Tom:

> M: A raw foods diet will give you perfect health.
> M: A raw foods diet will give you a perfect body.

> R: The term "perfect health" cannot even be defined. Health has many
> aspects, and we cannot make it well ordered, in an objective way. That
> is, we cannot objectively say who is healthier: someone with a SAD
> diet, poor physical health but good mental health, or a fruitarian
> zealot with good physical health but who is hostile/mentally ill.
> We can only be subjective about such things, and I would say that a
> peaceful meat eater is healthier than a hostile fruitarian zealot!
> (Why? Because it is easy to detox the body, hard to detox the mind.)

I think that everyone's dream is to have a permanent sensation of
well being, and the myth is that by eating raw you will achieve that
goal. I thought that at the beginning too, during the first euphoric
stages. Maybe sugar-highs can be mistaken for mystic states too.
For sevveral months, I thought I could eat raw and neglect other
aspects of diets, neglect exercise, etc... but I think more and
more that "perfect health" (in the sense defined above) is very
difficult to attain, and eating raw is only one among many factors.

> M: All health problems you experience on a raw foods diet, are due to
>    detox of stored poisons.

> R: This is a dangerous delusion, one that guides some people to real harm.
> If a disorder is caused by detox, then the disorder should get somewhat
> better as time goes by, as your detox process continues. If that does not
> happen, then the disorder is not connected with detox, and may be a
> deficiency or a real disease. Also, I would strongly advise anyone with
> serious health problems (especially acute problems), to consult (as soon
> as possible) a qualified health professional. Don't assume it is detox,
> and don't sacrifice your health/well-being on the alter of rawist dogma!

It would be useful to give a few tips about how to make the
difference between detox, "tox", deficiencies and real disease. I have
no idea, since I have never experienced other inconvenients than a
temporary weakness. Can weakness be a sign of detoxification? How can
detoxification cause weakness?

> M: You should only eat those foods which you can gather with your bare
>    hands, while naked.

> R: With apologies to author Desmond Morris, I will refer to this as the
> "naked ape" hypothesis. The above myth is often repeated, with religious
> fervor, by some raw fooders.

> Problem: this myth is a denial of reality, and a denial of your true
> nature. The very definition of human beings specifies, among other things,
> that we are intelligent tool users. Those who promote this myth are denying
> the use of tools, and they are denying our intelligence; hence they are
> literally in denial of their true nature. To deny tool use is to make us
> lower than the chimpanzees (who have been observed using sticks as tools to
> eat termites, a common food for them).  It lowers modern humans to below the
> level of Australopithecus, one of our prehistoric ancestors who was very
> ape-like. So, this myth can be seen as an insult to humanity, or a denial of
> our humanity, in a sense.

By the way, I haved just learned about a few fishing and hunting techniques
of Eskimos: very elaborate and interesting!

Jean-Louis