After discussions with our list admin, and comments received from other
list members, it is clear that creating an alt group is not a good route
at present (so I won't pursue it). The reasons for this are: 1) limited
propagation/availability of alt groups. I am at Berkeley, a major site,
and the groups alt.org.vitality-4-life, and alt.food.veg, are not available
here. 2) Moderation is a necessity, to avoid the hostile posts, spam,
ads, and junk that one finds in  rec.food.veg.

I would like to say thanks again to our list administrator for reviving
this list!

The following was written in response to a recent posting. I am sending it
to the list as the last part may be of general interest.

(types of raw food diets)

in a recent post,  Tiina Makela <[log in to unmask]>, wrote:
To: Michael Clingman <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: raw foods questions (fwd)to the list

>I`d like to buy all nuts and dried fruits from health food store, but I got them
>much cheaper from "ordinary" shops. I`d like to know how are they treated.

Check out the file, nuts.inf, at the (old) veg-raw ftp site: ftp.intergate.net,
cd users/quinoa/vegraw. It's titled "What a Raw Fooder Should Know About Nuts".
If you don't have ftp I can send you a copy via e-mail.

>Mikko Nenonen says (in `Vegan Diet, Rich in Lactobacilli, *Living
>Food*: Metabolic and Subjective Responses in Healthy Subjects and
>in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.` - Kuopio University Publications
>D. Medical Sciences 76):
>"The fermentation and mechanical homogenization of many items
>differentiates this diet (meaning living food) from other raw
>vegetable diets."

>What are those other variants of uncooked vegan diet?

There are several types of raw food diets. A list of some of them follows.

* fruitarian - one who eats only fruit. Usually fruit here follows the common
usage of the term - the reproductive parts of trees, vines, bushes, rather
than the botanical definition (which includes all seeds -> sprouts OK). A few
fruitarians do eat small amounts of sprouts, though. Many fruitarians also
eat very small amounts of leafy greens.

* sproutarian - one who eats primarily sprouts. Those eating *only* sprouts are
very rare; most sproutarians have a varied raw food diet.

* living fooder - version of sproutarianism; emphasis on sprouts and blended,
fermented foods

* liquidarian - consuming only juices. Usually a short-term cleansing diet,
extremely rare as a long term diet

* natural hygiene - (must be careful here as natural hygienists disagree
among themselves as to what natural hygiene is) - a diet of raw fruits,
vegetables, nuts, seeds. Predominant food is often fruit, but it is not the
only food category. Followers of Natural Hygiene often don't eat sprouts, but
some of them do.

* Essene -  one whose diet is based on the Essene Gospel of Peace, which
claims that Jesus was a member of the Essene sect, and a raw food vegetarian.
Diet consists of raw fruits, vegetables, sprouts, and wheatgrass. Cooked
food is permitted, also raw dairy, so the diet can be lacto-veg rather than
pure vegetarian.

* instinctive eating - a philosophy geared to eating raw foods to satisfy the
senses.  Many instinctive eaters are veggies, but some of them eat raw
meat!  I don't know much about them and invite any instinctive eaters on this
list to tell us about their philosophy and experiences.

* (generic) raw fooder - one whose diet is raw foods but who doesn't fit so
neatly into a category, or prefers to not be categorized. Usually pure veg,
but can be lacto-veg for those who consume raw dairy products.

A side note - the term "living food" means different things to different people,
as it does not have an accepted "standard" definition.  At some time in the
future I may post a discussion on the definition of the term, living foods.

Tom Billings
[log in to unmask]