Gene Kelly

I ave a 14 year old son, who is also a raw foodist. My wife and daughter eat their share of raw food, but also partake of the cooked variety.

I am not in the military, but have Status of Forces Afloat (SOFA) status, so I can use overseas bases. I am a civilian contractor working at a Japanese shipyard in Nagasaki. The shipyard is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). I worked one year in Tokyo at a different Japanese shipyard and have been here in Sasebo, about 55 miles from Nagasaki, since July 19th, 1997. My son and daughter go to school at the Navy Base. They have no international schools in Nagasaki and I thought it would be too hard for my children to send them to a Japanese school. They probably wouldn't learn much initially. I have been a vegetarian since Christmas 1990. I got introduced to raw food while working in Hawaii in 1995 after picking up the eminent Joe Alexander's way cool book, "Blatent Raw Foodist Propaganda". He's at the top of my list of raw foodist list. He has such a natural, informal writing style. It's like he's in the room and your having a conversation with him. Ah, yes, it was June 1995. After researching his numerous references, I went on a 25 day unsupervised water fast in late August 1995, while still working full time. Actually, I prepared a litle. I had first read "Intuitive Eating" by Smokey ?, and had switched to almost all raw. I then did a 5 day water fast in late June 1995 but broke fast because I had to go on a 7 day trip to Japan and thought it would be too stressful, being my first fast and all. I had gotten some motivational tapes from the Natural Hygiene folks. By the the time I started the 25 day fast in early July i was at 180 pounds down from about 195 pounds. I lost 30 pounds during fast and went down to 150 pounds, the least I had weighed since my 145 pounds in my junior year of high school in cross-country running. I broke the fast when my company unexpectedly asked me to travel to California. I hate that.

Anyway, since 1995 I have read many books on natural hygiene and raw food eating and have strived to reach the fruitarian ideal. I just found this very informational web group interest site recently (I don't know, what do you call this site? ) I love this site; its very informational. I joined The Fruitarian Network in australia and like Rene's and Tatiana's publication. I read Nature's First Law's motivational book and their absolutely stupendous raw food catalog, the greatest on the blue planet! These guys are really cool. I love R.C. Dini's tape, the Raw Courage Vegetable Man, and, of course, the great motivator, David Wolfe, love that name, Fats Avacodo, and his radio interviews, and the all raw bodybuilder and raw workout tape producer and star, Captain Wheatgrass, Stephen Arlen and his raw food eating dog who appears to be a white Labrador.

I am somewhat persuasive, hah!, I convinced my son to go all raw and he has been since late August 1997. He hasn't had any cooked food since then and he is a great comic book artist. My son is an inspiration to me! ( I cheat with red wine occasionally, well I guess wine is raw, just rotten, and sometimes even chips when I'm really bad, my God!) My wife and daughter are harder sells, but that's okay too. They eat more raw food than before, anyway.

I really like Sapoty Brooke's book "Eco-eating". Having a master's degree in electrical engineering I appreciate his technical, but spiritual and inspiring approach. How did he think of the CaPNaK chart. Was it divine inspiration? He's an electrical engineer/neuroscientist who camped out in in a tent in Tokyo for months. This guy really has moxie! He is a motivation to me to eat at least 1 pound of leaf lettuce a day to get the needed calcium in your diet. I tried the broccoli for awhile, but it gets kind of bland after awhile, but I'm sure its good for you.

I have had problems with my teeth inthe past year striving for the fruitarian ideal. I now believe that the furitarian ideal is not for me. I lost part of one tooth and had to have my only root canal molar pulled after the gum swelled up, got infected, and the military dentist in Tokyo did not give me confidence at all in his ability to remove part of my gum, remove the supposed piece of flesh my previous dentist in Hawaii forgot to remove when he did the root canal. From my experience I tend to agree with Sapoty Brooke, that the fruitarian ideal can cause teeth problems at a minimum. I think, all raw is great, because it makes you feeel great and the body, overall reacts very positively! I believe, however, despite all I have read that vegetables are needed definetely, whether juiced or whole. My diet is 1/2 pound leaf lettuce (romaine or otherwise, but not iceberg) in the AM when I'm driving to work and 1/2 pound lettuce on the way home. The lettuce is a great calming influence and my teeth probelms have disappeared. Thank-you Sapoty Brooke! I also, right now drink at least 24 oz. of vegetable juice in a carrot base, of course ( celery-the celery gives me the sodium and will power to stay away from chips-see Sapoty's book, tomato, cucumber, red cabbage and red pepper are added at my whim). I then add strawberry and banana smoothie and also eat at least 6 tangerines a day (they're called mikons in Japan or Madarin oranges).

