An
Overview of the Raw Foods Diets
Which Include Raw Animal Foods
Some of the systems, philosophies,
names and
acronyms for raw diets which include animal foods which are
most frequently encountered are reviewed
below. First, these diets often are referenced by any or all
of several broad
names or acronyms, each of which is usually broad enough that it may
reference any of these diets. The list appears below:
- Raw
Animal Foods Diet, also known as RAF or RAFD. This term was
apparently coined by followers of Aajonus Vonderplanitz' Primal Diet,
although the term may really refer to any RAF diet
- Raw
Vegetation and
Animal Foods diet, also known as RVAF
- Raw Plant
and Animal
Foods diet, also known as RPAF
- Raw
Paleolithic diet, or Raw
Paleo Diet, also known as RPD, a broad term primarily used by the
current author, and coined by a few other authors as well
Donations
and Support for this Website
This freely-offered educational website has been totally
self-supported by the author, Vinny Pinto, since its inception (and
many of my websites were started between August 2000 and June 2003).
While I offer the content on this website freely, as a gift to all from
my heart, it is quite obvious that not only did my research in these
realms (and also my training, including formal education, that allowed
me to offer this material in the first place) incur costs, but there
are also monthly and yearly costs associated with web hosting, domain
registration, etc. As you have likely noticed, I have chosen not to
accept any advertising on any of my websites. As a result of all of
these factors, any funds that you might choose to donate toward
supporting my research work and this site will be very much
appreciated.
Thus, I am seeking donations to help me to support
this site -- even two dollars helps! If you wish to donate, you may do
so by using your credit card, ATM card, debit card, or transfer from
your bank account, via fully secure means. To make a
donation, please go to the Donations
and Support page ! All
transactions are secure; in all cases, you get to choose the donation
amount!
Thank you very
much!
Vinny
The entries for various systems which appear below
are largely organized into five (or six, I can't count!) major (but
loose) categories, to help you conceptualize and classify the
systems. Due to the diversity of our world and people's
opinions, these categories are necessarily rather sloppy and imprecise,
but should hopefully help to organize this page and your thinking a
bit. These categories are:
Raw foods diets which
include a sizable quantity
and broad range of animal foods Anopsology
(Anopsy), Instincto and related diets Raw
and partially-raw versions of traditional diets and Paleolithic diets
Raw lacto-vegetarian diets Raw,
nearly-vegan diets which include some
animal products Miscellaneous
RVAF diets and advocates
which do
not fit the above categories
The list begins! Please remember that
categories are a bit loose and vague, and some systems may not be a
good fit for any one category. Raw
Foods Diets Which Include a Sizeable Quantity and Broad Range of Animal
Foods
Primal Diet, a
name coined by Aajonus
Vonderplanitz,
author of the book We
Want to Live, is probably the best-known
such diet, as well as one of the
most largely-practiced, in the US and Canada. This diet has
been credited
by some folks with reversing their chronic and major
illnesses. The
diet is largely Paleolithic, with lots of raw dairy as well, along with
ample fresh raw green juices. To read an interesting and
informative
article from Natural Health M2M magazine containing
an interview
with Aajonus,
click
here. Aajonus's influence has been wide and strong,
and a good percentage of people in the Western world who eat raw diets
which include raw animal products eat a diet based on at least some
principles of the Primal Diet. Aajonus has identified and
elucidated some properties of various raw foods and how they affect
healing, cleansing, detoxification and rebuilding, and offers
useful guidelines for people starting such diets. He
has also
done some very good work in using iridology to identify raw dietary
needs. My
own impression is that Aajonus Vonderplanitz is
a very good researcher, and when he works as a nutritional
consultant he is highly intuitive and almost shamanistic in his ability
to discern nutritional needs and unique approaches to health
challenges. Aajonus Vonderplanitz is available to provide
coaching consultation for
persons trying to optimize the Primal Diet, and only to those persons
who
have already read his book (above). Aajonus may be contacted
at optimal@earthlink.net,
or by clicking
here. I recommend Aajonus' two books,
and, if you have a serious
illness and wish to try one of the more fundamentalist and prescriptive
approaches
to RVAF diets, then I recommend his coaching
services. Additional information on
Aajonus' Primal Diet may be found at the Hilarion
website and an overview of the diet plus a review of We
Want to Live may be found on Karl
Loren's website.
