There are many roads to health. In the face of serious illness, people
often are willing to try things they previously discounted or even found
repulsive. When Aajonus Vonderplanitz became discouraged with the options
offered by modern medicine, he veered from his training in computer
science and the arts and began his own experimentation and research. He
found a health tutor and enrolled in several nutritional classes at major
universities, but quickly withdrew feeling the information offered was
"non-utilizable and produced sporadic results."

Aajonus says his best healing-education came from observing wild animals,
living outdoors. Ultimately, he sought the restoration of his health
through the primitive diet of our earliest ancestors.

In Latin, Aajonus means stranger or alien. His surname comes from his
ancestors who founded the town Planitz near Zwickau, but given the way
he relates to our Earth, one could just as easily interpret it as "from
the planet."

Q: What were your health challenges in your early life?

A: I was born into an abusive household that caused tremendous daily
stress. I had allergies to many foods, cold weather, chemicals,
medications, poison ivy and sumac, and insect stings. When I caught
poison ivy or was stung by an insect, my face swelled until my eyes
and throat closed. Although some form of antibiotic usually stopped the
reaction, my digestive system deteriorated and colds and flus lasted up
to five months. I was borderline autistic and rarely communicated with
others unless threatened with physical violence.  From early childhood,
I was severely dyslexic. At age 10 I developed peritonitis that was
misdiagnosed as appendicitis, and the medical procedures nearly killed me.
By age 13, I was diagnosed with diabetes, and at 15 I developed angina
pectoris-muscle spasms in or around the heart. Doctors couldn't find
a consistent irregularity so nothing was done, which I now know was
a blessing.

When I was 19, I developed a tumorous stomach ulcer. During surgery to
remove it, my vagus nerve was severed to prevent acids from irritating the
area. The incision scarred through to my stomach and became tumorous. I
was administered radiation therapy which gave me multiple myeloma (blood
and bone cancers).

I tried chemotherapy, which doctors told me would increase my one-year
life expectancy, but discontinued it after several months when I developed
psoriasis and bursitis. Since then I've learned of studies by medical
researcher Hardin B. Jones, Ph.D, a professor of medical physics and
physiology at U.C. Berkley, in which people diagnosed with cancer who
received no surgery, radiation or chemotherapy lived an average of 12
1/2 years. Those who received those therapies lived an average of three
years. The doctors lied when they told me they would extend my life.

Q: What led you to a raw diet to cure your ills?

A: At age 27 I left civilization because I thought that animals and
more primitive peoples had innate wisdom about health. I heard that the
Eskimos lived free of degenerative diseases as long as they ate a natural
diet which was 90% animal products, mainly eaten raw. For nearly three
years I lived outdoors studying animals and primitive people, and began
to include raw animal products in my raw vegetarian/fruitarian diet. The
resultant increase in my health was astounding.

Q: Do you perceive a relationship between metaphysics and personal health?

That is a very broad question, depending upon how creation is
viewed. Metaphysics to me means living holistically, in harmony, balance
and health on the physical plane to depending upon how creation is
viewed. I will discuss it from my nutritional view.  Metaphysics to me
on what should be killed and eaten-a hierarchy of killing. I believed
that killing animals and utilizing their flesh and dairy byproducts was
gross and antispiritual, and that killing plants and fruit was loving
and blessed.

Although I felt noble, my health suffered. I religiously adhered to
a vegetarian diet for six years, attempting to overthrow what I now
perceive as the food-chain laws. The human body is not separate from the
food-chain laws. Initially the raw vegetarian/fruitarian diet improved
my health, but after five years I deteriorated even though I followed
all of the complete protein rules.

I learned the hard way that God intended for my body to live healthfully
and diseasefree. I opened my mind and discovered that the human digestive
system is most appropriate for digesting animal products. Vegetarian
animals, herbivores, have more than twice the length of digestive tract
as that of humans. Herbivores have two to four stomachs; humans have
only one.

