased about three weeks ago (marketed as a spring cleanser).

When I took the supplements, I felt that I was doing my body good, convincing myself that these products produce health and wellbeing and that I NEEDED them. When I started to take the herbal tincture, I started to break out in a rash (hive) in the same area on my face.

It's happened in the past, when I pushed my body to 'cleanse' with products. Each day I took the tincture as well as the other products, my face would break out in a hive, again the same area but this time in several areas. The redness would subdue after fifteen minutes. I thought my body was just pushing out toxins. . .

One morning, I just decided (instinctively) I would do away with the products and instantly, and I mean instantly, I felt better. Like that single decision had allowed that mental record to finally stop spinning. My face looked more vibrant, clearer and I felt like a load had been lifted.

I think, like most people, I got caught up in 'external' remedies and stuff to promote health and I'm starting to see, that it's just simply untrue. If anything, I feel that they added more to the toxic load, that same toxic load I was trying to eliminate through changes in diet. I had never looked at it that way before--the idea that our bodies actually do better with less than with more.

I don't understand how people on the raw food diet can eat their food from a bag just because it's labeled as a superfood. I consider these powdered products as standard artificial raw flare that have nothing to do with health. People are getting caught up in the word 'superfood.'

Simplicity is key. Simplicity is key. That's my mantra these days. And maybe my body was pushing out stored toxins but what if the herbal remedy was the toxicity, the body was trying to eliminate? Based on a lot of reading I've done, maybe the body doesn't recognize the tincture as food but more as a foreign element. . .

I don't believe that raw fruits and vegetables, leafy greens, nuts and seeds are not enough to sustain life. For the past five days without the use of supplements, and I know it's only been a short while, I feel 'cleaner', and lighter, and my bowels are working much better than they did when I was consuming a greens powder product. . .

I really feel that although these products are labeled as healthy and so called necessary for health, they just added an unnecessary burden on my body. I now understand what they mean when they say, 'you can't find health in a bottle.'

We've been programmed by pharmaceutical and supplement companies to think that we're inherently weak, but if one truly understands that the body is designed to heal itself, to regenerate, why would we think that we could get that from manufactured sources, while always assuming WE know more than MOTHER NATURE. Rubbish.

Last time I got a cold was a while back but I remember sleeping it off. I didn't have the energy to leave the house to purchase some Echinacea, and I'm so glad. My cold went away within three days!! I had no desire to eat and although we're told to chow down, I didn't have the energy to do that either and voila, that also turned out to be a good idea. I learned a lot from your books Tonya--the idea of eating less and fasting. :)

The body gathers energy to bring about healing but if it's occupied with other 'things,' it just doesn't have the time. . .And sometimes we can read something over and over again but until one actually 'lives' it, we really don't have a clue as to the kind of power and freedom we can achieve by respecting the laws of nature.

I am in awe with the idea of less. Less is more, so much more. If people only realized this. And this has been a long time coming for me but I think I understand. I think I really understand just how profound and how so very simple 'health' can be. Raw food is abundant and it gives us a wealth of abundance as well.

I began to see how satisfied my body feels with JUST raw fruits, vegetables, etc. I don't have that lingering fear anymore that I'm not getting enough. I feel blessed knowing this, so very fortunate to have come to this realization. Thank you Tonya for your continued effort in spreading the word about raw food diet.

I couldn't have come to this understanding without you.