Dr. William D. Kelley, a
dentist
with a Master's degree in health, wrote a book in 1967 (and since
updated), entitled
One Answer to Cancer, or The Original Metabolic
Medicine’s Cancer Cure ("Dr.
Kelley’s Do-it-Yourself Book") which advocates
consumption of a raw
foods diet which includes raw animal foods as well as
supplements, primarily food enzymes.
Walter Last,
an Australian biochemist and natural healing author, also advocates a
raw foods diet as the healthiest diet, and his
recommended diet includes eggs, fish and meat as well as
plant products. He has published at least two books, Heal
Yourself and Healing Foods.
Hilarion, an
extra-dimensional entity channeled by Jon Fox, and which specializes in
matter of physical and emotional health, sometimes advises folks,
during consultations, to eat a RVAF diet similar to the Primal Diet
(above) espoused by Aajonus Vonderplanitz.
Anopsology
(Anopsy) and Instincto Diets and Related
Systems
In Europe, such
diets have
flourished under the names Instincto Diet and
Anopsology,
both founded by Guy-Claude
Burger,
a controversial figure in France. This diet advocates
instinct-guided mono-eating (one food only at a time) of raw foods, and
is largely a raw
version of a Paleolithic diet. It specifically excludes
grains and
beans (not Paleolithic foods), and also raw dairy (again, not strictly
a
Paleolithic food.) A movement with some
roots in Instincto diet,
including an intentional community and group of farms, is called Pangaia. A
member of this community named Zephyr (he now uses the name Ano, while
the book's author is still listed as Zephyr) has written a wonderful
book on Instincto diet and the Pangaian diet and philosophy named
Instinctive
Eating (subtitle: The Lost Knowledge of Optimum Nutrition),
which intensively covers eating raw animal foods as well as plant foods.
Roman Deambrun is a
primary
advocate of a California-based, Instincto-derived system named
Instinctive Nutrition, which has no affiliation with Instincto or
Anopsology, nor with Guy-Claude Berger. Here, in Roman's
words, is a synopsis of the movement and
their meticulously designed and highly readable new website:
"Almost 15 years
after Severen Schaeffer's book we are now announcing that Instinctive
Nutrition is making its debut in the United States with:
a One
on
One Instinctive Nutrition Coaching service available in California or
anywhere in the US upon demand. a brand
new book "Instinctive
Nutrition, better living through laws of nature" coming out by April
2002. an
online tutorial soon available on the website.
Thanks to new internet technologies, you will soon be able to
participate in a complete Instinctive Nutrition seminar from the
quietness of your home or from anywhere in the world.
a brand
new website
with a lot of scientific and practical information about the world
famous 100% raw
food diet. Visit
our website at
http://www.genefitnutrition.com/home.html
Even
if Instinctive
Nutrition fundamentally rests on Guy-Claude Burger's 37 years old
research, Instinctive Nutrition U.S. does not have any affiliation
whatsoever with the Center of Anopsology in France or with Guy-Claude
Burger himself. Equally, Instinctive
Nutrition is not instinctive eating. Unlike instinctive eating,
Instinctive
Nutrition is the product of 37 years of research on the human dietary
instinct."
Raw and Partially-Raw Versions of Traditional
Diets and Paleolithic Diets
In the
early and
mid-twentieth century, Dr.
Weston A. Price and Dr.
