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We Want to Live: The Primal Diet
This new edition contains 65 more pages of remedies and explanations.
Through this remarkable but true story of the author's battle to save his estranged son from life-threatening injuries following an automobile accident, we not only learn how the author healed himself of terminal cancer, diabetes, bursitis and psoriasis but how thousands of people have healed themselves of hundreds of diseases and ailments with the foods that have healed them. Listed are everything from aging, the common cold and beauty tips to cancer, infant problems and muscular dystrophy.
All of the disappointments that people have endured because of failed diets and expensive miracle-cure supplements can be understood and set aside. Finally phenomenal results with health, healing and sensible disease-prevention, culled from over 40 years of medical and naturopathic experience and experimentation. Most people applying the wisdom directly from Aajonus, the author, have reduced their medical bills by 90%. Some have been able to eliminate them entirely. Imagine having a life where you control not only how naturally good you feel but how healthy you are.
About the Author:
At the age of twenty, Aajonus Vonderplanitz was diagnosed with blood and bone cancer and given less than six months to live. Medical therapies made him a semi-invalid with three new "incurable" diseases and a medical death sentence of "three months at best".
After his health improved significantly, he traveled for three years on a bicycle laden with a sleeping bag and books on health, physiology and anatomy. He adventured the North American continent, living outdoors while studying the diets and healing methods of various cultural groups and animals. He discovered a dietary approach that changed his life. His cancer went into complete remission and eventually reversed. He has out-lived his medical death sentence by three decades and enjoys excellent health.
Through this remarkable but true story of the author's battle to save his estranged son from life-threatening injuries following an automobile accident, we not only learn how the author healed himself of terminal cancer, diabetes, bursitis and psoriasis but how thousands of people have healed themselves of hundreds of diseases and ailments with the foods that have healed them. Listed are everything from aging, the common cold and beauty tips to cancer, infant problems and muscular dystrophy.
All of the disappointments that people have endured because of failed diets and expensive miracle-cure supplements can be understood and set aside. Finally phenomenal results with health, healing and sensible disease-prevention, culled from over 40 years of medical and naturopathic experience and experimentation. Most people applying the wisdom directly from Aajonus, the author, have reduced their medical bills by 90%. Some have been able to eliminate them entirely. Imagine having a life where you control not only how naturally good you feel but how healthy you are.
About the Author:
At the age of twenty, Aajonus Vonderplanitz was diagnosed with blood and bone cancer and given less than six months to live. Medical therapies made him a semi-invalid with three new "incurable" diseases and a medical death sentence of "three months at best".
After his health improved significantly, he traveled for three years on a bicycle laden with a sleeping bag and books on health, physiology and anatomy. He adventured the North American continent, living outdoors while studying the diets and healing methods of various cultural groups and animals. He discovered a dietary approach that changed his life. His cancer went into complete remission and eventually reversed. He has out-lived his medical death sentence by three decades and enjoys excellent health.
364 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1997
36 people are currently reading
790 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 15, 2019
The book is divided in 2 volumes.
First part is the story of the author Aajonus treating his son in a hospital after a car crash using his raw foods Primal Diet, mostly consisting of raw milk, raw eggs, raw meat, raw butter and raw honey as well as raw vegetable juices. After the crash, it was told that his son is most likely gonna die, however, through food Aajonus proves that even the most dire cases can be healed.
This part is written in almost a fictional work style, with half of the volume consisting of just dialogues that he was having during his stay in the hospital with the medical personnel, his ex-wife and his son. Sometimes the book makes me wonder how precisely the dialogues are fitting what actually happened in real life, since the book was written years after his son's recovery. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting look into the author's whole history and mind during his toughest times. It was filled with flashbacks of his suffering-filled youth that makes the reader understand, how Aajonus came to the diet that saved his own, his son's and many other people's lives from terrible and "uncurable" diseases.
The second volume is divided in 2 parts. The first one is focusing on explaining the theory and science of the Primal Diet, focusing on how raw foods and processed, cooked foods directly impact one's health, growth etc. The second part lists most common diseases, their causes and treatments using specific raw food combinations.
My biggest problem with the second part is its credibility. There is a lot of information that is presented as facts, but have no actual studies linking to them. As a random example from the book - "In 94% of caesarean sections, doctors chose caesarean birth because they didn't want to wait around countless hours for delivery to occur. In only 6% of caesarean sections has mother or child been in danger and benefited from caesarean surgery". A question arises - where did the author acquire the precise number of 94%, as well as how could he possibly know that in all of these cases it was only because "the doctors didn't want to wait around?" If there is a study linking to this, (which I am very doubtful there is) I would like to see it referenced, but for the most part none of the presented facts are referenced, even if it is clearly mentioned that there is a study proving something the author says.
