Leah Calo <[log in to unmask]>:
>Where
>is the difference then between this kind of diet and all the "normal"
>diets we hear of people doing.

Tom:
A good question!  If one claims to be raw, but "cheats" or makes lots
of "exceptions", then the "raw" diet is little different from the standard
(Western or vegan) diet one had before switching to raw. Such a situation
is hypocrisy; as a  side note, it is obvious that those fruitarian
raw diet gurus who claim to thrive on a diet whose calorie content
is below starvation levels, are cheating and lying about it.

Leah Calo <[log in to unmask]>:
>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?).

Tom:
The characteristics of a healing diet: inadequate calories, simple,
easy to digest, and avoids the things that cause problems for many folks:
stimulants (coffee, tea), processed foods (sugar, hydrogenated fat),
pasteurized/homogenized dairy, fatty feedlot meats. [Note: in
cases of underweight, adequate calories must be provided.]

A maintenance diet has: adequate calories and adequate nutrients.
It is desirable that it is simple, and avoids or limits the things
that cause problems (in above list).

P.S. any raw "guru" who claims to be "scientific" but does not "believe
in" calories, is intellectually dishonest. There are quite a few such
folks around.

Tom Billings