Last Updated: 03 Sep 97
I found that the insistence of natural hygiene to worry about food combining
became more of a hindrance than a help for me. I tend to agree with Dr.
Gabriel Cousens, who basically says that as long as the food is raw one needn't
worry so much about the combining. It's in their cooked forms where that
becomes really important. I also have a very interesting (and apparently rare
and out of print) book called Raw Eating by Hovanessain, an Armenian who
lived in Iran. He thought he discovered raw eating and wrote the book as if
he had. It was very interesting, because he had no concepts from others' views
on the subject. He claimed that one must eat all raw to get the real results,
and the examples of the kinds of foods he ate and their combinations made it
clear that food combining was not a concern for him. He did eat a lot of
sprouted grains, especially wheatberries, by the way, and enjoyed raw nuts a
lot. At first he was more sensitive to cold, but after eating all raw for a
while (I don't remember how long), he actually came to the point where he
regularly slept outdoors. He said there could be a thin blanket of snow on the
ground, that cold, and he would sleep well with only one thin blanket, sleeping
on the ground! I'm not sure what became of him, but through the (very
unconfirmed) grapevine I have pieced together that possibly he was arrested in
Iran (after Khomeini came to power) for criticizing the drinking water. I
don't know if he is still alive, but do know from his book (most of his books
by the way are in Farsi or Armenian and the English book was a very abridged
translation) that many Armenians went all raw through his influence and
inspiration. If anyone else has information about Aterhov Hovannesian, I would
love to hear it!
Michele
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