Raw “Will” Power
A true story by Roen Horn

I lost my spleen in a bike accident when I was 9. Before then, I never really took care of my health more than the average kid (which isn’t much), or thought twice about what foods I ate, and if they were really doing my body any good. But, after my operation, when the doctor told me that my immunity to disease was at risk without a spleen, everything changed from there. I didn’t want to “make up for” my missing spleen with a wide array of different drugs and vaccines; I wanted to find a natural, healthful solution. And that’s exactly what I did, despite being faced with much adversity and trials. This “turning tragedy into triumph” story really brings meaning to the phrase “you have to get worse before you can get better”.

Faced with the alternatives of vaccines, which I had, in recent years prior to the accident, begun to suspect were other than natural and healthy, I began to search for ways to increase my health and immunity, naturally, without drugs. By the time I was 14, I was well on my way to positive change. After lots of reading on the internet I started to experiment with my diet. I first became a vegetarian, then a vegan, and surprisingly, soon enough, became a raw foodist at age 16, eating a high percentage of raw foods that have not been cooked or heated, excluding all processed foods. I was experiencing a level of health unknown to me. All was well enough, until I read some romantic literature on an even more restricted diet- fruitarianism. The diet called for one to eat exclusively fruits, including nuts and seeds, and botanically fruit vegetables (zucchini, cucumber, etc.) but excluding the actual plant (roots, green-leafy vegetables, etc). Later I learned the true importance of greens. My brother also influenced my decision to start on the fruitarian path with his beliefs in respecting the life of a plant. This is the step in which I took my positive changes of diet over the edge, into a negative and most tragic series on unfortunate events…

Over a couple weeks of gorging myself with massive amounts of fruit in order to keep my calories up, (because fruit is low in calories) I still managed to lose 10 pounds. From what I had read of some of the fruitarian literature, it was normal, because it was just my body detoxifying, because fruits are very cleansing, and that after my body purged itself of the toxins stored in my fat cells, and only then, I would start to gain weight. So I blindly followed the advice, which was to keep on going. But this was only the start, and nothing compared to what was coming. I should have just left well enough alone. I could have accomplished all my health goals with the raw food diet. I did not need to take it to an extreme.

As anyone could expect, my parents (particularly my mom), became concerned with my weight loss. You should know that I was already very skinny as it was, eating the conventional standard American diet (AKA the S.A.D. diet). Eventually, one day she insisted I see a doctor to see if I was at a healthy weight range for my height and weight. The Doctor, said my weight was not acceptable and that I would have to find some way to gain weight, and continue coming in for checkups to have my weight monitored. I agreed, fearing of what might happen if I didn’t. During this time of checkups, I had, been using weights to fool the doctors and my Mom into thinking I had been gaining weight on my diet. But, when I was found out by my mother, things really started to burst into full-speed. She then called the doctors and they got the CPS involved at an attempt to make me an involuntary patient of a lock down mental facility under the premise that I was "mentally ill" for being "obsessive compulsive" about avoiding unhealthy foods, and also, mistakenly labeling me as an anorexic. I wanted to gain weight, but was misguided by the fruitarian dogma that told me to “go with it”. I told these things to the physiatrist but he insisted that I could not be “rationalized with”. When they unexpectedly arrived at my house to take me away, I bolted out the back door not to be heard of for 9 months. I had to camp in a local green belt for a month, while my brother made preparations to help me run away to Canada.

Soon after that, my cousin drove us close to the boarder, where we hitch-hiked the rest of the way to Canada. We decided to camp in a small Canadian town and made up fake identities (I was “Will”) and stories to avoid being identified. But soon, with much difficulty, (because we didn’t have any identification), we managed to get government funding, & housing with the help of a local mother of 3 that we met at a library. This lady befriended us from the moment she met me. Having lost even more weight than before, and looking rather emaciated, she secretly tried to get me hospitalized. Ironically at the same library in which we met, I had been desperately searching of healthy ways to gain weight. I was finally able to read a raw-food book called The Sunfood Diet Success System that convinced me to start including green leafy veggies among many other raw-food choices. This book especially emphasized greens, and told the problems of the fruitarian diet. But, it was too late, and I was put into a Canadian hospital…

