From: betsys@cs.umb.edu (Elizabeth Schwartz)
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition
Subject: Re: True Vegeterian - is it OK?
Date: 22 Jan 93 21:25:39 GMT
	<C0uCEE.D6q@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> <1993Jan15.083556.10055@rtf.bt.co.uk>
	<C120Et.Lou@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk>
Organization: University of Massachusetts at Boston

In article <C120Et.Lou@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> dam@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (David Morning) writes:
>I have a friend who takes vegetarianism to extreme in that he will only eat
>products that have fallen naturally from trees and not been picked. He's
>rather ill at the moment and looking rather thin. He won't accept that his
>rather fanatical diet may be contributing to his ill health so I looked it
>up in a book called The BMA Book of Family Health. It didn't mention the sort
>of extreme diet he was practising (which I suspect is probably based on
>some misconceptions he's heard) but I did read the entire sections relating

I'll give you two answers, one based on science and one based on what
may be your friend's worldview.

The diet you refer to is sometimes called "Frutarian" and it sure is
missing a lot of vital nutrients. Any good vegetarian nutrition book
or cookbook will lay out the "four basic vegetarian food groups" and
have information about why grains and beans are so important to a
vegetarian diet.

  From the point of view of people studying Eastern religions, it is
often beleived that people who *HAVE ATTAINED* a higher level of
consciousness can *THEN* subsist on lighter foods. The macrobiotic
diet has as its pinnacle nothing but brown rice. 

  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.
   
  The "standard" macrobiotic diet is a vegan diet that includes grains,
beans, land vegetables, and sea vegetables, and it seems to be healthy
enough. It's severe, but anyone who eats only fruit is probably
comfortable with that. There's a great emphasis on learning about the
properties of foods. Yin/Yang balancing in the macrobiotic system 
can match  acid/base and  salt/potassium contents of foods.

  In terms of reaching out to your friend, your best bet would be to
find a responsible teacher of these diets, or a book written by them.
All of them will stress *balance* and a *gradual* cutting back, and
should warn against the dangers of an unbalanced diet, while
encouraging your friend's other spiritual goals. If there's a local
macrobiotic society in Glasgow that might be your best bet. Around
here they go by the name "Kushi Institute" after the person who
popularized it. 

[Note: I'm not personally a big fan of the macrobiotic diet or the
group, but to reach someone, you have to start by speaking their
language, and the Kushi folks seem to be nice straighforward people]


  
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