Robert McCarrison, among others, each researched the eating
habits of native traditional cultures and reported on the beneficial
effects of eating only unprocessed, unrefined foods as well as raw
foods including raw meats and raw dairy. Conversely, each
illustrated as well the harm which comes to human and animals from
eating processed and refined foods. In that same era, Dr.
Francis Pottenger conducted laboratory research feeding various diets,
including raw
animal products among them, to several generations of
cats. His observations
on physical degeneracy due to cooked and processed diets, and his
success
in reversing damage with raw animal foods, mirrored what Price,
McCarrison
and others observed among humans in the field.
The adherents of the
Traditional diet, or Weston
Price diet, advocated by the Price/Pottenger
Foundation, the Weston
Price Foundation and by author/researcher
Sally Fallon, eat a partially-raw and partially-cooked diet
which is essentially a Paleolithic-style diet, and which includes
copious amounts of raw dairy; emphasis is placed upon grass-fed organic
sources for raw dairy. They specifically exclude
almost all grains, beans and legumes (except for some fermented
products.) Indeed, Sally Fallon and the Weston Price
Foundation, along with adherents of the Traditional diet, are now in
the forefront of the movement in the
USA to legalize access to raw milk products. Naturopath
Ronald F Schmid, ND
has written a book entitled Native
Nutrition: Eating According to Ancestral Wisdom
in which he advocates eating largely raw, and argues for including raw
animal products in the diet. The famed
anthropologist/explorer
Vilhjalmur Steffanson (cited in an
article by Eaton and Boyd and also in an
article by Sally Fallon), who reached fame in the first half
of the 20th century, ate a largely raw diet of unprocessed foods,
including raw meats, animal organs and fats. Perhaps his
three best-known books on the benefits of largely-raw and unprocessed
diets high in animal foods are Cancer: Disease of
Civilization?, Not by Bread Alone and The
Fat of the Land. Steffanson ate raw foods for much
of his adult life, including plentiful raw animal
food, changing to a more refined and processed diet only after he
married
later in life (he later hit health problems due to the
switch.) Steffanson also made important contributions toward
proving that lean diets (low in
animal fats) can be harmful to the body; this
warning addressed the dangers of lean raw meat-based diets as
well. Steffanson is also quite famous for, and cited frequently for his
wry quote: "False modesty is better than no modesty at all!"
Dr.
Frederick Albert
Cook, the famed surgeon, photographer and explorer of the late 19th
century and early 20th century, who served with Admiral Peary, and also
served on Antarctic Expeditions, found that
asking the ship's crew to eat raw meat cured them of scurvy
which was starting to weaken them. Atlanta resident Donna
Gates, with Linda Schatz,
has authored a book entitled Body Ecology:
Recovering Your Health and Rebuilding Your Immunity, about
her Body Ecology Diet, which advocates a largely-raw,
largely-Paleolithic diet which includes animal foods. For a
review of the book,
see this link. I first heard
of the Body
Ecology Diet and the book in 1996-98, during numerous visits to
Atlanta, Georgia, where the diet is very popular. Indeed, a
wonderful, locally famous 24-hour/7-day-per-week natural foods
bar and grill called
R. Thomas' Deluxe Grill, located on
Atlanta's famed Peachtree Street, features the book and a
Body Ecology approach in its menu. R. Thomas' Deluxe
Grille
is one-of-a-kind, with truly unique bohemian art deco decor, and a
flavor
all its own. This author has had many a fine meal late at
night in
this restaurant! There are over 110 reviews of this fine
24-hour natural
foods bar and grill on the web, with great reviews by diverse
sites. By the way,
despite the reviews and any claims by some of the veggie sites, this
restaurant is not strictly vegetarian, and has
many animal foods offerings as well. They also have a 24-hour juice
bar! You can't beat it! Incidentally,
there is also another raw diet
bearing the same Body Ecology name, developed by
Roe Gallo, an author, motivational speaker and lecturer, who
has also written a book bearing that name (Body Ecology). The
diet she advocates is a raw vegan
