At 08:33 PM 7/25/97 -0400, Dariusz ROZYCKI wrote:
>How come Oriental people manage (and have managed for many centuries) to
>do so relatively well on cooked rice as their primary source of energy?
>Or is all the other raw things they eat as well that does it for them
>(raw fish and vegetables are a big part of their diet as well, if I'm not
>mistaken).

>Are there any other healthy cultures that consume mostly cooked foods?

Darius -

Macrobiotics argues that NO culture has EVER survived
on primarily raw foods - and that the development of fire,
coupled with the development of agriculture,
was the beginning of the beginning of human civilization
as we know it, since large amounts of B vitamins, found
only in grains and beans (short of meat) made possible
the development of the neurological system, and the
feeding of the human brain, and for further social and
cultural evolution to occur (probably as a result of
the development of the protohuman).

Readers of this list make a valiant attempt to
argue that fire has been a denigrating factor in
human social and physical development,
but notice also that neo-primitives have recently
gained hegemony and have been discussing
the return to eating of raw meat, hardly a
physiological advance, in our estimation.

A91997 Maynard S. Clark     Vegetarian Resource Center