Nutrition Raw

How A Raw Vegan Diet Helped Me Defeat My Addiction To Painkillers

My memories are still as vivid today as if it were yesterday.

I was living in Camden Town in North London, and the year was 2005.

I had been in the music business for just over 20 years – I started as a professional DJ at the age of 15. After travelling the world playing gigs for over two decades, the bustle of my music career was started taking its toll on my health.

Just to give you an idea of my DJ flying schedule at the time. I travelled the world over, visited every continent (except Antarctica) and I played gigs in over 50 countries over a period of 25 years.

But not only that, I had to travel to play gigs in the same country more than once, as you do when you are a DJ.

For instance, I have played in various cities in Switzerland over 20 times. I went to play Spain over 30 times. I DJed in France and the US nearly 10 times each. I played gigs in Germany and Holland 5 times each, I played Israel 3 times, South Africa and Brazil a couple of times… you get the idea.

And if this wasn’t enough… get this: I made the trip from London – Buenos Aires a whopping 60 times. Can you believe that?

Well. I have no one to blame but myself. I was born in Argentina and decided to establish myself in London at the tender age of 23. The distance between London and Argentina alone is 7,291 miles.

By the age of 37, my health literally collapsed. I have developed Arteriosclerosis that affected both of my legs to the point it made standing up very difficult.

But only that, I was suffering from chronic depression for no apparent reason and I was gaining weight.

I had gum problems and widespread joint and back pain, among many other ailments. My life was miserable.

I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning if I didn’t take at least 4 Nurofen tablets. Sometimes I even needed to take 6 tables at 200mg each, just to feel “normal”.

Nurofen is a well-known anti- inflammatory drug sold in the UK that contains Ibuprofen as well as other drugs.

Consuming these pills regularly is dangerous, let alone taking 4-6 pills each morning for two years.

I went to see a private doctor on Harley Street in London to get some advice because I couldn’t wait to see a specialist at the NHS (National Health Service), and he was alarmed by the general state of my health.

When I looked back on my life and at past behaviours, I can easily understand why other performing artists, such as Prince and Michael Jackson, developed addictions to painkillers.

I was terribly saddened when they died as a result. I never met Michael Jackson, but I did meet Prince a few times.

Being in the music industry can become a 24 hour lifestyle if you are not careful.

The most extraordinary aspect of my recovery was the way I did it. I didn’t rely on doctors or medicine to restore my health.

I mean… Just get this: what are the chances of visiting your doctor and telling him or her that you are suffering from an addiction to painkillers, arteriosclerosis, and countless of other ailments and your doctor suggests that you should change your diet?

LOL that is not going to happen in a million years because medicine doesn’t work like that.

Doctors will prescribe deadly drugs that may remove some of your symptoms but will also slowly kill you.

It’s important to understand that symptoms are not the disease. The real solution to my problems, and the problems of so many other people out there, lies in tackling the cause of the disease where the symptoms are only a manifestation.

The cause of disease, in most cases, is diet and lifestyle; of course the medical profession and big pharma would never want to admit this fact, as they would go out of business.

After a few short months of implementing some changes to my diet, as well as adopting some new lifestyle habits, I managed to overcome all my health issues, and not only that (like if that wasn’t enough); I even managed to lose unwanted fat from my body and face, and ended up not only totally disease free, but also looking super fit!

This is what I call a proper recovery.

trans-7 (reduced)
Fat Loss: The photo on the left was taken when my weight was 84 kilos (185 lb). The photo on the right was taken a few months later after adopting Health For Life. I now weigh 67 Kilos (145 lb).

If I had followed the medical advice and tried to fix my symptoms by taking drugs, today I would probably be still sick, fat, and miserable.

I am not saying that you should never listen to your doctor. In fact, I always listen to doctors, but the action I take may be something completely different than advised.

I believe that taking prescription medicine, just like the option of going to war, should be the very last resort and only if it’s completely necessary and the final option.

I recently got an email from one of my readers asking me if she could ‘trust’ a raw food diet. And I was like ‘trust’? It’s more than that, eating the correct raw vegan diet can save your life – literally.

And not only save your life, but the quality of life you experience afterwards on a raw diet is so much higher that you would probably never want to return eating the wrong foods again.

Changing to a diet of raw foods is not a big deal, and it’s a lot more enjoyable than going under the surgeon’s knife.

You start by adopting a “low fat” vegan diet, while slowly increasing the amount of raw food you eat. That’s all.

Shelton writes: “faulty education is the chief, if not the only cause of all drug addiction”

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11 Responses

  1. I plan on going vegan eventually it’s just so difficult! I live in a small city in The USA (1m people) and that helps a little so I can go to some restaurants and stuff. Going to family events and social activities though will be hard, but I wanna make it work.

    1. Do tons of research. Peta and vegan bodybuilding.com are where I found most of my early information. I’m from Ga, and everyone brought me fruits and veggies at a family gathering recently. You just have to do it. Good luck

  2. Great story! Did you quit the painkillers before starting the raw diet or eased off as your general health improved? Thanks for the inspiration!!

    1. Ariel Belloso says:

      Thank you. 🙂
      I quit painkillers pretty soon after the cleanse started and never touched them again. I would say 2 or 3 weeks into my raw diet. 🙂

  3. Thanks for replying and congrats on your positive, inspiring lifestyle!!

  4. Very inspirational. 🙂 I started a raw vegan diet and topped my pain killers too. It was great for the first month and a bit. But now my pain is back and I’m not sure why. If you have any advice, that would be great!
    Thank you.

  5. fantastico…. ahora ire a leer mas about raw food….from tu xo

  6. Christine says:

    I went through radiation for a brain tumor last year.. I have a spine disease called Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis that I’ve had about half my life (I’m 51). I developed neuropathy in my feet and hands. I was taking Tramadol, Gabapentin an 800 mg ibuprofen daily for my pain. Since mid January I have been eating mostly low fat vegan. I have weaned myself off the Tramadol. I want to add more raw foods into my diet and hopefully get myself off more pain killers. My doctor does not agree with me going off the meds but I know it is best for me. At this point my neuropathy symptoms are gone and I’m not in as much pain as I was in. I believe this is because of the diet change and I do not have as much inflammation in my body. I am wondering how you suggest is the best way to get off the pain meds? Should I change over to a raw food diet first? If so, for how long? I’m a little nervous about going off the meds because I am afraid that maybe they are controlling the pain and it isn’t because of my diet change. My next MRI is in Sept and I am hoping to show that my brain tumor is shrinking and that my symptoms have disappeared. Please let me know your suggestion. Thanks.

  7. Thanks for the inspirational story, I love hearing about people overcoming health challenges through diet and lifestyle changes. They help me to keep going after one year low fat raw vegan.

  8. I have found your emails really inspiring and as a vegan will now go totally raw in diet.
    You look healthy and content.
    I have attended some of your music events and admire your artistic talent.
    I live in a small island called Tasmania in Australia and everything is easy to grow or buy organic.
    So you completely stopped all addictions.
    Kind regards Zahara

  9. “I had to take pain pills just to get out of bed”. Me too. I kept them by the bed with water and would take them an hour before i needed to get up. Radical diet change fixed me too. I got my life back. Not a single pain pill in2 years now and feeling 20 years, or more, younger.

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