Raw Food Diet Is Secret To Eternal Youth, Good Health, Claims 29-Year-Old Susan Reynolds
For a 29-year-old raw food diet entrepreneur, the secret ingredient to eternal youth is in her very own kitchen. Susan Reynolds from Edinburgh, U.K., is often confused for a 16-year-old teenager after only consuming raw food for the past seven years.
The slim and slender 29-year-old businesswoman eats nothing but raw fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds every day. She believes that her diet is what keeps her looking so young and in good health.
Reynolds decided to become a vegetarian and train to be a yoga teacher at the age of 21 during a six-month trip to India. Her journey-inspired lifestyle took a turn when she went to eat at Red Sugar — a café that serves raw food.
“The owners told me a bit about it so I went home, read up on it and decided to give it a go. The difference I felt in a day was incredible so I've done it ever since. I haven't had a hot meal in seven years,” Reynolds told the Daily Mail.
She claims that some of the benefits of the raw food diet include “[mental] clarity, positivity, health, energy, radiance and the ability to make choices," the Daily Mail reports.
The raw food dieter admits that her current lifestyle is a far cry from her days at university. Reynolds would indulge in Chinese buffet dinners, McDonalds McChicken Sandwiches, and even enjoy downing shots of vodka jelly when she was a teenager.
Now, Reynolds begins her day with a liter of green juice made from blended spinach, lettuce, and herbs — the primary focus of her raw food diet.
“I focus on a very high liquid diet with lots of green juice, smoothies, soups and 'elixirs.' I try to get as much leaf green veggies in to my diet as possible. I eat fruits for energy and sparingly eat fats from nuts, seeds and coconut,” she said.
While her raw food diet may sound like a tough regime to follow, Reynolds strong affirmed that she doesn’t desire cooked food and abides by the diet through her own technique. According to her, once a person is able to sort out the emotional attachment to cooked food, he or she will no longer crave it anymore.
To let others in on her youthful secrets, Reynolds has started her own business called Twist and Sprout, which offers healthy retreats where people are taught how to incorporate the raw food diet into their own lives.
The raw foodie has even reached out to her closest relatives and her boyfriend, Louie, to try the diet themselves. On Christmas, Reynolds prepared a raw food feast that included a fruit platter and raw mince pies from nuts and seeds.
Reynolds’s mom, Marion, doesn’t see her daughter’s diet as unusual as she has tried healthy diets herself. Marion was bedridden for years with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) — a condition that causes severe and debilitating fatigue, painful muscles and joints, and disordered sleep, according to the ME Association. She was able to cure the condition herself by going on a sugar-free diet, which inspired her daughter.
Check out Reynolds' daily plan below:
6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.: Yoga practice.
10 a.m.: A liter of green juice made from blending a whole lettuce, a bag of spinach, and bunch of herbs.
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Snacks, including whole fruit (figs, mangoes, berries, etc.), raw chocolate, green juice, and superfoods like bee pollen and berries.
6 p.m.: Large salad and/or green soups, or another raw dish created from fruit and vegetables, and soaked nuts and seeds, depending on what she feels she needs that day.
To learn more about Reynolds and her journey on the raw food diet, visit her website.