Tom: > Let me give you a short list of problems that one can encounter: > dental damage, eating disorders and behavior, emaciation, severe fatigue/ > lassitude, mental problems, and so on. > Look around you. People who are 100% raw for long term are rare. People who > are long-term 100% raw AND mentally healthy are rarer still, in my opinion - > and experience. If the diet is so great, why aren't there a lot more? > Why are there more former raw-fooders than current raw-fooders? There's a > lesson here if we can open up and receive it. > I have seen reports of people leaving raw, and taking up macrobiotics (and > other diets), and finding their health improves - especially mental health. > Raw is best for some, but not all. People are different, so are diets. > What is best for one may be bad for another. That's life. Chet: During my 49 issue run of my newsletter, I corresponded with a lot of people, and I could count on one hand the number of them who stayed with a 100% raw diet for that four year period. As Tom indicates above, just about everyone I've known during my five-year experiment with diet and health has had to change his/her diet in some way. I'm more and more of the opinion that any major dietary change provokes some kind of result for the human body. I have friends who swear by the high fat/high meat diet and who claim they've healed their health problems by practically living on homemade beef jerky; I have other friends who will say the same thing about a high fruit diet; and we have literally thousands of people who will tell you the Hallelujah Diet has healed them of everything from asthma to major cancer problems. If I learned anything during this five year period, it's that people are different and that there is no single 100%, sure thing human diet. I can tell you for a fact that the Hallelujah Diet program works for thousands of people because I sit here and read the testimonies that pour in every day, but I can also tell you for a fact that the folks who get on our program will modify it as time goes on to fit their particular needs and wants... physical, mental, emotional, and so on... > Dariusz ROZYCKI <[log in to unmask]>: > >Has a not-all-raw diet become somewhat of a dogma to you perhaps, Mr. > >Billings? Or if you're speaking purely from experience (which is > >probably the case) then why do people fail on all-raw diets (again, > >*well-balanced* raw diets); put another way: why would there be a *need* to > >eat something that is not raw? If you read what Tom writes from an objective point of view, I don't know how you can talk about dogma... I don't know of anyone on this list less ruled by dogma than Tom. I would suggest not thinking in terms of "failure" and "success" with your health program, although that's certainly how I thought of myself in my early years. These days I think only in terms of what element of my whole program can I tweak to experience even better sense of well-being. Note: diet is only ONE part of a health program. I personally believe that exercise is just as important as diet, and I'd stick a couple of other factors up there as well. > Tom: > My only dogmas are health and truth. I want you to find a diet that works > for you - I don't care if it is raw or cooked - that's for you to determine. Chet: Amen! Tom: > Because I clung strongly to rawist dogma for years when I was 100% raw, > and even when I was "only" 80% raw, I ignored health problems as "detox": > the diet is perfect, it must be my fault - that's what the fanatics will > tell you, and it's what I foolishly believed. I am here to tell you the > following: > > * nature is imperfect, and all diets and health systems are imperfect also > * don't expect perfection in this world - you won't find it > * elevating simplistic, dietary dogma like rawism, until it is more important > than common sense, is a bad idea (and can cause harm) > * do the things necessary to have good health - cooked or raw > * don't obsess on 100% raw, or 100% anything > * don't obsess on the physical - take care of your mental and spiritual > health also. Chet: Extremely well put. Think less about this stuff and live more and listen to your body. That's what I've learned during my five years. At a recent health minister's training program I attended, we have 120 people come to learn more about the Hallelujah Diet. Some of these folks were ill; some were quite over weight; some looked great. Not a single one of them I talked to was obsessing over how much raw to eat and how much cooked... I find their attitude about making gradual improvements in their lives a lot more positive and healthy than the often obsessive things I read here on the list. Note: I sound judgmental above but I don't mean to be. Each of us has to grow at our own speed... I certainly had my obsessive period, and I can still be pretty zealous about some thing (though I try to keep those things to myself these days). Chet Day Learn God's Way to Ultimate Health at Hallelujah Acres Online: http://hacres.com