Regarding the topic of adaptation to eating cooked foods, some
questions came to me:

Are cooked foods close enough in composition to their raw counterparts
that we can digest them anyway (as we are omnivores, able to digest a
wide variety of foods and survive on radically different diets)? As
an example, can I digest cooked starch because my ancestors ate raw
starch foods in pre-fire days, and the chemical composition is
altered some, but not that much, by cooking? Another example: can I
digest cooked vegetables because I can digest raw veggies, and their
chemical composition is similar?

The above generates additional, related questions:

Is grain close enough in chemical composition to say, raw starchy tubers,
that we can digest it OK?

Is dairy close enough in chemical composition to other foods (that is,
it is similar to an average of meat + fruit, hence within the "range"
defined by digestible "original" foods), that many of us can digest it?

Note re: above two questions. I acknowledge the serious problems some
people have with gluten and lactose. I'm not suggesting that everyone can
digest grain and/or dairy.

I have thought some about these questions, but have not yet formed "firm"
opinions on these issues. I am posting these questions so others can
contribute any information/opinions they have on these questions.

P.S. a version of these questions was posted on the Paleo list(s).

Regards,
Tom Billings
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