Hi Alan,
Thank you for your input to this idea, which has also had the suggestion of
a FAQ added by Martha (with some support, and I agree).
The way you respond suggests to me that you felt attacked in some way by the
post. Not so.
I feel that its important to provide newcomers with some reasonable ideas
about what generally works and what generally does not. There is plenty of
scope for people to provide their own experiences, and these are most
welcome, as long as its explained that way.
In this regard, to say "x worked for me, under these conditions" is fine,
but to extrapolate that "x works for everyone, its what you should do" is
not. And I am not saying here that anyone in particular is guilty of doing
this (probably a very careful search could find even me guilty of this, who
knows?).
At 12:01 AM 3/22/99 +0100, you wrote:
>Fruitarianism may seem extreme to you (I only gave it up after three years
Well, at last I know how long you were eating fruits exclusively - I would
be really interested in which fruits, specifically, and what quantities of
each. And how often there was a non-fruit item taken in, if any, and what
it was.
On the other hand, I tried fruitarianism also, remember, with disasterous
results even though I was eating quality fruits. Maybe not the "right"
ones? who knows. So you will forgive me for thinking that that way of
eating is extreme for me. Others on this list have come to the same
conclusions for themselves.
> but it is neither extreme nor
>even rejected by many). Just because the majority of people in this list
>at this time reject fruitarianism (and they are hardly a representative
>cross-section of the world population)
Well, the people on this list are a select group, considering that probably
most are interested in eating as raw as they can be healty doing it.
Compare say 100 to 200 here against a world population of over 5 billion,
most of whom eat cooked foods and many of whom are not interested in even
discussing eating all raw. So you are right, we are not a representative
cross-section of the world population, so we should be biased. I would
guess that many on this list (myself included) would love to eat fruitarian
if the way was clear to do so healthily. So how about telling us how, since
you made it work for you?
>does not mean that fruitarianism
>can not succeed and is not the best approach,
I think the idea is to give a warning about how few succeed.
>merely that the majority
>of people in this list are from a country which has a bad track record
>for providing its people with quality food.
As for using this as the reason for failure is unscientific at best. You
have no idea of the specifics of the foods these people were eating.
>
>> That 100% raw is probably a bit extreme in the experience of many on the
list.
>>
>As it is not the experience of all in this list,
Since I have had the opportunity of reading what people on this list have
had to say for quite some time, very few old-timers claim that they are in
fact 100%raw, but I certainly would be interested in how many are...
>please refrain from
>trying to act as spokesman/woman for the list as a whole.
Putting forward a suggestion and asking for opinions doesn't look to me like
speaking for everyone.
> 100% raw
>certainly is difficult for some for any number of reasons, but is
>neither impossible if it is planned properly and nor is it in any
>way detrimental as against cooked if it is studied properly.
Saying this, you must know a lot about it, so how about telling us how?
>I have often spoken about <snip of examples of useful aspects of raw eating>
The whole point of a welcome message and/or FAQ is to have useful references
that one can do to directly - a sort of sum of wisdom - rather than having
to go to the archives which include so much discussion of things not really
relevant to the list, even if they have their own satisfactions.
Lynton
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