Everything old is new again. That statement is never truer than where our health is concerned. While we often turn to science for “cutting-edge” breakthroughs in health and nutrition, I believe that there is just as much useful information to be mined from our past.

 In my newly released  book, The RAW Truth, I dive deep into the concept of raw living. Living raw is not a new concept. In fact, hundreds of years ago, it was a large part of people’s lives, out of necessity. Since the concept of living raw has been around for so long, I wanted to take a look back at people who shaped and formed the movement.

This idea has been banging around in my head for over a decade. When I was suffering my own personal health challenges, I often read about people, who, decades and even a century ago challenged conventional health wisdom. I believe that many of these people were far ahead of their time. To me, they are the Legends of Health.

I am willing to bet that most of these names will not be familiar to you—but they should. I firmly believe that by delving into our past, we can find extraordinary information about how we can live better today. Take, for instance, Elie Metchnikoff. Over a hundred years ago, he pondered this question: Why did Bulgarian peasants who lived in the Caucasus Mountains live twice as long as their European counterparts? What he discovered was that they owed their long lives to a particular beverage they consumed, a “sour milk” as he described it. He surmised that the fermentation process left behind powerful beneficial bacteria. Today, anyone familiar with probiotics knows this concept. What most people don’t know was that it was discovered over a hundred years ago.

Dr. Weston A. Price was so far ahead of his time that he was practically ignored while he was alive. Dr. Price was a Harvard-trained dentist who traveled the world studying various indigenous cultures. He operated on a theory that the new diet of processed foods sweeping modernized countries was in part responsible for a decline in overall health. When you read The RAW Truth, you will find that not only were his suspicions confirmed, it was far worse than expected.

Ann Wigmore, N.D. was born in Lithuania in 1909. She was known as “the mother of living foods,” and was one of the first to suggest the health power of wheatgrass juice—a staple today at any juice bar. She promoted living whole foods and a raw diet as a means to greater health, sowing the seeds of the raw movement that is thriving today.

While The RAW Truth contains a lot more than the histories of 13 different health legends, I believe that their stories—and the lessons that their life’s work represent—are vital reading. The health principles that we live by today were forged by these very people—and that’s something worth learning about.