Tom,
<< thanks for your post, Jean-Louis!I>>

Yes, I thank you, too, for your calm and reasonable tone,  You mention a table
comparing sugar in wild and cultivated fruits.  I'd like to see a table that
compares Brix, sugar, fiber, and mineral values of wild and cultivated plants.
>>

Tom,,
<< It is easy to make claims like "high sugar implies high mineral content",
or "fruit is the ideal food" >>

Tom, in defense of Rex, I don't know if he said or meant to imply that fruit
is the ideal food. (At least I hope not).  This entire discussion has been
very helpful to me, and I'm glad to hear from someone who grows these things
for a living. I wouldn't want to scare Rex off by jumping on him too hard
about the sugar thing, out of a fear that he might be one more looney-fruit.
(I hope he's not).  So far it has just sounded to me like he was simply
offering his own (maybe misguided, maybe not) knowledge gathered from
experience in the field (pun intended).

 << it is hard work to go and dig up the data to disprove base-less claims
that are made with ease. That is why  there is so much nonsense in rawism; it
is hard work to debunk the  bogus claims. >>

I have been wondering about why this is so.  The entire history and heritage
of the health-food culture seems to be full of this. In fact, it seems that
the desirable cultural "style" is to make pompous claims to have an inside
line to The Truth About Health, making sure to build a strong defense ahead of
time against any probable attacks from the scientific community, by completely
dismissing any real research or accepted theories as irrelevant. This attitude
has left me bewildered and confused - since I just haven't been able to grasp
how seemingly rational people can be so stupid! It is astonishing to me.

I guess eating and food and health are subjects which are so tied up in much
larger issues, that people just get stupid trying to think about them.

<< even an e-mail forum devoted to crank science claims about raw/fruit
diets). >>

Just one?  Was I lucky enough to have stumbled onto the only one that exists?
God. Well - I think I mentioned earlier that the first thing I had found was
the Bionomic Nutrition Forum - not an automatic list, and by far M-U-C-H
nuttier (fruitier I should say).

<< the prevalence of crank science, and the lack of real scientific proof, for
many of the common myths of rawism.  >>

Speaking of common myths - I've asked on the other list - and I'll ask here -
is there anything convincing that shows any evidence of a limited supply, or
the depletability of the supply, of enzymes? I think I mentioned that I just
read Howell's book and there was no study in the entire book, either of his
own or of anyone else's,  to support this claim. Is the study of enzymes
important in longevity research? If anyone knows, I'd appreciate some
suggestions for where to look.

Thanks again Tom, and Rex, for the recent discussiions.

Oh!   P.S. Just got my new issue of "Health Science." Do any of you ever go to
the ANHS annual conference?  I wish I could meet with you all sometime, to
talk as a group, in person.  I would like that.

Lots of Love,    Liza
[log in to unmask])