Letting the Body Lead

An excerpt from Raw Family by Victoria, Igor, Sergei, and Valya Boutenko

"After eating the same salad for two weeks everybody in the family got tired of it. I didn't know what to prepare and one day we "went out" to the salad bar at Wild Oats Health Store. There we noticed that everybody's plate was completely different. Igor had mostly sprouts; Sergei, cucumbers and tomatoes; Valya, radish and olives; and I, scallions and avocado. After lunch we all went to the fruit section and picked fruits for dessert. And again everybody picked different fruit: Igor, black grapes; Sergei, mango, or blueberries; Valya, figs; and I, persimmon.

We enjoyed eating at Wild Oats and went there very often. Soon it became obvious that every one of us had particular cravings.

When a couple of months later we met Dr. Bernard Jensen, a famous healer and teacher, he told us that Sergei needed to eat more mangoes and blueberries, because they provide important nutrients for healing the pancreas, and Valya needed to eat more figs and olives because they have healing properties for her asthma. We were very happy to hear that because that was exactly what Sergei and Valya always wanted. That made us feel confident in our body wisdom."