The Ultimate Elixir of Youth
Second Edition! Revised & Expanded
Introduction:
Tell Me It Can’t Be Done,
and Watch Me Do It!
I am a failure, folks. I am a failed mathematician. I am a
failed mechanical engineer. And I am a failed high school
teacher. I owe these failures, obliquely, along with all the
consequences they’ve brought me, to a strange friend and
enemy. Its name? Food.
Along came the raw foods revolution and suddenly my
failures became surprising virtues and values. Everything I’d
done up to this point revealed itself as a precious gift that I
would integrate into my new endeavor. From the realm of
mathematics came the gifts of logic and deductive reasoning.
From engineering, I learned how to research, to dig
deep, looking for unorthodox solutions. From teaching ninth
graders in an all-boys school, I acquired three vital attributes:
perseverance, survival skills, and raw courage.
I’m fortunate to hold advanced degrees in mechanical
engineering and theoretical mathematics. But I’ve spent the
page 9
last decade devoting every waking moment to researching
the benefits and techniques of consuming raw foods. Why
on earth, I used to wonder, did I spend so many years
studying hard science without using it? Had I defied my
destiny? Wasn’t I supposed to be squatting in some underground
supercollider facility, holed up with brilliant social
misfits, hurling bits of atoms at other bits of atoms,
munching on ineptly homemade tuna sandwiches, and
playing exotic computer games?
One day I picked up a book on quantum physics.
Suddenly, it was there! I knew it! I had to write a book on
Quantum Eating. It all began to make sense — my abundant
academic background, the vast experience of my raw food
journey, endless research and keen interest in beauty and
anti-aging. I’ve experienced many life changes, including
changing countries and careers. But deep down, I somehow
knew that anti-aging research was central to my life’s direction
even before I was consciously aware of it.
All my life people told me there were things I just
couldn’t do. I had to overcome the inevitable prejudice that
the world holds against handicapped people. It is as if
people feel that a deficiency in your physical appearance
makes you deficient in every other way. Some people like to
put you down. Especially, it seems, when you’re already
down. Often, they do so innocently, unintentionally.
When I was a child, because of the bilateral hip problem,
my parents were told I would never walk. After years of grueling
therapy, I did learn to walk without crutches, though I
still had a limp. It was then that I experienced, for the first
time, the wonderful feeling that comes from accomplishing
something that others think impossible. As Walter Bagehot
put it,“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say
you cannot do.”
Quantum Eating: the Ultimate Elixir of Youth
page10
When we immigrated to America, I visited orthopedists
to find one who would rise to the challenge of my hip disability.
It “couldn’t be done,” they said. So I went to get a
second opinion. A third. Ultimately, even a fifth opinion. The
sixth doctor was utterly dismissive: “Why are you so hardheaded?
You have limped all your life until now. You are
going to limp for the rest of it. Just get used to the idea!”
That’s all I needed. I stopped pleading with doctors. I
began thinking — for myself. I found my own solution. Then
I found a doctor with enough courage and vision to go
along with my idea. The result: I am an orthopedic miracle!
My high school English teacher told my mother that I
would never learn English. She wanted me out of her
English class because I was hopeless. I overheard this conversation.
From that day I made straight A’s. I think my passion
for English and the audacity to write books in English
sprang from her putdown.
When I was a teenager, my girlfriend told me outright,“If
I looked like you, I wouldn’t even want to live.” My interest
in beauty was a direct result of the hurt I experienced that
day. It took me many years to find my way to what I now
call (to employ one of my trademarks) “Rawsome Beauty.”
The advantage of Rawsome beauty over in-born beauty is
this: In-born beauty fades, but you can be Rawsomely beautiful
when you are 40, 50, 60 and beyond. So these days I
receive numerous emails from my seminar attendees with
generous beauty compliments.
For me, even something as simple as attending a first-time
yoga class can become a major obstacle — physically and
emotionally. My first encounter with Bikram yoga resulted in
a confrontation with the studio’s owner. My stringent hip
limitations made me unfit for most of the 26 Bikram poses.
Breathing exercises and the shavasana (the “dead body
pose”) were all I could manage without serious modification.