Additionally, there are many claims in the disease "cause and treatment" part of the book that are claiming very brave conclusions about the reasons for different diseases without any explanation or proof. It is written that many diseases are being created by the lack of enzyme of digesting cooked food of specific color. A lot of what is written, you just have to believe on author's word, which in such a book, that is going up against the traditional knowledge, is definitely not the approach that creates trust. While I am not saying what that what the author claims is false, it raises a lot of questions and doubt in the things he says.
As an example for treatment of diabetes he writes "Eating tremendous amounts of unheated honey (about 3/4 cup throughout each day)" replaces the functions of insulin missing in the blood while it heals the pancreas and encourages pancreatic functions. When clients had been taking insulin for at least two years, he or she did best by weaning himself gradually off insulin over a long period - up to two years; it usually took that long before the pancreas worked well enough."
As long as I have been reading about diabetes, I have read that the cause of diabetes is over-consumption of carbohydrates and that the fastest way to reverse it is through low-carbohydrate, high fat diets, which has been scientifically proven by Hungarian "Paleomedicina" research group to solve diabetes in a matter of less than 6 months, letting the people wean off of the insulin already during the first weeks. They heal people through meat-only (usually cooked) diets. Aajonus take on this disease sounds counter-intuitive - consuming more carbohydrate in the shape of raw honey, which again creates doubt in me about this alternative approach, especially seeing how there is no viewable evidence presented in the book.
Although I am not a fan of other people's testimonials, I wonder if it might have given more credibility to the presented unusual treatments of the presented diseases.
In conclusion, it is a book with a great main message and for the most part useful dietary advice, that makes the reader question the traditional dietary advice. I did take upon the Primal Diet myself, and saw gradual improvements in my health. Sadly, the book lacks proof and more certified research to be taken seriously and being adopted by a bigger crowd of people.
First part is the story of the author Aajonus treating his son in a hospital after a car crash using his raw foods Primal Diet, mostly consisting of raw milk, raw eggs, raw meat, raw butter and raw honey as well as raw vegetable juices. After the crash, it was told that his son is most likely gonna die, however, through food Aajonus proves that even the most dire cases can be healed.
This part is written in almost a fictional work style, with half of the volume consisting of just dialogues that he was having during his stay in the hospital with the medical personnel, his ex-wife and his son. Sometimes the book makes me wonder how precisely the dialogues are fitting what actually happened in real life, since the book was written years after his son's recovery. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting look into the author's whole history and mind during his toughest times. It was filled with flashbacks of his suffering-filled youth that makes the reader understand, how Aajonus came to the diet that saved his own, his son's and many other people's lives from terrible and "uncurable" diseases.
The second volume is divided in 2 parts. The first one is focusing on explaining the theory and science of the Primal Diet, focusing on how raw foods and processed, cooked foods directly impact one's health, growth etc. The second part lists most common diseases, their causes and treatments using specific raw food combinations.
My biggest problem with the second part is its credibility. There is a lot of information that is presented as facts, but have no actual studies linking to them. As a random example from the book - "In 94% of caesarean sections, doctors chose caesarean birth because they didn't want to wait around countless hours for delivery to occur. In only 6% of caesarean sections has mother or child been in danger and benefited from caesarean surgery". A question arises - where did the author acquire the precise number of 94%, as well as how could he possibly know that in all of these cases it was only because "the doctors didn't want to wait around?" If there is a study linking to this, (which I am very doubtful there is) I would like to see it referenced, but for the most part none of the presented facts are referenced, even if it is clearly mentioned that there is a study proving something the author says.
Additionally, there are many claims in the disease "cause and treatment" part of the book that are claiming very brave conclusions about the reasons for different diseases without any explanation or proof. It is written that many diseases are being created by the lack of enzyme of digesting cooked food of specific color. A lot of what is written, you just have to believe on author's word, which in such a book, that is going up against the traditional knowledge, is definitely not the approach that creates trust. While I am not saying what that what the author claims is false, it raises a lot of questions and doubt in the things he says.
As an example for treatment of diabetes he writes "Eating tremendous amounts of unheated honey (about 3/4 cup throughout each day)" replaces the functions of insulin missing in the blood while it heals the pancreas and encourages pancreatic functions. When clients had been taking insulin for at least two years, he or she did best by weaning himself gradually off insulin over a long period - up to two years; it usually took that long before the pancreas worked well enough."
