Published Sunday, May 21, 2000, in the Miami    Herald

No cooked foods, no meat, and an 18-inch-waist    at 58

BY BEA    L. HINES

bhines@herald.com            Wearing high-heeled red boots and skin-tight red pants and    shirt, Annette Larkins strolls into the room, totally aware that she is    stopping traffic. At 58, Larkins has a stunning figure (waist: 18 inches) and    flawless complexion and seems to glow with health.

She attributes her healthy good looks to the way she eats and    has written and published an inspirational booklet that shares her story and    philosophy.        Called Journey to Health, it tells how her life changed when she    stopped eating meat 38 years ago. And how it changed even more 15 years ago    when she stopped eating cooked food. Her diet now consists of raw fruits and    vegetables (including juices), nuts, grains and sprouts.

“This isn’t a lifestyle that I encourage people to jump into,”    says Larkins, who lives in South Miami-Dade’s Richmond Heights. “It is    something that most people have to gradually get into. Not everyone can quit    eating meat the way I did. But they can start by adding more fruits and    vegetables to their diet and eliminating red meat.”

Born in Asheville, N.C., Larkins was reared in Detroit and moved    with her family to Miami in her early teens. She was 16 and a student at    Carver High School when she married Amos Larkins. Two years later, their    first son, Amos II, was born; their second, Anthony, followed 10 months    later.

“They were so close together, it was like having twins,” she    says.

When the boys were 10 and 11, Larkins became a professional jazz    singer, and was featured at a Miami Beach nightclub for a time. She gave up    show business for education, graduating with honors from Miami-Dade Community    College and teaching Spanish. Her resume also lists insurance agent and    computer whiz (she has built six personal computers). And when a grandson was    having trouble learning to read, she wrote and self-published a textbook, using him as the star character.

What makes this grandmother of six run?

“I have always been passionate about motivating individuals to    make changes that will enrich their lives.”

Larkins certainly knows about change; when she became a    vegetarian, her husband was a butcher.

“Every morning I’d cook a big breakfast, complete with grits, eggs, toast and two meats, usually bacon and ham or sausage,” she says.

But one day in 1962, after just such as breakfast, she went to    the freezer to take out pork chops for the evening meal, “and just the sight    of those chops made me sick,” she says. “That breakfast was the last meal I    had that included meat. My whole life changed between morning and mid-day.”

A family history of diet-related illness — her grandmother died    at 36 and her mother at 47, both of cancer, and an aunt died of diabetes —    may have motivated her.

“Having knowledge of this history, I probably subconsciously    wanted to do something about it.”

Although she continued cooking meat for her husband and sons, she never ate another piece. “I didn’t want to push my lifestyle on my    family,” she says.

Amos Larkins breaks into smiles when he talks about his wife.

“I wish I’d joined her eating routine back when she started,”    he says. “Just look at her. . .. We can’t go anywhere that people don’t    follow her around and ask her questions. They think she is a celebrity. And    she is so kind, she will take however long it takes to talk to anyone. There    is no such thing as a short trip to the grocery for her.”

Larkins cautions: “Don’t try to be me. You go where you can.   Old habits are hard to break. But determine your goal and learn the    necessary steps to achieve it.  The main thing is to stay focused.”