diet, and almost entirely fruitarian, and she has described in books,
articles
and on video, her own fruitarian approach, as well as her "miraculous"
rejuvenation from a near-death health crisis (due to Western medical
practice) over 23 years ago. Roe's diet and claims are viewed with some mild
skepticism by
some in the raw vegan world, because she claims to thrive
daily and exercise frequently,
eating only a raw fruit diet of 5 to 6 pieces of fruit
daily (perhaps 900 calories or less), and nothing else. Her
self-reports may indeed be totally accurate, but many folks in
the
raw world are justifiably wary after the havoc wreaked on the
raw fruitarian (and also Natural Hygiene) world
by fraudulent claims made by the
late T. C. Fry, and also the inflated claims and hoaxes, and
even several deaths (click
this link for one story)
which have plagued some recently-famous advocates (see also this
article) of Breatharianism. It is the fervent hope
(and assumption) of this author that Roe's claims are entirely true and
reliable, for many reasons, including the fact that some humans
apparently have lived, and thrived,
on even far less food than she claims to eat, although this is
obviously
not something which most people could manage. Some
well-documented
cases of people who have eaten no food and thrived for long periods of
time
include the Indian Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda and the Roman Catholic
German
saint Terese Neumann. The late Lester Levenson, a spiritual adept and
master
teacher, was also observed by many close to him to eat almost nothing
for
many years after his enlightenment experience.
Several
of
the
primary advocates of the partially-cooked Paleolithic,
Caveman, Neanderthin,
and Paleothin diets, as well as the Atkins diet, have stated that one
improvement which could be made to their systems would be to find
high-quality
meats and eat them raw rather than lightly cooked.
It is
becoming known
in the raw-foods world that some followers of the Paleolithic, Atkins
and Zone diets eat
all-raw versions of those diets; such diets include raw animal
products,
but the "purist" Paleo diets exclude raw dairy, while the Zone
diet and the Atkins diet include it.
Raw
Lacto-Vegetarian Diets The
Essene diet, which has been promoted in books and articles
since the 1920's, was largely vegetarian but included raw dairy,
according to their books. There are a number of
variants of this system and diet, all claiming to trace their ideas,
practices, and sometimes lineage, back to the ancient
Essenes. The most 20th-Century exemplar of the "new" Essene
movement was the International
Biogenic Society, circa 1920 to 1940, and which still exists
today, founded by
Edmond
Bordeaux Szekely (perhaps the most vivid, wild and strange
figure of the raw foods movement) and based on the
Essene Gospel of Peace, combining spirituality and
diet. Many of the IBS books by Szekely are still available
today. Like some modern RVAF systems, and along
with Ann Wigmore (of vegan raw and wheatgrass fame), Szekely argued for
the healing power of sunlight and sunbathing. This author has
several fascinating books by Szekely on his bookshelf from the early
part of the 20th century. Incidentally,
for a unique, supposedly Christian
scripture-based argument advocating consumption of
organic grass-fed raw dairy products (and arguing against eating
commercial
pasteurized milk products) which would likely make most modern
advocates
of raw milk blush (such as those listed above, along with the Real Milk
movement and the Raw
Milk -- Right to Choose Healthy Food movement), you must
read a diatribe/argument on the
Essene Diet of Jesus aka "The Jesus Diet" written by Rev Abba
Nazariah, DD, of a modern-day Essene church,
arguing that Jesus Christ wanted us to drink raw organic milk!
William C.
Douglass,
MD, has published a book entitled
The Milk
Book, which promotes the use of raw dairy products
and provides sound scientific evidence that raw dairy and raw animal
fats are very healthful for the body and do not cause cardiovascular
disease
or osteoporosis (both are diseases which have been linked in the
scientific
literature to consumption of pasteurized dairy.)
An Ecuadoran
named
Dr. Johnny Lovewisdom advocated a spiritual system and
fruitarian plus raw juice diet called Vitarianism which included
all-raw foods as well as raw
yogurt; he also called his
system "Paradisian Essene" and Essene as well.