As long as I have been reading about diabetes, I have read that the cause of diabetes is over-consumption of carbohydrates and that the fastest way to reverse it is through low-carbohydrate, high fat diets, which has been scientifically proven by Hungarian "Paleomedicina" research group to solve diabetes in a matter of less than 6 months, letting the people wean off of the insulin already during the first weeks. They heal people through meat-only (usually cooked) diets. Aajonus take on this disease sounds counter-intuitive - consuming more carbohydrate in the shape of raw honey, which again creates doubt in me about this alternative approach, especially seeing how there is no viewable evidence presented in the book.
Although I am not a fan of other people's testimonials, I wonder if it might have given more credibility to the presented unusual treatments of the presented diseases.
In conclusion, it is a book with a great main message and for the most part useful dietary advice, that makes the reader question the traditional dietary advice. I did take upon the Primal Diet myself, and saw gradual improvements in my health. Sadly, the book lacks proof and more certified research to be taken seriously and being adopted by a bigger crowd of people.
October 5, 2020
One reviewer mentions Aajonus comments on iridology as an example of his incredulity. Well I saw Aajonus several times and he would take pictures of my eyes and then tell me about what was going on in my body. He even detected an injury I had about 35 years earlier. This compared to a medical doctor where you go they have you take blood test after blood test only to tell you something minor that you can correct rapidly. On the other hand Aajonus would tell me in 30 minutes what glands and systems were functioning poorly and then create a raw food diet to handle.
I think it was my pancreas that was functioning at a low level. So I started making a milk shake with raw pancreas from grass feed buffalo. (This actually was not the diet Aajonus put me on just something I decided to do based on the information Aajonus provided me.) Within 6 months the pancreas was back up to normal. I am now 71 and can still hike up mountains. 18 years ago I started eathing raw food because my body would shut down half way up a mountain. Without Aajonus book, We want to live, I would not have had the courage to even try it.
I think it was my pancreas that was functioning at a low level. So I started making a milk shake with raw pancreas from grass feed buffalo. (This actually was not the diet Aajonus put me on just something I decided to do based on the information Aajonus provided me.) Within 6 months the pancreas was back up to normal. I am now 71 and can still hike up mountains. 18 years ago I started eathing raw food because my body would shut down half way up a mountain. Without Aajonus book, We want to live, I would not have had the courage to even try it.
June 27, 2021
This guy is on a completely different plane. I have to admire it.
Has this book convinced me to eat a load of rotten meat? Probably not.
Has this book convinced me to eat a load of rotten meat? Probably not.
July 14, 2022
EAT YOUR RAW MEAT
October 19, 2022
This book is a beautiful account of man who has healed himself and the people he cares about by feeding them raw, uncooked food. Good health is life's greatest blessing and we often take it for granted. Humans, the greatest procrastinators that we are, only nourish and look after our bodies when it is too late.
This book has opened my eyes to the wonders of food as medicine. It has made me want to take care of my well-being in the cellular level.
A must read for anyone who desires healing.
This book has opened my eyes to the wonders of food as medicine. It has made me want to take care of my well-being in the cellular level.
A must read for anyone who desires healing.
May 19, 2022
We want to live; we don't want to die! Aajonus Vonderplanitz' seminal book is a brilliant crash course in the powers of various foods for various ailments. It reads first as a dystopian horror novel, as it opens on his son's near-death experience in a hospital being pumped "glucose water" repeatedly writhing to remove the cables. Perhaps Aajonus pictures himself as a cool James Bond type saviour who gives his son raw butter, but we should allow him the artistic license. In the US, the healthcare industry is private and perhaps is ulteriorly motivated to give people long, painful body-destroying procedures like chemotherapy. In Aajonus's view, cancer cells are in fact natural and healthy; they are the "janitors of the body".
There are many interesting foods I see echoed in this book which I have heard countless times, and for a good reason: raw eggs, cold-pressed vegetable juices, raw milk, selected raw meat, etc. I also feel Aajonus would be misunderstood quite easily (e.g. By YouTuber sv3rige), since he tailors food based on ailments.
In regard to these ailments, this is where I think this book falls short. Aajonus is complacently writing remedies for ailments he has no idea about. He is clearly just brainstorming. He reports several autoimmune problems are results of caffeine, STIs result of dysregulation, anxious people lacking in fish. I am sure Aajonus means well, and his philosophical musings are also heartfelt when he discusses earnestly how to deal with depression or negative thoughts. He does discuss in his conclusion that his research is still not perfectly finished and I think Primal fans need to also accept this, or, experiment themselves.
