the following is a copy of an article recently published in the SF-LiFE
newsletter; it is a very positive review of the excellent newsletter "Health
& Beyond", put out by Chet Day. It highlights some of the interesting and
provocative things from "Health & Beyond". I hope you find the material
interesting. A second article will from the SF-LiFE newsletter will be released
to raw-food soon, as well.

Tom Billings
[log in to unmask]
*****ATTACHMENT: SF-LiFE NEWSLETTER ARTICLE*****

New in the SF-LiFE Library: Chet Day's "Health & Beyond" Newsletter

SF-LiFE has subscribed to the newsletter "Health & Beyond" (H&B), which
is put out by Chet Day. We also purchased a book that Chet publishes.

Before saying what H&B is, it is appropriate to say what it is not. H&B is
not a simple repackaging/remarketing of what is often referred to as the
Natural Hygiene "party line", i.e. the writings of Shelton, Fry, or other noted
hygienists.  Instead, H&B is true to the original spirit of the famous Herbert
Shelton quote, "Let us have the truth, though the heavens fall.". What H&B does
is to provide in-depth examination and current research on the assumptions and
beliefs of modern natural hygiene. The result is a newsletter that often
directly challenges the established beliefs of natural hygiene;  the newsletter
is also informative, thought provoking, and sometimes controversial. In my
opinion, H&B, along with M2M and the e-mail list veg-raw, are the best things
to happen to natural hygiene in years, because the re-examination of old
beliefs, in the light of new information, is precisely what is necessary to
keep a movement alive.

With that introduction, notes of interest on recent issues (plus some back
issues purchased by/donated to SF-LiFE), are as follows.

October 1996 and December 1996. Parts 1 & 2 of a 3-part interview with Ward
Nicholson, the founder of the M2M publication, on the topic of primate diets
and our prehistoric diet. Ward has done some superb, thoroughly documented
research in this area. He addresses questions regarding a number of assumptions
made by fruitarianism and natural hygiene. A paraphrased summary:

Q: Is the diet of primates very similar to the diet of human fruitarians?
A: No, most primates eat some raw animal flesh, with consumption of social
insects (termites, ants, bee brood) being common, also bird eggs. Animal foods
comprise 5-10% of modern chimp diets - wild primates are neither fruitarians
nor vegans. Also, some primates, such as mountain gorillas, eat far more
leaves than fruit - they are folivores, not frugivores.
Q: Was the diet of our prehistoric ancestors fruitarian?
A: No, the paleontological record is very clear on this. Our ancestors were
omnivores who consumed both plant and animal foods.
Q: Are there reasons to believe that humans have evolved genetically to adapt
to a diet that includes some cooked food?
A: Yes; for a lengthy, technical explanation, see the December newsletter.
On other topics, Ward also discusses that chimps drink water, and practice a
crude type of juicing. (Side remark: not mentioned in H&B, but chimps have
been observed using herbs for purely medicinal purposes!)

Here we see that H&B can be very controversial, as Ward's research has debunked
a number of assumptions that some raw fooders believe in strongly. These issues
are highly recommended - they will certainly stimulate your thinking!

March 1995. Part 2 of an interview with the well-known hygienist, Dr. Ralph
Cinque. If you think that only living fooders (like Brian Clement) notice the
high sugar levels of modern fruits **, listen to Dr. Cinque:
"Nobody knows for sure what ancient fruits consisted of, but there is reason to
think they were lower in sugar and higher in fiber than modern cultivated
fruits...There is no place in the world today where humans live exclusively on
fruit, and there is no reason to think it was ever so in a previous time."
Dr. Cinque answers questions on a wide range of topics, including fasting,
juice diet, fat in the diet, etc.

** Side remark concerning modern fruit (not from H&B):
the high sugar levels of modern fruit generally are the result of one or more
of the following: years of varietal selection, artificial hybridization,
vegetative (grafting, non-seed) propagation, and possibly even genetic
engineering. Exposing seed to (nuclear) radiation is sometimes used to induce
DNA mutations, and develop new varieties (a popular approach back in the 50's
and 60's). This suggests that modern fruit is not as natural as some claim.


January 1996. Kombucha: a fermented tea made by growing a fungus in a culture
of sugar and (regular) black tea. Chet gives detailed information on growing the
fungus, alternative cultures that use honey and/or ginger to reduce the
sugar/tea required, and discusses the effect the kombucha tea has on his
meditation practice. Kombucha tea is a grow-at-home, low-cost B-vitamin source
that is an attractive alternative to high priced algae. Very interesting!

November 1995. Algae. Speaking of high priced algae, Chet has also done an
issue on Klamath Lake algae. SF-LiFE members will recognize the first section
of this issue - it is the "Comments on Blue-Green Algae (Supplements) and Other
Cyanobacteria" information sheet that I wrote and distributed first at SF-LiFE
meetings, then later released to the Internet, using my previous work e-mail
account: [log in to unmask]  (I didn't choose the account name).
The remainder of the issue is reports from users, including Chet, who use or
have tried it. Some people found it had an effect, some did not. Chet provides
cost and nutrient comparisons - algae versus dulse, collards, and oranges; the
comparison shows that algae is not a cost effective source of nutrients.

Books. Chet publishes a number of books, one of which is in the library. I have
put discussion of it last, as the book reviews animal experimentation. Readers
offended by such discussion should skip the rest of this article. The book in
question is "Discovery of the Ultimate Diet: Testing Nutritional Theories on
Mice", Volume 2, by Dr. Stanley S. Bass. As you can tell from the title, Dr.
Bass tested a wide range of diets on mice, including many raw food diets. Some
remarks on a few of the diets are as follows; numbers refer to the diet number
assigned by Dr. Bass in the book.

3, 3a - Fruitarian. Fruit is the "highest" and best diet? If you are a mouse,
the answer is a resounding no. The mice died rapidly when on this diet, and
the dead mice were eaten by the survivors. Also, the surviving mice had long-
lasting, negative physical aftereffects from the fruit diet, even after they
were switched to different diets.
5 - 100% raw diet, including lots of sprouts (wheat, others). The mice were
alert, active, but also possibly oversexed: the males were chasing the females,
and many females were pregnant. Interesting!
19 - 100% raw diet, with legume/seed sprouts but no grain sprouts. The mice
did very well on this diet, but later when babies were born, the babies were
eaten. Dr. Bass says this suggests the presence of some deficiencies.
30, 31 - Fasting the mice. This was fatal, unlike the results obtained by other
researchers. Dr. Bass attributes the deaths to his cages being kept in rooms
that were too cold.
43 - raw soaked grains, lentils, veggies. The mice thrived on this diet,
however, two mice managed to become obese on this diet! This is surprising
as the diet is similar to human raw food diets, on which gaining weight can
be difficult.
45 - 100% raw lentil/sunflower sprouts, plus greens and raw starch foods.
The mice did very well on this, a nearly ideal diet for mice; similar to the
living foods diets that are promoted as being anti-cancer.
48 - diet 45 plus cheese (diet 45 plus vitamins B-12, D). The babies born under
this diet were very healthy and were not eaten.

Based on this research, Dr. Bass developed what he considers to be the ultimate
diet, for which sample menus are given as appendices. This book is interesting
reading - highly recommended!

Tom Billings