Raw, Nearly-Vegan Diets Which Include Some Animal
Products
Natural
Hygiene (NH or NHN), usually seen as a rather fundamentalist and
restrictive raw vegan dietary system, actually has some variants, particularly
the NHN systems of Dr.
Bass, Dr.
Fielder and Dr.
Cursio, which advocate eating a small percentage of
raw animal
products. Dr.
John H. Tilden,
one of the co-founders of Natural Hygiene
(NH or NHN, above) also appears to have advocated consumption of some
raw animal foods as well, as cited
by Tom Billings on several raw websites.
Dr.
George Goodheart, D.C., in his book on food combining (You'll
Be Better), mentions consumption of raw meats favorably and
consumption of raw dairy even more favorably.
Sapoty
Brook, creator
of
a raw-foods system of eating called Eco-Eating,
and a book of the same name, advocates eating a primarily raw vegan
diet, but appears to
recommend eating some raw fish as well, primarily for B12
content. Wai
Genriiu and
other members of the Artists Cooperative
Groove Union in Amsterdam, Netherlands with strong scientific research
backgrounds have published an interesting book entitled
The Fruit Diet; No More
Cellulite, No More Acne, No More Overweight, which
advocates a raw diet consisting largely of fruit and some vegetables,
along with
raw eggs, raw fish and some raw meats (the authors do not approve
of dairy, even when raw). The amazing thing about the book is
the incredible volume in each chapter of citations and references to
articles in the scientific literature providing evidence for the harm
of eating cooked and processed foods and the benefits and safety of
eating raw Paleolithic-type foods, including raw meats and
fish. I
have had an opportunity to read a draft copy of the entire book, and it
is rather impressive, despite the fact that I may disagree with the
author's recommendations on several (probably minor) points. I
have also corresponded with the author and found her to be brilliant
and highly intuitive regarding nutrition.
Miscellaneous
Related Diets and Advocates Which Do Not Fit the Above Categories
A raw
foods diet which
includes some raw animal foods (as well as some supplements) is one of
four
principal pillars of a natural healing system called Body Electronics
(BE). This system has been labeled by several natural health
writers
(including
Roy Kupsinel, MD) as one of the most powerful natural healing systems
in
the world. BE was founded by the late John Ray, ND, in the
1950's and
early 1960's in Northern Wisconsin. This author has trained
extensively
in BE, and has witnessed some rather dramatic healings due to practice
of
BE. Until the early 1990's, BE advocated a raw largely-vegan
diet with
large amounts of nutritional supplements as well, but various
practitioners and instructors started adding raw animal products in
response to several
deficiencies and shortcomings noted with the raw vegan diet. Starting
about
1993, BE started recommending a RVAF diet, one which included raw
animal
foods as well as vegetation, along with copious amounts of certain
nutritional
supplements. Please
click on this link for a page on this site which
explores Body Electronics in far greater depth, and which offers links
to other sites on BE. The late
Paavo Airola, N.D., the lecturer and researcher on nutrition,
nutritional supplements and longevity, advocated eating a largely-raw
diet consisting of mostly Paleolithic foods, along with raw
dairy. Some folks have raised repeatedly the fact
that Airola died in his sixties of a stroke, and that this might raise
questions
about the validity of his nutritional recommendations.