Humans have very few grinding teeth, most are for cutting. Although
cooked meat moves slowly through the digestive system, raw meat digests
in 10 to 16 hours. Raw food passes through an herbivore in 48 hours.

Raw and raw-sprouted grains and plants are too complex for the
human digestive tract and are rarely completely digested before
excretion. Herbivores have many times the digestive enzymes to disassemble
cellulose to utilize the protein and fat from vegetation.  Cooked grains
and cooked plants compound the problem because they take nearly 48 hours
in digestion, depending upon a person's digestive system.

Eating vegetation causes alkalinity in the human digestive tract, which
should be acid.  Between 40% and 80% of the friendly bacteria and flora
are paralyzed or destroyed in an alkaline environment. Cooking destroys
nutrients, creates toxins that accumulate as carcinogens, causes the
digestive tract to be over-acidic, and damages health. Eating raw
vegetables is good when on a cooked diet because vegetables neutralize
some of the acidity. However, if a person eats raw foods, including red
meat, fowl and seafood, her/his digestive tract would be impaired by
the consumption of whole raw vegetables because they would destroy the
bacteria that makes digestion of meat and fat proper. If you combine raw
meat with raw vegetables it often impairs digestibility of both foods,
unless someone suffers from over-acidic digestive tract. I recommend that
people drink their vegetables with the pulp completely removed. That way
the juice is usually absorbed near the duodenum without alkalinizing the
intestines.  Also, eating more than a little fruit each day deteriorates
the tissues and bones, imbalances the sugar level and causes poor mental
function.

Q: How do raw foods help cure chronic, degenerative disease?

A: Fats strengthen, cleanse and protect all body systems. Combined with
whole raw fruits, raw vegetable juices, and raw meats, fats make solvents
to cleanse and remove toxicity from the body. A healthy immune system
is predominately dependent on fats. Raw proteins provide nutrients for
regeneration of cells, promoting healing, youth and longevity. It has been
my experience in thousands of cases that regeneration of cells occurs
prolifically and easily when raw meats are eaten. Vegetable and fruit
proteins like nuts, beans and grains rarely have promoted regeneration
of cells in most cases. These same principals apply to prevention of
degenerative diseases.

Q: Didn't you have a near-fatal incident with a mushroom?

A: I misidentified and ate a death cap amanita mushroom in 1981, enough to
kill 15 people my size. It destroyed 90% of my liver and caused multiple
myeloma to resurge. I experienced recurring cramps and paralysis combined
with chronic fatigue.

I ate one stick of unsalted raw butter with one banana four to eight
times a day-that is, one to two pounds of unsalted raw butter per day. I
ate raw eggs by themselves, Rockystyle, raw fish and raw chicken. The
fats in the unsalted raw butter, raw eggs and raw meats provided the
nutrients necessary to cleanse and eliminate toxicity resultant from the
mass destruction of cells, and to strengthen my body. The meats provided
the proteins necessary to regenerate cells and restore my health. It took
me more than six years to recover to satisfactory health, and 11 years
to completely regain my health. But my health continues to improve and
at age 51, I feel better and do more than ever.

Q: What sort of response do your ideas get from the vegetarian community?

A: Before vegetarians hear my experience, they might not relate to
my ideas. In January I spoke to a vegetarian raw food group in San
Francisco. At the end of my talk only four of the 52 attendees remained
staunch vegetarians. I explaned to them that o f the 1,800 people eating
a vegetarian diet that I met since 1969, only about four percent did well
on the vegetarian diet. Only about .01% did very well. Those who did well
were all very athletic with most of their glands overactive, especially
thyroid, adrenals and gonads, with tremendous amounts of innate energy.

Q: What about the environmental impact of eating animals?

A: The direct environmental issue that argues against meat-eating contends
that it takes vast amounts of agricultural products, land and labor to
raise animals. Unfortunately, the human body was not designed to live
healthfully on agricultural products. The real root of this issue is
overpopulation.

