Guest guest Posted May 17, 2004 Report Share Posted May 17, 2004 I have been reading some of the posts of the last several weeks, trying to catch up with the zillions of posts on this list. On the subject of the posts re eating animals and animal products on this list, I wish to put in my two cents. I have been raw vegan, essentially fruitarian, for the past 13-1/2 years. I am also an animal rights activist, so you know where I'm coming from. Vegan is the only diet that makes sense, not only in terms of compassion toward our fellow creatures, but also in terms of health, and it is the only diet that is compatible with our physiology. And raw vegan is optimal. I believe I will post my long treatise on the anatomically and physiologically compatible diet of humans, if permitted. Many people come to veganism purely for reasons of health, and that's fine. Obviously, these people will not have much of an opinion or interest in the lives of the animals who are brutally enslaved, tortured, mercilessly mass murdered for humans to eat—1 million every hour in the U.S. alone. And the animals used for dairy and egg production also are horribly brutalized and murdered as soon as their production decreases. But there are those of us who do have a very strong viewpoint about it, and in fact, I hope that those who come to veganism purely as a matter of health, will become more aware of the moral aspects, and begin to embrace veganism out of compassion as well. I see in some posts what appears to me a deliberate baiting of vegans, expecting vegans to be wusses, as though that is somehow the healthy way to be. Ahimsa is the ideal way to be, IMO, but when there is so much brutality toward non-humans, and so much unhealth that feeds the brutality that then turns around and feeds the unhealth, some must take a stand. Especially when one goes to a raw vegan list, for support on the optimal diet of raw vegan foods, and encounters posts and threads which promote other, even contrary, agendas. Yes, there are diplomatic ways to say it, but often one loses patience with, and finds offensive, the promotion of eating the corpses and other products of brutalizing our slain non-human brothers and sisters. I have no use for religion nor deism of any kind, nor for any anthropocentric philosophies, and many of the posts I see on boards from religionists, I find especially chilling, seeking to denigrate non-humans to soulless, mindless automatons. Frankly, I find animals to have far more soul, mind, consciousness than most humans, and I consider non-humans to be far superior to humans in every way. I realize of course that not all religionists are anthropocentric, nor are all religions themselves, particularly the more ancient Asian religions, and for that I am grateful. I realize most people are not going to agree with me, but it needs to be kept in mind that there is a reason that some of us visit a raw vegan board, and speaking for myself, I do not have any interest in posts promoting religion and/or the consumption of animal products. I have seen plenty of these posts on many lists, and have debated these issues with people in the past ad nauseam. But for me, I prefer not to use up my life energy or time with reading and hearing more of the same, which I do not agree with, getting uselessly absorbed in arguments. Narrow-minded? I would call it focused. My agenda is spreading the health of raw veganism, and compassion/live and let live for non-humans, which of course dovetail perfectly. There is too little of it in the world, and too much of the rest. Raw veganism needs to have a safe, nurturing haven in the few raw vegan boards that exist. Additionally, there is another aspect that most raw vegans are not aware of. The raw food movement began as a raw vegan movement. There have been raw vegans around for a very long time, few though they may be. Raw veganism being the ideally healthy diet was covered in depth in Natural Hygiene, nearly a century ago, and perhaps that was the beginning of the renaissance of raw veganism/fruitarianism in modern times. This is after Hygiene, one and a half to nearly two centuries ago, re-introduced the eating of raw fruits and salads into our society—absolutely everything had been eaten only boiled for many centuries prior in our society. When the raw vegan movement really began taking off, there began a movement to try to discredit it, as there usually is with all successful movements, as well as people wanting to carve out their own niches. So began the raw animal foods (RAF) movement, which is obnoxiously loud and aggressive, and whose members frequent raw vegan groups in person, as well as internet groups, to recruit members. They relentlessly promote their propaganda, while using baseless scare tactics of " deficiencies " and purported ill health and death in vegans, and of course how the RAF diet miraculously saved their lives. It is all b.s., yet we have been conditioned to heed such nonsense. And especially when it is slickly sold to seem to be part of the raw food movement. How else are they going to get people to eat rotting carcasses raw, as well as to consume embryos (eggs) and calf food (dairy)? I won't even get into the other stuff they eat, then you'd *really* be grossed out. Make no mistake, however, the RAF'ers are out to recruit from among the raw vegans, so there are often trolls on the vegan boards, or at least true believers in the RAF agenda looking to promote it. Raw vegans are the most likely targets to recruit, since they are already raw. It's much more difficult to get cooked flesh eaters to eat raw flesh, the unpalatability of it is the reason that humans began to cook in the first place. Beginning raw vegans are the easiest targets, since they are convinced that raw is optimal, yet they don't have enough information or experience to be able to discern the truth from the propaganda and are easily diverted by scare tactics re veganism, and raves about RAF's. This is why I consider the RAF propaganda so insidious and so dangerous and inappropriate on a raw vegan board, in addition to the fact that it clutters the already busy list with useless posts which serve only to create doubt in new raw vegans' minds. I think it's important to ask questions on a list, such as why the internet is so aggressively filled with websites and links trying to discredit raw veganism and promote RAF's, and to inquire what's up with these sites. But to promote the RAF agenda on a raw vegan list is counter to health and to the promoting of real information, and I am very glad that the moderator has such a strong presence to maintain the integrity of the list. I also applaud Tara and Nathalie and Jenny for their right-on posts, thank you on behalf of myself and the animals. Zsuzsa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 " southladogs " <southladogs> wrote: > Vegan is the only diet that makes sense, not only in terms of > compassion toward our fellow creatures, but also in terms > of health, and it is the only diet that is compatible with > our physiology. And raw vegan is optimal. I believe I will > post my long treatise on the anatomically and physiologically > compatible diet of humans, if permitted. > [...] > Zsuzsa I don't think that no anatomical and/or physiological treatise, no matter how sophisticated, can take away what I feel deep inside of me. I don't feel I'm a pure herbivore. I feel I'm an omnivore. I feel hunger for both vegetable and animal substances. My current diet consists of rye, fermented milk, berries, some vegetables, and various animals raised humanely or caught from the wild. I'm against sadistic behaviour and animal experiments. I found this group today and joined because I'm interested in the thoughts of people who feel they are herbivores or perhaps feel they are omnivores but choose to act differently. Fredrik, 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 18, 2004 Report Share Posted May 18, 2004 I am so not getting in the middle of this conversation, but have to share that my first thoughts upon reading this were " its like a tiger who can talk! " sorry and off I go, running for calmer pastures. I am in a weird place right now. Trying to find myself or recognize my rapidly changing self through the vehicle of raw foodism. oh wait. I feel that humans are omnivores... crafty and ingenious..able to make food out of a shoe basically. We're so smart! But because of that intelligence we are able to choose " above " our appetites, and be perfectly nourished. Angela Fredrik Murman <fpm wrote: I don't feel I'm a pure herbivore. I feel I'm an omnivore. I feel hunger for both vegetable and animal substances. My current diet consists of rye, fermented milk, berries, some vegetables, and various animals raised humanely or caught from the wild. I'm against sadistic behaviour and animal experiments. SBC - Internet access at a great low price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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