Hi Andre, > When I went rawfoodist for an entire year - the weight went down to > 180 & the blood pressure went to normal. > - Now that I'm vegan again(since July 98), my weight is back up to 205! Are you now eating breads, noodles, bagels, muffins, cereals, cakes, cookies -- in other words things made out of wheat and other grains? Was that by any chance the biggest change in going from raw foods to your current diet? I ask because these things are fattening for lots of people! (I'm just assuming you wanted to weight less than you currently do - or are you happy with your current weight?) > It much fouler that the other members of the > family (they eat everything but red meat) I'll bet it's those beans! Loads of people have problems with beans (and by the way, tofu, the "darling" of the vegetarian community, is made from beans -- fermented (which in itself is a problem for some people) soy beans). Also - do you eat dairy products? (milk, cheese, ice-cream, anything made of milk). The other day I saw an even higher number for the percentage of people of African descent that are allergic to milk proteins (in addition to being "lactose intolerant, meaning that they are unable to digest milk sugars). If I'm remembering correctly it was somewhere up around 80%. (By the way, this is for cow's milk, not human milk, or goat, sheep, or other milk or milk products). > I decided to go vegan because it just did not seem > morally right for humans to eat meat. Yes, there are lots of people feel the way you do. (Most of the gigantic country of India, for one). My own sister, a SUPER animal lover, and life-long champion of animal rights, has not eaten ANY form of meat for 28 years! Not even meat "stock" that might be a component of vegetable soup, or things like that. Animnal cruelty is definately an important issue. So I can understand how you feel. (I always wonder about myself, whether I'm just a meaner person than my sister, :D since I love to hunt and fish. For me, it's just _fun_ somehow. ESPECIALLY when I get to eat it afterwards. And members of my family and friends hunt, too, and provide us with lots of good food - caribou, deer, pheasants, shad, mackerel, herring, salmon, lots of good stuff.) > I unfortunately > did not have an interest in getting a degree in > digestion or nutrition when I went vegan. HA!! :D That's hysterical. I loved your analogy to buying a car, too. I would have to say that the huge majority of my clients say exactly the same thing. They do NOT want to have to know all the confusing details, or understand the science. That's what they hire me for. Wnat they want is to be able to trust that I'll do my homework, advise them of the key issues, and then let them make whatever decisions need to be made -- the same way you'd do with a plumber (not there's any special similariy between these two professions! heee heee other than their professionalism). > What is intestinal, flora You have loads and loads and loads of little bugs and germs and microbes and organisms living in you - parasites is one word you might hear. The reality is that every living thing is host to a vast array of other _smaller_ living things that make a cozy home for themselves and their families in various sites and organs and tissues and bodily fluids. That's just as it should be - it's the great, beautiful, "web of life." So your and my guts are inhabited by an awesome number of these, as well they should be. However what happens is, that for a number of different reasons of modern lifestyles, the environments of our guts (meaning among other things the acidity, permeability of the wall, "stickiness" of the wall, temperature, secretions, which foods come down the pipe, etc) these things change in such a way as to make our guts inhospitable to the bugs that HELP us digest things (one of their jobs), and, unfortunately, very welcoming to microbes that don't help us in any particular way - in fact when they start making babies and creating large extended families and communities, they cause all sorts of problems (maybe the biggest being that THEY, like us, have to eat food, and then they, like us, have to "poop." It's their poop that's the biggest problem.) Anyhow, "intestinal flora" is just the fancy word for bugs that live in your intestines. >I've pretty much always have been bloated, but I=92ve attributed >that to my lack of exercise. I thought the pot belly was from >not enough sit ups, etc. That might be partially true, since if you had awesomely strong, tight, abdominal muscles, like your ancestors probably did, then that would help all those organs that are right behind all those muscles. Part of that hanging-stomach look is just weak muscles, and I've found that people's stomachs (especially the "lower abs" that both sexes complain about) go "in" with focused excercise. But the problem if bloating, from too much food, or too much gas, is a different one. A well-functioning stomach doesn't get bloated, in my experience, unless it's fed foods that it can't digest (either too much at one sitting, or foods that make gas). > Oh by the way - I do have one bad vice here. > My only vice here is OVEREATING!!! Me too. I love to eat, and I do eat way past the full mark when a thing tastes delicious. There's an interesting list you might want to check into - I used to keep up with it but haven't had the time - it's the "Calorie Restricion Society" - formed in response to Roy Walford's interesting book about the connection between low calorie diets and longevity. In fact, just like any good list group, there are TWO lists (the "good list" and "the one I wouldn't have anything to do with" :D I have no idea which is which since I haven't kept up over there). Anyhow, from all the evidence about both health AND longevity, if you really want to make a big improvement in your health, you could cut your calories. But you should consider the reasons you're overeating, too. It might be because you're missing nutrients, in other words your body is just CRAVING something it's not getting, so you keep being "hungry" for it. Overeating could also be a sugar problem - lots of people I've worked with are on a cycle of over-tiredness so they need the sugar and caffeine to get hyped up so they can function, and then they crash, and need more, and then crash again (3pm is a famous crash time in the U.S.), so then they need more to wake up again, and then of course it's hard to get a decent sleep at night because of all the caffeine and sugar and upset of hormonal secretions and so on. But this cycle kind of typically goes hand-in-hand with overeating. And then there's just that lovely habit of GLUTTONY. Lots of cultures encourage it, especially the ones where poverty and starvation is part of the heritage. And people eat for all kinds of emotional reasons (my particular area of interest and specialization.) > I just love to eat > - what can I say. :D Heee Heeee. Yes, eating is great. A great part of life. Glad to hear you like to enjoy yourself! :) Anyway, thanks for your great emails. Nice getting to know you! :D Love, Liza --------------- [log in to unmask] (Liza May)