Tell Me It Can’t Be Done and Watch Me Do It!
page11
So I came equipped with a strap. Little did I know, bringing a
prop and insisting I keep it because of my affliction’s
severity, was a crime worthy of threats to call the police.
After this encounter I took private yoga classes. Eighteen
months later I was back in the same studio. I love it. These
days, when I am more flexible, I am able to appreciate the
unbendable Bikram rules my instructor imposes. I will soon
submit an article about my yoga experience to one of the
yoga journals. I am also expected to attach pictures of some
of my poses. No matter how hard I have to work to perfect
them I promise one day you will see them in print.
Want to make me do something? Just tell me it can’t be
done. I like to solve problems! And I believe every problem
has a solution. I believe in doing whatever needs to be done
to get where you want to be. Exercising stubborn legs for
hours a day just to make them do what they’re supposed to
do, endlessly researching anti-aging practices — either way, I’ll
take it to the limit. Farmers call it “hoeing to the end of the
row.” My motto: Whatever it takes. You are likely fortunate —
your “whatever it takes” may well be much less than mine.
Older people endure the same prejudices as the handicapped.
I saw, early in life, a glimpse of what it’s like to be
old, a glimpse of how older people are treated. I was determined
to find a way to avoid decrepitude. And dying young
was not an option. I thought, I have to find a way to avoid
this fate. And I did! The result of my research and experience
is detailed in my three books. The book you are
holding now, Quantum Eating, is the last in my trilogy
devoted to anti-aging and Rawsome beauty. I strongly advise
you to read my first two books before reading this book.
Some ideas you’ll read here are different from those in
my previous books. I stand by what I said in those books;
Quantum Eating: the Ultimate Elixir of Youth
page12
however, I am developing knowledge and experience and
now I am at a different stage of life. New possibilities open,
new practices emerge. It’s my responsibility — indeed, my
joy — to capture them for you in this new book.
There’s a wonderfully insightful book by Thomas Kuhn
that you should read, if the progress of science excites you.
It’s entitled The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn
makes a penetrating point: When you’re in the middle of a
scientific revolution, you normally can’t see it — like the
calm at the center of the storm. So it is with life. When
you’re at a crossroads and your life makes a turn, you may
not notice it until much later.
In 2005, my husband and I spent Christmas with the
famous raw food family of Victoria Boutenko. (For the
curious: No, we did not have a raw turkey for Christmas
dinner.) Victoria set up a presentation for me in Ashland,
Oregon, her hometown. We spent two full days with this
radiant family, absorbing fresh raw foods knowledge, sharing
green smoothies, and being immersed in their warm, vibrant
energy. It was a genuinely life-altering experience. Victoria got
interested in my personal regimen of not eating after 2 P.M.
She encouraged me to write an article explaining my theory.
I was gripped with the same excitement until I sat down
at my keyboard. Theory? I wondered. I didn’t have a theory.
All I knew in that moment was … my raw food regimen felt
thoroughly good, totally right. Doing it myself was one thing.
But justifying it for others was a different story. Though I’d
stumbled upon this life-enhancing practice through my own
experience, my analytical mind needed more in order to help
me explain it to others. I needed proof.
Research in nutrition is contradictory, at times, frustrating.
It’s like collecting berries (and really, come to think
of it, it felt more like collecting a berry here and a berry
Tell Me It Can’t Be Done and Watch Me Do It!
page13
there, but never a whole quart). Information was scarce.
Each book held promise, but each contributed only tiny
insights, just snippets of information. Before I knew it, I was
getting deeper and deeper into quantum physics. I read
more than three hundred books. And I gained a deeper
understanding of why my own practice with raw foods was
so good, not only for me, but for many other people
throughout history.
If there is anything that unites all cultures and philosophies,
it is the never-ending quest for preserving youth and
reversing age. In writing this book, I researched and adapted
teachings from Christian, Buddhist, mystic, and animist traditions,
as well as findings from eastern and western medicine.
Longevity traditions are known in every culture. Collecting
pearls of wisdom about long life, I let my studies span centuries,
cultures, and endless variations, until I could string
them together to create a necklace of knowledge.
