> my personal experience, after having cleansed my body, has been
indications
> of incomplete digestion (odors, digestive upset - may be food
> combinations),
> and sometimes muscular pain and tension (uric acid?).

did you tried eating meat by itself without mixing with anything else ?
>
> (regarding muscular tension - I'm amazed how supple my muscles are now.
> many people don't really know how tense their muscles are, and I believe
> it is related to excess protein/uric acid)

i had the same result by eating raw even with meats .

> It seems evident to
> me that there is a continuum of efficient digestion/assimilation (from
> better
> to worse), consisting
> of water, juices, fruit, then (cooked food/meat/nuts/vegetables/roots)

as Francois pointed out it all depends on your need for the food , when
eATing instinctively many have eaten huge quantties of one food and digested
very well while a small quantity of uneeded  food can sit on the stomach for
long .

> following in some undetermined order...

for me eating fruit because of its easiness for the instinct to overeat is
problematic for me ( intestinal swelling gaz etc...)

There's a lot of connective tissue in meats that causes the food
> to be not well assimilated (I would think), especially since our hcl is
> lower than the true carnivore.

interesting my 2 young childs when they ate or eat ( for the youngest ) meat
before they had teeths , the were chewing on it with their gums only and
spitting out only the undigestable part ( fibers ) if i eat it after them
there is almost no taste left ( all swallowed)
>
> Most fruits are soft and we appear to be well adapted to their digestion,
> the fiber
> easily separating from the pulp/juice.

might be a problem special to domestic forms of fruits provoquing too high
insuline response . Wild fruits are less sweet and way richer in fibers )

> Does anyone have figures on bear or pig anatomy with respect to digestive
> parameters (intestine length, hcl level, etc)

will be very interesting especially if we had comparaison between differents
kind if bear from the panda ( totally vegetarian and the grizzly ( quite
carnivorous ) . Black bear can be totally vegetarian at time or totally
carnivorous ( salmon run for ex ).
jean-claude