Ingrid: Thanks so much for sharing the information below.

It's been my personal experience that eating vegan, per se, means
nothing as too much of anything is not good. A person's health
(physical, emotional, spiritual) is exhibited by his/her demeanor. If
s/he is in any way negative and critical I know right away s/he is out
of balance.

Diet and exercise are the two basic factors within the control of most
individuals. Getting these two things under control allows one to
prioritize and "get straight" that which is important and what is not.
And from there good things flow.

As soon as I begin being critical or reactive of someone instread of
trying to find out what might have prompted his/her negative reactions,
I try to take stock of myself and realize I, myself, am out of balance
and behaving poorly.

Some people have much better reserves than others and can remain
balanced and emotionally calm and compensate for other imbalances, as
your friends in India obviously do. Accepting and adapting to the
circumstances can "balance" inequities.
Hope this makes sense.;-)
gc

In a message dated 3/25/99 4:22:24 PM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


>>
>> I appreciate that you bring the topic of raw vegan versus no vegan in a
>> wider perspective.(outside the narrow north american experience on it )
>> it is my experience to have met raw vegans in India who do well . iI is
>> true that when you come from a rice and curry only , tradition , it is
>> easy to do better on a raw vegan diet with more food variety.
>> In an alternative school communauty one person have been raw for few
>> years to cure his asthma . I have been inpressed by the little variety of food
>> available to him . During my 10 days stay , i saw him eating mostly
>> coconut, bananas, and a few papayas because it is all what they got( they were on
>> basic subsistence, producing their own food, and it was dry season).
>>
>> The all communauty wanted to go on raw food following his example
>> and the examples of a all network of peoples started by a naturopath ( who
>> were not requiring any money for his dedication to the cause).
>> But they were very gentle with themselves and others on that ,
>> knowing thatthey will do it at their pace . At the time of our visit they were
>> doing it every other day.
>> I was impressed because i was so attached to have a lot of food to

>> choose from, there example start me on a path of being less and less
>> concerned by what i got in my plate, and more and more by the loving exchanges
>> between humans., because there i saw for the first time in my life the power of
>> supporting kindness and acceptance of other's struggles.
>> I t help me to relativise my fears of not having the right nutrition .
>>
>> They decided that every member of the communauty will adopt an unwanted
>> baby from their tribal neighbours . They knew the case against milk but were
>> willingly giving buffalo milk to their 1st adopted baby because they
>> were nothing else to give that was available (coconut could have been an
>> option but they had to buy it from the far away village.
>> We have the luxury to be picky about what we have on the table .
>> as long as our prosperity depend on thirld world country poverty , we
>> might not been able to see what is the "perfect sustaning diet".
>> Jean-claude
>>
>> >and also, as usual, if we look at a bigger picture, like exercise,
>> >emotional health, being outdoors, sunbathing, fullfilling social life,
>> >spiritual life for those that want it, etc, and also consider the
>> >combined long term effects of all this, IMHO, it is just IMPOSSIBLE to tell
>> >what isbest in general. some people eat raw vegan, do not exercise, are
>> >unhappy, etc. some are happy and raw vegan. some are meat eaters. some raw
>> >and many cooked. of these two groups, some exercise, some do not. some are more
>> >peaceful than others. some eat more organic than others. some eat some
>> >cooked food, and do better, but of these, some exercise and some do
>> >not, etc. so, it sort of hard to tell, don=B4t you think? ;)
>> >
>> >regards,
>> > axel makaroff
>>
>>