Together we will explore all the way from the distant
past to the most recent theories in anti-aging research. I
have looked into the folk traditions and medical practices of
different countries and cultures, devised a strategy to use
every one of these different methods that offered real
improvements in human well-being. Just like doctors from
different specializations — cardiology, endocrinology, neurology,
etc. — come together to save a person’s life, the
wisdom from different parts of the world must be combined
to successfully tackle the aging puzzle.
What is Quantum Eating? It is an advanced level in the
raw food lifestyle in which you eat 100 percent raw, twice
daily and only in the first part of the day. In this book, step
by step, I will supply the evidence for why this way of
eating provides the utmost in anti-aging benefits. Each
chapter discusses a specific topic. But the main point plays
Quantum Eating: the Ultimate Elixir of Youth
page14
out over the course of the whole book, and every chapter
adds another piece to the anti-aging puzzle.
Science can be interpreted in different ways. Any research
by experiment can never be 100 percent reliable.
Nonetheless, I will introduce some research findings that are
available. I will attempt to show how some scientific conclusions
contradict logic, yet others confirm the wisdom of natural
order. These latter findings can be convincing on a macro
level, but on a quantum level, I have learned, even logic
becomes questionable. So I implore you never to get attached
to certain scientific hypotheses or theories — be ready to
evaluate them and change entirely as new experiments, especially
on your own body, open new secrets to you.
The raw food lifestyle can only be individually experienced
— it cannot be authoritatively proven. The best science
can achieve is to disprove erroneous concepts.
Nevertheless, I researched scientific findings extensively. I
quote the available data, and present conclusions I believe
scientists’ research have arrived at, but never delivered. I
have tried to present evidence and disclose flaws in reasoning,
so you can judge for yourself whether my interpretations
are plausible.
You must gain some degree of raw food maturity to proceed
to Quantum Eating.
This book is dedicated to Victoria Boutenko, because
without her encouragement I do not think this book would
have ever seen the light of day. If you do not know who
Victoria Boutenko is, this is a good indication that you may
not be quite ready to take this advanced health journey. If
your eyes are glazing over, wondering what on earth this
woman is talking about, get my first book or other books on
the raw food lifestyle and start at the beginning.
Tell Me It Can’t Be Done and Watch Me Do It!
page15
Everyone can benefit from not eating at night, but
making Quantum Eating your lifestyle and enjoying every
minute of it can be accomplished only on the 100 percent
raw method. I consider it a great stroke of personal good fortune
to have stumbled upon the raw food lifestyle. I advise
you to learn and experience it as well.
I’m extremely grateful to Victoria for her persistent
nudges. It wasn’t until she encouraged me to share the discoveries
of my own raw regimen that this new adventure
began to unfold. Writing this book has changed my life. My
prayer is that it will change yours.
Wearing your favorite old comfortable shoes — that’s
how it feels to write in your native tongue.Writing this book
in English, from the perspective of my mother tongue,
Russian, felt like running the Boston Marathon in stiletto
heels. My beloved editor Sharron Carrell went to great
lengths to fit Cinderella’s slipper on this Russian stepsister’s
foot. My fairy godmother often had to wave her magic wand
to find just the right words to express my ideas. If there are
still some faults in my English it is because, sometimes, I
fought ferociously to keep my authentic footprint, ignoring
her better judgment.
I’ve read that many writers learn to speak perfect English
but spend the rest of their lives trying to find something
worth saying. Me — I’d rather have something valuable to
say even if I say it imperfectly. I write fearlessly. I feel that
the information that I have is so powerful that, even if my
English stilettos sometimes disrupt my balance, the message
itself will get me to the end of the race.
One thing I do know about writing … You must lead
people to the truth even if it means baring your heart in the
process. It’s true that “there is nothing new under the sun.”
However, it’s equally true that each of us is a unique human
Quantum Eating: the Ultimate Elixir of Youth
page16
being with unique life experiences and knowledge. If you
filter an idea through your very soul, there is a great chance
you’ll come up with something original. But this happens
only on one condition: You must be completely honest with
yourself. You must say what you genuinely feel — even if it
contradicts mainstream opinion or you lose some popularity
points. I strive to maintain such honesty in this book.
