Hmm, yes, clearly I have not done enough research on the history of the Instincto Movement to comment much on them, and should consider myself an instinctive whole raw foodist rather than an "Instincto", since I don't know enough of the connotations of that word. But I was introduced to the idea by my own internal gurus/guides, several years ago when severely ill, and applying the basic principles of "only eat food the way nature makes it available" and "only eat what you strongly feel compelled to eat, of these natural foods" worked wonders. When, later, I read Comby's books, I recognized what I thought were those same two principles that had saved my life, and felt a kinship. Plus my left-brain was satisfied by his scientific rigor, I think.

I'm curious as to what exactly you mean by "overeating sweet fruits"? How do you know what constitutes overeating in a particular individual's situation? What are the symptoms? What harm is done?

Thanks!
-Za

Doesn't it seem silly that an instinctive way of eating, which seems prevalent among all other animals on this earth, should be wholly discredited because of one human's love-life? Guy-Claude did not invent a way of eating, he was simply a mouthpiece, drawing public attention to the bizarre fact that humans are both the sickest animals on earth and the only ones who make their dietary choices from (usually irrational and/or incomplete) intellectual beliefs!

Who is the "they" that don't understand that our instincts can be warped through years of bad habits and social conditioning? Comby certainly acknowledges the difficulty of transition to an instinctive diet in his books. Just because it is difficult at first does not mean it's not worth striving towards. If we all embraced this approach to challenges no one would ever have learned to ride a bicycle!

As I understand, most instinctive dieters draw their inspiration from our closest living relatives, the bonobos and the chimpanzees, and their eating choices, which are, like every other animal except humans, based upon instinct, paying special attention to olfactory cues, taste, and feeling of internal fullness/satiation, and responding to the body's immediate needs rather than some intellectual stimulus that says "I need more Omega-3s!" or "And now for some magnesium!" The latter being based, mind you, on the findings of particular fallible human scientists --or worse, pseudo-scientists!--who profess some magical formula that may well have worked for them, but may not work for you! Our bodies are infinitely complex organisms and each individual's needs change constantly. The only thing we can be sure we Don't need is drugs and junk-food and processed-food products. But to forbid oneself a whole category of whole, raw, natural edibles on intellectual grounds given by somebody else seems to me to be folly. How could anyone else know what Your body needs right this minute? Instinctive eaters often go for long spells on just-meat or just-fruit or just-onions (why not?) but they do so because they are carefully listening to their own bodies' requests and not some self-professed health guru.

So long as the choices we make available to ourselves are well-varied and consist in whole, raw fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, sprouts, meats, fish, eggs, insects, earth, our natural (yet admittedly sadly surpressed) instincts tend to kick in after 5 days or so, no more, after which it becomes surprisingly easily and opens us up to whole new worlds of gustatory pleasure. And what is the great risk of having eaten "wrongly" for 5 days if your "wrong" choices were nevertheless only whole, raw foods?

-Za

In theory instincto means you just follow your natural instincts as regards food( but since instincts are warped by unnatural foods like dairy, grains and cooked-foods, these are avoided). It's very similiar to the Rawpalaeo diet except that, given the rules re following instinct, most Instinctos eat mainly raw fruit and avoid raw animal food except for one or two items like raw eggs or steak tartare or whatever. They don't understand that our instincts can be easily warped through years of bad habits and social conditioning, so that it takes quite some time for people to adjust to a raw animal food diet.


*I should add that Instincto has been discredited somewhat by the fact that Guy-Claude Burger, one of the main Instincto gurus, eventually ended up in jail for sex with an underage girl(no doubt taking the rules re following one's instincts a bit too far).

Add a category: sick to the point of being suicidal.

I was so sick I was expected to die without lots of expensive procedures/meds. Figured I'd use up as few resources as possible during my exit, and not fight fate, so I stopped eating, basically. A fruit or some lettuce every few days, after a week or two of just water. I knew nothing about "health diets". I just wanted to take up less space on earth and die sooner than later, with less fuss.  Imagine my surprise when I found that I was not precipitating my demise, as expected, but rather noticing a very sudden remission of most of my symptoms, and feeling better than ever!

-Za

"Is Science Superstitious?" It's an essay written by Bertrand Russell in the 50s, but still asks pertinent questions. I'm interested in the philosophy of science and scientific methodology, generally.

And a textbook: "Primate Behavioral Ecology" by Karen Strier.

On diet specifically, however, I cannot recommend strongly enough: Bruno Comby's "Maximize Immunity" available in the original French or in the English translation via his website: www.comby.org. He's straightforward and scientific, advocates an instinctive diet and outlines actual scientific research (!) he's overseen on the effect of a raw paleo instinctive diet on people infected with HIV.

-Za