How Eating Raw Repaired My Health and Gave My Life Purpose With Fully Raw Kristina

For most of her young adult life, Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram was in and out of hospitals. Constantly sick, hyperglycemic, low on energy and losing hope that she could ever feel normal. Little did Kristina know that a chance encounter with a strange man at the grocery store would soon change everything, radically and permanently altering the trajectory of her life. This week I am delighted to sit down with the effervescent and passionate Fully Raw Kristina — as she is now popularly known on the internet – to hear all about how a raw vegan diet not only healed her body, but gave her life purpose. Boasting over 600,000 subscribers, many of you may know Kristina from her wildly popular YouTube Channel. For most, this would be an all consuming full time gig. But making videos is subservient to Kristina's first passion, which is running Rawfully Organic – the food cooperative she founded in 2007 at age 20. What began in her living room is now the largest raw organic produce co-op in the United States, providing affordable, healthy raw produce to over 6000 members across the Houston area weekly. Although I would not label myself as fully raw, it's fair to say that I eat tremendous amounts of raw plant foods every day and can personally attest to the importance of prioritizing a large variety of fresh raw produce on your plate at every meal. Nonetheless, I can hear you muttering under your breath: eating fully raw sounds so extreme! Is it possible to be healthy, vibrant and happy on raw plant foods alone? Won't I suffer nutrition deficiencies? To quell these questions, Kristina visited 2-time RRP alumnus Garth Davis, M. D. for a checkup. Here's how it went down: Forefront in today's conversation is of course diet and nutrition. A fun exchange that probes: * how eating raw resolved Kristina's hyperglycemia and repaired her health * the pros & cons of ‘mono-mealing' * how cultural traditions can lead us astray * why fruit is unfairly vilified * why we should support local, organic farming * tips & tricks to eating raw economically * the importance of falling in love with yourself; and * how to live your truth irrespective of public opinion I sincerely hope you enjoy our discussion & look forward to your thoughts in the comments section below. Peace + Plants, Rich Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Rich Roll?

  Eating well rarely falls apart because of one big failure. It's the daily question that wears you down. Like, what am I actually gonna make tonight? What's in the fridge? And it's exactly why we built the Plant Power Meal Planner. It's a personalized, plant-based meal planning program that matches you with recipes based on your taste, your allergies, your cooking skills, and how much time you actually have. You build, through this program, a balanced, nutrient-dense plan for your entire household in a few minutes. Then it generates a grocery list for you with one click that plugs right into our delivery partners. All the recipes in the program are built by dietitians with culinary training. Plus, you get your own food coach to help you problem-solve along the way.

• 0:44Rich Roll?

  It's kind of an amazing thing. For listeners of the show, all you special people, we're offering an exclusive $20 off an annual subscription right now. To get it, go to meals.richroll.com, take your quick personalization quiz, and enter promo code RICHROLL20 at checkout.

• 1:04Speaker 01

  It's a conscious choice every single day to eat this way. Every bite is a conscious choice, and you have to take responsibility for that. Because people who say, "Oh, I just, you know, I didn't have the self-control," or, "Oh, I didn't really want to, but I did it anyway." Well, nobody else is putting the food in your mouth. You are hand-to-mouth consciously doing it. Why not just take a baby step? If you can't start with one full day, start out with one meal.

• 1:28Rich Roll?

  That's fully raw Christina this week on the Rich Roll Podcast.

• 1:46Rich Roll?

  Hey, everybody. What are you doing? It's Rich Roll. I'm your host, and we're back at it with another episode of the podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you're new, welcome. What do we do here? Well... I have the great privilege of sitting down with some pretty amazing people. Some of the best, most pioneering, most intelligent, most dynamic, paradigm-breaking minds and personalities across all manner of categories. Everything from health and wellness to fitness, medicine, nutrition, spirituality, psychology, entertainment, athletic performance, and excellence, always excellence. And the big idea behind all of this is to leverage the insights that are provoked through these conversations, through these thought leaders, to really just help you, help me,

• 2:29Rich Roll?

  help all of us just live better, to be better, to help all of us unlock and unleash our best, most authentic selves. So, thank you so much for subscribing to the show on iTunes, for spreading the word, and of course, for always clicking through the Amazon banner ad at ritual.com for all your Amazon purchases. It's great, free way to support the mission, the plant-powered mission, not just the podcast, but the movement at large. So, why don't you go ahead and bookmark the link from the banner ad on my site, unless, of course, you're driving a motor vehicle right now, or riding your bike, or something like that. But in any event, if you bookmark it, then you don't have to go to my website every time. It's right up at the top of your browser, makes it easy, and of course, again, it does not cost you a cent extra.

• 3:14Rich Roll?

  Amazon kicks us some loose commission change, and everybody wins. So, thank you for everybody who has done that. So, I'm delighted today to sit down with the lovely, the effervescent, the passionate Christina Carrillo Bucaram, fully raw Christina, as she is more aptly known on the interwebs. And so who is she? Well, in a general sense, she is a proponent and an advocate of the raw vegan lifestyle. So, that's basically what we're going to talk about today. And many of you may know her from her wildly popular YouTube channel. She's got over 600,000 subscribers on this channel, it's insane. She's huge on social media, she's got a giant Instagram account, I think the last time I checked, she had like 750,000 followers. In any event, you know, very influential on the internet.

• 3:59Rich Roll?

  But what you might not know is the interesting story behind what led her into the raw lifestyle to begin with. This is something that she's been doing for about nine years. And what you also might not know is the fact that her YouTube channel, which let's face it, for most people, that would be like a full-time gig, right? But this is really subservient to her first passion, which is running Roughly Organic. And Roughly Organic is the food co-op she founded in 2007 when she was just 20 years old, still in college. She did it with a couple neighbors in her living room. And it has now grown to become the largest raw organic produce co-op in the US with over 6,000 members. The co-op feeds over 1,500 families per week across the entire Houston area, providing

• 4:43Rich Roll?

  them with affordable, healthy raw produce. So that's pretty cool. Beyond that, she's a coach, she's a speaker, she just launched a juice line, she's got a book coming out in the fall, all kinds of interesting things. So this is a really cool conversation about so many aspects of diet and nutrition, and you're just gonna have to tune in to find out how it goes. And as always, make sure you check out the show notes for the episode, and actually for every episode that I record for that matter, at richroll.com on the episode pages, because they contain tons of additional resources, links, books, as well as other podcast episode suggestions, my podcast episodes, that are similar to this one or the one at issue in

• 5:25Rich Roll?

  theme or subject matter, just for those of you who are inspired by what you hear and kind of want to take things beyond the auditory.

• 5:40Rich Roll?

  Okay, guys, so you ready to check out the fully raw world of Christina? Shall we do that? Yes, we shall do that now.

• 5:56Rich Roll?

  I've been following you for quite some time, but we actually had never met until we crossed paths in New York at the Vegetarian Food Fest, so it was cool to meet you there, and here we are.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  I felt like a little fangirl. I was kind of excited. It's like... Hi, Rich, it's Christina. Can I have a hug? And he was like, yeah.

• 6:13Rich Roll?

  This is coming from the online celebrity that is fully raw Christina. I mean, what you've built and what you, like, your platform and the number of people that you're impacting with, you know, what you put out into the world is, is truly extraordinary.

• 6:27Speaker 01

  Thank you. I feel the same way about you. I really do. I've been following you for a very long time and it's just unbelievably inspirational.

• 6:34Rich Roll?

  Well, cool. Well, I want to get into like how it all works with your life because you have a lot going on.

• 6:40Speaker 01

  I have so much going on.

• 6:41Rich Roll?

  First of all, what are you doing? Why did you come to LA? What are you doing here? You came just to do the podcast, right?

• 6:46Speaker 01

  I came just for you.

• 6:47Rich Roll?

  That's right. All right. I feel better.

• 6:50Speaker 01

  I came just for you. Yes. And I'm living my life.

• 6:55Rich Roll?

  Yeah, cool.

• 6:56Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:57Rich Roll?

  Just brings you to LA from time to time?

• 6:58Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:59Rich Roll?

  Okay. She's getting embarrassed. There's something she doesn't want to tell us. That's all right. You don't have to. I'm not going to push you on that.

• 7:06Speaker 01

  It's all good.

• 7:07Rich Roll?

  Some kind of personal thing. All right, cool. Well, you're, you live in Houston and amongst, I think people who are listening know you predominantly as, you know, a personality on YouTube. I mean, you have one of the largest YouTube channels around and you also have this massive Instagram following. I mean, I think if you added it all up, like, what is, I mean, how many, how many sort of followers do you have on social media? I mean, it's got to be well over a million.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  I'm sure if you added them all up, yes, but I don't even see it like that because what happens if one person follows you on all of them?

• 7:39Rich Roll?

  Right, right.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  And that person is just

• 7:41Rich Roll?

  They overlap.

• 7:42Speaker 01

  ... one super strong supporter. Right?

• 7:44Rich Roll?

  That's right.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  Yes. I do do many things, though.

• 7:47Rich Roll?

  Right. And I think that, that, you know, for anybody to kind of have developed an audience of that size, you would think, well, that's their full-time gig. But that, this is, but that's just kind of the side gig to what your main gig is, right?

• 8:00Speaker 01

  That's correct.

• 8:01Rich Roll?

  So, let's talk about that. Let's talk about the co-op.

• 8:03Speaker 01

  Let's talk about it. I would love to. I, my main focus, my main occupation, I guess you could say, is I run Roughly Organic in Houston, which is It's a lot, the non, it's the largest, I hate saying that because it's like I'm not, I'm not toting my own horn, but it's the largest nonprofit, um, organic produce cooperative in the United States right now. We have over fifty thousand registered members just in the Houston area. And we feed hundreds of families each week. They come and they pick up a huge box of fruits and vegetables and it's an amazing community. I post pictures all the time of our boxes and the people and the energy and it's really great. And I know in May, we're going to be starting home delivery. And so I have three companies

• 8:48Speaker 01

  that I run. Roughly Organic is the produce cooperative and that company birthed fully raw juice. So we use all of our leftover produce and we make fresh, raw crafted juice, which is also, we're starting to get into home delivery with that. And we sell all of our bottles at Co-op as well. And from feeding-

• 9:07Rich Roll?

  So that's like the for-profit arm of the nonprofit?

• 9:09Speaker 01

  That is the for-profit arm of the nonprofit. And then it's interesting because ten years ago, when I went raw, it's all I really wanted to do was feed my family. And Roughly Organic started in my garage with, you know, twelve people. And it grew to being kicked out of my house, being kicked out of our neighborhood, being kicked out of the parking lot, because we were taking away business from local grocery stores and we were creating traffic in a neighborhood that wasn't supposed to be having outside visitors. So that grew and-

• 9:40Rich Roll?

  What, what year was that?

• 9:42Speaker 01

  That was in two thousand and seven.

• 9:44Rich Roll?

  Right. So not that long ago. Yeah, I mean, you're young. How old are you now?

• 9:49Speaker 01

  I'm twenty-eight. What do you mean? I'm almost thirty.

• 9:52Rich Roll?

  Don't even begin with that. All right, go.

• 9:56Speaker 01

  So I, um, my, my main focus has always been to feed people, whether that be food or information, but- People would always go home with the box and be like, I don't know what to do with this food. They'd be like, kale looks really great. I know it's great for me, but what do I do with it?

• 10:12Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  And I started printing out recipe cards and putting it in the boxes for people. But then some people would be like, oh, I was out of town last week. I missed the box. What was the recipe card? So I started a YouTube channel where I, I remember one of my first videos was I came home with a box. I put it on the table. I was like, all right, you guys, here's Co-op box. We're gonna put it on the table. We're going to make something out of it and made a smoothie. And it was originally intended just to have people in Houston for Co-op to be able to have these types of recipes.

• 10:39Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  And before I knew it, it was like I was getting emails from people in Japan. You're like, I love your recipes. And it's like, wow, you know, like people in Japan with my recipes? It was a very exciting moment and just with a lot of support from the raw food community and the vegan community. Everybody's really helped to support it and it's been really great.

• 10:58Rich Roll?

  And it's really just grown organically, pun intended, from there.

• 11:01Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 11:02Rich Roll?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when you say members of the, you know, of the Co-op, I mean, that means that somebody, how does it work? Like they subscribe and then every week or they get a box or?

• 11:12Speaker 01

  So basically whenever you want a box, you go on, you just order it and you can pick up on a Tuesday, a Thursday or Saturday. And starting on May-

• 11:19Rich Roll?

  And you have a central location or at a farmer's market?

• 11:22Speaker 01

  We have three locations.

• 11:22Rich Roll?

  I got you. Wow.

• 11:23Speaker 01

  We have three locations in Houston. And we primarily run them out of vacant lots and we pitch up 21 12 by 12 tents. Some of them we have covered areas. And so the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Houston Arboretum, which is like our museum of natural science. We have one there. We have one right by Rice University. And then one that is right, it used to be in a location called City Center and then moved to a church. And so now we're taking that one away and then we're gonna start home delivery five to six days a week.

• 11:51Rich Roll?

  Hmm, wow.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  It's gonna be great.

• 11:54Rich Roll?

  Yeah, so how many people are signed up for the home delivery?

• 11:58Speaker 01

  We won't know until we

• 12:00Rich Roll?

