Sandy Rzetelny <[log in to unmask]>
>But even though I have to agree that a total raw food mostly fruitarian vegan
>diet cured my acne as well as many other symptoms/syndromes I had, I still
>can't conclude that it *works for me.* It has brought on signs of deficiencies
>in its own right, like dry skin and poor muscle tone, which started to come
>about as soon as I went all raw vegan 4 years ago.

Tom:
Your comment touches on an important point, one that many of the advocates
of raw veganism, fail to understand:

Something that is a healing diet might not be appropriate as a maintenance
diet.

Let me restate the above for clarity:

A good healing diet (i.e., short term diet) might not be effective as
a maintenance (long-term sustaining) diet.

For example, fasting can be very healing, at least in some cases. Someone
fasts and finds healing. Would it then be logical to conclude that
fasting, i.e. not eating, is the "ideal" long-term diet?  Obviously not,
as people need to eat (although the breatharian scammers will claim
otherwise).

Yet it is easy to find raw vegan advocates who used the diet for healing,
then make the mistake of promoting it as both a healing and maintenance diet.
Of course, the long-term record of raw vegan as a maintenance diet is
pretty dismal. As discussed previously on this list, many such long-term
success stories are frauds, some show signs of serious mental illness,
some are physically unhealthy (emaciation, fatigue). There are a few
credible examples of less than 100% raw long-term vegans; strict 100%
raw veganism is rare in the long-term.

On the other hand, the anecdotal record for raw vegan as a short-term healing
diet is pretty good.

Tom Billings