When Simon from Gründau near Frankfurt gets something started, he does it right and with full commitment.
In his online shop Perfekte Gesundheit (“Perfect Health”), you will find everything that makes a raw foodist’s heart beat faster: juicers, blenders, dehydrators, water filters, nuts and dried fruits in raw food quality, nutritional supplements and more.
His other website, Heilkost.de, has been active since 1998 and is dedicated to one of the pioneers and founders of the raw food diet, Professor Arnold Ehret, and probably one of the most comprehensive and informative German pages on the subject. You can find reviews on many raw food-, health- and nutrition books as well as on raw food restaurants, posts about natural health doctrine, fasting, effects of a meat diet on the body, explanations of kitchen appliances and more. Simon has also interviewed several raw foodists and translated English interviews skillfully, but today it is his turn on the hot seat in the the question-and-answer game!
- Hello nice that you are here and thank you for letting me ask you all these questions 🙂 If you would please introduce yourself, and add anything I did not mention in the introduction?
Hi Lisa, thank you for choosing to interview me 🙂
My name is Simon Bodzioch, I was born in 1973, lived for some years in the “Town of Barbarossa” and geographical center of the EU, Gelnhausen, between Frankfurt and Fulda, a beautiful medieval town. I have had the Online store since 2003. It is a mail order business, which specializes in high quality kitchen appliances, such as juicers, blenders, water filters, dehydrators and everything else needed for the preparation of living foods.
- How did you start your day?
My day began as almost always with a green smoothie made in the Vitamix, then a morning walk with our dog and then I went to my office.
- When did you first become aware of the raw food diet and how did it start?
There was a case of cancer in my family and I searched the Internet for alternative cancer therapies. That’s when I came across Dr. Max Gerson and his diet. I read the book “My triumph over cancer” by Beata Bishop, a journalist who describes in great detail the Gerson therapy and the healing. Dr. Gerson therapy successes are based on the change of diet to raw foods and the elimination of all animal foods. An important pillar of therapy are freshly squeezed juices, which are prepared hourly, using special low-speed juicers (mastication). The first raw food book I read was “The Mucusless-Diet Healing System” by Professor Arnold Ehret, still a book that is current and up-to-date. This was followed by numerous other raw food books, like ” Willst du gesund sein? Vergiß den Kochtopf!” (“Want to be healthy? Forget the cooking pot!”) by Helmut Wandmaker (only available in German) and “The Instincto Therapy” by Guy-Claude Burger. With each chapter of Wandmaker’s book of Wandmaker it became more apparent to me what was wrong. I had to agree with Wandmaker after each chapter, whether it was about bread, milk or meat. Everything I had considered the “truth” was swept away by this book. The point was that it was all logical and completely understandable, and therefore, a relaxed “all foods” diet was not possible for me anymore unless it was raw food. You feel tremendous energy for the first few months after such a change and and I wanted to shout it out to the world so that everyone would get the benefits, but the problem is that most people are not willing to give up their habits and change and so with time, you get more reserved and low key. I think many people who transition to raw foods out of complete conviction have these experiences. The German site www.heilkost.de emerged out of this enthusiasm, it was meant to inform about the raw food diet; in 1998, it was one of maybe 5 pages that dealt exclusively with this issue in the German Internet, today the situation is quite different, there is fortunately more and more information, and more and more companies that specialize in raw food products and more and more bloggers and people who talk about their positive experiences and support the idea of raw food in the world.
- What do you think is one of the classic mistakes raw food beginners make and what tips do you have for a newbie?
There are certainly some things you can do wrong. The classic mistake is to stop with raw foods during the transition phase, when the healing crisis is misunderstood as malnutrition. There are few people that can switch to raw foods without some discomforts. If one interprets these transitional troubles to be caused by raw foods and not by the decades of wrong nutrition beforehand, then the project is doomed to failure before one has really immersed oneself.
Another common mistake, but not only for beginners, is the hyper-intellectual approach to the matter and to study nutritional charts; what contains how many minerals or whether it’s better to cover your protein intake with this or that kind of food. As daft as it sounds, and as often as you may have heard it – you should just listen to your body …
I think that many people who are in transition to raw foods simply consume too little fruit and greens. The fruit and the chlorophyll content can be covered very well with the Green Smoothies by Victoria Boutenko for example.
- What are your raw food staples?
Bananas and apples do not sound particularly exciting, but they are the two fruits that are never missing; but I love all kinds of fruit, at the moment there are wonderful pears and grapes, soon there will be oranges. I love avocados in any form, be it as a spicy dip or as a sweet dessert. Then I always have cashews in the house, they are necessary for nut milks and salad dressings. As snacks for between meals I love to eat dates, a handful of dates fills and satisfies you.
- What do you think of fasting? Water / juice
Fasting is not my style, I have experimented with it several times, but I think that a person who eats balanced and healthy – with a high percentage of raw foods – does not necessarily need to fast. Of course it makes sense to relieve the body at times, but with the raw food diet, the body is never really burdened, unless I eat half a pie consisting of nuts, oil and dried fruits at a time 😉
- Do you take any supplements or so-called superfoods to you?