  Oh, until you announce it. I got you.

• 12:02Speaker 01

  But we're hopefully anticipating a couple hundred orders each day to start off with.

• 12:07Rich Roll?

  Wow, so how many employees know?

• 12:11Speaker 01

  I have my right and my left hand people and I'd say those are probably about 15 people. And then everybody else is is an amazing volunteer that comes. And when I say volunteer, I mean like this entire company has been run by people who haven't been paid. And I, to this day, still have not taken a paycheck from this company. And that's just an oath that I took in the beginning. And it's, for me, it keeps my passion alive. And that's why I love to do it, because it's always been like my main thing. And it keeps my focus from shifting. And I love it because every Saturday, it's like we have 20, 30 people come, you know, sweats on, smile on their face, like, all right, let's get dirty. Hands and vegetables, let's sort these boxes. We put on the music, we have a good time.

• 12:54Speaker 01

  And it just feels like community and that's like, I love it.

• 12:58Rich Roll?

  Well, I want to get into kind of the aspect of how it works with the farmers and how you've connected with these farmers and where you get all this kind of stuff. You know, you're essentially like a clearinghouse, right? You have relationships with all these farms that provide you with this stuff.

• 13:10Speaker 01

  I'm like the food hustler.

• 13:11Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  I like, you understand, I start off by hustling produce out of my garage. And then I just moved to larger scale.

• 13:19Rich Roll?

  Gangster style.

• 13:21Speaker 02

  It takes a certain talent, a certain street knowledge.

• 13:24Speaker 01

  Fully raw gangster.

• 13:25Rich Roll?

  Well, I want to, yeah, I want to get into kind of the farmers and what you've learned working with all these farmers. But you mentioned, you know, that you mentioned your passion, right? So let's, let's take it back to where that passion began and how it all like started for you.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Okay, I started eating raw 10 years ago. I made the shift in one night because I had hyperglycemia, which is the onset of type 2 diabetes. And

• 13:48Rich Roll?

  Hyper meaning too much, like too much sugar, right?

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Too much sugar, which for diabetics is, you know, primarily the cost of having too much fat in your diet, which would go back to my mother, God bless her, I do love her, but she fed me way too much Lebanese food growing up, which was like olive oil and meat. It was a very high fat

• 14:05Speaker 02

  Was that raw meat dish?

• 14:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was raw meat. Kibbinae. It's a very cultural dish in Lebanon. I no longer eat it, obviously, but Definitely gave me all types of health issues.

• 14:18Rich Roll?

  So, yeah, so, so hyperglycemia was one, one thing, but you had a whole battery of things, right? Like, didn't I, I'd read somewhere, or maybe watched, it was in one of your videos, that you were kind of in and out of the hospital all the time?

• 14:29Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 14:30Rich Roll?

  A whole battery of maladies.

• 14:31Speaker 01

  Yes. I was severely emaciated because I was malnutritioned. I had frequent migraines, to the point to where I had to sit in black rooms with bandanas cutting off circulation tied around my head.

• 14:43Speaker 01

  I mean, I was eighty-seven pounds and I was five-seven at the time, and I'm five-seven now. You can imagine me, like, way whiter. It's yuck. And it wasn't that I was not eating, it was more so that I just, I couldn't process what, and what doctors were telling me to eat, which was packaged goods, which was anything that said sugar-free this, dairy-free this, which was basically all chemicals. And I just remember feeling so awful all the time. I mean, I was diagnosed when I was sixteen, and by the time I was eighteen, I just had felt like I had, you know, gone rock bottom, and I'd lost like fifty pounds or something like that.

• 15:16Rich Roll?

  Wow. And what are your parents doing during this time? Like, are they tripping?

• 15:20Speaker 01

  Um, spending thirty-five thousand dollars a year on my medical bills was basically what they were doing, and...

• 15:26Rich Roll?

  And the doctors really couldn't, I mean, they couldn't pinpoint it to any one particular thing or cause?

• 15:31Speaker 01

  They literally just said that, you know, you, type-two diabetes runs in my family, you know, oh, you're getting type-two diabetes, I guess we have to wean you on the insulin, and go in and out of the hospital. They'd try and inject me, my body would go like through these awful stages where it felt like it was not wanting it. And then obviously, I'd, I remember the day that I went raw was, I'd gotten, just gotten out of the hospital, and I was digging through the granola and the sugar-free bin, right, and I had a stranger tap me on the shoulder, and, and he was an older man in the Whole Foods, and he was like, "Excuse me, are you a raw foodie?" And I just kind of popped up and I looked at him, and I'm thinking, okay, older man approaching eighteen-year-old girl in the grocery store, this is, mm.

• 16:13Speaker 01

  And he started telling me about how he's eaten raw food for like twenty-three years, how he does juices, and, you know, all this stuff, and I'm sitting there, my mind is just being blown away, because I didn't grow up eating fruits and vegetables. I grew up eating chicken beans, rice, olive oil, fried, raw meat, things like that, not necessarily fast food, but just cultural dishes. And... I remember I took his card and I didn't think much of it. I'm a very open person. So I went home and I was telling my family, I was like, I think I met a rabbit man today. And I'd never had it happen that I'd gotten out of the hospital one day and gone right back in the same night. And I was feeling so awful. I remember I just started vomiting that evening and I could barely get off the floor.

• 16:55Speaker 01

  And when I got out of the hospital three days later, I just remember I called him and I was like, look, I've never tried anything alternative before, but I'd be willing to give this a try. It's like, goes against everything that my family's ever taught me and I don't know anything about, you know, what you were saying, but I'd be willing to learn. So he was like, well, just meet me at Whole Foods. And well, I'll tell you what you need to know about what your body's doing. So I met him at Whole Foods every single day that week for about three hours. And he was telling me why fruits and vegetables are different than eating, you know, processed sugars and how I can heal my body eating this way. And, and keep in mind, this was Texas 10 years ago. So vegetarian was just getting to be, just getting to be known.

• 17:37Speaker 01

  Telling somebody you're vegetarian was like, oh yeah, I, I heard they don't, they eat cows. They don't eat cows, something like that, right? And then telling them like vegan, veganism would be like beyond what they could comprehend. Telling somebody that you want like to be raw was, okay, she done, she done gone off deep end. Somebody sent her to Looney Bin.

• 17:57Rich Roll?

  Right, right.

• 17:58Speaker 01

  But I was 87 pounds at the time and he was like, all right, just pick your favorite fruit. I was like, well, I can't. I don't even have a favorite fruit. She was like, I was like, out of the corner of my eye, I saw peaches. I was like, okay, peaches. I walked out of the store that day with 87 pounds of peaches or 80 pounds of peaches to eat. And I ate peaches for two weeks straight and then.

• 18:17Rich Roll?

  It was like a peach cleanse.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  It was like a peach cleanse.

• 18:20Rich Roll?

  You just ate nothing but peaches for how long?

• 18:23Speaker 01

  For two weeks straight. So he asked you to buy your body weight in your favorite fruit? Yes. Wow, that's amazing. And how long did it take you to eat those, 87? I mean, it just, I probably like three or four days worth because I was still trying to like, understand how it was all working. But I'll tell you, after like three or four days, I felt a difference. I was walking without feeling like I was gonna faint. I remember I'd gained like a pound or two, which for me was a big deal. And I hadn't had a migraine. And it was interesting.

• 18:52Rich Roll?

  How often were you getting migraines?

• 18:54Speaker 01

  Every other day, like blackout migraines, yucky ones.

• 18:59Speaker 01

  And it was interesting because after thirty days, it's like after starting to eat and incorporate a few greens and some tomatoes and, you know, a few other fruits, it was like, wow, I've been raw for thirty days. And at that point, it's, people have like a stigma of like thinking that you go raw for thirty days, it's something, but when you're doing it, it doesn't seem like that. It's just something you do and you get the hang of it and it becomes exciting and, you know, I never said I was not gonna go raw again. I just said I was gonna keep doing what I was doing because I was feeling so much better at what I was doing.

• 19:29Rich Roll?

  But, but perhaps getting crazy adventure some and, and expanding beyond the peach?

• 19:34Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly.

• 19:36Rich Roll?

  Well, this idea of just eating one food, it's called mono-mealing, right? Like, talk to me about, you know, kind of the idea behind why you would try something like that?

• 19:48Speaker 01

  I was so young at the time, I was just desperate to feel good.

• 19:51Rich Roll?

  Right, I know, I know at that point, but like what you've kind of learned in retrospect.

• 19:55Speaker 01

  I'd say there's three main reasons to mono-meal. And number one, it's, it improves digestion. It is a lot easier to eat one thing at a time than it is to eat twenty things at a time. It's easier for your body to digest. And so then bringing to you the number two would be the elimination. If it's easier to eat and digest one thing, it's also easier to eliminate one thing, which is hugely important for people to eat and digest. A lot of people pay attention to what's going into their body, but not very many people pay attention to what's going out or even want to deal with that. The number three being that it's the way food is found in nature. Like I spend a lot of time on farms. If you find a fig tree, and if you've been working all day and you find that fig tree, it's like, you wanna eat every fig until you're full and you're satiated.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  And that first fig, when you're really hungry, it'll taste really good to you. And then after you've had like twenty or thirty, it's like, mm, they don't really taste that good to you anymore. That's your body saying, hey, I'm full, I'm satiated, time to move on. Sometimes I find that if I'm eating and being stimulated by thirty different flavors, it's harder for me to identify when I'm full.

• 20:55Rich Roll?

  Right, right, right. But how do you kind of, I mean, the idea of mono-mealing really is a temporary thing, right, to sort of get your digestion sort of working more properly? I mean, that's kind of the, is that the functionality behind it? Because I guess what I'm, what I'm getting at, what I'm like trying to juxtapose that against is the, you know, the idea of eating more naturally when things are in season and not like, you know, there, there's indications that certain allergies are because we kind of eat too much of one thing all year round and, and we don't like kind of do it within the, the sort of circadian rhythm of, of the planet, right?

• 21:30Speaker 01

  Well, I think there's a way to do it within that. Like, for instance, like eating seasonally, some people think that eating mono-mealing means you have to eat bananas for a whole week. But a mono meal can be like eating bananas for breakfast, eating apples for lunch, eating oranges for dinner. It's like, alright, you've gotten three cool things in your day and then the next day you could eat three different things and mono-meal each individual meal.

• 21:49Speaker 02

  So it's more about eating what's in season, then?

• 21:51Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 21:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:52Speaker 01

  For me, that's how it works.

• 21:53Speaker 02

  Right.

• 21:54Rich Roll?

  Right, right, right. And it's funny how you kind of deliver that like so casually, and I get it, but I think there's a lot of people listening who would think that that sounds super like, what? That's all you're gonna eat?

• 22:04Speaker 01

  I know, it, it sounds super extreme to some people, but in, in my head, I'm thinking...

• 22:08Rich Roll?

  I think to most people it is, in all fairness. I mean, to say that that's what you're gonna eat, that's gonna be your day, that's sort of, you know, a pretty out there notion for, I would say, the vast majority of people.

• 22:18Speaker 01

  I know. But, okay, so, to say that if you've ever had really good fruit, like one really delicious mango, perfectly ripe off the tree, it doesn't just taste like a mango. That mango tastes like divine immaculate deliciousness, right? And when something is that good and you begin to pay attention to your taste buds and your flavors more, and you learn to enjoy something that is good for you and that loves you back, you begin to enjoy your food a little bit more. A lot of people are very disconnected with their food and what goes into their body. And maybe perhaps that's why they're thinking like, I'm not eating denum, I'm not eating a burger, I'm not eating fries, how does this work? You know, because some people are just eating just to move on to the next meal rather than eating to enjoy or to savor.

• 23:03Rich Roll?

  I have an observation, so I'm interested in your perspective on this, which is, in my, like, what I've noticed is that people that I know, and I've, that are in kind of the fruitarian or 80-10-10 community, and I have lots of friends that are part of this community, and I love all these people, they tend to get extremely passionate in almost a romantic relationship with these foods, you know what I mean? Like, the way you described the mango, it's like, I don't hear that, you know, people that are on other kind of like diets or nutritional protocols, they don't kind of get starry-eyed when they start talking about their foods, but like,

• 23:42Speaker 01

  Did I just do that?

• 23:43Rich Roll?

  Like, if you watch a video of, you know, Evan Rock talking about durian, you know,

• 23:48Speaker 01

  It's like, out of his mind.

• 23:49Rich Roll?

  He's having a relationship with this fruit, you know, that like transcends like

• 23:54Speaker 01

  I totally know.

• 23:54Rich Roll?

  the nutrition aspect of it, so like, tell me what's going on with that.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  I totally know, I see both sides here, let me, let me create the bridge.

• 24:02Rich Roll?

  I'm just trying to understand.

• 24:03Speaker 01

  I think it's when you become, I totally, okay, I know exactly where they're coming from, where you're coming from, I think the simple answer is that you fall in love with your food, you fall in love with the food that makes you feel good, and that the cleaner your body becomes when you eat raw, the better it starts to taste. Like, when I first went raw, it's like, oh my god, peaches, all this time, it's like, they didn't taste like peaches, but then, once I started eating like real peaches and getting to understand local, homegrown Texas peaches, ripe, fresh off the tree, warmed by the sun, it was like, holy cow, that is a peach, you know, and then the relationship that you had, like, eating that, and the experience became something more, and once you have it once, it's very, then you grasp that, and then it becomes like a romantic

• 24:47Speaker 01

  relationship with your food, but then I think the longer you do it, then you begin to understand, it's like you are eating foods that are caring for you in the same way that... You know, you're caring for your body and it's just a very powerful feeling.

