Peter and Kirt,

Thank you both for your kind statements regarding my partner David and I
(Stephen).

Peter wrote:

>David & Stephen, who seemed to be in their mid-twenties, looked quite
>fit and have been on a 100% raw, vegan diet for 2 - 2 1/2 years now.

David is 26 and I (Stephen) am 27.

>Stephen works out & exercises about two hours every day and maintains his
>200 lb. body weight on a 85% fruit diet eating unsoaked nuts for proteins.

If anyone is interested, David & I wrote a 20 page essay, "How to gain
weight (muscle) with raw foods."  It's available in our catalog.  For a
free catalog, call (800) 205-2350 or I can e-mail it to you.

>In some cases small amounts of raw fish or maybe other raw animal foods
>are OK.

The key words here are *in some cases.*  For the most horribly-addicted
consumer of cooked food, raw-animal foods may help them transition into a
100% raw-plant-food diet.  However, we do not advocate, and have never
suggested, that raw-aniaml foods be eaten by humans as part of a healthy
diet.

Kirt wrote:

>These guys have matured a lot in a few months. As I remember it was a 100%
>fruitarian diet, then vegetables became important, and now RAF in small
>amounts >may be OK.

To set the record straight:

I don't remember ever saying anything about a 100% fruit diet -- although
if you can do it, it is the most natural diet for the human organism.  I
eat fruit, some vegetables, and nuts.  The reason that some people get sick
on an all-fruit diet is because humanity has become a race of
cooked-carnivorous mutants and an all-fruit diet is just way too natural
for them.  If one of us did say the words "100% fruitarian diet" when we
met you, we surely meant 100% raw-plant-food diet.  Small amounts of RAF
are *not* OK with us.  But, if you need to eat RAF to feel "balanced,"
"stable," or whatever -- go right ahead.

Kirt wrote:

>I commend their willingness to incorporate new information into their
>>"message."  Such open-mindedness will serve them well in the future.
>Perhaps >they will move beyond the limitations of their mentor, T.C. Fry.

He's not our mentor.  We didn't even know who T.C. Fry was until after the
first draft of our book had been written.  The only thing I've ever read
written by T.C. Fry was a letter that he sent to us 2 days before he died.

Peter wrote:

>I was pleasantly surprised to find the authors much friendlier than in
>their book and veg-raw postings.

It's easy to be friendly when you're not being attacked!  We thought you
were a nice guy too.

Kirt wrote:

>Imagine if their pleasant and enthusiastic persona had made it into their
>book >as the dominant style instead of the broadside dogma and attack-dog
>tactics!

Then our book would be just another boring raw-foods book -- just more of
the same dross.  How do you "pleasantly" tell someone that they are killing
their children?  We did something totally different from other raw-foods
authors.  If you want to get somebody's attention, you can't just tap them
on the shoulder anymore.  You have to hit them with a sledge-hammer.  Have
you ever heard the definition of insanity?  "Doing the same thing over and
over and expecting a different result."  You don't like the book -- that's
cool.  But alot of people do, and we have been told, hundreds of times:
"It's about time someone wrote a book like this."  You're more of the
quiet-approach-type raw-foodist, I'm not.

"Raw is Law!" -- Ric Lambart

Take care,

Stephen Arlin
Nature's First Law