There are many interesting foods I see echoed in this book which I have heard countless times, and for a good reason: raw eggs, cold-pressed vegetable juices, raw milk, selected raw meat, etc. I also feel Aajonus would be misunderstood quite easily (e.g. By YouTuber sv3rige), since he tailors food based on ailments.
In regard to these ailments, this is where I think this book falls short. Aajonus is complacently writing remedies for ailments he has no idea about. He is clearly just brainstorming. He reports several autoimmune problems are results of caffeine, STIs result of dysregulation, anxious people lacking in fish. I am sure Aajonus means well, and his philosophical musings are also heartfelt when he discusses earnestly how to deal with depression or negative thoughts. He does discuss in his conclusion that his research is still not perfectly finished and I think Primal fans need to also accept this, or, experiment themselves.
October 9, 2020
Some groundbreaking ideas that helped me lose my fear of some foods, specially raw foods. Other than that, he exaggerates a lot and has little to no nuances when talking about anything. One example: he met a man who was an iridologist (look that up) who taught him how to diagnose diseases just by looking at people's irises. He then goes on to say that he has one-upped many doctors with his iridology skills and that he suspects the medical establishment doesn't use iridology because they actually want people to be sick, since healthy patients are lost patients. Nevermind all iridology studies never amounted to anything.
So yeah he's that kind of guy who follows that kind of logic over and again throughout.
So yeah he's that kind of guy who follows that kind of logic over and again throughout.
March 29, 2023
El libro es un hito en sí mismo, incluso si alguien es ajeno a toda la fama póstuma y mediática de Aajonus Vonderplanitz este libro no lo va a dejar indiferente ante su búsqueda de saberes nutricionales.
We want to live es un libro difícil de clasificar, es una mezcla de autobiografía, crónica investigativa y libro de recetas. Aajonus Vonderplanitz (de nombre real John Richard Swigart) narra su historia de vida, desde que era un niño hasta que siendo un adulto joven se convierte en padre. Las dificultades que tiene que afrontar en su relación sentimental y luego con su hijo van a ser una parte fundamental de su búsqueda por una salud optima y un significado de vida. Su historia personal es agitada y sensible, tuvo muchos sufrimientos y arrepentimientos que lo hicieron crecer como persona. Hay discusión si su biografía es verídica o una mezcla de verdad y ficción narrativa. Por ejemplo hay que mencionar el uso del típico "viaje al desierto" que realiza el héroe en las narrativas clásicas en donde el protagonista encuentra un sentido superior de las cosas y tiene una clase de revelación luego de haber estado un tiempo en ese agreste entorno. En definitivamente cada quién determinará si cree el testimonio del autor o no.
Por último, hay una sección completa de recetas, explicación de algunos conceptos nutricionales y biológicos, y remedios detallados para muchos males y enfermedades. La investigación individual hecha es de gran valor y dudo que alguien niegue la eficacia de la mayoría de consejos, Aajonus era un hombre con empatía hacia el enfermo y quería una honestidad y transparencia en su libro.
El libro es un 5/5 y pasará a la historia como uno de los primeros autores en reconocer que la carne cruda, los alimentos naturales en su estado más inalterado y la importancia biológica de las enzimas y estructuras nutricionales eran y son el pilar fundamental en el que los seres humanos obtienen su salud biológica. Le recomiendo encarecidamente a cualquier profesional de la salud leer esta obra y dejar sus prejuicios a un lado, así podrá mejorar su visión de la salud individual humana y ayudar a terminar con un siglo de mortales mentiras médicas.
La versión física es muy bonita y está hecha para ser duradera, lastimosamente es muy difícil de conseguir hoy en día debido al casi "culto" que se ha formado alrededor de la figura del autor.
We want to live es un libro difícil de clasificar, es una mezcla de autobiografía, crónica investigativa y libro de recetas. Aajonus Vonderplanitz (de nombre real John Richard Swigart) narra su historia de vida, desde que era un niño hasta que siendo un adulto joven se convierte en padre. Las dificultades que tiene que afrontar en su relación sentimental y luego con su hijo van a ser una parte fundamental de su búsqueda por una salud optima y un significado de vida. Su historia personal es agitada y sensible, tuvo muchos sufrimientos y arrepentimientos que lo hicieron crecer como persona. Hay discusión si su biografía es verídica o una mezcla de verdad y ficción narrativa. Por ejemplo hay que mencionar el uso del típico "viaje al desierto" que realiza el héroe en las narrativas clásicas en donde el protagonista encuentra un sentido superior de las cosas y tiene una clase de revelación luego de haber estado un tiempo en ese agreste entorno. En definitivamente cada quién determinará si cree el testimonio del autor o no.