I believe in God. Therefore, I will use the word God
where I feel it is appropriate. I was reared in the former
Soviet Union as an atheist. I earned — and I do mean earned
— the right to speak the name of God when I came to the
U.S. I do so with great pride. If you believe in Mother Nature
or the Universe … fine with me, so long as you allow me to
be who I am. You won’t find me addressing the Creator as
He/She/It. Consider: It is not Eenie/Meenie/Miney/Mo who
wrote this book, but I, Tonya Zavasta, and you deserve to
know where I stand.
I couldn’t be “politically correct” if I tried. (And I have
tried. But politically correct and socially inept proved not to
be a winning combination.) You will find here no attempt to
please everyone. I use man, men, him, etc. for persons generally.
You’ll find both he and she throughout the book, but
never he/she. I love English too much already to commit
such punctuational atrocities in the name of correctness. If
this is socially abhorrent to you, well … I’m comfortable
with your opinion.
We live in a free country. Here I do not even have to
hold a license, as I would have had to in the former Soviet
Union, to write a book. Write your own book, if you like.
Pollute it with meaningless oddities like the Victorians putting
ruffles on the legs of their pianos because they thought
limbs were obscene. My style is my own; it shouldn’t keep
you from exploring the validity of my ideas. I am convinced
Tell Me It Can’t Be Done and Watch Me Do It!
page17
that you can benefit greatly from a good book — even if you
do not agree 100 percent with the author.
When I announced at my local raw food group that
Quantum Eating was about to be released, a lady asked me:
Who is going to write the foreword? I was stunned, then
speechless (which does not happen to me often). Later I
gave it some thought and came to two important revelations.
A foreword is usually written by a compatriot, an expert
in the field. I wish there were someone who had gone
before me to turn to for advice and clarification. But I am in
uncharted waters. What I am presenting here has not been
presented by anyone else. My second revelation was that I
wished I could have the philosopher-mathematician,
Pythagoras, write it. His diet was very similar to the one I
advocate in this book. His contemporaries commented on
his vitality and especially youthful and beautiful appearance
even though sources say he lived to be 100. Since he is currently
unavailable, I will struggle on alone. No foreword, but
hopefully no backward either.
Second Edition! Revised & Expanded
Introduction:
Tell Me It Can’t Be Done,
and Watch Me Do It!
I am a failure, folks. I am a failed mathematician. I am a
failed mechanical engineer. And I am a failed high school
teacher. I owe these failures, obliquely, along with all the
consequences they’ve brought me, to a strange friend and
enemy. Its name? Food.
Along came the raw foods revolution and suddenly my
failures became surprising virtues and values. Everything I’d
done up to this point revealed itself as a precious gift that I
would integrate into my new endeavor. From the realm of
mathematics came the gifts of logic and deductive reasoning.
From engineering, I learned how to research, to dig
deep, looking for unorthodox solutions. From teaching ninth
graders in an all-boys school, I acquired three vital attributes:
perseverance, survival skills, and raw courage.
I’m fortunate to hold advanced degrees in mechanical
engineering and theoretical mathematics. But I’ve spent the
page 9
last decade devoting every waking moment to researching
the benefits and techniques of consuming raw foods. Why
on earth, I used to wonder, did I spend so many years
studying hard science without using it? Had I defied my
destiny? Wasn’t I supposed to be squatting in some underground
supercollider facility, holed up with brilliant social
misfits, hurling bits of atoms at other bits of atoms,
munching on ineptly homemade tuna sandwiches, and
playing exotic computer games?
One day I picked up a book on quantum physics.
Suddenly, it was there! I knew it! I had to write a book on
Quantum Eating. It all began to make sense — my abundant
academic background, the vast experience of my raw food
journey, endless research and keen interest in beauty and
anti-aging. I’ve experienced many life changes, including
changing countries and careers. But deep down, I somehow
knew that anti-aging research was central to my life’s direction
even before I was consciously aware of it.
All my life people told me there were things I just
couldn’t do. I had to overcome the inevitable prejudice that
the world holds against handicapped people. It is as if
people feel that a deficiency in your physical appearance
makes you deficient in every other way. Some people like to
put you down. Especially, it seems, when you’re already
down. Often, they do so innocently, unintentionally.