There is also the argument that the toxicity resulting from animals fed
hormones and antibiotics can harm people who eat animal products. The
opposing view argues that the pesticides and chemical fertilizers used
in agriculture show up more in vegetarians than in meat-eaters.

At a nutritional panel last November, a study was presented showing that
vegetarians had higher levels of pesticides in their tissues. The theory
was that people who eat animal products get fewer pesticides because the
body systems of the animals have already either eliminated the pesticides
or stored them in glands and bones.

The real issue is the use of chemicals. Pesticides, chemical fertilizers,
hormones, antibiotics and toxic feed are all deleterious to health
whether we eat vegetable, fruit or animal products.

Q: How does the medical establishment respond to your ideas?

A: I have received more support than criticism from alternative-minded
doctors and nurses who know that medical approaches often fail and maim.

Q: What about parasites?

A: I have not seen a direct correlation between eating raw meat and
having parasites. It is believed by every gastrologist and registered
nurse with whom I have spoken that hydrochloric acid in the stomach kills
parasites and harmful bacteria before they can enter the system. As I
stated earlier, my vagus nerve was severed to eliminate hydrochloric acid
from my stomach. Science and medicine put me in the category of people in
danger of severe illness or death from parasitic and bacterial invasion.

Once I ate pinworm-infested salmon. I had my feces checked for 10
weeks afterward and did not prove positive for any kind of intestinal
parasite. I have eaten raw meats since 1976 and have never suffered
parasites.

But parasites are not the problem. Parasites live on decaying
tissue. Blaming parasites is the same as blaming vultures, crows and
worms for the dead and decaying carcass that they find and eat. They eat
the dead and decaying creature to prevent the atmosphere from becoming
a toxic cesspool.

Parasites and some forms of bacteria have the same sort of job in the
human body. It is a detoxification process. If an individual eats healthy
raw fats and proteins while parasites and bacteria do their cleansing
jobs, his or her body will eliminate the toxins made less toxic by the
parasites and/or bacteria and regenerate cells to heal properly.

Food and chemicals that cause destruction and decay in the body make us
susceptible to parasitical and bacterial detoxification. It's better to
eliminate the destructive food and chemicals that make parasitical and
bacterial detoxification necessary.

Q: Are there health hazards in your diet?

A: Hazards are created by eating cooked, processed and chemically altered
foods that form toxins, creating disease. My raw food diet cleanses those
toxins over time. The detoxification process is sometimes extreme. I
have occasionally seen people with one to 10 days of diarrhea, high
fever, brief fatigue and blood in the stool that is associated with
bacterial food poisoning. The typical period is one to three days. If
the detoxification is stopped by antibiotics, supplements or herbs, the
decay on which bacteria feed will remain and disease will inevitably
progress. I suggest that a person brave the experience and endure the
detoxification while eating 2 to 3 raw eggs blended with fruit or fresh
raw vegetable juice and one tablespoon unheated honey three to six times
a day until symptoms cease.

Every activity in life involves some risk. For those who have braved it,
the health benefits have been tremendous. In my experience, not one case
of sustained injury resulted. For those who panicked and took antibiotics,
their digestion was impaired for years or permanently. Decay remained
in their bodies, impairing function and advancing into disease.

Q: What made you write your book, We Want to Live?

A: Initially I compiled the information for potential clients. It
was published by a friend whose brother had suffered insomnia for
16 years. The brother slept no more than 20 minutes at a time, was
antisocial and suicidal with ADD. Doctors failed to help. He followed my
raw-food remedy and within four days slept very well. In fact, fearing
he had finally committed suicide, his family broke open his bedroom door
because he had been quiet for seven hours.

In approximately 95% of all cases, including cancer, heart, chronic
fatigue and arthritis, diseases reversed and health improved at least
85%. Any of my remedies had to be effective 80% of the time to be included
in my book.

