Tom: > M: A raw foods diet will give you perfect health. > M: A raw foods diet will give you a perfect body. > R: The term "perfect health" cannot even be defined. Health has many > aspects, and we cannot make it well ordered, in an objective way. That > is, we cannot objectively say who is healthier: someone with a SAD > diet, poor physical health but good mental health, or a fruitarian > zealot with good physical health but who is hostile/mentally ill. > We can only be subjective about such things, and I would say that a > peaceful meat eater is healthier than a hostile fruitarian zealot! > (Why? Because it is easy to detox the body, hard to detox the mind.) I think that everyone's dream is to have a permanent sensation of well being, and the myth is that by eating raw you will achieve that goal. I thought that at the beginning too, during the first euphoric stages. Maybe sugar-highs can be mistaken for mystic states too. For sevveral months, I thought I could eat raw and neglect other aspects of diets, neglect exercise, etc... but I think more and more that "perfect health" (in the sense defined above) is very difficult to attain, and eating raw is only one among many factors. > M: All health problems you experience on a raw foods diet, are due to > detox of stored poisons. > R: This is a dangerous delusion, one that guides some people to real harm. > If a disorder is caused by detox, then the disorder should get somewhat > better as time goes by, as your detox process continues. If that does not > happen, then the disorder is not connected with detox, and may be a > deficiency or a real disease. Also, I would strongly advise anyone with > serious health problems (especially acute problems), to consult (as soon > as possible) a qualified health professional. Don't assume it is detox, > and don't sacrifice your health/well-being on the alter of rawist dogma! It would be useful to give a few tips about how to make the difference between detox, "tox", deficiencies and real disease. I have no idea, since I have never experienced other inconvenients than a temporary weakness. Can weakness be a sign of detoxification? How can detoxification cause weakness? > M: You should only eat those foods which you can gather with your bare > hands, while naked. > R: With apologies to author Desmond Morris, I will refer to this as the > "naked ape" hypothesis. The above myth is often repeated, with religious > fervor, by some raw fooders. > Problem: this myth is a denial of reality, and a denial of your true > nature. The very definition of human beings specifies, among other things, > that we are intelligent tool users. Those who promote this myth are denying > the use of tools, and they are denying our intelligence; hence they are > literally in denial of their true nature. To deny tool use is to make us > lower than the chimpanzees (who have been observed using sticks as tools to > eat termites, a common food for them). It lowers modern humans to below the > level of Australopithecus, one of our prehistoric ancestors who was very > ape-like. So, this myth can be seen as an insult to humanity, or a denial of > our humanity, in a sense. By the way, I haved just learned about a few fishing and hunting techniques of Eskimos: very elaborate and interesting! Jean-Louis