At the age of 37, and after many years in the music business, my health collapsed. Having to deal with many illnesses was the moment I decided to change my diet to raw food.

I didn’t start eating 100% raw from the beginning; I ate all raw during the day and some low fat, vegan cooked dinners.

One of the first things I noticed after this dietary change was the amount of extra energy I had. It was unbelievable.

I had so much energy that the inside of my body seemed to be bursting with power. I literally felt like I could walk into the middle of the street and stop oncoming vehicles with one hand. I felt that strong.

So, how is this possible? Why does a raw, or mostly raw, fruit based, plant-based diet give you so much energy?

I will give you an example to explain why:

Let’s say you need to walk a distance of 0.3 miles (482 metres) from point A to B. Incidentally, this is the same distance between Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus tube stations in London. For those of you who have visited London, this is a very central area that many people are familiar with. I use this example to try to make my point as clear as possible.

So, to walk this distance, which way would you choose? I bet you would choose the quickest and safest way possible, wouldn’t you? In the case of London, it would be to walk from Leicester Square in an almost straight line, taking Cranbourn St, Swiss Court, then Coventry Street, and you are at Piccadilly Circus. It’s easy and people do it all the time.

But what if I told you not to choose the easiest way, but a more complicated one? To get from Leicester Sq. to Piccadilly Circus, go first to Tottenham Court Road, then walk down Oxford Street to Oxford Circus, then walk from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly Circus.

If I suggest this to anyone, they would think I am stupid, because that route is 3 times as long, which is about 1 mile (11,609 metres). No one in their right mind would choose this route, would they?

Now, think of living in London and having to travel this distance many times every day, every month, and every year of your life. What would be the result? Devastation, right? Because it means you will have to spend a lot more energy, a lot more time, health, even money, and put a lot more effort into travelling the longer distance, when all of it could be avoided by taking the shorter route.

Did you know that the digestion of foods demands more energy from the human body than any other activity? This explains why you feel sleepy after eating a large meal, or why you suddenly stop feeling hungry when you get a fever. Fever acts like an automatic response from our body that shuts down our digestive process to save up energy to combat the illness.

Digesting food requires even more energy than running a marathon. In fact, there’s nothing you can name that takes more energy for the body than the digestion of food.

Common sense tells us then that we should refrain from eating foods that require more energy to digest, assimilate, and eliminate than the nutrition they provide, do you agree?

Fresh fruits and vegetables require less energy to be digested than any other food. Fruits, actually, demand almost none! In other words, by eating a diet based on fresh fruits and vegetables as the main source of calories, we are taking the shortest route to our destination every time.

Conversely, people who follow unhealthy diets, whether it be the Standard American Diet, High Fat Vegan, High Fat Vegetarian, Keto, etc., are taking the longest and most complicated route to get to their destination, because their body needs to work much harder to extract whatever nutrients are in those foods, and eliminate the rest; robbing the body of vital energy.

Raw food is highly bioavailable, which means your body can recognize and use it easily. We don’t need to eat a lot to get the nutrients we need. In most cases we just need to eat more effectively.

The water and sugars of fruit, which make up almost its entire digestible portion, require virtually no digestion. They simply require absorption. Shortly after their absorption, they are easily and rapidly assimilated by the body. Meat and fish by contrast can take as long as 2 days to fully digest. The proteins and fats they contain are complex molecules that take longer for your body to pull apart.

This explains why you suddenly experience “enormously high” levels of energy by adopting a raw, or mostly raw, plant based diet, essentially you have been walking the longest distance for your entire life and now suddenly you decide to take the shorter route.

Some of this extra energy is used by the body to heal itself, which explains why so many people who follow raw food diets successfully prevent, and even overcome, many diseases.

Other benefits to eating raw foods include losing excess weight, clearer sinuses, improved breathing, better sleep, clearer skin, less mucous discharge, greater mental clarity, just to name a few.

Having more energy improves every aspect of your life, social life, work life, sex life, you name it!