Interview II with David Klein by Alex Malinsky

Question #1: What are some rawfood staples in your current diet. What are some of your "favorite" foods? And If you could eat "cooked" food....what would you eat?

Answer: I almost always have fresh-squeezed orange juice for breakfast. Over the last 20 years my staples have been oranges, bananas, dates, cucumbers, lettuce, avocados and small amounts of nuts, seeds and rinsed dulse leaf. When summer fruits are available, I enjoy the entire variety. Occasionally, I enjoy durians too. My senses lost all attachment to cooked foods 10 years ago, and I get all the pleasure I need from raw foods, so I don’t have any interest in any cooked foods.

Question #2: Have you ever had any kind of symptoms of mental illness, and, if so, what did a raw food diet with supplements get rid of, and are all mental illnesses curable with a raw foods diet/supplements?

Answer: I never had mental illness, but I had depression and compromised mental functioning from malnutrition and eight years of ulcerative colitis and medications. After going mostly raw and detoxing, my mental functions improved dramatically.

As I understand mental illnesses, their underlying causes are multi various. We need to do many right-living things and get support for living correctly in order to heal, blossom and function well. Live food nutrition is essential, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. This is a huge subject which I have some insight into, having overcome a long debilitating illness and rebuilt my body/health/psyche and studied mind-body health. Becoming mentally healthy takes loving nurturing from parental figures and well as one’s own inner parent, in addition to good nutrition and other health requisites.

Question #3: Can you describe to us what true hunger is? And how does one deal with over eating / bingeing on raw foods especially dry fruits and fats?

Answer: True hunger is a sense that we need the energy that food brings when we have the urge. It’s not easy to describe a sense, or an appetite. We can clearly sense true hunger after we have cleaned out and done a fast or exercised to create a need for nourishment. We need to tune our awareness inwardly and listen to what our senses tell us. If we eat and do not have a good experience, then we may have learned that either we were not experiencing hunger for food (it may have been an emotional appetite), or we may have not selected a food which our body was not calling for.
Overeating and bingeing on dates and nuts, seeds, coconut and avocado are common problems among raw fooders in the beginning of and even later in their raw diet journey. Below I’ll talk about several reasons and solutions that I have gleaned.

Bingeing

We binge when we are not calm and present with ourselves. When we are emotionally upset, fearful or lonely, we tend to want to do something to feel different or fill up the emptiness within. Fruits and fatty raw foods have pleasure-inducing hormones (precursors to neurotransmitters) which make us feel better -- that is part of the creator’s design. However, while raw nourishment improves our ability to cope with stress, it can never solve an emotional issue. No matter how well-fed we are, the emotional issues will always come back unless we do some kinds of emotional awareness/acceptance/disengagement work. There are many approaches to this work, and the transformational effects can free us from relying on food to “make us feel better.” Emotions are just useful energy -- they can’t hurt us. It’s our belief and engagement in the stories that go along with emotions that drags us down.

Dates

Dates are the most nutrient-dense whole food of them all. Craving dates is a healthy thing, considering that our sweet tooth never lies and that our previous cooked-food diet was nutrient-poor and made us feel poor. The sweetness, multiple flavor overtones, creamy texture and easy eatability of dates make for a highly satisfying eating experience. We may eat and eat and eat too many dates at one sitting because we don’t get a “stop” signal from our senses telling us that we have had enough. Why we get this “stop” signal with some foods and not with dates I am not sure. They certainly taste fantastic and are soul-satisfying. I found a good way to minimize overeating on dates: always eat them with lettuce, celery and/or cucumbers, eat when relaxed and mindful, and if we feeling rushed, slow down and do not eat until one is calm and present.

Overeating on raw fatty foods

Few or any of us were properly weaned. If we were suckled at the breasts of our mother, receiving pure, sweet and fatty milk until age 3 or 4 or 5 and then fed a raw-food diet, then perhaps we’d feel more emotionally and nutritionally satisfied and develop into well-balanced adults and not seek to overwhelm our senses with the numbing escape that raw fatty foods bring. When we overeat on fatty raw foods, it’s as if we can’t get enough of the comforting creamy experience that overcomes us. It’s an act of nurturing love to bring this feeling on, however, too much raw fatty food wreaks our metabolism, energy and health -- we become unbalanced, tired, acidic and toxic. I believe that a good way to ascend beyond the habit of using fatty foods for comfort is to do some kind of work with a somatically-oriented counselor where you are carefully guided to allow good feelings to come in from within when we we are feeling out of sorts or empty. A wellspring of love always exists within, and from within is the only place that love and good feelings come from anyway, so it seems to me that the skill to learn is to sit in silence and allow “difficult” feelings to be and shift, and then invite and allow good feelings to come in. It’s amazing to experience a change of feelings this way when we previously thought that we needed a half a pound of pistachios or a durian do it it for us. In perspective, we have the ability to control our responses to unpleasant feelings and do the healthful thing.

