Hi all, Liza: >But - honestly - eating the dirt on veggies, banana peels, and >eggshells, just don't seem to me to be an effective use of time and >energy, for me at least. It just makes me laugh - all this is "pushing >my envelope." :) And You haven't had the joys of instinctive eating yet, else you would care more for the dirt on the carrots, Liza! ;-) :-) Seriously, just try avocados (thin-skinned ones) together with their skin. You might find it being the same as if you added spices to the pure avocado flesh. Can be fantastic! Spiced avocados! For the other methods I use: I try to reach for simplicity. I'm a very lazy type of man so I hate washing, cleaning, peeling, preparing and making a big fuss where I just needed to bite into the fruit and that's it. I haven't got a scientific proof (but perhaps Jean-Louis will bring one? ;-)) for the digestibility of egg shells. But if some instinctos are enjoying them, others finding them hard and bad (like me) then at least the instincts seem to know about them and this would speak for usefulness and digestibility (why should the instinct let you enjoy something that is useless for you?) Kirt: >Now, now, Stefan, here we go again. I make a few sarcastic jokes and I am >therefore negative and depressive. ;) Of course you are! ;-) Soooo sarcastic. Kirt: >Perhaps some of the humor is getting lost in the translation. That could be the explanation. Still I stick more to the "bright" sort of jokes, not the "black" ones, if you know what I mean. Kirt: >Perhaps you'll just have to get used to me offending the instincto Gods >once in a while, eh? Unless you affirm me that you are a regular church goer I will not ex- cuse your offending of the Gods. ;-) For the sake of your black paleo- lithic soul you must at least buy a copy of the newest version of G.C. Burger's book! (Together with a copy of "Raw Eating" from A.T. Hova- nessian). :-) Kirt: >Perhaps there's nothing worse than an ex-instincto around >questioning tidbits like tumors and the utility and deeper meanings of >fruit skin consumption, but, golly gee Ms Molly, negative and depressive? I wonder why you enthusiastically go for the negative tidbits while the overwhelming majority of good results seem to be just the normal level. But I guess this is the way people behave: if everything is fine they take it for granted and think it's normal while they start to com- plain heavily when things aren't good any longer. A very ungrateful attitude, Sir. (But normal, sigh :-\) Jean-Louis: >2) But it seems that some instinctos act in an even more primitive way >than apes... Avoiding what can't be produced without technology is a >valuable philosophy, but obviously, oranges and bananas can be peeled >without difficulty by humans and several species of apes. You can usually But try to peel a kohlrabi, a carrot or a pumpkin without a knife! My point isn't that all kind of peeling is unnatural but that it is truly unnatural for several foods. Therefore my attitude is to always try if the skin (and the seeds) can be eaten together with the inside of the food. If this fails one can switch to peeling/spitting skins out/spitting seeds out etc. I don't find avoiding obsolete work primitive. It's more a question of avoiding an effort (wasting energy) where you can. Jean-Louis: >But in a sense, instinctos also want the magic pill, >i.e. food that is self-regulated by pleasure (and pain). Yes, exactly! This is one of the very basic assumptions instinctive eating is founded on: pleasure is leading you to health, pain leads you to sick- ness. At least if you keep away from unnatural methods. This is not a magic pill, it's just MN (mother nature, term taken from Rex - hopefully not con- sidered plagiarized! ;-)) Jean-Louis: >our abnormal attraction to sweets. All humans at any age are attracted to >sweets, even young children which are obviously less intoxicated than old >men having previously worked 40 years in a Kentucky Fried Chicken. I don't subscribe to this. I can also be attracted by a sour taste or even a bitter one, e.g. sesame seeds, chicoree, cocoa. There is a difference bet- ween a palatable bitter taste and one that puts you off. Jean-Louis: 6) I don't believe that being cold is a sign of detoxification. Then give a better explanation. If my instincts don't lead me to dense foods but to fruits as was the case in the beginning and I feel cold and it fades away after some months then it very much looks like detox to me. Also like Mike wrote it can happen that a new food makes me cold although I thought I overcame that problem already. If it is a question of adaptation then even a paleolithic human would have had this problem with new foods and this I seriously doubt. Jean-Louis: >human, the more sugar, the better (i.e. there is no selective advantage to >having a mechanisms which limits sugar intake). The deleterious effects of an >excess of sugar would never have happened without technology and artificial >selection. I find dates, bananas and honey very natural. Dates are quite easy to get if you can climb a tree, an easy task for a paleo human. So I expect the nu- trition instinct to know about high sugar foods and how to limit intake by giving stops. Jean-Louis: >often a sign of toxicity. Hypothetic animals carrying a gene which makes them >like bitterness would quickly become extinct. Well I see I will die out soon. As said above there are different kinds of bitterness. The bitterness of cocoa can be luminous. I suspect the sugar industry to be responsible for spreading the rumour about our "sweet tooth". Perhaps together with the fact that like Ellie wrote processed sugars are indeed addictive. I'm really not sure if humans have a sweet tooth. Hm. It frequently happens to me, that in the evening I start thinking about what to eat. And the thought comes "oh no, not again sweet things as you had at noon". I am frequently really put off by sweet foods in the evening. The more I will en- joy them at the next noon meal. Rex, welcome to this list. Interesting to have a farmer here! Does the "Brix" detect how fresh a fruit/vegetable is? What stands "NPK" for? Mike, I enjoyed your long posts about your instincto experiences. Very good! Instinctive greetings to all, Stefan E-Mail: [log in to unmask]