Raw

Raw is the easiest and most difficult diet. Balancing acid/alkaline, fiber and oil...really you're using your body to burn nutrients rather than letting others burn/cook for you. All foods are drugs; plants have pronounced effects (like melons, celery, and grapefruit to name a few). Sometimes I eat meat just to avoid the pharmacology of plants. But even meat has hormones and emotions. It is impossible to get tired of eating raw food because it is inherently healthy. Cooking food is an attempt to trick our bodies to keep eating food that isn't good for us. That's why we get tired of various cooked food, and try to cook in a new way that we aren't tired of yet...

There is a lot that goes into the construction of the quotation marks around "raw food". Lots of thought. Maybe that's why I like it? But also simplicity. I explain it now to neophytes as just trying to get the freshest food I can -- there are no lines in the sand.

The single best resource for thinking more about the issues this raises is this summary: http://www.rawtimes.com/anopsy1.html
and this long essay: http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/7627/ggindex.html (click Anoposology, an essay that concerns you). Both by Guy-Claude Burger. I have printed this essay several times and given it to several friends. It is a good book to keep and pass on. One key idea is that this is an experiential diet; you learn what your body has to teach you, not what the categorizers and dietetitions think.

If you like a plurality of viewpoints, and especially for thinking about the ethnological and anthropological, try this "paleodiet" clearing house. There is good research here. http://www.paleodiet.com/ The first essay by ben balzer is a 15-minute readable introduction you can tell your friends about.