i’ve been reading your blog for a while, but this is the first time i’ve commented. our family has been vegan for three years and we’re trying a raw diet now. this was one of the first raw books i checked out from the library, and i just wanted to say THANK YOU. the book bothered me a lot but it was very difficult for me to put my finger on just why. it bothered me a lot how the female author was pictured here and therand e in non-food-related ways, basically as the barbie-doll raw-food eye-candy. the elitism and classism bothered me as well. and i’ve discussed the fanaticism in the raw community frequently since we started doing raw food last week. we’re a low-income family and we’ve already made a lot of sacrifices to be able to keep ourselves (and our children) in whole plant foods for the past three years. we’ve always made it work by avoiding processed foods and buying locally when we can and in season. replacing cooked prepared foods like tofu and bread with raw foods means that we can buy a lot of raw nuts and seeds without spending more money, so it’s possible to be raw on a strict budget. but i can’t stand reading most raw cookbooks because they’re full of ingredients that i either a) can’t pronounce, b) can’t find, c) can’t afford, or d) can’t use in good conscience. and, as you said, they tend to be quite laborious and time-consuming. and seeing too much of that really defeats my desire to try improving my health through this diet. the attitude of petrified fear toward “toxins” and “mucus” also disturbs me, and the rigid theology (which i do believe is the right term) that smacks of little more than an eating disorder. so i’m with you on this! i’m really hoping to make this diet work because i do feel amazing, but i’m working really hard to avoid the rhetoric and fanaticism. thanks for addressing this issue in such a succinct way.