Hi Tom,

you mused about the human adaptation to cooked foods and compared the
possible similarity to raw (and original) foods.

I think, that cooking changes the molecules of a food so much, that it
is very different from the original. Even small changes are important:
remember, that the protein, that was found to be "responsible" for
BSE (mad cow disease) exists in two forms: one is good and necessary
for the organism, the second is causing the disease.

The tertiary structure of molecules is essential for recognition
by our digestive enzymes. If it is changed by denaturation, recognition
will not take place.

Additionally cooking creates new chemical combinations - the maillard
products. Judy posted an interesting article about them (AGEs). It seems
that they are highly toxic to the human body.

The previous is an approach that asks for the results of single mole-
cules in human digestion. Another approach would be, to ask for gene-
tical adaptation to cooked foods and not to care about single molecules.
This is, what I prefer.

Since the fire was invented some several hundred thousand years ago,
it is likely, that some partial adaptation to cooked foods has taken
place. But of course to paleolithic cooked foods, not dairy or grains,
nor products made from them.
The question is, which percentage of paleolithic cooked food (let's
call it PCF) is appropriate for modern humans. I guess, it is some-
thing less than 2 percent of total food intake.

It even might be, that cooked food, which our paleolithic ancestors
surely ate only, when nothing else was available, is not needed if one
has a wide supply with fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts and animal foods.
The question is, whether a partial genetical adaptation to PCF also
let us lose some capabilities for digesting raw foods. This would mean
that we   h a v e   to eat some amount of PCF to be healthy.

Currently I can't answer the question, if PCF is really needed in
small amounts and    w h e n   one should it eat (any instinctive sig-
nals?)
Some time I might experiment with PCF. But not now. I've got other
things to do now and raw foods satisfy me 100% - no need to try PCF.

Instinctive raw wishes,

Stefan
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