Question #4: What are some of the most interesting and inspiring success stories you heard from others during your travels?

Answer: I have heard many, and I have personally counseled over 1,000 people with colitis and Crohn’s disease back to health. My healing success from ulcerative colitis was pretty dramatic. I include as many self-healing stories as I can find in my Living Nutrition magazine and I include them on the Living Nutrition Web site at http://www.livingnutrition.com. The stories are amazing, covering almost every known “medical condition,” from allergies to asthma, cancer, chronic fatigue, colitis, Crohn’s disease, deafness, diabetes, Epstein-Barr, migraines, multiple sclerosis, spinal meningitis...you name it!

Question #5: Have you changed your eating habits on the rawfood diet over the years?

Answer: I have always eaten only raw fruits in the morning. I used to use my juicer to make smoothies, but after a year or two they felt too sugary, so I stopped that. However, orange juice from my citrus juice press worked perfectly for me almost every morning. During the first six months I ate steamed vegetables and baked potatoes and a salad with bottled dressing several times per week for dinner. I noticed that the cooked food induced mucus production as well as fermentation of fruit sugar when I ate my fruit breakfast. So, I cut way back on the cooked food and eliminated the dressings and made simpler and simpler salads and ate mostly fresh fruit and green vegetables with either nuts, seeds or avocado once or twice per week for the next ten years or so and my health became better and better. I eventually lost interest in salads and just ate my vegetables one at a time out of my hand, just like I eat fruits.

After adding rinsed dulse to my diet a few years ago, I sense that my energy and digestion are better. I attribute that to the extra minerals that sea vegetables provide.

Over the last few years, my digestive strength has improved so I can eat more fatty foods more often. However, the temptation to eat more fatty foods than I know I can properly digest is a challenge which takes work, the kind of awareness work I described above.

Now, my diet is typically something like this. I don’t plan my day’s diet; I just follow my senses in the moment.

• Breakfast: fresh-squeezed orange juice
• Midmorning: several bananas or a handful of dates with lettuce, celery or cucumbers.
• Early afternoon: whatever sweet fruit is appealing with or without cucumbers
  Late afternoon: a few cucumbers
• Dinner: I rarely make a big dinner meal or any type or meal. I just eat a few pieces of fruit or, 2 or 3 times per week an avocado with veggies, or have some nuts or seeds with cucumbers.
• Early evening: sometimes I have 2 or 3 whole oranges or tangerines.

Question #6: What advice would you give to someone with cancer (esp. stomach) who is on a regular diet - less then 60% raw?

Answer:If someone with cancer asks me for advice, I would refer them to a hygienic doctor who is an expert in physiology, believes in 100% raw, fruit-based diet and has many decades of success in helping people with cancer without delusional, disempowering treatments or therapies. I’d refer them to Dr. Vivian V. Vetrano or Dr. Douglas Graham.

Question #7: How do you feel about female menses? Is it a natural or unnatural thing and will it stop once healthy?

Answer: I am not an expert in this. I know that some women who have completely detoxified and adopted a low-fat 100% raw food diet continue to bleed, but lightly and for only about three days. We need to find out if women who have been 100% raw since birth ever experience bleeding, and evaluate the composition of their diets in order to shed more light on this subject.

Question #8: Is it possible to reverse facial bone structure to our genetic potential/what we were born to have? Have you seen startling examples, besides yourself. How long do these kind of changes take place, and whether or not it's just an illusion created by healthier skin, eyes, hair, not deeper structural changes. Are raw animal products required for this to happen?

Answer: If we are happy, smile and sing or hum a lot, relaxed, in love with life, unstressed, move, act and think gracefully, exercise to work our muscles, release tension and emotional contractions, avoid stiffening our structures, eat mostly fruit and minimize acid-forming foods, get sunshine on our bodies, create emotional poise, etc., then our bodies will relax and expand, cells will regenerate and bones can shift. We can use our power of intention to create the form we desire. It can take years to completely detoxify and get to the depths of awareness necessary to manifest these changes. All in all, we need to tune in to our inner guiding source of healthfulness and keep on the healthful living path. Living with high-energy, light-body consciousness is an ongoing journey of unfoldment which can have many phases and shifts.

