> From: Dariusz ROZYCKI <[log in to unmask]>

> I'm sorry, but I don't get it.  How do you get around to food and figure
> out when to eat if you don't go by any signs of hunger or stomach-related
> signs?  Surely, you do feel some hunger or else your mind would not move
> the rest of you to anywhere near food.

Well, I can feel that my stomach is empty, but I could delay my meal a few
hours without discomfort. However, I eat because it's time to eat. You
don't have to wait until you starve: even if you don't suffer from
hungriness, if a food smells great, it should be useful to your body.
The more you delay your meal, the more appetite you will have, of course.

> Along the same lines, how in the world do instinctos take any pleasure in
> eating raw vegetables?  I find this quite impossible.  Is it necessarily
> because I don't need any?  There doesn't seem to be a single veggies that
> does it for my taste buds.  Okay, cucumber and tomatoes, but they're more
> fruits.

That's the main problem of instinctos. The only vegetables (non-fruit ones)
I really like are: celery sticks, lettuce, artichoke. A few others are OK,
and many (kale, mustard greens) almost inedible. The classical explanation
is that fruits were selected to be eaten raw, whereas vegetables were
selected to be eaten cooked. If we were to live in nature, fruits would
be much less pleasant.

One way to "solve" that problem is to eat fruits only when delighful, and
eat vegetables until the stop (that is, to push further when you eat
vegetables). And to avoid temptations, eat fruits at only one of the
meals, and force yourself to eat vegetables at least once a day. That
works, but can lead to frustrations.

Another way is to make an exception to instincto practice (as Kirt has
been doing for a few years now): make salads (not necessarily everyday),
use dressings (can be cold pressed olive oil or lemon juice, etc) or
onion, garlic, whatever you want.

Personally, I don't make salads (yet?) but I find convenient to eat
sprouts every day. Sprouts are rich in many vitamins and minerals. They
don't replace leafy greens completely (I find that, even on a high %
of sprouts, I still need lettuce), but they are easy to eat and will
bring most of the nutrients you need.

> Well, then 99% of instinctos must be deficient.  Surely, most people have
> very tiny samples of all possible raw foods available to them, at any
> given instance.  I think even more so was the case in our ancestors' times.

I think that most instinctos are deficient in vegetables. But again,
it's up to you. I find on the contrary that, as I eat fruits, vegetables,
various sprouts and RAF, my deficiencies, if any, are not really serious.
On the contrary, look at the SAD diet, and see how many different foods
people eat: mostly wheat, dairy, meat, very little fruits and vegetables.
Of course, we don't match the variety the hunter-gatherers or wild
chimps enjoy, but that's already not bad.

The instincto diet would however benefit from herbs, medicinal plants.

> Yes, but none of the water one can get today (commercially, that is) is
> natural or "raw" (term doesn't really apply here) per se. That defies the
> instincts even more so than inorganic foods.  Or can distilled or spring
> water be considered close enough?

No idea. There are a lot of controversies about distilled water. In France,
"mineral" water is truly "raw" (no tratment at all, mineral composition
guaranteed, etc) but in the US it may be different. Anyway, I consider
that distilled water is close to rain water. I don't think that "natural"
or "raw" are relevant terms here. Cooking organic food can change the
structure of the molecules, create new species which mislead the
instinct, whereas water, trated or not, contain only inorganic electrolytes,
HCO3-... that are not altered by heat and found in nature. I guess our
sense of taste reacts to these minerals, the pH and others, and that,
given the variety of sources of water, we are adapted to analyzing
waters which have very difficult compositions.

> Let's see.  The fish is sitting on ice (possibly invaded with bacteria or
> whatever else from previous things that were there); the salesman doesn't
> necessairly wash his hands, gloves or whatever else machinery he's using
> to cut/prepare the fish for you before you buy it.

People here in the US are really paranoid about bacteria. I was surprised
to see safe handling instructions on packs of meat ("wash your hands,
cook thouroughly..."). If they knew what I do of their meat... :-)

> It's like asking why people wash organic fruits or veggies.

I don't wash fruits or veggies, unless the dirt makes them crunchy.

Best wishes,

Jean-Louis