Cooked vs. Raw
I think that it’s a personal taste issue. I have read Aajonus’ book and
tried some of the recipes from his cookbook… some are really good! And
perfectly adaptable to a paleo lifestyle. I take his views on honey and
raw milk with a large grain of good gray celtic sea salt. I also prefer
my veggies whole and fresh in a salad instead of juiced, and I eat a
piece of whole, not juiced fruit every day as a treat with no problem as
far as carb intake. My average carb intake is around 60 grams daily
which is fine for me, since everybody’s tolerance for carbs is going to
be different. Also, approximately two thirds of my food is eaten raw.
A while back I tried his program just for a change, and to my chagrin
saw my weight increase exponentially! No good that!
As for eating raw meat, it is my personal experience that since I went
paleo (almost four years now) I’ve drifted more and more toward a
natural preference from “barely-cooked”, to “seared”, to occasionally
raw, at least with red meat or venison. I have yet to find raw poultry
palatable, and I don't like runny eggs; make mine scrambled. I eat
plenty of pemmican and that’s “raw” meat since it’s been dehydrated at a
low temperature in my home dehydrator. I’ve found some of the guidelines
from Sally Fallon’s book, ‘Nourishing Traditions’ effective in assuaging
my fears of bacteria contamination, as well as doing an oxygen soak to
all my food when I bring it home from market. In these last four years
of many times eating my meat raw (after I froze it for a week or two), I
have never had even one bout of any kind of food poisoning. But then, I
might have a constitution that is not sensitive in this way, nor do I
have a severely impaired immune system. My problem has been an
overactive immune system which has shown itself in allergies and asthma.
And yes, American beer unfortunately does suck, at least the major
“watered down” brands,…when I did drink beer, it was always a good
English dark ale or Guinness or local fare from an organic micro
brewery. I don’t miss it though, as I prefer the good health I’ve had
since giving up the fruits of technology. Good health can be as
motivating as bad health. Enough so that my being a resident of the wine
country in no way tempts me to return to my former habits.