Q: What are the basic components of your raw food diet?

A: The healthiest results came when 50 to 70% of the caloric intake was
raw fat-raw unsalted butter, raw eggs, raw cream, raw unsalted cheeses,
avocados, oils pressed below 96xF-eaten with all of the following daily:
8 ounces to one pound of a variety of raw meats-beef, lamb, sea food,
and organic chicken and turkey-and 28 to 38 ounces of fresh raw vegetable
juices (carrot and other roots being not more than 40%, celery, parsley
and other leaves being 60% or more), one cup fresh fruit, and little or
no water.

Q: Is there an un-cookbook of raw food recipes?

A: I'm working on a book that will contain raw food recipes for almost
every taste, including raw cheesecake, steak tartare, and raw sauces that
enhance the taste of raw meats, like raw garlic butter. It is scheduled
for publication next December.

Q: What are the credentials of Harden Jones?

A: Hardin B. Jones, Ph.D, was professor of medical physics and physiology
at U.C. Berkley.  He also testified in a San Diego hearing that a woman
with breast cancer who had no treatment lived up to four times longer
than one who was treated by conventional methods.

Q: What was the specific study about pesticides in vegetarians as opposed
to carnivores as mentioned on panel?

A: I don't remember. Dr. Joel Wallach presented it at the Whole Life
Expo last November on the panel Nutrition For The 21st Century hosted
by Dr. Earl Mindell. You will have to ask him.

Q: What is your training/education? Background other than health?

A: The major portion of my nutritional education was self-taught through
experimentation and research, however, in the beginning I had a tutor
for 3 1/2 years in Los Angeles. I enrolled in several nutritional
classes at major universities but withdrew after a month because they
offered extrapolation, that is, it was a lot of information that was
nonutilizable and when put into practice produced sporadic results. My
best healing education came from observing wild animals for 3-years,
living outdoors. My nonnutritional education includes a technical degree
in computer science, equivalent of a bachelors in theater, including
British-American Drama Academy at Stanford. Also, I was tutored for 4
years in visual arts.

Q: What is the meaning of your name?

A: I recently discovered from a professor of languages who specialized
in Latin that Aajonus means stranger or alien. Vonderplanitz comes from
Scandinavia. Von der simply means that one's family founded the town that
carries their name. My ancestors founded the town Planitz near Zwickau.

Q: Re human digestive system... Don't grains and plants move more quickly
through the digestive tract than animal protein?

A: If the meat is cooked, yes. However, raw meat digests within 10-16
hours without overacidity. Food should be digested by the time it reaches
the bowel. Raw and raw sprouted grains and plants are too complex for
the human digestive tract and are rarely completely digested before
excretion. Cooked grains and cooked plants compound the problem because
they take nearly 48 hours in digestion, depending upon a person's
digestive system..

Q: The digestive tract should be acid? Vegetables make it alkaline,
yet cooked meat and fat makes it over-acidic?

A: Yes, the human digestive tract should be acid. Between 40% and 80%
of the friendly bacteria and flora are paralyzed or destroyed in an
alkaline environment. Cooked meat and fat makes the intestinal environment
over-acidic. Eating raw vegetables is good when on a cooked diet because
vegetables neutralize some of the acidity. However, if a person eats raw
foods, including red meat, fowl and seafood, her/his digestive tract
would be impaired by the consumption of whole raw vegetables because
they would destroy the bacteria that makes digestion of meat and fat
proper. If you combine raw meat with raw vegetables it often impairs
digestibility of both foods, unless someone suffers from overacidic
digestive tract. I recommend that people drink their vegetables with
the pulp completely removed. That way the juice is usually absorbed near
the duodenum without alkalinizing the intestines.

Q: "It is believed (by whom?) that hydrochloric acid in the stomach
kills parasites and harmful bacteria before they can enter the system."

A: By every gastrologist and registered nurse with whom I had spoken.

===

Whole Life Times magazine feature article for March 1998