I pleaded to the Canadian doctors to give me a chance, and show them that I could make changes and gain weight on healthy raw foods instead of cooked processed hospital foods. They agreed, and my brother was able to bring me healthy raw foods in the hospital. I instantly turned things around and found a more balanced way of eating "raw". I was well on my way to recovery, and had been gaining lots of weight on healthy raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. This is quite miraculous, since the Canadian physiatrists at the hospital were convinced that I was an "Orthorexic" with an eating disorder/disease, and this is never a simple cure, but a very long battle requiring countless therapies and intervention on the part of the experts. Around the time I was hospitalized, there was a news story and documentary done on us which was televised. We became known as the Bush Boys" / "Wild Boys of B.C. This media storm quickly got our secret discovered…

I showed that the doctor's who decided that I could "not be rationalized with", and therefore "needed mental illness drugs" were wrong! As it turns out, It was actually they who could not be rationalized with, because even after I proved my new diet was working in the Canadian hospital, the American doctors immediately had me transported back to California and into a mental illness lock down facility and tried every trick in the book to try to coerce me to eat cooked & processed food. They did not prevail; even there I had to be given healthy foods, or I would not eat! Finally, I got out, and in approximately 6 months I have put on 53 lbs, all due to my own decision to broaden my window of healthy foods to include in my diet, and never once deviated from eating raw. This experience taught me to think for myself, and not blindly follow someone else’s advice; to choose common sense over idealistic dogma.

More about the Hospital Experiences:

My first stay in a hospital was at a Canadian hospital where I was allowed to eat healthy raw foods in order to gain weight. The second hospital experience was the real nightmare… The CPS had total control of me, and my mother had no say-so in what happened to me. Me and my mother had talked about all the uncertainties of the American hospital before I was transferred. I even thought about trying to escape the Canadian hospital in order to avoid the American hospital! My mother had told the American doctor that after a long time of eating only raw food, raw-foodists lose their mucosal lining that protects against incoming toxins in the diet. After her warnings were dismissed, my mother was so scared that the American doctors were going to force me to eat cooked foods, that she called 911 twice!! She had no control over my fate and didn’t know what to do! The American doctor that had me transferred was of the opinion that my Raw-food diet was a problem and needed to be fixed! The first day when I arrived at the hospital, knowing that I am a raw vegan I was still offered greasy rice, canned green beans, fried chicken, milk and a piece chocolate cake!!! My doctor chose this for me even after being forewarned that I was a raw-foodist, and this kind of processed food could make me very sick! After seeing this plate of food, I was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown, because I thought that if I didn’t eat it, they were going to force feed me. I was told that I HAD to eat it or drink an artificial “nutrition drink”. I refused both, not knowing what they would do. I wanted healthy raw food, but they wanted me to eat that crap! Luckily, I had gained enough weight in the Canadian hospital that they could not legally force feed me. Finally, we got a court order that allowed my parents to bring me some raw food. But, amazingly they were still limited to bring only a few different items. Other than some avocadoes, and some homemade nut bars, all I had was the bananas, oranges, and walnuts that the hospital provided. Later, I met the man who was responsible for concocting these hospital meals. He told me how all these foods were healthy and gave me his “anything in moderation” philosophy. I told him why I thought all the processed hospital foods and “nutrition” drinks” were unhealthy. Then he would tell me that I was wrong, and that he knew better than me because he was a “certified nutritionist”. I found these talks to be quite humorous. They would also limit me to certain designated times as to when I could eat. When I was caught eating out of those times, nurses would take away my food!!! Taking food from a skinny boy!!! I also wasn’t allowed to exercise at ALL, which caused me to gain lots of body fat and NO muscle!!! Because of what they did, I now have a 24% body fat. Three times a day, at meal times, they put plates of processed food in front of me. I never touched it. I would eat my avocadoes bare handedly, and the nurses looked at me like I was crazy. They had a certain area outside, and when I took off my shirt to get some sun on my skin they made me put it back on! This horror continued for three weeks, then they finally gave up their efforts to make me eat cooked food. I was let out, and had to have check-ups every month or so. I’ve been eating raw foods ever since and now I’m doing my best to gain muscle weight.

For me the Raw-food experience was a learning experience. I hope to set an example for aspiring raw-foodists to have “Will” power, and to accomplish their goals and achieve a healthy raw food diet. I also want to be an example that sometimes taking things to too much of an extreme (fruitarianism) can have disastrous results.

I am receiving emails at roenhorn@gmail.com