>Kirt:
>
>>> Further, cooking may have been a part of the human diet for tens of
>>> thousands of years. To what degree the cooking was beneficial is
>>> arguable, but is too often dismissed by rawists.

JL:
>IMO, cooking is advantageous only when the biotope doesn't provide a
>balanced food supply. Cooking eliminates some anti-nutrients in
>vegetables, so it allows to eat more. Similarly, when the only food
>available is meat, cooking it eliminates parasites, so that eating in
>high quantity is "safe".

I thought this too at one point. Now I'm not so sure. It _sounds_ good, but
that isn't really much to go on...

>Having taste stops is not enough, the question would be whether the
>stops are efficient or not. Let me quote Christian Schlepphorst (an
>old post, Thu, 23 Jan 1997 11:17:05 +0100 (MET):
<snip>

I would quote Christian's other story regarding the snail-eating youngster
who showed great improvement once he started eating steamed veggies. And
remind you that there is probably great individual variance in such matters.

>Other anecdote: I noticed that commercial "raw" cashews had taste
>changes. I have tried them at least 10 times and the result was
>invariably the same:
> -flatulences with a *very* unpleasant smell; slight abdominal pain
> -diarrhea 12-24 hours later
> -excessive production of heat (abundant perspiration in the night,
>even when the room temperature was 14 degree C = 57 F)
> -sometimes acne, a few hairs lost on my pillow...
>
>I tried fresh cashews from Orkos, and so far had none of these
>inconvenients. Of course, the stop came sooner, so I ate 50% less, but
>the obvious conclusion is that the stop is not efficient with
>"raw"-cooked cashews. And even when I didn't eat until the stop, the
>denatured cashews were obviously not well digested.

Good example.

>Similarly, one of my friends cannot eat "raw"-cooked pistacchios
>without reactions (allergic reactions? I don't remember), but
>undenatured pistacchios are OK.

Another good example.

My point with steamed veggies is that I didn't get bad reactions, and
neither do I walk around all day wanting more steamed veggies--that the
overall pattern was similar to any new undenatured food introduced to my
diet.

And Melisa continues to enjoy raw kefer w/o ill effect. Indeed, she thrives
on it.

It probably isn't as simple in the real world as it is in Burger's
theoretical one...

Cheers,
Kirt