Interview with
David Wolfe,
author of the groundbreaking new book on success and diet The Sunfood Diet Success
System.
JEAA: You have just finished writing a new book called The Sunfood Diet Success
System. Can you tell our readers how the idea of writing that book came about,
and what is the general message behind it?
David Wolfe: This book project actually began in 1993 when I made the commitment
to write a book on veganism and the Laws of Nature. Parts of that original project
ended up in the Nature's First Law: The Raw-Food Diet book, other parts carried
through to this project. This new book represents the culmination of years of
experimenting with different types of raw plant-food diets. It represents all
the knowledge I have acquired from being at ground zero of the worldwide raw-food
movement. It represents the precise distinctions necessary to maintain and stay
balanced on a 100% raw plant-food diet. I explain in detail how to use different
foods to achieve different results, such as eating to: gain weight, lose weight,
detoxify, increase spirituality, increase mental clarity, overcome hypoglycemia,
overcome candida, etc.
JEAA: The most amazing thing I see in your book is the way you mix the field
of diet with self-development technology. Any purpose in doing that?
David Wolfe: In my new book, I mention a quote by James Allen from his wonderful
book As You Think. He wrote (and I'm roughly paraphrasing here): "A change
of diet will little help a man who is not willing to change his thoughts."
Life change comes from the inside out. It all begins in the mind. The human
mind is the most powerful computer in the universe. The challenge is, it has
no instruction manual! The purpose of weaving self-development information into
my book has been to provide instructions on how to use the mind and then to
act on those instructions in order to produce results such as a change in diet
and lifestyle.
JEAA: Concerning the raw food diet, the big insight or revelation I got from
your book is "The Sunfood Triangle" diagram. Can you tell us what
this "triangle" is all about and how you came up with it?
David Wolfe: The Raw-Food Diet has finally come of age. I have been able to
communicate with so many raw-foodists via e-mail, telephone, in person, in consultations,
etc. that I finally discerned the essential factors of The Raw-Food Diet. I
discovered that three food classes are essential to stay balanced on raw foods.
These three classes of foods form the natural dietary character of the human
body, which is represented in my book as The Sunfood Triangle. The Sunfood Triangle
demystifies The Raw-Food Diet and provides the basic understanding necessary
to achieve and stay balanced on a 100% raw-vegan diet. These three food classes
are: 1. Green-leafy vegetables. 2. Sweet fruits. 3. Fats (such avocados, young
coconuts, nuts, seeds, etc.) If any of these three food classes is missing in
the diet for a long enough period of time, the person will be thrown off balance
and experience less than optimal health. Each of these food classes represents
a point on the triangle. The idea is to remain at the center of the triangle
by balancing these three food classes against each other in the diet.
JEAA: What I find interesting in your book is that you explain how to use those
3 food classes for different issues or problems that raw-foodists face along
the way. For example, if I want to gain weight and get bigger, what should I
be eating according to your triangle?
David Wolfe: First, gaining weight and strength on the raw-food diet should
not be your first priority unless you have been eating 100% raw foods for at
least 1.5 years. The first step must be detoxification. To use the triangle
to gain weight, you would move the center of the triangle more towards green-leaf
vegetables and fats and away from sweet fruits. If you eat fats and green-leafed
vegetables together and eat less sweet fruit, you will gain weight.
JEAA: You also talk in your book about the Karma of food. Are you really serious
when you say that some foods have a positive Karma and some foods have a negative
Karma?
David Wolfe: Definitely. Karma is energy. Some foods are positively charged
(such as avocados, cherimoyas, and hot peppers), some foods are negatively charged
(such as roots, fish, and meat). Every choice we make counts. Every choice either
creates a karmic debt or adds to a karmic surplus. This universe is governed
by laws of karma: what we send out comes back, multiplied!
JEAA: I have heard you say that we can learn how to succeed on the raw-food
diet by observing people who are successfully thriving on it.
David Wolfe: Truth relies not only on the understanding of success, but also
on the understanding of failure. I have learned just as much from the people
who failed with the raw-vegan diet as I learned from those who have succeeded
with it.
JEAA: You talk a lot in your book about the "evolutionary" diets and
their shortcomings. Why did you insist on that, is it really that much of an
issue?
David Wolfe: The time has come to take this information to a massive audience.
Therefore all details must be covered in my book. I have seen "evolutionary"
raw animal-food diets go awry and in my book I explain exactly why. The book
is totally comprehensive and covers every facet of eating raw foods.
