Excerpted from the book “Your Right to Be Beautiful: How to Halt the Train of Aging and Meet the Most Beautiful You” by Tonya Zavasta. The book is available at: http://www.beautifulonraw.com/html/righttobe.html.

The natural world is filled with beauty. It delights us with its magnificent colors and extraordinary designs. God's artistic taste and superior craftsmanship are manifested in spectacular sunsets and diminutive snowflakes. We look on nature and exclaim in adoration: "How great Thou art!" But what about our own image -the one we view in the mirror? Most of us are not pleased with what we see. Why do plants and animals often display greater visual beauty than God's favorite creation - human being? Ordinarily all flowers are beautiful and only a wilted flower looks abnormal. And yet humankind calls less than one percent of the adult population officially beautiful. Double chins, protruding stomachs, and sallow complexions are seen everywhere, even in young people.

Our body was created in the image of God, the Supreme Beauty. In Genesis 1:29 we read: "And God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.'" God's original diet of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds is the most suitable one for the human body. It is salubrious to the body's health and salutary to its beauty. The raw food diet is awesome, it should be called the very name it inspired: the Rawsome diet.

When our actions are in opposition with nature, the results are different types of bodily ills, deformities and ugliness. Eating cooked food leaves residues that the body cannot utilize and they become deposited in places where our Creator never intended. Everything that is not fully digested and then is not properly eliminated the body treats as an abnormal substance. The body becomes ingeniously resourceful faced with substances it cannot metabolize or eliminate. It breaks them down into minute particles and distributes them to remote areas of the body, way from vital organs to minimize harm. The body takes the poisons out-of-the-way but necessarily out of sight. The toxic wastes are pushed towards the peripheral organs, which happen to be the skin and every other organ that we can see on the outside.

Most of us feel our appearance lacks something. In reality, ugliness is more about excess. Toxic accumulations in our bodies are responsible for stealing our health and attractiveness. Beauty lies latent under cushions of retained fluids, deposits of fat, and sick tissues. Your beauty is buried alive, but in most cases it can be revived in a version that will be satisfactory to you. You must take immediate action to revitalize it. When you do, your uncovered beauty will surprise and delight you.

Some physical characteristics of our face and body we cannot change--they were determined prior to our birth. But the consumption of the raw plant diet as an adult will make a difference in the texture of skin and hair, the health of nails, weight and complexion. All of these traits and more are determined by daily choices, with food being one of the most important and, luckily, the one over which we have fully control.

The ability to renew cells is built into your body, and the body itself is capable of making you look more attractive. After all, we were designed to bloom continuously as old cells get replaced by new ones. The Rawsome diet makes the most of this rejuvenating ability of our bodies. Rawsome beauty is not manufactured from the outside but cultivated from the inside by nutritionally charged food. Whole raw food restores the integrity of every cell and facilitates the optimal operation of every organ inside and out. The body, having been awakened by the improved diet, in its wisdom, will reach out to the places where health was lacking, and you will gradually see your beauty surfacing. The Rawsome diet will eliminate all the toxins on a deeper level and bring amazing changes to your appearance.

The Bible says in Esther 2:9, that Esther was provided with some beauty treatments and special food before facing King Xerxes. The Bible does not specify what kind of food was used, but I believe it had to be God's original diet that is mentioned in Genesis 1:29 where "God said, 'See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.'" Special food together with oil treatment and cosmetics were part of Esther's beauty rituals for twelve months. Like Esther, it will take about a year for your face and body to reach its full beauty potential.

The landscape of the body will change. The surface of the skin will become soft and smooth but firm and supple. Visible pores will diminish. A sallow skin with a yellow pallor will turn into a porcelain-like complexion. The whites of eyes, once red, will become bright with a bluish tinge. As natural collagen production improves, it will fill in the places where it is needed as in hollow cheeks.

