Rules and Guidelines for Posting on RawFoodTalk.com

RULES AND GUIDELINES FOR POSTING ON RAW FOOD TALK

Raw Food Talk is shifting gears a bit! Very exciting news!
We think many of you will be very excited about this as well!

Many of you have posted and personally written to us that the board has gotten a bit convoluted and confusing as well as your desire for there to be a clear-cut set of rules laid out so there is no confusion. Well, here it is!

Originally RFT was set up for the support of a raw and living food diet as pertaining to Alissa’s Living on Live Food book and DVDs. We realize that there are so many different ways to do a raw and living food diet and that sometimes you start out one way and it gradually moves you toward another goal.

We totally support you in that process but we are now committing this board to the support of a raw and living food diet as outlined in Alissa’s book and DVD. Does this mean that you HAVE to be 100% raw in order to post here? No, but it does mean that you have to be in support of this diet and those who are striving to be 100% raw, again, in accordance with Alissa's book and DVD.

What this means:

1. No threads/discussions dedicated to “other” approaches to raw foods. This includes such diets as 8-1-1, low-fat, low-fruit, natural hygiene, fruitarian, raw meat/dairy-eating, mono-eating, no-grains, no-fruit etc. There are boards dedicated to almost every approach to raw foods such as these mentioned above. But they will not be discussed in detail here and promoted here. Again, this board is for support of a raw and living food diet as outlined in Alissa’s book and DVD. If you don’t own the book and are not familiar with Alissa’s concept for eating raw, it is stated further down below these rules and guidelines.

2. No creating threads that promote links to other websites, blogs, etc. If someone asks a question such as, “What other raw food books do you own?” you may refer them to other book titles but please do not create a whole thread promoting or inquiring about particular websites. Now, this will not always be black and white. Sometimes links may be acceptable and other times may not, it just depends on the nature of the link. If in doubt, just send an email to help@rawfoodtalk.com (preferably before posting the link) and one of our moderators or administrators will let you know if it is or is not acceptable. Please bear in mind that there are plenty of discussion boards where NO cross-linking is allowed at all. Again, we may allow some things at our discretion.

3. No posting links to other sites that sell products that are sold on Alissacohen.com. Instead, you may want to consider buying from Alissa in order to support the continued function of this site since it isn't free to run. No, you are not obligated to buy from our store but please be respectful by not listing links of other sites that sell items that we sell, whether theyre “cheaper” or not. If anyone wants to find lower prices they are welcome to search for them on the internet or locally. Also, we will delete threads immediately that are selling or advertising your site and products. This is not the place for that.

4. No discussions of a religious or political nature. We don’t mind discussions about metaphysics, meditation, etc. but no religious “preaching” or threads quoting tons of scriptures or seeking prayer requests please, this is not a religion or prayer board but a raw food board. We definitely do not want to engage in political discussions or debates here either. This is not the place for that but there are plenty of political debate boards on the internet if that is what you want to discuss.

5. No posting links to anti-raw boards. By this we mean, no linking to sites such as the ones run by Tom Billings and any sites like it. We are here to support the raw food diet, not try and refute it and we do not want a lot of scare tactics and fear-based posts and sites listed here.

6. No discussions of animal products such as dairy, eggs or meat. We realize that for some, honey should be among that list but we are not opposed to honey so please do not start up discussions about why we accept honey if we’re vegan. There are discussions where the subject of honey was brought up and talked about so feel free to do a search for it to see the various sides of that. But aside from honey, no discussions in favor of consuming other animal products are to be discussed here.

7. If a thread or post of yours gets deleted do not start a new thread asking what happened to it or why it was deleted. If a post gets deleted, it is deleted for a reason. If it’s your post and you want to email and ask the moderators why it was deleted, we have no problem with that. But please do not come on and ask “why was my post deleted, I see no reason it should have been deleted and here it is again...” and then you post the same thread again. In the scheme of things, there is maybe one in a couple of thousand that gets deleted. Don’t take it personally, it’s a thread, move on and just assume that it wasn’t right for this board, or again, feel free to email the mods at help@rawfoodtalk.com and ask, but please don’t think that we will use the board to explain in detail about the actual thread we were trying to avoid.

8. Please be mindful of where you post your topics! We have been seeing a lot of people posting recipes or recipe requests in the Raw and Living Foods Discussion forum or things that should go into the main discussion forum in the Other Health Related forum, etc. While the mods can move the threads with no problems it would be nice if everyone would make sure they are posting in the correct forum and not posting in the main forum just because you feel there is more visibility there. Please post topics in the proper area.

9. No posts that advocate eating cooked food. Now, we're not talking those questionable things like Nama Shoyu, cashews, nutritional yeast and such but rather outright cooked food entrees and dishes such as fast food, steamed vegetables or cooked rice or candy bars


We may be adding more to the list as things come up. In the mean time, if these “rules” do not sit well with you and you do not agree with them, that’s ok. We wish you well and you are welcome to find a board that suits you needs. If you think this board would be nicer without the mods and without some rules, then you're seriously mistaken. We have been reading a few other boards lately that have just sprung up and they are all cheerily announcing that they will have no “rules”. YA, well, at 40 members, that’s great! When you have thousands of members, there has to be some rules!

We know you have all been to some of the other boards that are talking about every subject under the sun, some of them are vicious with the people who post there, some rip apart raw food teachers, authors and speakers, some talk about all of the different ways of eating a raw food diet including not doing an all raw food diet but eating cooked food as well and on and on. Well, that’s not us. If you’re new here, read the mission statement. It’s pretty cut and dry.

AND, even after having said all that, we are not even that strict with the ‘rules’ here until someone really goes overboard with them! We really even try to let some of the threads that get under out skin slide, but then if it continues to take the wrong turn we delete it and usually contact the person.



Just a reminder of Alissa Cohen’s philosophy:

I do not promote a high fat raw food diet which some claim. I promote freedom of choice. For those of you who think I promote a high fat diet, my first response to you would be… READ the book! My second response to people who think I promote a high fat raw food diet is, “no, what I promote is a no starvation diet. That means that if I eat my typical daily diet of juice, smoothies, salad and fruit but once in a while I want something else, like mock salmon pate on top of my salad or if I want a dessert after eating simply for a week or so, im going to have it. My point in doing raw food is not to analyze everything I put in my mouth and not to beat myself up if I want to eat something other then a fruit or vegetable.

My diet is probably much simpler then most peoples here so it’s funny when people say I promote high fat. I think they say that because they get so neurotic about having a handful of nuts once a week or they eat so lightly and then god forbid they have a raw dessert. It’s also bizarre to me that the people who are the strictest and have the most rules are the ones who are not 100% raw or who fall off the raw wagon constantly. My philosophy and book do not promote a high fat raw food diet. I talk about all of this in my book. I talk about transitioning and using lots of recipes at first and then moving away from that to a lighter diet. Im not sitting around making calzones all day. I eat mostly whole fruits, veggies, juice and salads.

But I know that the reason most people fall off of this diet is because they get too rigid. Yes, you may after a time of eating raw foods move gradually to a simpler diet. But if you put rules on yourself around what you can and can’t have within a raw food diet, there will be a day when you want a flax cracker, dessert, pate or a prepared raw recipe and if you don’t allow yourself to have it, you’ll be driving to the local pizza hut. Or, you’ll be white knuckling it. What kind of way is that to live? Certainly doesn’t sound like a fun, easy way to live to me. This diet is supposed to be about, in my opinion, freedom. Don’t make this more complicated then it is. Stress causes just as much if not more sickness in the body then what you eat. Relax, eat raw, and live.