Question: You refer a lot in your book and in your lectures to the importance
of eating wild foods and the dangers of hybrid foods. Can you explain what you
mean by "hybrid" and why it is that much of a problem?
Answer: Hybridized foods are genetically altered foods. They are foods which
will not survive in nature without human protection. They are strains of foods
which have been artificially bred together to appeal to the numb tastebuds of
cooked-food eaters. For example, beets in the natural state are 4% sugar. Beets
in the supermarket are 17% sugar. The same holds true for carrots. Most fruits
and vegetables, even if organic, are genetically altered to some degree. The
best guideline is to avoid seedless fruits of any kind. Also, in terms of vegetables:
carrots, beets, and potatoes should be avoided. Nearly all legumes are weak
hybrid strains and should be avoided.
JEAA: So carrot juice is not okay?
David Wolfe: The big orange carrots found in stores, even if organic, are unnatural,
artificial creations. Those carrots will not grow in nature. If you plant one
of those carrots in your backyard, the bugs, insects, worms, and bacteria will
have a field day and chomp that carrot up in about 3 days. Juicing those carrots
and drinking them releases so much hybridized sugar into your digestive system
at once that the body doesn't know how to handle it! You will feel a sugar high,
then the pancreas will insulinize the blood to remove the sugar, you will feel
drowsy, and then you will urinate away whatever of that sugar is left in the
blood.
JEAA: I was surprised to learn that a baked potato has one of the highest glycemic
indexes. So Natural Hygienists are really wrong when they condemn fruit sugar
and recommend potatoes?
David Wolfe: Baked potatoes are not healthy. They are not, never have been,
and never will be a health food. A potato is an extremely hybridized food loaded
with starch, which turns into pure sugar when it is cooked. The sugar is not
of a type the liver and pancreas can recognize, it is a hybridized sugar which
comes into the blood at a glycemic index of anywhere from 75 to 95! Consider
that watermelon enters the blood at 70 and a mango at 50! I detail exactly why
starchy diets cause sugar imbalances in my Sunfood Diet book.
JEAA: You insist a lot about the importance of raw plant fats, why is that?
David Wolfe: Raw plant fats are an essential component of a balanced raw-food
diet. Every raw-foodist knows the magic of the avocado! I have even dedicated
a chapter to avocados in my new book! Dietary fats are incorporated into the
walls of each and every cell in the body. Fats protect us from pollution, they
are antioxidants. Fats fill us up and give us that satiated feeling, so they
are an excellent bridge from cooked foods to raw foods. Cooked fats, of both
plant and animal origin, have exactly the opposite properties of raw plant fats.
Cooked fats interfere with cell respiration, cause red blood cell clumping,
and produce free radicals.
JEAA: So what are the best sources of fats? It seems like they contain amazing
nutrients.
David Wolfe: The best source of fat comes from fatty fruits. They are the easiest
to digest and assimilate. The best fatty fruits are: avocados, durians, and
olives. Olives are an amazing fruit! They are the highest fruit in minerals
and calcium. But almost nobody knows how to eat them! They do not have to be
salted or cured! I describe in my book exactly how to harvest and eat Sun-ripened
olives!
JEAA: David, there is so much new information in your book it's almost impossible
to absorb it all at once. How do you feel that your book is going to change
the raw-food movement and the future of the raw-food diet?
David Wolfe: Well, I have been at ground zero of the worldwide raw-food movement
for about three years now. I distribute nearly every book ever written on the
subject. I talk to raw-foodists every day in person or on the phone. I know
where the gaps are in the knowledge. I know exactly where people run into challenges
and I know how to solve those challenges. This new book captures all that information
in one place! It provides a step-by-step method whereby ANYONE can adopt and
be successful with a 100% raw-vegan diet! We are bringing this book into the
mainstream and it is designed to be successful there without compromising one
bit of the message.
JEAA: Do you think putting this book into the mainstream will really bring mainstream
people into raw-foodism?
David Wolfe : Absolutely! Many people just need to be exposed to the truth and
before long, they're living it. The Sunfood Diet success System will help people
who are in the mainstream get out of it and into the exiting, pristine river
of the raw truth!
JEAA: Thank you so much David for your time and we wish you the best luck with
your book and your future as the foremost expert on diet in the world! The book
is available by calling 1-800-205-2350 or online at: http://www.rawfood.com