The artistic ability of your body will amaze you. It will look as if a sculptor is chiseling your face and body. It's amazing how the fat deposits will disappear at the right spots. All excesses will be eliminated. Everything that is bumpy or lumpy will be smoothed or straightened. Everything that is dull will be illuminated. The features will be carved until a lovely face surfaces, and the skin will be polished until it glows. Raw food eating will clarify and refine your features and bring delicacy to your face. Regular features are not essential for the whole effect to be seen as beautiful. You will marvel at how the Master Artist will make the most of your individual features and bring balance to the entire face. Texture, hues, and shape will be harmoniously arranged into a genteel whole. Perfection and imperfection will be tied together into a unique original version of beauty.

Only the body sustained on raw food will host natural beauty, or should we say Rawsome beauty. People who have been on the raw food lifestyle for several years begin to have a glow, the kind not often seen in middle-aged people. Optimal health is recognized by an emerging radiance. Glow is hard to fake because it is internal. It comes from an abundance of clear, pink, almost transparent cells that light up the face. Only superior blood circulation can bring this transfiguring glow. Several years on the raw food diet will make you look as though you just stepped out of a painting by Renoir--the impressionist best known for his preoccupation with light.

From age 15 until recently, I wore my hair permed, only to discover at 45 that straight hair in my natural color was the best possible frame for my face. Did my preference change? Not at all. My face did. So let me give you a hint, if you need a camouflaging hairdo, you are not looking your best. The changes in your face brought about by raw foods will bring the freedom to arrange your hair in any way you want. When your peer group is thinking: "I am losing my looks", you will be finding yours. At 45, I enjoy looking in the mirror while before I detested my reflection.

When a person starts to attend the gym regularly he or she becomes aware of trained bodies. The same phenomenon occurs with the raw food diet. You begin to see how much people's appearance differs from their optimal one. Each time I see a woman, I study her appearance, and I see not only the way she looks but also the way she could look. What I see is how far her image digresses from her potential beauty. I perceive her beauty as it will stand out after the body has cleansed itself from toxins and excesses.

I have come to believe if you embrace the 100 percent raw food diet, you will meet The Most Beautiful You. The best proof that the Rawsome diet is optimal for the body is it makes you beautiful. Slim face, slender waist, and clear skin with smooth coloration-these subtle changes will convince you the raw plant diet is the best for good health and graceful beauty.

©2003Tonya Zavasta

"This article may be freely reprinted as long as the entire article and byline are included."

Tonya Zavasta is the raw food lifestyle expert, the author of the books Beautiful On Raw: UnCooked Creations and Your Right to Be Beautiful: How to Halt the Train of Aging and Meet the Most Beautiful You, named a 2004 Health Book of the Year Award finalist by ForeWord Magazine.

Tonya is also author of the soon to be published its sequel "Beautiful on Raw". In these books Tonya comes across as an ambassador for plain looking women in their quest for physical beauty. Tonya knows firsthand what it is to be humiliated, face adversity and meet the complex obstacles of daily living with a congenital disability. Facing several reconstructive hip surgeries to enable her to walk, she sought a way to offset the devastating effects of anesthetics on her health and appearance. She became more and more convinced that the solution to her quest for health and beauty was to be found in the raw food lifestyle or the Rawsome Diet as she calls it. The Rawsome Diet not only helped her to sail courageously through troublesome times, brought her general health and appearance to an all time best, but also opened a new chapter of her life. Firmly believing that the roots of under-performing and under-achieving lie in feeling and looking less than your personal best, she is on a mission: she wants every woman to look and feel beautiful. In her seminars, author Tonya Zavasta-a dynamic motivational speaker and standup comedienne-delivers unforgettable messages about the possibilities available in personal transformation. Through her own example and lifestyle, she demonstrates how to transform yourself from sick and weak to vigorous and youthful, from plain to beautiful, from insecure to self-confident.

For more information on how to reveal your Rawsome beauty visit her web-site at: http://www.beautifulonraw.com. Write to: BR Publishing, PO Box 623, Cordova, TN 38088-0623, USA or Call 866-STAY-RAW

Excerpted from the book "Your Right to Be Beautiful: How to Halt the Train of Aging and Meet the Most Beautiful You" by Tonya Zavasta. The book is available at: http://www.beautifulonraw.com/html/righttobe.html.