Victor
"Vic" Irons, the health food, supplement and colon-cleansing
guru of the 1950's, 60's and 70's, recommended a RVAF diet as optimal
after restoring the colon
to health. Bruno
Comby,
a nuclear physicist whose work in alternative health, music and stress
management is promoted by the Institut Bruno
Comby (located outside Paris, France), of which he is
director, advocates a
largely raw diet which includes animal foods, and specifically
recommends
raw insects as food as well, since such foods were a part of our
ancestral
diet. Comby is also one of those in the alternative
health field who feel
that
tremors and microtremors of the "still" hand (he labels these tremors
"Tremors
of the Nervous system at Rest", or "TNR") are an early sign of
degradation
of overall health, and has developed an electronic instrument to
measure
same, which he calls the Stressometer Comby. Comby
is also interesting in that despite his intense interest in
natural health and ancestral-type raw diets, he is also an avid
advocate of using nuclear energy to
produce electrical power. A
number of web pages and authors on raw
foods diets have cited Arnold DeVries as a credible researcher and
author
regarding the benefits of a raw foods diet which includes animal
foods. Arnold DeVries (1921-1996) was a self-styled amateur
researcher who was
fascinated with primitive humans and worked full-time as a city bus
driver. He authored several books (including "Primitive Man
and His Foods", "Elixir
of Life", "Health from the Soil", and "Dangers in Modern Food") and
articles which covered primitive raw foods diets, and he was reputedly
a field researcher as well. However, research by the current
author has unearthed evidence that DeVries was apparently affiliated
with several white supremacist organizations which preach bigotry,
hatred and racism. This affiliation apparently escalated in
1959 when he married his wife. Further, a casual review seems
to indicate that his writings are infused with at least some element of
the same ethos, and thus the credibility of his work appears
questionable to this author. Interestingly,
and related to the above note on the late Arnold DeVries, several white
supremacist organizations have
adopted advocacy of raw foodism (sometimes vegan, sometimes a RVAF
approach),
usually based upon works of DeVries, as a method for
achieving greater
health among their members. Several correspondents have noted
recently
that it is impossible to perform a web search on the terms ["raw foods"
and
diet] without seeing at least several such white supremacist and
hate-group
pages listed. Let us hope that RVAF diets allow the folks in
such groups
to relax and become more tolerant and loving! The
Gerson diet, part of Gerson Therapy, a protocol in existence
since the 1960's or earlier as an alternative treatment method for
cancer patients, is a largely raw
diet which includes large amounts of raw fruit juices as well as
supplements,
and, until recently, included juice of raw calf's liver and other
animal
organs. The Gerson organization has recently discontinued the
liver
drink due to quality control problems (toxins in non-organic livers)
and
infections. However, Weston A. Price's site still carries
information on
the
original Gerson diet protocol, and there are
still some people who follow this protocol.
Donations
and Support for this Website
This freely-offered educational website has been totally
self-supported by the author, Vinny Pinto, since its inception (and
many of my websites were started between August 2000 and June 2003).
While I offer the content on this website freely, as a gift to all from
my heart, it is quite obvious that not only did my research in these
realms (and also my training, including formal education, that allowed
me to offer this material in the first place) incur costs, but there
are also monthly and yearly costs associated with web hosting, domain
registration, etc. As you have likely noticed, I have chosen not to
accept any advertising on any of my websites. As a result of all of
these factors, any funds that you might choose to donate toward
supporting my research work and this site will be very much
appreciated.
Thus, I am seeking donations to help me to support
this site -- even two dollars helps! If you wish to donate, you may do
so by using your credit card, ATM card, debit card, or transfer from
your bank account, via fully secure means. To make a
donation, please go to the Donations
and Support page! All
transactions are secure; in all cases, you get to choose the donation
amount!
Thank you very
much!
Vinny
Again,
If You Wish to Make a Donation to this Site and its Owner and
Primary Author If
you would like to make a donation
(any amount from one dollar or more) to this site and to the site
owner/primary author, please
click here! Thanks for your care and consideration!
Our
promise to you: All of our web pages load quickly and
easily. No fancy graphics, no banners, no annoying ads, no
Java applets, no sound, no animations, no time-wasters!
all
contents
copyright © 2001 - 2023 please
read
our disclaimer notice Webpage
creation and editing notes: The webmaster, web designer and webpage
editor for this website is Susan Hislop (aka Sue-Cat). You may visit
her website on knitting technical editing at http://www.sue-cat.com/
|