Tom:
> Let me give you a short list of problems that one can encounter:
> dental damage, eating disorders and behavior, emaciation, severe fatigue/
> lassitude, mental problems, and so on.

> Look around you. People who are 100% raw for long term are rare. People who
> are long-term 100% raw AND mentally healthy are rarer still, in my opinion -
> and experience. If the diet is so great, why aren't there a lot more?
> Why are there more former raw-fooders than current raw-fooders? There's a
> lesson here if we can open up and receive it.

> I have seen reports of people leaving raw, and taking up macrobiotics (and
> other diets), and finding their health improves - especially mental health.
> Raw is best for some, but not all.  People are different, so are diets.
> What is best for one may be bad for another. That's life.

Chet:
During my 49 issue run of my newsletter, I corresponded with a lot of
people, and I could count on one hand the number of them who stayed
with a 100% raw diet for that four year period. As Tom indicates
above, just about everyone I've known during my five-year experiment
with diet and health has had to change his/her diet in some way.

I'm more and more of the opinion that any major dietary change
provokes some kind of result for the human body. I have friends who
swear by the high fat/high meat diet and who claim they've healed
their health problems by practically living on homemade beef jerky; I
have other friends who will say the same thing about a high fruit
diet; and we have literally thousands of people who will tell you the
Hallelujah Diet has healed them of everything from asthma to major
cancer problems.

If I learned anything during this five year period, it's that people
are different and that there is no single 100%, sure thing human
diet. I can tell you for a fact that the Hallelujah Diet program
works for thousands of people because I sit here and read the
testimonies that pour in every day, but I can also tell you for a
fact that the folks who get on our program will modify it as time
goes on to fit their particular needs and wants... physical, mental,
emotional, and so on...

> Dariusz ROZYCKI <[log in to unmask]>:
> >Has a not-all-raw diet become somewhat of a dogma to you perhaps, Mr.
> >Billings?  Or if you're speaking purely from experience (which is
> >probably the case) then why do people fail on all-raw diets (again,
> >*well-balanced* raw diets); put another way: why would there be a *need* to
> >eat something that is not raw?

If you read what Tom writes from an objective point of view, I don't
know how you can talk about dogma... I don't know of anyone on this
list less ruled by dogma than Tom. I would suggest not thinking in
terms of "failure" and "success" with your health program, although
that's certainly how I thought of myself in my early years. These
days I think only in terms of what element of my whole program can I
tweak to experience even better sense of well-being.

Note: diet is only ONE part of a health program. I personally
believe that exercise is just as important as diet, and I'd stick a
couple of other factors up there as well.

> Tom:
> My only dogmas are health and truth. I want you to find a diet that works
> for you - I don't care if it is raw or cooked - that's for you to determine.

Chet:
Amen!

Tom:
> Because I clung strongly to rawist dogma for years when I was 100% raw,
> and even when I was "only" 80% raw, I ignored health problems as "detox":
> the diet is perfect, it must be my fault - that's what the fanatics will
> tell you, and it's what I foolishly believed.  I am here to tell you the
> following:
>
> * nature is imperfect, and all diets and health systems are imperfect also
> * don't expect perfection in this world - you won't find it
> * elevating simplistic, dietary dogma like rawism, until it is more important
> than common sense, is a bad idea (and can cause harm)
> * do the things necessary to have good health - cooked or raw
> * don't obsess on 100% raw, or 100% anything
> * don't obsess on the physical - take care of your mental and spiritual
> health also.

Chet:
Extremely well put. Think less about this stuff and live more and
listen to your body. That's what I've learned during my five years.
At a recent health minister's training program I attended, we have
120 people come to learn more about the Hallelujah Diet. Some of
these folks were ill; some were quite over weight; some looked great.
Not a single one of them I talked to was obsessing over how much raw
to eat and how much cooked... I find their attitude about making
gradual improvements in their lives a lot more positive and healthy
than the often obsessive things I read here on the list.

Note: I sound judgmental above but I don't mean to be. Each of us has
to grow at our own speed... I certainly had my obsessive period, and
I can still be pretty zealous about some thing (though I try to keep
those things to myself these days).

Chet Day

Learn God's Way to Ultimate Health at Hallelujah Acres Online:
http://hacres.com