Denis PEYRAT <[log in to unmask]>:
>Denis : That raw fooders poor mental health is  commonplace idea amongst
>cooked fooders, I have no doubt. That it is also  commonplace  idea
amongst >rawists comes down  to paying attention to  the foul when he says
he is a >fool..., since you seem to think that foolishness is more
widespread >amongst rawists.

Tom:
The basic questions you are raising here are not new, and have been raised
before.  There are two questions:

1) Is the proportion of mental illness higher among rawists than those on
a standard diet?
Answer: no formal studies to my knowledge. If anyone knows of any, please
post details here - many on this list will be interested.
This leaves us with only personal experience and observation to guide us.
My position on this point was expressed in earlier posts, and you
will find additional observations in the archives.

2) Assuming the raw diet is correlated with mental problems: does the raw
diet promote mental illness, or merely attract the mentally unbalanced? Did
the diet make them crazy, or does the diet just attract crazy people?
Does a fanatical diet attract fanatics?

There is no established, proven answer to question 2. It is my opinion and
observation, that both factors are involved.

***I don't know how to interpret this  nonsense in the light of your
private experience,  but one thing is almost
certain, Tom :  You have never raised children on raw diet. Cause if you
did, you would know that
100% raw diet  is harmless for the development of sound mental health.
HOwever, raising children
on a pure raw diet, is, at least in France, not a way to encourage their
social promotion within
the current day environment.
You cannot even say that the raw diet attracts the mentally unbalanced. All
 you can say is that
the raw diet attracts those people who are looking forward to be more
atuned to their social environment
and that they hope to find people sharing their fears, obsessions, and
hopes  in the raw world.
The question of whether these people are normal or not normal, ie judging
their behaviour from god knows what
superior standpoint, is none of your concern.


If one examines the effects of fruitariansim, and compares them to the
symptoms and condition of
people with anorexia nervosa (a known mental illness), the number of
similarities is striking. Is that coincidence or causation? I suspect
there is some causal linkage, at least in the case of fruitarianism.

***Fruitarianism is not a balanced diet, so I would not be surprised that
in the long run people would have
difficulties to justify their  health problems .

One can also observe obsessive behavior among other rawists.  Does clinging
to a narrow, restrictive, intrusive, dogmatic philosophy encourage
obsessive behavior  such as the food obsessions one sees so often among
idealistic rawists? Is there a causal linkage? I think it is highly
probable.

*** If you are refering to the philosophy of life enshrined in the
instinctive ethics , I   find it the  most liberal, beneficent, generous,
open, tolerant, humanitarian, radical, reformist  theory which has ever
been coined by human beings. But of course, you are free not to share  my
point of view.

Cheers
Denis