Por último, hay una sección completa de recetas, explicación de algunos conceptos nutricionales y biológicos, y remedios detallados para muchos males y enfermedades. La investigación individual hecha es de gran valor y dudo que alguien niegue la eficacia de la mayoría de consejos, Aajonus era un hombre con empatía hacia el enfermo y quería una honestidad y transparencia en su libro.
El libro es un 5/5 y pasará a la historia como uno de los primeros autores en reconocer que la carne cruda, los alimentos naturales en su estado más inalterado y la importancia biológica de las enzimas y estructuras nutricionales eran y son el pilar fundamental en el que los seres humanos obtienen su salud biológica. Le recomiendo encarecidamente a cualquier profesional de la salud leer esta obra y dejar sus prejuicios a un lado, así podrá mejorar su visión de la salud individual humana y ayudar a terminar con un siglo de mortales mentiras médicas.
La versión física es muy bonita y está hecha para ser duradera, lastimosamente es muy difícil de conseguir hoy en día debido al casi "culto" que se ha formado alrededor de la figura del autor.
March 3, 2023
Aajonus Vonderplanitz is certainly a very interesting character.
Some of his suggestions are very good for you. Like eating a mostly meat-based diet with raw milk, eggs, and butter.
He basically advocates for a raw paleo diet where you have to juice vegetables (fruit can be eaten normally).
At the same time... he also uses very strange, "catchy" and hard-to-believe parables (stories). Which may be, or not, true.
Like when he says to have mistakenly eaten a 100% deadly fungi (from which he survived)... that left him mentally disabled for years.
Or when he talks about some of his client's success stories.
As a marketer, I can see how those sensational things could've helped him build such raving fans. Most take everything he says as Gospel.
I do agree with many of his beliefs about the current medical system and chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals, etc.
The raw argument is also interesting as the "bacteria cause disease" statement was first made by Louis Pasteur who invented germ theory.
But there is a contradictory theory called "terrain theory" which makes more sense.
One of the problems with his raw primal diet is that you're always "doing it wrong".
You have to drink and eat the right foods at the right time and at very specific intervals... or else you will lose most of the nutrients and/or you won't heal.
Some of his suggestions are very good for you. Like eating a mostly meat-based diet with raw milk, eggs, and butter.
He basically advocates for a raw paleo diet where you have to juice vegetables (fruit can be eaten normally).
At the same time... he also uses very strange, "catchy" and hard-to-believe parables (stories). Which may be, or not, true.
Like when he says to have mistakenly eaten a 100% deadly fungi (from which he survived)... that left him mentally disabled for years.
Or when he talks about some of his client's success stories.
As a marketer, I can see how those sensational things could've helped him build such raving fans. Most take everything he says as Gospel.
I do agree with many of his beliefs about the current medical system and chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals, etc.
The raw argument is also interesting as the "bacteria cause disease" statement was first made by Louis Pasteur who invented germ theory.
But there is a contradictory theory called "terrain theory" which makes more sense.
One of the problems with his raw primal diet is that you're always "doing it wrong".
You have to drink and eat the right foods at the right time and at very specific intervals... or else you will lose most of the nutrients and/or you won't heal.
July 6, 2025
Très bon livre de la part d'Aajonus Vonderplanitz, qui explore des techniques d'alternatives médicinales, opposées à la médecine traditionnelle, informe sur le danger de certains produits, et donne aux lecteurs plusieurs conseils sur la nutrition et informations sur la biologie humaine. Je recommande ce livre qui est très bien écrit d'une part, mais aussi très intéressant. Ne prenez pas tout ce qu'il dit pour acquis évidement, vous devez voir ce qui fonctionne pour vous.
December 25, 2024
Aajonus was way ahead of his time. Really wished he was still alive to further enlighten us. Very very interesting thoughts and his works have really opened my eyes about a lot, especially in the nutrition world.
August 26, 2024
9.5/10.
October 30, 2024
Amazing book. Gives an insight on true health and wellness with detoxification. Definitely worth reading!
June 2, 2025
Best book ever made.
November 12, 2025
śmieszne historie ale pseudoscience dobija
June 10, 2024
An amazing life changing memoir about a father saving his son in the icu.
January 12, 2014
The final authority on FOOD AS MEDICINE. Want to cure yourself of...well...anything? Read it, as well as his other book, "The Recipe for Living Without Disease."
June 24, 2025
Aajonus stumbles into truth about nutrition by accident and oversteps on a variety of claims. I have seen no one succeed on the Raw Primal diet and I would consider it, in light of scientific and anthropological knowledge, a diet of atavism.
August 16, 2010
this story is ground breaking and life changing. a must read for any living thing on this earth.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews