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-----Original Message-----
From: Paleolithic Eating Support List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Batsheva
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 3:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fire and Cooking and Calories. Old dead animals.

>I watched a documentary on a traditional Inuit tribe, the title of which
>escapes 
>me.   One scene that is indelibly printed in my memory bank is a scene
>within an >igloo after a day of hunting.  A group of men are huddled around
>a boiling crude metal pot that is sitting directly atop coals  in a hot
>fire pit.  Idon't 
>know what they are burning, but its something flammable... LOL.   One
> Inuit 
>says out loud to the camera as they are stirring a boiling metal pot
>containing 
>some form of bubbling seal meat:   "we can eat it raw, but we always prefer

>cooking our meat whenever we get the chance its so much more delicous."
>
>Batsheva

There is something to be said about smell and taste. Some of our preferences
are obviously caused by what we ate growing up. Some of it is hard wired.
I grew up in a household that tended towards vegetarianism and lots of
salad. When I was vegan I used to choke down broccoli raw because I was
under the belief that raw was always better. I ate it even though it tasted
bad.  I found out later that broccoli has goitrogens in them and cooks
neutralizes them. Maybe my taste buds knew something.  It gets real bad when
the stuff gets juiced. Even though I grew up with uncooked broccoli, it
tastes bad to me.

Cooked meat usually smells and tastes better than raw. Rotten meat smells
and tastes…uhhhhh… rotten. 
Maybe there is some kind of therapeutic benefit from a bacterial perspective
from “high” meat. If I ever get the urge to live with hyenas and vultures, I
will ask Geoff for advice on how to avoid getting sick.
-David

________________________________
From: David Harrison <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, May 25, 2011 10:52:07 AM
Subject: Re: Fire and Cooking and Calories. Old dead animals.

I tend to think of raw-only PALEO as an oxymoron. We know that humans or at
least Neanderthals used fire for cooking at least 100,000+ years ago.
We survived as a species by being able to use fire to be able to extract
calories from parts of animals that would normally not be able to be eaten.

In my opinion, raw only as an evolutionary concept is very
questionable. It is EXTREMELY unlikely we would have survived the ice ages
as a species if we only ate raw. 

I personally think that Garden of Eden eating theories (raw vegetarian or
raw animal foods) where there is some kind of mythical perfect diet under
ideal circumstances are very suspect.

-David