Jewelry entrepreneur Axay Shah began feeling sluggish shortly after turning 50 and realized he needed to rethink his lifestyle.
He responded by switching to an entirely plant-based raw-food diet—a choice he says he has never regretted, even 17 years later.
Now 67, Shah told Our News Outlet that he has avoided chronic illness and is preparing to run his ninth marathon next March, achievements he credits in large part to what he eats.
“My day is fruit, greens, nuts and seeds,” he said. “It’s simple, not starving.”
“If it doesn’t come from Mother Nature, it doesn’t belong on my plate,” Shah added.
Shah’s approach reflects a broader shift in the way some Americans think about nutrition. Increasingly, people are moving away from conventional dietary advice and experimenting with foods once considered unusual, while even questioning the benefits of staples such as broccoli.
Those diets may feature bee pollen, beef tallow, butter, egg yolks, organ meats and unpasteurized dairy products.
Often described as “dark nutrition,” the movement is no longer confined to the fringes. Its followers say these unconventional eating plans have produced noticeable improvements in their health.
Jewelry businessman Axay Shah, 67, told Our News Outlet that he has followed a plant-based raw-food diet for 17 years and feels healthier than ever
The so-called “dark nutrition” movement may include foods such as butter, egg yolks and raw dairy
Vani Hari, known to her 2.2 million Instagram followers as the Food Babe, has taken a different route by cutting processed foods from her meals.
Hari, 47, told Our News Outlet that she was raised by immigrant Indian parents who placed considerable trust in the American food system.
“We could basically eat whatever we wanted as long as it was cheap and readily available,” said Hari, whose book Food Babe Feast is scheduled for publication in November.
Fast food became a regular part of her childhood diet, but Hari says it was followed by serious health struggles. She was frequently ill and repeatedly prescribed antibiotics.
“Why do I have eczema all over my face and my body?” Hari recalled asking. “Why am I having trouble breathing and dealing with asthma? Why are my seasonal allergies so severe?”
After undergoing two surgeries, including an operation to remove her appendix, Hari began examining whether her diet was contributing to her problems.
She eliminated many of the processed foods she had grown up eating and replaced them with whole foods, including almond butter, berries, traditional yogurt, nuts and seeds.
“When I stepped away from that and chose to eat whole, real food, everything changed,” she told Our News Outlet.
Vani Hari, 47, said her health transformed after she moved away from heavily processed foods
Raw meat, including organ meat, is another feature of some unconventional diets moving into the mainstream
Hari said she eventually discovered that many of the products she had been eating contained what she described as “so many chemicals.”
“That was the moment I became an evangelist for this lifestyle,” Hari said. “I simply couldn’t stop talking about it.”
She has since emerged as a well-known voice in the Make America Healthy Again movement, which is led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Hari first attracted national attention in 2014, when she launched a petition calling on Subway to remove azodicarbonamide from its bread. The chemical is also used in the production of yoga mats.
She has also urged major brands, including Chick-fil-A and Kellogg’s, to eliminate artificial ingredients from their products.
For some followers of unconventional nutrition, however, the pursuit of better health has led to diets that are even more restrictive—or extreme—than Hari’s approach.
Kevin Corl, 61, said he and his wife, Wendy, had spent years dealing with chronic pain and relying on powerful medication.
The couple said their circumstances improved after changing their diet to focus primarily on butter, heavy cream and red meat.
“I used to hit walls,” Corl told The New York Times. “I never hit walls anymore.”
Some Americans following “dark nutrition” diets have begun questioning whether vegetables such as broccoli are truly beneficial
Rob Richards, 34, described dark nutrition as an approach centered on aggressively testing different ideas, “for better and worse.”
He cautioned that dietary experimentation can sometimes cause serious harm.
“But you can also learn a great deal that you won’t get from mainstream advice,” he told the outlet.
Richards said he and others were prepared to give up some degree of safety in the hope of extending their lives and achieving greater longevity.
