From: dam@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (David Morning)
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition
Subject: Re: True Vegeterian - is it OK?
Date: 25 Jan 93 13:01:08 GMT
Organization: Glasgow University Computing Science Dept.

betsys@cs.umb.edu (Elizabeth Schwartz) writes:

Well, thank you very much for your reply Elizabeth. This is the first time in
a long time I've had some genuinly useful information to go on.

[Eating a solely fruit based diet]


>  Note that you FIRST have to attain enlightenment. There were many
>cases in the sixties of people starving on brown rice in the mistaken
>belief that eating the diet could help the cause. Without getting into
>a debate about whether yogis can really live only on fruit, or only on
>rice, any responsible teacher will emphasize *health* and the practice
>of yoga and meditation FIRST. I've NEVER heard any teacher urge
>beginners to follow these super-strict regimes.

Well, I think this may be fairly close to the truth. I didn't elaborate on
my friends outlook, but essentially he constantly harks back to the 'old
days' of the 60s and hippies.
I've known him fairly well for about 20 years and he's always been someone
who's gone off on weird bandwaggons he invents himself based on bits of info
he gets from various sources. The info is never complete so he ends up with
weird mixes. Once he's decided on the mix he wants, come hell or high water,
nothing will change his mind and even the most reasoned article on why he
SHOULDN'T do a certain thing is dismissed out of hand.

The main concern at the moment is that the rather extreme diet he is following
may be doing him psychological damage. He's certainly suffered a serious
personality change in the last 2 years. He's spent about 18 months (and I'm
not exaggerating!!) in his bedroom refusing to speak to anyone and lying in his
bed. Even an old friend, who'd come all the way from the US was turned away at
the door by his parents and he refused to talk to him on the phone.
It's only in the last maonth that I've finally managed to make contact with
him, and even then, he's very reluctant to speak.
I've got a foot in the door and don't want to let it close again so anything
I can use to pursuade him to do anything about his diet would help.

>encouraging your friend's other spiritual goals. If there's a local
>macrobiotic society in Glasgow that might be your best bet. Around

In Glasgow?? Heart disease and lung cancer capital of the world????  :-)

 should point out that my friend has no 'spiritual goals' per se. I don't know
where this weird diet came from, but I strongly suspect it relates to something
he read about Red Indians some years ago and that they only ate fallen fruit
and not plucked fruit.

His rational goes....plants are sensitive to humans, they respond to being
spoken to and they react when damaged i.e. they hurt when fruit/grain etc is
picked. He is devoted to peace and therefore should not do anything that will
hurt another living thing including plants therefore he should eat nothing
that hasn't fallen naturally to the ground, just like (he thinks) the Red 
Indians. This eliminates virtually everything from his diet including rice
which is harvested.
I tried explaining to him that Red Indians chopped down trees to make totem
poles but that cut no ice, they apologised to the tree first.

Thanks anyway for some interesting stuff. Maybe I'll try and pursuade him to
take at least vitamin/mineral supplements again. Last time he poo-poo'd it
but he reasonably well then.

Dave
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