Animal products are never needed, in my opinion. Every nutrient we need can be obtained from vegan foods and synthesized by our own bodies.

Question #9: How much sun do you think we need as vegans to get enough Vitamin D?

Answer: I can only guess that we regularly need some sunshine on at least parts of our bodies in order to maintain excellent health.

Question #10: What diet advice do you have for the most common deficiency of a vegan diet? Vitamin D, A, B-12, B complex, DHA, iron, calcium, zinc etc.?

Answer: For people who are going through the initial healing, I question blood test interpretations and look at the big picture. It takes years to rebuild/remineralize/rejuvenate. Worrying about low blood nutrient readings while one is in the detox phase is usually creates worry for no good reason. And blood tests are not always accurate indicators, and they usually not necessary if a person is already eating as well as possible. We don’t need to pump nutrient-dense super foods or other exotic supplements into our bodies when we are recovering from years of SAD diet abuse and illness, as we can become unbalanced, over stimulated, more toxic and enervated. A simple organic diet, some fruit and vegetable juices and a bit of rinsed dulse leaf will work after the body has healed any internal inflammation which might be hampering absorption. All lifestyle factors must be placed in good order. Sleep, rest, self-love and patience are the highest requisites or good healing, along with simple raw-food diet.

For people who seem to develop deficiencies near the beginning or in the later years of raw food eating, there are many factors in the person’s diet and lifestyle which must be looked at. Recommending or trying quick dietary fixes without a thorough evaluation of the person’s history and habits is foolhardy. Most so called “deficiencies” develop from a deficiency of rest, relaxation, sleep and joie de vivre. Nutrient therapy can’t give us any of those precious commodities. If deficiencies appear to persist after a complete rest, then it may be prudent to take the most natural supplement. Live vegetable juices are loaded with nutrients and easy to digest, making them better than any pill or powder, in my opinion. Of course, when it comes to supplementation we have to take into consideration many factors, especially whether or not the life of a person is in immediate danger.

Question #11: Do you have any plans to reforest the Earth with fruit trees? Plus, what do you think we should do about the environment and how can we help individually?

Answer: Since the first moment that I got the fruitarian healing message, I wanted to see fruit trees everywhere, and see people freely giving fruit to all who are hungry. I created the Fruitarian Worldwide Network web site www.fruitariannetwork.com and Living Nutrition magazine with articles geared help facilitate the fruitarian/ecological awareness. Previous to my career as a health educator, I was an environmental engineer, working on many water quality improvement projects. Everyone in my sphere of friends and coworkers is doing at least something toward this eco-fruitarian ideal, and I hope that my work continues to support people in taking “fruitful” action. There are numerous ways to help improve the environment. Buying and offering organic foods to people, gardening and orcharding organically, recommending raw food seminars, festivals and web sites to friends and the public, and supporting fruitarian organizations and leaders are just some of the ways.

Question #12: Can you please tell us about some of your current projects you're working on and/or developing?

Answer: I am always working new ways to bring the Living Nutrition - Fruitarian - Self-Healing - Natural Hygiene message to the world. I do this by improving my Living Nutrition magazine and its distribution, as well as the books I have authored and co-authored; as a partner in Raw Passion Productions by putting on bigger and better Raw Passion seminars and Rawstock Festivals; and as a board member of Healthful Living International by helping to put on bigger and better symposiums on healthful fruitarian living.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Raw food is vital; however, in order to experience wonderful disease-free health and longevity it is important that all raw fooders learn the natural laws of life encompassing physiology and all of the branches of health science, as well as letting go of common nutrition and health fallacies which enslave and disempower us. Natural Hygiene teaches the natural laws of life, encompassing all that is good and necessary for health, presenting a wholistic philosophy and framework for realizing and maintaining the glorious health that is our birthright. Rawfoodism is only one piece of the puzzle. Healthful Living International’s Second Annual Symposium on Healthful Living, to be held from August 9-15 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2004 will be a most exciting event in the history of the raw food and Natural Hygiene movements. The 100% raw food, fruitarian, self-healing message will be delivered within the context of pure Natural Hygiene by long-term healthy fruitarian doctors and educators. Symposium participants can expect a most empowering week filled with learning, relaxation, fun, 100% raw organic cuisine, and new connections -- an awesome opportunity to support one’s healthful lifestyle, going way beyond the simple raw food message. Information can be found at www.healthfullivingintl.org or www.naturalhygiene.info.

Thank you, Alex, for helping to spread raw health consciousness!

Sincerely,
Dave Klein
Sebastopol, California
September, 2003

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click here for Interview I