When I was a child, because of the bilateral hip problem,
my parents were told I would never walk. After years of grueling
therapy, I did learn to walk without crutches, though I
still had a limp. It was then that I experienced, for the first
time, the wonderful feeling that comes from accomplishing
something that others think impossible. As Walter Bagehot
put it,“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say
you cannot do.”
Quantum Eating: the Ultimate Elixir of Youth
page10
When we immigrated to America, I visited orthopedists
to find one who would rise to the challenge of my hip disability.
It “couldn’t be done,” they said. So I went to get a
second opinion. A third. Ultimately, even a fifth opinion. The
sixth doctor was utterly dismissive: “Why are you so hardheaded?
You have limped all your life until now. You are
going to limp for the rest of it. Just get used to the idea!”
That’s all I needed. I stopped pleading with doctors. I
began thinking — for myself. I found my own solution. Then
I found a doctor with enough courage and vision to go
along with my idea. The result: I am an orthopedic miracle!
My high school English teacher told my mother that I
would never learn English. She wanted me out of her
English class because I was hopeless. I overheard this conversation.
From that day I made straight A’s. I think my passion
for English and the audacity to write books in English
sprang from her putdown.
When I was a teenager, my girlfriend told me outright,“If
I looked like you, I wouldn’t even want to live.” My interest
in beauty was a direct result of the hurt I experienced that
day. It took me many years to find my way to what I now
call (to employ one of my trademarks) “Rawsome Beauty.”
The advantage of Rawsome beauty over in-born beauty is
this: In-born beauty fades, but you can be Rawsomely beautiful
when you are 40, 50, 60 and beyond. So these days I
receive numerous emails from my seminar attendees with
generous beauty compliments.
For me, even something as simple as attending a first-time
yoga class can become a major obstacle — physically and
emotionally. My first encounter with Bikram yoga resulted in
a confrontation with the studio’s owner. My stringent hip
limitations made me unfit for most of the 26 Bikram poses.
Breathing exercises and the shavasana (the “dead body
pose”) were all I could manage without serious modification.
Tell Me It Can’t Be Done and Watch Me Do It!
page11
So I came equipped with a strap. Little did I know, bringing a
prop and insisting I keep it because of my affliction’s
severity, was a crime worthy of threats to call the police.
After this encounter I took private yoga classes. Eighteen
months later I was back in the same studio. I love it. These
days, when I am more flexible, I am able to appreciate the
unbendable Bikram rules my instructor imposes. I will soon
submit an article about my yoga experience to one of the
yoga journals. I am also expected to attach pictures of some
of my poses. No matter how hard I have to work to perfect
them I promise one day you will see them in print.
Want to make me do something? Just tell me it can’t be
done. I like to solve problems! And I believe every problem
has a solution. I believe in doing whatever needs to be done
to get where you want to be. Exercising stubborn legs for
hours a day just to make them do what they’re supposed to
do, endlessly researching anti-aging practices — either way, I’ll
take it to the limit. Farmers call it “hoeing to the end of the
row.” My motto: Whatever it takes. You are likely fortunate —
your “whatever it takes” may well be much less than mine.
Older people endure the same prejudices as the handicapped.
I saw, early in life, a glimpse of what it’s like to be
old, a glimpse of how older people are treated. I was determined
to find a way to avoid decrepitude. And dying young
was not an option. I thought, I have to find a way to avoid
this fate. And I did! The result of my research and experience
is detailed in my three books. The book you are
holding now, Quantum Eating, is the last in my trilogy
devoted to anti-aging and Rawsome beauty. I strongly advise
you to read my first two books before reading this book.
Some ideas you’ll read here are different from those in
my previous books. I stand by what I said in those books;
Quantum Eating: the Ultimate Elixir of Youth
page12
however, I am developing knowledge and experience and
now I am at a different stage of life. New possibilities open,
new practices emerge. It’s my responsibility — indeed, my
joy — to capture them for you in this new book.
There’s a wonderfully insightful book by Thomas Kuhn
that you should read, if the progress of science excites you.
It’s entitled The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn
makes a penetrating point: When you’re in the middle of a
scientific revolution, you normally can’t see it — like the
calm at the center of the storm. So it is with life. When
you’re at a crossroads and your life makes a turn, you may
not notice it until much later.