I used to occasionally take AFA algae and spirulina but strayed a little from that, because ultimately most Superfoods are dried and processed foods, I have to trust that it is raw food quality, really spend a lot of money on it and then rely on statements about the effects. so much has been hyped, XY contains 10 times more of this substance and it has the highest concentration of this or that, the question is whether the body really needs it, and above all, whether the body can assimilate it. One time, the Goji berry is the healthiest in the world, then the cranberry and tomorrow the Schisandra berry. I do not mind, everyone should eat what they want to eat, but I’m always skeptical when I read or hear something miraculous.
- What do you think of cacao?
Cacao is also referred to as super food, I like to eat chocolate and to make cashew milk with cacao nibs, but I do not eat every day.
- If you ever were or are 100% raw, what your experience is 100% when comparing raw vs. not 100%?
Yes, I have had 100% phases and the body awareness and alertness is unbeatable! Although I personally also feel great and wonderfully light at 70 or 80% raw. The optimum is of course 100%, but you should not put any pressure on yourself if you do not succeed, or have a phase with a lower percentage.
- Do you have any dental problems (through) raw food diet?
No, my dental problems were caused by my diet before raw food and through raw food I can keep it in check, I avoid visiting the dentist, after all, I have now made it for 10 years without a dentist.
- On your site Perfect Health, you offer a huge amount of products, and there is countless reading material for raw food to be found on your blog. What or who inspired you to create these sites?
The contact to raw foods developed, as mentioned above, through a case of cancer in my family. On the site heilkost.de, I got regular requests from readers, which kitchen appliances work well and are useful for the raw food diet, or cancer therapy.
Dr. Norman W. Walker recommended in his books special so-called non-centrifuged juicers for example, and a distiller to clean the tap water. So then the idea arose to offer these products, that were hardly available in Germany, under the name “perfektegesundheit.de” (perfect health). In the meanwhile, the product range has grown to about 500 products and attracts more and more customers looking for high quality products for their kitchen. The range is particularly interesting for raw foodists, because it covers almost all the important areas such as juicers, blenders, dehydrators and water purification. The range is complemented by appropriate literature on many topics, such as juicer purchases – appropriate information pages are available that will assist in the purchasing decision. The numerous customer opinions about the various products are especially helpful as these cannot be provided via a product description; and they reflect real experiences and working with the equipment.
- Who or what else influenced you most?
That’s hard to say. I scour the Internet for infos worth knowing about and videos, I gladly watch the videos of Dan McDonald “The Life Regenerator” and Dara Dubinet and of course I also keep up with your Rohtopia-Youtube channel and I appreciate the beautifully made recipe videos! Thanks for that!
- With pleasure! What is your recommendation for raw food in winter?
I do not have a special recommendation, but in winter I eat more dried fruit and nuts than in summer.
- Would you like to share one of your favorite recipes with us?
My favorite recipe is very simple, it’s a smoothie consisting of:
½ liter of freshly squeezed orange or tangerine juice
1 large avocado
Depending on the sweetness of oranges, something stevia, agave nectar or honey as a sweetener.
Puree the ingredients in a blender; as a variation, you can also add a few raspberries or strawberries.
- You do not offer workshops, retreats or personal advice, but do you attend them yourself?
I have informed countless people about switching to a raw food-based diet in daily conversations with customers. I attend events only rarely and get my knowledge from books, the exchange with other raw-foodists and videos on the social networks, like facebook.
- And did you learn all of this through self education or did you train somewhere, such as: Tree Of Life, Matthew Kenney, Institute for Integrative Nutrition, etc?
I’ve acquired my raw food and health knowledge through reading over the years, lots of trial with my own body. But the journey never ends, life is not static and neither is my diet.
- Give us a detail about you that most people do not know.
Oh, that would be beyond the scope of this interview 😉
- 🙂 Do you actually do any sports and how important do you think is exercise / sport?
I used to do a lot and I like sports but in recent years, sport has certainly been too little due to the high work load; I am lucky if I can do some hikes through beautiful Spessart on weekends.
- At least, you still get outside with the dog! What else aside food (and possibly sport) is particularly important for optimum health in your opinion?
A good partnership and a job that feeds and fulfils you, that combined with health, which is not hard to achieve on a raw foods diet, and life is perfect 🙂
- Do you have a spiritual connection to food?
No, I would not say, though I do eat a lot and with pleasure and I do like to experiment with foods. But I have a spiritual connection to nature, so is my favorite pastime to spend time in nature and to just observe the world in those areas where man is not dominant or has not left his mark so strongly.
- In which direction is the raw food movement going is in your opinion?
Although the raw food is becoming more widespread, social acceptance is still lacking, the raw food diet is still associated with abstinence and deficiencies. Lots of persuading is yet to be done and the road is still long. But the fact that there are raw food fairs and more and more people, who make a living with raw foods, shows that we are on the right track.
- What are your current projects and plans?
The online shop is a real full-time job, projects such as the raw food blog heilkost.de unfortunately often fall behind.
- Well then I thank you even more that you have you taken the time for this interview – Thank you so much!