When I was introduced to Raw Food Chef and Nutrition Coach, Sunita Vira, several months ago, I was intrigued with her passion and knowledge of healthy eating and soon found out she had authored a published cookbook and had just returned from a retreat she hosted in Bali. In seeking a healthier and more vibrant lifestyle for myself, I had to learn more…

While growing up in Darjeeling, India on a tea plantation, Sunita tells me she clearly remembers being on a hillock one day with her golden labrador, gazing at the Himalayas in the distance and thinking, “I know I’m supposed to go way beyond the Himalayas. I don’t know what’s there, but I know I’m supposed to go far.” And, felt she was supposed to help people. She lost both grandfathers within a six month time span in her teens, and felt a profound desire to discover new cures and extend peoples lives, so she was captivated by possibly seeking a career in medical research. 

Sunita tells me at age sixteen, she was attending a Catholic boarding school where she experienced going on her first retreat, and found it transformational. She found the sense of community resonated deeply with her and sparked a passion for more similar experiences. Eventually completing her education and becoming free to roam the world in search of fulfilling her purpose. Later becoming disillusioned with the profit focused pharmaceutical industry, she had second thoughts and decided years of research while working in a lab environment would be too confining for her. 

A few years later, Sunita found herself in California, navigating the demands of family life and a career running her web design firm. With her busy life, she was following the standard American diet and was grappling with low energy levels, poor vision, brain fog, thinning hair and the stubborn baby weight that just wouldn’t budge.

Everything changed when she met her first client, who introduced her to the RAW food lifestyle, consuming more raw food and using food as medicine. Insisting Sunita come and visit their healing and wellness center near Seattle to get a personal experience before developing their website. It was there that she encountered a remarkable group of 80-year-old men. These gentlemen exuded vitality that defied their age. They had boundless energy and the brightest, whitest eyes Sunita had seen in a long time. What struck her even more was their playful interaction with her child, effortlessly keeping up with a youthful exuberance by being able to get in the floor and crawling with her and then getting right back up. Sunita wondered how it was possible that they had so much more energy than she did.

Shortly after that visit, Sunita started incorporating more raw food into her life and she says she started seeing evidence of improvements immediately. Her hair began to grow thicker, her mind was sharper and she started losing the weight she had gained from her pregnancies without even trying. Her energy level went up making it possible for her to stay up until midnight experimenting with recipes in her kitchen. She also observed that she and her children were hardly ever sick. Convinced there was something to it, she turned her focus on doing research.

Sunita says, she used to have thick eyeglasses and doesn’t need them any longer because her vision improved. She recalls, “My outlook on life changed. I just felt alive. The moment I switched the food, it changed my life.” She says it opened up a new dimension, changed her vibration and frequency. After introducing it to her friends and family she noticed such a difference in everyone’s lives. Sunita then went to culinary school learning nutrition and studying to fully understand food as medicine. She tells me that is when she realized this was her gift and what she has been called to do.

Starting the Raw Food Center in 2010 while living in Singapore, where she enjoyed unmatched flavors from a fusion of Indian, Thai, Malaysian, Chinese, and Indonesian. “It’s like a food heaven, with an explosion of flavors. That’s when I started wanting to make healthy food really delicious so it’s a no-brainer for people.” About twenty years ago when Sunita started this endeavor she stated that people ate healthy food because it was healthy. “My mission was to make healthy food off-the-charts delicious! My children have always been my taste testers and they would rate my recipes from one to ten, and if it wasn’t a ten I’d keep going back to try and improve the recipe.” I asked her what raw foods were a hit with her kids when they were younger and she told me she used to make an vegan ice cream made from a fresh coconut base, almond or cashew milk, sweetened with palm sugar. Also, making cones from flax seed and creating sprinkles that were healthy by using bee pollen, goji berries and cacao nibs. The kids would complain that regular, store bought ice cream was too sweet. 

Sunita eventually moved back to the states establishing another Raw Food Center in Chicago, where she offers culinary programs, coaching and sought after culinary wellness Retreats around the globe. Her mission is to transform lives through Food as Medicine. She brings ancient wisdom with a modern twist! She finds it so fulfilling to be of service helping her clients overcome preventable diseases such as diabetes, cholesterol, obesity and get them to their ideal weight in vibrant health and vitality.

She has incorporated her love for travel by hosting wellness retreats at exotic locations worldwide, emphasizing personalized care and the substantial health benefits of adding raw foods into one’s healthy lifestyle. It’s not necessary to adhere strictly to a raw food diet, but she encourages individuals to listen to their bodies, recognizing that everyone is unique. Surprisingly, she tells me that most of her attendees are women solo travelers whom she has ended up becoming great friends with because everyone connects on such a different level than what would occur in everyday life at home. Some people attend the retreat to actually reconnect with themselves.

She feels that healthy eating was her saving grace through life’s twists and turns. When she started eating raw foods she soon gained clarity, passion and purpose. She says, “If you aren’t doing what your heart wants, you die a slow death.”

Today, Sunita continues to thrive on her journey with Food as Medicine along with many holistic practises fused with breakthrough technologies. Her experience serves as a beacon of hope for anyone seeking a path to vibrant health and renewed vitality. Through her blog and personal journey, she hopes to inspire others to transform and nourish their body, mind and spirit so they can start, as Sunita says, “Livin’ their Best Life!”