Testimonials

When I first read We Want to Live by Aajonus Vonderplanitz, I was pretty skeptical. I was on a cooked food, vegan diet and happy with how I felt. I had already explored the best diet and I was on it already. My partner was super intrigued and into Primal, so I went along to the conferences where Aajonus spoke, and listened to the people sing the praises of the Primal Diet. I liked cooking and what he was saying –in many respects, was the opposite of what I believed was true. Because I love cheese, I started eating dairy and it was delicious, although I hid it from my other macrobiotic friends. Long story short --after reading a good deal about humans and what is natural for them to eat, I decided to eat some meat, and while it tasted horrible and emotionally was distressing (killing animals and all), the next day my body craved meat again, and that’s when I realized Aajonus was up to something good. I began to share this new approach to my other vegan friends and we all switched for a while. Bringing Aajonus to our area a few times for his seminars.

Because I liked to ‘cook’ I made a good deal of dips for the meat, pestos, sauces and such, and brought them to a seminar that Aajonus was leading here in my area. I wonder if I will ever forget the look on Aajonus’ face. I am guessing he didn’t want to hurt my feelings or appear to be fanatical, yet it was obvious to me that he was not into it. Like I had brought the death food and was telling everyone about it. It is a funny memory to me thinking about what thoughts he was having and wondering what he really wanted to say!!

- Terri

My partner, in 2000, had tried everything from Veganism, Macrobiotic, Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Herbology, and Nourishing Traditions to heal her chronic nausea, migraines and chronic fatigue.

She was diagnosed with Malaria, Migraines, and Lymes Disease.

When we met, she had about two hours of productive energy on a good day and confined to dark bedroom near a toilet for the rest.

A friend of ours had just learned about the Primal Diet and suggested she try it. She was terrified, not so much about eating raw meat rather, of being ostracized by her friends and social network. She asked me if I would join her in solidarity.

I said, “Of Course!”

We both had consultations with Aajonus Vonderplanitz and really learned how unhealthy we were. She remembered the chemicals she was exposed to as a child growing up in Connecticut as Aajonus pointed out that Lymes is not caused by ticks, rather from chemical poisoning and Lymes, Connecticut was a highly toxic region in New England.

I had asthma, hay fever, was allergic to everything under the sun from birth. I wheezed myself to sleep at night, and carried an inhaler and Epi-pin everywhere I went. My liver and lungs were operating at about 30% from childhood vaccines, infant formula, prophylactic antibiotics, steroid inhalers, chlorinated swimming pools, mercury fillings, growing up in second-hand and first hand smoke, and alcohol abuse.

We were a mess!!

Well, we dove right in!

We gave up caffeine, salt, sugar, grains, alcohol, and cooked food.

We drastically reduced all carbohydrates including vegetables and fruits.

We began eating raw meat, raw liver, raw milk, raw butter, raw egg, cream, and honey smoothies, and green vegetable juice exactly as Aajonus recommended.

The first raw meat meal was so invigorating. It was like I had been starving for my whole life, eating real food for the very first time, and feeling so satiated and nourished. We were in the process of building an 325-acre ecovillage, so we crafted our farming plan towards raising Jersey cows and laying hens so we could control the quality of the food we grew and ate. My partner’s progress was most immediate. By one month, she went from daily nausea to once a week. By 6 months, she went from daily migraines to one a week, By six months she was working 6 hours a day in the gardens, milking the cow, processing hundreds of meat birds, and building our homestead. I went through a lot of detoxification the first 5-years.

I couldn’t get enough sleep. Sometimes ten hours a day plus a nap. I had seizures as my brain detoxed and constipation and low back back as my liver and intestines detoxed. There was one point where I hacked up a big black sputum that was the size of a golf ball evacuating all kinds of gunk from my lungs. My armpits smelled putrid as stuff cam out my pores. My hair got thin and dry and I had the mercury removed from my teeth.

But, after year five, it was smooth sailing. I got my energy back and felt clearer , stronger and better than ever.

My hair got thick, long, and silky again. The B.O. left for good!

