Dear Tom,

I've never thought of raw-foodism as a "healing-diet" and have felt so
guilty for the past few months for not being able to keep it up (after
being completely raw for only 2.5 months).  I am still vegan and mostly
raw (70-80%) but am having a hard time with it - every time I decide I
must go back to being raw, something comes up and I don't do it.  Where
is the difference then between this kind of diet and all the "normal"
diets we hear of people doing.

I would love to hear your thoughts on what a good "maintenance diet"
would be.  And how often you would recommend a "healing diet" or I'd
rather call it a "cleansing diet" (a week every month, a month every 4
months, a month every year?).

The only reason I'm not sure about raw-foodism as a maintenance diet is
because soon after I started this way of life (3-4months) my level of
B12 dropped drastically and I am now taking pills to replenish it.  I'm
going for a blood test next week to make sure the level has gone up.

Please advise, thanks and regards,
Leah


        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Thomas E. Billings [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
        Sent:   Tuesday, March 23, 1999 6:26 PM
        To:     [log in to unmask]
        Subject:        Re: Raw Food Diet guidelines

        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