• 24:59Rich Roll?

  Right, I got you.

• 25:00Speaker 01

  I know, I'm trying to like, you know, tone down the romance here, the fruit romance.

• 25:05Rich Roll?

  Well, no, I mean, I say go with it. If that's what you're feeling, don't tone it down.

• 25:09Speaker 01

  Like, yeah, don't tone it down.

• 25:10Rich Roll?

  You don't look like somebody who has trouble expressing themselves. I mean, just like, you're like this starburst of color. Like, anybody who follows you on Instagram or watches any of your videos know, like, you're just bursting with bright colors in your bracelets and your clothing choices.

• 25:26Speaker 01

  I'm extremely expressive.

• 25:27Rich Roll?

  Yes. I feel like, I feel like if you posted a photograph on Instagram in black and white, that it would just automatically saturate it with color. Like, you would just, you would overcome the filter, the black and white filter, and it would just be colorful anyway. Like, this is your thing, right?

• 25:44Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 25:44Rich Roll?

  And I think that brings up, I want to get back to kind of you and John Rose at Whole Foods, like, you and this older man having this raw food relationship thing. We'll get back to that in a minute.

• 25:56Speaker 01

  He's still one of my best friends.

• 25:57Rich Roll?

  I know, he was your mentor. But I think, like, the style and the aesthetic that you bring to your message and, you know, the advocacy that you do and the way that you communicate with your audience, I think is, it's very specific. But I also think it's really important. Like, you have an attention to detail, and I appreciate that. Like, there's a certain look. You know, it's like, I know when, I know that your Instagram pictures are going to look a certain way, and, you know, they're like, you know, they have a certain, like, color palette that is obviously considered. Like, you put thought into that, and it meshes well with the clothes that you're choosing to wear and the way that you color your videos and all that kind

• 26:39Rich Roll?

  of stuff. And I think that that probably tracks back to, you know, you studied art in college, right?

• 26:45Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 26:46Rich Roll?

  And so you're bringing, like, this design sensibility to your approach to this world, right? And I think that that speaks to... You know, something that interests me and that I'm always trying to be conscious of, which is, what's an effective way to really communicate with people? And, and I think when we're talking about, whether you're talking about raw foods, you're talking about veganism, whether you're talking about the environment or animal rights, or any of these kind of, you know, political health, environmental issues that swirl around, like these things that we're passionate about. When people, you know, hear that, they come with a, a, a preconceived idea of what these people are like, or what this means, or, or, you know, how it would reflect on them if they were to adopt that idea.

• 27:30Rich Roll?

  And so I'm always trying to really paint a very modern picture, an accessible, you know, modern picture. And I think aesthetics and detail are important. And I, I think that you, I feel like I'm, you know, you're, you get that on some level. Like, you do it in a different way than I do, but I, but I notice kind of like the way that you do it. And I think that I'm interested in, in kind of your perspective on that, and like, what that decision-making process is for you.

• 27:57Speaker 01

  Thank you for noticing that. It means a lot to me because I, I do put in a lot of attention to detail. Like, it's so important to me. Maybe it's the type A personality thing. I was always a straight A student in school. I was like, paid attention to every comma, every dotted I, every crossed T. And, you know, before I started getting into raw food, I wanted to be a potter. Like, that was what I wanted. I still, I still love my art. I still do it. But I, I handcrafted pottery. And maybe perhaps it was, you know, being able to form and shape something the way that you love. And it's interesting because I think colors existed in my world even before food. I think it just totally, food took it to another level. Because even when I was learning to fire glazes,

• 28:43Speaker 01

  professors would always be like, "Well, you have to use the natural colors." And I would, one of the reasons why I got my grants at Vanderbilt is because I started mixing glass with glaze because I wanted, like, color. I wanted, like, real color. And when I started getting into food, it just, I think it brought my attention to a whole nother level. The things that are most colorful on this planet are fruits and vegetables. That's where color comes from. At least it does in my head. And it's like painting a picture, right? It's like putting it all together in some different form. But the coolest part about food is it's something that you get to eat. So it's like, we get to eat color for a living. We get to eat color to bring us life. And so these things that have all of these colors bring us life.

• 29:29Speaker 01

  And they have life. And that's why raw food to me is so symbolic on a different level. And I love it. Every time I make something, I just, I, I, yeah, you can call me a unicorn hugger. I'll take that label. You can call me that any day.

• 29:41Rich Roll?

  Right. I mean, when you say symbolic, like, how would you articulate that symbolism? Like, what is it? What is, what is, what is the symbol? Like, what does it mean to you?

• 29:49Speaker 01

  Life. Color to me is life. Like, and if, like, I'm having a day and I'm wearing black, something doesn't feel right.

• 29:58Speaker 01

  You know, so.

• 29:59Rich Roll?

  All right. So let's go back to Whole Foods and, and John, your mentor. So he's, he's somehow hoodwinked you into eating eighty-seven pounds of peaches. And you're having this experience, you know?

• 30:11Speaker 02

  Do you still like peaches?

• 30:12Speaker 01

  I love peaches.

• 30:13Rich Roll?

  And you go, I want to know how the conversation goes when you come home and tell your parents that you met a fifty-year-old guy who's, who wants you to eat eighty-seven pounds of peaches.

• 30:21Speaker 01

  I, I will tell you, my family had such a hard time with it. I will say my, my sister supported me because she-

• 30:29Rich Roll?

  How many brothers and sisters?

• 30:30Speaker 01

  I have an older brother and an older sister. I'm the youngest of three. However, I'm also the most independent of all three of us and the most driven and-

• 30:38Speaker 02

  So you're like the youngest oldest?

• 30:40Speaker 01

  I'm the youngest oldest.

• 30:41Speaker 02

  Right, that does happen.

• 30:42Speaker 01

  Yes. And my mother wanted to send me to a looney bin. I kid you not. She had the tickets bought, ready to go, the place reserved, some place in Arizona, wanted me to go play with horses instead of play with food. Like, she was convinced that I-

• 30:56Rich Roll?

  Equine therapy?

• 30:58Speaker 01

  I don't even know. She wanted-

• 31:00Speaker 02

  That's good. That's also good.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  And she wanted me out. And my dad was a different story because my dad, my dad and I have always been closer. He raised me a lot more. And-

• 31:11Rich Roll?

  So he's, uh, he's Ecuadorian and your mother's Lebanese?

• 31:14Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 31:15Rich Roll?

  Right? Very interesting. And, and so what did your dad do? Or what does he do?

• 31:18Speaker 01

  Well, he, he came to talk to me in the kitchen one day. And I just remember this conversation. He's like, Njita, you know, this was maybe like a year later. I, I just, I was home from college, like, for a weekend. And he's like, I know you're saving me a lot of money because- They went from paying like thirty thousand a year on my medical bills to nothing. And so my dad was happy. He had no problem with it. But I remember I was making a smoothie. I told this story to Louis earlier. I was making a smoothie and he walks in and he saw me cutting mangoes. And he's like, "Mijito, why are you, why are you eating poor people food?" And I like looked up at him, I was like, "What? This mango was two ninety-nine at Whole Foods. This is not poor people food." And, you know, he was like, "Well, yeah, only the poor people in Ecuador eat that."

• 32:01Speaker 01

  And I was like, "Okay," it hit me. I was like, "I'm thinking about T. Colin Campbell, the China study that, you know, the wealthier people in these third world countries." My, my father grew up in utter poverty, you wouldn't believe. And to him, eating meat and dairy is what wealthy people ate. You know, and nobody wants to eat the things that are falling off the trees everywhere all around them because literally in everybody's backyard in South America, there was like a mango tree or a sapote tree, or whatever it may be. And when I started explaining to him, I was like, "Well, Dad, this is healthier." And, you know, starting to tell him about, you know, the wealthier people, they should be eating this. And that's why everybody in the wealthier parts of those areas are dying. And I think it just hit him at that moment. He's like, "Oh, okay. Okay, well, make me a smoothie too." And that was it. That's all it, that was all it takes.

• 32:46Rich Roll?

  It was an easy sell?

• 32:47Speaker 01

  It was the easiest ever, but once I won my father over, everybody else was good to go. My brother, now he still needs some work.

• 32:54Speaker 02

  But I mean, did they see how you were feeling and they saw how you look? And, you know, you're so healthy, you're not emaciated, you're healthy, you're vibrant, your skin's great. Like, they could see all of that, so, and they must have seen how sick you were before.

• 33:06Speaker 01

  And I think that was what was so hard for my mom. And she saw that. And we, I can't even tell you how many conversations we had where we sat down and everybody was crying because Mom ain't happy, nobody ain't happy, right? And she'd just be like, "I don't understand, you look so good." But in my mom's head, it wasn't just about the food, it was about the culture. And she really felt like I'd abandoned our culture. Like, I wasn't eating my grandmother's food. I remember our first Thanksgiving, I showed up with a plate of pears. My mother took me in the room and she's like, "You can't sit at the table with all of us." You know, because you're not eating your grandmother's food.

• 33:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, this is really, I mean, it's really amazing how, how much those cultural traditions are really wrapped up in the food. You know, and it's like, yeah, so it becomes almost like an assault on your heritage, on your lineage, your ancestry. And, um, yeah, it's, it's, um, it's definitely something that we all are working to rewrite. You know, and I know that definitely, um, you know, uh, actually a really dear friend of Rich and mine, and also podcast guest Josh Lajani, um, he's from New Orleans. And, um, he's expressed kind of the same thing, you know, about how it's so culturally, you know, interwoven. And so you really sort of have to rewrite a way of living and bring everybody in.

• 34:22Rich Roll?

  Well, it's what, it's, it's barriers that prevent people from, from changing and improving because it's so wrapped up emotionally in love and your feelings about your family. And what does it say about you? And what are they going to think if you do this? And, you know, it's no wonder it becomes difficult to change. It's, it's not as simple as this is healthier, eat this.

• 34:41Speaker 01

  And it's a very different thing, I think, in my family because everybody was, was very comfortable with everybody being in the role that they were in. And I totally changed up the game. And

• 34:50Rich Roll?

  How dare you.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  How dare I do, how dare I? But I mean, I was always running around naked in mud pits anyway. I don't know why they were so shocked. But, you know, everybody says you can't be a prophet in your own home. And I think that with my mom, one of the biggest things that had helped is, you know, the first Thanksgiving, I, I was barely around people and I just ate pears. But then the next Thanksgiving, she started to come around. And like, when I literally say come around, I mean, like, my mother and I barely communicated because she was just having such a like, I'm losing my daughter type of moments. But which, it was so ironic because everybody else was telling my mom, but can't you see how good she looks? You're not losing your daughter. She was about to die before.

• 35:32Speaker 01

  But in her head, she was thinking that she had lost me to this, whatever it was that had taken over my mind and my body. And I remember

• 35:41Speaker 01

  That second Thanksgiving, you know, my grandmother was like, well, why don't you just bring a salad or your plate of pears? And I remember sitting at the table with everybody and everybody was saying a prayer and I just, I felt so awkward because my grandfather brought out the turkey and he put it in the middle of the table and I just started crying because I was having like a weird mental flash of like a human being laying on the table in the middle of us. And I couldn't imagine like, why are we praying over this? Why are we praying over this dead animal in the middle of the table? And why are we saying thanks to this? And I started like putting salad on everybody's plates and my grandmother was like, okay, I can eat your salad. You know, I made like a tabbouleh. It's like I started making traditional ethnic dishes, which was one of the first YouTube videos I ever made was

• 36:22Speaker 01

  a tabbouleh that was a cultural dish that I could share with my family because maybe perhaps they would relate to that. And it's interesting because they didn't even realize that it was raw. Like, nobody ever told them.

• 36:35Rich Roll?

  Well, you don't think it's just tabbouleh. Like, you don't think, like, if you said, this is vegan tabbouleh or raw tabbouleh.

• 36:40Speaker 02

  This is fully raw vegan tabbouleh.

• 36:41Rich Roll?

  I'm not gonna eat that.

• 36:43Speaker 02

  That would be bad.

• 36:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, but even a salad, you know, making a salad. But it's interesting because, you know, I started making a pie, like I made like a strawberry pie or something. And it's like, everybody ate it. And it was like, oh, and then, you know, my grandmother calls me the next day. She goes, so I guess you could make, you know, another pie if you wanted. And it was like, for me, that was like, yes, you know, like success. I get to bring another pie to Thanksgiving dinner. It was like I had just reached somebody. And it's interesting because I'm, it's like now at Thanksgiving, everybody wants me to bring something and I can't bring enough. And nobody wants to eat my grandmother's food anymore. And it's like highly offensive. So we're dealing with other issues now.

• 37:20Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 37:21Speaker 01

  But it's, it's, I think it really is just a journey and a process of like.

• 37:25Rich Roll?

  Yeah, we always call it an evolution revolution.

• 37:28Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 37:29Rich Roll?

