Denis, good to hear from you again. How are things in France after the fall
of G.C.Burger? I can imagine the spirits among instinctive eaters are not
what they used to be.

Tom:
"poor mental health amongst rawist is widely accepted"

Denis: (to Tom)
>Sorry to be so rude, but people who think they are "more normal than the
>average"  really make me laugh...Like Duhamel who felt  in the company of
>fools a "sweet dizziness" ,

That never stopped you from speaking up when critical of what you
considered the lack of integrity in the ranks of instinctive eaters. :-)

> I guess I feel in the company of instinctos a feeling of sweet surrender
and >abandonment. Granted, our acquaintances are not the same...

These are very subjective sentiments and do not speak to the issue of diet
idealism taken too far. I am sure that when the members of the IADZ
(International Association of Diet Zealots) get together at their yearly
convention, they have a great time and feel very close and intimate as
well. :-)

>Even if those  "many people" were right in assuming " poorer"  mental
>health (  assuming the world as it is not itself alienated and alienating )
>amongst Rawists , it could never be an argument against Raw Diet for
>epistemological  reasons ( one would have to know  the mental health before
>the change in diet , problem of  standard of mental health...) , and for
>ontological reasons.

And mental imbalance it is not an argument for a raw diet either.  However,
if two people are advocating each their own diet apart from listening to my
own body, I will tend to listen to and trust the person who I judge to be
the more mentally balanced of the two. I trust it is no different for you.

>It is the industrial world which makes instinctive diet a strenuous path
to >follow. Not the reverse.

Society does not make it easy to follow any diet that deviates from the
norm that is for sure. But I do not see any connection between the superior
and intolerant attitudes that are so common among diet extremists and the
state of the world. To insinuate there is a connection would IMO only be
making a very poor excuse for their behavior.

>About my claim that "your mental problem is your own fault". How can you
>think that I'm not being simply facetious ? Do you really think I take all
>this seriously ?

You have been known to express yourself with a fair amount of ambiguity,
and I can see how even the brightest among us could easily be fooled. ;-)

>Sort of : "our ancestors ate this in the past in such
>proportion  , so we should eat it also ".

Instincto is no better. If instincto were a truly instinctive diet, it
would be a lot less prescriptive.

>This problem is very peculiar to the US instincto movement because
paleolithic >diet is something unheard of here (apart from a restricted
circle) .

The paleo influence on instincto I find very positive. I think that by
challenging some of the basic tenets of instincto, paleo nutrition will
help instincto evolve.

Best, Peter
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PS. I enjoyed very much your musings on the history of allopathy & hygiene.