My partner from back then now remarried currently travels the globe, rarely experiences nausea, feels stronger than ever and has a migraine about once a month and it is so much milder than the headaches of the past. She feels so good, she has reverted back to eating her traditional Italian cooking. Myself, I started a new life, got married, had a child, started a health retreat business. I haven’t wheezed or had any difficulty breathing for 20 years.

My eyesight has improved from 20/40 to 20/20.

My low-back pain is just about non-existent, and I thrive on 6-7 hours of sleep every night. I still try to take a 10-minute power nap after lunch each day and at 58-years old, I’m launching new projects left and right.

Most importantly I have meaning, purpose, and presence in my life, having not touched or craved any mind altering substances, alcohol, sugar, or carbs since I can remember, and having coached many individuals and couples to create physically and emotional health for themselves and in their relationships.

The Primal Diet has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me, my friends, my family and my clients and I have dedicated my life to sharing the healing powers of raw meat. I can not understand why we aren’t all taught about this life-giving diet from birth. I and humans could have skipped over years of pain and suffering by incorporating the Primal Diet into our lives early on. As Aajonus said, “Health is our birth-right. Every human deserves good health.”

I wholeheartedly agree and aim to give it to every human who is searching.

- Phoenix

I’m very grateful to Phoenix for our collaboration in the early years of exploring the Primal diet and bringing Aajonus to Asheville, NC. More recently, for his coaching and bodywork that helped me recover from a health challenge that started in 2023. His expertise in the Primal Diet and his skill in bodywork were an important contribution to get me back on the road to optimal health.

- Steve

For just over 6 years, I have been on the Primal Diet. Trying the Diet was more about curiosity than solving a specific health problem. As I learned more about the diet and how modernity is poisoning us, sticking to the diet became a no-brainer.

Despite the uncomfortable detoxifications, I always feel much better after they pass, like my body is reigniting a spark, or light, that was degraded throughout my life by various means. There are also physical aspects that have changed, such as being able to put on solid mass and weight, as much as 45lbs, something I have never been able to accomplish previously. Eating the right foods has also eliminated bad breath. Although that doesn’t mean you can stop brushing your teeth…
So far the Diet has served me well and I will continue it for the foreseeable future.

- Chris

I got into natural healing in my late teens, and all of the traditional routes of study became primary areas of focus and experimentation for me - chief among them, herbology and vegetarian/veganism. I did these things as I tend to do most things - to the hilt - and after five years of a vegan diet from age eighteen to twenty-three, I began losing my hair, having dental problems, and struggling with low body weight, with little resolution of any of the issues I originally set out to correct.

Not able to go back to cooked foods without consequences, but no longer able to sustain a pure plantbased diet, I began incorporating raw animal foods - raw eggs and raw dairy, along with occasional trips to the local Japanese restaurant for sashimi, began to impart more vigor and strength to my body and mind. However, it wasn't until three years later that I finally began to study the Primal Diet in earnest...and the changes I experienced as a result were remarkable. My body weight and strength increased considerably. My mental acuity likewise improved. Perhaps at least as important as any other changes, I have gained an understanding of the body and how it works that has served to set my feet on solid ground and helped myself and those I am connected to cleanly navigate the inevitable challenges on the path to radiant health that we all face in the modern world - and do so without fear and panic.

Today I continue to expand my knowledge of nutrition and optimal health, experimenting and exploring constantly and using my experience to help others on their own journeys. I feel a deep and constant gratitude for what I've learned through the Primal Diet materials, and how much richer, more stable, and more vital our lives can be as a result.

- Lucas

I was prescribed Adderall at 13 years old and I quickly went from a C student to an A student, but I was rapidly losing weight and barely sleeping.

Over the next 4 years we experimented with every ADHD drug under the sun, different doses taken at different times but we could never recreate that initial magic. The drugs were less effective overtime and my grades suffered, but worse my health suffered. Due to 4 years of taking ADHD medication and the stresses of teen life I experienced a serious breakdown in my health. I was very underweight, constantly sick, had severe insomnia, anxiety, chronic fatigue, facial ticks, heart palpitations, chronic itchy skin, obsessive compulsive behavior, extreme anger, and breakdown of posture and alignment. These issues remained even after I quit the drugs.

