A collection of interviews with long term raw vegans as well as raw vegan experts and teachers conducted by Ronnie Smith.

Harriet Kjaer:

Harriet was born in Denmark and moved to Spain later on in life. She discovered running when teaching her daughter how to ride a bike. After running alongside her for what seems like hours, she decided to sign up for a marathon. After several standard marathons, she did the North Pole marathon in 2009, and there she discovered her taste for adventure. In the last 5 years, Harriet has done long distance running in several countries with the longest run being 59 hours with only one hour of sleep.

Harriet follows a raw vegan diet and has done so since she started running. She really believes that this diet has helped her build strength and stamina which is key to achieve ultimate performance.

During the day, Harriet works with instruments. Since she was 14, she has been making and mending violins. From her small studio in Barcelona, she works on student instruments, antiques or produces new ones. Her dream, apart from winning more running medals, is to open a violinmaking school in Barcelona.

Melissa Maris (Raw Food Romance)

“The best day of my life was when I decided to become a raw vegan 4 years ago on September 12, 2014. I was 34 and about 190 lbs. I dealt with constant acne, painfully sore joints, sugar imbalances, digestive upset, weak hormones, depressed and irritable.

After 14 months eating this way, I had lost 70 lbs, came out of my irritable and depressive state, my joints were no longer sore, my hormones balanced and my acne was gone. My digestion improved dramatically and I decided I never wanted to go back to eating cooked foods again.”

Ted Carr

“My path to a fruit-based diet started when I was 18. I quit college to pursue my dream life of health, fitness and adventure. This is where my real life began. I was free! Free to be me.

And of all things, the first thing I wanted to do was help others. I wanted to have a direct impact on people’s lives so I did what I saw someone else doing and got certified as a personal trainer. During that course, I was offered to take another course to get certified as a nutrition specialist. I signed up for that as well. At this time, I knew nothing about raw veganism, but as I dove deeper and deeper into answering the question,  “What is the healthiest?”, I found it.”

Robby Barbaro – Mastering Diabetes

Robby Barbaro is the creator and founder of Mindful Diabetic and has been living with type 1 diabetes for fifteen years. For ten years, Robby has shown excellent control and overall health on a low-fat, fruit-based diet. He now offers private and online group coaching for diabetics.

Grant Campbell

Grant lives with passion and purpose and has hosted 100% raw vegan retreats every year since 2007!Fueled by fruit, Grant has enjoyed completing over 70 ultra marathons including up to 240 km (149 miles) in under 35 hours in minimalist footwear without stopping to sleep.

Grant has also led running camps, teaches running workshops around the world, produces Running Tips and Ultra Marathon Running Tips on his YouTube channel, and authored a book series called ‘Inspired To Run‘.

Valerie McCartney – Raw Vegan Dental Care

Valerie McCartney is a professional dental hygienist who has previously spoken at the Woodstock Fruit Festival.  In this short clip she gives some advice on dental care for raw vegans.

Fruitarian Dentist – Joe Hooper

Joe Hooper is a dentist from Australia who has a diet consisting of a lot of fruit.  In this short interview he talks about how he avoids damage to his teeth on a raw vegan diet.

Chris Kendall

“After 5 years of thriving on a raw vegan lifestyle, learning and applying all that I could, I started up my website and wrote my first recipe book “101 Frickin Rawsome Recipes” that was made up of all of my favourite recipes over the years! It was an instant hit! Between my passion for a simple raw food diet, my naturally intuitive culinary gifts and some great timing with Youtube and the internet, my recipe book and consulting practice spread far and wide. This in turn led me to being invited to be the Head Chef, as well as a speaker and yoga teacher of the Woodstock Fruit Festival! ”

Chris Kendall Interview 2

Kevin Cosmo

“I am Kevin Cosmo, certified Holistic Nutritionist and Natural Health Practitioner, father, athlete, speaker, and author. Since 2009, I have been devoted to helping others overcome fatigue and ill health to create a body and life full of energy, passion, and health.

I have a formal degree in Human Physiology, with a minor in Ethics, as well as Doctorate in Philosophy of Natural Hygiene and Healing. I have helped hundreds of people regain their health and vitality over the past decade. Currently, I am planning to attend Osteopathic medical school in 2020 with the aim of practicing as a Family Physician.”

Curt Griffing – Healing From Rheumatoid Arthritis With A Raw Vegan Diet

“When Curt Griffing was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis more than 30 years ago, he remembers doctors telling him that there was no cure and that he would have to “learn to live with it.”