Being now a raw foodist and not necessarily a vegetarian, I also partake of shashimi, or raw fish every few days for the B-12 and for a little more protein. I have been able to eat the raw sardine with bones yet. I can't seem to find them fresh. Sapoty Brooke was also my inspiration here. After reading Chet Day's interesting web site and Dr. Bass's ultimate Diet I also have tried recently the occasional raw egg yolk. I just don't want to even get close to what i consider a calcium mineral deficiency, I was in while trying to reach the fruitarian ideal. I also found I could not train hard in my running with all fruit; I'd wear out. The brocolli and lettuce gave me the pick up I needed.

I know we're all different genetically and some are more adapted to some foods than others depending on where our ancestor's came from. I found Ward Nicholson's interview, referenced here on an e-mail and on Chet Day's site, very interesting and enlightening on the implications of eating grains and dairy products.

I really like Essie Honnibal's book "I Eat Fruit and Nothing Else!", but I want to keep my teeth and not become like the Hawaiian, Joshua Rainbow, who lost his teeth on an all fruit, but considered it worth it. Please read the chapter in Sapoty Brooke's book starting on page 73 called "Eating for the Teeth", where he recommends 750 grams (about 1 1/2 pounds, 454 grams = 1 pound) of green leaf vegetables daily (this includes romaine, red or green leaf lettuce and broccoli). He believes that nature discourages the eater from eating too many hard seeds and nuts, by creating receding gums which make the teeth sensitive. I had this sensitive teeth, receding gum problem a few months ago and it went away after I followed Sapoty's recommendations along with the calming effect of the green leaf vegetables. I owe him big time!

The all fruit diet seems deficient in minerals to me and I feel much more calm and do not have the cravings I used to have on an all fruit diet. My body seems to be getting what it needs and does not make my mind become anxious and unsettled when I add the green leaf vegetables and vegetable juice.

Please let me know if I am alone in this. I have done an 11 day fast, and couple 7-8 day water fasts since 1995. I have read Ann Wigmore's books and Victor Kulvinska's "Survival into the 21st Century". I really like Ann Wigmore's works, and I was very sad to hear of her death in 1985 in Boston. Just before this I had lived inmaine for 4 1/2 years and really wanted to go to her institute. Someday I would like to journey to Puerto Rico where her desciples live on teaching her unique and original methods and food preparations. I have never done the enemas and/or colonics and frankly am a little leary/scared of them. I have searched for a long time to get to where I am and I now know that you cannot believe everything you read no matter how well intentioned. This may be simply due to the fact that everyone has a different body, a different genetic history.

I'm not sure if similiar genetic histories and different sexes make a difference. Maybe so up through menopause. I'm not sure about the supplements, like BarleyGreen that Chet Day espouses. I leave my mind open until I try it. I am against processing that makes raw food dead, but Chet seems to think that BarleyGreen is alive (no high heat processing) and contains many minerals and vitamins. I don't know much about the maltodexatrin base that stabilizes the BarleyGreen so it doesn't oxidize. Does anyone have any insight into this? Is this a good thing? I like empirical evidence, if it makes you feel good and people experience no long term health problems like heart problems, cancer or mineral deficency problems that effect teeth then the diet is probably a healthy one.

Look forward to hearing any comments on my teeth/fruitarian concerns, raw fish/ raw food diet connection, raw green vegetable effects, BarleyGreen yeas/nays or anything else. I truly enjoy reading all the great publications that come out on raw food and I have read others. I want to read David Kleine's story, Gabrial Cousen's books, and Dr. Walker's books on juicing. I also enjoyed very much Herbert Shelton's works on fasting and diet, the many natural hygienist tapes I've listened to by Dr. Esser, Dr. Vatrano, Jo Willard, and others. The Fit For Life books are also excellent and of course, T.C. Fry's works. I haven't taken his course, but as you can see from above I fear the all fruit diet long term.

I know this was long winded, but beside my family, I'm pretty isolated here for good English conversation in Japan. I'm the only American in an all Japanese office and I speak some Japanese, but am in no way a fluent Japanese speaker and they are not too high on the raw food diet to say the least! They love shashimi, of course, but also must have their cooked rice and various and sundry other cooked concoctions.

From the Orient,
Gene Kelly (yes, just like the dancer/actor)

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