Peter Brandt <[log in to unmask]>:
>Jean-Louis, I enjoyed very much reading your excellent overview of the down
>sides of eating cooked foods and with all the research you have come up

Tom:
Let me also compliment, and thank, Jean-Louis for his excellent post on
cooked foods!

Peter Brandt <[log in to unmask]>:
>The obvious question from all this is that if cooking is so bad how come so
>many people are able to maintain excellent health well into their years on
>a cooked diet?

Tom:
An excellent point. Nearly all foods contain anti-nutritive elements.
The heat of cooking often destroys these elements, while creating new,
different toxins. It appears to be a trade-off, like everything else in
nature. As for the excellent health, 1) we may have some genetic adaptations
to cooking, and/or 2) that's what our liver is for - to get rid of the
toxins we cannot avoid.

Peter Brandt <[log in to unmask]>:
>Unless individual health and longevity were minor factors in the survival
>of the human species, if it is so much healthier to eat raw, one would
>expect it to have been an evolutionary advantage, yet with the possible

Tom:
Recall the naked ape myth - that humans are naked apes and should eat only
the things they can collect naked, without tools. Hmmm...things like leaves,
fruits, bird's eggs, insects, snails, juvenile animals (chimps do it)...oops,
the folks promoting that myth think you should eat only fruit! If the fruit
eating "naked apes" ever existed at all, I guess they are extinct now. :-) :-)

Regards,
Tom Billings
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