Hi, Sandy!

I'm all raw, but not as active as you are.  Those who are all raw and
very active, like Morris Krok (I think, anyone here know him personally?)
and Peter Dietrich, who both run marathons and such, rely on more
calorie-dense raw foods like dried fruits, nuts, and grains.  Personally,
I find raw grains to be particularly appetite-suppressant, though I still
wonder about the wisdom of relying them as a major staple (acid-forming
tendencies, maybe mucus-producing).

The very occasional raw egg yolk I eat (from an organically raised
free-range chicken, of course) tastes delicious either by itself or mixed
in with an avocado.  Ordinary grocery eggs do taste kinda yucky raw, and
are not to be recommended for many reasons.

Perhaps in small quantities raw cheese would not be too harmful, but I'd
be wary.  T.C. Fry says that raw goat's milk and raw goat's milk cheese
is what killed Paavo Airola, and it seems that Ric Lambart, who knew him
personally, agrees.  That dairy stuff clogs the old arteries.

As far as the question of what might be in raw meat that's not in other
raw foods goes, B-12 is one such thing, and there may well be others
(nutrients unknown to science, even).  It seems to me that a common theme
is that people who have impaired digestion for one reason or another do
better with some meat in their diets.  The other solution to impaired
digestion is fasting, which most of try to avoid most of the time because
we can't be bothered to take the time, or we're afraid, or whatever.  So
maybe the fact that a lot of the nutrients in flesh foods come
pre-assembled or partially assembled all in one place might explain why
those with poor digestion/assimilation might be able to utilize them
better than nutrients that have to be asimilated and brought together by
the body from many different sources.

I suspect the colds/flus brought on by the totally raw diet are temporary
cleansing crises caused by the more pure diet (or rather permitted by the
more pure diet).  As reported in the M2M, I too got lots of these on the
raw diet for the first few years, but they have diminished greatly in the
past year (maybe partly because I'm relying mostly on organically-grown
food instead of commercial produce).

There's even a question about whether it's even a good idea to be very
active, but I won't try to get into that here.  Perhaps most people err
on the side of inactivity.

Hope this helps.

Bob Avery ([log in to unmask])