He started looking for alternatives to pain medication and joint replacement surgery. He eventually discovered the benefits of eating a raw, vegan, plant-based diet of fruits and vegetables, and stopped eating meat and dairy products, including cheeses, which he loved.

Soon after, he said, his arthritic condition disappeared.”

Don Bennett

At a young age, Don Bennett discovered inconsistencies within the health field such as doctors who smoked and nutritionists who ate foods that were known to be harmful. Being a seeker of truth, he set out to learn the realities of health for himself. Discovering that traditional curriculums were filled with biases, hidden agendas, misinformation and missing information, Don remained self-taught, examining info as a researcher and not studying it as a student, thereby avoiding the hurdles set up by academic tradition.

He took a commonsense approach to health, and learned the value of looking past the “conventional wisdoms.” This approach, in conjunction with researching the teachings of healthful living pioneers and their modern-day equivalents, and putting into practice what he had found to be true, allowed him to discover the realities of health. Thirty years later, as a Disease Avoidance Specialist, Don now shares this wealth of enlightening and empowering knowledge with others for their consideration and benefit. Don lives his life by these two mottos: “Seek the truth though the heavens may fall” and “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”

Part 1

Part 2

Professor Rozalind Graham

Rozalind is a mother, professor in Applied Nutrition, dance and fitness instructor and renowned Natural Hygiene teacher.

She has been eating and teaching raw food for more than half of her life. Among her specialties is the emotional aspect of living, eating disorders and the proper nurturing of children.

She is the author of the book “Stay fit after 50” and a 2-disc set “Nurturing Peace“, with lectures about raw parenting and cultivating inner peace.

Tony Wright

Tony Wright, an independent researcher and author of Left in the Dark: The Biological Origins of the Fall From Grace, contends that the human brain began to degrade about 200,000 years ago. Something horrible went wrong, and we haven’t recovered from the catastrophe.

Part 1

Part 2:

Dr Doug Graham – What I Have Learned From 30+ Years On Raw Food

This is an interview I conducted with Dr Douglas Graham at the 2014 Woodstock Fruit Festival. Dr Doug Graham has been on a raw food diet for over 30 years and is the author of the 801010 diet. In this interview with Dr Doug Graham we cover:

-how he ended up as a speaker at the Woodstock Fruit Festival -why he promotes a 100% raw diet over a high raw diet

-what daily habits he has outside of diet that are also health building -can fasting cause metabolic damage and weight gain?

-why is the 80/10/10 diet the best for athletes?

-why it would have been impossible for humans historically to have lived on starch based diets

-why a fruit based diet is the best bet for the economy and environment

-what is Doug’s vision of the future

Doug Graham – Health Freedom

Doug – laws of life

Doug interview –

livestream with doug:

Andrew Perlot – Overcoming Colitis With A Raw Vegan Diet

Andrew Perlot has overcome obesity, frequent migraine headaches, colitis, depression and numerous other health problems since moving toward a healthy lifestyle.

It took him years of research and setbacks to finally get his life to a point where his health and energy are the rule rather than the exception.

He is convinced that true longterm health can only be achieved through a combination of lifestyle factors, the foremost being diet, and on this site he intends to set out in clear terms supported by science why a raw diet is best for the body, as well as why other factors should be incorporated into a person’s lifestyle.

Michael Arnstein

Michael Arnstein has been a competitive runner since he was 13 years old. His passion is peak performance, and that is what lead him to change his diet. Over a 15-year period, Michael slowly refined his standard American diet to what he now considers home base: 80/10/10. At 33 years old, having eaten a low-fat raw vegan diet for almost three years, Michael has set all new personal records from short distances all the way up to 100 mile ultramarathons. He recently ran 2:28 at the 2010 Boston Marathon, placing 55th overall. Michael runs upwards of 200 miles per week and hasn’t experienced a single injury or illness since he adopted a diet consisting almost entirely of fruit.

Michael is the founder of the Woodstock Fruit Festival, the world’s biggest event for raw vegans.

Dr Aris Latham

Dr. Aris is a World Renowned Culinary Innovator and Health and Wellness Motivational Speaker a native of Panama, he is considered to be the father of gourmet ethical raw foods cuisine in America. He debut his raw food creations in 1979, when he started Sunfired Foods, a live food company in Harlem, New York.

