Return to Eden
Octavia Kuransky

Beginning in 1975, David Klein suffered from a chronic, progressive, possibly life-threatening condition. His life in fact had become “a dying hell.” Despite the doctors, medication and hospitalizations David continued to deteriorate. Then in 1984 in an attempt to heal himself, he started on raw food based eating. Today, David is alive an well, and he is the Director of the Living Nutrition Health Education Center in Sebastopol, which offers healing through natural raw food diet. He is the publisher/editor of Living Nutrition Magazine. David’s complete story can be found on his Web site at www.livingnutrition.com

> A totally raw food diet may seem extreme to people. What is the most common objection to a completely raw food diet?

It depends on whom you mean. People who want to work with me...already understand that it makes sense. I teach them how to make the transition.

> Well, do you mean people who are sometimes quite ill? Can anyone benefit from this diet?

Absolutely. Our bodies were designed to eat raw food. Our beliefs may be counter to this. First, people have to work on their own beliefs. I give them the information; I show them how I healed myself. They make a gradual transition.

> What about people with diagnosed medical conditions such as diabetes?

I have testimonials of people overcoming diabetes. We've proved that diabetes is the result of eating cooked starch and garbage.

> Realistically, can we raise enough fruits and vegetables for everyone to adopt this diet?

Yes, we could because the yield per acre for fruits and vegetables is higher than it is for cattle. I have an article coming in Living Nutrition summer issue volume 9 about this. You can grow this stuff in all kinds of conditions under which you can't do with cattle. Think of how many people you can feed with one apple tree. And it's going to heal the ecosystem.

> How large is the raw food community right now?

It's only a small fraction of the vegetarian community. When I started, there may have been only 100 raw food people in the country. Now, there are about 100 more per day. We've found out that eating dead animals is destroying American's health. Even the Surgeon General says to eat raw fruits and vegetables.

> Are there any cultures in the world already traditionally eating this way?

Yes. We know of two. Neither of them are 100% raw, but they're close. (One of the groups is in Ecuador, Peru.) [Ibid.]

> Suppose raw food was adopted as a diet on a big scale, what about the hit to the economy without the cattle industry, the dairy industry, or the food packagers?

I don't see them being phased out in the next 20 - 30 years. That land can be converted to growing fruits and vegetables.

> So, Dave, In some of the reading about eating a raw food diet, I see an almost spiritual aspect suggested. Is this really a lifestyle with a spiritual component?

We are eating a very dulling, numbing, desensitizing, toxic, illness inducing diet which just numbs our senses. We have all heard we are using 10% of our brain power. Once we start this diet, we have more of our brain power. It's like night and day. Your mind becomes a lot clearer. You just wake up and you start realizing that we were living in this lower state of consciousness. You have to experience it. Our natural state is euphoric joy and health. I have gone from chronic fatigue and misery to bountiful health. That's what happened to me. We have incredible powers. People read about it and they don't understand it. We come alive. We wake up to our natural essence. We are incredibly powerful being. We become more connected with our spiritual selves.

> Dave, I know you run every day. You're 42 years old. What is a realistic state of health for a 42-year-old?

If we were living in a clean environment and eating raw food, you'd live to 200. Forty-two would be like a teenager. It's not all about food. It's a big factor; it's exercise and our thoughts. I only need seven hours of sleep per night, and I wake up clear-headed. When I take care of myself, I have unlimited energy. The body has incredible regenerative powers. You can rebuild an entire new body.

> What about heredity and food cravings? My mother had an incredibly sweet tooth and I in fact crave sugar a lot.

We have natural instinctual cravings for sugar. We naturally have a sweet tooth. Our natural instinct is if we are in a place with fruit growing on trees, we are going to eat the fruit. We already have our natural instincts. They can become pretty perverted.

> Eating raw all the time, I guess the use of pesticides becomes a concern.

I eat 99% organic. I have a garden and live on an orchard, and shop at an organic health food store.

> Any closing thoughts for people contemplating making a change?

The proof is in people's experience and they shouldn't get all tangled up in scientific studies. Then look at the history. Leonardo da Vinci and Thoreau were vegetarians. And some celebrities today are doing raw food diet. Why do you have to prove a healthy tree is healthy? This is not a quacky fad. This is getting back to nature.