At the request of a friend of mine on the Raw-Food listgroup, I'm posting a
few questions here that he put to me on the subject of cooked vs. raw-food
digestibility, in the hopes that someone with a technical background here
will have answers. (References would also be nice, and score you
bragging-rights bonus points. :-) ) Note that those in the all-raw-foodist
camp are intensely skeptical of any reasoning or data that might support
the cooking of food in any way, so should you have something along those
lines, references would be most appreciated where you have them. (Same goes
for opposing views of course, as well.)

I would be interested in any comments/ answers/ musings those with
biochemistry/ physiology backgrounds have on these questions. These are the
types of questions that get asked all the time on groups like the Raw-Food
and Raw listgroups for which no one ever seems to have definitive answers,
and over which much foofaraw is made. It has always been a bit surprising
to me that these questions are also not topics of occasional conversation
here on the Paleodiet group, given their relevance to evolutionary diet. In
any event, they are topics of practical concern among those of us actually
trying to fashion our diets according to some semblance of what the
evolutionary picture of human diet is thought to have been. Again, any
answers welcomed and appreciated. Thanks,

--Ward Nicholson <[log in to unmask]>

P.S. In hopes of stimulating comment (possibly about how erroneous my own
ideas are :-) ) , I will be posting a rather conjectural follow-up reply of
my own to Tom's questions here on the Paleodiet list shortly, should it
make it through Dean Esmay's "B.S." filter.

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Subject: QUESTIONS ON DIGESTIBILITY OF COOKED FOODS
To: Ward Nicholson <[log in to unmask]>
From: Tom Billings <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 9-3-97

On the question of adaptation to eating cooked food, one question came to
me. I don't recall offhand if this was addressed in the research on this
(my apologies for forgetting if it was), so thought I would raise it:

Are cooked foods close enough in composition to their raw counterpart that
we can digest them anyway (as we are omnivores, able to digest a
wide variety of foods and survive on radically different diets)? As
an example, can I digest cooked starch because my ancestors ate raw
starch foods in pre-fire days, and the chemical composition is
altered some, but not that much, by cooking?

This also raises the questions:

Is grain close enough in chemical composition to say, tubers, that we
can digest it OK?

Is dairy close enough in chemical composition to other foods (that is,
it is similar to an average of meat + fruit, hence within the "range" of
digestible "original" foods), that many of us can digest it?

(Re: the above two questions: I acknowledge the serious problems some people
have with gluten and lactose. I'm not suggesting everyone can digest them.)

You are free to post this on the Paleo lists if you wish - if you do that,
I would be interested in any significant replies to these questions.

Regards,
Tom Billings
[log in to unmask]

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