  And, and, you know, for most people, and it, and it continues to evolve. I mean, I think that, you know, for you, you jumped in with both feet. It was like eighty-seven pounds of, of peaches and you were like off to the races. And you just drew that line in the sand and stepped over and, and never looked back. But I think it's also important, you know, and that's intimidating for some people. Like, you know, I, I always try to make sure that people understand that, that You know, they have permission to ease into this and start changing habits slowly. You know, I'm an extreme person too, like I like to jump in all the way. But even for you, who really did kind of do that, it still continues to evolve, right?

• 38:05Speaker 01

  Yes, absolutely.

• 38:06Rich Roll?

  Like, I'm sure the way you do things now looks very different than it did, you know, eight years ago.

• 38:10Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Every day I wake up and I make a conscious choice to be better, because...

• 38:15Rich Roll?

  I mean, so how has it evolved? Like, what are some of the things that have changed or that you've, you know, switched up?

• 38:20Speaker 01

  You mean with the way that I've been eating?

• 38:22Rich Roll?

  Well, with eating and your... I mean, how that's impacted, you know, other kind of perspectives around the movement, I suppose, or, you know, any aspect that you think is significant.

• 38:30Speaker 01

  Well, when I first started, I didn't know how to make a salad, so, um, you know...

• 38:34Rich Roll?

  So that changed.

• 38:35Speaker 01

  That changed. I didn't know how to make any of these foods.

• 38:40Speaker 01

  Gosh, I was never really ever allowed in the kitchen, for that matter, because, you know, all the other women in my family did that.

• 38:50Speaker 01

  I would say that the... more so than anything, it's just kind of the outlook on it. Because, you know, coming from a very purist place, and then I've spent so much time with Doug in Costa Rica and the natural hygiene, I was very much kind of raised in the raw food by being introduced into natural hygiene. And so I've had to kind of open my eyes a little bit to experiment with new things, like, um, you know, eating dried things. I didn't eat dried fruits for a good four or five years in there, but now I'll eat mulberries. I love mulberries. And, you know, sun-drying tomatoes to make a dressing. And having that evolve, because you realize that just by making little changes like that, more people are interested in eating those types of recipes, more people are interested in trying those things. And I love eating simply, and sometimes I love eating more complicated.

• 39:34Speaker 01

  And I'm learning to balance my life a lot more with that.

• 39:36Rich Roll?

  Right. And what about things like cosmetics and cleaning products and other, like, consumer products that, you know, you kind of have to use to live in the modern world?

• 39:46Speaker 01

  I think I kind of... like, when you first get into this, that's one of the big questions. And I kind of let go of all those, especially when I went to college, and I...

• 39:54Rich Roll?

  Like, no deodorant?

• 39:55Speaker 01

  I actually, I have a beautiful raw crystal deodorant that I love. But honestly, you don't smell as much when you're raw. You just don't stink. You know, and it's awesome.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  I remember when I went to college, it was it was nice because I got to clean out my all my stuff from high school. I love that I'm talking about this as if it were yesterday. College for me was like 10 years ago. This is so painful.

• 40:18Rich Roll?

  I just went to my 25th college reunion, so go ahead.

• 40:22Speaker 01

  I get it, but it was it was like I kind of felt like I was starting over my whole life and my high school raffle, I won it. Out of everybody in the high school, I won the high school raffle. And guess what I won?

• 40:32Speaker 02

  Deodorant.

• 40:33Speaker 01

  A microwave.

• 40:33Rich Roll?

  Oh, microwave.

• 40:34Speaker 02

  How useful.

• 40:36Speaker 01

  I mean, like, what are the chances, right?

• 40:38Speaker 02

  So great.

• 40:39Speaker 01

  I remember that day and it was almost like this another symbolic moment in my life where I went to go and return the microwave and I got a little Nutriball instead. And that was exactly what I was like, this is my dedication to college. I'm gonna eat healthy in college. I'm not gonna drink. I'm not gonna do this. And I didn't.

• 40:54Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 40:55Speaker 01

  I had an eight by eight foot dorm room with no kitchen sink.

• 40:57Rich Roll?

  So how did it work? Like, did you, were you part of the meal plan? Or you just that you had to like get out of? Or how did you, like, how did that look like on a daily basis?

• 41:05Speaker 01

  This is kind of a cool story. For me, I actually made special requests. I got like my doctors to write notes to the people in the cafeteria. So I didn't really get on the meal plan. I just had access to the salad bar whenever needed and I took the bus to the nearest Wild Oats and I would go twice a week and get bananas, pears, and lettuce, which was what I could afford. And I stored them underneath my dorm bed in my eight by eight foot dorm room and

• 41:33Rich Roll?

  Do you have a roommate?

• 41:33Speaker 01

  No. Well, I did the second year, but that is a totally different story. She was not raw. She was

• 41:40Rich Roll?

  With all the produce under the bed.

• 41:42Speaker 01

  She ate microwave meals and we

• 41:44Rich Roll?

  The sorority would not approve.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  No, no, no. But I'll I'll say that it was interesting because, I mean, I look back now and I'm like, wow, I must have been passionate because if I had to wash something, I'd wash it in the girls' bathroom. And I'll never forget, there were times where I'd be washing stuff and there'd be girls puking Saturday night, like, behind me. I'd be like, oh, why am I doing this? But at least I'm dedicated. It's okay.

• 42:04Rich Roll?

  Yeah, this is, uh, I mean, this is committed.

• 42:06Speaker 01

  Oh, I was, um, I'm either all in or not at all. That's just

• 42:10Rich Roll?

  Was there a turning point where you realized, like, I know you kind of went full in, but when you realized, like, wow, this really is resolving my health issues? Because we didn't even kind of follow up on that thread of like how you went from, you know, blackout rooms and migraines to

• 42:24Speaker 01

  I still haven't

• 42:25Rich Roll?

  Hypoglycemia to

• 42:26Speaker 01

  I still haven't been back to the doctor to this day. Like, I got, it took me a year and a half to reverse my hyperglycemia. With just eating food.

• 42:33Rich Roll?

  And I think like, like, let's just camp there for a second because I think there's this idea, I mean, right now, we're in this world where there's a lot of talk about extremely low carb diets and, you know, paleo diets and ketosis and, and we're in this diabetes epidemic and suddenly like fruit is being vilified as if it's some kind of, you know, terrible food that's going to make you unhealthy and, and fat and give you diabetes. Right? And so

• 43:03Speaker 01

  It's interesting. It reversed mine.

• 43:05Rich Roll?

  Which makes me insane. And so when I hear your story, which is basically you had this condition that, you know, I would think that somebody who from one of these camps, and look, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a nutritionist, I'm not scientifically trained in this, but I would imagine that, you know, a response, you know, a logical response would be to reduce your sugar intake, right?

• 43:23Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 43:24Rich Roll?

  And instead, you basically took your diet from, you know, basically complex carbohydrates, typical, you know, sort of ethnic, probably mostly Mediterranean type diet and, and went really, you know, probably more than eighty, ten, ten, probably like ninety-five, two or something like that.

• 43:40Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 43:41Rich Roll?

  Which is, you know, a super hot, you know, very fructose-rich way of eating, which seems, you know, contrary to what I, I would imagine a Western doctor would tell you would be your best protocol.

• 43:56Speaker 01

  Exactly. And that's why it looks crazy, sounds crazy, it was crazy, but for some reason it worked.

• 44:02Rich Roll?

  But did you ever go to a doctor to get like an explanation for that? Or you just, how did you know that it was resolved?

• 44:09Speaker 01

  I, well, I went to get my blood checked. And then I remember after the three-year mark is when I went back to my old pediatrician because after a while you can't go back. And when I was still sixteen, eighteen, I was still seeing a pediatrician because I was like still a kid, basically. And, um, gosh, I remember she was just shocked when she saw me because I looked like a totally different person. And I went back actually to get my medical records because somebody was asking for them. And she was just like, Christina Buchram, is this even you? We don't even have you in our system anymore. You haven't been back here in so long. And my first initial response was like, oh my God, I'm freaking out. They don't have my medical records? And she was like, yeah, by state of law, Texas gets rid of everything after three years

• 44:54Speaker 01

  if you don't come back. And she's like, well, you haven't been back here in like six years. And I was like, Well, I guess that's a great thing. That means that like I totally reversed my everything. And we took blood tests and everything was fine and normal and it was just like a crazy experience.

• 45:10Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 45:11Speaker 01

  And it was really cool to show people that.

• 45:13Speaker 02

  And what did she say when you told her how you did it?

• 45:15Speaker 01

  Um, she's now a member of my co-op and she comes once a month to pick up her produce.

• 45:20Speaker 02

  That's amazing.

• 45:21Speaker 01

  How cool is that?

• 45:22Speaker 02

  That's very cool.

• 45:23Speaker 01

  And that seems to be the story with a lot of people.

• 45:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:26Speaker 01

  And Dr. Garth Davis is a huge supporter of the co-op and like I love him. We did a video of my blood test results recently.

• 45:31Rich Roll?

  I just watched that video today and I emailed him and I said, "Garth," I was just with Garth at Marshall a couple of weeks ago, Marshall, Texas. Um, I love that guy. You know, he's amazing. Like, I think that, you know, it's sort of, guys like Garth Davis and Dr. Robert Osfeld, um, you know, are sort of the younger generation of these doctors that are hip to what's going on and they're standing on the shoulders of the giants, you know, T. Colin Campbell and, and Dr. Esselstyn and stuff like that. But they're like a younger, you know, it's a, it's the new, it's the next generation, right?

• 46:04Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 46:05Rich Roll?

  And what, what, what makes, in my opinion, Garth so special is that not only does he have the experience as a practicing surgeon, um, but he's completely mired in the research. He knows it backwards and forwards. He's read everything.

• 46:19Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 46:20Rich Roll?

  But on top of that, I mean, most doctors that are like that, they tend to be, you know, they're, they're going to be more on the dry side. They're very academic, they're very intellectual, they're up in their head. But he has this fiery passion and he's a very gifted communicator and a great orator.

• 46:33Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 46:34Rich Roll?

  So, not only does he have the science, he's able to communicate it in a passionate and compelling way, which I think makes him really kind of an extraordinary guy. And I think he's gonna blow up.

• 46:43Speaker 01

  Oh, he's amazing. There's no, there's no doubt. Dr. Garth is just my favorite.

• 46:48Rich Roll?

  So, what's cool is that, um, is that, you know, sort of the, the knee jerk thing that you always get, you know, somebody who's raw or even, you know, someone who's vegan or whatever, like, "Oh, you must be anemic. You're, you know, what's going on with your blood levels? I'm sure that you're deficient in this and that and the other and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." So, you go to, you go to Garth and you're like, "I never go to the doctor, but like, take my blood and let's just make a video and whatever it says, that's what it's gonna be," right? So, you kind of took a risk, because you don't, you don't know, right?

• 47:16Speaker 01

  I did.

• 47:17Rich Roll?

  Maybe you are deficient.

• 47:18Speaker 01

  Oh, I didn't know. I didn't know. And actually, I, Dr. Garth came to co-op and started buying vegetables and I didn't really know who he was. I was just like, "This is the coolest doctor ever," you know? And then we became friends and it was just like... I don't know. And now we work together and we have our pharmacy program that we run out of the hospital.

• 47:32Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 47:32Speaker 01

  And it's just, I don't know. He's my homeboy.

• 47:42Rich Roll?

  Let's walk through that blood test, right?

• 47:44Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 47:44Rich Roll?

  I made some notes, actually.

• 47:45Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, let's go.

• 47:46Speaker 02

  Rich did his research.

• 47:47Rich Roll?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, no, no, no. So, he like-

• 47:49Speaker 02

  Let me talk about your-

• 47:50Rich Roll?

  He's like, "Okay, let's look at the blood. So, this is at the nine-year mark of you eating-

• 47:55Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 47:55Rich Roll?

  -fully raw, because you are fully raw Christina, right?

• 47:58Speaker 01

  That is correct.

• 47:59Rich Roll?

  So, there can't be anything-

• 47:59Speaker 02

  That's what you say.

• 48:00Rich Roll?

  Not raw.

• 48:00Speaker 01

  That is correct.

• 48:01Speaker 02

  So, it's all raw.

• 48:02Speaker 01

  All raw.

• 48:02Speaker 02

  And I actually, I have to attest to this because I made Christina raw walnut and tuna for a little snack. And I was blanching the collard greens. You just boil the water and blanch the greens for just 30 seconds. And halfway through the stack, it dawned on me that she was fully raw Christina and that she might not be going for the blanched collard green. So, I left off half the leaves and she did, in fact, choose the completely raw collard.

• 48:31Rich Roll?

  We could attest that she is fully raw.

• 48:33Speaker 01

  Thank you so much.

• 48:34Rich Roll?

  Yeah. But, yeah, so he like, you know, he looked at your protein levels. Like, I don't know how this stuff all works exactly, but it was right where it was supposed to be in terms of-

• 48:44Speaker 01

  Should we get him on the phone?

• 48:45Rich Roll?

  In terms of like-

• 48:45Speaker 02

  We should. We should call him right now.

• 48:47Speaker 01

  We should call him.

• 48:47Speaker 02

  We haven't done that yet.

• 48:48Rich Roll?

