Hello Tom,

thanks for your synthetic views. Reading your message, I realize that
I intellectually agree 100% with that common sense (there is no
perfect diet, etc...), but my emotional mind often tells me the
contrary; for instance, cooking is more or less associated to "evil",
and I am almost convinced that raw diets are better than cooked ones.

** Perfect health? **

The trouble is that nobody knows what perfect health is. We can
roughly say that this man is more healthy that one. In the same way,
Murray Perahia is a better pianist than my neighvor's daughter, but I
won't compare him to Maurizio Pollini. There are no objective ways to
measure the level of health; the human body cannot be reduced to a few
indicators (like blood pressure, heartbeat,...); likewise,
intelligence cannot be identified with IQ.

But suppose we do not want to achieve Perfect Health, but that a
reasonable health state would suffice. We see that any system has some
part of arbitrariness; the instincto one seems the most natural, even
if regarding certain aspects it is a compromise between animal-like
feeding and modern life. But the assumption that "natural is the best"
may not be true: for instance, deep breathing and massage are natural,
but Chi Kung and Chinese massage are much more elaborate than the
natural practices, and are probably much more efficient.

** Health vs. Spirituality **

Of course, humans do not only have a body, but they also have a spirit
(whether material or not); what is the best for the body is not
necessarily the best for our mind. Human brain and society have
evolved so quickly that we cannot entirely rely on genetics to find
our path towards spiritual harmony. It is not logical to be
perfectionnist regarding diet, and to neglect the "other half".

Is there a Perfect Holistic System that leads to the Ultimate Goal?
Certainly not; everyone can find his own way to the top of the
mountain.

Diet should only be considered as the first stage: the Essenes' point
of view is that we need our Mother's nurturing before being able to
receive Godfather's teaching. In the same way, the first stage of
meditation is to regulate the body.

** Diet and intolerance **

Why is the raw-foodist so prone to criticism? Maybe that behavior
stems from our natural spirit of militantism. We need to be part of a
group; but to insure cohesion, it is not only necessary to have
some interests in common, but it is often useful to have a common
enemy (Jews, communists, heretics, junk food,...). It is non
unconceivable either that the raw-foodist likes to be different, at
the fringe, against classical medicine and other established values

Maybe that attitude is also related to the excessive fears of toxemia,
mucus, and so on: desire for purity, fear of losing one's
integrity... (it seems that the fear of microbes after Pasteur's
discoveries has been replaced by the fear of denatured food).

Best wishes,

Jean-Louis