Quick Facts
Biography
Aajonus Vonderplanitz (born John Richard Swigart; April 17, 1947, Denver, Colorado - 28 August 2013) was an American soap opera actor, nutritionist and activist, based in Malibu, California and Thailand, who developed a nutritional regimen known as the "Primal Diet".
Vonderplanitz claimed that in his 20s he was diagnosed with multiple, terminal cancers resistant to conventional treatments, and that he cured these along with a number of other maladies such as autism, angina, dyslexia, juvenile diabetes, multiple myeloma, psoriasis, bursitis, osteoporosis, tooth decay and "mania caused by excessive fruit" through raw diets, especially ones including raw meat. The Primal Diet is principally raw meat, raw eggs, raw dairy, raw bland fruit, raw coconut cream, and unheated honey, and has experienced some popularity. Most controversially, Vonderplanitz's diet recommendations included occasional servings of "high meat" - animal flesh that has been allowed to spoil and decompose for several days - a concept he claimed to have taken from Eskimo practices.
Vonderplanitz wrote two books: We Want To Live (1997/2005) and The Recipe for Living Without Disease (2002).