In the years since he has trained thousands of raw food chefs and added innumerable recipes to his repertoire.” Dr. Aris LaTham was the keynote presenter at the 2009 International Vegan Festival in Rio de Janeiro In 2004 Dr. LaTham was honored as a keynote presenter to the 36th World Vegetarian Congress in Florianopolis, Brazil.

In 2005 he also made a keynote prestation at the European Vegetarian Congress in Riccione, Italy. Dr. LaTham was a featured presenter at the World VegFest in Dubai, UAE and Chennai, India in 2014. Dr. Aris, ‘The Sunfired Gourmet’, has been a complete vegetarian for 50 years and has eaten Sunfired Foods exclusively for the past 44 years.

Dr Tumi Johnson

Dr. Oluwatumininu (Tumi) Johnson is an Integrative Holistic medical doctor. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and is also a diplomate of the American Board of 28: Dr Tumi Johnson – Raw Vegan, Holistic Medical Doctor and Dancer.

Louise Koch – An Amazing Story Of Recovery On A Raw Vegan Diet

“Anxiety attacks were a daily part of my life for nine years before I started this diet. I had tried everything from happy pills, psychiatrists and a school for phobias, but none of it worked. When I first changed my diet, I removed all dairy, refined sugar, wheat, chemicals, additives and colorings, and in a little less than a month, I had no more attacks. It was simply amazing, and I was astonished.

I suffered from nine years of anxiety attacks, damaged liver (high liver count, fatty liver, yellow skin and gallstone attacks) and severely low hormone production (like a pensioner and I couldn’t have children at the time). I had adrenal fatigue to the degree that I could hardly leave my bed, severe cell and DNA damage to a degree that a doctor told me that I would have cancer if I didn’t do something radical, cysts on my ovaries and then a lot of little things such as gout, candida, herpes, infections, brain fog, loss of short-term memory, sleeping problems”

Augusto Valerio

” I decided to deepen my studies to understand without rationally and without prejudices which was the best food model.

Starting from the classic concepts of nutrition , I came to the principles of vegetarian nutrition , raw food and therapeutic fasting. I finally approached to ‘ Natural Hygiene of Herbert M. Shelton , system I studied with passion for many years and that has forever changed my approach to health.

The vegan choice at this point represented for me the fundamental passage to superior nutrition . Performance increased, recovery times drastically decreased!

I have acquired a mental lucidity never experienced before and many chronic physical problems have completely disappeared.
Supported by a consistent scientific literature and the results of elite athletes from all over the world, I realized with absolute certainty that I was going in the right direction!”

Dr Areli Cuevas Ocampo

Mike Vlasaty – The World’s Strongest Fruitarian

Mike Vlasaty has been on a fruit based raw vegan diet for over 10 years.  He is a strength athlete who has achieved an elite level for his weight class.  He has also been a teacher for many years at the Woodstock Fruit Festival.

Justin Lelia

Justin Lelia is a long term raw vegan.  He has stuck to a raw vegan diet for over 18 years and lives in Miami, Florida.

Karen Ranzi – Creating Healthy Children

Karen Ranzi is world renowned as the go-to expert for people bringing up children on a raw vegan diet. Her own story goes back to her grandmother who had always told her the principles of eating healthier when she was growing up but it was many years before she embraced it for herself.

She has brought up 2 children on a raw vegan diet and has been a key speaker at raw food events around the world including the Woodstock Fruit Festival.

Dr Samuel Mielcarski – The Health Raiser

Dr. SAM’s mission for healthy living is said to be contagious! Samuel has a unique teaching style that utilizes useful frameworks, light humor, and key takeaways that creates lasting wellness transformation.

He shows you ‘how to’ get there, by mastering the basic health essentials. Samuel’s message is both powerful and empowering. The simple advice and solutions he offers will often become irreversible knowledge.

Samuel will inspire you to improve your health, and teach you to value it as well. His helpful guidance could not only change your life, it may even help save it!

Ellen Livingston

“Then in 2002, I learned of a natural, uncooked diet of fresh fruits and vegetables. After nearly 20 years of nutrition study, and as many years of suffering, the first book I read about a raw diet gave me the biggest “aha” moments of my life . . . I knew I had found some real answers, some core truths I was seeking. The very next day I adopted a raw vegan diet, and I have never turned back because I love the benefits so much.”

– Ellen Livingston

Kevin Cosmo

Yulia Tarbath

Yulia Tarbath and her husband Paul have run the hugely popular youtube channel “Rawesome Healthy” for close to a decade.  They have inspired people all over the world to eat a raw vegan diet.

Kristina –

Launch day livestream –