Dear Julia/David (whatever your name is),
	My feeling is that your body needs as much sleep as it wants (no
alarm clock), if you are looking for optimal health and longevity.  But
if you have a lot to accomplish with limited time, then you can always
rob Peter to pay Paul (shorten your life a little at the far end to
accomplish some goal today) by sleeping 4-5 hrs., or whatever your body
requires for normal functioning.  It's your choice.  There ain't no free
lunch.  That being said, there are ways to conserve energy:  (a) eating
less and lighter, so your body has less digestive work to do and can
spend the freed-up energy on other things, (b) getting the toxins out of
your external environment as much as possible so your body has less work
to do defending itself, (c) exercising regularly to keep the organs and
muscled toned, but not so much that the exercise itself wears you out,
(d) cleansing your internal environment by proper eating and by fasting,
which also makes the body a more efficient machine, (e) practicing
relaxation techniques like yoga, meditation, Feldenkrais, all that kind
of stuff.  I frequently sleep only 4-5 hrs at night (but other days 7-8
hrs, averaging about 6), waking without alarm clock, but I also realize
that a slower-paced life would perhaps be wiser for the long run.  The
basic idea is that the human body is an amazingly flexible piece of
machinery that you can work hard and long at the risk of burnout in order
to accomplish great things, coddle at the risk of not getting any of your
life goals achieved, or use in some balance-of-opposing-forces way that
you find acceptable.
	If you are narcoleptic, I would say that your body is trying to
signal you very strongly that it wants you to take time out and slow
down.  Ever try to read a book when you are falling asleep?  It takes up
to 10x as long, and you absorb half as much as when you are awake and
alert.  So trying to function normally in that state is really
counterproductive, isn't it?  I would recommend sleeping as much as you
possibly can until the narcolepsy resolves itself; better yet, put your
life on hold for a few weeks and do a complete fast, staying in bed as
much as possible sleeping, or eyes closed meditating when not sleeping.
I did that in Feb/Mar, and after a couple weeks recovering from the fast,
found my body working at much greater efficiency ever since.  Fasting
really pays for itself.  You can accomplish in a few weeks what might
take years on raw foods alone.  I hope to find time for another one
before spring is out next year.

	Too much sugar, whether fruit sugar or refined sugar, is like
whipping a horse.  It works for awhile, but eventually the horse breaks
down.  Modern fruits are higher in sugar than the fruits our ancestors
ate, and they put a  lot of stress on the pancreas and adrenals.  I
thought I was immune to this problem when I switched to a raw diet, but I
was wrong.  The process is slow and invidious, creeping up on you so
gradually you don't realize what's happening.  It took more than a year,
but eventually I found my digestion of high protein foods getting poor
(one of the symptoms of sugar overload), B-12 levels getting depleted
(another), and sweet cravings increasing to the point where I would
sometimes eat 2-3 bunches of bananas at a meal.  The fast, followed by
close watching of my fruit intake thereafter, has alleviated but not
fully solved my digestive problems.  Hopefully the next fast will do it.

Dear Jeff,
	No personal experience, but from what I've read, the best foods
to feed a raw baby is whatever it wants (so long as it's a natural raw
food), whenever it wants it, no more and no less.  What I mean is, babies
still have their native instincts intact.  We need to stop being the
parent experts and let baby's instincts be the expert.  How to do that?
Whenever you feel like introducing baby to non-milk (even if it is still
nursing), put a piece of fruit or veggie under its nose for a whiff.  If
it opens its mouth, it wants it.  Puree it and put some in.  When and if
it starts dribbling the food out, as babies are wont to do, it's had
enough, even if it's only had one mouthful.  Don't force the food back
in.  If baby is still hungry (but not for that food), try other foods the
same way, or offer it the breast.  In other words, let baby tell you what
it wants, not vice versa.  Unfortunately, my favorite book on this
subject is darn near impossible to get in English; it's
"Instinctotherapie: Manger Vrai" by Guy-Claude Berger in French.  I did
find a Web site recently that has an underground translation of it
posted.  If your favorite search engine can't find it, let me know and
I'll see what I can do to locate it for you.  Burger has 6 kids, and the
last 3 were raised this way --- very healthy kids without the usual runny
noses and such and no foul-smelling diapers.

Dear Ric,
	You mean bees that are not fed sugar syrup don't get sick?  I
thought they are also over stressed by all the pesticides and other
environmental toxins we have out there these days.  Were you able to
raise your bees without those bee strips around their hives?  I recently
read that residues of that stuff gets into the honey too.

Sounds like you know your coconuts!  I've never had a "green" one, and
eat them only seldom, but what you say sounds right.  I know a raw fooder
who eats lots of coconut, and her resting pulse rate is up in the 90's!
Doesn't sound too healthy to me.  How come we Northerners can't get the
good coconuts?  Do they ripen too fast as they are shipped north, or
what?

You sound like a neat guy, Ric!  Where do you live?  (All over the place,
it sounds like!)  I never had kids, but the home schooling routine is
what I'd have in mind too, if I had any.  How did you go about it, and
how on earth did you get them into college at those ages (especially 9!)?


Consider joining Ward Nicholson's bi-monthly snail-mail group "The
Natural Hygiene Many-To-Many."  You'd fit right in.  It's just like this
forum, only printed.  Some are read-only participants, others like me
jump right in there and spill ink all over the place (though we each have
an 8-p limit per bimonthly issue).  He also publishes interesting
articles and clippings that we send in on health topics.There's a lot of
interesting people in the group: some all raw, some not, some struggling
neophytes, some seasoned veterans like yourself.  I also like having the
time to think about issues in depth instead of just spouting off the top
of my head, as here.  The turnover's not as great as here, either.  You
feel as though you really get to know the other people.  A good support,
friendship group.  Anyone interested in a "natural" diet, however you
define it, is welcome to join.  If you send him $5 (payable to Ward, not
the publication) at 232 S. Belmont, Wichita KS 67218 [I did this from
memory, Ward], he'll send you off a sample copy.  Expect about 160-180
pages per issue.

Dear Shawn,
	I used to need 7-8 hours sleep a night before going all raw.  Now
after nearly 4 years, 5-6 hours is enough.  So this may eventually happen
to you too as your toxins get cleared out.
	Like you, I used to eat all kinds of fruit with no problem, but
got into trouble after the first 1-2 years.  Read what I said to
Julia/Dave above.  I know another guy who runs marathons, gets all sorts
of exercise, and has been on a raw diet for 20 years.  He thought he was
immune to blood sugar problems too, but he crashed and burned after 10
(!) years of eating 2 meals/day, 1 fruit and one veggie/nuts/other!  How
now swears by the Glycemic Index scale and won't eat anything (even
veggie) with a GI over 50.  Don't say you weren't warned!