  I know. We should call him live, right?

• 48:50Speaker 01

  Yo, Dr. Garth.

• 48:51Rich Roll?

  You're not anemic. Your iron levels are exactly where they're supposed to be. I guess seven. I don't know what the measuring units are, but-

• 48:59Speaker 02

  A seven sounds awesome.

• 49:00Rich Roll?

  I know, right?

• 49:01Speaker 02

  Awesome.

• 49:02Rich Roll?

  Calcium-

• 49:02Speaker 02

  On the awesome scale.

• 49:04Rich Roll?

  Calcium was normal. LDL was super awesome. The HDL, which is the good cholesterol, was low. Your vitamin D was like, super fantastic. And most people are vitamin D deficient. Your B vitamins are great. And you don't take any supplements other than like, a vitamin B12 supplement, right?

• 49:23Speaker 01

  And I have a funny story to tell you about that.

• 49:25Rich Roll?

  So, you're not having any experience with like osteoporosis, or calcium, or iron, or anemia, or like, any of these things are just like, they're not even showing up on the radar.

• 49:33Speaker 01

  Not even.

• 49:34Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm. So, what's the funny story?

• 49:36Speaker 01

  The funny story is that Dr. Garth was like, you know- Maybe you should go get a B12 shot before you come in. And I was like, or he'd take B12. And I was like, well, am I deficient? I don't, I don't even know. And so the funniest part is that I went to go get one before that test, thinking like, okay, well, maybe I'm deficient, maybe I'm not. And the funniest thing is that like my levels through that are like jacked sky high through the roof.

• 49:59Speaker 01

  Like jacked up, but I didn't even notice the difference on that amount of B12.

• 50:04Rich Roll?

  Right, right, right.

• 50:04Speaker 02

  So did you, did you take a supplement or get a shot or what?

• 50:07Speaker 01

  I, I went to get a shot.

• 50:08Speaker 02

  Oh, you did get a shot?

• 50:09Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 50:09Speaker 01

  And I hate needles.

• 50:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:11Speaker 01

  And I went through needles twice that week.

• 50:13Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 50:13Speaker 02

  So you're brave, you're committed to the cause.

• 50:15Speaker 01

  I am courageous.

• 50:16Speaker 02

  That's what we love about you.

• 50:18Rich Roll?

  All right, well, where, so, so, uh, so you're in college, you're hiding fruit under your bed and, uh, getting by on this lifestyle. Uh, and you finish school, like where does the co-op start to play in? Or like, what do you, how are you starting to, you know, think about like what you want to do with your life when you're getting out of college?

• 50:37Speaker 01

  Awesome, okay. This is a good one. Are you ready?

• 50:40Rich Roll?

  I'm, I'm ready.

• 50:40Speaker 01

  So I was on, I was at Vanderbilt. I was on a full scholarship for art and I had an art grant. And it got to the point where I was by myself all the time because I was in the art studio and I was doing a minor in voice at the time. I was being trained in jazz and blues and I wanted to do music composition. And I was all, like, when I say alone all the time, I mean, like, girls in the hallway would like make fun of me until I like started branching out. And I was like, bring them smoothies to be friends with them. Cause everybody at Vanderbilt, it's very fraternity, sorority based school. And I didn't have a car, it was cold, I didn't have my family and I just felt like I wanted to transfer. So, um, I ended up going from there to Costa Rica, spending time in Costa Rica with Dr. Graham.

• 51:24Speaker 01

  And then I ended up deciding that I wanted to finish off my studies at Rice. So I transferred to Rice and applied for more grants there and got financial aid and got to be on there. And it was really wonderful. And By the time I got into RISE, it was like, okay, I had already just basically completed two majors and I still needed to finish off my four years, so I decided to add on another major.

• 51:48Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:49Speaker 01

  Which was kinesiology, just a study of like movement and the body and food and all these things. And somebody had asked me if I wanted to be part of the environmental committee because they saw me walking around campus with bananas all the time.

• 52:01Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:02Speaker 01

  So I was like, sure, I'll, I'll help it out. So me and 12 other students, we created an environmental committee and we started community gardens around the campus. And we came up with the idea that we wanted to have a farmer's market for the students every Tuesday. We invited six of the farmers that we knew in the Texas area because it's like, there weren't many. And they all came on a Tuesday and they only had like one or two tables worth of stuff.

• 52:24Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:25Speaker 01

  Like not enough to feed a nation by any means whatsoever. And I remember I became very good friends with one of these families, the Gundermans, because they had kids my age and I remember I'd go there on the weekends and I'd pick with them and I'd hang out on the farm and get my toes dirty in the mud and, and all the pictures that I, usually when I go, I go there. And they only had 50 acres at the time.

• 52:45Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 52:46Speaker 01

  Like not growing much. But, um, so I started getting a lot of my fruits and my veggies from there and I was like, yeah, but okay, I'm still spending, at that time, my family was getting on board and we were all going to Whole Foods and we were spending like $500 a week on produce.

• 52:58Rich Roll?

  Oh my god, yeah, you can't do it. You can't live this way, buying at Whole Foods, you know, unless you're a multimillionaire.

• 53:04Speaker 01

  But, that's all I, yeah. Yeah. So I started putting together my research, resources and stalking some serious people and I got ahold of one of the distributors in Texas. And, I mean, Whole Foods has their own distribution chain. And this one distributor, he distributes like Kroger, Albertsons, HEB, all the, I mean, I, I had no idea this man is a self-made billionaire and he just has this giant ranch in Texas, okay? And I called him for maybe about three months in a row and he didn't take my call. Don't call me persistent, if you may. He finally gets, you know, his secretary picks up one time and she finally rings me through and he gets on the phone, he's like, Hello darling, I hear you've been calling this office an awful lot. It's like, can you please tell me what you need?

• 53:48Speaker 01

  It's like, oh my god, you know, my name's Christina, here's my life story, da, da, da, da, now my family's eating wrong, we, you know, we have about, eat about ten cases of produce each week, and I'd be really, really grateful if you would deliver a truck of organic produce wholesale to my doorstep. Like, okay, I know.

• 54:05Speaker 01

  I'm thinking like, okay distributor, you can just drop a truck off, why not? We're a family of like six.

• 54:10Rich Roll?

  Alright, I'll be sure to do that on the way back from Kroger.

• 54:14Speaker 01

  I know. Well, it was funny because his first response is like, you are cute and endearing. Those are the things that he called me, and I remember being like, slightly like, don't call me cute, you know, don't call me endearing, but okay. And he's like, alright, I'll make a deal with you. He's like, if you can put in a minimum case order of forty cases, once a week, I will deliver to your house. And without even thinking about it, because this is sometimes what I was like, yes, I'm in. Thursday night, after class, drop it off, let's go, bring it. And he was like, okay, alright. And so I sent him in the order and I'm, I remember after that, I'm thinking to myself like, one case of lettuce has twenty-four heads of lettuce in it, one case of peaches has sixty-four peaches in it, one case of bananas is forty pounds, one case of tomatoes is ten to twenty pounds.

• 54:59Speaker 01

  So I'm thinking to myself like, there's no way my family can get through that. That's, you know, and I remember him telling me, he was like, you know, I deliver to grocery stores and they order like two thousand dollars worth of produce every day. He's like, there's no way you're gonna be able to compete with these people. And I'm thinking to myself like, oh my god, I don't know what it is.

• 55:16Rich Roll?

  You're not trying to compete with them, you're just trying to get food for yourself to eat, right?

• 55:21Speaker 01

  But he was basically trying to tell me that he doesn't deliver at a small time.

• 55:24Rich Roll?

  Well, of course. Yeah, it's like, he's delivering to giant supermarkets and then he's gonna do a home delivery for you.

• 55:31Speaker 01

  Hilarious, right? Well, it gets interesting, because I asked, I got, I started knocking on doors, getting a few of my neighbors in on it and getting, I think, so I got twelve people in my, in my neighborhood and a few of our family friends to get in. The night they delivered, there was like produce boxes up to the ceilings in my mother's living room. Like, they wanted to kill me.

• 55:50Rich Roll?

  What have you gotten me into?

• 55:52Speaker 01

  But it was so, like, for me, I was having a blast. They all wanted to kill my mother. I thought she was about to have a heart attack. God bless her. But it was funny because people started like peeping their heads out their windows and their doors and like, what is that Boukaram girl doing now? You know, the next week, we had forty people picking up, sharing this produce with us out of the garage the next week. And then a few weeks later, it became a hundred families. And eventually, we got kicked out of my house to be by the neighborhood association. Because we were creating traffic jams. And then they're like, alright, well, then you guys can move into the parking lot. And then I think I told you earlier, we got kicked out of the parking lot and to, you know, I literally thought that that day was the last day of my life. Because it's like, here's my passion project. And they're giving me a big X saying, we're closing you down.

• 56:35Speaker 01

  And the next day, I was getting calls from people over the city being like, hey, you want a parking lot? Here's a huge one. Do your thing. And that was awesome for me. And the funniest part about that is, is that I started off with the distributor, but all of those local farmers that I'd made relationships with. I started saying, hey, why don't you come and bring your stuff and we'll put it into the boxes as well? And, you know, with all the support that we've gotten over the years, the Gunnamans, they've gone from a fifty acre farm to a five hundred acre farm and go for us full time. Like, that's the kind of stuff that makes the difference here.

• 57:07Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 57:07Speaker 01

  You know, and I'll show you pictures on my phone. Like, I spent all week there last week, just like.

• 57:13Rich Roll?

  So when you're, yeah, when you're doing your videos or you're doing your, like, that's the farm that you're at when I could see.

• 57:18Speaker 01

  This is my favorite farm, my favorite and like.

• 57:21Rich Roll?

  How far, how far outside of Houston is that?

• 57:23Speaker 01

  Forty-five minutes from my house.

• 57:24Rich Roll?

  Really that close?

• 57:24Speaker 01

  It's so close. And it's, it's just like a few Shania Twain country songs drive away and you're there, you know? But another cool thing about that is, is I've actually become very good friends with the distributor as well. He has a daughter my age. They have courses. We play and, you know, grocery stores in our area, they maybe spend about two thousand dollars a day on produce. He sends me the list before everybody else in the city because I spend anywhere from five to thirty thousand a day on produce. And so it's like, we beat out our grocery stores because we actually have our community involved and we get to support our local farmers and. Our biggest day ever, we spent like thirty thousand on produce.

• 58:01Rich Roll?

  That's crazy. So not only are you ordering more, like doing what he said would never happen, which is ordering more than a supermarket, you're like, you're ten X on that.

• 58:10Speaker 01

  It's like, but it's like, we don't have a brick and mortar. We're pitching up tents. Where it's, it's like a farmer's market, but it's people coming together, they're consciously choosing to purchase this food. We're pre-making them and ordering them and...

• 58:22Rich Roll?

  Like, but is it just one day a week? Or like, are you doing...

• 58:25Speaker 01

  We have three days a week that we do this. So, I mean, we have our small days, we have our Saturdays are our big days, Tuesdays are our medium days, Thursdays are our super small days, but it's like, they all serve the community in different purposes, because they're all in different areas of the city. And once we get rid of Thursdays, it's gonna be like, yeah, but we're still gonna keep our days, and we may even open up a third one.

• 58:45Rich Roll?

  And it runs as a nonprofit, so how does that, how does that work? I mean, are you making enough to cover costs and then calling it even? Or are you making, like, what would you, are you investing the extra money and just growing it? Or how does that work?

• 58:57Speaker 01

  Oh, so you can run nonprofits and still run them very, very well. But basically, what we're telling people is that all the money that they are using to buy these fruits and vegetables are going either back to pay, they're paying for their food, going back to the farmer, and anything else is going to basically help make this run the way that it is. Any extra pennies at the end of the year, the IRS will get on you for that. So basically, that's where my job comes in. I'm very good at math. I do all the numbers. I still do every single co-op order, like whether I'm traveling or not, if I'm on the other end of the world, I'm still up like, alright, you guys, you need fifteen cases of zucchinis for tomorrow. Alright, team, go.

• 59:34Rich Roll?

  Right. So when you said you like to cross the Ts and dot the Is, like, you're not, you're...

• 59:38Speaker 01

  I'm not kidding. I still do every single order. Like, I'm not kidding. I still do all of our co-op newsletters.

• 59:44Speaker 02

  We should lock you and Rich in a room for a weekend and see what happens.

• 59:47Rich Roll?

  I can't, like, I have such a hard time letting anyone help me.

• 59:50Speaker 02

  See if you could join forces, or if you would kill each other.

• 59:53Rich Roll?

  No, we'd probably kill each other.

• 59:54Speaker 01

  But the thing is that it's like, the co-op is my baby. It's my business. All three of them are.

• 59:58Rich Roll?

  You don't have to tell me, you know? I understand.

• 1:00:01Speaker 01

  And I'm, I'm, my biggest lesson this year is I'm learning how to be the coach rather than a player on the field. Because you can't be a player in the field and play every position and have a winning team.

• 1:00:10Rich Roll?

  Well, you can, but you're gonna you're gonna hit up against the ceiling and how much you can grow. Right? So if you want to be able to take this and expand it and continue to grow it, then on some level, you have to let go and delegate and empower a team and all that kind of stuff. And that involves like letting go of some of that stuff where you it's like you're not going to be able to cross every T and dot every I and somebody else is going to get to cross the T. And sometimes they're not going to cross the T the way that Fully Raw Christina crosses the T.

