:
>>
>>There's one thing that's intrigued me for years.  Why is
>>man the only animal that doesn't instinctively know what
>>foods to eat in order to stay healthy?  Any ideas why that
>>is?

that is exactly this question that brought us to the idea of "instinctive
nutrition" or "anapsology" presented by Guy-claude Burger 35 years ago and
followed since then by thousands of peoples (mainly in Europe) .myself
included.
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/5976/
The basic idea is simple , there is an instinctive regulation of eating that
operate with the senses of smell and taste that direct us toward the food
best suitable to respond to the specific metabolic state of the moment.
The simple idea is that this instinctive regulation works only with the food
that is "original" to the species eaten in its naturel state as it will be
found in Nature without the use of artifices.
For ex. a horse will not be able to find a naked oat in Nature , so his
instinct never had to respond to that artificial situation. It is why a
horse have no means to know thru his sense of smell and taste when his
metabolic needs for oats nutrients  have been met and will kill itself. Give
it oat as it presented itself to the horse thru  its evolution ( with the
enveloppe and straw) , and the horse will be able to stop when its needs are
met. I used to raise horses in France and know it for sure.
For humans , it is the same give him or her a food that have been "denatured
" and the instinctive means to recognise the food are lost , not working.
Just try with a simple means of denaturation like juicing.In a juice form
you could eat 6 or 7 oranges or apples easely ( a big glass) . Eat them as
found in Nature ,whole , and most likely you will stop before that number
(the taste  change and is becoming unappealing).
Why a cat is going by , blades of grass every day and doesn't show any
interest , and why a specific day it is eating the grass with delight ?.
That day the grass smelled good to the cat and tasted good , the other days
it didn't smell or smelled not good.
Taste and smell are not objectif means of perceiving the world ,they are
changing accordingly with our metabolic taste,
When you eat all raw "undenatured" , unseasonned food that truth is obvious.
One day a piece of beef is a delight ,next day the same piece taste like
dicusting old sock.
Human and animals have the instinct to eat the food that maintain health
when the food have been in partnership with the species for eons.
A  new food  made available , to a species , because of a denaturation
 cooking, domestication being the most ancients) bring the question . Are we
or not physiologically adapted to this new food and how long do we need to
be presented to that food to make this adaption possible?
the neolithic time represente something like  less than the quarter of 1
percent of the time that  we separated from the apes ( 10000 years versus
6000000  years?) . A drop of water in evolution time. Cooking is more
ancient but certainly not in a systematic way for very long ever. We know
that modern foods have even less chance to be suitable to our genetic make
up .
When i eat a denatured food like avocados dipped in hot water( systematic
practice for avocados from Mexico) my instinct is getting easely lost,
overeating them become easy and the consequences are felt at the next meal
with the instinctive responses to the food becoming not so clear.
With wild  undenatured foods ,the instinctive response are very clear and it
is very unlikely to over eat (beyond the metabolic needs) them. More the
"nature "of the food have been changed , less or genetic is  able to deal
with them., and less our senses are reliable to regulate our food
ntake( animals eating antifreeze, humans gorgeing on pizzas or sugar).
jean-claude

>>
>>Anyone got some explanation?
>I don't think that animals have a unique ability to eat healthy food.
Animals
>seem to respond to certain cues by instinct to determine "what to do"
including
>eating.  Animals develop and evolve in certain ecosystems and will
naturally
>eat certain things based upon their "evolved" criteria.
>
>Animals have been known to drink radiator fluid that will kill them.  Cats
>and dogs
>have been known to chew on house plants which will poison them.  Horses
will
>commonly overeat to possible death if left in the oat bin.
>
>People have a tremendous ability to alter their surroundings and
>subsequently can
>create "new" foods that are certainly less than optimal.
>
>   Wade Reeser  [log in to unmask]