When I was a freshman in high school I started on varsity for the first month of the season, by the time I was a senior I had to quit playing sports because my body was wrecked and I was in so much pain. My posture and strength completely deteriorated. My knees started to really cave in and my shoulders would really round. My joints would burn and ache. Walking up stairs was really painful. At the end of 11th grade I made a choice to quit the drugs and never look back. I was told by doctors and my parents that this was a horrible idea and I would fail my classes.

My senior year I earned better grades than I had in all of high school. Due to a high SAT score and a strong recommendation I got into an honors program at a pretty good college. I was not ready for college and my roommate was a very loud snorer which drove me insane because I still had insomnia. I was quickly kicked out of the honors program. Even though I was no longer on Adderall my health had not recovered and I still had many symptoms. I spent my time in college trying different diets and health protocols to heal my body. None of them worked and veganism ruined my health more.

At the end of college I was having tonsil infections every few months for over a year. I would have to get steroid and antibiotic shots because they were so swollen. I moved home to live with my parents and could barely function. I would lay in bed all day. I would try to make myself learn some skill to get a job but I couldn’t do it. My posture/skeleton/alignment had deteriorated so much I would wake up everyday and my entire legs down to my feet would be pins and needles. I still had chronic tonsil infections and it hurt to walk. I was trying different protocols, taking tons of supplements.

I stumbled upon someone talking about Aajonus on twitter and decided to read the books. I read both the books within a few days and even though I thought he was crazy I decided to give it a shot. His tonsillitis cure says to cut out all salt and to drink a tomato lemon smoothie when you experience symptoms.

It worked like magic. I could not believe it. Occasionally I would cheat and have a little soy sauce and the symptoms would come right back, thankfully the tomato lemon smoothie would fix it.

This gave me a lot of conviction in Aajonus because no salt is such a unusual and uncommon recommendation I figured he must have a deeper understanding of health. I have told various health practitioners about this and they get angry and insist that it could not have really worked and must be placebo. I knew he was right and that salt was hurting me, so I started following the primal diet more and more and I have made amazing progress. Over 3 years I have gained 50+ pounds of healthy weight, healed most of my issues and regained my vitality. Everyday I am in awe of the power of the diet and learning more details of it. I am forever grateful for Aajonus. We want to live!

-Arthur

Aajonus’ primal diet which I started 22 years ago back in Los Angeles, has put me on a path of biological adventure, bodily discovery and unimagined vitality. Though I was pre-med and graduated from Brown University, I am grateful that I did not follow in my beloved mother’s footsteps and become a physician. It was the other way around, she followed in my footsteps and so fell in love with Aajonus’ book “We Want To Live” that she used to joke and say with heavy Eastern European accent “I never leave home without it.” Aajonus was a living example of the grounding, calming and healing power raw meat, dairy and eggs have on the nervous system. I noticed that all the people on his diet had that kind of calm wildness in their eyes, like a mountain lion at rest. I am very familiar with the challenges of changing our eating style and I love coaching people into a sustainable way of living long, healthy, exuberant lives. My passion and expertise is in the area of all things oxalate and how it relates to the primal diet. Oxalates, found in common plant foods (many of which are advertised as superfoods) are like sharp nano-sized shards of glass that plants use to defend themselves. Plants can’t attack or run away so they use neurotoxins like oxalates as a survival strategy. Ancient African hunters would drive their wooden arrows into a banana tree trunk before the hunt because they knew they could count on the oxalic acid in the sap to paralyze their prey. It’s been really satisfying to help my clients who’ve had long standing, what appear to be unsolvable health issues. I found that oxalate overload is often the missing piece in the puzzle of their return to health. I believe if Aajonus was alive today we would be having a lively exchange about this subject. I have a little YouTube show called “Eating With Dagmar” where I share many recipes and philosophize about the art of eating. Just for fun, here is my Raw Liver Shots video.

