The Reluctant Prophets Of The Veganites!

I can recall when I first became a colon therapist and worked with Gil Jacobs. I had known him for years prior, so I understood his philosophy and I began to shape my own, under his tutelage. To say I "hit the ground running" would be an understatement. Knowing I had a very toxic history I knew, through reading Professor Arnold Ehret's works and Dr. Norman Walker (the Kings of detox) that I should move slowly regarding my diet. My passion for this information, lifestyle, transformation was full on. It was palpable! I was too much. High on the concepts, blinded by hope, my view was pretty narrow. I've since loosened up my approach. I still live the same. "Mostly Raw," is how I refer to my eating habits. Meaning I eat cooked foods once or twice a week. More often 2 meals a week are cooked vegetables. I remained like this because I chose to include cooked foods after a few years of trying to go "all raw." All raw is amazing and wonderful.

Is Cooked Broccoli Going To Kill Me?
I do feel that I want cooked veggies in my life. Something about the comfort it brings, and the temperance to the lifestyle. I found living on raw foods, only was not the way for me. Now, when Gil and I used to talk and he would lecture to the raw food community, they would laugh or shrug his prophetic warnings off as lunacy. Granted, Gil is an eccentric character. Still, he is a very wise and experienced practitioner of this way of life. At Chakra 17, Gil, myself and the rest of the therapists would try to reach some of the people who seemed quite determined on the idea of "going raw." The quotes here are used to capture the language or vernacular of the movement. We spoke about the pitfalls of healing the human body. The risks involved with detoxification through fasting, diet change, colonic therapy, etc..

A Confusing Concept
What most people don't comprehend when first embracing our origins of diet, (the raw food diet) is: the process is akin to drug addicts getting off drugs or alcoholics getting off alcohol. Cigarette smokers quitting smoking. All things ingested either through consumption of solids and liquids, drugs, alcohol, intravenous drugs/medicines, etc., all leave residue in the body. Some substances leave an alkaline residue, while others leave an acidic residue. NO MATTER WHAT THE SUBSTANCE—DETOXIFICATION OF ALL NEGATIVE (ACIDIC) RESIDUE IS RISKY. This depends greatly on the amount and level of poison left in the tissue, bloodstream, cells.

Levels, Jerry! It's All About Levels! (Kramer to Seinfeld)
Think of it this way—if a heroin addict cannot access heroin and tries a another drug, one less toxic, they will get sick as though they took nothing. Likewise, when the average person, who has thousands and thousands of years of lineage to consider, gives up their cultural way of eating or the way in which their family has eaten for 3-5 generations, they will feel sick early on the process. Why? Beef leaves a dense, sticky acidic residue in the body. Mix that with potatoes and we create and stickier, more acidic residue. In fact, most of that food never leaves the body. Percentage wise, more remains trapped in the digestive and elimination organs of the body. Simply because each item is acidic and mis-combined. Take 2 foods which should not be eaten together and we double our trouble. Rather than our digestive system breakdown or decompose (dismantle) the foods we eat—the foods decompose before the body can digest them. They are cooked proteins and starches. Both highly acidic, both very sticky—BOTH REQUIRING OPPOSING ENZYMES TO DIGEST PROPERLY. That last sentence is an idealistic one. Meaning, all cooked meats are nearly impossible to digest. Mix them with starchy foods, which is a part of almost every culture on the planet, and viola! NO DIGESTION!

Drop That "Balls To The Wall" Attitude
As you can see the standard American diet or planetary diet is toxic and requires care, knowledge and experience to take on and see through correctly. Some people cannot get through the trials of the process. That is okay and understandable. This is not for everyone. It can and does benefit all that live this way. Not all of us have the physical, emotional or energetic strength to really see this through. Still there are levels to be embraced. We don't have to run the marathon to enjoy running. We don't have to play Chopin to enjoy playing piano. We don't have to hit a home run every time, at bat. This is what Gil tried to teach the people of the raw food community so many years ago. We spoke at length about this very issue. It felt as though the more obsessed types wanted to be right rather than know the truth. Wanted to be raw rather than healthy. We hit a wall. We could not continue to bang our own heads against the wall and expect they would get it. I haven't heard Gil speak in a while, but I'll bet he still tries to reach people. But there's been a twist. A turn of events.