In 2005, my husband and I spent Christmas with the
famous raw food family of Victoria Boutenko. (For the
curious: No, we did not have a raw turkey for Christmas
dinner.) Victoria set up a presentation for me in Ashland,
Oregon, her hometown. We spent two full days with this
radiant family, absorbing fresh raw foods knowledge, sharing
green smoothies, and being immersed in their warm, vibrant
energy. It was a genuinely life-altering experience. Victoria got
interested in my personal regimen of not eating after 2 P.M.
She encouraged me to write an article explaining my theory.
I was gripped with the same excitement until I sat down
at my keyboard. Theory? I wondered. I didn’t have a theory.
All I knew in that moment was … my raw food regimen felt
thoroughly good, totally right. Doing it myself was one thing.
But justifying it for others was a different story. Though I’d
stumbled upon this life-enhancing practice through my own
experience, my analytical mind needed more in order to help
me explain it to others. I needed proof.
Research in nutrition is contradictory, at times, frustrating.
It’s like collecting berries (and really, come to think
of it, it felt more like collecting a berry here and a berry
Tell Me It Can’t Be Done and Watch Me Do It!
page13
there, but never a whole quart). Information was scarce.
Each book held promise, but each contributed only tiny
insights, just snippets of information. Before I knew it, I was
getting deeper and deeper into quantum physics. I read
more than three hundred books. And I gained a deeper
understanding of why my own practice with raw foods was
so good, not only for me, but for many other people
throughout history.
If there is anything that unites all cultures and philosophies,
it is the never-ending quest for preserving youth and
reversing age. In writing this book, I researched and adapted
teachings from Christian, Buddhist, mystic, and animist traditions,
as well as findings from eastern and western medicine.
Longevity traditions are known in every culture. Collecting
pearls of wisdom about long life, I let my studies span centuries,
cultures, and endless variations, until I could string
them together to create a necklace of knowledge.
Together we will explore all the way from the distant
past to the most recent theories in anti-aging research. I
have looked into the folk traditions and medical practices of
different countries and cultures, devised a strategy to use
every one of these different methods that offered real
improvements in human well-being. Just like doctors from
different specializations — cardiology, endocrinology, neurology,
etc. — come together to save a person’s life, the
wisdom from different parts of the world must be combined
to successfully tackle the aging puzzle.
What is Quantum Eating? It is an advanced level in the
raw food lifestyle in which you eat 100 percent raw, twice
daily and only in the first part of the day. In this book, step
by step, I will supply the evidence for why this way of
eating provides the utmost in anti-aging benefits. Each
chapter discusses a specific topic. But the main point plays
Quantum Eating: the Ultimate Elixir of Youth
page14
out over the course of the whole book, and every chapter
adds another piece to the anti-aging puzzle.
Science can be interpreted in different ways. Any research
by experiment can never be 100 percent reliable.
Nonetheless, I will introduce some research findings that are
available. I will attempt to show how some scientific conclusions
contradict logic, yet others confirm the wisdom of natural
order. These latter findings can be convincing on a macro
level, but on a quantum level, I have learned, even logic
becomes questionable. So I implore you never to get attached
to certain scientific hypotheses or theories — be ready to
evaluate them and change entirely as new experiments, especially
on your own body, open new secrets to you.
The raw food lifestyle can only be individually experienced
— it cannot be authoritatively proven. The best science
can achieve is to disprove erroneous concepts.
Nevertheless, I researched scientific findings extensively. I
quote the available data, and present conclusions I believe
scientists’ research have arrived at, but never delivered. I
have tried to present evidence and disclose flaws in reasoning,
so you can judge for yourself whether my interpretations
are plausible.
You must gain some degree of raw food maturity to proceed
to Quantum Eating.
This book is dedicated to Victoria Boutenko, because
without her encouragement I do not think this book would
have ever seen the light of day. If you do not know who
Victoria Boutenko is, this is a good indication that you may
not be quite ready to take this advanced health journey. If
your eyes are glazing over, wondering what on earth this
woman is talking about, get my first book or other books on
the raw food lifestyle and start at the beginning.
