Dr. Gina Nick interviews David Wolfe for The Townsend Newsletter
May, 2003
1) What inspired you to dedicate your life's work to the research and subsequent education of the value inherent in the use of whole, raw foods?
I really do believe in "fate" or "destiny." Somethings are just meant to be, some things are meant for some people. It all came about in epiphane that occurred on one night in August of 1994. I sort of had a realization that raw-food nutrition was my path in life.
That path has evolved into a goal to achieve total mastery in the field of nutrition. I feel relentlessly inspired in this field — inspired to help others, inspired to learn. Every part of it is absolutely fascinating!
2) What is your background?
Both of my parents are medical doctors. They met in medical school. I grew up completely immersed in mainstream medicine. That is why I am a raw-foodist today! At some point in my early youth (age 8 or 9) I realized that something was deeply wrong with mainstream medicine. I stopped taking medicine of any kind for any reason. And I absolutely refused any shots.
Nutrition transformed for me in my late teens. I ate everything as a child, like most. I ate meat, cheese, bread, as well as fruits and vegetables. I ate fast food, home-made food, and fresh food. It was all the same to me until I reached the age of 18. Then something happened. I realized that I had allergies to dairy products. I stopped eating milk, cheese, and eggs overnight. I immediately lost 10 pounds, felt lighter, could think clearer, and instantly ended a lifetime of ear trouble.
I was later to find out that the number one allergy food is milk and dairy products. And the primary response to food allergens is ear trouble.
When I stopped all dairy products something awoke within me. I felt better, yet everyone told me not to do it. They told me I would miss that nutrient or that mineral. I realized that it was possible they could all be wrong because I felt better. I realized that we could all have been eating the wrong food all along and since everyone else was doing it, no one would notice.
I was turned on, excited. I had stumbled across something of deep philosophical meaning that I could incorporate into my daily life as a hobby. I started reading about nutrition, started juicing, and began eating organic food. I experimented, soon became a vegetarian, and by the time I was 24, I was on a totally raw-food diet (I will be 33 in August 2003).
Although nutrition is now my primary focus, hobby, and career, I have an extensive educational background, including: degrees in Mechanical and Environmental Engineering, Political Science, and a Juris Doctor in Law.
After being on a totally raw, organic, raw-food vegetarian diet for a couple years and after going through the cravings, the detoxification process, and re-adaptation to natural food, I started being able to tap into more creative powers and a greater ability to perform during exams.
Because fellow students and friends always asked me about my diet, I bought 10 copies of the raw-food book Blatant Raw-Foodist Propaganda by Joe Alexander and sold them to curious people. Then I bought another 10 copies and sold those. Soon I had a small book business going out of the trunk of my car.
During the summer of 1995, I traveled to Norway and England. While in Norway, I wrote the goal of carrying and distributing every raw-food book ever written.
I linked forces with some friends and soon we founded Nature’s First Law (www.rawfood.com) the world’s premier source of raw-food books and exotic raw foods. And that is the business that I still run today.
3) You mentioned some research you are doing regarding the minerals, >or lack thereof present in our soil and the fact that there is only one food, if I am not mistaken, that is capable of uptaking all existing >minerals which I believe you said was grass. Can you elaborate on this?
Dr. Linus Pauling, winner of two Nobel prizes, said, "You can trace every sickness, every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency."
I believe the study of minerals and the importance of minerals are the most important elements of all nutrition — minerals underly all nutrition. Apparently there are 92 minerals that can play a positive role in nutrition. At least 10 of these are major minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium, etc.) and the rest are trace minerals (zinc, selenium, manganese, etc.).
Ideally, it seems logical that if we can get all our minerals through organic, natural (raw), plant food, this is the simplest way to achieve optimum dietary health.
In the research we have been doing, we have discovered a 100% natural way to do this. We have discovered one food that actually can uptake all 92 minerals if they are present in the soil. That food is grass.
Grass is the only "leafy vegetable" that contains no natural alkaloids or subtle toxins. This is why so many creatures and especially the large mammals feed directly (or indirectly) on grass.
I have had wheatgrass juice with all 92 minerals naturally occurring in it (wheatgrass is a grass). It is the most extraordinary beverage I have ever had. Ever. It sends an electrical charge through every cell in the body. Disease cannot stand a chance against this technology! Keep in mind that the soil minerals control the quality of the wheatgrass and that most wheatgrass we have tried has contained less than 35 minerals.
Dr. Maynard Murray, did over 40 years of research on how to get 92 minerals in the soil. He concluded in his book Sea Energy Agriculture that one could obtain all 92 minerals in their gardens and orchards in the most simple method imaginable. He discovered that the ocean water contains all 92 minerals in their proper ratio. If you water your plants with ocean water, they receive too much salt and die. If you dilute your plants' water with ten parts regular water to one part ocean water a most astonishing event occurs. All 92 minerals get into the soil. The plants become impervious to all disease, even if deliberately exposed. Animals that eat those plants also become resistant to all disease, included genetic diseases.
