Actually, the "garden of eden" myth is usually mostly only held by raw vegans/fruitarians. Many RVAFers recognise that some aspects of palaeo lifestyle were nasty, brutish and short. William, I guess is an exception.

Re enzymes:- That isn't what RVAFers generally state. The usual interpretation is that enzymes in raw foods are needed AS WELL AS the enzymes produced by the body. So while RVAFers do claim that cooked-food-eaters will progressively overburden/weaken their enzyme-producing organs and digestive system over the years by eating enzyme-deficient cooked-foods(resulting in the body being forced to make extra efforts re enzymes production etc. to help digestion), there is no suggestion that cooked-food-eaters will die overnight.


 (Of course, digestion can be improved even further by aging the raw foods before consumption).

Re palaeos eating-habits:- Well, it may be true that they were opportunists. But since cooking isn't necessary for eating Palaeo-type foods, the notion of opportunism isn't relevant. After all, Palaeo peoples would hardly have had frequent opportunity to find meats etc. that had already been cooked/burnt before they arrived. They would have had to cook them first - and why would they bother to cook if all palaeo foods could just as well have been  eaten raw, if they truly were mere opportunists? After all, cooking involves a tremendous waste of time re preparation of foods, requiring a degree of planning rather than opportunism.

Geoff



> Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 12:09:13 -0600
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: PALEOFOOD Digest - 29 May 2009 to 30 May 2009 - Special issue (#2009-127)
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> >Plus, predigestion with foods already rich in enzymes means that the
> >relevant food can take a shorter time to
> >digest(partially-raw/partially-cooked RVAFers commonly report that
> >cooked-food takes much longer to digest than raw foods).
> 
> My point is this: If (and that's a big IF) enzymes from the food source itself are REQUIRED for proper digestion (note that I did not says preferable), then all of the "cookers" should be dead. Since that is not the case (and other than fruit many cultures do, in fact, cook almost everything. Macrobiotics(ists?) eschew any raw food - expecially fruits - as being to yin or yang or whatever).
> 
> Plus, I can't fathom any paleo analyzing their food and making the determination that "hmm, If I cook this it will kills enzymes, which is bad." Paleos would have had no choice but to eat whatever they could, whenever they could, however they could. Everything would have been "fair game".
> 
> The problem I have with the raw-foodists and instinctos (by the way, anyone hear from Jean-Claude?) is this whole premise that paleos lived some sort of idealistic, "perfect" noble-savage lifestyle, when all of the fossilized and historical evidence indicates otherwise. 

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