Peter:
>They will start off receiving the January issue with the
>incredible 3rd and last interview with Ward Nicholson on the psychology
>of diets. This is probably the best ever written on the subject and
>should be mandatory reading for anybody on or considering a change of
>diet. Check out Chet's website at http://members.GNN.COM>/chetday/open.htm and
>make sure to order the current ground-breaking January issue for $6
>only - if it is the last thing you ever do for your health.

I couldn't agree more, Peter. I thought it was absolutely 10,000%
FANTASTIC. Ward is probably the only person in the world with the
experience, writing skills, and intellegence to synthesize all that info
into such a stunning H&B interview. Part 1 & 2 were great but I had already
done similar research myself so I didn't really learn much (it was nice to
know that his more in-depth research mostly agreed with mine--though some
of his conclusions did not). But Part 3 is dear to my heart. The rawist
emperor is wearing no clothes and has a pimply butt to boot and it's long
past due for someone to say so in the eloquent and polite way that Ward
did. For every person who has made NH (or instincto or whatever) their life
and will get deeply offended by the stuff Ward laid out, I'd bet their are
5 curious folks in the margins going, "hey, that _is_ how it looked to me
too!"

In a sense Ward is on one end of the continuum of rawist experience: it
didn't suit him at all, all farts and weakness, so to speak :) But it does
leave him in a great position to see things for what they are for most
people who go raw. And what they are is that raw foods are a mixed blessing
for most, that raw-veganism has -serious- troubles, that many rawists have
found refuge in a fanatical diet because they are fanatics, etc.

It may be that one can gauge just how much of a "religion" one has made
their "dietary beliefs" by how pissed they get about Part III. Hopefully,
after everyone gets their offendedness out of the way some real dialogue
will come of it--not btwn Ward and whomever but between everybody else. Who
knows? Too bad the mainstream NH org folks won't be confronted with it.
They are probably in more need of a wake up call than H&Bers which are
almost hip by comparison.

I think Ward (and Chet!!! let's help his newletter out!) has done a great
service to the raw community, right up there with Shelton in many ways. Let
the truth be heard should the heavens fall, or whatever that oft-quoted
line is. I hope that enough people have enough respect for Ward to listen
to what he has to say instead of trashing him. He is left in a precarious
position. He has pulled the rug out from under much of the banter in M2M
and veg-raw: will people have the integrity to stand on the floor or just
go for blood to regain their absurd rug? I suspect it will be a time of
important upheaval for some folks, and have heard fascinating self-probing
responses from some folks already. Who of us can not see something of our
own selves in the January issue? If nothing else we may be confused enough
to start thinking for ourselves again (or perhaps for the first time
ever!). In any case, that's gotta be an improvement over trying to find the
perfect diet to follow from the various gurus and pop/fad diets out there,
no?

I think Ward should retire. He deserves it! :) Let the rest of us debate it
out amongst ourselves until we move beyond it as well...

Cheers,
Kirt