• 1:00:37Speaker 02

  Do you guys, you think we could like?

• 1:00:38Rich Roll?

  You know what I mean, so?

• 1:00:39Speaker 02

  Rich could, Rich could use like a self-help session a week.

• 1:00:43Rich Roll?

  Coach each other? Yeah, all right. High five. So, all right. But here's, here's the thing that I think is super interesting and I think is, you know, can provide, you know, a good place for some people to really get some great takeaways, which is you're very connected to, it's, it's, it's locavoreism. Like, you're very connected to these local farmers. Like, you know what these farmers have to do in order to produce these foods. You're connecting those farmers with your community. And this is what like, you know, this is what it's all about. This is what like the community food movement, you know, that's ground zero and you're in the middle of it. So, you know, what is it that people might not know about how their produce is grown?

• 1:01:26Rich Roll?

  Like, or, and, you know, why is it important that it's organic? And in your experience of getting to know these farmers and the relationships that you have, like, what have you learned that frustrates you when you talk to a typical consumer who like maybe doesn't, isn't paying enough attention or, or, you know, doesn't really fully appreciate what you're trying to do? Like, why these kinds of foods are important, why it's important to support these farmers? And why these foods are different and better?

• 1:01:55Speaker 01

  Growing your own produce is the most important, most logical, most economical thing that we could be doing right now. And I say that on every single level because of like, All of our chains and distribution systems like went down. The only people that will be surviving right now are farmers. And people have no idea how much work it takes to grow one beet. How much effort it takes, how much love that goes into that. And it is a lot of work because I mean, I would encourage anybody, start your own garden and then try. You know, I mean, you won't be able to live off your own land unless you have a big, big farm. And then you'd really have to like grow your own fruit trees. And it would take a few years to even build up to that point, you know?

• 1:02:38Speaker 01

  And for me to say, it's like, okay, for, for people to wake up to that, to say like, hey, you are consciously supporting with your dollar them. Like, and they're normal people. They're like you, they're like me. I mean, Garrett and Stacy McKinley is their daughter. She's my goddaughter now too. And it's, we're consciously supporting them, like the, it goes back to them. So like, if you go to the grocery store, you, you buy a filet of meat, that money goes obviously back to the person who killed the cow. You're supporting that movement. But if you wanna support more of your local farmers, like that money, even, even if it's just buying a box of fruits and vegetables, that gave them more money to grow more fruits and vegetables.

• 1:03:23Speaker 01

  From fifty acres to five hundred acres, we're reaching more people, you know? But imagine the kind of impact that that's had. It's, I don't, I, I can't even begin to express it. Just like even the little things make the biggest difference. And it's not gonna be an overnight thing by any means. But it's being consistent every single day with what you do. And I think sometimes it's really hard because people don't connect with that because they don't see it every day. They're not involved in that field every day. People aren't even involved if they're eating animals, they're not killing that cow. They don't know that animal. They're not connected. Right? So what people do connect with is their own image, their own feelings, their own emotions, their own health, right?

• 1:04:06Speaker 01

  So that's why when people sell recipes, when people sell beautiful things, when people sell... You know, feeling good, they resonate with that. That's more appealing to somebody than saying, hey, let's do this to save the farmer. Let's do this to save the animals, because anybody can donate five dollars here or there. But it's being consistent with it over a period of time that's going to make the biggest difference. It's changing your life. It's not changing your diet, it's changing every aspect of that. It's, you know, changing the way that you purchase, changing the way that you think, changing what you do, changing how you think, all of these things, they all play a part.

• 1:04:39Speaker 02

  And they all connect back to food. So food is the first portal to awaken all those other senses.

• 1:04:45Speaker 01

  Food is life and color.

• 1:04:46Speaker 02

  Food is life.

• 1:04:47Rich Roll?

  Food is life and is color.

• 1:04:48Speaker 01

  Brought it back to point A.

• 1:04:49Rich Roll?

  And what do you, how do you counsel people when they come to you and say, you know, do I really have to eat organic? Is it that different? What's the difference?

• 1:04:57Speaker 01

  People come to me at all different levels. I mean, whether they come to me and say, organic, do I have to do this totally? Do I have to be vegan? Do I have to be vegetarian? I always say, do the best you can, because in a perfect world, everything would be fresh, ripe, local and organic. But all four of those are actually very different.

• 1:05:14Rich Roll?

  And delivered to your door by a billionaire.

• 1:05:16Speaker 02

  Wholesale.

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  I don't know how I got so blessed. I consider myself blessed, but you know what? I've taken those lucky stars and I've tried to multiply them for other people.

• 1:05:24Speaker 02

  Yes, and you are.

• 1:05:25Speaker 01

  So, in that sense, I say that even, you know, I've learned a lot with my mom. As much pain and as much struggle as that has brought me, I've learned so much with my mom that her just starting off with a smoothie every morning turned into her starting off with a smoothie in the morning and a salad in the evening. And even if she does whatever she wants for lunch, she feels a difference. You know, and even when she comes over, she like, she sent me a text the other day. She goes, I made a smoothie, aren't you proud? It's like, I hear her voice in my head, I'm like, yes, mom, that's great. You know, it's like the fact that she's excited about it, she's doing it on her own and I'm not pushing her. You know, and so, little things like that.

• 1:06:02Rich Roll?

  Right, right, right. And what about the budget aspect of this? I mean, I know that you've made, you've made a video about this.

• 1:06:08Speaker 01

  I've made tons of videos about how people can afford it. I mean...

• 1:06:11Rich Roll?

  So let's talk about that because I think that, you know, this is a barrier for a lot of people. They just think, they dismiss it out of hand as like, there's no way that I could afford to do this. It just sounds, you know, it just sounds crazy. Forget about the extreme aspect of, of only eating, you know, raw foods that some people struggle with, but just the economics of it.

• 1:06:29Speaker 01

  So first off, hopefully if people do go to my Instagram or my YouTube, they can see that it's not boring. I've made so many recipes out there that look so good. I mean, I'm sure there's one of them out there that somebody would like to eat, just one. I have like 200 of them. The second aspect would be, you know, I, I did it on 60 bucks a week in college for years, and I'm pretty sure they could too. I mean, besides joining a local co-op or supporting your local farmers and going at the end of a farmer's market and getting the deals, heck, I was at the Hollywood Farmer's Market yesterday making deals with farmers. They don't even know who I am. And I'm like, bring it. I'll take the rest of that whole case. Give it to me for like 20, 30 bucks. They're like, yes, sold.

• 1:07:06Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I think people don't realize that you can, that you can negotiate with these farmers. And they want, they want to do business with you, like, and, and they don't want to have to throw this stuff out if they don't sell it.

• 1:07:15Speaker 01

  Yes, absolutely. I mean, if people knew how much was actually going to waste in these fields, they wouldn't feel bad about, oh, I don't know if I should buy an extra carton of blueberries. It may go to waste. I'm like, buy the blueberries. Show your support and then throw them away. Because guess what? The grocery store is going to throw it away if it doesn't get sold. Or if like the farmer grows it and it doesn't look good enough, they're going to have to compost it back. Show your support. Buy it regardless, you know, and the money-saving aspect, I mean, gosh, so many things you can do.

• 1:07:43Rich Roll?

  Well, hit me with a couple.

• 1:07:44Speaker 01

  Okay. Um, buy by the case. You always get 10% off. Any grocery store, 10% off.

• 1:07:50Rich Roll?

  Right. So how do you do that? You go to the customer service dude and you're like, what do you got in back? Like, because there's always stuff they're, they're like moving out, right? Because it's not quite as pretty and they're going to get rid of it and you can make deals there.

• 1:08:01Speaker 01

  Exactly. I was in New York last weekend and I was like, hey, do you have a case of ripe bananas? And they're like, oh yeah, bananas over there. I was like, no, no, no, no. Speckled ripe bananas. They sold me the case for like 10 bucks. I took it back to like, you know, my friend's place. Like, what are you doing with that box? I was like, what does it look like I'm doing with that box? You know, it's like, got it at a discount for a great rate because they didn't know. So buy by the case, even if it's not ripe, you can get it 10% off. Making deals with your local farmers, finding a local co-op, buying what's in season. I don't think people realize that if you're trying to find a watermelon in the middle of December, you're going to be buying a $10 watermelon. You know, when things are in season, they're more likely to be discounted. Obviously, growing your own is the cheapest option, but it's not always an option for everybody.

• 1:08:45Speaker 01

  That's another option.

• 1:08:47Rich Roll?

  What about people that don't have, you know, farmers market in their, their local area?

• 1:08:54Speaker 01

  Yes, so people who live in, I would say, less developed areas, especially, you know, where it's like where you only have one local grocery store, Walmart. Even Walmart's starting to carry more organics where you could get cases of stuff and it's cheaper. Not that I'm recommending that you go to Walmart for stuff.

• 1:09:13Rich Roll?

  Well, listen, you know, whatever, whatever it takes, you know, whatever it takes to try to, you know.

• 1:09:17Speaker 02

  And what about, what about online then for some of these people that live in these regions that are, you know, don't have a farmer's market?

• 1:09:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I mean.

• 1:09:26Speaker 02

  What about dried things?

• 1:09:27Speaker 01

  Yes, ordering food online. Why not?

• 1:09:30Speaker 02

  Nuts.

• 1:09:30Speaker 01

  Nuts and seeds online. I mean, I wouldn't recommend living off of nuts or seeds, but there's some stuff that you could definitely get online. At this point, I think if you live anywhere, you can find some type of fruit or vegetable. It's, I've traveled everywhere, literally. I've never had a problem traveling and eating raw.

• 1:09:47Rich Roll?

  I mean, what is the main piece of advice that you give to somebody who's kind of, comes up to you? You can tell they're curious, they're kind of skirting around it, they're not so sure, and, and they just need that feeling like they can do it? Or maybe it's not as hard as they might think it is? I mean, what, how do you connect with somebody like that?

• 1:10:04Speaker 01

  I'm very much a heart person. I don't know if you can tell that. Like, I wear my heart on my sleeve quite a bit. Sometimes I think it, it takes connecting with each individual person. I think everybody has, like, their hurdle that they go through. Like, somebody may have a diet issue, somebody may have an overeating issue, or a feeling of unworthiness, or a feeling of this that keeps them from wanting to do what they know is good for them. Sometimes people just need to hear, like, hey, you can do this. You are worthy of doing this. Your body needs this. You know, like, why not take charge of your health? All of these things, sometimes people just need a hug, you know? And sometimes people need it to be made, it to be made for them, once or twice, or to try it, or to just take the leap. Whatever it is, I promise, the first step is always the easiest.

• 1:10:49Speaker 01

  And then, once you kind of get moving, you get moving and you get passionate about it, you get excited. People who are listening to this podcast are probably already excited. Some of them probably haven't even tried a smoothie, or, you know, one of Julie's amazing recipe dishes, but... They will soon. They will soon.

• 1:11:06Speaker 02

  No, and I was trying to, actually, I was trying to think before you came over. I was, you know, usually when I'm intuitively thinking about, you know, my recipes, people ask, "Well, you know, how much is raw?" And I, and I want to say, "Well, probably forty percent is raw and sixty percent is cooked, or maybe thirty percent is raw and seventy percent is cooked." But I wonder, if I went through the book, I think realistically, it may be more fifty-fifty.

• 1:11:30Speaker 01

  Can I just say that I'm looking at a sneak peek of the book, and it is the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen in my life.

• 1:11:36Speaker 02

  Thank you. Thanks.

• 1:11:45Rich Roll?

  You were talking about kind of how you had to navigate, you know, this lifestyle with your parents and your family. And, and one of the questions that we get, and I'm sure you get it constantly, is, you know, "I'm really into doing this. I'm trying to make changes. I want to live healthier, but my, fill in the blank, you know, boyfriend, girlfriend, wife, husband, mother, father, brother, cousin..."

• 1:12:07Speaker 01

  It's just too hard.

• 1:12:09Rich Roll?

  Well, or, or they're just, they don't, they don't feel it, they don't have the support. You know, like, the other person in their life, or the other people in their life, are not down with it, and it makes it hard, right?

• 1:12:17Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:12:18Rich Roll?

  So, so how do you, I mean, you were able to do it. You had, you know, you had the odds stacked against you with people that...

• 1:12:24Speaker 01

  I feel like I've had the odds stacked against me for years.

• 1:12:27Rich Roll?

  But I, I feel like, y- y- you also, but you had, you were very directed. Like, you, you were, you know, "Look, you were sick." Like, you were in a place where you, you had, you had a huge capacity for willingness to like, do something different. But for somebody who's just trying to, they want to do it, but, you know, like, the other people in their life are not down. Like, how do you counsel those people? Or what are some strategies that you can share that might be helpful to people?

