Hi Peter and all,

Great to be on this list, finally.  I apologize for my delay - if anyone
can help recussitate my computer, I need to locate an older Norton
Utilities 3.5 disk series for my Mac Powerbook 520c.... :^)

> Peter:
> Sally was in town last weekend and gave two excellent lectures + a workshop at the Natural Health Federation Convention in Pasadena.  I find it interesting that she puts only little emphasis on raw foods and is clearly skeptical of many of the claims put forth by various raw food advocates.  I would be very interested to hear how the event goes - maybe you could give us a report back?  Also, I am curious how your presentation at the SF-LIFE potluck earlier this month was received?

Christopher:
This weekend's seminar was incredible.  About 100 people attended, and
Sally unleashed a heck of a download on us.  I thought I knew most of
what she was going to say, but even though I only got to hear 1/2 of the
lectures, having to attend to outside organizing details, I was amazed
at all the revelations I heard....  I will share a few.

* In discussing the genetic degeneration of modern "civilized" people,
she showed a slide of the Kennedy men - Ted, John F., and Bobby - Ted
had this wide face and broad smile, John had a pretty broad face and
smile, and Bobby had this narrower face and kind of chipmunk bite.  She
cited this as a perfect example of nutritional depletion of the mother,
resulting in subsequent children not reaching their genetic potential.
Sally said that their mother had over 10 kids, and there were two toward
the end that had to be committed.  Her point was that mothers are
depleted during the process of producing children, and should space them
at least 3 years apart, and certainly should not have 10 kids....

* Another "aha" perhaps many of you will be familiar with, was in
relation to the Pottenger research.  In Pottenger's experiments, the
"nutritionally challenged" cats could not reproduce after 3 generations,
(or infertility was the rule).  Sally pointed out that modern folk have
been on junk diets for often about 3 generations.  And look at our rate
of infertility (not to mention anti-social behavior).  When she said
this I got shivers from head to toe, and they lasted for about 10
seconds.  We are eating ourselves to extinction!  & our best response is
fertility drugs, (and then octuplets - wonder what that does to the
mother and kids...).

* Over the course of 1 and 1/2 hours, Sally thoroughly annhilated the
"lipid hypothesis," the "prudent diet," the cholesterol theory, and
other foundations of the low-fat paradigm.  It was a sight to behold,
complete with industry insider information - how we have been completely
manipulated to think and eat the way most of us do, or did.  It was
shocking, to be quite honest - - and I knew most of this before!  (My
grandfather was a lipid chemist with the USDA and I grew up with the
margarine industry attacking him for his team's work on trans oils.  One
of his statements is included at length in Finnegan's "Facts about Fats"
- his name is Herbert J. Dutton).

With regard to raw foods, Sally talked at length about their importance,
about several RAF preparations, about raw and cooked organ meats, and
how to make high-enzyme lacto-fermented foods and beverages, but I think
she is trying to be a realist.  She has raised 4 kids in Washington DC
and I feel that in order to keep her sanity and to benefit the most
people, she is trying to integrate the principles of "native diets" into
a sensible constellation of foods that are prepared with as little
denaturing as possible.  It is up to each of us to take these principles
and techniques and choose whether we want to eat totally raw, or some
level of a combination.  I feel she is doing incredible work and if she
were more "extreme" - like eat 100% raw meat and veggies - she would not
get to reach so many people.  Dr. Price himself suggested cooking
veggies, and some meat I believe.

We are going to put out the tapes with accompanying workbook with
pictures and slides and graphs, so if anyone is interested, let us
know....  Will be @ 6-7 hrs of info.

I think the bottom line is that we are all explorers and need to
dedicate our lives to furthering understanding of how to eat and live on
this planet.  We can do this if we learn from each other through frank
discussions and honest sharing, as on this list.  But to bring in more
fellow explorers (willing guinea pigs), there needs to be a variety of
different messengers engaging the public and shattering the hypnosis of
the low-fat, soy-based, vegetarian alt media.  And Sally is doing a heck
of a job.  Our phone has been ringing for days with folks thanking us,
and telling us how blown away and inspired they are....

With regard to the SF LiFE potluck, I think the January meeting went
pretty well.  For those of you who don't know, I invited people to a
discussion on the purpose of SF LiFE, in light of the recent appearances
of Aajonus, Christopher Morril, and my own dietary perigrinations
involving RAF and SCAF.  I wanted to know if I was welcome there, or was
this an Ann Wigmore group?  About 40 people turned out and didn't want
to hear or talk about the purpose of the group - they wanted to hear
what the heck had happened to me - the raw vegan spiritual nutrition
teacher and enthusiast.  So in describing my process, the most heated
reaction came from the A. Wigmore devotees, who insisted I must have
done her diet incorrectly, thus my hair falling out at age 27.  Others
in the group were more open, and told me they had had similar symptoms
and problems (though privately).  The private responses of encouragement
and support were very gratifying.  But that they were so private and
guarded was telling.

I feel that the group needs a coherent mission statement and a process
that helps raise awareness of the validity of different approaches to
live foods/optimal nutrition.  I feel they need to ask themselves
whether they have found "the truth" and just need to support each other
to follow it, or whether they are a group that embraces diversity and
biochemical individuality, and learns from each others' honest sharings
- of successes and failures.  In a word are we followers of another's
perfect wisdom, or fellow explorers walking together into the unknown,
guided by our own sensitivity, experiences, and mutual support?

The latter is obviously what this list is up to. And this is what we are
trying to facilitate with our business Radiant Life - to create a way
for people to get a hold of info, resources, and products to explore
permutations of this diet - and to stay in touch about what works, &
what doesn't, both with regard to diet and living.  We feel that optimal
diet needs to be the obvious thing to do, and this may only be possible
with local economies, locally based sustainable food systems, and more
community based living.  So we try to research and educate about ways we
can all shift more in this direction as opposed to the global economy
and monoculture with its attendant SAD.

Enough for now - I can say more if you like.  I look forward to being a
more active part of this list - I have been an archive voyeur for many
months now....  ;*)

Cheers,
Christopher