Remember, YMWOCV (your mileage will, of course, vary) ;) ..... For the last few months I have been experimenting with non-instincto foods. I had planned to do this for some years now and after more than 8 years all-raw it was about time. Such experimenting was probably more "psychological" than anything else since--though I was quite happy/satisfied with my "instincto w/salads and occasional fresh juices" regime--I had become increasingly dismayed with what I considered the emotional/intellectual imbalance of nearly every 100% rawist I have come across. Further, I feel I have given all-raw a solid try and in order to know for myself whether my positive results were due to all-raw, or whether I could "get away" with some "exceptions", I saw there was little option but to simply start eating some taboo foods and evaluate the results. To start at the beginning: Mixing veggies: --------------- Some three or four years ago, I started to eat raw salads. We were living in Bangkok at the time, and I found that veggies rarely appealed in competition with the bountiful tropical fruits which were the staple of my diet. However, mixing the veggies in a salad was a real treat after eating them singly for years. Even a cherry tomato wrapped in some romaine was a thrill. I guess you'd have to eat strictly instincto to appreciate the delight of two flavors in the mouth at once ;) but, anyway, I have found salads to be a useful way to increase my veggie intake, crowding out some excess fruit in the process. Presently, I will add some EV olive oil and dulse and even sometimes peppers to a salad--all of which pretty much destoys any taste change potential of the salad ingredients. This is good and bad: bad because I can easily overeat, but good because I need "practice" eating a reasonable portion regardless of taste after years of eating my fill (pigging out) as instincto encourages. I now eat 2-5 salads per week. Juicing: ------- I have found fresh juices to be a fine addition to my diet. Again, they can easily be over-consumed but I respect them as fractured foods and don't drink my fill. Carrot juice often tastes like chocalate milk to me, and the addition of celery, parsley, etc. is usually delightful. I prefer drinking citrus juices to eating the whole fruit because I find it easier on the teeth and gums. I ate far too many citrus in my early days where the rind was grinding against my gum line which responded by slowly receeding. Raw Dairy: --------- I have posted previously in detail both Melisa's and my reaction to raw milk, cream, butter, and kefer. Briefly, I am still occasionally attracted to some butter, whereas Melisa still eats kefer, but in dwindling amounts. The only thing to add to my previous posts regards raw goat cheese. I ate 4 or 5 oz recently (delicious, no stop to speak of) and was sure I'd wake up with a stuffed nose, constipated, sporting some fresh pimples, and a hangover--but no, it digested well, as well as any RAF I've ever had. It's too bad that the Alta Dena brand has added salt because I wonder if it would have some sort of stop without it. I need to experiment with it more but I'll be thrilled if goat cheese turns out to be as convenient and high-quality a RAF (a hard combo to find!) as it seems to be. Anyone ever see goat butter? (And my attraction to avos disappeared for days after eating the cheese, which I consider a plus ;)) Steamed Veggies: ---------------- No problem. No "addiction" occurred as rawsters so often state about the consumption of any cooked food. If they cook to long they seem to go through pretty much undigested, but otherwise I consider them a fine meal useful for crowding out excessive fruit consumption. Surprisingly, the degree of "stop" seems to be inversely proportional to the length of cooking for me: if overcooked they taste pretty bad after a short time. But I am not trying to eat them instincto anyway now that I trust them. A light dressing of EV olive oil or raw butter inceases the satisfaction and digestability. Dulse is a nice addition too. Presently, I eat steamed broccoli and/or cauliflour once every 10 days or so. Melisa enjoys steamed zuchini which tastes like slime to me ;) Coincidently: an excema-type rash on my chins which I remember as a third-grader re-emerged on my second _day_ of instincto so many years ago after more than a decade of absence. It has waxed and waned ever since, but never completely gone away. During the weeks I was eating steamed veggies 4 times a week or so, it all by disappeared. Hmmm... Cooked meat: ------------ I have tried frozen buffalo burgers, resturant Angus steak, and supermarket hamburger--all cooked rare so that the inside is pink or raw or, in the case of the frozen buffalo, still very cool. The stop is not there at all for me when cooked. If I eat much more than a pound I feel sluggish and unpleasant. The supermarket burger left a bad taste the next day and greasy skin. The buffalo and (surprisingly, since it is highly grain-fed) Angus digest well w/o any symtoms. I look forward to eating rare meat a couple times a month. If I could find some clean liver I would like to try that lightly cooked as well--maybe even unblock for it raw, which I have not been able to enjoy the few times in all the years that I have had some quality liver available. Organic, no sulfites-added wine: -------------------------------- Clear taste change, usually after a couple delightful oz, sometimes from the first smell. Musings: It is curious that the cooked foods both Melisa and I found most attractive by smell were veggies and meat. Grilled meat smells drive us to salivate like Pavlov's dogs (and often the smell "stops" and becomes burnt). When I smelled grilled meat I would crave raw meat which we never can find in the quality/quantity we wanted. We are _delighted_ to have a resturant option besides the Soup Plantation and incredibly over-priced Japanese resturants. Prehistorically speaking, it may be that our genetic heritage includes not only a tolerance, but even the need for some cooked food. While I doubt I'll ever believe there is anything useful to me in grains, it doesn't seem an outrageous possibility to me that the tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of years our progentetors have been cooking their wild hunted and gathered foods hasn't left its mark on our DNA. Perhaps we not only tolerate cooked meat and veggies but find some amount useful. ??? As for the dairy, I am cautiously enthusiastic about the raw goat products but don't have much experience yet. Raw cow dairy seems a second-best RAF but better than none--perhaps life-saving to rawists who won't eat other RAF. Who knows? I wonder if I can get away with these foods because of my relatively long time exclusively raw--or if the would have worked all along. My hunch is that excluding them for years gives me a good perspective (emotionally, intellectually, and metabolically) from which to judge their usefulness. Overall, I would say that the inclusion of, what, 5% lightly cooked is a positive addition to my diet. Melisa would say that loudly about 15% I'd guess ;) If any of the positive results--which, I guess, outside of the rash and a feeling of continued well-being, are simply the absence of any bad symtoms--were replaced by problems I would avoid the cooked stuff for a time again. But, I gotta say, rare meat and steamed veggies look like they'll work for us occasionally. And most of all, I can now proudly say, I am not and no longer intend to be 100% raw. Hopefully this will keep me from falling off whatever edge so many 100%ers seem to fall off ;) ;) Cheers, Kirt BTW, he says casually ;), Melisa has a bun in the oven which will be done in late January. A huge delight to us after two miscarries...