Rebecca Rosenberg lost nearly six stone by following a strict fruitarian diet – and accidentally cured herself of multiple sclerosis.
The 33-year-old, from Texas in the US, follows a diet of 95% fruit with the other 5% being made up of vegetables and herbs.
Rebecca’s diet means that she doesn’t eat anything that’s cooked, seasoned or heated, and has lost 5.7st over the past three years as well as banishing her lifelong acne problem – and curing herself of MS, which she was diagnosed with in 2014.
It was her diagnosis with MS that spurred her onto take drastic action, having suffered obesity, unexplained sickness and fatigue all her life.
Rebecca explained her diagnosis with MS: “I woke up in hospital one morning and the left side of my body, from my neck down, didn’t connect to my brain.
“I couldn’t use my arm or leg. It was terrifying.”
Doctors told her that she would have to take painful injections every day to reduce her risk of further episodes – and that there was no treatment.
But Rebecca, a legal secretary, refused to let that be the end of it.
She said: “I had heard about these crazy insane people who were raw vegans and I thought there was something wrong with them mentally.
“The more I read, the more I heard about people curing diseases and that stuck in my mind. I felt doomed and decided I didn’t have anything to lose.
“The worst case scenario was that I would be eating a lot of fruit and vegetables and the best case scenario was that it might actually work.”
Whilst the first few weeks of the detox made her feel sick and left her with cravings, she quickly regained the use of the left side of her body.
As a happy side effect, Rebecca dropped from a 95kg size 22 to a 9.5st size 10 and, she claims, shaved 10 years off her looks.
She also no longer takes medication for depression, thyroid inflammation and high blood pressure.
She said: “I felt like a zombie before and now I feel fantastic. I used to think people who ate this diet were insane but I took the gamble and it paid off.
“I was a vegan for nearly six years but it is difficult to be a healthy vegan because there are so many meat alternatives and processed foods. It didn’t cut it for me.
“When I first transitioned to fruitarianism it was very difficult to get away from cravings for cooked food but within a few weeks I felt cleaner, so I committed to it.”
She continued: “I kept feeling better and better and better and by three months I was feeling great. I look back at where I was before and realised, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing.’
“Now I’m living completely without disease when doctors said I would be battling MS for the rest of my life and I have no need for medication.
“I was morbidly obese before and I ended up losing 80lbs, but I don’t look skinny or emaciated. I’m healthy. I feel very confident now in my body and I look a decade younger. I definitely looked older than 33 before but now I can pass for early twenties and I get asked for ID.
“I suffered from chronic acne all my life and I had pimples all over my arms and back but it has completely got rid of that. I also feel alert and energised. I’m so much happier.”
“The longer I live like this, things just keep getting better.
“It has completely turned my life around. I feel like I’m living for the first time.”