• 1:12:52Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And just that I can show some type of empathy for those who are struggling with this. I've, I have to say that I was alone for maybe the first four years of me eating this way. And when I say alone, like, I mean, like, I kept to myself, like, very much to myself, because I was still trying to learn what was going on within me. I would write down every day what I ate, how many calories I was eating, what was coming out, you know, what was in season. I still have all these cute little papers written out, like, I wrote them in a book every day, very diligently. And I felt very alone, and I think that, for me, you know, there's always a reason for things happening, but I think that a big part of this journey for me has been me learning to love myself,

• 1:13:36Speaker 01

  like, truly fall in love with me, not need anybody else's approval to do it, just me doing this for me so that I can be the best me possible, and being strong in that, and being confident in that, because there are very few people who can say that they love themselves and they're their own best friend, and that when you're put into a dark corner, that you know that you can stand up and be totally fine and not need anybody's help. And I know that it is really, really hard sometimes to do something when you feel like you have no support, and you have no idea what you're doing, and everything's going wrong. But if, if I can say to just plan out one day, or one meal,

• 1:14:16Speaker 01

  and take it one step at a time, it is so much less overwhelming than trying to sit and think about the rest of your life doing it.

• 1:14:25Rich Roll?

  Oh, my goodness. I mean, if you're like, "Well, I'm gonna eat raw for the rest of my life", I mean, that's the most daunting.

• 1:14:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, to that, to that day, I still haven't told myself that, but yeah, here I'm looking, and I'm like, looking back, I'm like, it's ten years later, and I still wake up every morning, and it's a conscious choice, just like being with a partner and waking up and deciding to be with that person that day. It's a conscious choice every single day to eat this way. Every bite is a conscious choice, and you have to take responsibility for that. Because people who say, "Oh, I just, you know, I didn't have the self-control", or, "Oh, I didn't really want to, but I did it anyway", well, nobody else is putting the food in your mouth. You are hand-to-mouth consciously doing it. Why not just take a baby step? If you can't start with one full day, start out with one meal, because one meal is just one meal. And if you really want to do it, you will find a way. And there's plenty of resources and knowledge and support.

• 1:15:14Speaker 01

  And even online today, there's so much support. And the community is growing by heaps and bounds. Every day, I know it because I see it growing on my own feed, about the people that are being exposed to this and who are learning about it and who are growing passionately for it as well.

• 1:15:28Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I mean, you've had, you know, quite a journey in this world. I mean, obviously, it revolutionized your health and you've become passionate about it. And this is your life, like through the co-op and through, you know, your, your work on YouTube and online. I mean, you've really, you've really cultivated this whole community around these ideas, which is amazing and marvelous. And I'm interested in, you know, kind of with respect to, you know, the YouTube aspect of it. I mean, did it, did that just grow organically? Pardon the pun, or was there, was there like one video that just went berserk? And then suddenly you're like, you know, this YouTube star? Or how did that?

• 1:16:04Speaker 01

  I have never been an overnight success because every single day I wake up and it's the daily grind. And I will say that the most important thing I can share about that is that I've been consistent. I've put out one or two videos a week, every single week for the past two years.

• 1:16:17Rich Roll?

  Consistency is huge.

• 1:16:18Speaker 01

  Consistency is it. And you're gonna have some things that do better than others, but you want the things that don't do good and the things that do do good because that's what give you, gives you like an overall solid content. You know, and it gives people to learn from and gives people a chance to know you too. And so I would say consistency has probably been the most important. And just sharing the things that are important in my heart. Because, you know, sometimes it's like you make, you put out a video. It's like, oh, I didn't really like the recipe, but you know, this person liked it. And it didn't do as well. You're like, well, I should have listened to my heart there because maybe I really wanted to make a video about why my toes turn purple when I eat beets or something like that. You know, like, you just never know.

• 1:16:59Speaker 02

  So it's being authentic.

• 1:17:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:17:01Speaker 02

  And really finding that connection.

• 1:17:03Speaker 01

  Fully real.

• 1:17:04Rich Roll?

  But there's, there's also, there's also this kind of social contract that you enter into when you become this person who's living their life somewhat transparently, transparently online, right? Like you make this implicit deal where you become open to criticism and attack. And, and listen, there's no more vile place on the internet than the comment section of YouTube.

• 1:17:27Speaker 01

  Oh, trust me, I've experienced it. I've been harassed.

• 1:17:31Rich Roll?

  So I'm interested in, yeah, how you kind of. Navigate the negative aspects of that and look, you know, like I think we'd be remiss if we didn't at least, you know, kind of consciously address the fact that, you know, there's a lot of drama in the vegan world and there's all these little camps and there's a lot of bickering that goes on and quite frankly, like I just try to stay, like I don't really get involved in any of that kind of stuff and I kind of see it, I see the chatter at a distance, I don't really engage and I don't really click on links to watch stuff. So I don't really know what's going on, but I just know that there's always seems to be people that are upset with other people because somebody did this and then somebody said that and I look at it like, you know, I'm sure there's a right and a wrong or there's

• 1:18:14Rich Roll?

  obviously two sides to every story and all of that, but I just look at it kind of in a macro level, looking down and I go, well, while we're arguing, there's, you know, millions and millions and millions of people that are stuck in unhealthy lifestyle habits and diets that are killing them, like the people that are still going to McDonald's. So there's this argument going on over the final 0.05% of, you know, this way of doing this or that way of doing this, but I feel like there's a myopic perspective on like the bigger issue at hand. And so I just kind of wanted to kind of get your thoughts on all of that and kind of how you navigate it all.

• 1:18:53Speaker 01

  I agree with you 100% and I have consciously chosen to take myself out of a lot of that drama. And it's sometimes it's not even that you want to be in it, but perhaps that if you're in the community and if everybody knows in the community, everybody wants to know what you think about it and somehow you get thrown in it even if you didn't create it or cause it. Trust me, I've been there and I've been the I and the attack of many who've harassed me and publicly tried to, you know, put me on a crucifix. And you know what? That's okay because it's made me a lot stronger and I've really learned how to navigate it and deal with it and communicate better with myself and be stronger and communicate

• 1:19:37Speaker 01

  better with others who've asked about it.

• 1:19:41Speaker 01

  I have to first and foremost remember to put myself in their shoes. Whoever is creating the drama is a hurt person, needs compassion. Perhaps for some reason, whatever triggered their trigger, triggered it for a reason. Because nobody gets offended unless something hurts them. And so, coming from a place of compassion, which we're vegan, which is what we should do is instead of like coming back with an attack, is maybe perhaps coming from a place of understanding, either not engaging, or just trying to shine brighter and showing people the right way and keeping focused on what's good and what can continue to make a difference. And what is changing people's lives. Because wherever you put your focus, wherever you put your energy, that's exactly where it's going to go. And I've learned to do that a lot.

• 1:20:26Rich Roll?

  Yeah, so I mean, what are some of the things that you've had to shift around?

• 1:20:32Speaker 01

  For me...

• 1:20:33Rich Roll?

  I mean, is it just a mindset? Or are there actual things that you...

• 1:20:35Speaker 01

  No, because you know what? It's gonna pop up everywhere. And you're always gonna have haters. Hater's gonna hate, you know, potato's gonna potate. And you really do have to either address the comments, or you choose to address them in a way that feels comfortable with you, right? Because some people will cry wolf as much as they want for your attention, and you have to choose whether or not it's gonna be worthy for you to respond. It may be that, you know, sometimes people say mean things on your Instagram, like, "Oh, I can't believe, you know, you don't eat meat." Da-da-da. The second that you come back to them and you're kind, and you speak with compassion, like, "Oh, my gosh, she replied. Okay, well, I saw what you meant, no problem."

• 1:21:14Rich Roll?

  A lot of times, it's like, they had no idea that you would even see that.

• 1:21:18Speaker 01

  Exactly. And they're thrown back. And you know what? I go by, I always make sure that I go and I respond to the positive comments as much as I can, but if somebody leaves a really nasty comment, it's inappropriate or foul language, it either gets deleted or I respond back and I say, "Gosh, I'm really sorry you feel that way." Let me, let me give you and point you in a direction that can help you. And typically after that, they're like, oh, I didn't mean it like that, you know, I'm so sorry. Ninety percent of the time, that's it. For the people who really have deeper rooted emotional issues, they'll try and pick at you more because maybe perhaps it makes them feel worthy to be able to get your attention that way. And then at that point, you have to choose to let go or, or to move forward. But it's, it's really a test of yourself. Like how strong are you to be able to not get engulfed in it?

• 1:22:03Speaker 01

  To not get wrapped up and, and to keep moving forward in your own, in your own mission?

• 1:22:08Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's tricky. I mean, there's the, you know, first of all, like, you know, fully raw Christina, you're not a doctor. How dare you, you know, try to be supportive of a healthy lifestyle? You have no credibility or qualifications for this.

• 1:22:23Speaker 01

  I know, gee.

• 1:22:24Rich Roll?

  So that's a, that's like a thing, right? So, and I feel, there's plenty of other people that suffer from that. It's like you've had a certain experience, you're trying to share that, you're trying to help people live healthier and make better choices. Um, how dare you?

• 1:22:37Speaker 01

  How dare I? But see, the thing is that I'm not giving anybody doctored advice. Nobody's coming to me and sitting on my table and saying, read my blood labs. No, I'm just saying like, hey, here's some fruits and vegetables. Eat them. Here's a recipe. Go live your happy lifestyle. Cleanse out your system, your body. Work on yourself. I mean, like, your mom could tell you that.

• 1:22:55Rich Roll?

  But now you're just talking crazy.

• 1:22:56Speaker 01

  Now I'm just talking crazy. But the thing is that it's like, it's cool because I get to say, hey, I've done this for 10 years. I'm living proof. Try it. And if you don't like it, you can go back to doing what you were doing before. No offense taken, but try it.

• 1:23:10Speaker 02

  And I think one of the amazing things is just from your example is, you know, listen, not everybody is going to go fully raw. It's not their thing. It's not their life, you know, their life path. It's not mine at this point. Um, but what's so beautiful is that I think there's this, there's this idea that if you only eat, you know, vegetables or fruit uncooked for a day, like, like I might get sick.

• 1:23:32Speaker 01

  You may die. Am I gonna live?

• 1:23:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I mean, you know, just actually hearing you share your story, you know, one could see how it would be very, very easy to just pick one day a week or, you know, or even a day a month and just try it and pick one thing, one local. You know, fruit and just eat it for that day and you're to see how your digestion is. Keep a, keep a journal, check it out. And, you know, I'm, I'm all about the natural beauty that Mother Nature has provided for us. And, you know, we have a section in our book where we tried to highlight just raw, you know, some raw veggies. So, you know, it's, it is the most pristine mana, the most pristine nourishment that was provided for us.

• 1:24:15Speaker 02

  So, you know, it's actually very logical and very natural that you would be drawn to the pure creation of the planet that was given to us, to nourish us.

• 1:24:30Rich Roll?

  Yes. Look, everything, everything has a vibration. I've said this before on the podcast, but, you know, the people that you surround yourself carry a certain vibration. If you hang out with people that are depressed or negative, then you're going to get depressed or you're going to start saying negative things and you're going to have a certain perspective of the world. And when you start hanging out with, look, if you then go hang out with Tony Robbins for a week, then you're going to feel different, you know, because he's carrying a very powerful, different vibration. And, you know, to think that that doesn't apply to food is actually insane, right? So, when you're eating, you know, live foods as close to their natural state as possible,

• 1:25:11Rich Roll?

  you know, picked locally, right out of the ground, fresh, that's carrying a very powerful vibration. And that's, if that sounds new agey, I don't care because I've experienced it myself. And the more raw foods I eat, then the better I feel. And that's just the way it is. And I don't think anybody out there who has done that could say otherwise. Is there anybody who says, yeah, I ate tons of raw vegetables and fruits and I just felt horrible? I don't know. Like, you know, we all know, we all know this, right? We all know this. So, how do we, how do we start to move more in that direction?

• 1:25:48Speaker 01

  I think you just said it all yourself, moving in that direction. Well, I think the real question is, how do you get people to wake up? Right? Because you can't.

• 1:25:56Rich Roll?

  Well, now you're getting tricky. Now you're getting into some, some pretty tricky psychology. Because you cannot compel somebody to be willing to make a change. Like, that has to be, that has to be self-directed.

• 1:26:06Speaker 01

  So what happens if somebody says they don't like fruit? What happens if they say, "Oh, I don't want a smoothie"? If they're not ready to even make a first step, there's nothing you can do, except for live as an example. And maybe perhaps you have something that they want, whether that be happiness, whether that be a good body, whether that be, you know, being able to run 100 miles. Whatever it is, it's like, okay, then your reason becomes, "Hey, I do this because of my diet. I do this because of the way that I live." And then that's your selling point. You know, and so, living as an example has become more of a way for me to reach just my family. Because I realized very quickly that I couldn't talk them into doing what I was doing. Maybe perhaps it's that you just have to live as an example.

• 1:26:50Speaker 01

  Those who are ready will take the step. And then we know how to encourage them from there. Right? We know how to, like, give them a little nudge, give them a little hug, make them a smoothie, give them the tools that they need to get there. I think that what's even harder is getting more people to wake up to that. And to realize, like, hey, what's, you know, what's going on here on a more deeper level is not just your pain, but pain on a much more, like, massive scale. So.

• 1:27:19Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, I feel like, you know, nobody, nobody is the same. Everybody's very, very different. And people are in their own journey and their own moment in their own life and their own evolution. So I can't sit here and say that everybody, it's right for everybody to eat raw, like, right now, and that's good for every single person. Because in my experience, that's not true.

