Ingrid:
>since the child is sharing in whatever the mother eats,
>why not feed it the very best food available? Is continuing to eat (and feed
>the baby) lesser quality foods and "toxins" for fear of detoxing better?
>Each individual must decide for themselves.

Yes, they must. If instincto is such a detoxer, then a formerly SAD eating
women would be detoxing all that formerly-consumed SAD food once she
undertook instincto. Is that better? If a half slice of bread a day would
keep the detox at bay, why wouldn't that be an option? Mommy's got decades
left to detox--why put the fetus through it? That is, if there is anything
to at all to the "everything but raw undenatured food is toxic" bit.

Did I say anything about feeding a baby lessor quality foods? Or do you
mean via mother's bloodstream? Lessor quality foods I understand (though
opinions vary) but _toxins_? Seems everyone has their favorite toxins.
There is a balance you seem to miss, though. A pregnant woman need not
decide between SAD and instincto.

>I personally found that during pregnancy my "instinctive responses" were
>markedly heightened, and I've always found that when I respect these
>responses, I never have any strong detox reactions, at the most mild fatigue
>or slight body odour.

Most women report heightened sensitivity to foods during pregnancy.

Whether or not you have mild or strong detox reactions is interesting, but
it is not the basis for which you can generalize to humanity, nor to a
pregnant woman on a mailing list.

>I also miscarried a child while "instincto"

Sorry to hear that.

>but I must add that my eating
>was quite likely not the cause.

What if it was?

>It's true that I *was* at the time eating a
>very limited diet, primarily fruit of low non-organic quality and *very*
>limited variety and quantity because I was living in difficult circumstances
>in India. No animal products and no greens, both things we have found to be
>*vital* for maintaining a longterm healthy instinctive balance.

So it was your limited diet, or not?

>I am also
>not sure as to the exact cause of the miscarriage since despite being quite
>thin and missing nutrients, I felt very healthy and energetic. I lost the
>baby immediately after witnessing a traumatic drowning and then driving for
>an hour on *severely* potholed roads on a motorcylcle, and I actually
>believe the cause was not nutritional, at least not primarily.

Yes, I can imagine the guilt there would be in allowing that thought to
rear its ugly head. Whether or not a healthy fetus can withstand most any
trauma (as I have been told), I don't know. But as to whether a raw vegan
diet has been sculpted by evolution to help us procreate I am more sure. Of
course, the cause of a particular miscarraige will always be pretty
mysterious I suspect.

>The
>miscarriage itself, while emotionally very painful and draining, was
>physically easy with no complications. Since then I've discovered that
>miscarriage is actually surprisingly common.

Yeah, the stories sure come out of the woodwork, don't they? I'd sure like
to see some stats on rawists (and instinctos) and their procreation events.

>Months after this miscarriage I conceived again, this time in Canada, and
>added raw animal products to my diet after 16 years as a vegetarian.

I'm confused. You were instincto in India, but vegetarian? Aren't those
mutually exclusive terms? Did you choose to include animal foods once you
were pregnant again, or beforehand? Was this intellect or instinct? What
did you think it was then?

>During
>this pregnancy, I contracted toxoplasmosis...My only symptoms were two days of
>(comfortable) fever and painless swollen lymph nodes in my armpits for about
>2 weeks.

Benign, but not asymptomatic, it seems.

>At 8 1/2 months pregnant, I was told that my toxo. titres were among the
>highest ever found, way off the charts.

You must be proud, as it turned out, that you had the courage to stick to
your beliefs and refuse treatment. Do you have an ESR from that blood test?
(I admit to ignornance of toxo. titres).

>In the end we trusted ourselves, our intuition,
>and the instinctive path we have experienced as so life-changing. We knew
>what we must do.

Very inspiring. Such events make one's faith justified.

>Our baby was born at home "unassisted" after two hours of the most blissful
>labour I could ever have imagined. He was, and is, radiantly healthy and
>beautiful.

Yes.

>The only "defect" that is evident from my illness is the enamel
>on 6 of his teeth which is very porous due to my fever at the time the teeth
>were develping in utero.

How can you know this for a fact? Even if it is true, then you are simply
providing an example of how instincto can adversely affect a fetus--you
wouldn't be eating raw lamb if you weren't instincto, would you? But not by
detox, but intox. And there may be greater and lessor degrees of effect
among individuals. Especially since no one, not even yourself apparently,
can eat perfectly instincto, as you extoll below.

>He has never been tested for toxoplasmosis, because
>he would have immediately been entered in a research test program including
>daily intense drugs for one year and weekly blood
>sampling---"non-compliance" might have meant losing our child to the system.

Wow, sounds like the Canadian health care system is much more coercive than
the US system.

>he remains completely healthy on a 100% raw instinctive
>regime, including breastmilk.

I'm sure he'll continue to do well.

>Toxoplasmosis can result from any eating of raw meat (as well as handling
>cat litter etc), but is benign to most non-pregnant people (abut 90% of
>people in France have had it and are therefore immune, for example).

How did you find out that you had the toxoplasmosis?

>Severely immune-deficient people are also at risk. I believe that although I
>contracted it during pregnancy, my body knew how to respond due to my
>optimum health (hence the high titres---immune response), and it knew how to
>protect my baby.

Your belief is inspiring. However, I would challenge you not to generalize
your idea to be the one that is best for humanity, or even pregnant
womenkind. ;) You had a miscarry and a healthy baby. The miscarry is blamed
on exogenous events (though the diet was admittedly poor); the healthy baby
is credited with instincto optimum health--and any less-than-optimal
features are dismissed with the standard "I ate it but I wasn't really
attracted to it". It's just not enough information to to tell a pregnant
women to adopt the diet that was so life-changing for you.

>Would I make the change during pregnancy? Yes. Would I eat raw meat? Yes.
>But in both cases I would be very aware of respecting my instinctive
>responses, I would not limit the variety of foods, I would take great care
>with the quality of the meat, and I would *not* eat it (or a anything
>else)unless it tasted great.

Sounds ideal. Not very practical, probably impossible, but _perfect_
overall. ;)

>Wow! This unexpectedly turned into a big long story! Hope it's helpful.

I'm not sure who you're trying to help, but it was a very interesting
story. Thanks for sharing.

I'm curious. Do you recommend to pregnant raw vegan women that they include
raw animal foods in their diet, or at least allow their offspring access to
them? Seems only fair, if you are going to recommend raw animal foods for
pregnant women who eat cooked animal foods. Or was that jean-claude? ;)

Cheers,
Kirt

PS. Hey Manis--how goes?

Secola  /\  Nieft
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