Hi, Liz!

A possible reason for some people doing well on a vegetarian diet is that
they have the metabolism for it, and not for heavy meat-eating.  I think if
you eat the food that your body can digest and assimilate well, you will be
as well as you can be, provided all other things in your environment
support health.

I do not believe one exact diet fits all.  I have noticed that some people
on this list can handle more meat than others, and some can handle more
vegetables.  But we are all on a Paleo Diet.

One thing about people from India that should be kept in mind, is that the
country is short of heavy meat-eating Blood Type Os.  Type Os are very
vulnerable to malaria, and there is a lot of it in southern India, killing
off Os selectively.  So genetically, the remaining people can get by much
better with a low-meat diet.  I subscribe to a Type O list, and every so
often, an ex-vegetarian O writes about how much better they feel now that
they eat meat.  It takes them a while to get their minds around eating
meat, though.

The proof of the pudding is in the aging.  When I was young, I had a lot of
animal energy and could get away with eating improper foods.  I tried
vegetarianism, and at first, I felt better--cleaner and clearer.  Then
within a year, on the very same diet, I began to lose energy.  It probably
was cleansing in a fashion, but like fasting, not something good (for me,
anyway) to do forever.  And now, at AARP age, I wouldn't even dream of
it.  I am an idealist, and I have decided my health is a more useful ideal
for me than scruples about killing some poor animal that never did anything
bad to me--the vegetables killed for my table didn't do anything bad to me,
either.

This whole question of healthy diet is fascinating to me, and I know each
person has his own idea of what is right for him and everybody else.

Jane
Tucson, AZ  USA


At 10:53 AM 12/4/03 -0800, you wrote:
>Like you I was unhealthy on a low meat diet , but,  I have to confess
>that the few vegans I know all have exceptionally beautiful skin (of
>course two are  yoga teachers) -- anyone have any ideas why this should
>be so. They're all skinny too -- whereas I gained weight like a maniac
>on a vegetarian diet.
>
>Namaste, Liz
>
>
>On Thursday, December 4, 2003, at 05:48 AM, Lynnet Bannion wrote:
>
>>I have seen some vegans whose faces are very shiny; they are not puffy
>>but look overly scrubbed
>>with high color.