- Dagmar

For the most part, since the early 80s I have been considering my health from the perspective of health and wellness vs. sickness and disease. I watched what I ate, exercised regularly and generally felt healthy. For most of that time, I opted to follow a cooked vegan diet (macrobiotics) and generally felt well. I discovered Primal Diet in the late 90s and have been a 50-75% Primal Person for approaching 20 years. What I chose to eat in the other 50-25% of the time took a toll, not to mention that I live in a city and particularly in a neighborhood with many industrial waste sites being ‘remediated’ for new construction, which left me breathing pretty toxic air for quite a few of those years. Last year, 2023 my body said ENOUGH! and began a detox that I didn’t understand or know how to approach. The skin on my arms began to itch like you likely can’t imagine, leading to scratching which drew blood and was insanely painful yet offered no relief from the itching. All day, every day. By April or May I was losing my interest in life as this was unmanageable.

As a person who wouldn’t consider entering the western medical approach and all the ‘alternative’ practitioners I approached (who really have the same point of view as western med simply replacing toxic chemicals with a slightly less toxic chemical interventions) I was lost. My counters were filled with herbal solutions, salves and creams, and jars of supplements. Waking up to remembering that I trust my body and there was nothing wrong with it, that it was doing the best it could in the circumstances, I cleared the counters and prayed for what to do.

Phoenix Be had the answer. He prescribed a diet to follow to my body’s wisdom. When he said, I know what this is and I know what to do about it, I took the deepest breath I had in months.. My body was going through a bone marrow detox (apparently the deepest there is). His (our) approach was to support the detox yet shift it from all coming through the skin to moving the toxins through my digestive system. I’m not 100% sure that Phoenix would use this description, but I think it’s accurate. Within 3 weeks (not the first day as I was hoping) of transforming my diet to include: green drink, pain formula and raw meat –nothing else, I felt some relief. Noting like relief after 6 months of pain/itch cycles. And I had hope. Nothing like hope after deciding that this year would be my last.

I remained on that diet 100% for 6 months until the holidays when I had two cooked meals. I am not willing to be off the prescribed diet, except to add some no-salt homemade broth with lots of butter melted in, to warm the chicken, and a bit of avocado and tomato to make the meat go down more easily. Once a month, I will eat cooked food to support friendships and pleasure, yet no more. If people ask me to go to lunch, I say no or schedule them into my once-a-month plan.

I am now close to 10 months on this new plan and while I still have a few symptoms I am tracking, I am confident that I am doing what’s necessary for my body to be as healthy as it can be given where I choose to live. I have been able to return to the hot soaking which surely helps. I sleep very well and for long periods of time. I am re-building strength through movement and exercise and my enthusiasm for life has returned.

Couldn’t be more grateful to Phoenix, Aajonus, and a few other folks who have cared about and for me, and not only support this approach to life, they share it with me.

- Terrie Lewine

Before

After

Hi, my name is Tom Moestl

My son Hoyt is pictures next to me. I am 57 years old. I have been on the primal diet for about 26 years.

It was introduced to me through a friend who goes by Phoenix now, at a place called Earthaven, (of which I am a founder of) in western North Carolina, where we both lived at the time. Earthaven, an intentional community on 320 acres of wooded undeveloped land , required lots of labor to get underway. Manly tree felling at first. I had the skills for the project from being in construction since a teen. The enthusiasm came from the need for a life style change through an alternative approach. The primal diet was ideal for me (optimal health, more stamina, quick recovery from injury). And no cooking. Which I didn’t want to waste my time on anyway.

Aajonus actually came to visit back in the day. Back then there were more Primals in the community than now.

A highlight of my life is the birth of my son. His mom was introduced to the diet when she met me and included (certain parts) into her diet. Hoyt is a living example of the benefits of the diet. Bottle fed on raw milk. He eats raw eggs and meat. But not always. He’s a thriving young man, and adapts to all kinds of situations. I’m eternally grateful to Aajonus and Phoenix and all those those who are spreading the word. Three epiphanies that have come to me in my midlife are:

1) The myth of contagion 2) the heart is not a pump, and 3) it’s none of my business what you or anyone else think of me.

I can share what I know and how it’s helped me. Eat fat and be happy.

- Tom