Truth Or Consequence? (An old game show, circa 1970's)
Recently I heard some interesting news. Some "leaders" in the raw food community have taken to eating raw animal products. A sign that between their rabid disbelief in colonic therapy as a key to their own success and their obsessive adherence to a strict raw food diet—They had begun to hit a wall. Another sign that the raw food diet isn't really working for them, in the absence of colonic therapy is they are now beginning to eat cooked food. What has become of this movement? Where are they going? What in the world are they doing? Exactly what Gil predicted. He was very correct and prophetic when he tried to warn them of this eventual outcome. I am glad that the movement is shifting and now speaking more about incorporating lots of raw fruits and vegetables into the diet, rather than 100% raw! All the time!

Yikes!
Upon meeting a lot of these people, way back in the early 2000's, they would ask, "are you raw?" What percentage are you? Meaning, how much of your foods were eaten raw? "How long have you been raw?" Holy cow! No pun intended??? That used to drive me nuts. Don't get me started on nuts. That is what they all thought would sustain them. Nuts, in my opinion are not the super food everyone thinks it is. It is, idealistically. NOT, in actuality. They don't breakdown so well. Therefore we don't derive much benefit from them. They stimulate and to some satiate. For me they are non-acidic pebbles. That's what we do to them when we chew, which we don't do enough of with veggies, let alone nuts. So they go into the stomach like pebbles and leave the bowels the same way. So, how are we extracting nutrients from a chunk of nut?

The Raw Truth! (Someone must have a book by this title)
I've learned a prominent raw food restaurant, "Quintessence," which makes the best raw soup in the world! Peter's Pot soup may be the best flavor ever created. The Buddha Bowl is an incredibly satisfying salad. This restaurant was super radical and pretty much a turn-off. They have loosened up, due to the shift in their leaders. All of them are realizing this cannot be sustained! Actually, it can. But the level of constant bowel cleansing borders on the absurd. I won't even get into that now. Suffice to say it isn't easy or economical for the majority of people. Experience speaks volumes. Technical knowledge is important. Experiential knowledge is equally as important. It's good to know the technical details when parachuting, yet I want someone whose actually jumped and has lots of experience.

If First At Once. . .
I felt bad during Gil's lectures back then. He had nothing to gain. Except maybe some clients added to our extremely busy schedule at Chakra 17. We were the busiest place in NYC. Hands down. We didn't need to convince people to come see us. We had a 3-week wait for appointments. He tried. I tried. Many of us tried to reach some of the people in the community. Instead, with 3, 4, 6-years experience, they became authors and teachers of something they didn't truly understand. They hadn't experienced enough of the pitfalls to become prophets themselves. They didn't even take of the training wheels! On some level I see this change in the raw food community, as a good thing! Not a failing but a breakthrough! A success! Why? They finally got some truth. Now they can take a step back and look with eyes seeking truth, rather than seeking to see only what they wanted to see. They can perhaps augment their daily habits and finally thrive on this diet. The way all of us, who believe in the need for cleansing the bowels have and still are!

Nothing But The Truth!
What stands the test of time is what I tend to look at more closely. Whether it's good or bad, I pay attention. Like war—there's something in that silly arcane, violent energy that we like? Or at least accept. Perhaps the two camps can finally co-mingle. Maybe now truth can be shared, rather than shunned. Maybe now when people go to Gil's lectures, they'll not tune him out when he talks about the dangers of "not transitioning." The transition period is the most important aspect of this diet change. Remember, it's all about the journey. Not the arrival. There is no arrival with anything in life. Just the doing, being, experiencing of life. No finishing line. No prize for being raw. No trophies! Thank you, Gil for being that big mouth with that oddly high-pitched voice—that you didn't care what you looked like or how you were received. All for truth! This is why I'm honored to be a student of this man. Perhaps I feel more vindicated than he. Why? Because I so wanted them to get it! I've treated my share of tragedies that didn't think being 60 pounds and 5' 7", was a sign that not only was the diet (sans colonic) wasn't working but that they were detoxifying themselves to death!!! I applaud the movement and Quintessence for allowing the truth to be a part of this, our growing world.
Be well,
Tom DeVito