• 1:27:40Speaker 01

  I would agree with you on that.

• 1:27:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I will say that we all can benefit by incorporating these whole, pristine, untouched foods from nature, and they should become a part of your life. And so. You know, I have a, we have a dear friend, June, who grows 90% of her family's food in Malibu on her, in her own home. And I am going to do a nectarine or peach fast because of you.

• 1:28:09Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:28:10Speaker 02

  As soon as, and she will be delighted.

• 1:28:12Rich Roll?

  You should, you should check out June's garden.

• 1:28:14Speaker 01

  I'll take, I should go raid her peach tree.

• 1:28:16Speaker 02

  I should take you there.

• 1:28:17Rich Roll?

  You're gonna freak out.

• 1:28:18Speaker 02

  No, it's amazing. So what, because of, because of your inspiration and because of your example and because of your beauty and your radiance and your heart and your commitment and your knowledge and your talent.

• 1:28:30Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:28:31Speaker 02

  Because of all these things. So I also healed myself of a, of a, you know, of a disease through food. So, you know, that takes a lot of inner courage and fortitude and commitment and, and it is a lot of enduring, being marginalized and standing in the corner alone as everybody talks about you. So, you know, you've shown that strength and you are a beautiful example and I will absolutely do a, a peach or nectarine. I'll see which, which one comes in and I'm gonna do it and, and I'll see how I feel and, you know, and report back.

• 1:29:06Speaker 01

  I can't wait.

• 1:29:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, totally. I'll have to Snapchat it or something like that.

• 1:29:11Speaker 01

  Yes, you can Snapchat it to me and be like, look, Christina, I'm eating all the peaches.

• 1:29:15Rich Roll?

  All right. Well, I think that's kind of a beautiful place to end it, but I can't let you go without, I have two more things I have to ask you.

• 1:29:22Speaker 01

  You can ask me anything you want.

• 1:29:24Rich Roll?

  Let's talk about how your eyes change color.

• 1:29:26Speaker 01

  Yes, let's talk about it. Would you like to look at them? I have people walk up to me all the time and they stare at my eyeballs and I'm like, are you looking at my eyes?

• 1:29:32Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Well, what's cool is, all right, so you used to have really dark brown eyes. I watched the video and now they're quite hazel. You have like little brown specks around the iris.

• 1:29:43Speaker 01

  When we go in the light, you'll see blue.

• 1:29:44Rich Roll?

  The outer rim is now really is, is like a purplish blue, right? And I saw, I saw you with the dark brown eyes and, and you got a little shit for that video, like saying that my diet changed the color of my eyes.

• 1:30:00Speaker 01

  You know, like 10,000 comments later, this girl's a wacko.

• 1:30:04Rich Roll?

  But I can't, I mean, I don't know what changed the color of your eyes, but they definitely did change. And the reason I bring it up is because my eyes have changed color too. I mean, I think they, they, they've been sort of, I mean, they used to be really dark brown and they're a lot lighter. They're not, it's not nearly as dramatic as you, but they're much, they're, they're much more hazel than they used to be. So I just found that interesting. So how did that like?

• 1:30:24Speaker 01

  I actually didn't, I didn't even notice them changing color until my mom said something to me. This was like four or five years into it. And she was like, I think your eyes are changing color. And I was like, you're crazy, mom. I was like, now all of a sudden you're noticing changes in me. I was like, please, you know, like, whatever, mom. And so I remember I went upstairs and I took a picture of my eyes. I was like, I'll look at it in a few years. Lo and behold, I, you know, two years, like a year later or something, I was like, I think my eyes really are changing color. And my mom was like, I told you, but you never want to listen to your mother type of thing. And it's funny because then I started actually like looking at it and keeping track. And then a few years ago, when I did the video, I was like, this is creepy. I was like, my eyes are turning blue again.

• 1:31:09Speaker 01

  And it wasn't a gra, it's been a just a very

• 1:31:11Rich Roll?

  Blue again?

• 1:31:12Speaker 01

  Well, because I, when I was little, I had blue eyes. Babies have blue eyes. And it was, it's just been crazy to watch. Like every day when I, I wake up, I like, I see different things changing in my eyes. It's weird.

• 1:31:25Rich Roll?

  That's interesting.

• 1:31:26Speaker 01

  It's very weird. It's very cool.

• 1:31:28Rich Roll?

  But you think it, you, you, you think it is because of the

• 1:31:30Speaker 01

  It is diet related because, you know, they say that, you know, the heaviness of your colon is directly correlated with like what's in your eyes. So I went to go see an iridologist. I was just gonna ask you that. You know, and she was telling me like all this stuff. She was like, you know, this side of your eye here, and this side of your eye here, this is your left foot, this is your colon. And she was like, the reason why it's cleared out is because you've cleared out so many toxins from your body. It's like literally you're, you're seeing that through your eyes. And I'm like, that is nuts. But, you know, she was showing me her charts and everything and I was like, this is crazy awesome.

• 1:32:02Rich Roll?

  That is crazy.

• 1:32:03Speaker 01

  It, I know, we can talk.

• 1:32:06Rich Roll?

  Yeah, yeah, no, I'm just, that's interesting, you know, like, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna explore that a little bit. Cause I, I know you took a lot of grief and I know there's all these doctors, wow, who, how dare you.

• 1:32:14Speaker 01

  Well, actually, you want to know what? With that video, I haven't looked at those comments in years and I've promised people that I wouldn't because they're like, don't look at it. You know, and you know, You don't want to see them. You don't want to see them and you know, I'm happier off not looking at them.

• 1:32:27Rich Roll?

  I'm sure you are. So that brings me to the last question, which is really like, where are you, where are you taking all this? Like, where's it going? Like where, like five years from now, like what's the vision?

• 1:32:39Speaker 01

  My vision would be, um, home delivery takes off, um, in Houston for our juice. So with all three of my companies, I have to address them separately because they all have different goals. Roughly organic would be that, you know, within the next few years that we expand to Dallas and Austin, if, if that is how I choose to take the company. Um, will I take it outside of Texas? That, I mean, I'm not sure I want to get into franchising. That may ruin the whole vision. That may ruin the whole heart of it.

• 1:33:04Rich Roll?

  There's a lot of different people crossing a lot of different Ts.

• 1:33:07Speaker 01

  Yeah. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that after.

• 1:33:11Rich Roll?

  Am I making you nervous?

• 1:33:13Speaker 01

  No, just maybe. Um, as far as the juices, I, I want those to grow with co-op, but, um, I've had several different investors approach me about making, you know, a fully raw juice bar and vegan meal restaurant in Houston. And so maybe perhaps they'll see a few of those pop up around the city soon. As far as my YouTube videos, I'm just going to keep making them and being myself and I'm sure that will grow on its own. But, um, my book comes out in January.

• 1:33:40Rich Roll?

  I didn't even know about this.

• 1:33:42Speaker 01

  It, I'm, I, yep. I got signed with Hope and Mifflin and it took me, it's been a year that I've been signed and so it'll be out in January. Everything's officially been done. Congratulations. It's called the Fully Raw Diet. Same people who published the Paleo Diet and I told them they did good by signing me because I'm undoing a lot of bad and redoing a lot of good. Nice. And, um,

• 1:34:03Rich Roll?

  It's funny how like the imprints do that, right? They'll put out, they'll be all excited about a book and then like three months later they'll put out, they'll get all excited about another book that is the exact opposite of the book that was put out.

• 1:34:14Speaker 01

  So it's called the Fully Raw Diet and it's a 21 day, uh, plan for people to transition into a healthier lifestyle, whether that be fully raw or vegan or vegetarian. There are different plans in there. And then I've laced it with different stories throughout my life that have been encouraging to me, that have shown how I've gotten through different situations. And then there are also a hundred recipes in the book.

• 1:34:34Rich Roll?

  That's great.

• 1:34:35Speaker 01

  Very cool.

• 1:34:36Rich Roll?

  Well, you'll have to come back, uh, in January and do the show again.

• 1:34:40Speaker 01

  Yes. Does that mean I can sleep on your roof?

• 1:34:42Rich Roll?

  So you could sleep on the roof. Yeah, it might be a little chilly in January.

• 1:34:46Speaker 01

  Oh, man. I, you know, I normally don't do below 80. Us Texas girls, we prefer the hot heats, muggy 90 Texas degree weather.

• 1:34:53Rich Roll?

  Well, even in August, it's 40 in the mornings here.

• 1:34:56Speaker 01

  That is winter in Texas.

• 1:34:57Rich Roll?

  We're in the desert, you know, but it'll go up to 110, but it will be chilly in the morning.

• 1:35:04Speaker 01

  So that's it, those are my goals.

• 1:35:06Rich Roll?

  There you go. Well, that's laudable. And that's exciting.

• 1:35:10Speaker 01

  Thank you so much for having me here and for making me collared wraps and for introducing me to your beautiful family.

• 1:35:16Rich Roll?

  Thank you.

• 1:35:17Speaker 01

  You guys are such a team. It's so inspirational and I want to be part of it.

• 1:35:21Rich Roll?

  Thank you so much. You are delightful and it was great to hang out. So we got to do it some more.

• 1:35:26Speaker 01

  We totally will. You can't get rid of me now.

• 1:35:28Rich Roll?

  Awesome. Sounds good. Thanks so much. Thanks. If you want to, if you're inspired by Christina and you want to connect with her, the best way to do that, I mean, you have so many different websites and places to go, but fullyraw.com and your YouTube channel, Fully Raw, which one is it?

• 1:35:44Speaker 01

  Fully Raw Christina.

• 1:35:45Rich Roll?

  Fully Raw Christina, that's the best, right?

• 1:35:47Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:35:47Rich Roll?

  And then you're on, you're easy to find on this one.

• 1:35:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, just find me.

• 1:35:50Rich Roll?

  I'll put the links, I'll put the links in the show notes to all the places that you can connect with Christina. And if I had to pick one of your videos to kind of embed on the blog page with this episode, which one? Definitely do the I one.

• 1:36:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, do the I one.

• 1:36:06Rich Roll?

  The I one? Why not? Let's go for it. Everybody. Come on. Reading the comments on that? Let's jump in. With all of her wealth of information about eating raw, raw foods, you know, raw food diet, you want to put the one in about the I? But look at her eyes.

• 1:36:18Speaker 01

  I would do why, why I started eating Fully Raw. That one's nice because then they get to know me.

• 1:36:22Rich Roll?

  I watched that one. I know what that one is. I think that's a good, that's a good introduction to who you are and all that. That's cool. All right, cool. All right, awesome.

• 1:36:29Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:36:30Rich Roll?

  Thanks so much. Peace. Peace. Namaste.

• 1:36:40Rich Roll?

  Hey, I think we did it. How'd that go for you? Did you guys enjoy that? I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments section on the episode page at richroll.com. Keep sending in your questions for future Q and A podcasts to [email protected]. And guess what, you guys?

• 1:36:57Rich Roll?

  We got stickers. Yeah, baby. Who doesn't love stickers? Our newest offering on the website, plant-powered stickers, temporary tattoos. We got the plant-based California license plate graphic in a sticker. We have the awesome rhino image and the Plant Power Revolution graphic, a couple of other designs. It's a really fun, easy, affordable way to share your enthusiasm and kind of, you know, get the plant-based, plant-powered message out there. So, check that out. And as long as we're talking about new products on the website, I'm really excited to announce something kind of new and entirely different that we're doing and we're offering. Basically, a limited edition run of fine art prints by my friend, the esteemed artist,

• 1:37:40Rich Roll?

  Andrew Pasquilla, who is a premier upcoming talent who's really making waves in the art and food movement. This is a guy, he's exhibited in such prestigious venues as Art Basel Switzerland, Art Basel Miami. His art is hung in the Google headquarters. And this print is kind of a political commentary on the United States Department of Agriculture. It's a very cool artistic sort of commentary on the politicization of this organization, the USDA, and I guess you could say the commodification of organic labeling. If you see the image, you'll get immediately what I'm talking about, so just go to the website and check it out. This is really a kind of unique and beautiful way to get your hands on a really magnificent piece of art.

• 1:38:25Rich Roll?

  Andrew's blowing up as an artist, so it's a very affordable way to get your hands on something that I think is going to increase in value over time. There's only 250 available. Every piece will be signed and hand-numbered by the artist. You can get them just as the print on this beautiful white Coventry rag paper. And you also have the option of having it framed 32 by 32. If it's framed 26 by 26. If it's just the print, the frame is this beautiful black mat. It's float-mounted. It's really done very, very well, very high-quality. And this is a cool thing, you guys. Support Andrew, support the food movement, support great art, and participate in the plant-powered way of living. Check that stuff out.

• 1:39:07Rich Roll?

  And so, of course, for all the rest of your plant-powered needs, visit ritual.com. We've got nutrition products, books, education products, 100% organic cotton garments, meditation programs. Basically, you know the deal. Everything you need to take your health and your life to the next level. So, thanks so much for supporting the show. By telling your friends, for sharing it on social media, all that good stuff. Really appreciate it. And of course, for using the Amazon banner out at ritual.com for all your Amazon purchases. Okay, you guys, I'll see you in a few days. Make it a great week. Catch you soon. Peace. Plants.