Marie and Roy, welcome to this list. Roy, your introducing story was interesting. Excellent your five important points. Thank you. Marie, your writings about a timeless living style remind me of Jiddu Krishnamurti. Have you ever read one of his books? Peter, it seems, that not I am the one who needs more RAF stuff on this list, but y o u ! Still I don't believe, that LA RAF has been real. I can't imagine an instinctive eater who doesn't chew and eats a high percentage of commercial meat without deteriorating his health. The commmercially available meat in the U.S. is the worst of the world. It should quickly bring him down. Tom, your article "vegan attitudes re: instincto" was excellent. I enjoyed the section about vegans calling instinctos "in-stinkos". LOL! :-) The description about your transition from being hostile against instinctive eating to accepting was interesting. Nothing can replace personal experience. Bob, it seems you will never succeed in unsubscribing this list... ;-) The reason for this is simply, that there is a 20,000 Gauss magnetic food field around this list, that doesn't allow you to leave! Bet you didn't think of this possibility! :-) The issue of ethylene and bananas is correct. Bananas produce ethylene when ripening. To hinder them from ripening too quickly when being shipped, the ethylene is removed constantly and replaced by nitrogen. This is called CA (no, no, not California! Controlled Atmosphere) :-) At the endpoint of the banana journey they are put into ripening cham- bers and artificial ethylen is blown in to accelerate ripening. Also temperature is thouroughly controlled while shipping and ripening. Best controlled instinctive wishes, Stefan E-Mail: [log in to unmask]