4) What do you feel is the greatest benefit inherent in the use of sea vegetables in our diets today?
The most important thing about sea vegetables is that they are mineral-rich, wild foods. They have not been domesticated, they have not been tampered with by human breeding. As a wild food, they are able to survive without human help, therefore, they possess the strengthening, vital life principle lost in domesticated "weak" food.
This vital life principle can be correlated to minerals. All wild foods, in fact, possess more minerals than their domesticated counterparts. Sea vegetables are the most mineral-rich foods found in our health-food stores.
Sea vegetables are a great source of iodine for the thyroid. Sea vegetables tend to speed up metabolism, helping to reverse hypothyroidism.
In my opinion the tastiest, best sea vegetables are nori, dulse, and kelp. Overall, kelp is the most mineral rich and is the best source of iodine.
5) What is your favorite raw food? What does that food contain, and why else is it your favorite food?
Great question! My favorite food is blueberries! Blueberries are one of the highest natural sources of antioxidants. Antioxidants, in laymen's understanding, are the pigments of color in foods. Blueberries are one of the few blue foods! (It is always great to eat from the colors of the rainbow).
Blueberries are known to be excellent for our eyesight. Blueberries were fed to British fighter pilots in World War II to give them better night vision.
Blueberries are tasty in their wild or domesticated state. They possess a moderate level of sugar, yet a high level of minerals, therefore they do not lead to the hypoglycemic sugar roller coaster that high sugar, low mineral fruits tend to cause (ie. bananas, dates, orange juice). The more minerals in a fruit, the less abrasive they are to blood-sugar sensitive people.
6) What is the focus of your work on a daily basis and what do you have planned for the future?
On a daily basis, I operate my rawfood.com business and also speak at over 100 seminar/dinners a year. I also conduct at least 5 raw-food retreat vacations each year.
The work that I do has put me in contact with the leading edge worldwide in the field of extraordinary nutrition. I have met and been coached by the best, including: Dr. Gabriel Cousens (author of Conscious Eating and Spiritual Nutrition and The Rainbow Diet), Mitchell May (of the Synergy Company), and others. I have been privy to the most fascinating books. I am surrounded by healthy people every day, everywhere I go. As a result, I have had the opportunity to synthesize all of that information into the current nutrition protocol I now live and teach.
Thus far, I have written 2 books on the subject of raw-food nutrition: The Sunfood Diet Success System, and Eating For Beauty. I also have several audio tape and CD programs available as well as a half dozen videos. I love writing, especially poetry.
I realize how blessed I was to tap into this information at an early age. To discover that the cooked/processed/chemicalized plant and animal food I had been eating as a youth was toxic, devoid of minerals, and actually dangerous was a stunning revelation.
The possibilities that are presented by eating raw, organic, plant food have absolutely floored me. The transformation of consciousness (perspective), the wonderful ability to see things with different insight, the creativity, the mental clarity, the physical rejuvenation, the spiritual truths made real in everyday life, all of it — it is all good!
The technology (information) that is available to us now, to allow us to transform our health and our outlook on life is so incredible! I appreciate so much the work being done by doctors, researchers, nutritionists, and readers of the Townsend Newsletter and similar publications. This magazine is such a gift!
7. Is there anything that you would like to add?
In past few years, I have become a professor at Dr. Gabriel Cousens Living-Food Nutrition Masters Program located in Patagonia (www.treeoflife.nu), Arizona. Dr. Cousens and I have collaborated to bring forth the leading edge in the fields of nutrition and healing in order to give strength and more scientific validity to raw, plant-food-based diets.
In addition to the business and lecture schedule, I play the drums in an all-raw rock and roll group — The Healing Waters Band.
Music was always a fun hobby for me, ever since I was a kid. I started playing the drums in my late teens and it was a great form of release from the stresses of the world. Due to a series of back injuries I had to stop playing when I was 23. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.
After 6 years of being on a 100% raw diet, including superfoods such as spirulina, certain supplements (MSM, whole-food vitamin C, and others), fresh green juices, and doing a lot of hot springs soaking, I started feeling that I could play again. My back was making significant progress. So I brought out the old drums and began playing them again — easing into it slowly. Within 14 months I joined forces with two other raw-foodists Tony Thorpe (vocals, bass) and David Steinberg (vocals, guitar) and the nucleus of The Healing Waters Band was formed.
We have just completed our first music compact disk entitled: This Cooked Planet featuring our original raw songs.
We now bring The Healing Waters Band along on many of the lecture tours and retreats. It is so much fun. I am nearly 100% recovered from my back injuries.
It is incredible how much you appreciate something when it has been taken away and then given back.
How to Reach David Wolfe
David Wolfe
P.O. Box 900202
San Diego, CA
888-RAW-FOOD
www.rawfood.com