on ethics, environment, and other things
to make you go "hmmm..."
Restricted Diets for Healing: Risks of Compliance. Choosing a highly restricted diet as your only healing method may be risky for those seeking healing from serious illness. Blindly following this approach can lead one into a high-risk trap.
The Morality of Human Omnivorousness.(satire) Biologically, science now knows that humans are and have always been omnivores. What spiritual wisdom is there in going against basic human nature by trying to remake the species into herbivores? Not much, says this biting satire lampooning the existential conundrums. The basic moral message of omnivorousness here? It's part of who you are: Grow up, accept yourself, deal with it.
Vegan Attitudes Toward Instinctive Eating. Do other people rate respect and compassion from vegans too, or just animals? The hostile behavior of some vegans toward certain meat-eaters, known as "instinctive eaters," suggests the ethic of "compassion" practiced is not completely honest or as ethical and egalitarian as claimed.
Simplicity vs. Complexity in Diet: Where Do We Find Truth? Should the truth always be simple, and are the pesky details of science irrelevant to the basic proverbs of natural diets? A look at the hidden complexities of utopian diets, why the "simple truth" may be more complicated than you think, and why uncertainty, not complexity, is what we're really afraid of.
Risks of Raw Vegan Diets for Expectant Moms, Children, and Others, by Chet Day (Offsite link)
Chet Day, a former long-time raw vegan and promoter of raw food diets,
explains why he feels raw vegan diets are risky for some people. Chet's
views are based on 8 years of active correspondence with, and coaching of,
individuals attempting to follow a variety of raw
vegan diets.
Why An Expectant Mom Rejected a Raw Vegan Diet (Offsite link)
A woman shares her experience with raw vegan diets and pregnancy. Topics
include cravings, the dismal failure of 100% raw food diets in the long run,
and our attitudes regarding food.
The Danger of Knowing for Sure (Offsite link)
A short essay on the power of belief--"knowing for sure"--and how it can lead people to irrational, destructive behavior
that can harm individuals and even entire societies. Explains why skepticism is better than "knowing for sure." Are you a
cautious skeptic, or are you following a diet guru who "knows for sure"? This article is by Peter Bowditch; he runs a number of
websites that are skeptical of alternative health claims.
A Little Bit of What You Fancy (Offsite link)
Anthropologist Desmond Morris explains that food faddists and diet gurus promoting restrictive diets
and food taboos have forgotten that humans are adapted to an omnivorous diet. Morris suggests that a "deep disrespect" for
these food faddists and "diet fascists" might actually be good for us.
