Definition of "diet":  A list of foods and quantities.

Definition of "nutritionally perfect diet":  A diet (as above defined) that
has no deficiencies and no excesses.  (This is contextual; it depends on the
individual and lifestyle.)

Definition of "(100%) raw diet":  A diet that has no cooked foods.

Definition of "(100%) vegan diet":  A diet that has no foods of animal origin.

Let D = the set of all diets.  (This set has a virtually infinite number of
members because there are a virtually infinite number of combinations of
foods and a virtually infinite number of combinations of quantities.)

Let V = the subset of D that consists of only vegan diets (as defined above).

Let R = the subs
et of D that consists of only raw diets (as defined above).

Let P = the subset of D that consists of only nutritionally perfect diets
(as defined above).  (A certain doctor told me that there is no such thing
as a nutritionally perfect diet.  If this is true, then P is a null set.)

Then (V and R and P) will be the set of all diets that are vegan, raw, and
nutritionally perfect.

And (V and R and -P) will be the set of all diets that are vegan, raw, and
not nutritionally perfect.

It has been proved (and I did not doubt) that (V and R and -P) has some
members and is not a null set.

The question is:  How do we go from that to prove that (V and R and P) is a
null set?   This seems to be the logic of most of the raw vegan nutritional
disaster stories that we hear.

How does one go from "this raw vegan diet is bad" and "that raw vegan diet
is bad" to "all
raw vegan diets are bad"?

What I would like to see is enough detailed information about the diet in
question so that I can run it thru DMAK to find out how much of each
nutrient it has, and perhaps some recommendations for improvement.

http://www.edmc.net/~jstory/DMAK.ZIP (Windows version)
http://www.edmc.net/~jstory/dmak.tar.gz (Linux version)
(The Linux version is also on freshmeat.)

So far as I know, the main question is vitamin B12.  I take a B12 supplement
to be safe.

(I'm not strict vegan. I eat food of animal origin from time to time, if I
seem to feel the need.  I am not religious about vegan or about anti-vegan.
 I have no strong opinion about the B12 question, but I choose to not take
an unnecessary and possibly irreversible risk.)


-- Jerry Story