Tell Me It Can’t Be Done and Watch Me Do It!
page15
Everyone can benefit from not eating at night, but
making Quantum Eating your lifestyle and enjoying every
minute of it can be accomplished only on the 100 percent
raw method. I consider it a great stroke of personal good fortune
to have stumbled upon the raw food lifestyle. I advise
you to learn and experience it as well.
I’m extremely grateful to Victoria for her persistent
nudges. It wasn’t until she encouraged me to share the discoveries
of my own raw regimen that this new adventure
began to unfold. Writing this book has changed my life. My
prayer is that it will change yours.
Wearing your favorite old comfortable shoes — that’s
how it feels to write in your native tongue.Writing this book
in English, from the perspective of my mother tongue,
Russian, felt like running the Boston Marathon in stiletto
heels. My beloved editor Sharron Carrell went to great
lengths to fit Cinderella’s slipper on this Russian stepsister’s
foot. My fairy godmother often had to wave her magic wand
to find just the right words to express my ideas. If there are
still some faults in my English it is because, sometimes, I
fought ferociously to keep my authentic footprint, ignoring
her better judgment.
I’ve read that many writers learn to speak perfect English
but spend the rest of their lives trying to find something
worth saying. Me — I’d rather have something valuable to
say even if I say it imperfectly. I write fearlessly. I feel that
the information that I have is so powerful that, even if my
English stilettos sometimes disrupt my balance, the message
itself will get me to the end of the race.
One thing I do know about writing … You must lead
people to the truth even if it means baring your heart in the
process. It’s true that “there is nothing new under the sun.”
However, it’s equally true that each of us is a unique human
Quantum Eating: the Ultimate Elixir of Youth
page16
being with unique life experiences and knowledge. If you
filter an idea through your very soul, there is a great chance
you’ll come up with something original. But this happens
only on one condition: You must be completely honest with
yourself. You must say what you genuinely feel — even if it
contradicts mainstream opinion or you lose some popularity
points. I strive to maintain such honesty in this book.
I believe in God. Therefore, I will use the word God
where I feel it is appropriate. I was reared in the former
Soviet Union as an atheist. I earned — and I do mean earned
— the right to speak the name of God when I came to the
U.S. I do so with great pride. If you believe in Mother Nature
or the Universe … fine with me, so long as you allow me to
be who I am. You won’t find me addressing the Creator as
He/She/It. Consider: It is not Eenie/Meenie/Miney/Mo who
wrote this book, but I, Tonya Zavasta, and you deserve to
know where I stand.
I couldn’t be “politically correct” if I tried. (And I have
tried. But politically correct and socially inept proved not to
be a winning combination.) You will find here no attempt to
please everyone. I use man, men, him, etc. for persons generally.
You’ll find both he and she throughout the book, but
never he/she. I love English too much already to commit
such punctuational atrocities in the name of correctness. If
this is socially abhorrent to you, well … I’m comfortable
with your opinion.
We live in a free country. Here I do not even have to
hold a license, as I would have had to in the former Soviet
Union, to write a book. Write your own book, if you like.
Pollute it with meaningless oddities like the Victorians putting
ruffles on the legs of their pianos because they thought
limbs were obscene. My style is my own; it shouldn’t keep
you from exploring the validity of my ideas. I am convinced
Tell Me It Can’t Be Done and Watch Me Do It!
page17
that you can benefit greatly from a good book — even if you
do not agree 100 percent with the author.
When I announced at my local raw food group that
Quantum Eating was about to be released, a lady asked me:
Who is going to write the foreword? I was stunned, then
speechless (which does not happen to me often). Later I
gave it some thought and came to two important revelations.
A foreword is usually written by a compatriot, an expert
in the field. I wish there were someone who had gone
before me to turn to for advice and clarification. But I am in
uncharted waters. What I am presenting here has not been
presented by anyone else. My second revelation was that I
wished I could have the philosopher-mathematician,
Pythagoras, write it. His diet was very similar to the one I
advocate in this book. His contemporaries commented on
his vitality and especially youthful and beautiful appearance
even though sources say he lived to be 100. Since he is currently
unavailable, I will struggle on alone. No foreword, but
hopefully no backward either.
No comments:
Post a Comment