Tom wrote:
>> So, a cooked item that you can digest (like steamed veggies, steamed
>>rice, etc.)
>> is a food, while any item - raw or cooked - that you cannot digest, is
>> poison to you. If something is poison to you, but not to others, it may be
>> idiosyncratic, or a sign that your digestion is weak. After following a
>> fruitarian diet for years, I had difficulty digesting protein. Some
>> fruitarians go off the "deep end" when that happens and claim that raw
>> protein foods (like sunflower seeds) are poison. So, one must not jump to
>> conclusions quickly on such matters. Those fruitarians, if they strengthened
>> their digestive fires, could easily digest protein. Similarly, they could
>> also digest simple cooked food - but their digestive fires are weak after
>> years of fruit - a heavy, watery, substance that is high in sugar (which
>> interferes with digestion if consumed in excess). In other words, if you
>> strengthen the digestion, it may become food, and is no longer "poison"
>>to you.

Darian wrote
>On the issue of strengthening one's digestion: I suppose both cooked
>foods and fruits (to a smaller extent) could weaken the digestive
>system.  How exactly does one define a weak digestive system (what has
>happened to it), and what might the signs be of one?

Lynton:
This is an interesting line of thinking: to do with digestibility and the
'strength' of the digestive system; they do seem related to a great extent.

There is a story from WW2 of 6 prisoners of war who had had enough: there
were some berries growing in the compound, known to be poisonous.  They sat
down and decided to partake and end it all.  This they did.  But two of them
took a bet with each other, ( this being the last opportunity, they might as
well make the most of it).
The bet was to see how long they could chew the berries before they
swallowed them.
I forget exactly the details, but the upshot was that 4 died, the 2 lived -
much to their astonishment - and decided to continue the competition !  And
the result became that those two were the healthiest  prisoners in the camp
by the end of the war.!!

Strength of digestion for difficult foods ( in particular cooked foods)
comes basically from the degree of enzymes in the body available for the
purpose (Edward Howell et al).
I presume that there is a degree of conditioning required also - one does
not usually go from a long-term  raw fruit diet and eat to one's full say on
pizza without penalty.  So building up slowly from say one bite of pizza
well chewed, gradually to a slice of a few days might be sufficient re-adaption.
At first, I would suspect that the body would react to the pizza as a
foreign body, perhaps with allergic responses, etc.
The body can be conditioned and able to digest a full cooked meal of mixed
foods - this does not necessarily mean that the meal has no poisonous effect
if it results in deposition of partially digested factors, lessens the net
enzyme count in the body and detracts from dealing with body maintenance and
diseases (if any).

Perhaps the way that a raw fruit diet might weaken the digestive system is
that the adaptation is lost over time, with the recovery as described above.
example:
Dogs that are given carbohydrates to eat (as a change of diet) initially
have no Amylase in their saliva, this appears after 7 to 10 days (I forget
exactly).
take a moment and (;>)